4Bit Orbit

In April of 2009, I started experimenting with the "Torque 2D platformer kit". We had an upcoming meeting with the CYBF in hopes of getting start-up funding, and I wanted to have playable versions of 2 games for the investors (we already had a demo for Cosmic Lacrosse, which back then was called "Canada Lacrosse".)

Doc Logic 2 (then unnamed) was the dream game that I had been building in my head for years, but I knew we needed a smaller arcade-style game to lead into Doc Logic 2.

At this time, I still didn't have the specifics of the gameplay nailed down. I knew I wanted it to take place in one big level, and that you were collecting items and avoiding enemies. Even without a game underneath it, I was able to come up with something tangible for investors.

4Bit Orbit was originally called "Boomer Remover", with much of the same core gameplay. The goal was to remove all the baby boomers from a crumbling Earth. It was an inside joke to me at the time, as I was feeling frustrated with the attitudes of some of the older-investor types who were out of touch with the game industry, and critical of my business plan.

One interesting gameplay aspects of "Boomer Remover" was the idea of the character communicating with an orbiting satellite, via a hand-held laser pointer. This idea is still something I would like to incorporate into one of our games, most likely in our 3D era.

Notice the style, almost a simple atari-style look. At the time I wanted a silhouette style, similar to "Patapon" for PSP.