My four year old son and I have a Saturday morning ritual where the two of us go our for a “special” breakfast at a local restaurant. While we are waiting for our food, Owen always draws a very exciting battle scene on the back of the paper placemat using the crayons provided by our server. This week’s battle scene was that of an army battle that involved a very large spaceship and a tank and some helicopters. Once he was done drawing, he asked “Dad, can we turn this into a video game?”. I answered that of course I could make a video game!
So we went home and pulled out an old scanner, scanned his drawing, and went to work in Flash! The result, is a fun little game that I had fun making (and relearning a bit of trigonometry) and Owen had fun playing. I thought I’d share it as a small lesson in how to make a video game.
The game is aptly titled “Army Battle“. To play the game, you try to blast the helicoters with a bullet from your tank. To move the tank use the up and down arrows. To rotate the tank, use the left and right arrows. To aim the turret, move your mouse pointer around the screen. To fire the cannon, click the left mouse button!
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
Dude! That is the best game EVER! And your son surely thinks that you are the BEST DAD EVER!
:)
When I read the post I didn’t expect what I saw… very, very nice indeep. :) Love it!
Wow, that’s impressive work for a Saturday morning/afternoon.
Just watch out when the other kids on the street start turning up on your front door with their place-mat scribbles and game requests :)
Wow, you get points for being a cool dad :)
Very cool game.
man you and your son are the coolest! i love it!!and also my wife. great
I can’t blow up the top-left-most ‘copter. :(
Nice game btw!
wot can i say? this is game of the year! lol
Great game. And your son is an excellent artist for his age.
Tre Impressive.
SO COOL ! ps can kill the chopper in the top left connor BUT GREAT AND GREAT DRAWING !!!
cant kill it *
Definitely the best game ever! I will write a post on my Chinese blog titled: What a real game is like!
lol~~~
to michael, you just move the tank using arrow keys.
That’s great, I bet your son was so pleased!
It’s amazing! You spend really good time with your son and you’re great dad.
hmm….. the last helicopter (the one on the left top corner) seems ..invincible? or.. is that a mistake? my son (3.5 old) & I played 3 times so far adn ..that drives me CRAZY! :-p also ..if u could send me the flahs file, i could possibily add some sound..?? :-p (my sons’ request lol)
but.. well we LOVED it.. good job!
nice game but i can’t get the last copter
Wow, that is something. You are really talented, man. I mean, it’s so simple but much too fascinating in a kiddish kind of way.
I wish I had the parallel skills of Flash as you do.
I was watching the lab with leo and i love the idea of making your own game
but when i try to go to the zip file download your site wont pull it up could you please try to trobleshoot it for me Thank You!
Brandon, you can get the files at:
http://www.digitalmediaminute.com/howto/crayonbattle/
I cant kill the last one
thank you jim for the website http://www.digitalmediaminute.com/howto/crayonbattle/
:)
il soon finish bye
oh well how do play it
how did you make it? Its awesome!
dude that is some cool game you made i play it alot but when you destroy all o em how yougt last 1.any way kid your you gotta think your dad izz de best :D only 4your a good drawer lol! :) plzz tell us your secret lolz (‘.’)