I’ve always loved the work of Sega and Nintendo. There’s just something incredibly vibrant and optimistic about their titles. The gameplay is always inventive and fun; the soundtracks breezy and upbeat; and the sheer visual splendor has always stood tall above the competition.
In fact, both companies have been a huge part of my childhood. So much so that it’s been my lifelong ambition to create a game to rival the works of these two gaming giants. But being a single indie developer working in my spare time, how could I ever hope to achieve such a feat?
I pondered this for years. I even had a few false starts but nothing would stick. However, three years ago I decided once again to see if it was possible. After all, I’d learned so much during my career: I was a 3D modeler and animator; had bags of project management experience; and had exposure to many development platforms. I felt it was now or never.
My plan was to create a game that was visually rich. However, if I was going to succeed I needed to keep the scale of the project down. To achieve that I decided to target mobile where gameplay could be kept simple allowing me to focus on the aesthetics. I wanted to pay homage to the video games of my youth: classics such as Donkey Kong Country and Sonic.
I immersed myself in the work of some of the greatest development teams. I found original sketches from the archives of Sega and Nintendo, studied classic character designs, analyzed gameplay mechanics, and tried to understand the little nuances that brought the best game characters to life. I even went back and looked at classic coin-ops and also took inspiration from modern classics such as Crossy Road and Mr Jump.
For the first two years, I lived and breathed nothing but my game. However, it started to take its toll. Ultimately the task was too big for one developer. Thankfully my twin brother agreed to come on board to help finish it. It took a massive amount of passion and hard work but eventually, we got it over the line.
Dare the Monkey was released as an iOS exclusive and achieved 70,000 downloads in a matter of weeks. Then one morning, something amazing happened – the game was featured by Apple! We were blown away and suddenly all the hard work and dedication felt like it had paid off.
The journey isn’t over. In fact, it’s really just beginning. We’ll be adding new levels, characters, and game modes to Dare the Monkey throughout the coming months and can’t wait to see even more people enjoying Dare the Monkey.
Thank you for following Edamame Reviews!
Let us know your thoughts on Twitter at @Edamame_Reviews
This article was Published by Edamame Reviews, Written by the Team Dare.
Edamame Reviews cannot be held responsible for the content within this post.