Perky Penguin game

This section is all about the game which we will create throughout this chapter and Chapter 2, Finishing the Perky Penguin 2D Game. Our game name is Perky Penguin and it is a Jetpack Joyride-based game. Final game of this chapter is shown as following:

Figure 1.34 Perky Penguin Gameplay

Perky Penguin is inspired from Jetpack Joyride game. Jetpack Joyride is a 2011 side-scrolling endless runner and action video game created by Halfbrick Studios. It was originally released in 2011 for iOS devices on App Store but it has been ported to many systems including Facebook, Android, Flash, PlayStation, Blackberry, and Windows Phone.

Jetpack Joyride game was titled Machine Gun Jetpack during development.

The reason to create a Jetpack Joyride type game for this book is to teach the developers the perspective and methods of how 2D games are created in Unity from scratch. As Jetpack Joyride game includes all the basic functionalities which are implemented almost in all types of 2D games such as side scrolling, parallax scrolling, sprite sheets, jumping, random obstacle generation, enemy generation, enemy Artificial Intelligence, particle systems, and animations.

Perky Penguin gameplay

The game features a penguin that is on ice in very cool (pun intended) and that's why she is called penguin. In order to navigate through an ice field in the time of global warming, she gets a hold of a jetpack, which is tied on her back. The game uses a simple, one-touch system to control the penguin; when the player presses anywhere on the touchscreen, the penguin's jetpack is fired and penguin rises above the ground making a feel like she is flying for a moment. When the player lets go, the jetpack turns off and penguin falls. The game is continuously running in side view, so player is not required to control the speed of penguin. The player is only able to control the vertical movement of penguin by turning the jetpack on and off.

The objective of the game is to travel as far as possible, collect fish coins, and avoid obstacles such as zappers, missiles, and high-intensity laser beams.

In the next section, we will start the development of the Perky Penguin game. We will learn how to add the player, which in our case is a penguin with jetpack tied to her back, to the game.