Lab Rats Studio’s third person shooter M.U.S.E. is in the app store today.  It’s a huge day for them and a huge day for Joystick Labs.

These guys have come a long way.

16 months ago they were students in the game development program at Wake Technical Community College.

Truth be told, they originally were not one of the five teams that Joystick Labs selected last year.  Lab Rats were the sixth choice, and (thank goodness!) one of the top five teams decided not to join our program.

10 months ago when I joined Joystick Labs they told me the game was about six weeks from getting done.  This past summer they said they were about six weeks from getting done.  In mid-October they said they were about six weeks from getting done.  Finally, they were right.

And in these last four months  they figured out the difference between done and really done.

Congratulations to Adrian, Alan, Rion, and Shadie and the rest of the Lab Rats team on shipping your first game.  You guys developed your idea and design, built the game, and then did the part that’s more work than  fun.  You  took something that looked and played pretty good and kept grinding and grinding until M.U.S.E became  a really polished, fun game.

You have delivered and set the bar for the current and future Joystick Labs teams.

Thanks to Pierre Roux, who joined Joystick as our Producer last summer and has been instrumental in helping the Lab Rats turn the corner.

Thanks to the mentors who have provided advice and wisdom along the way – not just to Lab Rats Studio but to all of our teams.

Thanks to Lab Rats’ publisher Ayopa for their part in getting M.U.S.E. launched.

Congratulations to Joystick Labs co-founders Glen Caplan and Justyn Kasierski.  Who’d have thunk that two lawyers would come up with the idea for a video game accelerator?

And this is just the beginning – for both Lab Rats and Joystick.  Lab Rats will soon have an update of M.U.S.E. and we look forward to the next episode.  Three other Joystick teams – Mighty Rabbit Studios, wefiends, and Buckle Up Game Studios – will be shipping games in the next three months.

(Josh, Nic, Nick, Kevin, Steph, Kory, Chris – are you paying attention?!?!)