AGameAWeek teaches us one thing.
Some games you win, some games you lose.
When you lose, there's not a lot you can do.
Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and move on.

This is a post about how I threw myself on the ground.

-=-=-

I've had a LOT of experience in this area. Game that I expected to do really well have fallen flat on their backs, while the games I couldn't even be bothered with, usually end up being the ones that people prefer.
I guess a lot of that is to do with the fact that I'm not really that much of a videogame player.
Sure I've amassed a decent collection of home computers and consoles, and each one has a huge bucket of games to go with it, but.. ..
I've never finished a Zelda game.
I play for the excitement of the game, and once I get bored with it, I'll quite happily move on.

So whenever I make my games, I tend to leave it down to other people's experiences to guide me.
I'll throw out a random idea each week, and if it picks up, try to hit those bullet points a bit more in future.

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SpikeDislike 2

SpikeDislike, as inexplicably popular as it was, had about 3 main points to it.
Point 1.
Simple controls that could be probably be understood by a cat.
Point 2.
Simple rules that could also probably be understood by said cat.
Point 3.
Bonus points!


Spike Dislike iTunes reviews came in thick and fast, and I kept a mental note of all of them.
The one which stuck out, at least for me, was a suggestion that the player didn't like to restart every time.
Obviously the idea of Lives doesn't really mix with SpikeDislike as it was, so I set about thinking about a sort of checkpoint system. But why have checkpoints? What would be their purpose without lives?

The thought process continued in this way for a while, until I started to consider having each theme be a particular world, and each world would have certain challenges, and each set of challenges would appear as a checkpoint.
I could also take the time to switch things around a bit, control wise.
Changing from a constantly bouncing ball, to an occasionally jumping player character would work nicely, especially alongside Hard mode's moving spikes.

In my head, SpikeDislike2 was rapidly switching from a long lengthy scrolling game, into something that seemed to resemble the 80s game Hunchback, a game made up of screens of bouncing men with stick, hopping up and down, whilst you try to avoid the rolling barrels and arrows and things. (although, in honestly, I was actually thinking of the Battlement screens from Jet Set Willy, because I think I last played Hunchback when I was about 5 or 6!!)

.. hmm..

So I began a quick test.
Moving spikes, check!
Player movement, check!
And what could the player actually be?
Well, from later reviews/forum comments of SpikeDislike, it seemed that the Sheep theme was the more popular one.

That'll do nicely!

A mixed bag of pre-selected things that make the player happy!
100 levels, a hundred, and a whole bag of mp3's, too. A proper soundtrack!
This is how we make a game that'll DEFINITELY be liked!!!
Absolutely!!!

In the words of Bubsy the Bobcat, "What could possibly go wrong!?!"

---

d'oh!

The game hasn't taken off.

Like it's long forgotten "This will be popular!" siblings, Sheep Goes Left has been left on the grassy bits of land that exist quite early on in the game.
I'm not sure why, but it happens.
Some games do, others don't.

SpikeDislike will continue to be sat on a large pedestal, overlooking Sheep Goes Left, Stringy Things, Cardagain and Puzzobomb. And he'll be laughing at them, and pointing his giant chunky square spikes, while they all cry in dispair.

1 out of 5's not bad.
I can take solace in that fact, and continue on my quest to make "Games that people never realised were any good, but then tried, and went 'oh, that's actually quite good, isn't it!', and then left on their iPhings for an eternity."

Meanwhile, without any advertising, without any spamming, without constantly tweeting about it, at least 47 people played SpikeDislike, this week!
I LOVE GameCenter's stats!

Thanks for playing
I'll keep making the games I want to play, and if anyone else enjoys them, then so be it!