My very early stuff!!
Warning this is a collection of some the first games I ever made. They are dated between 2001 to 2003, and some of them can hardly be called games at all. I keep them most for the sake of nostalgia.
Keep on reading if you want to check them out…
Snake (2001)
This is one of my earliest games (2001), made with flash 4. Back then you couldn’t write the code free hand but had to insert every row of code using a drop down menu… I have no idea how I could be patient enough to create this 9-level game that way. Another thing I’m wondering is how the hell I was thinking when making the design of the game. The levels, and the blue/yellow theme are both based on the game Nibbles (written in QBasic) which I played a lot on my old 286 PC… but the rest… blue-to-black gradient with gray stripe… come on. Even I shouldn’t have come up with something as horrible as that.
Anyway – making a snake-clone is something I recommend to anyone who is new to programming, or if you are trying out a new programming language as the logic is fairly straight forward, and will let you focus on simple concepts such as the game loop and keyboard input.
Tetris (2001)
Even though I’m not a huge fan of the game tetris, I have created the game from scratch. Twice.
From a programming point of view it is a pretty interesting game to make.
This is my first attempt at making the game. I’m not entirely sure when I made this, but probably somewhere between 2000-2001. It is very simplistic and quite ok from a users perspective. I don’t think I still have the source code, but I guess that if I did – it would repulse me… ;-)
The game had a highscore list back then. It’s long time broken now, but the game still works.
Car game (2001-2002)
What can I say? Fumes! Anyway, a good and simple experiment to start playing around with some simple trigonometry.
One of my very first platformers (2002)
Started experimenting with collision detection against ground and walls, a scrolling world and simple run-and-jump physics. This game isn’t tile-based though. The entire world is moving along with you.
Arkanoid (2001-2002)
I made this game to work as a preloader for another game, so that you could enjoy yourself while waiting for the other game to load in the background. Internet wasn’t as fast back then as it is today. If I remember correctly I still used my 56kbps modem back then.
This game looks simple enough, but it is actually quite a challenge to get the physics to work correctly.
My first try of an isometric view (2002)
A simple test with the isometric perspective. Note that you can jump with the space bar!
Collision detection is pretty easy in isometric perspective, but z-sorting can be a bit tricky. I really love this graphical style!
Some time afterwards I started working on a survival/horror game in the same isometric perspective, but never got very far with it.
A game small enough to fit in the footer of your email (2002)
This microscopic game was intended to be used as a footer in my email signature. Don’t remember how many levels there are since it is pretty much impossible to get through the game, which is just too bad as the game ending is pretty cool… even containing some pre-rendered 3D =D.
This is also where I start to put some effort into the graphics of my games.
Unfinished isometric survival/horror game (2002-2003)
Had very high ambitions with this game, but stumbled into some obstacles pretty early on, and then got bored with it. To bad, I really like the first prototypes. The source is, however, long lost.
The first version of the prototype lets you explore this eerie maze you have somehow been trapped inside. The huge spider/scorpion at the top was supposed to be chasing you, but was too big to fit anywhere inside the maze. << Click to play >>
In the second version I have made the spider small enough to fit on a tile. I also change the music depending on if the spider has spotted you (and is chasing you) and also increasing the volume the closer to you it gets. << Click to play >>
About this time I decided I wanted to make a bigger game with a little more effort put into it. The choice stood between this horror game, or a platformer. And since I’ve always had a sweet spot for platformers I ditched this game and made Super Bobby World instead… but that’s a different blog post.