Adknown Games

The Work Environment

Adknown is primarily an advertising agency, but boasted a small video game division while I worked there.

Each game was budded from a baseline template - a Unity project with singletons to manage save data, ad hookups, basic UI screen switching, a small library of randomizer methods, and branded content. Basic games followed these steps:

  1. Concept the game - something fun, easy, unique, and also broadly unwinnable. Illustrate major game screens on paper. Acquire/Create visual assets. We had a budget for assets, and if used that would generally be for visuals.
  2. Program character controller, basic spawning, a baseline interaction between player and enemies.
  3. Finish one of: enemy variance, player verbs, shop progression, basic visuals.
  4. Spend the day bug fixing. Sometimes there was a mid-cycle gameplay test session to ensure the idea is solid or correct it as needed
  5. Finish either visuals or game system.
  6. Find a major design oversight and attempt to correct for it.
  7. Bug fixes.
  8. Finish the game/progression/visuals/special effects. Add audio, finding music and sound effects.
  9. Create store pages. Track down commonly used search words to create an effective game title, description, tags and so forth. Create screenshots for multiple game states. Create interstial website, using tags and screenshots created earlier.

Any number of those days could extend into the next. Further, the expectations for the quality of game ideas, the polish of the visuals, and the complexity of the progression would rise as the months went on. It's to be expected.

That said, I pushed myself to focus on progression systems and dynamic gameplay without sacrificing visual/audio fidelity.

Highlighted Games

Working at a breakneck pace means compromises on content. The best developers focus on making compromises purposely.

This is a shortlist of games I still find compelling as a portfolio piece.

I pushed for unique genres and dynamic progression systems as a point of pride. Each game used a UI template (handling basic api calls such as managing save data or switching to a shop screen). The expectation was game design, progression, content, and publication were to be handled by us (ie. 4 developers, making one game each). In practice, even the art and audio had to be created and heavily modified to work in this context. Games had to be published to both storefronts within the ten business days. There were restrictions about making games unique from each other while all being sufficiently "action oriented". Beyond these rules, I pushed for unique genres and dynamic progression systems as a point of pride.

Thumbnail Name Notes
Song Pong
  • Extremely cohesive has neon lights/vaporwave
  • All the art was from scratch
  • The patterns will built to be flipped, reversed in color, and sometimes swapping notes for duds
  • Score multiplier system
  • Unique progression system, including multiplier goals that were available as dailies
  • Some of the music was made for the game directly
  • The shop featured song previews and song selection chance like in the Super Smash Bros. series
  • Really cute "continue?" page timer, a little animated neon sand timer
  • Explaining this game in particular helped me get hired at InspectAR!
Bullet Cavern
  • Relatively cohesive, as the player character is from the Unity Asset Store
  • Simple control scheme: slide finger to fall and steer, release to fire gun
  • Store offers different guns, each with different recoil/jump height, fire speed/spread/burst style, reload pace
  • Quality of life things like post-hit protection, faster reload when on the ground, and two-bar indicator for to show clip size and reload duration
  • Level layouts are grouped by style, which will be indicated with a randomized name. ie. A claustrophobic level might be called "Spooky Fault" or "Ashen Crevice"
Lets Get Kraken
  • Facinating little gameplay gimmick of managing a queue of tentacles to grab boats and smash them into other boats.
  • Shop offers a running list of possible modifiers: adding/subtracting tentacles, making boats show up more or less, etc.
  • I drew all the art! The kraken will do idle animations throughout the game
XIQ
  • A complex array of enemies from bats to slimes to wizards with slightly different spawning, movement, and attack patterns.
  • Ongoing upgrades between runs
  • Shop also has a list of secondary weapons, with some being passive effects and some being as active as a "parry"
Ghost Doggo Graveyard
  • A variety of enemy types that show up the longer you play a run. There's the basic white dog that follows. There's a grey dog that can howl if you dig him up. There's a black cat that brings more ghosts into the level.
Kawaii Claw Machine
  • Relatively cohesive visually. Tight gameplay loop as an arcade game.
  • I made different claws for the shop like a cat paw and such
Nicer Slicer
  • This is one of the few that plans the wave and makes you replay it if you fail.
  • You can get different lasers: ones that show intermittently, one that's always on and needs the deadzone to turn off, and a couple others.
Spin Board
  • Satisfying in its simplity: when the board is in the air it spins one way, and you can click and hold to spin the other way. It took some time to nail the spin timing to feel fair
  • Variety in tricks available, between flips, grinds, and more.
  • My coworker voiced the congratulations callouts and the skateboard design names.
Aces Fly
  • An arcade shooter with cards. It feels natural and satisfying to flick the cards to smash plates and slice apples.

Full Game Catalog

  1. Pool Is Cool
  2. Penguin Climber
  3. Brain Squared
  4. High Speed Heist
  5. Xiq
  6. Big Pig Ranch
  7. Kawaii Claw Machine
  8. Stockade
  9. Ghost Doggo Graveyard
  10. Dunk Knights
  11. Endless Chickens
  12. Ace Fly
  13. Veggie Farm Frenzy
  14. Hydroplane
  15. Song Pong
  16. Bullet Cavern
  17. Nicer Slicer
  18. Spin Board
  19. Let's Get Kraken
  20. Thunder Tap
  21. Duckling Mania
  22. Rock the Bass

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