I have just come across four great animations called Understanding Games. Each episode (1, 2, 3 and 4) looks at a different aspect of game design and is done in a simple, engaging and interactive way. I love the retro styling and the way the information is presented.
Today I created a little game that can be played in the Flash CS3 IDE. It is an extension for Flash CS3 (mxp file) that adds a new panel to the interface. You can access the panel by going to Window > Other Panels > BugZap.
The game pretty simple but quite addictive. You move the gun at the bottom left and right, the object being to shoot down the alien before he lands. The alien moves around (slowly at first and then getting quicker) and you have to keep track of him. The more you shoot and miss, the lower he gets.
If you shoot him, you move on to the next level, where he starts from the top again but he moves quicker. There is a maximum of 30 levels. The game is over either when he lands or you get to the end of level 30 (which ever comes first).
The lower he is when you kill him, the more points you get. The level number act as a score multiplyer, so more points are awarded the further you get through the levels (and the faster he becomes in both directions).
Your highest score is recorded and maintained between sessions, giving you a personal best to beat. My current high score is 25,628.
I just had to blog about this freeware game I have come across. It is called Gymnast, and it is built my a guy called Walaber who does this in his spare time. He has a blog here. I haven’t played it yet, just watching the trailer was enough to make me want to tell people about it. He’s actually got some pretty awesome stuff on his site.