Bob’s Space Crusade was the first game I ever published, it was released on Kongregate, on the 30th of December 2011. It was my first project using Unity3D and it served as a great learning experience in actually getting something out there to be played by the world. It was by no means a masterpiece but the character (who I still have plans to resurrect in future projects) and core mechanic was great. This post will talk about how Bob was originally brought to life and the process that was behind that.

Going into this project I had a single focus, keep things simple. I didn’t want a spiralling list of features that could never be achieved, I just wanted a core mechanic that was fun and simple. This was for a couple of reasons, the main being I didn’t have enough experience to actually finish a large expansive project. The main goal of the project was to finish it, which I did. In hindsight, I would say the scope was too restrictive, the project in its initial state didn’t play particularly well and would have benefitted greatly from an increased development time.

The core idea was a game based on the age-old classic; Rock, Paper, Scissors. I was pessimistic that this was the type of mechanic I could base a game on, but after some initial prototyping, it proved to be a pretty solid mechanic. It was very rudimentary which is how it stayed right up until release, but it worked and was fun to play. The game lacked any form of progression or replayability, in fact, the game pretty much remained this single mechanic. It was themed with a space aesthetic with elemental asteroids and a robot, Bob. This theming really helped tie everything together and despite looking basic was probably one of the best aspects of the end product.

As part of the development process, I managed to port the game to Android devices which was a relatively impressive feat in 2011 for a novice programmer. It featured lacklustre controls on mobile because I had never attempted controls for touch devices prior to this project. This experimentation with the Android platform helped cement my interest in it as a developer, paving the way for future projects like Super Blasty Blasty.

Bob’s Space Crusade provided me with a wealth of knowledge for future projects, lessons learnt during this development process still impact me to this day, 7 years later. The mechanic in this project is one that I would love to try again as I feel there is far more I could do with it now than I could have when this was developed. The main thing I learnt in this project, however, is this, making games is fun. That is a lesson I never want to forget and often need to remind myself of.

There aren’t any screenshots from during the development process but there is a video showcasing the game in all its glory available on YouTube which I’ve embedded below and of course, the web player is still available here.