The batman games were commissioned to promote the new LEGO Batman film and were shown on the official movie site.
This is a HTML5 game built using PixiJS and canvas. It consists of five mini games and a hub for navigating and tracking scores. Players can also unlock an infinity mode game which randomly combines levels from each game.
Game 1 – Stop Jokers Escape
Stop Joker from escaping into the sky by throwing your batarang and popping his balloons! I wrote an algorithm for detecting and removing groups in a hexagonal grid whilst pushing orphaned balloons back to the centre. Originally the game was more of a puzzle where players had to pop the balloons in the right order with a minimum group of 3, but it was made easier after play testing by removing the minimum group size.
Game 2 – Alfred’s Bat-Snaps
Scan the room and try and catch bad guys in the act! Characters pop into the scene in random order. Players have to take a picture of the character in the centre of the picture to win a point.
Game 3 – Fruit bat smoothie
Chop fruit for smoothies Batman style! Hone your beatarang skills by chopping fruit mid air but be careful to avoid the gas canisters! Fruit pieces fall into cups at the bottom of the screen. Some cups are worth more than others. There are also tokens and trick shots that give you more points or special abilities like slow motion or double points.
This was a fun game to build. The batarang curves to intercept fruit in close proximity. The fruit splits into two physics objects that fall and interact with the cups below. I used Box2D to handle the physics.
Game 4 – Lobster Thermidor Cook-Off
Help batman cook up a storm with his favourite microwave treat, Lobster thermidor. Players have to tap the microwaves when lobsters appear, being careful to keep the timer in the green zone. If the timer is too quick the lobster is uncooked and will make Batman sick. If it’s too long the lobster will burn and be inedible. It’s a bit of a weird (but fun) game but took a bit of play testing to get the balance right.
Game 5 – LEGO Batman Dolphin Rider
Help batman surf to safety! This is a bit of a Flappy birds/Doodle jump concept where players tap the screen to move Batman. The goal is to hit targets whilst keeping Batman from crashing into the wave or hitting traps. The patterns are set using arrays and are randomly put together to make each play different. There are several patterns for each level with increasing complexity.
Game 6 – (Bonus) Games Assembled
Players play levels from the five games in a random order of increasing difficulty.
