Bug Bug in Sky Tower
Bug Bug in Sky Tower is the latest game to be released from Aqui Griffin's studio and entered into our 4th Casual Gameplay Design Competition in October. And since the competition, Aqui received a sponsorship from Arcade Town and today re-released the game with crucial improvements. Imagine the wandering ball of Within A Deep Forest encased in metal and set loose in your browser, and tell me you don't want to get into that Sky Tower.
You play a rolling ball-like spaceship that has crash-landed on a floating tower, a vertical Laputa. In Metroidvania-style, you find things that empower your ability to explore, all the while searching for key collectibles, in this case the parts of a broken robot. You get to fix the robot! Its pretty cool, you see its body highlighting together on the map screen as you progress. [M] will bring up that map screen, by the way. Use the [arrow] keys to move around and jump. [A], [S], and [D] cause you to switch between different modes that you obtain, and the [spacebar] lets you charge up a ground pound.
Analysis: Nice touches here: the tree (and art work in general) is one, and the fact that you can't die is definitely another. As a game it's decent, the same game you've played before probably — since the ball physics don't involve any momentum rolls or bounces, you might as well be a humanoid with a smooth running animation. The level design on the other hand is quite sweet, definitely B+ flow control and a rare A- in creating a sense of exploration.
Jay - Another diamond in the rough, Aqui demonstrates again with Bug Bug that he not only knows how to make games beautiful, he is also quite cognisant of the elements of gameplay that make a game great and enjoyable to play. The little bit of roughness in the first incarnation that we experienced with the ball physics, particularly when bouncing against a wall, is gone and left in its wake is the game we wish we had played the first time through. Nice puzzles, great level design, and appealing graphics. Well done, Aqui!
Walkthrough Guide
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Thanks for your help making comments work for me, Jay!
I've mapped the game out by sticking together screenshots. They're mostly lined up correctly, but if you notice spots where the walls have a little jog in them, then I probably missed a spot.
This is totally a spoiler, revealing not only layout and locations, but in some cases which ball to use. Only look at the map if you're stuck or don't care : )
(PNG, 1MB) Outside of the tower.
(PNG, 530KB) Inside rooms.
(XCF, 11MB) GIMP project file (zipped) with each screen on its own layer.
Posted by: gws | February 2, 2008 2:41 PM