News

The iPhone bug bit and we have started working on a side project code named POOR BEAR. The project is a small iPhone game collaboration between the folks at Dreamsocket and <a href=”http://tvmstudio.com/” target=”_blank”>Trevor Van Meter</a>, who we consider friend of the family. For those who aren’t familiar with Trevor, you may remember his game <a href=”http://trevorvanmeter.com/flyguy/” target=”_blank”>Fly Guy</a> that garnered a lot of praise. Trev and I (Kenny) actually went to school together and were part of the same crew of friends, so we have roots. Personally, I look at him like a renaissance guy when it comes to illustration work. He literally does it all: cartoons, toys, comics, games, you name it. Needless to say, we are excited to be working together. Right Trev 😉

Plot

Trevor is working out the dynamics of POOR BEAR’s story line and it will evolve as we progress. Nothing is nailed in stone, but we have our basics. Our main character is a circus bear who rides bikes on tight ropes. Pretty hype already, huh? Who doesn’t love bears on bikes??? The game starts with our fearless character blasting out of a circus tent and landing on some power lines. He has some where he has to go, and he has to get there fast, so it is up to you to help him get there. A side scrolling bearrific race against time!

Current State

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You can see from the video above, our development started by just getting basic mechanics working in the game along with a few art elements and menu screens. Some how the luck of the Irish hit, and we already have our fearless hero iPhone ready and controllable via the accelormeter and screen interaction. Tilting the phone to either side controls balance, touching the front of the phone speeds him up, and touching the back slows him down. Although some of the game elements are limited now, they along with the terrain are getting generated from a custom level editor we built in AIR. This gives us the ability to really map out and throw things in pretty rapidly. Expect good things 😉

Future

Moving forward, there are many hours of work left at this point. We still need to settle on layouts for all the menus and screens, get art for them, add sound effects, add background music, and create levels for the game. Perhaps one of the most important tasks left is to implement a scoring system. We have not ironed out the details yet but are considering making the levels time-limited and scoring based on quickness of MR BEAR. If we go this route, things like power-ups via time bonuses and speed boosts come to mind. Finally but not least, our bear FLIPS, yes he FLIPS while jumping his bike! Obviously, we might have to take that into account too!

All that said, welcome to PROJECT POOR BEAR. Expect us to post our process and progress here, so you can follow along and add your 2 cents into the game. Help us shape it into something great. We want POOR BEAR to pull you into the bears shoes and have you craving to play!

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