From Game Jam to Apple Arcade.
Starting in 2017, the Spyder project initially began life as a small prototype Riccardo Papagno had put together, creating a Spider that can traverse in any orientation, with fully procedurally generated legs and animations.
Once again, Riki and I teamed up, along with Naajir Lee, creating an initial demo to enter into Sumo Digital’s Summer Game Jam. The project won the Game Jam leading the three of us to begin thinking about next steps.
Key Questions.
After the Game Jam, we began working with Sumo to develop the project further, deep diving into the project and the character to understand its strengths, weaknesses, and the key questions that need to be answered to inform the direction the game can take.
We began working on a new demo, with two key areas of development, Character and Gameplay. The talented artist Desmond Man offered up his time to help take the character out of whitebox; while the three of us worked on a new, more structured level that would feature some of the Gameplay we wish to explore, but most importantly would bring us closer to identifying the questions that will inform our next focus.
What is the scale of the Spider in the world it occupies?
How do we build levels that support a character that can traverse in any orientation?
How do we develop a Game Camera that will keep the Player grounded and orientated in the world?
Over the next six months, two more demos were developed to use as pitch material, as the project was shopped around. This proved successful, and led Spyder to find its home on the Apple Arcade service.
My Role.
Feature Owner for the Character, Controls & Camera.
Level Cinematography.
Mission Design.
Ability Development and Prototyping.
Spyder
Developed by: Sumo Digital
Published by: Apple