Time For Freakin’ Flies
Courtney got the idea for his game almost out of thin air. "I was getting annoyed by house flies buzzing around, banging into window panes, and I had the idea to create an iPhone game to swat them," he says. "I thought it would also be the simplest game mechanic to use to learn Unity game development software and I liked the direct and immediate action of swatting at flies with your finger on a touch screen." So the idea for Freakin’ Flies was born.
He found the Unity 3D software powerful yet easy to learn. "It’s similar in layout and working style to Cinema 4D, which I use everyday to create 3D illustration work, so it was intuitive to play and tinker with."
A big step was getting it onto his iPhone. "I hadn’t used Xcode before but I watched a couple of YouTube videos on the process and Unity makes it very easy. Seeing your game on a phone for the first time is amazing."
Nick van Cuylenburg created sound effects and background music to match the games personality. "I love how the music adds a whole other dimension to the experience," says Courtney. Cameron Gough of Dirty Puppet made a simple animated trailer to introduce characters in the game and show off the gameplay.
Courtney’s next game will be educational, deeper and better all around. "The art style in Freakin’ Flies was kept simple so it was easy to create while I felt my way through development. In my next game I really want to push the art style and connect my illustration life with my game dev life, possibly joining with other Watermark artists to create and inspire each other."
