Demolition!
Demolition! is a Minesweeper-inspired top down explosive puzzle game, made in Unity. The game was developed in one week as a submission for the “Retro” themed Shacknews Jam Spring 2023.
Game
Demolish your way through each floor of a skyscraper using a variety of explosives to reach higher levels. Avoid hitting the load-bearing walls or the floor will crumble and fall on top of you, resulting in a game over. Bombs hidden inside the walls can be a tool for bigger explosions, but they may hit nearby load-bearing walls if set off, so be careful. View your radar to see all load-bearing walls and hidden bombs, and mark walls to avoid while you destroy a path to the goal. Blow up tiles to increase your score, but reach the goal with extra bombs and get even more points. Includes an online leaderboard of high scores for all 5 floors!
Screenshots
Development
Initial Concept
Upon hearing the theme of the jam was retro, we brainstormed ideas around what exactly makes a game retro. We discussed games like Minesweeper, Mega Man, Contra, and eventually Bomberman thinking more around retro console and PC games than arcade games. Fusing the ideas of Minesweeper, Bomberman and a little bit of Binding of Isaac eventually led us to the idea of what is now Demolition! The working title was “Bombsweeper”, playing around with the idea of being on the actual minefield of what you play in Minesweeper, with the original concept being exploring a cave. We also wanted to do a unique artstyle focusing on the cover art and color scheme of classic Atari titles such as Pitfall! and Adventure, rather than pixel art, as we felt it would probably be done by many other teams in the jam. Since the character of this game would end up actually using the bombs and not avoiding them like in Minesweeper, we didn’t want bombs to be the main hazard of the game, instead focusing on these pillars or load-bearing walls that would bring the “cave” down on top of you. We eventually refined this idea further a few days into development about being a construction robot demolishing floors of a skyscraper, with the idea for the load-bearing walls still working as it would bring the floor down on you.
Scrapped Ideas
We had also planned some other mechanics that were eventually scrapped in development either for the sake of time or complexity, such as enemies that roamed around and threw bombs at you with increasingly lowering detonation times on the bombs, with the player being able to utilize their bombs as tools but not for long. Another idea was having some of the floor tiles collapse if an area was bombed repeatedly too many times. Additionally, to go along with the Minesweeper theme we originally considered having the bombs hidden from the player entirely but instead having them shown the distance to a nearby bomb in the form of numbers on the floor. This was eventually scrapped to make it simpler for the player and to prevent instances where players would bomb a large area and randomly cause a game over without seeing what caused it. The third bomb type, TNT, was originally planned to have an X or + shape depending on its rotation, but this was also scrapped as it would just not be as effective as the other bombs, instead opting for a massive explosion radius that is difficult to use but generates lots of points and is useful in specific areas or situations.
Final Thoughts
Demolition! includes many mechanics that I had not worked on before, including a top-down view and online leaderboards, which was exciting, and the latter was surprisingly simple to implement. Finally, in the last few days of development we were looking to come up with a better title for the game and eventually settled with Demolition! parodying Pitfall! as well as its cover art. Overall Demolition! was an enjoyable game to work on over the span of the week-long jam and I am proud of the finished product. I look forward to working on more games with unique artstyles!
Inspiration
Minesweeper
Gameplay and UI Concept Inspiration
Pitfall! and other Activison Atari Titles
Visual, Cover Art, and Color Scheme Concept Inspiration
Bomberman series
Gameplay Concept Inspiration
