is back and now online!
to be crowned the champion!
across 4 rinks in our multi-player mode!
including a real-time measurements.
History of...
Read about how the original 2004 game had started…
The idea for the original World Lawn Bowls game came out of a trip to the inlaws 50th birthday weekend which was held at Warners Resorts in Herefordshire.
One evening my father in law challenged me to a game of bowls. My father in law was a regular bowler too and I played him over a few ends and won nearly all of the matches! It didn’t go down well but from that moment on I was hooked.
This was in 2003 and from that time, I realised there was no other Lawn Bowls games anywhere in the world. So the World Lawn Bowls idea was born…
The Planning…
One of the first things that was done in 2003 before any programming or artwork was done to start the game was more research into the physics of bowls but also the rules, to ensure that once the game was done that it could actually convince bowlers that they were playing something of quality.
We also contacted Bowls England before the development started to discuss our idea, which did go down very well and we said as soon as we had a prototype game that we would visit them in Kent to show them to get their feedback.
The Development…
The work on World Lawn Bowls started in the first quarter of 2003 and the game was focused on the PC Platform online because at the time, it was the only platform which we felt bowls users would be on, this was also confirmed by Bowls England also.
Technical specs were written, programming had commenced on the physics and the 3D rinks and bowls shapes were started in the 3D package.
The prototype of the game was ready within 6 weeks and this was taken to Bowls England which was based in Kent at the time and they loved it. We managed to agree a deal with them to promote the game through their channels and in return they would receive royalties from it. This spured us on to push ahead with the development and also set a date for release, we were aiming for an end of 2004 launch.
The prototype was rough around the edges, it didn’t feature any sound and the backgrounds and textures were not finalised but it did give anyone that played it an idea of what the final game would be like and they loved it.
Global thinking…
Our research had shown that Bowls is huge in Australia and other parts of Europe too, so we decided to approach many retailers in various countries to stock the game when it was ready. Each retailer had a demo which they could play and all of them loved it, thus we had a publishing outlet for the game too.
Launching the game…
The game was officially launched at the end of 2004 on the PC Platform and playable through a CD ROM.
World Lawn Bowls took 9 months to write with a team of 3 of us on it covering the 3D art, Programming and Testing and it was launched just in time for Christmas orders, around mid-October.
World Lawn Bowls was widely received by the bowls community and we had thousands of good reviews on the game and also a good following of the game in Australia and other countries Worldwide.
The game continued to sell worldwide until 2008 from online outsets, retail and also through Bowls England and Bowls International Magazine.
Blog and Latest News
Catch up with our latest news about World Lawn Bowls, from new game releases, features, us in the press and also customer testimonials. If you want to talk with us about World Lawn Bowls, please get in touch at info@swivuk.co.uk.