CHALLENGE

An in-house project to explore the potential of combining a user-friendly level editor with a leader board, and the ability to create worlds for other players to play in.

STRATEGY

A component missing from most games is the capacity for being creative. Our strategy was to develop an enjoyable arcade-style game that allowed users to develop and share their own levels for others to play. By providing users with the ability to control the game to a high degree without a steep learning curve, length of play and return frequency will increase.

CREATIVE & EXECUTION

Get Geebo home! A young astronaut awakes to find his ship leaking fuel and must collect crystals from a nearby planet to power his ship and return home. Naturally, bands of hostile aliens are ready and waiting to keep him from his goal.
Laser Envy is a simple concept well-executed. The environment is richly detailed, with colorful elements including turrets that fire at Geebo, slippery ice blocks and enemies with different levels of intelligence. Of course, Geebo isn’t unarmed in these dangerous worlds. He can slow down enemies with his Slime Gun and break through tiles with his Laser, and transporter tiles can get him out of danger in a pinch.

Levels consist of three-dimensional environments suspended against a starry backdrop that Geebo must navigate through while collecting crystals and avoiding aliens. The level editor allows a great level of control over creation of environments, and a built-in QA system ensures that each level can be won before being posted for other users to play. Most importantly, the level editor requires a very small amount of learning to use, so even the most novice player is able to develop their own worlds to conquer and share.

The game remains fresh by featuring a user created level-of-the-week and series of the week. By tapping into the creative minds of users, the game has taken on a life of its own. Entire worlds with multiple levels like “Land of Oz” and “Final Rest” have been created entirely by players, and are ranked by others who challenge each other for high scores.

PERFORMANCE

Winner of both Best Game and the award for Technical Excellence at the 2005 FlashintheCan Awards, Laser Envy has illustrated how powerful a user community can be in enhancing the stickiness of a game. Approaching a million game plays, most players have returned to play Laser Envy again, with an average game play of more than 15 minutes each time. Notably, many users have finished the entire 90 minute original level series created by Fuel.