My newest game has been in the app store for a few days, now. I worked hard on making this game as good as I could. There are still things that I might want to clean up over time, but overall, I think it’s a great experience.
The player has almost destroyed the enemy!
The game started off as a simple idea of a demolition derby game using common geometric shapes. I had considered being able to add attachments and other modifications to them, but that never happened. The difficulties in crushing parts of the shapes slowed me down for a while. At some point during a shower the idea of changing the colors of the sides as they were damaged came to my mind and that worked well.
I took that idea and continued to work on a game using it – complete with sound effects, scoring, levels and simple ai controlled enemies. Somewhere along the way, the idea of collecting items caught my interest. The thought of fruit seemed funny since I had already been using fruit sprites to represent players. Well, things clicked and Fruit Derby was born. From there I added different power-ups, and also different movement styles for the enemies. It continued to grow and eventually became what it is today. The game allows you to create your own character picking from various colors, icons and shapes and then take them into the area in order to make the “perfect” fruit salad to please your alien captors.
The premise although silly, was fun. The controls felt natural and the overall look was fairly clean and easy to figure out. In spite of the clean design, it allowed for many strategies and options at any point of the game. So, as simple and basic as the idea appears, there is a lot that can be done to make the gaming experience your own.
A lesson that I learned again recently – inspiration can come from anywhere. I have been working on several projects lately and also taking some time to learn new skills and also refresh some old knowledge. During those attempt to refresh old knowledge I fell into a rabbit hole of going through old games that I used to play. When I say old, I mean old. Most of these I had had played on my old Apple II back in the 1980s. Needless to say, many old memories came flooding back. But, also, I was able to see things that were done with games back then that kept my attention and kept me playing. These games were made decades before micro-transactions, and years before the internet would start to shape our lives. They had to focus on the gameplay itself to keep our interest and there is a lot to be learned from that.
In my case, I was reminded how much humor and curiosity for what would come next drew me in. Spare Change on an Apple II emulator was the game that prompted this post.
A screenshot from the Apple II version of the game Spare Change
The goal of Spare Change was simple – collect coins while trying to keep the robots from stealing them. The robots themselves were quite funny. They would perform various silly moves as they stole the coins, including passing between each other, running into each other or kicking the coin into their piggy bank. If they collected too many coins the game would end. Also, of interest were short cut scenes involving these robots and their silly antics. But a feature that kept me wanting to play the most were the various items on the game board that could be used to distract the robots. They loved watching Popcorn popping, or dancing to the music on the jukebox. On some levels you have get them to talk to each other using the pay phones. Now, these distractions would cost a coin, so you had to be careful to not waste too many coins. This became more of an issue as the levels went on. But, it all led to the player wanting to keep playing in order to see what other silliness could happen along the way.
So, what does a 40 year old game have to do with my current efforts? It caused me to rethink my own game that I am currently working on. I have since made an effort to add cutscenes along with items for the player to collect. I should back up and explain the game a little bit – it was essentially a demolition derby game using various geometric shapes to battle.
An image of game play from Fruit DerbyAn image of a cutscene from Fruit Derby
The images above show a little view of what the game looks like. It also shows a shot from one of the cut scenes that can be found in the game. I am proud of how the game is turning out. The sides on the shapes turn red as they get damaged until the player dies if the damage becomes too great. Once an enemy shield is destroyed, you have the chance to steal their fruit. It is the fruit that is necessary in order to advance to the next level – by making an epic fruit salad to impress your alien overseers.
You can clearly see how playing a close to 40 year old game inspired a new game. If I hadn’t taken the time to play Spare Change, my game would still be the original Geometry Derby game in which you would simply crash into shapes until you finally died. It was somewhat fun even if it did get a little boring over time. The new version is one that can easily hold interest for a far longer time.
So, to bring things back around – don’t be afraid to look for inspiration everywhere. You never know what might contain an idea for a future project.
I have been struggling for a bit with my computer. I have had it for over 6 years, and while it still works, there is less and less that it can do. The newest version of the operating system isn’t supported on it and because of that development tools were becoming less stable.
I have been looking at new computers for many months, now. The computer I was replacing is a 27″ iMac. It’s a huge screen on a fully desktop computer. But, I wanted to switch toward something more portable. I started to look at the MacBook Air. I liked the idea of the computer. They were small – only a 13.3″ display and were limited in upgrades, but the ability to be portable was a plus. It would allow me to move around and work in places that would have fewer distractions.
Well, then Apple released a new set of MacBook Pro laptops. They had many of the features that were missing from the Air – more upgrade options, larger screens, and more external ports. They made a lot more sense – but the price was quite a bit higher. I priced out several and then put the idea aside. I couldn’t really rationalize spending that amount of money. Then Black Friday sales showed up. There were several MacBooks listed at various places – some of them local and available that day. I spent the day debating it and eventually decided the factors that really mattered. I needed a computer that I could work on anywhere I needed to. It had to be portable and be able to run the software that I used – mainly Xcode. It ideally had to have enough hard drive space in order to install what I needed and work comfortably. What I found was a decent compromise. The cost wasn’t as high has it could have been. The screen was smallish. The drive was a bit smaller that I would have liked, but the form factor was decent and I could work around the flaws without too many issues.
So, I ended up taking home a brand new MacBook Air M1 with a 512GB SSD drive and 8GB of RAM. I would have liked a larger drive, but I can get by with this. It will also keep me from hoarding everything on the face of the planet. I have to force myself to watch what I put on here and remove things as I don’t need them. So far, I’m doing just fine.
Heck, I’m sitting with the computer on my lap on the couch right now writing this. It really has opened up new things for me. The keyboard is comfortable and has a nice form factor. The trackpad takes some getting used to, but it’s working pretty well. The screen – though small – does just fine. If I need a larger one, external displays are an option. So far, I’m really liking it. The computer has no fan, so it is extremely quiet. I don’t do a ton of video, or photo processing so the RAM limits haven’t really caused an issue.
Overall, I’m happy with the choice. I figure if I was going to have an issue, it would have happened by now. So, yeah. It’s a nice little laptop.
