Mommy's Best Games' Dev log: Emoji Scream, first ever "scream-em up"

Friday, December 23, 2016

Emoji Scream, first ever "scream-em up"

Our newest game is called "Emoji Scream" and it's a side-scrolling shooting game in which you control a screaming emoji. The twist is, when you scream in real life, you make the in-game emoji do the screaming. The looks like "sound waves" which fire to the right, destroying in-coming emoji-fied enemies.

While there are some programs with voice activation, this is the first game I know of which is *exclusively* and entirely controlled through sound. Even the main menu system can be controlled by sound, if you hold a loud note, it activates the core buttons to play the game. And there is no other way in which to control the gameplay, other than through sound.

Controls

The game itself controls like this. Your smiley emoji player moves up and down the screen automatically as enemies move towards you. If you scream, laugh, talk, sing, clap, or otherwise make some loud sounds, it causes the emoji to scream in the game. But it also makes your emoji stop moving up and down. In this manner you can shoot, but also control your player's movements.You'll need to use this "hold" move to get past environmental objects that can't be destroyed, but will kill you if you crash into them.

Scoring

The scoring system actually rewards "thoughtful screaming". As long as you are not making sound above the volume threshold, your player builds up to 3 times, a score multiplier of sorts. On the left side of the player, three colored outlines will appear. If you then scream to shoot, the next bullet will have the 1+, 2+, 3+ score addition. If you hit an enemy with this special shot, you'll then get 1, 2, or 3 extra coins that bounce out of the enemy. Killing enemies, but also grabbing coins is how you increase your score. Holding back and strategically shooting is the key to a high score in Emoji Scream.

Boss Fights

Each level culminates in a giant boss fight called a "scream duel". Here, the player can no longer move, but based on when they decide to scream, they will have a bigger or smaller mega-shot to use against the huge boss. And some bosses require you to stop/start screaming again, depending on their defenses.

Game Structure

Emoji Scream has three unlockable difficulty settings, 5 distinct levels, detailed, in-game statistics about your playthrough, and an animated ending. After each level it records your progress and let' you pick up from that level to continue.