Finalist interview: Traffic Ninja

February 9 2010, 2:21am

Traffic Ninja, a Finalist in the Macworld 2010 GameSalad Challenge. Traffic Ninja was selected by our panel of judges as one of five Finalist games in the Macworld 2010 GameSalad Challenge. In the first in a series of interviews with the Finalists and Featured International Exhibitors, Traffic Ninja creator Stephen Hoffman (Crazybreadman) shares the story of both his game and his own debut as an iPhone developer. Haven’t tried Traffic Ninja yet? Play it now! Tell us a little about your background, Stephen. I grew up in Florida, but I am currently going to school at BYU-I in Idaho. I’m a full time student studying graphic design. I recently married my awesome wife, Laurel, in May 2009 (she wanted me to mention her in every response but she’ll have to settle for one). As far as game making goes, I don’t have much of a background. I used to mess with RPG Maker back in the day and enjoyed that. I wanted to make an iPhone app for a while though. I made it a New Years resolution… to make an iPhone app, even if it killed me. So I downloaded the SDK and started learning Objective C. Frankly, after a few hours of that I was certain I would die first. Soon after, I stumbled upon Unity 3D and GameSalad. I liked Gamesalad more so I went ahead and made my dream game in less than a month!
Why did you choose GameSalad? I’ve only been working with Gamesalad for a month, but I’ve learned so much so quickly. It’s very fun (and you didn’t even have to bribe me to say that). The advantages of quick dev time and minimal headaches are great. Right brained people like myself love it! You mentioned Traffic Ninja as your “dream game.” When did these dreams start?
The idea for Traffic Ninja was planted in my head as a kid. On long trips I would sometimes look out of the car window and imagine a ninja running and jumping in the opposing lane. I thought if I ever made a game it would be based off of that. How did you develop Traffic Ninja? Did you do everything by yourself? It was a three week, solo effort. I love to do anything creative, so I had previous experience with mixing music, illustration, animation, and design. Everything was made from scratch. I had a good idea what I wanted from day one, but it evolved as I went along. The Bus Clan ninjas didn’t pop into my head until week two. Watch out for the Bus Clan ninjas! Maybe I’m just a noob, but Traffic Ninja is a pretty tough game! What’s the highest score anyone has gotten that you know of? Yes. I built it to be tough! I wanted to make it where you’ll get placed between a rock and a hard place at times, but it’s still possible to conquer. I think I’ve accomplished that because I’ve gotten out of some pretty crazy situations with a quick succession of jumps. I love hardcore games of the past that kick your butt. But alas, due to many requests I have created a “Cadet” mode, while “Elite” retains the original difficulty. The highest scores from the original version that I’ve had reported to me are between 1100-1300. [Editor's note: 1300 points on Elite mode seems like the score to beat!] Do you have plans to develop Traffic Ninja further? Of course! Soon I will release version 1.1 to the app store, which will be like the current version on Gamesalad.com. For 1.2 I would like to have challenge levels and achievements. There are also other features which have been requested that I would like to include soon. Are you working on any other projects that you can share with us? Traffic Ninja has kept me busy in my “free time,” but there are a couple ideas I’ve been playing around with. One is a top view action game similar to the feel of Jackal for the NES. For the other, all I can say is Mr. Goop. What advice would you give to new game creators? If you have an idea then stick to it and make it happen. There’s almost always a way to get your game to work like you want. But don’t be afraid to mess around a little and let the idea evolve! Sometimes you run into “happy accidents.” If you run into something cool that won’t quite fit in with your current game, keep it tucked away for later. Anyone you’d like to thank? I guess I’ll mention my wife again…
Thanks, Stephen! Play Traffic Ninja online. Like Traffic Ninja? Vote for this game to win the Macworld 2010 GameSalad Challenge by tweeting #gamesalad #ninja along with why you think it’s awesome! Traffic Ninja is also available on the iPhone App Store.