Aardvark: the ultimate Ball & Bricks console game. Now only 80 points! Featuring stackable power-ups, side-by-side 2 player co-op play & a fully featured level editor! 3 difficulty modes will keep players of any skill level busy, as each difficulty level features its own high score list. Can you beat over three dozen unique levels and defeat The Master?

This is the first game for Xbox Live from Planet Idiot Games.  Read some reviews and buy it here!

I started work on this in the spring of 2009 as my first attempt at an Xbox game.  I had messed with XNA a bit before that but the difficulty in deploying XNA games to other people's PCs put me off from it.  However the prospect of selling games on a console was too awesome to pass up, so I bought an Xbox and signed up for the Creators Club.  And deploying to the Xbox was as easy as it should be on the PC!

My goal with this game was to make a complete, solid fun game that wasn't too complex (since I didn't know entirely what I was getting into!).  I got a little tiny bit carried away with it though and ended up making the game I always wanted Arkanoid to be: All the fun of Breakout-style games, no bad items, stackable power-ups, two player co-op, and of course, a level editor!  The other thing I wanted to do was solve the issue I've not seen resolved to my satisfaction: How to make a paddle game work on an analog stick.

In order to solve the paddle issue, I did a few things.  For one, I slowed the pace of the game a bit.  That's not to say it isn't challenging.  But it isn't the "blink and you miss it" pace of games past.  Also, while the paddle can be moved slowly by pushing the analog stick a tiny bit, there's an extra boost to the last % of the stick's left/right range.  So it's more sensitive at lower velocities without sacrificing top speed.  The other part of the solution was to add a paddle warp feature.  This is a cool game mechanic not practical when playing this type of game with a paddle or spinner.  The glowing bar in the center of the paddle represents the warp charge.  When the paddle is charged, you can warp to the left or right using the left or right triggers on the controller.  This causes your paddle to stretch out instantly in that direction and then shrink back to normal size in its new location.  After a few seconds your paddle recharges again.  It is critical to manage your warps in order to catch fast moving balls.

I really like the two player co-op mode.  I've seen other games try to do co-op by stacking the paddles on top of each other.  This puts the bottom player in the position of "backup" while the top player has most of the fun.  Since Aardvark is in wide-screen format, I thought it would be more fun to split the playfield down the middle and force both players to cooperate with each other in order to beat the levels.  It worked great except for some asymmetrical levels that would block one of the players.  So in co-op mode I eliminated those problematic levels and added some unique ones that would be more fun for two people.

Overall I believe I succeeded in my goals and created my favorite ball and bricks game.  If you liked Arkanoid, you'll love Aardvark!