Postdropp
A simple game made on the classic catch-stuff-falling-from-above model. Made for Posten's (the Norwegian mail service) kid's club Fri og Frank.
My responsibility was concept development and taking part in making sound effects and music.
My responsibility was concept development and taking part in making sound effects and music.
Concept
The target audience were kids between the age of 8 and 12, and because of that we kept the game rather simple. Instead of inventing the wheel all over, we relied on a well used concept of catching things that fall from above.
Your goal is to catch letters and packages that fall out of the passing mail plane. But watch out for dangerous anvils and pianos -they will crush your car if you catch them.
The plane will lose height for each time it passes, making the levels increasingly difficult. To add a randomized danger element you will also have to pay attention to your fuel gauge. Running out of fuel means losing a life, but it can be prevented by catching falling fuel tanks.
Behind the scenes
Due to a short deadline and low budget we decided to make the sounds ourselves -a cappella. One microphone, one MiniDisc player, a meeting room and a few minutes was all it would take. We ended up with a full set of sound effects and a background melody.
Reflections
When designing games for kids, it's easy to underestimate the kids and think that the games should be kept simple. We tend to forget that we were about 10 years old when we started playing games (I started programming at the age of 10), and that today's kids are not much different that the kids we were.
During testing we managed to achieve between 1.500 and 2.000 points. We thought that was a lot of points. After releasing the game we saw that the kids topped the high score list with well over 5.000 points. Clearly the kids were better in our own game than we were.
Lesson learned.
Time frame
Two persons full-time for one week.
Future development
The last image you see in the slideshow is a sketch I drew while thinking about making an unlicensed sequel. I did also make some test animations of the plane which I'll upload when the time is right. After the release of Adobe Flash Professional 5.5 I ported the game over to iPad, but without much luck. The iPhone exporter for Flash is a piece of sh** especially considering the performance. I have recently started porting the game to Unity, which I have much more faith in. Updates on the progress will follow.
The target audience were kids between the age of 8 and 12, and because of that we kept the game rather simple. Instead of inventing the wheel all over, we relied on a well used concept of catching things that fall from above.
Your goal is to catch letters and packages that fall out of the passing mail plane. But watch out for dangerous anvils and pianos -they will crush your car if you catch them.
The plane will lose height for each time it passes, making the levels increasingly difficult. To add a randomized danger element you will also have to pay attention to your fuel gauge. Running out of fuel means losing a life, but it can be prevented by catching falling fuel tanks.
Behind the scenes
Due to a short deadline and low budget we decided to make the sounds ourselves -a cappella. One microphone, one MiniDisc player, a meeting room and a few minutes was all it would take. We ended up with a full set of sound effects and a background melody.
Reflections
When designing games for kids, it's easy to underestimate the kids and think that the games should be kept simple. We tend to forget that we were about 10 years old when we started playing games (I started programming at the age of 10), and that today's kids are not much different that the kids we were.
During testing we managed to achieve between 1.500 and 2.000 points. We thought that was a lot of points. After releasing the game we saw that the kids topped the high score list with well over 5.000 points. Clearly the kids were better in our own game than we were.
Lesson learned.
Time frame
Two persons full-time for one week.
Future development
The last image you see in the slideshow is a sketch I drew while thinking about making an unlicensed sequel. I did also make some test animations of the plane which I'll upload when the time is right. After the release of Adobe Flash Professional 5.5 I ported the game over to iPad, but without much luck. The iPhone exporter for Flash is a piece of sh** especially considering the performance. I have recently started porting the game to Unity, which I have much more faith in. Updates on the progress will follow.