iDevGames

Avoid All Contact

The game I chose to work on for the 2008 uDevGames contest was one I’d had in my design notebook for awhile. I picked it because of its simple gameplay and simple graphics, making it something I felt was doable by the contest deadline.

The game idea involved maneuvering through levels of narrow, twisty passages, filled with static, animated and/or free-floating obstacles while trying to avoid contact with almost everything. Controlling your avatar would be accomplished by simply dragging it with the mouse, and gameplay would be at a methodical but hurried pace.
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Background Info

After growing up wanting only to make videogames, and making a few small games with Pascal and later Hypercard in grade school, I released my first game for the uDevGames contest in 2004, called Kill Dr. Coté. It won the award for Best Gameplay, was a fan favorite, went on to be published by Freeverse, and got me my first job in the industry as a programmer.

Since then, my output has been scarce. I quickly followed up with “Arachnoid: Predator of Worlds” in July 2005, but after that, working full time in the industry drained me and thwarted any progress on independent work. Several years passed, and during that time I first yearned for the energy to work on a project, and after that failed, I started to even doubt whether I would be capable of such a project and still keep myself fed. When I heard that uDevGames 2008 was starting, I figured it would be the best time to find out once and for all. While in 2004, my purpose was to prove my talent and ability to the world, this time around it would be to prove it to myself!
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Getting Started

I entered uDevGames ’08 because I needed motivation to get something done. The three month deadline gave me something to work to. Boston was developed by a team of three — Nathan was in charge of story and music, Micah did the comic art and character design and I took care of the 3D art, level design, and all programming.

December

The first task was to get a story. I rounded up Micah and had a meeting with Nathan. After about ten minutes, we had a basic story line. I went back to trying to familiarize myself with the game engine while Micah, the artist, worked on character design for ‘Boston’. The next day, after another consultation with Nathan, the writer, we had our main character drawn out.
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