More on Hip Ship

I created a complete play-through video of Hip Ship for those interested in seeing all of the content in its current state. You can view it below.

As far as future development goes, after looking at statistics and getting feedback I think it would be best if I changed the main focus of the game. I want to allow the player to play each level individually and rank them based on how well they do with time, coins collected, and how many tries it took them.

This would give players a more casual experience where they can go at their own pace and learn the levels and game mechanics with less frustration. It would also allow me to add more levels in the future without breaking any leaderboard systems.

The current gameplay mode will be turned into an arcade/expert mode that the leaderboard will continue to follow. And it will stay at just the original 6 levels simply because I like that it can take under 5 minutes to beat.

I've also been considering supporting user-generated levels. I love that model. I have a good idea of how to create a backend to support user-generated content, it's just a matter of finding the time to develop it. But once I do I'll likely include it in most of my weekend projects.

If I do find time to make these changes then I will likely consider putting it up on the new Mac App Store and add in a lot more levels. Adding content at this point is fairly straight forward. I've designed the game in such a way that I can create a new level in about an hour. If I need to program new game mechanics it takes about 2 hours for a new level.

Although Hip Ship isn't bringing anything new to the playing field, the codebase I'm using is a great template for me to create more small games with. So I will be expanding on it.

Play it on the dimeRocker Arcade
Play it on Kongregate