![Double Helix]()
by Annie | Nov 29, 2010 | Game Design
What could be more fun than rhythm platforming on DNA strands? That’s the main premise behind my latest game concept, Double Helix. Double Helix is a run-forever rhythm platform game for iOS devices that combines the principles of real world DNA replication with the challenges of quick decision-making. In Double Helix, you play as Junior, a nanobot moving at a certain pace along an unwinding DNA double helix and replicating sequences of DNA to a certain beat. As the double helix unwinds, targets appear indicating missing nucleotides. Using clues in the sequence, you must find the correct nucleotide for each missing spot while staying on the beat. As it turns out, it takes a lot of minute details and tuning to create a game. Even for this deceptively simple game, the breakdown of individual game mechanics within my detailed design document has grown to well over half a dozen pages. Throw in descriptions of characters, enemies, features, controls, camera, and screen mockups, and you’ve got quite a large document on your hands. Here are some initial menu screen mockups for Double...
![Super Twario]()
by Annie | Oct 22, 2010 | Game Design
Bored of scrolling through your Twitter feed? Check out Super Twario, a side scrolling platformer that turns tweeting into a game. I must admit, I’m not big into Twitter, but with more games like this, I might soon be tweeting...
by Annie | Sep 7, 2010 | Game Design, Illustration Station
Who doesn’t love platform games? From Donkey Kong and Mario to Frogger and Doodle Jump, anyone can find a platformer to love. Over the past week, I’ve been refining an idea for a single screen platformer. Here’s the result: Combining the basic skills of color mixing with the challenges of spatial perception, Split Personalities is a single screen puzzle platform game in which players guide two characters through various colored platforms, turning the characters into the primary colors (red, yellow, or blue) necessary to form each level’s target secondary color (green, orange, or purple). The two characters occupy opposing sides of a split screen, moving simultaneously through different platforms. Not every platform is present on both sides of the screen, however, so as long as one character lands on a platform, the other character will occupy the same physical space on its side, even in the absence of the same platform. Each time a character lands on a platform, it absorbs that platform’s color. In order to complete each level, characters must arrive at the target door suited in the primary colors necessary to create the door’s secondary color. In this case, the target door is purple, so one character must be blue and the other red when arriving at the door. In addition, evil paint monsters will jump around, changing the colors of various platforms. Players will race against time, earning bonus points for faster level completion. No playable version yet; just a high level concept....
