Mammoth's new game: Flashes of Color
Mammoth
Member Posts: 640
Hi Guys, I have a new game called flashes of color, it is almost ready. If you want some screen shots you can go to my website www.mammothinteractive.net.
I’m pleased to announce that my best game is coming to the app store. If you like the games braid and limbo for the XBOX 360 you will like this game. Flashes of Color is a puzzle platformer game where you change the color of the background to solve the puzzles. This game will feature 100 hand crafted levels. The game mechanic is that certain events can only happen when the background is in a certain color. For example some game objects will be visible in red but not in blue. Certain enemies will only attack in certain colors while remaining dormant in others. There are also hidden messages to figure out the big puzzle at the end.
I tried to make the gameplay to this as unique as I could. In the game you have 5 buttons. Two are to move left and right, one is to shoot, the other is to jump and the last one is to change the color of the background. I wanted to take an easy concept and turn it into something really interested. There are several enemies that hunt you down in this game. But only when the background is on certain colors. As a result the game mechanic is really powerful, infact more powerful than the projectiles that you can shoot. I find that ‘shooting’ in games is over done. In this game the projectiles rarely kill anything, for the most part they are just an extention of yourself. You can push buttons with them and you can destroy blocks with them. But the only moving game object you can destroy are turrets in the game. I felt that most gamers would need a ‘kill’ something so that’s why you can destroy the turrets. But for the most part the color changing is much more powerful. I wanted the main mechanic to be non violent. It is incredibly easier to make a violent game than a non violent game. In this game the mechanic is more passive than aggressive. I posed this as a challenge to myself when I was designing the game.
The art and the look of the game is a very gritty and has a modern look to it. I used some grunge patterns and the tech circles I used in Circa. The character is in fact a circle. Again, I wanted to do something a little different with this. Most of the time the character is a biped. But in this case you play as one of the tech circles. One of the neatest features of this is how you can cling to the roofs. As the player you can gain traction on any surface so you can wall jump and climb the ceilings. The levels in this one are paced so that the player can absorb the atmosphere of the game. Since this game is not standard on what you will see on the app store, I felt it was necessary to help the player out on absorbing the game mechanics. I have watched the developers commentary of portal and they outline how to do this. If you are a developer I highly recommend playing through it. Every 5 levels there is a different kind of level. One that really requires more thinking than the others. I kinda feel that these levels are ‘bosses’. The boss is usually different and in this case the puzzles on these levels are different.
Right now the game is almost done. I am polishing most of the levels and working on the ending. Some of the art needs to be replaced and have more of a grungy feel to it. After all of this is done I will upload it to apple. Check back to the website to see when it will be released.
I’m pleased to announce that my best game is coming to the app store. If you like the games braid and limbo for the XBOX 360 you will like this game. Flashes of Color is a puzzle platformer game where you change the color of the background to solve the puzzles. This game will feature 100 hand crafted levels. The game mechanic is that certain events can only happen when the background is in a certain color. For example some game objects will be visible in red but not in blue. Certain enemies will only attack in certain colors while remaining dormant in others. There are also hidden messages to figure out the big puzzle at the end.
I tried to make the gameplay to this as unique as I could. In the game you have 5 buttons. Two are to move left and right, one is to shoot, the other is to jump and the last one is to change the color of the background. I wanted to take an easy concept and turn it into something really interested. There are several enemies that hunt you down in this game. But only when the background is on certain colors. As a result the game mechanic is really powerful, infact more powerful than the projectiles that you can shoot. I find that ‘shooting’ in games is over done. In this game the projectiles rarely kill anything, for the most part they are just an extention of yourself. You can push buttons with them and you can destroy blocks with them. But the only moving game object you can destroy are turrets in the game. I felt that most gamers would need a ‘kill’ something so that’s why you can destroy the turrets. But for the most part the color changing is much more powerful. I wanted the main mechanic to be non violent. It is incredibly easier to make a violent game than a non violent game. In this game the mechanic is more passive than aggressive. I posed this as a challenge to myself when I was designing the game.
The art and the look of the game is a very gritty and has a modern look to it. I used some grunge patterns and the tech circles I used in Circa. The character is in fact a circle. Again, I wanted to do something a little different with this. Most of the time the character is a biped. But in this case you play as one of the tech circles. One of the neatest features of this is how you can cling to the roofs. As the player you can gain traction on any surface so you can wall jump and climb the ceilings. The levels in this one are paced so that the player can absorb the atmosphere of the game. Since this game is not standard on what you will see on the app store, I felt it was necessary to help the player out on absorbing the game mechanics. I have watched the developers commentary of portal and they outline how to do this. If you are a developer I highly recommend playing through it. Every 5 levels there is a different kind of level. One that really requires more thinking than the others. I kinda feel that these levels are ‘bosses’. The boss is usually different and in this case the puzzles on these levels are different.
Right now the game is almost done. I am polishing most of the levels and working on the ending. Some of the art needs to be replaced and have more of a grungy feel to it. After all of this is done I will upload it to apple. Check back to the website to see when it will be released.
Comments
My game is much larger than VS and has more mechanics. In the future there will be a 3d sequel to this game. I don't know when or how.
Actually what happens when you and another developer think of the same mechanic? When does copying come into play?
If anybody knows of any other games with color changing mechanics let me know