So the other day, I saw this post from @easrng about a way to embed iframes in posts, so I thought it might be fun to try it out with one of my old games, and maybe do a short writeup on it. So this is my game, Tap Shot!
(Warning: Does play audio kind of loud, but you can press the sound and music buttons to stop it. Only tested on Chrome desktop)
Tap Shot is basically a single button side-scrolling arcade shooter with a modern mobile-friendly design. You control a spaceship that will both ascend and shoot every time you tap/click on the screen or press space. Protect your ship by tapping to avoid asteroids, enemy ships and wormholes. Shoot down the obstacles in your way and collect gems to gain the highest score that you can!
Tap shot was made a few years ago in under 48 hours as part of 2 game jams that happened to be running concurrently, which were the Miz Jam and the Kenney Jam 2020. The goal of both of those was to make a game using this specific premade art pack from kenney.nl It was mainly designed for Android, but I also set it up to run on windows and web browsers as well.
I basically made this game because I like the control/feel of flappy bird, but kind of don't actually the game itself very much, so I thought it would be fun to do my own twist on it. I thought combining it with a simple arcade shoot-em-up would have a lot of synergy in the gameplay. I replaced the score system, so it now tracks points based on collecting gems and shooting rocks, instead of tracking how far you got, which I'm not sure was the best idea, because people got a bit confused about that.
The obstacles are randomly generated, and come in waves, so they actually get harder as your score goes up. Although, I was pretty limited on time, so once your score gets over around 100, it will stop scaling, and just do the same wave forever. Although, I did also add a secret that gets unlocked once you get over 100 that does change the gameplay a bit. :)
I do think there is a lot of things I would do differently if I remade it today, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out for only 48 hours of work! Having to work with a premade art kit was nice, because it meant I didn't have to worry about art, but added an extra challenge, since it made me try to think of a way to use the art in a creative way. I definitely want to try to do more game jams in the future, and would heavily recommend game jams as a place to get some experience for people interested in game development. 🙂

