Jumpin’ Kitty
By Julie Morley
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Change the color of your boxcat to your liking.
Recently, we had the craze over the Flappy Bird app and the many games similar to it following its release. Unfortunately, Flappy bird only was on the market for a short period of time before being taken off the marketplace by the creator. Phones with the app on it are being sold because it’s considered a rarity now. Sounds like it’s in pretty high demand, eh?
What is it about Flappy Bird and the similar apps that actually make them stand out? What was the key to success with them? Simple, the addiction factor.
Avoid colliding into objects to increase your score.
There is something about the simple game design that is outright addicting. The player will keep coming back for more and more, absolutely desperate to keep trying to top their previous score. Any obstacle that killed their character in the previous game will be viewed as a challenge. Sleep? Who needs sleep? Bathing? What does that even mean? The player will not rest until that challenge is beaten, even ignoring the necessities of daily routine.
It’s a sick cycle because it’s never ending; just going and going, counting your obstacles.
It nags at you, that devilish figure resting upon your shoulder. Pleading for you to continue, just urging for one more try.
Be weary of the birds, they exist to confuse you.
Come on, you know you can top that. That’s nothing, why, it’s child’s play, my friend.
Thomas Neptune, a Computer Science major from the University of North Carolina, has created another addiction game that is sure to capture the attention of many. Jumpie may be another addiction-oriented game but that doesn’t make it any less awesome.
In the game of Jumpie, you are an adorable little boxcat with no particular place to go with pesky obstacles that you must avert. On a simplistic landscape, going one direction, the boxcat tenaciously sprints towards the right side of your screen. Watch out, make sure to jump! There are boxes there. Wait, make sure you don’t jump right there; there are birds!
But make sure you hop over the boxes.
Dislike the original purple color of your boxy feline? No worries, it can be altered to the color of your choosing. Now your kitty is to your liking.
The interesting thing about Jumpie is the trickery of routine and variation of obstacles. The player has to pay attention to their movements and balance the jumping and running to avoid land and air collisions.
It sounds kind of simple, right? You would think, but once you get into the swing of hopping several boxes, you’re bound to make a mistake in timing or assume a bird to be a box. Get too comfortable with your jumping and you’ll accidentally jump into a bird, losing your game.
A score of 48, eat your heart out!
Keep running and do your best to increase your score!
The funding goal on Kickstarter is $300 in order to put Jumpie on the app market. Currently, Jumpie‘s windows version is available via link on the Kickstarter page to give potential backers exposure to the intended game. The funding period is to end on March 20th.
[divider]Game Info
Game : Jumpie
Developer : Thomas Neptune
Platforms : Win Mobile / Android / iOS
