The Little Things

One iPhone developer that always spring to my mind is 'Donut Games'. This is not only because they put out some pretty decent games but also because of their games 'style'. They force consistency between their games and because of this it's easy to tell if a game was made by them, this made me look through their entire collection after playing one or two of their games having found them fun. If you pay attention to their menu systems they are all very similarly laid out, and probably the most important thing they've done is open with their company name and a sound byte that imprints their trademark on your mind. I wanted to do something similar as it helps make your game memorable and also pushes forth your franchise. As such here is my opening loading screen and sound sample. I also considered a naked picture of myself but I want it to stick in your head, not haunt your dreams.

A World of it's Own

For anyone out there with an iPhone or iPod touch you know that the app store is flooded with unimaginative and uninspired games. There are some real gems out there but for too many it seems a case of sifting through crud in the vein hope of finding something good. So how am I going to make my game sparkle out from the sea of excrement? Well one way is through its art. Art is amongst the earliest thing your exposed to regarding a game and more importantly; for marketing, you don't need to buy the game to see screenshots of it. It's no secret that a game's graphics can really draw in an audience. A compelling environment, interesting and unique art style and memorable character designs all go a long way to turn a good game in to a great game.

here's your first taste of the kind of characters and their respective art in the game so far as well as a little snippet of information about the characters.

The Player Character

It's your goal to keep this little guy alive. Bounce him to the top of the level and away from the upwards approaching monster... Easier said than done.

Mean Jellybeans

These floating menace hover about trying to get the jump on anything nearby.



When the player character gets close enough the flying jellyfish drop their red bean men who in turn explodes knocking the player downwards towards the approaching menace. However if you can manage to get the player to bounce ontop of their jellyfish parachute you can bounce off of them and knock the red bean right out of them.

Slugstreams

Slugstreams suck in air to keep afloat. This has an adverse effect of pulling things in their path towards them. Whether this is bad or good depends on the situation.

Buglet Swarms

Pillars of bugs segment the level as they attempt to fly upwards to safety. When you see the little ones fluttering by you best work out which side you want to be on.

Clone Imp

Perhaps the strangest of all inhabitants the clone imp mimics the player exactly, having to look after twice as many characters in a time of crisis makes more than double the trouble.

"It's going to kick the living crap out of what it means to be awesome."

No I won’t be opening with, "Hello World". Even though every programmer knows that doing so is not only compulsory but one of the most HILARIOUS ways of introducing yourself... *Cricket sounds* Ok so the internet isn’t the best place for expressing sarcasm, and even though I have a doctorate in funitivity (you can call me dr. Zeid) my humour doesn’t transfer well to text.

So now that I have established how I am not going to introduce myself, I have to find a way to explain who I am tastefully. Well let me first introduce what the blog is about, and then from that we might get a bit of insight as to who I am. This blog is a record of my interests in computer games and their design, development and construction. It will hopefully be stock full of art, coding and design discussion, as well as samples, descriptions and information on games I am currently working on and games in general.

Now that that's out of the way I suppose it is time to introduce myself more formally; My name is Sam Zeid. I am doing a double major in computer science and games programming at university and am in my final year, I also have a fair amount of knowledge in art particularly of the digital variety. At present I am creating an iPhone game, It's going to kick the living crap out of what it means to be awesome.

Also to clarify if you hadn’t already guessed, my main drive is games development. Why? Because I love creating things and I am an attention whore. So what gets more attention than flashing seizure inducing, interactive, electronic fun? I’ll tell you what, porn... But that my friend, is for another blog.

I have created some commercial game art of the pixel variety. I’ve read numerous game design books and know how to program in a number of different languages. But with all that said this blog is all about fun, and so expect as much bias opinionative misinformation as I can dish out. I hope that you all enjoy my journey as I try and find fun.