independent video game development team of mike boxleiter and greg wohlwend . their games include solipskier gasketball and touchtone . the two met in a game development class at iowa state university and later began to collaborate on the adobe flash game dinowaurs . when the project was funded they founded intuition games with other college friends in ames iowa where they worked on small flash games such as gray lifecraft and fig. 8 for flash game sites such as kongregate . dinowaurs was one of the first games signed for the kongregate platform . their other games involved controlling the weather influencing individuals in a riot and riding a bicycle . boxleiter and wohlwend worked on several additional games that were put on hiatus . they later became mikengreg in 2010 and released solipskier in august for both flash and ios later that year . its success let them take a more experimental approach towards their next game the free to play gasketball . mikengreg ran out of money during the game s development and the two lived on friends couches . the game was reviewed favorably upon its august 2012 launch but did not earn near the developers estimates . their next game touchtone 2015 spent two years in development . contents 1 intuition games 1.1 dinowaurs 1.2 other games 2 solipskier 3 gasketball 4 touchtone 5 notes and references 6 external links intuition games edit boxleiter and wohlwend met in an experimental video game development class at iowa state university . 1 2 wohlwend had attempted to help boxleiter with a project but quit after drawing a few aliens . 2 boxleiter said he didn t like wohlwend much after that . 3 they met again as coworkers at the university s virtual reality application center during boxleiter s final year of college wohlwend s penultimate year . upon discovering their close interests they began to work on an adobe flash game named dinowaurs while they completed college . boxleiter graduated in 2007 with a degree in computer science and wohlwend a year later with a degree in graphic design . they concluded that they needed a company to make money while they worked on the game with collaborators 3 and around may 2007 4 founded intuition games at the university s research park . 1 they decided to stay in ames iowa due to its financial feasibility and local connections 3 but two other members of the team josh larson and ted martens lived in des moines and chicago respectively . 4 the team met as students at iowa state through work and game development circles . they saw flash games as an easy entry point into full time self employment but planned to eventually work on console platforms such as wiiware . before dinowaurs the team made a game about a destructive porpoise which was abandoned when dinowaurs received funding . 4 in their development process boxleiter and wohlwend both proposed and worked on each other s ideas and would drop the ideas they found unexciting . the two also built games from keywords and brainstorming and would flesh out the game mechanics through heated argument . 3 their labor as a team was divided in that wohlwend always did the art and boxleiter the programming as reflective of their skills at the time . the pair agreed to an assessment of their partnership as left brain right brain and agreed that editing the process of iterating through revisions was central to their joint work . 2 as they worked they always retained their prototypes . 2 they both appreciated the creative freedom of being self employed though they struggled with the business aspects relative workplace isolation low salaries and lack of job stability . 3 both were motivated to do their own work instead of contracted tasks . they thought of themselves as artists and of their work as experimental . 3 boxleiter and wohlwend worked long hours when making the flash games which they found exciting and unsustainable . 5 at intuition they worked on games such as dinowaurs gray fig. 8 and liferaft and participated in at least six game jams . 2 as of april 2010 they had created 10 games together . 3 dinowaurs edit intuition s first game dinowaurs is a strategy and action game where two players compete as dinosaurs to seize the most cavemen settlements on a single screen . captured settlements provide resources for upgrades to the players dinosaurs . the object of this arms race is to kill the other dinosaur . 1 it features online matchmaking . 6 the game was built from an unfinished flash based multiplayer strategy game started by boxleiter and an image of a stegosaurus with a jetpack drawn by martens . a the team combined the concepts for a strategy game about dinosaurs fighting for food . they struggled with long distance communication but used a project management website and skype to stay in touch . when looking for a platform intuition originally pitched the game with a clay dinosaur to adult swim who was funding flash games but was declined for not being edgy enough . 4 in june they then tried then new flash site kongregate via a connection larson had made with its ceo jim greer at the 2007 game developers conference . he asked the team to wait for their new director of games to be hired who ended up being intuition s contact at adult swim . the contact had liked the idea and thought the game worked better for kongregate than did for adult swim 4 and so funded the game by november 2007 as one of the first five for the kongregate platform . the package was a one year browser exclusivity agreement that let intuition keep the intellectual property . 7 dinowaurs was finished in two years for a 2009 release . their later games would only take a few months apiece in comparison . 3 they abandoned the use of design documents after dinowaurs and instead chose to refine and experiment in process . 2 indiegames.com reported mixed reviews from players and recommended the game as good solid fun for newcomers and veterans . 6 the escapist described the game as similar to scorched earth and surprisingly complex with its need for three tutorials . 8 he complimented its faux retro soundtrack and aesthetics which he felt outweighed the learning curve s difficulty . 8 other games edit intuition released effing hail and gray around april 2009 . 9 10 players in action game effing hail control hail and wind to destroy the most buildings and midair objects within a time limit . the hail grows in size when the wind is used to suspend it in air . the game was published through kongregate . 9 as an example of their more experimental games intuition built gray a game about political consciousness as a result of their frustrations during the 2008 u.s. presidential election . 3 players control a single character and try to end a riot by influencing other individuals in the crowd . 10 the game was featured at indiecade in 2009 . 3 fig. 8 . is based on one of wohlwend s college art projects . b it went unused on their whiteboard for four months until they needed an idea whereupon boxleiter added game mechanics to the visuals . it took about ten hours to prototype the controls and they tested a ten wheel bike before deciding on two . the scrolling camera was inspired by a game boxleiter had been playing called string theory and they added the soundtrack last . 2 fig. 8 was funded by a sponsor . 11 boxleiter considers gray and fig. 8 to be small games . 12 as projects he considered them more like vacations ... than actual work . 12 gray fig. 8 4fourths liferaft zero from left clockwise screenshots of gray fig. 8 liferaft zero and 4fourths . intuition attempted to fund their next game liferaft via crowdfunding site kickstarter . the game is set in a single day within an abandoned testing facility ... in a post apocalyptic sci fi world . 11 the player character is a young woman named goss who had been surviving off of lichen until a giant squid crashes into the room and allows her escape . liferaft was built for release in three episodes her escape revelation and resolution . 11 the core gameplay revolves around a bionic commando style grappling hook . 11 intuition released a two level flash demo where the game had 16 bit era graphics and music composed by danny baranowsky of canabalt and fathom . they expected development to take six months between november 2009 and february 2010 . 11 they canceled the kickstarter and put the project on hiatus in october 2009 for two small flash games and an intern s unity project . 12 in march 2010 and under the moniker mikengreg boxleiter and wohlwend s 4fourths was chosen among six games out of more than 150 submissions for inclusion in kokoromi s gamma iv showcase . submissions were based on the theme of one button games . 13 the four player game is played with two teams each controlling spaceships on each side of the screen . one player on each team controls the ship s vertical height and the other fires the guns which aim towards the center of the screen . since every player only has one button the vertical height controls boost the ship vertically when the button is pressed and leaves the ship to slowly descend when unpressed . the teams work together to shoot at and destroy enemy boss ships that travel through the center of the screen . teams can also shoot each other s ships as friendly fire is activated . 14 the game was displayed at gamma iv in san francisco and at the 2010 game developers conference . 13 4fourths was michael rose of indiegame.com s favorite game of the gamma iv selections . 14 it was later chosen for brandon boyer s wild rumpus london event in september 2011 . 15 mikengreg announced liferaft zero and solipskier in november 2010 . the former is a prequel teaser to the flash platform game liferaft that they had announced the previous year a game of trial based challenges with wall jumping and grappling 16 wherein girl clones attempt to swing and jump around test chambers to reach and ring a bell . 17 wohlwend and boxleiter made the shorter version to limit the scope creep of the overall project . 16 indiegames.com named the flash game their third best browser platformer of the year . 18 their other game 4fourths was put on hiatus for lack of resources . 16 they were interested in making games outside the flash market . 5 solipskier edit main article solipskier solipskier gameplay their first game as mikengreg was solipskier 19 where the player s finger draws the ground for the on screen skier to pass through a level filled with gates tunnels and walls . 20 it was designed as a flash game which set the limitations for its mechanics . the game concept came from a brainstorming session about parallax scrolling and was revised in fits of creativity . they paired the parallax scrolling with speed and began to prototype . 5 boxleiter first understood its potential when publishers fought for the bid to the game . they then decided to develop for ios in addition to flash and to release both versions simultaneously . 5 it was released on august 29 2010 20 and became their first game to receive public appreciation . solipskier for ios made around 70 000 in its first two months as compared to 15 000 from the flash release which gave them enough stability to branch out into