Hello Everyone!
This game is a Uni based game from Brisbane Australia, our main goal of this project is to get a deeper insight on what needs to be done to survive as an indie game dev team. And trust me… we are learning the hard way. Our first task was to do a market research report on what the android user base was like, how much money they spend, what are the patterns, look at what games do well and WHY they do well and so much more. We were inspired a lot by a game called Kleptocats, a simple collecting game where you send out cats to collect items for you to fill up your house.
The part of this game that really interested me is their monetisation model. They have given the user the option to buy out in game currency as a bulk OR the player can watch a 30 second ad for 20 coins. This intrigued me cause as a user who never spends money in the appstore, I watched about 40 ads in the first week of playing. Which allowed me to gather more customizations and brag to my friends saying “Look at my kitten! I made him look like tigger but as a pimp”. I decided to use this model hoping to gain access to those users who do not spend much in the mobile gaming industry (which is as little as 1.9% of users… Well… That was previous to the release of the Pokemon Go release)
Our facilitator asked us to prototype not just a 1 particular idea… but multiple! As most ideas come, the first 5-10 ideas you come up with end just as that, only ideas. After those first few, that’s when the good ideas come out. I did this proccess for 3 prototypes and finalized on one, that can be described as a vertical flappy bird/doodle jump. Here is a visual!
The player controls themselves by tapping on the left or right hand side, this will change the direction the player is moving while also jumping and shooting. We wanted to hit that market of simple controls with a big impact. Similar to downwell! That game has got a spelunky like playstyle, able to explore the world the players evolves in. But… that’s not our game. Our game is a lot more simple than that, there is no elements of exploration. Our facilitator gave feedback as well as many others saying that it felt more like you are controlling the chaos of the game rather than controlling the player of the game. This is NOT what we want. They suggested we use channels, similar to how the game and watch games would control.
We tested it out and it actually allows a lot more ease for the player to control while allowing a lot more ease for us as developers to develop patterns due to the enemies spawning along the same channels. Here is a visual!
And as you can see you can see we also have started on animations and an artstyle! At the beginning we were not expecting any 2D artists to be available so due to our Lead Designer (Me!) being able to create pixel art, this allowed us to create assets without one. But everything changed when (must not make an avatar joke…) a 2D Artist appeared and wanted to help. We then decided to put the art style onto her and give her free range on the customisations (yes, customisations!). I designed the artstyle to be quite simplistic and one animation i always loved was “Dumb Ways To Die” and she did well! Unfortunately at the moment the animations look quite choppy and pixelated which we will be working towards to fix. It might also be due to the resolution of the game? If you have any solutions or know what might be going on, feel free to leave a comment!
We originally were going to have only customizations to be spent with the coins, but were advised to not do that. Having only customizations for currency is not a BAD idea, but it only really works when there is monthly updates. So we decided to add boosters much similar to how Jetpack Joyride would. These booster are as follows…
Rapid Fire
This booster allows the player to shoot every 0.2 seconds regardless if the player is tapping or not. This booster is temporary
Spread Fire
As to be expected, this allows the player to shoot out in a spread formation, 3 directions downwards every time the players taps. This booster is temporary
Magnetic
Much like magneto would, the player can attract coins to them when this booster is active. Any coin that is dropped from the enemies will start to move towards the player. This booster is permanent for one playthrough
Body Damage
Thi will get the player out of a sticky situation! Allowing the player to tackle into enemy squid. This booster is temporary
These boosters will allow the player to get an advantage over the opposition and further increase their score. We are still working out the prices of these boosters as well as the duration.
So that’s where we are at for the project right now! Beta comes out 21st of July 2016 and a full release on the 4th of August! If you have any feedback on the game feel free to leave comments! Also tell us which one is your favorite as well as some other references you would like to see!
If you would like to be a part of the process for the beta, use this link and come join us!
---http://bit.ly/2a2Jg84---
