Factsheet

Developer:
SONAR Games
Based in Malaysia

Release date:
June 28 2020

Platforms:
Windows

Website:
indiedb.com/games/smittys-journey

Available From:
Free - itch.io

Description

Smitty's Journey is a 2D puzzle platformer adventure, set in a bustling continent of Dripsdale, natively inhabited by droplet-like creatures called Dropples.

History

The idea was started all the way back in early May 2018, when I made a character called Smitty as my profile picture in Discord, I've decided to make him a "web mascot" for my one-man company. At the time, it has been 5 years since I formed SONAR and published my first game, I make various games that are just straight up unfunctionally bad throughout the years. But since 2015, my talents are improving bit by bit and this game (Smitty's Journey) proves all of my improved talents, if not the most perfect.

The development of Smitty's Journey was started in the end of the month in that year, after some feedback from the members of my old Discord server. I used Unity to make this game and slowly making progress throughout the year. It's not an easy job, I shall say. Since I make everything by myself: arts, music, coding, and even promotion, it takes quite a while. But I think the hardness was worth it since I want a full control over this project.

Since I used rigidbodies to make the platformer character, the mechanics were a bit stiff and awkward. But after a few tweaks, I've successfully make the character control well... most of the times. And of course, when creating the levels (or as I prefer to call, "stages"), I need to ensure the tiles actually look great and the layout looks as accessible as possible, while still making it a little bit tricky. The music? Well, I simply used regular MIDI for everything besides synthesizers, all composed in FL Studio. Sound effects? I used the same DAW to make jingles and the software, sfxr for simple sound effects. And the artworks, I used Inkscape for that since that's the tool I'm currently good at. I have past experiences with Flash / Animate and even Fireworks for games I made in 2013-2016 but they're... not as great as Inkscape.

Now, I have been wanting to make a platformer since 2014. I brainstormed so many character ideas and... I ended up using the alien character from one of my HTML5 games, Perry the Explorer Alien. Unfortunately, I canceled the project and some other ones as well at the time since I'm not that skillful enough and even too lazy to work on everything. I was still in middle-school at the time so I can just do so much. But finally, Smitty's Journey is where I am now. So many years have passed and my talents are slowly improving over time, I really hope I can try to break my limits someday.

Features

• Classic 2D platforming combined with modern features
• Adorable vector artworks, all drawn digitally
• Self-composed happy-sounding soundtrack
• 8-bit sound effects to give it a bit of a retro flair
• Secret areas are everywhere
• Interact with villagers in the periodically-improving Village

Smitty's Journey Credits

Tetriser
Founder

Contact

Support
tetriser2018@gmail.com