Introduction

From 2000 to 2012, I co-owned a web design and game development agency called Laika that created dozens of games for mostly non-profit clients such as Samsam, NCRV, and WWF. The games were often educational or aimed at raising awareness of specific themes.

The Laika team also created a puzzle website called ‘Vitamine P,’ which was eventually sold to the largest Dutch newspaper.

I came up with many of the game concepts for Laika’s clients as well as for Vitamine P and developed almost all the games. This document contains a few examples.

My role

• Game concept design (all games listed here)
• Development of single-player games in Flash ActionScript (all of the games listed here, except the CNV Application game)
• Illustrations (most of the games listed here)
• Animations (all of the games listed here)

Vitamine P: a puzzle a day keeps the doctor away

Vitamine P, our puzzle/braintraining website, presented five new puzzles each day in five categories. It was aimed at the elderly, who at the time of this project were not very computer savvy yet. Therefore, we paid a lot of attention to the UI, which was very straight forward and consistent across all puzzles. Additionally, each puzzle contained animated help instructions.

The website kept track of your personal PQ, or puzzle performance. Most of the puzzles were generated in advance and were identical for all players, allowing users to chat about the puzzles with each other.

We sold Vitamine P to Keesing, part of De Telegraaf, the largest Dutch newspaper. Read more on Vitamine P

NCRV: games for a children’s tv-show

The Dutch broadcasting company NCRV featured a TV show ‘Willem Wever,’ which answered questions from children. We developed ten games to accompany the show, each game was tailored to the theme of an episode.

NCRV Twin game

The episode on twins was accompanied by a unique game. There are two floors, with a sister on each floor. The player controls both sisters simultaneously. If the top twin jumps, the bottom one jumps as well. Therefore, the player must pay attention to both floors simultaneously and ensure that a movement intended for one sister does not harm the other!

NCRV Photo shooter game

The Photo shooter game features unique gameplay. The user must construct a photo on the right by hitting parts of the photo that drop down from the top. If the user hits a part, it is stacked onto the other parts on the right. If a user hit the wrong part, it can be removed again from the stack by shooting it.

NCRV Coral Game

In the Coral game, the user must maneuver a school of fish through a cave while avoiding rocks. The challenge is that each fish in the school follows the next one with a slight delay. The school grows with each level. I created the algorithm for the movement of the school.

NCRV Soccer Game

In the Soccer game, you have to kick a ball through a hole by hitting it at the right spot. A larger hole is easier to hit but will earn you fewer points.

We later extended this game to a ‘Free Kick’ version for a commercial game site.

The user first aims by moving a 3D arrow around with the mouse or a touchpad. In the second step, he/she/they can determine the speed. The speed intermittently increases and decreases, and when you click the mouse, the current speed is applied. To achieve the right speed, you must time your click well. Finally, you can add an effect (spin) to the ball by quickly moving the mouse left, right, up, or down. This will help you curve the ball around or over the wall of players.

To be honest, the gameplay was a bit complicated for a casual web game, but I am proud of the 3D logic I developed myself for this game.

NCRV Police race

The episode on the police featured a chase. While the gameplay is not particularly special, I am most proud of the technical aspects. The game is in 3D, which was not supported by Flash ActionScript or any library, so I developed it myself. I also created all the 3D assets in Adobe Illustrator.

Free work: Space marbles

I created this game for fun. It features unique gameplay. You must move marbles through a maze to get them to a new position. The maze becomes more complex with each level. You cannot control the marbles directly, but you can tilt the maze to the left or right, which sets the marbles in motion.

Municipality of Utrecht: Bus game

The municipality of Utrecht intended to create bus lanes in the city that would affect car drivers. They wanted to foster a positive attitude towards the lanes and explain the benefits of public transport through a game.

The game may not look fancy, but I am proud of how the gameplay aligns with the municipality’s message. In the game, citizens (represented as small black dots in the image) leave their houses and walk to the nearest bus station. As the player it is your task to pick them up with the bus in time and bring them to their work, the factory on the right. If you do not pick them up in time, they walk back to their house and go by car. This will eventually congest the city and make your task as bus driver even harder. If you crash onto a car, you loose.

CNV: Application game

The CNV union asked us to create a game to teach youth about applying for a job. We developed a multiplayer game where each player could advance in their career by completing real-life tasks in a fun way, such as:

• Following educational programs and training
• Writing application letters
• Doing interviews
• Getting jobs
• Adjusting their CV

We developed and tested the game in cooperation with a focus group of adolescents.

The game was a big success, played by 1,300 players per day, which was a multiple of CNV’s expectations. Kids even created a 42-page forum topic on the game, which can still be read.