candy cats.
Mar 2017 - Sep 2018
This is a single player endless scrolling mobile game I made in my last year of high school. I fully designed the sprites, gameplay, composed music, and architected the game.
Intro
Candy Cats is a game I ideated for my senior project in high school, garnering 50 downloads in its tenure before being taken off the app store 6 months post launch. The game was a single player endless scrolling mobile game similar to Jetpack Joyride with character sprites drawing inspiration from Angry Birds. It explored the classic cartoon rivalry with cats hunting birds with a twist of being in space. The game included over 100 sprites, 7 in-app purchases, procedural generation, interactive game physics, animations, 10 characters with 280 unique voice lines all built from scratch in Swift UIKit and Gamekit.
Playable Characters
Angel
Big Daddy
Clown
Lord Candy
Nerd
Ninja
Space Bird
Super Bird
Sweetie Pie
Witch
Mechanics
This section covers a basic overview of how to play the game as well as setIsMobileMenuOpen minor technical dives.
Goal
The goal of the game is to survive as long as possible by avoiding obstacles, collecting candy, and completing challenges with rewards. The bird starts with a set number of damage points.
Controls
The character was moved by tapping the screen, reacting to the distance of the tap as if it was a magnet. For example, if the tap was 1000 pixels away the character would move much slower towards the tap than if it was 10 pixels away. Additionally every 30 seconds tapping switched between an attract and repel mode. In repel mode the character would move away from the tap, moving away faster the closer the tap was and slower the further away the tap was.
Procedural Generation
The game was generated procedurally using a custom algorithm that would generate random instances of pre-defined obstacles and collectables.
Enemies
Shock Cat
Missile Cat
Claw Cat
Meteor
Shock Cat:
Procedurally generated, the main obstacle on the screen
Missile Cat:
Rushes in from the right side at high speeds
Claw Cat:
Appears on the top or bottom of the screen and attacks the character with its extendable claw
Meteor:
Rains down from the sky
PowerUps
The game had 6 unique powerups which have their own unique effects and upgradeable by spending candy. They are activated by running into a powerup during gameplay.
Time Dilation:
Slows down horizontal and enemy movements without affecting game time
Black Hole:
Attracts candy to your character
Candy Cruiser:
Extra hit + changes mechanics to 3 lane movement. Swipe up and down to change lanes.
Candy Heart:
Increases HP
Sugaporter:
Changes mechanics. Tap anywhere to teleport to that position, getting invincibility frames while teleporting.
Sweet Cannon:
Blasts lasers from the birds mouth for a set time, killing enemies in its path.
Boosts
The game had 3 types of boosts usable at the start of the game which can be bought between rounds by spending candy. There is also a unique boost which costs candy to revive the character after death.
Candy X:
Each candy is worth the value of X
X Leap:
Start game time at X seconds
+X Lives:
Add X lives to the life counter