Quick Blast (Mobile game work in progress)

Roles: Graphic Design, Illustration, UX Design, Gameplay Design, & Animation.

Quick Blast is a mobile gallery shooter that takes you around the world to test your marksman skills against cardboard cutouts of goofy looking animals.

Inspiration

Along with my two friends, we brainstormed ideas for an addicting game mechanic. We looked back at a game we all got addicted to back in the '90s, "Duck Hunt".

We set out to capture the addicting fun nature of this cult classic and modernize it for mobile.

That duck doesn't look very happy...

Making it our own

Although we loved "Duck Hunt", we didn't want to make a clone of the game. So we set out to make a game that was much more attuned to something we would love in a gallery shooter arcade game.

Something more fast-paced and exciting.

Having the animals flip up and down was too simple for us...

We tried having the animals flip up, and then using the tap/fire function having them knock back down, like a traditional gallery shooter.

However, that didn't satisfy our tastes, it seemed too boring and simple. We wanted the animal cutouts to be a bit tougher and really make you work for those points. We also wanted the tap/fire function to have more of an impact.

Left is the Swordfish at full health, Right is the same cutout but at half health.

We made the animal cutouts tougher. Depending on the size of the cutout, it would take more hits to destroy. For example, the swordfish above takes 4 hits total to destroy. After two hits, the graphic changes to the halfway point, indicating that you are halfway done with that cutout in particular.

Left to right: weak/unlimited bullets, medium/4 shots/5 sec sleep, strong/1 shots/10 sec sleep.

We also figured that having a variety of weapons available for the player to choose from would boost the fun factor of the game. There are 3 levels of strength when it comes to these weapons. The Bubble Gun pictured above would count for one damage and have unlimited ammo. The Flamethrower would count for two damage but be limited to 4 ammo and a 5 second sleep time between spent ammo. While the Zapper Gun would deal 4 damage with only 1 ammo and sleep for 10 seconds before being usable again.

The cutouts themselves would move from one side to the other, and up and down at different distances from the player to up the challenge a bit more.

Designing the game

These were so much fun to design.

My team and I set out to make a game that wasn't just fun to play, but also fun to look at. We went for a more whimsically/goofy look to the animal cutouts. We illustrated over 100 animal cutouts, and we had a blast doing so. These animal illustrations range from common day animals to the more mythical ones you would read about in fantasy stories.

Each row of weapons is depicted from weakest to strongest from left to right.

We decided to keep the goofy design with the weapons as well. 18 weapons in total were designed, each with their own special animation and properties.

When using a specific weapon, it's corresponding animation would play on screen.

12 levels were designed for these animal cutouts to inhabit. These levels would also hide a few surprises, such as; Bonuses, Damage modifiers for the weapons, and End Level Bosses, which would be one of the animals from the level, this animal in particular though would be massive and take several more hits than normal to defeat. Defeating it would earn you extra points.

12 levels to play, each with their own little gimmicks.

The Future of Quick Blast

Several prototypes of the game have been created. However due to unforeseen circumstances our small team of 3 people (2 designers/animators including me, and a coder) we have not been able to complete this game. We are still working on this game in our spare time and hope to bring it to all mobile platforms in the future.

Stay tuned for more updates.

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