When my nephew, Noa, was 7, he got his first email address. He emailed me with a plan! He wanted to build a game (joost zulwe een Game maken). Of course, I said yes!
He provided me with a name "pwejeenpeejer" (no idea) and explained that the main character was a ninja. He also provided me with the artwork.
This guy has ideas! The artwork was a bit rough though, so I downloaded some free sprites to fill in the gaps and went to work. I tried to use as much of Noa's artwork as possible.
Using Tiled, TexturePacker and bmGlyph I started sketching the first level.
Next, I built a runner game in Phaser, which is a WebGL game engine that's built on top of PixiJS. I'd used PixiJS before, so I figured Phaser would feel familiar—but it turned out to have its own learning curve!
Our ninja runs through a level made from Noa's artwork and stock images, jumping over obstacles, collecting 🍎 or losing 🥦 points. There are also fireballs 💥 for a power-up. See the video below!
However, as usual, life did its thing, and the project went unfinished to the projects > archive directory: the final resting place of my best projects.
It's a shame we never got to finish this project. Noa and I had a great vibe. Life got busy, and at 7, he wasn't (yet) a world-class art director. But honestly, I've worked on more chaotic projects.
What do you think? Should we finish it?