The goal is to try and blow up as many robots as you can in ten fast paced rounds. There are six different robot types which all explode in different ways.
Here is a gameplay video of the iPhone version in action:
Help the atom on each level recover its lost electrons! You only have 60 seconds total to collect all 100 missing electrons from the different levels.
The screenshot above shows 4 of the 20 available levels. 10 levels are picked at random each time you play. The entire game only lasts 60 seconds (as per the contest rules.)
I created the background textures by cropping and filtering some lovely watercolor textures made by Hillary Luetkemeyer. The artist released them for use and remix under a CC Attribution license.
Feel free to leave any feedback below in the comments.
Jeremy has been teaching a Writing course at Boston University on the topic of “Playing Games: How Video Games Work and What They Mean.”
In his discussions with the students about the concept of historical analysis: analyzing video games based on how they “fit” into the context of a developing timeline of games, he had a chance to create an initial list of about 40 games.
This list was then passed around between our friends and associates as well as being shared with his two classes of about forty students total. Jeremy encouraged his students to confront and challenge the games on this list as well as suggest ones they felt should be included. They even got to write persuasive papers as an assignment to get a game included on the list. If the argument was convincing enough they even received some extra credit for making the list.
Jeremy and I discussed some of the more convincing papers and kicked our thoughts back and forth on what made these games historically significant. It was a lot of fun and very interesting to get to consider where videos games have come from (with Spacewar in 1961) up through to the present day. It was a challenge to pick games not for being good or popular necessarily but for their historical significance.
I like to use concept art as an alternative way to think up game design ideas. Here is a quick illustration I came up with today for a game I am creating.
I have done a few illustrations for this game working through various game mechanics, styles, and ideas.
This is a useful creative tool for me to rapidly try out different concepts and see what they might look like before I even write a single line of code or start creating any game assets.
Creating concept art becomes a way I can immerse myself in the world and atmosphere of the game ahead of time because as I am drawing these illustrations I am imagining the various aspects of the gameplay occurring. This can even include me making hand gestures and sound effects without me realizing it as I try out the game in my mind’s eye. As embarrassing as that might sound for some people it has been something I’ve done unashamedly since I first started drawing as a child. It makes the experience that much more involved and creatively useful for me.
I have just completed a new Flash game called Worderfall this month with my good friend and fellow game designer Jeremy P. Bushnell. This time around it is a word game that utilizes an extremely large database of valid English words.
The concept is a fairly simple one. You have three minutes to create as many high scoring words as you can. The game increases pace with each minute that passes. There are a ton of game statistics that are tracked as well for those who would like to improve their scores or at least measure their progress.
I like to use concept art as an alternative way to think up game design ideas. Here is a quick illustration I came up with today for a game I am creating.