Gridrunner+++ shapes up for April

Game developer Jeff Minter has said Gridrunner+++ will be ready for Xbox Live Arcade release by the end of April.

The exact date and price are yet to be revealed, but Minter is unlikely to stick with the Space Giraffe price of 400 Microsoft Points (GBP 3.40 / EUR 4.80) as he believes this made the game look cheap.

Gridrunner+++ is not the final name, either; it's a way of showing that this as the third iteration since 1982.

Lots has changed since then, such as Michael Jackson, so Gridrunner returns to life with "beautiful abstract visuals" and challenging but approachable gameplay, according to Minter.

As you might expect, though, players control a spaceship and blast away at approaching baddies, and also pick up "sheepies" for power-ups along the way.

We caught up with Llamasoft founder Jeff Minter back in December to chat about Space Giraffe on PC and farm animals and stealing reindeer from Scotland.

Head over to our Jeff Minter interview to find out what he had to say.