It’s only been a little over two months since I was laid off work, and I’ve already made close to a dozen prototype games, achieved mastery in two subjects on khanacademy.com, and am very close to having an actual game “Apples and Poop” on a platform!
I recently joined the Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA), and have been soaking up all of the information I can from the great tutorials, and courses offered through the site. With the help of these tutorials, and the tutorials on the Scirra website, I’ll be uploading my very first mobile app very shortly!!!
The game was first thought of while I was colouring with my son, and decided to doodle up a little game. In the game you play as an apple picker who has trained a monkey to climb trees and pick apples for him. However the monkey has a lot of attitude and decides to through his own poop at you, while knocking the apples out of the tree. The goal is to catch the apples by dragging a basket across the screen, while dodging the monkeys poop.
The biggest hurtle I’ve been having while making my game is the graphics and UI. I’m not the greatest graphics designer, but I’m doing my best at making a game that works well with relatively simple graphics.
Although I’ve been trying to do everything completely by myself, I did end up outsourcing a few things in my game. For the tutorial, I ended up using gesture icons from a royalty free site: www.webappers.com
For my soundFX, I got a buddy who is going to school in Toronto for audio engineering, and has his own business, Lobodycz Sound Design. He’s been making the soundFX for my game. A HUGE help!
As for everything else, the graphics have all been made using Gimp, which is the open source version of Photoshop. Being a noob to both graphics design, and Gimp, it’s been a tough go for me. I just keep spending a minimum of 30 minutes to an hour a day (sometimes much more) working on the game. Slowly and surely the game is coming together. I can’t wait to have it published.
The current Beta of the game can be played at the Apples and Poop Facebook page if anyone is interested.
That’s about all for tonight,
cheers,
Dan