The creator of iPhone hit Canabalt has posted online five game prototypes, granting the public a deeper look into his creative process and design methodology.
Adam “Atomic” Saltsman, creator of the iPhone game Canabalt and the heavily-used Flixel programming library, is a notorious tinkerer, throwing away at least as many ideas as those that make it to the production stage. Curious gamers can check some of these ideas out for themselves, now that Saltsman has posted five prototypes of game ideas that he toyed with between 2008 to 2010 to his website.
These prototypes fall all over the gaming spectrum, from the co-operative “digging and exploration game,” Nova Miners, to the Metal Slug-esque shooter Zombie Office. Take Aim is a 2D sniping game, similar to Namco’s Silent Scope series, and the only one of Saltsman’s games that involves shooting humans. Stellarwas intended to be a “massive, co-operative, procedurally generated Zelda clone for 4 players,” and Rocket Warrior is an action title inspired by Konami’s Rocket Knight platformers.
As these prototypes are simple experiments intended to toy with a particular concept, many of them are far from complete. Zombie Office and Stellar only work as level generators, and Nova Miners currently only allows players to dig a hole. Still, some of the ideas are interesting, and Take Aim is actually quite fun as it stands. Saltsman has mentioned that he would like to flesh out Rocket Warrior and Nova Miners, so we might just see complete versions of them yet.
While posting these prototype concepts, Adam has also announced a release date for Gravity Hook HD, an app for both the iPhone and iPad where players shoot hooks into mines with the goal of climbing higher and higher. Gravity Hook HD will be released on the iTunes App Store on July 29th for $2.99.
Source: IndieGames.com, via GameSetWatch
