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Game Cooks, the gaming development house behind several successful games such as Run For Peace and Captain Oil, have recently released a new adventure game, Escape from Paradise, for mobile - Android and iOS - and Facebook. This is the sixth game from Game Cooks, or seventh if you were to include Birdy Nam Nam which was developed by founders Lebnan and Arz Nader before founding the company. Escape from Paradise is a platform game that combines puzzle and action. It follows the adventures of Devi, a mystical creature trying to escape from paradise.

Gameplay & Design

Your job is to navigate a constantly bouncing, ball-like creature named Devi through a 2D world, avoiding various obstacles and collecting mushrooms, potions and gifts within a time limit. The controls are limited to tapping on the left and right hand side of the screen, helping Devi reach the portal and complete the level.

There are 5 themed worlds, each made up of 30 increasingly challenging levels, for a total of 150. The objective of the game is to complete all levels. But for players who are competitive at heart, there are three metrics to consider as well – fastest time and most mushroom and potion collected – that collectively contribute to your final game score.

The 5 world are named: Twisted Tree, Le Desex, Blobbers, Nightvish, and Shroomland. In designing the game, the team tried to envision what certain landscapes would look like had they been in heaven. Le Desex for instance is what a desert would look like had paradise had its own barren stretches of sand filled land.

The theme also carries on to the rest of the design elements. The obstacles in the game, the sounds, the music, all have an astral feel to them. It is also worth noting that the high quality of the graphics makes the game look spectacular, perfect down to the very last pixel.

The curious case of Devi

The background story in Escape from Paradise is rather peculiar. After eating a magical mushroom and finding himself thrown through a portal and getting stuck in paradise, the protagonist is trying to escape said celestial realm. That’s because the game was inspired by the situation in the region, “while the Middle East has a Heavenly side to it, we constantly seek to escape it!” the press release reads.

Android, iOS and Facebook

The game is available on both iOS and Android. There are two versions for iOS however: the free Lite version and a $0.99 Full version. The Lite restricts to just one world. Additionally, you can’t use any of the character skins to customize the playable character.

By contrast, there is only one version for Android. It’s free, and it contains all of the premium features found in the Full iOS version. The reason? Processing online payment from the Play Store proved problematic for the team according to Lara Noujaim, Game Cook’s PR & Media Strategist. The Facebook version is similar to the Lite version. To play more worlds, you’ll have to download the mobile game.

All of Game Cooks’ games are available on both Android and iOS, with the latter platform commanding the lion’s share of downloads. But Android is growing, added Lara. The team has also been pleasantly surprised by the number of players on Facebook, a fact that could be attributed to players enjoying the game’s high quality graphics on a bigger screen, she concluded.

Game Cook’s most popular games remain Run for Peace and Birdy Nam Nam, an endless runner game and a shooter respectively. And while all of the games have generated enough revenues to break even, Lara admits that it’s been harder to get downloads with niche games, such as the matching game Deja Vu.

Be sure to hit the following links to access the game: Facebook, Android, iOS Lite, iOS Full .