Reddit reviews Zoo Escape! - Animal Match

Hi, all. Couple days ago I started playing with the GameMaker Android and HTML5 modules and scanned the market for HTML5 games and it blew my mind how simple in concept most of the games are.

http://i.imgur.com/WQFyUPI.png

They usually have ONE mechanic executed very well. It was actually hard for me to think of gaming on such a basic level. SHOUT out to True Valhalla! Playing games on his website really cleared up the concept for me.

The HTML5 market strips the game concept down to the core. Still is was difficult for me to mentally switch gears but after a couple days of brainstorming (and playing games all over the web) I came up with a quite a few fun concepts I'll be programming for HTML5 and Android (HTML5 concepts work well as quick-play mobile apps).

It turned out to be a great mental exercise that forces the developer to boil the game concept down to its bare minimum. It really help you focus and find where the underlying 'fun' is in your game. I plan to produce a few more 'jam' type products just to deconstruct a game down to it core as a first step.

You can check the game out on Google Play, Amazon, and SlideME

https://fat.gfycat.com/NecessaryUntriedGoldenretriever.gif

[BlackOpz] Zoo Escape! - Almost didnt do a posting for this game since it came together so quickly but since I've been documenting almost all of my other projects I might as well give this Android/HTML5 game the same treatment. Its available now for Free on Google Play, Amazon and SlideME.

http://i.imgur.com/rc3Kyzn.png

I actually didnt expect to get this done so quickly but since I've been using Gamemaker pretty heavily over the past year, I have a nice collection of re-usable scripts and objects. I use Rescue Time to track my hours (its tracks time an app is in the foreground) and the 'blue' productive hours went off the charts for a few days where I went into 'the zone' and dived into GM:Studio head-first!! (I track GM: Studio as a 'productive' app. The following days after the first 3 were mostly play testing and tweaking but I had a playable game at that point) A lot of the tweening and animation logic is pulled from my game Cheaters Blackjack 21. GameMaker can output to multiple platforms so it was pretty simple to fashion the Android version while I was working to keep it HTML5 compatible.

• http://i.imgur.com/0bt5IVn.gif
  
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKxxSTz48TI
  
  This was a very interesting project. It made me strip the game concept down to the one core mechanic of selecting but still give it a story that makes sense even in that limited form. Catch the animals. You have a net graphic and it overlays the animal when you're capturing them. To me it makes logical sense and combined with the story that says you're supposed to capture them.
  
  I already know this was a rare gem that came together easily from concept to programming and projects like that are few and far between but It'll be on my phone for a while. Now I'm gonna see if I can get lightning to strike twice. (I've actually get a fun idea for my next game but dont have the graphic assets yet so in the meantime I'll try to make another single concept Android/HTML5 game)
  
  http://i.imgur.com/WQFyUPI.png