In case you read the last blog article and wondered why I was so grumpy, its because I’ve just completed a big, big accomplishment. There’s two games. Yes, two games. Both around the same time, on TWO different platforms: I Hate Traffic on the website and I Love Traffic on the iPhone/iPod Touch.
Golly gee, this project was big.
I Hate Traffic is about smashing cars. It’s the ultimate tantrum-toddler-causing-ruckus-playground-funtime. In response to I Love Traffic (see below) a lot of people asked me if I could make a crash-only mode. So that’s what I did! I Hate Traffic is about crashing and goal achievement. One level may be about crashing a 20 cars, another might be about shoving a car into a square target area, and another might be about throwing yourself in front of a semi to save a bus from a cluster of bombs. Its all up to you.
The best part about this game is that level creation is by YOU. Like Little Big Planet the entire environment is unlocked to the players. Through the level editor any player can recreate any of the levels found in the game. All the tools are there for the taking. The game even allows you to make your own goals.
And share those levels! The Game Share made by Armor Games team allows you to take any challenge and allow your friends to try them out. Send them it by Short URL or browse around the recent levels floating in. Here’s a level I made, for example: http://armorgames.com/=An5g
Check it out. I Hate Traffic is out on Armor Games now!
I Love Traffic came out as a Flash game last year and had a nice reception. I came up with the game while sitting in traffic, being incredibly patient for the light to change. I thought to myself, what the heck? Why is the light taking so long? Can we do better? Sort of… if it causes for near collisions and manual light changing (obviously not applicable in the real world, but is in a video game!). Now, I Love Traffic is ON THE iPHONE AND iPOD TOUCH.
I wasn’t the soul creator of this game. I had a team of great developers working along side on this project with me. Christopher Skelton was the big hand here, helping me take this project from AS2 source to iPhone, and he did a tremendous job working out all the kinks in transition as well as providing some of his own level design for a few levels. Jeff Wofford also helped out by creating the source engine that allowed the transition to take place. I did about 99% of the artwork as well as the original coding for the Flash game before it got ported. Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com, did music for several other games of mine) was also a fantastic addition to the game. And of course, thanks to Dan for letting this project evolve from Flash to iPhone.
Anyway, with all credit aside, the game has 40 levels (20 new levels in addition to the Flash ones), a new stats page, and a whole bunch of new random trivia to boggle your mind (who knew a human hair could handle 6kg of pressure?). The game plays as it does on the computer with cars coming from either direction on the screen. Use your traffic light to safely navigate X amount of cars through the inspection. Cause a crash and you have to start over. Easy as that. Sort of. Levels get more and more difficult and intersections go from traditionally seen simple intersections to devastatingly troublesome forces to be reckoned with.
We’re only charging 99 cents for it and its available on iPod Touch and iPhone (v3.1.2 or later). If you want to try out the Flash version first to see if you’d like it, go ahead. It’s the first game I have ever charged money for out of the 50+ titles I’ve made so help support. Don’t buy that candy bar, buy a game instead!
———
All said and done, a busy week (and month!) with two launches in the tank. I’m off to go relax and enjoy the rest of my day. Go make some levels in the new I Hate Traffic and go save some lives in I Love Traffic for iPhone and Flash. Enjoy.
