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.
