Hedgehogs In Space

LunaticX and Djz have created a great casual game in a short period of time. Let's find out more about their project.

Q: How big is your team and how much time did it take you to create the game?

A: We are two people and it took us about 4-5 months to create the game (we did a lot of useless work).

Q: What makes your game stand out in relation to other, similar titles?

A: I don't know, maybe unusual "match 3" mechanics? There are so many match 3 games; we never tried to be better than any, and never wanted to make some unique game or some big hit. Our main target was to create a small, simple, but playable casual game and make it to its release. And we're just trying our best to make it look and play good.

Q: What is the biggest challenge when you are developing a game like HiS?

A: Staying "casual". I am a hardcore gamer myself; I love big and complicated games and its hard for me to keep the game simple and intuitive. We had to throw away more than half of the code (and rewrite couple of times the other half) because the game was too complicated. For example, at first the player and the hedgehogs had health points, energy, ammo, there were buttons for shooting and for launching bombs, buttons to activate powerups and stuff like this. It was fine for me, but turned to be kinda unplayable for everyone else.

Q: How did you code the bouncing menu buttons?

A: With lots of coffee =). I was inspired by some flash websites (look for the code in this month's resources).

Q: How many power-ups do you plan for the final version of the game?

A: None; instead of powerups there is a coolometer bar (one with good / cool / great words on it). As you destroy the gems it fills up, and depending on its level you will gain more score, the tube will fill faster, the spaceman will shoot more often, the hedgehogs will get stunned and so on. If you play fast and destroy lots of gems, the coolometer will go up; if you stop and think it will go down, but you will see some hints.

Sorry there is no tutorial for it in the current version, working on it now (we had to hurry in order to submit the game for the spring casual game contest). Also we are working on an awards system that will allow the players to get something like medals for different achievements (completing levels or making big booms).

Q: How did you create those black smooth transition effects from one screen to the other?

A: Really simple, using just panels, moving them from left to right and back (look for the code in this month's resources).

Q: Did you miss an engine feature while you were developing the game?

A: Yeah, panel and sprite masking. You can do this with window elements on panels but its a lot of extra work.

Q: Please give us some advice for the beginners.

A: From beginners to beginners? =) Start small and have fun.

Thank you a lot, LunaticX.