Storytime

Finding 'my game'

Finding 'your game' is a special kind of feeling. It fills your heart with warmth and makes you feel... ecstatic. At first, I was so overwhelmed, I could barely sit down to start any form of work.

Dec 1, 2020 · by Ben from GameDevMix
journeygame design

Auntie’s house

“Ski or Die” was one of the first games I played as a youngster.

Whenever I got a chance to go to my aunt and uncle’s house, I would play it for hours and hours at a time on their amazingly powerful Intel 80386 PC (turbo button included).

The game ran on MS Dos, and I vividly remember typing “Ski.bat” to launch it. Legend has it… “Ski.bat” was one of the first things I ever typed on a computer keyboard!

I remember the seconds of anticipation… And then… the most rebel rock soundtrack a young boy could dream of:

Doe doe, doe doe doe doe doe, doe doe, doe doe doeee.
Doe doe, doe doe doe doe doe, doe doe, doe doe doooeeeeeeeee.

There I was, coolest of the cool, toughest of the tough, playing the most edgy game around!

Colorful tubes

“Ski or Die” was a game of many play modes. But I always had a special place in my heart for “Inner Tube Thrash”, a level where you speed down a mountain in a fat and fun, colorful snow tube - crashing into walls, getting shaken by bumpy snow, and leaping over perilous cliffs - all while racing against an AI opponent. An actual opponent - you weren’t just playing by yourself - it was the coolest thing!

To be honest, the controls really weren’t great, and the game mechanics weren’t that fun either - but oh boy, did I love those colorful snow tubes!

Lee Siu-lung

Some 25 years later, it hit me like lightning… “I can make this”, and I can make it even better! I can take what worked, leave out what didn’t, and add my very own, unique ideas into the mix.

As Bruce Lee famously put it:

Absorb what is useful,
reject what is useless
and add what is essentially your own.

Little brother

Even better, I realised that I can combine my idea with one of my other favourite childhood memories.

Because a few (probably quite a few) years later, the Nintendo 64 had entered the building! And with it… came a game like no other!

Whenever my younger step brother would come to our house, he would bring it with him, and we would play for hours and hours at a time - only letting go off the controller for the inevitable “dinner’s ready” call coming from mom.

That game… was “Snowboard Kids”. The most funnest snowboarding game that ever was, and likely ever will be.

Familiar, but unique

I recently came accross this Thomas Brush post that mentions how the best games are familiar, yet unique.

At first, it tripped me up a little. How can something be both familiar and unique at the same time? Surely if it is unique, you haven’t come across it before, ergo it ain’t gonna be familar?

But I think I figured it out… Because you see, the overwhelming majority of winter sports games are either about snowboarding, or about skiing.

These types of games are familiar to us, but they most certainly aren’t unique. In fact, there’s a whole sea of them out there, and I really don’t think the world needs yet another one of them…

What is much more unique, however, is a winter sports game about riding in snow tubes:

  • It’s a familiar concept, the winter sport game.
  • But with a unique twist, the snow tubes!

Chuffed little boys, all grown up

So here I am, all grown up, working a day job as a software engineer and making “Ski or Die meets Snowboard Kids” in my spare time.

“Super Snow Tubes” is “Ski or Die” meets “Snowboard Kids”, with a pinch of ancient wisdom, and my very own, unique spin!

Funny how these things go… I bet my younger self would be chuffed with how his life turned out. And who knows, one day I may even get to quit that pesky day job and ride snow tubes alllll dayyyyyyy looooooonnnnggg!!!!

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