[](https://kon.gg/2N70fHQ) *Winter might be all around us, but puzzle fans will be happy to know that a sunny poolside retreat with challenging escape puzzles is waiting for them in [Swim Out](https://kon.gg/2N70fHQ). Sporting bright colors and relaxing background music, Swim Out will make you feel like you were sitting poolside with a cool drink with nothing to do but solve crossword puzzles all day.* *Swim Out is the second title from the indie developer studio Lozange Labs. We had the opportunity to chat with Mat’ Loz’ about the experience of building Swim Out.*  **Tell us about your development team. Are you an independent developer? Do you have a small crew of friends working together on your project?** Hi! We’re an indie developer couple from north-east of France. We like the challenge of being able to do everything by ourselves, so there’s only the two of us in the team! It worked pretty well so far, as we're both developers and Ava is also a graphical designer while I'm (Mat) a musician.  We created the company at the end of 2014. Swim Out is our second game and the first one we release on PC and console in addition to mobile. **How long has your team been together/how long have you been developing games?** We met at the university, and since then we always wanted to develop games together. But because of economic reality we started by developing business apps. When we got more comfortable we started to work on experimental gaming experiences in our free time, and then, one day, we decided to dedicate to games and we created Lozange Lab.  **Prior to designing games, were you a game enthusiast?** Yes we always played games together, and designing some together was the natural next step!  **What are your favorite games or influences? This can be anything from classic console titles to RPG games or short stories.** We started out playing adventure games like Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle. We prefer to play adventure games with puzzles, but we don't play pure puzzle games that much. However, we have warm memories of games like Lemmings. A puzzle game we particularly enjoyed would be Road Not Taken.  **How did you come up with the idea for your game?** By looking at an empty pool photo! And we joke about the frustration of someone who want to swim peacefully alone in a pool which is suddenly rushed by tons of kids jumping everywhere and doing water bombs.  **Is there something about this game genre that inspired you?** Maybe it's more something about the puzzle game genre that we were willing to swim away from! ;-) We usually find them too abstract or too easy and casual... While designing levels we were guided by the feeling that the game should be very hard and brain-teasing... but smoothed by the atmosphere, and the easy learning curve.  **What sort of experience do you want your players to have?** Relaxing but challenging, so beating a level would be very rewarding. **Is this game about building? Competing? Exploring?** I guess it's about escaping, about earning the cosiness of a chaise-longue by the water!  **What is your favorite part of this game?** We love the fact that, despite being a single-player game, it's an invitation to play together with friends or family. Each time we demonstrate the game in public conventions, we are delighted to see how players almost immediately gather up around the screen to give advice to each other: go up! no down! go get that ball! and so on. We are also proud of the particular atmosphere we managed to set up. There are no stressful timers, you can take your time to play and enjoy the graphics. Subtle details, animations and cutscenes between levels leverage the player’s imagination without a single word. **What are your next plans? Do you want to release a DLC or an expansion?** Swim Out has tons of gameplay content : 100 levels divided into 7 chapters in which gameplay mechanics are progressively introduced. Most levels have multiple objectives which encourages the player to finish them in different manners and It takes more than a dozen hours to complete the game entirely. We already added some content with free updates, so we feel like we overdid it already (and we would advise other indie dev to go for shorter games probably ^^). But still, we have many other mechanics and ideas in mind, so our next plans for Swim Out would probably be a follow-up in brand new environments involving new items, but it’s not decided yet! **What sort of programming resources did you use?** Before coding anything, we first created a paper prototype, with little squares of paper that we moved in a grid. Once we build all the rules of the game, we used Unity engine to build a first prototype, then decided the art style of the game. Graphics were made with Illustrator, and music with Garageband and an old Moog synth. For level design, we used Tiled editor and some custom tools.  **What made you want to post the game on Kartridge?** We believe Kartridge is a perfect platform for indie games on PC like Swim Out! It will probably be easier for players who enjoy indie games to find them on Kartridge than on other platform which already have tons of games including AAA. We also like the fact that there’s an editorial curation which will probably surface atypical games like Swim Out, which seem to be already the case as you asked us for this interview ;-) Also we love Kartridge badges ! Swim Out has two badges: one badge to complete every level and another one when you have completed 20 secondary objectives. **How has the experience gone so far?** Great ! Swim Out has been published on Kartridge since the closed-beta release in March 2018 on Windows and Mac. ntegration of its API was very quick and easy. Now players can gain XP and badges while playing Swim Out and obtain rewards for the whole Kartridge platform, it’s great! Also the game has been featured in Kartridge front page! **Did the upload process differ at all from other platforms?** We appreciate the fact that Kongregate’s employees contacted us to discuss about the best ways to implement badges in our game and the way to post about Swim Out in social medias. It’s great to chat with passionate humans behind the platform. **Tell us something else interesting about yourself!** We’re also making interactive installations, like multiplayer gaming experiences for exhibitions and festivals, and interactions for projection-based experiences. We enjoy working with artists of other disciplines (actors, dancers, scenographers, motion designers, etc...).  *[Swim Out](https://kon.gg/2N70fHQ) is available on Kartridge for $5.99. It has two badges worth 200 XP! You can find Mat’ and the rest of the Lozange Labs team on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/lozangelab) and [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/LozangeLab)!*

I had gotten this game a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. If you like playing Hex-a-Turn (game on this site), Hexologic (another game on this site), or even a board game like Chess, I believe that you will like this game (the game isn't a 2 player chess-like game... but it is a game where you have to move your "piece" across a "board" while avoiding other pieces that have different but predictable movements). The game starts off straightforward and as it progresses gets steadly harder (but never to the degree of being unsolvable). It is a very well done puzzle game, in my opinion. I recomended it and gave it 5 stars. -Pip ------------------------ [Download Kartridge](https://www.kartridge.com/download?referral=7c31f044-e2b2-414f-b258-489bddce85fe) now to earn a special Kongpanion and 10 Kreds on Kongregate. This link will even get you an additional 15% off coupon that you can use to purchase Swim Out!.