I do lots of different things during my day job at Miniclip.com, web design, graphic design, animation, and programming - I have to turn my hand to whatever is required, and I seem to be working on something different every day - it's great. One of my favourite jobs though is working on video games. I tend to have a game project going on all the time, it's something I can do when everything else is finished.
The games that I work on are generally games that lack something graphically, I get to take the basic game and turn it into something more playable and attractive. Below I have outlined a few of the more recent games that have been released, the ones I'm most proud of.
XRaye
This game was released at the start of this year. It's based on a fairly old, very difficult, game that was quite nice to play, but not ready for the masses. What started off as a simple update turned into a full blown conversion with new levels and totally different art and slightly modified gameplay. The changes required quite a bit of programming to get things working the way I wanted but I'm pretty happy with the results.
Sudoku
Sudoku is a very old game that has recently had a massive surge in popularity. We decided to get in on the action. Because of this the game is much more recent, and we made it entirely in house, with me doing the art and someone else programming. The idea for the farm yard theme was... interesting 
When we started making the game the programmer wrote a particle system that could be used for fireworks when you completed a puzzle. So that he could see the sparks he made the background blue, the same as the sky in the game, and that got me thinking a farm yard theme. Originally I wanted to call it Moo-duku but it was decided that was just silly.
Dr Carter and the Wheels of Salvation
Play Dr Carter and the Wheels of Salvation now
My favourite game so far, based on a game by another developer, I had free reign on the graphics and think they turned out pretty damn nicely. Dr Carter is actually a character who has now starred in 3 miniclip games (none of which were mine), he's turning into some sort of celebrity (at least in the office).
The music also deserves a mention. I wanted something very atmospheric and filmic, it took a while to find the right music but it adds an extra dimension to what is, at heart, an incredibly simple game.
In depth? No. A good way to waste your lunch break? I think so!
Other games...
... I have worked on include:
- Sub Commander - Pretty much all of the graphics in Sub Commander are originals created by me. I also got to tweak the gameplay a little
- Hostile Skies - This, and the following 3 games, was a simple tidy up. The game worked fine so it was just a case of tweaking the interface and making things more consistent & attractive.
- Nordic Chill
- Skidoo TT
- Pearl Diver
- Freefaller Dance off - more of a show than a game (Miniclip - Free Games and Shows) this was made to advertise a band called Freefaller. The 'game' was turned around incredibly quickly. I think it took about 2 days to do the entire thing, which is fast in anyones book.
Rocket Boards is a super fast 3D rocket boarding action. My first "commercial" (shareware) product. Didn't do amazingly well but was a good learning experience
Bubble Bomb is a polished update of a game originally built by Warren Marshal (who works at Epic games - developers of Unreal and Gears of War)
My own update of Bubble Bomb, Bubble Blitz was almost a total rewrite adding loads of new features and a shiny new look.
Seths Puzzle Boxes is a puzzle game with a surprisingly enjoyable story line, unfortunately it's quite short so won't take long to complete, but while it lasts is great fun.
9 Responses to “What I do at Miniclip” Leave a reply ›
Still, I'm not sure if I would have had the willpower to turn it down:)
TonyPa?
BTW, nice post. It's good to find out what people do for their day job especially when it's as cool as yours.
The Moo-duku thing was decided against because we were concerned the users would get confused, also it would be much less likely to show up on search engines. We're on the first page of Google for Sudoku so it looks like they were right - I must admit I was rather proud of that name.
As for TonyPa coding Dr Carter... it might've been
And thanks to your comment I now know blockquotes don't work in comments
whats the name of the song/s you used in Wheels of Salvation.
Kyle - we bought the song specially for the game. they're not available for general purchase. Sorry.
hello,
i'm not going to purchase the song but just wanted to know its name. i'll be happy if you can tell it. thanks.