Timing is everything so always try to land a game safely...
Client: RamJam
Skill set: Games / Concept / HTML5
When we heard Harrison Ford had crashed his light aircraft onto a golf course our immediate thoughts were for his safety, followed swiftly by why the hell the 72 year Harrison Ford was flying his plane in the first place.
Having had success with our topical games Madgediver and Southern Rail Tycoon we decided to take another shot and gave ourselves a couple of days to make this tongue-in-cheek news game.
Our idea was that Harrison had lost the plot and was in a fever dream, mixing up his Indiana Jones and Han Solo lives together in the real world and had taken to the skies to shoot down the evil Empire.
We wanted to make the game as over the top and crazy as possible to make players laugh at the ludicrousness of it.
For in game power-ups we alloted Chewbeacca's head as the power-pill, triggering a giant enemy killing attack of either his giant toy form or a Tuskan Raider riding a Bantha.
When making the game we were very conscious of getting sued by Lucasfilm so tried to take what we felt were some sensible precautions - namely photographing our own collection of Micro Machine Star Wars figures and repurposing them as the pixel art game assets.
We also didn't mention any peoples, brands or characters by name for the same reason.
We wanted to make the game as over the top and crazy as possible to make players laugh at the ludicrousness of it.
For in game power-ups we alloted Chewbeacca's head as the power-pill, triggering a giant enemy killing attack of either his giant toy form or a Tuskan Raider riding a Bantha.
When making the game we were very conscious of getting sued by Lucasfilm so tried to take what we felt were some sensible precautions - namely photographing our own collection of Micro Machine Star Wars figures and repurposing them as the pixel art game assets.
We also didn't mention any peoples, brands or characters by name for the same reason.
Even though it was rough around the edges we released the game to meet the weekends news cycle on our small social channels and were met with the glorious sound of... nothing!
Though it was quick and fun to do it didn't have the impact we'd hoped for and in retrospect we think this worked out for the best.
What we learned:
- Don't release a game when an international treasure hasn't quite been given the all clear. Had something bad happened to him this game would have ended up going down in incredibly bad taste.
Still, it was funny to make at the time and it's always good to see what happens but unluckily it didn't quite hit the mark. There's always next time though...
Though it was quick and fun to do it didn't have the impact we'd hoped for and in retrospect we think this worked out for the best.
What we learned:
- Don't release a game when an international treasure hasn't quite been given the all clear. Had something bad happened to him this game would have ended up going down in incredibly bad taste.
- Don't make a game so insanely hard even you can't play it. The game itself was fun and silly but too hard and confusing so didn't play all that well, hit areas on the main player were unforgiving so instant deaths happened too often and the power up looked like an enemy to the untrained eye. A little more play testing would have helped a lot.
- Check that the name you've given your hilarious game isn't the same as an existing brand's product in another country (sorry Ford Fighter pick up trucks USA)
Still, it was funny to make at the time and it's always good to see what happens but unluckily it didn't quite hit the mark. There's always next time though...
