Took some time a couple days ago to spec out a sidescroller for the iPhone called, Zombies At My Poodle. At this point I see it as a Commander Keen-type game, although I’m still mulling over some different options.
One thing I’m thinking about is writing a book of the same name and have it available for people who play the game. “If you liked the game, read the book!” kind of thing.
And then falling asleep last night I realized I could take the story from the book and turn it into a game for Adventure Game Machine. Which means I’d have two games with the same story, but one’s aimed at people who like arcade action, and the other is aimed at people who like adventure games.
I think it could work.
The only problem is that means my to-do list (in a nutshell) looks like this:
1. Write Adventure Game Machine shell
2. Write Zombies Ate My Poodle Book
3. Turn book into adventure game
4. Write Zombies Ate My Poodle sidescroller
So I need to write a book, modify the book, and write two iPhone games.
And I’d like to have it all done in time for people to buy at Christmas. 🙂
It may be impossible, but after playing with Corona SDK for a few days I think I can actually do it.
Do I see any roadblocks? Yep, artwork. I’m not an artist so I can’t do it myself, which means I have to pony up money ahead of time to hire that out, or find someone who will do it for a share of the profits. And I really don’t like partnerships like that (in general).
In any case, I have some placeholder graphics I can start with and will go from there.
I think that would be a very interesting game. We’re in the process of creating a side-scrolling platform game ourselves, but more simplistic (think: mario). I think coupling the game with a book is a great idea. I’m curious to see how that does, especially if offered also through iBooks (since iBooks and App Store sort of go hand-in-hand).