Dodgy Square

Dodgy Square was a game that I started developing with the quarantine. After being sent home from school because of COVID-19, I needed something to do. So I said to myself "You know what? Let's try to make a mobile game", because I never made a mobile game before. Touch controls and releasing a game on the Play Store were completely new for me so I had to learn that by myself. Wanted to start with something small just to learn how things work and from that came Dodgy Square.

In the beginning, the big struggle was deciding between a analog button or arrow keys.
I noticed that on slow paced levels (the easy ones), people would prefer arrow keys because you have more control over your movement, there is no "accidents" that can happen with the analog. But when you reach harder levels and you have to be constantly moving, the analog was better. So after many hours testing both, I decided to keep the analog.

To create the levels, I would draw first sketches on a book and after a level looked good, all I had to do was put the pieces on the right places.

Instead of just throwing everything at the player from the start, I decided to begin simple. This way the player can get used to the game controls.
Every 10 levels, a new mechanic is placed:
Level 1-9 = Simply get to the objective.
Level 10-19 = Introduction of the blue coins. You can only complete the level, after you picked all the coins.
Level 20-29 = Introduction of turrets. Turrets always focus you and shoot slow projectiles.
Level 30-39 = The hardest levels that will put the player to the test. Every mechanic exists in every level.
Level 40 = The final test. The level is spinning, which means, every once in a while you will be playing with inverted controls.

Even though it's a simple game, I enjoyed making it and introduced me to the mobile world.