Install Flappy Blocks!

It has a really addictive “screw you I can do this” loop to it, and a lot of depth too if you can get good. Unlockable tiles to customise your beautiful blocks, and achievements to test your skills! But first, can you even get one line?

This was quite a journey to get to this point. 2020 was… “a year”. In the end, I’m proud of this game, and the journey has taught me more than I could have possibly predicted when I started it.

If you’re getting this as a newsletter, there’s a handy bonus code in the footer to give you some in-game freebies. And, of course, getting some reviews from you kind folk would be a joy + massive help!

Time to show off the coool customisation in the game. Dabble in all sorts of tiles, including patterns, letters, or adorable little adventurers.

My personal Favourite is the “Medieval Town”. It Really doesn’t feel so bad to lose when Everything looks so darn cute!

Despite setbacks, I’m determined to get Flappy Blocks out the door in short order, so watch this space! Thanks for following along, you cuties.

In Astronaut’s Journey, it’s 1969, and you are tasked with flying to the moon. But unfortunately, you haven’t developed a rocket yet!

The rocket is a multi-stage affair, and the gameplay loop is a simple one of balancing your rocket and dropping stages as they empty. Each launch gets you more funding, and with that you buy all the upgrades.

“More explosive fuel in my rocket, please.”

Most programming time was spent on the shop, as well as dumb things like the ending “cutscene” that takes you the final metres onto the moon. Meanwhile, the graphics just… clicked. The particle effects, clouds, and even the Saturn V inspired rocket all went together easily, and even the UI looked quite nice.

More than anything else, I am so goddamn proud of how much I’ve improved in Unity since April. I remember making the jam version of Platformer Mixtape in 2 weeks, while Astronaut’s Journey is more technically impressive and interesting after just two days.

There’s also exciting potential. I want to add atmospheric audio, as well as effects to make those larger stages feel powerful and dangerous. I can’t wait to keep working on this mini-project.

Let’s Talk Intensity

Challenges create natural moments of tension, as the player is unsure if they will overcome it, and is rewarded for doing so. As progress is made, the challenges get tougher, and the feelings become more intense. You might expect a graph of the intensity to look like this:

Totally wrong! If a game pushes the player continuously, it’ll get exhausting. A better pattern might look something like this:

In great games, there are always moments of downtime. Somewhere for the player to catch their breath, and plan their next action.

This applies to Angry Birds too, as each level begins with downtime. Here’s my visualisation, with each peak being the player deciding to throw a bird and seeing if they overcome the obstacle.

This rhythm of intensity and downtime is prevalent in all kinds of games, even including online games. (The downtime is in the lobby!) It is part of the success of triple-A open world games, as commuting to work (er, missions) gives the necessary breathing room. Think of it like a pop song with a softer verse and a banging chorus.

Divide And Conquer

A game that I really want to mention here is Catherine on the Playstation 3. It tells a story of a man who drinks to avoid thinking about long term commitments, and also a game about pushing blocks to climb higher.

Time spent in the bar is chilled out, as you talk idly to locals and drink sake. The puzzle sections, on the other hand, are long, challenging, and time sensitive. As such, the intensity graph looks like this:

Again, the same pattern is emerging. The story and puzzle areas share the focus, and it creates a beautiful synergy where downtime is time well spent. Better yet, the longer downtime means that the puzzles can be much more emotionally intense without causing fatigue.

How hard do challenges need to be?

There is a school of thought that a well-balanced game should be difficult enough to give a sense of accomplishment when goals are beaten. There’s truth to this – at some point we’ve all lost interest in a game that we weren’t feeling tested by.

However, there’s also a lot of games that manage to be goal-oriented, easy, and still very compelling. Taken to extremes, we get walking simulators; games so criminally easy that the goals aren’t blocked by any challenges. Some of these games are powerful, emotional experiences – and financially successful! What gives?

Don’t Stop Believin’

My answer is that the “intensity” can be fulfilled by any emotional experience. Beating a good challenge gives an emotional hit; however, this can also be fulfilled by a beautiful moment or engagement with the story. Even horror, or the unsettling feelings you get from interfering with people in Papers, Please.

Regular dopamine hits for successfully beating challenges might be the most recognisable way of creating intensity. But don’t forget the games, and genres, that find other ways of hooking the audience into the game.

Astronaut’s Journey is but one of the many “jam games” I have been making alongside my major project.

…Jams which produced games like Flappy Blocks and Platformer Mixtape! Game jams are just awesome for testing ideas quickly, without having to cry about development cycles.

Back in 2012 and 2013, I spent two summers working at Mousebreaker. All are soon-to-be-deceased Flash and unfortunately already have unfixable legacy issues; but they are also some of my favourite works. For example, Literally Insane Racing has some 40 cars with unique properties, so that every car is competitive in certain races.

I was hired by Mousebreaker on the back of The Man with the Invisible Trousers?from 2011. This puzzle-platformer was featured on most major Flash portals, even though it’s riddled with more bugs than Lindsey Lohan’s mattress.

It clocked up 4.5 million plays, which is more people than you can fit in a boat.

Before that, was Slide Racing in 2009. This was also a hit, with 5.5 million plays. This game was my first to include a stupid story, which would go on to be a theme.

Uh oh! Here’s where it gets really scary, into the realm of games that made no money because, surprise, they’re a bit rubbish. Let’s be honest – the only awards they’re going to win are from my mum.

For example, the most disappointing “rhythm” game you can play, “Dance Bebbe”.

I have no idea what I was thinking, I mean hell, look at that dancing robot.

And finally, the first game I ever made, where you play a man avoiding a variety of confusing attacks. Presenting Save Stanley?from 2006:

There’s no way to pretend these early games were anything other than pure, unfiltered crap. And maybe that’s the moral? Anyone can start by making shitty games! Somehow, it teaches you the skills to make less shitty games, until you too can make games that are proudly adequate!

Hurrah!

Kan Gao – solo developer of To The Moon, which has exploded since this was conducted in 2012. Now a film of the game has been greenlit!

Sophie Houlden – a longtime indie who made her name in Flash games. She was very gracious and open in this interview, painting an honest picture about her life as an indie.

Lucas McCann – half of the duo working on Wild Mage, which is a very exciting project that had a successful Kickstarter.

Ben Porter – known for MoonQuest, and its long development cycle. There’s also some nice discussion on the value of coding a game engine from scratch.

That’s all so far! I’m always looking for more subjects with interesting stories, so if you have something you want to talk about, I can be reached at helloearthling@gmail.com or on Twitter.

There are a few things that make this design functional:

1. Inventive villain effects
2. Thoughtful level layouts
3. Puzzles utilising the villain effects

Let’s go!

The Villain Effects

Death is the defacto platformer “failure state”, as you reset at the previous checkpoint to have another go. In Wario Land 3, this is removed entirely. Instead, enemies will stun you or give some status condition that may set you back. If you fall off a platform, or get sucked into a bubble, you will find yourself having to attempt a small section over again.

The enemy effects are also funny! Wario finds himself being turned into a zombie (must find a light to turn back) or swelling up as an allergic reaction (floating up until he hits a solid object). The varied effects bring something new to almost every level.

Better yet, the player keeps some control. They may guide their dizzy Wario as he stumbles, or continue making progress in the level while Wario is on fire! Getting hit by enemies does not interrupt play, but adds to it.

The Level Design

A few games have dabbled with “no failure state”, such as TT’s LEGO games, or Kirby’s Epic Yarn. In these, a death means no progress is lost whatsoever. However, in Wario Land 3, the levels loop in ways to capture players’ mistakes safely. There is a “failure state”, but it isn’t death.

To give a simple example, many of the platformer sections have pits to fall in. The player runs back to a ladder, and climbs up to the starting position. This format is used in many ways; for example as Wario tries to make his way down through a swimming section and must avoid bubbles that return him to the surface.

Many levels rely on one gimmick, such as a water current that will take Wario to the start if he falls in. Pictured is a clever “break” in this current, giving a mid-level checkpoint to ensure that challenges don’t become too frustrating.

None of this couldn’t be done with traditional “death and checkpoint” mechanics, but keeping the player alive ensures there is never a break in the flow.

Making Puzzles From The Effects

The transformations are regularly used as puzzles, taking advantage of how they all play differently. Pictured is ‘Fat Wario’ and a little donut-throwing enemy.

“Okay, just one more wafer thin donut…”

In some levels, fatness slows you down as your jumps shake the earth. However, here you need to use your earth shaking to get the donut chef to bounce up the platforms on the right! It’s a clever puzzle, and the sheer number of different effects allow for many of these moments. Perhaps you need to use the zombie to fall through the floor, or get turned into a spring to bounce to a high place?

The Take-Away

Wario Land 3 is one of the best games on the Gameboy Colour, and I’m surprised that the no-death concept hasn’t become a regular feature. Perhaps the best lesson to take from this game is that nothing is sacred in your favourite genre – it could even lead to new innovations. Superhot took the FPS genre and slowed it down so you can plan your actions, while Snake Pass is a 3D platformer with no jump button. What about a dungeon crawler where you aren’t trying to kill enemies, or a fighting game where the characters don’t take damage?

If nothing else, push boundaries.

Hot on the heels of his early access launch of MoonQuest, I got the chance to speak to Ben Porter about its creation. He has written about the somewhat arduous 7 year journey, involving Kickstarter and numerous extra activities on the way. At last, the game is out, though Ben isn’t done finished with the project just yet.

Congratulations on the launch of your game! What were the biggest inspirations going in to MoonQuest?

Ben: Thanks! Minecraft, Nethack, Terraria, and Spelunky are the biggest inspirations for the game, and I like to feel like I’ve absorbed some goodness from each. With that said, MoonQuest actively tries to be its own thing, and doesn’t really fit the genres of any of those games. My earliest ideas for some of the things in MoonQuest go back decades, to when I was a child, designing how a character in a game might have different armours, weapons, etc.

You’ve written about the extended dev period dating back 7 years. Given a time-travelling email server, what advice would you give yourself 7 years ago?

B: I’d definitely send myself the article, but in addition I’d tell myself to be wary of having two competing motivations: learning how to make a game from scratch, and making a great game. I would tell my past self to just do one or the other. I’d probably also tell my 2011 self that the new engine on the block, Unity, would become the defacto game engine for independent developers and that I should try to ship a commercial game in that first.

You’ve made all sorts of other projects, from Twitter toys to game jam entries. Have these changed your development process at all for major projects?

B: All my little projects feed back into my development. I’ve written a standalone dialogue generator, for instance, that I incorporated into MoonQuest, and now the NPCs all say random phrases. Design-wise I think all those prototypes and side-projects definitely influence the ideas I have for future games — all typically of a procedurally-generated nature.

You also created @Pixel_Dailies, where artists are challenged to make pixel art to a theme. Going back to old videos, it’s clear that MoonQuest’s art has come a very long way – are Pixel Dailies the reason?

B: It took years to figure out the basic MoonQuest style because I was a fairly novice artist. I started Pixel Dailies to improve, and I think it helped dramatically with MoonQuest. However, the main reason MoonQuest has improved is because of the work of two artists: G. P. Lackey, who did some amazing concept art and designed the style upgrade post-Kickstarter, and Alex McDonald, who has been solidly working on the game since around 2014, creating everything from the backgrounds, animations, character portraits, promotional art, and so on. I can’t overstate how much that MoonQuest is a collaborative effort.

MoonQuest circa 2012

What did you get right or wrong about the Kickstarter?

B: The Kickstarter was instrumental in producing MoonQuest, and without its success I would have had to release a very buggy and incomplete game into Early Access. The experience was 99% positive. The 1% badness was the fulfilment of the t-shirt backer rewards, which ended up being a nightmare due to reoccurring printing issues. I think the Kickstarter was successful primarily because of the many people who already knew about and supported the game — it was their enthusiasm that helped drive the publicity of it to help me reach the goal.

Did you get any advantages from coding everything yourself, down to the basic game engine?

B: In theory, the advantage I have is that I can fix, optimise, or reengineer any part of the system to suit my game. If I wanted to distribute it on another architecture, I could (again in theory), port all the code myself. However, the benefits of building your own engine have dramatically declined over the last decade. Unity, Unreal Engine, and Game Maker have become more powerful, cheaper, and more widely-used. Building your own engine these days is worthwhile if your game is relatively simple, if you’re an expert, or if your game does something substantially different (e.g., is based on some new rendering technology). My advice to anyone starting development on a new game: just use a commercial engine.

Finally, is Moonman ever seen without his glowing smile?

B: Some say his face is just painted on.

Thanks a lot to Ben for the chat! MoonQuest is out now in all good Steam libraries. Or find @eigenbom on Twitter and change his icon.

I’ve really enjoyed putting achievements in games, and well designed ones can get a great response from players. There’s a dark art to making them both fun and compelling, rather than a forgettable chore. So, here are the lessons I have learned in list-orial format.

7. Give one for something really, really easy. This A) lets players know that this game has achievements and how they’ll be delivered, and B) gives a little positive feedback for them helpfully opening the game/trying the first level. If you think super simple achievements are silly, then you could always give it a sarcastic name.

6. Understand the effects of achievements. For most players, they give a small endorphin kick and increase engagement. They can provide a reason for exploring, or returning to parts of the game to dive deeper. They can even function as status symbols, where only 0.1% of your players are worthy of an achievement.

5. Understand the negative effects of achievements. A segment of your player base will gun for achievements like meth addicts. Players may be stuck in parts of your game far longer than they are having fun, because the reward mechanic is stronger than their self-control. As a dev, it is your responsibility to make the achievements a fun addition, rather than a way to force player behaviours.

“Yeah, hit me with a Platinum, that’s the good stuff.”

4. Space set piece achievements wisely. Far too many games give an easy achievement, and then nothing else until the credits – the rest are tied into completionist challenges or absurd coincidence. I would strongly suggest having progress achievements regularly spaced through the campaign. Many games are divided into “chapters” or “worlds” that make this a no-brainer.

3. Preserve some mystery. I like having suggestive titles that don’t explicitly say an achievement’s requirements, but still give enough to let the player guess. When it has been finished, more information can be available describing the achievement’s exact conditions.

“So, this achievement isn’t in the bedroom…”

2. Make a joke! Not every achievement needs to be serious or particularly difficult. Great examples include “That Guy” from Move or Die after annoyingly running into other players, or even better, the “Click On Door 430 Five Times” routine from The Stanley Parable.

1. Tie in gameplay effects. An achievement system that gives a reward that can be spent in-game will have players caring far more about it. This brings achievements into part of the core gameplay loop, which in the right game is extremely powerful.

With that, “achievements” doesn’t look like a real word any more. Develop responsibly!

Of your numerous games, which came closest to the vision you had going in?

Sophie: Probably “The Linear RPG“, I had some concept sketches I made and the result looks pretty close. I think the reason is because of the scale, bigger games tend to stray further from an original idea just because I spend more time on them, the idea is going to grow and evolve over time. I think that’s fine to be honest, there’s nothing inherently better about the very first image of a game I get in my head – it’s important to let that develop (or cut away from it – a great idea that is never finished is only ever an idea).

I really liked The Linear RPG?- it’s good to sometimes make a small game that starts as one joke. Is humour important when you’re working on a project?

S: Humour is sometimes important, but not always. It just depends on the game. It’s enough if working on the game is amusing for me; it doesn’t need to be explicitly funny or anything. (And to be honest, trying to be funny can be a real chore because it’s often difficult.)

How important are game jams in your creative process?

S: It varies a lot, sometimes I’ll make a game in a jam and then I’ll build on it and release something more robust/polished/bigger – it can be a good way to get a project started quickly without getting caught up in minutiae that I would otherwise worry about. A jam game skips a bunch of early work and either it works or it doesn’t, you’re forced to make all the big decisions early and once the jam is over then what a more polished version needs is apparent, it’s harder to get trapped in hypothetical, “if I do this am I committed to the game being XYZ and not ABC”. On the other hand, game jams are often exhausting and I can’t really do them as reliably as I could a decade ago. When I’m doing new projects, I tend to start in a jam-like mindset once I have the energy myself – rather than waiting for a jam and hoping I happen to be healthy and energetic on that jam’s particular weekend/week/month/whatever.

You’ve been creating games for a long time, now. At what point were you able to become a full-time indie developer?

S: At no point really, and if any, then only in the last year as I got my Patreon set up. I’ve been losing money and having debts grow for a long time, and I still owe a lot of money. I’m only now with the support of my patrons in this ‘neutral’ position where I can just about afford to eat and stay at home without my debt increasing.

Has your process changed much after moving from Flash to Unity?

S: When I first moved from Flash to Unity, the two were actually very similar, at least for how I worked. Although Unity has grown and changed quite a bit over the years so I guess my process has changed along with it? The foundation stuff is always the same though; you get an idea, you experiment with it, and if you think it’s good enough and worthwhile then you grind away at it until it’s done or until you can’t work anymore.

What advice would you give to a new developer starting out today?

S: Accept that you’re not going to make money, if you still want to do it then get stuck in and find stuff that you enjoy working on. If you’re not happy then find something else, that could be a different tool, maybe a different workflow, different kind of project, or maybe something besides games. I think if I did nothing but games I’d have destroyed myself a lot more.

What do you mean by destroying yourself?

S: My point being that working on games is tough, and sometimes it’s really tough. Gotta take breaks or be broken.

For you, is making games a means to an end, or an end in itself?

S: Both (again, it depends on the game). Sometimes I make a game because I think it is a game that should exist and so I’ll make it happen, sometimes I make a game because I need something to work on that I enjoy working on, like it’s a little puzzle for me to solve. If you’re asking if I’m making games as a way to accomplish some other thing in my life; not really. I just make games because I’m someone who makes games.

Thanks so much for the insights! Sophie is doing monthly builds on her Patreon, and releasing “ducksnakes” daily on Twitter.

My adorable/nasty game, Platformer Mixtape 2010, is now available to freely play in its final form! Find it on Itch.io, Armor Games, or Newgrounds.

• More levels
• Quality-of-life fixes (pause, mute, save games)
• Tighter controls

If you’re interested in the design and development of the game, see 6 ways to improve 2D jumping, or subscribe as later this month I’ll be blogging my system for pixel-perfect 2D in Unity.

Still easier than filing taxes.

10. Prove you can export something. If it’s been a while since you used a game engine, it’s well worth putting together a non-game where you can move a basic object, and export it. This is especially true if you need plugins, such as exporting to WebGL from Unity. Make sure everything’s up-to-date and working together, and you could save yourself a lot of pain at the end of the jam.

09. Decide what you’ll eat. I mean, same as any other day, except you want to avoid going to the shops and losing time. Think about what you’ll have for meals, fruit/snacks, and how you’ll stay hydrated.

08. Set up a repository in advance, and use it. Losing work is pain. By setting up a Git repository before the jam begins, and committing every 20 minutes, you’ll never lose work and can easily get back a file you accidentally overwrote! Even better, Bitbucket or Github can backup your repositories online, for maximum safety.

07. Know what you want to get out of it. This could include making friends, learning dev skills, making a game you think is great/different/terrifying, getting followers, or any personal reason you have. By knowing what you want to get out of it, you can be much more likely to get it. Perhaps you just want to try making a game in a jam, and that’s great too!

06. Ask your friends to jam with you. For a weekend like this, it’s so much easier to stay focused if another person can see your screen. I had Joshua beside me, and he was able to help with some of my code issues. In Ludum Dare, it’s possible to work as a team in the “Jam” category, but we chose to make one game each instead. The Jam is very competitive, and neither of us are artists!

05. Choose your tools in advance. Besides your chosen environment/language, you’ll also want to think about how you will make art, sounds, and music. The old Ludum Dare site has a list of tools, so have a play around before the jam begins – it’s easier to learn when there’s no time pressure.

04. Pick an idea you can finish. It’s totally fine to make something simple! This is going to be different for everyone, but getting to the 40 hour mark without the end in sight is frustrating. If you want to challenge yourself, I suggest choosing one area specifically to learn something new; e.g. if you’ve never made dynamic sounds, or worked with pixel-perfect sprites, it could be wise to treat that as the challenge and keep the rest of your idea simple.

03. Add a day. It’s a 48 hour jam, but secretly it’s a day longer. Because on the Monday, you will be splattered and not in the mood to do much of anything. Use this day of rest as an opportunity to rate lots of other games!

02. Polish beats ambition. In Ludum Dare specifically, there is literally no rating for ambition. If you care about ratings, then spending time on polish will beat spending the same time on an extra 5 levels, every time. That said, I love ambitious games, and if it fits the targets you set out for yourself in point 7, then don’t worry about the scores and just do it.

01. Scores don’t really matter. Honestly, it’s much more important that you meet the personal goals you set out for yourself earlier. Game jams are a weird, fun challenge to undertake, and you should always be proud of the result.

In LDJAM, two of us made “Flappy Bird x Tetris” games. And yet, even though we interpreted the theme in the exact same way, our “Theme” rank was 45 places different. There’s no reason for this, besides that different people saw each game and some people are pickier than others! If that’s not a great example of why scores don’t matter, I don’t know what is.

And that’s about it! So, how did Flappy Blocks do after all this? Great! It got top 10 in two categories out of a thousand “Compo” entries, and more importantly for me, helped me connect with lots of new faces on Twitter as I’m starting my gamedev journey. In fact, it could help me connect with you right now!

To get these posts delivered direct, stick your email in the box below. I promise I’ll only post things I’d want to read.

I saw the art of Wild Mage – Phantom Twilight, and was immediately drawn to it. It’s got a dreamy, modern twist on steampunk-like airships and floating islands, along with some interesting ideas about terrain. Lead developer Lucas McCann was kind enough to answer some questions about the title, which has already met its Kickstarter funding goal.

Can you tell me about the game?

Lucas: Wild Mage – Phantom Twilight is an open-world action/adventure RPG featuring airships, voxel-based floating islands, and next-gen combat. Monsters can be dynamically sliced or crushed into pieces. Terrain and structures can be altered or destroyed. Spells and abilities can be acquired from monsters and lore books. Wield a variety of powerful magic as you face hoards of monsters. In addition to dungeons, treasure hunting in Wild Mage also includes exploration through traps and puzzles with light to no combat.

Who’s in your team, and how did you meet?

L: Currently, we have Fabio Amurri as the audio lead working on music and sound effects, my brother Rick McCann as 2D concept artist, and myself as lead developer working on programming, game design, animation and 3D art. Rick and I have always had a passion for video games and beta tested almost all major releases together over the years. Fabio, who is a very talented composer for video games and movies based in Italy, started working with us after coming across our posts on social media.

How long have you been working on the game so far?

L: We have been working on Wild Mage for a year now, though I had the concept of the game in my mind for much longer, as it really came from a list of features that I had wished for in video games as a gamer over the years.

Are there any games/media you’ve taken inspiration from?

L: One of my favorite games growing up is the Final Fantasy series. I always liked the idea of flying an airship and exploring a world made of floating islands, partially inspired by some of the cut-scenes in FF IX. Dungeons and the multi-player style (if we reach multi-player funding goal) in Wild Mage are inspired by Diablo, and the idea of open-world adventures with traps and puzzles is analogous to the Legend of Zelda.

What is the game’s story/lore?

L: The story is set in the beautiful yet dangerous world of Etherion, which is made up of thousands of islands floating above a dense, purple Miasma. Rising at night and burning off during the day, the Miasma spawns terrible creatures and posts constant threat to the people of the isles. As a Wild Mage, you act as the right hand of the Tower of Heaven, extracting adventures, escorting ships, reclaiming lost islands, with an ultimate goal to close the portal through which the Miasma came and restore peace to Etherion.

The art direction is really dreamlike. Does this tie into the story or the world?

L: It’s tied into both the story and the world. The dreamlike nature of the world is caused by the Miasma, which breaks down the vail between the planes of existence. The closer to the ground you get, the denser the Miasma becomes, and the more the reality breaks down.

Do you design by coming up with mechanics first, or lore?

L: The open-world nature of the game determines that the mechanics and the lore go hand in hand. The backdrop of the story has long been established, but the mechanics of the game determines how the character advances and how the story unfolds.

How does altering terrain impact the gameplay?

L: This is a great question and I’m glad you asked. In Wild Mage, destruction to terrain and structures is a key feature, but not the goal, and it has its consequences. For example, if you blow up a bridge, you may find it hard to cross a river. But if done strategically, it can slow down monsters that are chasing you. If you dig a big hole in the ground, you may find it hard to get out of it yourself. But sometimes digging a tunnel is the quickest way to get to a different part of an island, or the only way to find hidden treasures. If you destroy your airship with a fireball, you may find yourself stranded on an island. If you destroy a villager’s house for no reason, you will have to pay for the damage with gold that could’ve been used for an artifact weapon. It’s not about causing damage just for the sake of damage itself, it’s about using it to your strategic advantage. There will be trial and errors, just like life itself.

How do you organise your work, to keep track of development and such?

L: I actually have a project manager with years of product development experience on our team that helps us track progress and make sure that our timeline and milestones are met. We also structure the project in a way that is modular and easier to manage in terms of time/resources/risks. For example, instead of making a world map that is vast and empty and filling in contents later, we’re designing islands one at a time, each with its own unique adventures, and adding to the map as we go.

As a “Kickstarter” title, how would you like to reassure backers that you’ll be able to meet your goals?

L: We have been funding ourselves and working on Wild Mage for over a year now, and have already worked out the key technical innovations and core mechanics that make this game unique. At this point, I don’t see any core technical issue that may keep us from delivering the game with promised features, and what’s left is content creation and polish. We also made a decision to keep the scope for initial release small and focused, to minimize possibility of unexpected challenges and delays.

Thanks a lot to Lucas for the insights! Wild Mage – Phantom Twilight is on Kickstarter now, and is already on its way to meeting stretch goals. Beta testing is expected to start in Q3 2019.

The theme was, “Combine 2 incompatible genres.” I think I succeeded. All the strategy of Tetris, plus all the frustration of Flappy Bird. Oh, and it’s got jokes, too!

Ludum Dare is the largest and longest-running game jam I know, and the whole game was created by myself in 48 hours – crappy music included!

I would love to revisit this and make version 2.0, so all feedback is greatly appreciated.

Play here for maximum frustration!

1. Momentum is harder to change in the air. If you turn left or right on the ground, the reaction should be almost instant. However, in the air it should be looser, unless your character has wings.

The difference is subtle, but it’s very noticeable if it’s not there!

2. Hold jump for a bigger jump. Lots of people implement this by making the jump “stop” as soon as the jump button is lifted, but this is a mistake. Both small and big jumps should look natural.

In my game I reduce gravity while the jump button is held. However, given more time I would have also added a bigger difference in jump power if the player only taps ‘jump’.

3. One press = one jump. I made mine extremely forgiving, as you can press before you touch the ground – making jumps frame-perfect. However, if you hold jump and your character jumps again when they land, that’s a bug not a feature.

4. Wall jumps should be forgiving. I hate when a game demands that I be pushing into the wall or the wall jump fails. I manage this by having trigger colliders that extend beyond my character collider, so that a wall jump can be triggered while moving away from the wall.

5. High gravity is harder, but often more fun. It can make a game feel more alive and challenging, but high gravity is not appropriate for every type of game! If you’re making a puzzle-platformer, you’ll need to find a balance.

6. Wall jumps combine all of the above. You have to decide what sort of shape your wall jumps should have, and adjust the gravity, momentum, kick-off speed, and held-jump power to make sure it feels satisfying. There’s no “right” answer here, but there are a lot of wrong ones!

Hope you’ve enjoyed this list-orial. Follow @connectoffline or subscribe here to see what we get up to in this weekend’s Ludum Dare, and more.

More than anything else, this project is to establish that, hey, I’m back! I’m developing full-time for as long as it’ll sustain me, and my journey is starting right here.

Much love for Super Meat Boy.

Much love for VVVVVV.

Much love for Portal.

This was a great excuse to steal some neat elements from some of my favourite games. I do have more interesting content coming! Next up, I’ll be talking about the balance of all the things going into the ‘jump’ to make it feel just so. That’ll all be on this blog shortly, so you could subscribe here or say hi on Twitter @connectoffline!

This is the end of the recent, and the start of the old. Keep scrolling to travel back in time, to the Flash era, with all the broken links and missing images that entails.

Bring a sword.

So yeah, I’m now editing a documentary on all this, which will also be posted here. It’ll be interesting.
(For more info on that, I guess you could click here.)

In other news, Twitter is still a thing. If you’re into that.

Play Snazzy Tennis

In other news, I have a Twitter – just like everyone! Hurrah. Follow me here. Or don’t. Maybe you’re not that sort of person.

But of greater interest, I will be launching a new webcomic fairly soon. (Some of you may be aware of my old one, hello earthling). The new one, however, will be entirely different – something personal, story-driven, emotional, and in full colour. It won’t change the world, but it’ll be challenging my abilities as an artist and a storyteller. Keep an eye out – as soon as I have something to show, it’ll be on the aforementioned Twitter. _{(I’ll also eventually blog it here – see the subscribe options to the side.)}

Click here to play Literally Insane Racing!

This is really trying to show what Flash games can be, to me. Each car has its own feel, and no single car is able to win every race. There’s over 60 races, though they are nice and quick – I believe the game can be finished between 1.5 to 3 hours, depending on the choices you make. And that’s really what it’s about – giving the player free reign to buy all sorts of cars, and discover their own personal favourites to upgrade, so they develop an attachment to their own garage.

A lot of heart went into this one. I cared about little details, such as how brands in-game have a consistency between their car types, or how they are affected by the era they were built in. Before release, I was panicking that I had wasted time, and that no-one would care.

So it is thrilling, for me, that they do. Out of 6600 players today that Playtomic recorded, 32 players spent presumably 4+ hours collecting every single car. There is no incentive for this – the game can be completed with 10-20 cars on average, there are no achievements, and the game does not provide anywhere near enough money to buy all the cars in one playthrough. But these few completionists have made me feel totally justified in putting in as many cars as I did, and I only hope they enjoyed the time they spent with the game. Better yet, they are not alone – from the data, it appears that there is a respectably big drop as players work out what the game is and some dislike it, but of the ones kept, the retention rate is excellent; of the players who get 3 cars in their garage, 20% go on to spend long enough on the game to get 20 cars – that’s a lot of gameplay time! The average play length is very healthy, between 20-25 minutes.

Right now it is an exclusive for Mousebreaker.com, who hired me these past 8 weeks. The reaction has been more positive than I hoped for, and I am pumped for the global release!