Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Catch a Falling Star - it got Greenlit!

Last year I started making games with my good friend Jayson. Being my first ever full game that I worked on, we decided to go for something a bit more simple and casual, but to make it very nice and polished so that people looking for something in that genre find exactly what they're looking for.

The game is called Catch a Falling Star. The ultimate goal in the game is to have something to play when you just want to sit back and relax. Natalie, my awesome wife (check her amazing graphic design website, which I made by the way (she designed it, I built it)) created the amazing artwork between working hard for her clients, having very little sleep and breastfeeding our son. I still can't believe how awesome the artwork for the game looks, and it's all thanks to her.


I tried making the game look nice with my extremely limited design skills, but I'm so glad she stepped in and rescued us, because damn, if I were to do it, the game would have no hopes at all!

We started the game part time in about April last year, and finished a public demo in October last year. At the same time our awesome publisher, Dan from Back to Basics Gaming, put the game up on Steam Greenlight. And about a month ago, we got that wonderful email from Steam saying our game has been Greenlit by the community! It was glorious indeed!

The last few weeks we've been focusing on finished up and polishing the game, and as I type this I'm uploading a final build to Dan to check out, before we roll out on Steam.

The game might look quite simple when you look at it, but you won't believe the amount of work that actually went into it. We played for hours and hours to get the pace and everything just right. There are stars that fall, and the main aim of the game is catch them. They fill up your basket, and only once you deposit them by bumping the side of the screen do you get the points. You get bonus points for when the basket is full, and even more bonus points if you deposit on the furthest side from where you caught the last star. Sounds pretty simple hey? Well, the speed of everything increases progressively as you play. There are power-ups too. And hazards. Even ice.

So yes, even for a game with a simple game play mechanic such as our Catch a Falling Star, a lot of work goes into gamess. And I mean A LOT hehe. In the end, we as game developers just want to create something that someone out there will enjoy. I really hope you'll give Catch a Falling Star a shot! I'll link to it as soon as it goes up for sale within the next day or so.

Till next time!

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