In this first blog entry for Major Escape, I’d like to talk a bit about where this game came from. Exactly a month ago, a little event called the Global Game Jam took place all around the world. For this event, I worked by myself, for 3 days, on a game called Stranded. If you look at both games, you will see many similarities. The original idea was to have a game where you would repair damaged equipment, and gather resources in order to survive and escape a planet after being stranded there. Many of the concepts developed for that game served as the basis for Major Escape.
Major Escape has a very different focus. You are still trying to escape the planet, and the jetpack mechanics are similar, but Major Escape is more about escaping as fast as possible, while managing your air, collecting parts and avoiding hazards.
You main goal is to escape, and your performance will be scored. Escaping will not be easy, and achieving a high score will be even more challenging. So far I’ve been working on it for 4 weeks and I hope to release it in 5 to 6 more weeks. It will be a game that you can pick up and play a round for 5 minutes, and I’m trying to balance it so that after around 2 hours of play, you will dominate it and get high scores.