Update: Cubed Snowboarding is now out for the great price of 99c. You can grab it here.

Original Story: Jared Bailey has been a regular fixture on the App Store since his debut title Duck N Cover released in June 2009. Since then he has released no less then eight more games, with a tenth on the way. Bailey seems to have that knack for creating "why didn't I think of that" types of games, with elegant simplicity and a range of memorable art styles.

Infinite Surf, for example, is an attempt to capture the more relaxing and meditative side of surfing, rather than the fast-paced arcade experiences we are used to seeing in the likes of California Games. As Bailey says in the game's description "...showing the natural beauty surfers encounter each time they go out is the main goal of Infinite Surf." Sometimes it takes an independent eye to look at and explore the other side of video games, away from the running, shooting and coin collecting we're accustomed to. 

Baby Lava Bounce and Zombie Volcano are much more typical iOS experiences. They involve bouncing your island-hopping lava creature as far as possible by landing on trees, cows and all manner of objects, using them as fuel to continue bouncing. Simple, fun, endearing little time wasters.

That brings us to Bailey's Cubed series. Cubed Rally Racer released in 2010, offering full steering control over your boxy vehicle, and evolved into 2012's Cubed Rally Redline, which was more like slot cars. In Redline you strive for distance by switching between five slots in the track, avoiding obstacles and picking up fuel in order to continue your run. It's a simple and pleasant gameplay loop that could easily get buried under the pile of racers and endless run/jump/fly games available. But there is something so harmless and friendly about the art style that helps it stand out and rise above potential obscurity. As the name suggests everything is drawn and viewed from an isometric angle, with box shaped cars, trees and even box shaped cows. The bright cheerful colours help to promote the aura of goodwill the game exudes. Another reason to stay a while is the fact that every time you race a new track is randomly generated, so you'll never get tired of the same old circuits, or be stuck waiting for an update with more content. 

A third game in the Cubed series is about to land, possibly even this week. We mentioned Cubed Snowboarding in our Games for Winter Olympics Fans article and it has already been submitted to the App Store. 

Bailey has taken the random track generation of Rally Racer and Redline, and the Cubed visual style, and applied them to a downhill snowboarding theme. Judging from the trailer below it looks like it could be another success from this developer, who is on a very productive roll. There will be grinding, flipping and obstacle avoidance aplenty, and we'll post some impressions soon after the game is released, so watch this space. 

If you're curious about Jared Bailey's back catalogue you can click any of the links in the references below. Baby Lava Bounce and Cubed Rally Racer are free, so they're a great place to start if you're cautious about spending the ninety-nine cents the others will set you back. Have fun!

Writer:
Garry Balogh

Jared Bailey Gameography:
  - Duck N Cover
  - Waste Paper Basket Ball Diaries
  - Blacklight Blocks
  - Fist Face Fight
  - Infinite Surf
  - Zombie Volcano
  - Baby Lava Bounce
  - Cubed Rally Racer HD
  - Cubed Rally Redline

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