Simberon founder, David Buck, on ‘highlighting real environmental concerns’ with its charity supporting puzzler, Sea Turtle Rescue

Sea Turtle Rescue is the latest game from Canadian indie developer, Simberon. It's a heart-warming puzzle title that's almost as cute as the sea turtles it lets you save - not just in the game but in real life too, with the developer pledging 10% of its profits to the Canadian Sea Turtle Network.

As enlightened gamers that are more and more conscious of our carbon footprint and the environment around us, it's always welcome to see a game honour a worthy cause. That being said, Sea Turtle Rescue has a lot more going for it than just charitable intentions. It's a pleasure to play too. Its core gameplay focuses on solving simple but ingenious tile-based puzzles, creating paths for your baby sea turtles to hatch and make their way to the shore so they can be carried into the sea.

Each puzzle you complete in Sea Turtle Rescue is delightfully rewarding, and provides a perfect distraction for casual gamers and puzzle enthusiasts on the go.

We recently spoke with Simberon's founder, David Buck, to learn more about the game and what went into making it.

What were your inspirations for making Sea Turtle Rescue?

We had previously built a game with similar mechanics as Sea Turtle Rescue. We wanted, however, to have a more interesting and compelling theme for the game. After going through several ideas, we decided on the idea of rescuing sea turtles. It allowed us to not only have an interesting theme for the game but also to highlight a real environmental concern. At the same time, we decided to do more than just highlight a problem. We decided to donate part of the profits from the game to a charity that would actually help sea turtles. That's when we began our search that ultimately chose the Canadian Sea Turtle Network.

Which aspects of the game do you think will appeal most to new players?

Since the game is a puzzle game, we hope that solving the puzzles is the most appealing part of the game. We decided to ensure that all of the puzzles could be solved without requiring any tools (hammers, bombs or magnets) or in-app purchases. In fact, it's possible to solve all 244 levels of the game without using any special tools and without spending any money. Many of those solutions, however, are very hard to find so we offer the tools as a way to simplify the complex levels.

How was the Canadian Sea Turtle Network's reaction to the project and the game?

The Canadian Sea Turtle Network was delighted with the proposal and loved the idea of a game that featured sea turtles.When we first contacted them, they were in a bit of distress after a hurricane passed through Nova Scotia causing considerable damage to property there. Once they were back on their feet, they helped us create press releases and do promotion for the game.

Do you think developers and the gaming community as a whole could be doing more for charitable causes?

I think all companies should consider doing more for charitable causes. In our case, the link was so direct that it was a natural connection to donate to a sea turtle charity. As soon as we decided on the sea turtle theme, we also decided to donate to a sea turtle charity. For Simberon, game development is only one of our sources of revenue and we aren't dependent on the revenue from games. That made it easier to decide to donate part of the profits. In general, game development is a risky venture that may not pay off. For most game companies, the decision to donate to a charity would probably come after the game is released and successful rather than beforehand as in our case.

What was the biggest learning experience from making the game?

Making a game is fun, challenging and frustrating all at the same time. I love projects where people with different skills can work together to create something that none of them could have created on their own. I found that the biggest challenge, however, was the promotion and marketing part of the game. How do people hear about your game and how do you get them to try it out? The game market is so saturated these days that it's difficult to break through and be heard. That's why we need to team up with people skilled in marketing and promotion in order for a game to be successful. You could have the greatest game in the world but if nobody hears about it then it will fail.

What would be your dream project?

We're starting development of a new game that will be much different from Sea Turtle Rescue. It will feature multi-player interaction with aspects of world-building combined with warfare. At the current time, the ideas are still in their infancy but we're moving forward with them. Hopefully you'll be able to see the results in a few years.

Sea Turtle Rescue is available to download now from the App Store and Google Play.