Hi TouchArcade! AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER! I’m @thiroay, game designer and director for Idiocracy, Inc. English is not my first language, so please forgive me for my simple vocabulary and sometimes incorrect grammar. After working on 3 different board-games aimed for the mobile platform - Pirates War, Jumanji: The Mobile Game and Dice Brawl – I’ve just started work on new, different projects for mobile and for PC. One of which I’m lead producer and director. This is the game I’ll be talking about in my next few devlogs. The game in question is an endless runner (or more like "endless jumping") called Rotten Escape. Here, a few friendly market products, that are past their due date, are thrown away and now must escape death by jumping endlessly to the skies above. PRODUCTION SCHEDULE: 2 to 3 months CORE-TEAM: 4 people (2 Game Designers, 1 Artist, 1 Developer) GAME-PLAY: Simple but gradually challenging one button gameplay RELEASE and PLATFORMS: iOS and Android, this summer We want the game to be and look simple for anyone to start but also to get much more challenging as players advance through the different stages provided. Following the “simple” yet “challenging” we've worked on a few Art concepts. We started with a cuter look for the characters and backgrounds, but since they are supposed to be rotten, our artist tried his hand at a rottener and more “caricaturesque” art style. I personally like the second style better for the concept of the game. The main character, Little Tom. Little Tom, Fry and a background For those who like the art and are curious to see more by the artist working on this project visit his Tumblr and leave a nice comment Next, a gif that shows the main route we’re taking, game-play wise. It is a simple “one touch” game-play style where you must jump on the platforms to get (endlessly) higher. You’ll pass a bunch of different stages, each more challenging than the last. You may think of it as Doodle Jump with a touch of Rhythm to it. Here, you control your character by touching the direction you want them to jump (No gyro). This is a very rough first game-play video. The camera moves from top to bottom automatically, like a rhythm game, but it follows the player if the player is faster than the camera. It is also supposed to get faster as you go up, and actual stage design hans't been implemented yet. Honestly....I'm still unsure if we're going to move forward with this. I'll gather some more feedback but I think that with more polish and an intuitive UI it could work. We'll see. I'll be updating this Devlog with all new stuff every week or two and look forward to hearing feedback and ideas from the TouchArcade community. Thanks. UPDATES Dev Log - Update 1 Dev Log - Update 2 Dev Log - Update 3 Other Games by Idiocracy, Inc. Dice Brawl: Captain's League Jumanji: The Mobile Game
Update #1 During the past week we decided to embrace the more rotten look for our little edible friends. I'll be sharing the concept for each character and stages of the game in a separate reply later. Today I want to show an update on the game-play. We have worked on implementing some assets into the game and adding a couple additional types of tiles. The wooden tile breaks after a set amount of time has passed, and you'll meet your maker right away if you'd step on the one that's full of spikes. In parallel to the work on the game-play, we created some of the main menus for the game. We're in the process of adding a scoring system, and with it leaderboards. There are also going to be missions and a market where players will be able to purchase new characters to play with. Well. This is all we've done for this week. I look forward to sharing more about this project soon Thank you for reading!
Interesting take on the endless jumper genre - I'm digging the overall style and premise but one I thing I noticed is that the player doesn't look like he's jumping but instead is quickly gliding from platform to platform. What engine are you using and how are you achieving the jump mechanic? If you're using Unity then maybe using DOTween's jump function in addition to some squash and stretch (maybe even some splat particles upon landing) will make the core mechanic feel fun and juicy (no pun intended!)
Yes we're on Unity. We've just started work on adding animations and particles. I'll take a look at the animation tool/engine you suggested. I was actually looking for something of the sorts. Many thanks!
Update 2 - Backgrounds and Characters Hello Touch Arcade Back for another update. We have been working on the art for the game and I want to share some of the stuff we got ready. 1. Characters We're going to have about 25 characters. Each with their own personalities. These are going to be merely cosmetic additions to the game and not really provide advantages to whoever obtains them. Some are obtainable by completing quests, others by watching to adverts or purchasing with in game currency. We have 23 character ready and they are displayed below: 2. Stages This is an endless jumping game, but as you climb you'll be presented with different "stages". These are simply different backgrounds put into the game to show some progression. Difficulty will spike significantly with each new stage until the last one.
Update 3 - Animations, Items and Pre-Order Hello again Touch Arcade, I'm back for one last update. We've been busy these past weeks finalizing work on Rotten Escape in preparation for it's release on the App Store and Google Play on May 17th. The game is now available for pre-order on iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rotten-escape/id1362373679?l=ko&ls=1&mt=8 And can be played as Beta on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.idiocracy.rottenescape The game is going to be FREE to play. But I can also provide a few promo codes for those who wish to play the game early and send us feedback before the official release. However, the number of promo codes distributed will be very limited and given on a first come, first server basis. Just leave a comment or send me a private message. Here's what's new from the last update: 1. Improved Animations We've made adjustments and improvements to the base jumping animation and add a few different death scenes to the game. - Jump: - Death: 2. Addition of Items We've added a few items into the game. All can be obtained through the gift box, but the Jetpack and Magnet items can be found during game-play in some more difficult platforms. - Magnet: Will bring coins to you, good if you have a few hard to reach coins around. - Jetpack: Will boost you up and skip 20 platforms. - Wallet and Trophy: will boost coins or score by 20% at the end of s playing session - Revive Potion: Will revive you for free (you can usually revive your character once by paying for it with in-game currency or by watching to an advertisement, with the potion you won't need to watch or spend anything.) Going forward, we still have plans to add Cloud Saves and Combos (the faster you go up the higher you score multiplier) before the official release date. Those two functionalities should be ready early this week and we'll start testing them in preparation for release on May 17th. Feel free to play the game and send me as many ideas and feedback as you want. I really look forward to knowing what are your thoughts on the game and what you think should be done to make it better.
