BouncR – Available Now

As part of my application to be a Windows Games Ambassador I wanted to create and release not only a new game, but a game I made by myself. So it’s with great pleasure that I present to you BouncR; a game about bouncing (oddly). With this post I’d like to take you through the game; from its conception to its release and current state.

On the February 24th I saw that the Windows Games Ambassador application process had opened up again and, having been so close last year, I immediately decided to apply. The first thing I did was brainstorm some ideas with my girlfriend. Having someone to bounce ideas off of and help come up with new one is extremely beneficial (as I had discovered during Global Game Jam) as you end up coming up with ideas that you would otherwise not have thought of or going through thought processes you’d would have not considered otherwise. It was from this brainstorm I came up with a game about bouncing a circle into a basket using other circles.

I began developing whenever I could find the time outside of university work. My game quickly formed into an Windows 8 game, written in XNA using Monogame, with both full mouse and touch input. I chose this because I have a lot of experience with writing games in XNA for Windows 8 so I knew I could create a more polished game much faster than in any other language, as well as how easy it is to create a game with touch input in Monogame for Windows 8, which is something that I felt was crucial to the potential success of BouncR. The game idea itself morphed as well; with the basket replaced with a black hole, and a science/experiment theme emerging.

One of the things that was important to me about creating this game was that it was gotten to a releasable state and then released, as previously I have known myself and others to keep working and working on games, never quite believing they are ready to be released. So once I had the game, the menu, the controls and 4 levels to show what it was all about I released it to the world and as of 12.10am on 16th March 2014 that is what currently resides on the store now (though an update is in certification as we speak with more levels, some new mechanics and a few tweaks). I hope the update comes in time, but otherwise know that this was an experiment in what I can achieve in a few weeks and a demonstration of what I have learnt (with regards to getting games released as opposed to infinitely tweaking them) and where I can go (with more levels, more mechanics etc).

Bear in mind, this application is not the end of BouncR. Whether or not I become a Windows Game Ambassador I have great faith in this game and plan to keep adding to it and developing it for a while yet, as well as trying to promote it where I can.

For now, enjoy Bouncr!

Adam