Battle Buggy Glitch has come a long and strange way since it’s conception.

My first commercial game was called Battle Buggy Grounds (I know, I can’t name games to save my life).

It was heavily inspired by the NES Classic Battle City.

Was I huge fan of the game? Not really.

How ever, every gamedev in the making obviously need to get some experience so I picked Battle City as the game I would try build my skills on. The concept was pretty simple. No complicated level design, or goal mechanic or complicated Enemy AI so I assumed it would be fairly easy to recreate.

I assumed wrong.

Oh my freaking buiscuits. Making this game with very little experience making games (and specifically making games in GameMaker) was beyond a challenge.

But I love a good challenge so I didn’t let that stop me from getting to experiment with a lot of the ideas I had in my head.

It took me about a year to put this game together. And despite it looking simple, I felt later after release that I had rushed it. I should have spent more time making the experience a bit more “cohesive” I guess is the word I’m looking for.

I mean, during the early stages of developing the game, I wasn’t really good. So the foundation, like movement and simple gameplay were somewhat clunky. But I didn’t really feel that because of how much time I had spent looking at the game.

Then I began developing the more complicated parts of the game a bit better. But completely didn’t look at revamping the old mechanics to match up with the game’s progression.

Anyway, I was surprised with how I learned over time to create somewhat not-so-simple boss AI at the time. I created some really strange and odd battles for a game that was meant to be a simple-clone of Battle City.

And despite describing the game as being a Battle City on steroids, the final release wasn’t as good as I initially thought it would be.

That said, I was determined to redeem myself by making a game that be a more refined version of Battle Buggy Grounds.

The project was to be called Battle Buggy Reloaded (I know, am a natural when it comes to coming up with these names).

Not only would it be an improvement on the previous concept. It would actually be it’s own game. It’s own thing. So I got to work designing and developing the game.

However, I soon realized that at my current capacity (being solo and all), I would spend crazy amounts of time giving the game it’s look and feel. Animations, sprites, level design…

I asked myself if there was a better way I could focus on creating a game that is functional first before committing to the insane amount of time it would take me to design every enemy, level and special fx.

Battle Buggy Glitch was born!

I thought of developing a 2D “Battle Buggy Engine” first. I would help me focus on creating game mechanics and features before anything else. I would be able to quickly prototype and test as many features as I possibly could without spending so much time.

Everything about the was / is simple.

At first I didn’t think I would spend too much time on it, but after I started using shaders it all began to look visually pleasing to me. I was convinced that I had project that could be in itself a game.

Check out the similarities in the logos. This was the very first Battle Buggy Grounds logo.

Which was then turned to this for the final game

Anywhoo…

I named it the Battle Buggy Glitch project. Mostly because it was fix all the “glitches” the previous game had.

This time around, I also wanted a lot of feedback. Considering that I could more quickly change and update mechanics and features, I was more determined to get as much constructive criticism as I could from gaming community. I really want to get better at making games.

So here we are today. Almost a year later with the game getting so much positive and constructive feedback… steadily continuing to grow.

There is some “story” behind all this madness so far. I wanted to incorporate this into the game but I thought it would be overkill for such a small game.

However, notice the matrix / tron like themes popping up here and there?

Well… Glitch is like a Buggy Pilot training program. Pilot recruits are put in a battleground simulator as part of a final assessment before becoming an official pilot i guess..

Those who pass the test, are then deployed to the actual battle grounds. This is the tie in to the Battle Buggy Reloaded game that I hope to work on next after Glitch.

I have said a lot today :)

Anyway, thank for the continue support.