It’s Not About the Aliens
Released: May 1, 2014
Platform: Unity (webplayer)
“A real gem … with gorgeous style and heart to match.”
This is another one of my early games. It was very ambitious, but ended up being an excellent way of throwing myself into learning how to use Unity.
At the time, it was by far the largest game development project that I’d worked on. I completed it as an entry in the 64Digits Spring 2014 Competition. The accountability of making a game for a competition was an excellent motivator, especially when a hefty grand prize was on the line. So, the entire game came together in thirty days, and what a grueling thirty days it was.
The idea itself wasn’t strictly original, though. It’s actually a remake of the very first game I ever made – the original It’s Not About the Aliens. If you do opt to follow that link and play the original, bear in mind: it was my first game and probably has more bugs than aliens in it.
After the game was finished, it was favorably received, being featured on the front page of GameJolt, a very nice review on JayIsGames, a whole lot of YouTube reviews, and over 6,000 plays on GameJolt. Part and parcel with this attention, of course, was a heaping amount of criticism, particularly about the game’s difficulty and floaty controls. It was a very interesting experience, mostly because I wasn’t expecting a large response of any type, but I ended up getting a lot of attention, both positive and negative. It helped me learn to be able to take criticism of my work.
I still want to go back to it and do a remaster, fixing the controls and tweaking some of the frustrating parts. In fact, I’ve started this process a number of times, but always get distracted by new projects.
Until then, though, you can play it here, or check out one of the many playthroughs. I’ve embedded one below.
