It’s been some time since my last writing, so I’ll just dive back in and talk about what’s been going on. The summer was somewhat slow for game work, with the bulk of my time spent on API integration for various platforms. I have not released Treasure Chasm yet, which is really ironic considering how rapidly I created it. There are many “reasons” (aka excuses) I can give, but the main issue is that I am still without music. Hopefully I will be able to wrap it up and release in the near future. I also participated in the Ludum Dare, and crossed the finish line for the first time. I spent some time after the weekend working on expanding the game, but soon found the overall design lacked enough depth to continue. Even the failure was great design experience.
For now, however, I have been working on a totally new game. It is just days from release. I started with thoughts about combining pinball with Doodle Jump. It turned out to be rich with gameplay, which I am thrilled about. Initially I was going to make the game about a series of interesting little monsters that jump out of a volcano. While the gameplay was going very well, the theming just was not right. I tried to make a few different monsters but the result was mostly just confusing.
Then, I made one little change. I scrapped the monsters and added a sheep. Something about the juxtaposition of wool and lava was really hilarious to me. After that the game really just fell into place. I watched a great talk by Rami from Vlambeer about game backstory which helped me assemble a structure about a stupidly brave lamb that has jumped into a volcano. For some reason you are supposed to rescue the sheep with giant pinball flippers. Also disco is playing. By that point, the title Lava Lamb just seemed very appropriate.
Right now, everything is “done.” This means I am in “struggle with Apple” mode. The only steps left are uploading app preview videos and submitting the final build. Hopefully that can be accomplished in the next few days, but the last couple weeks of Red Tape Jungle give me reason to be hesitant about any projections.
Ryan
Creative Ink Games 