Freestyle Fizz Process
We’ve being really busy over at the CloudKid HQ finishing up production on the second season of PBS Kids’ Fizzy’s Lunch Lab. Our most recent game, Freestyle Fizz, launched a couple weeks ago, so we thought it’d be fun to give you all a little behind-the-scenes peek into the production.
We were very excited to start production on this game because it was our first side-scrolling experience in which the user controls the character, Professor Fizzy in this case. But, we didn’t want to create just another roller skating game, so we decided to add a little something extra by creating a series levels and unlockable outfits, and we had a lot of fun designing flashy costumes for Fizzy (See below). The animation component also proved to be more challenging to accommodate multiple outfits, but it added a lot to the user experience and re-playability of the game. And although Freestyle Fizz is a roller skating game, it still had to convey the main curriculum goal – healthy food decisions. Each level has three good (and bad) foods that Fizzy needs to collect (and avoid) in order to hit killer tricks and get higher scores.
Freestyle Fizz was definitely a challenge in terms of game experience, unlockable items, and animation but we’re really happy with the result. And for some added excitement, we threw in a little “easter egg”. Think you can find it? Hint: Level screen, classic 80s code. Check out our visual process below, then go play the game! Good luck!