Balloon1 – How far can you get
In this mobile game you navigate a hot air balloon around obstacles and dangers trying to reach as far as possible.
For every challenge you overcome the speed will increase. If you reach a high enough score you will unlock a random mode where you will face random levels with different flavors.
Mobile game
I chose to make this a mobile game because it fit the the scope of the game the best. Perhaps a diversion while riding a train or waiting for a bus. And then you can try to beat your score on your way back.
The unlockable mode came about when I let my friends try the game. They tried it, crashed and gave the phone back to me. Then i said “What was your score, I got 276.” and they all asked for the phone back to have another go.
Idea to Google Play
After some initial sketches and planning I started working at a few things in parallel. I modeled the balloon in different states and used blend shapes to finally put it together in Unity.
I hooked up the deformations to the velocity of the balloon. That way both acceleration from the player as well as collisions would give correct deformations.
At the same time I tried to do some mock-ups in 2d. I was exploring the environment and what colours to use. Here you can see one of the early concepts.
I liked the contrast between interactable objects and environment from the start. As a result cannons and fuel cells were all made black to stand out.
Thank you for taking the time to check this out and be sure to try the game.
Resources
Sound and Music icons based on work by Delapoite over at Game-icons.net. Used under CC BY 3.0.
Font “Cloudy With a Chance of Love” by Zack Ver Vynck.
Music and sound from the Unity asset store.
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