IOS games are a dime a dozen. Games like Temple Run and Candy Crush come into our lives and are gone just as fast. I think I’ve found a game that might just give all of them a run for their money and actually stick around: Sky Scramble.
I was able to try the game out before its official release, July 30, and talk to developer Robert Canogar about the game.
What is Sky Scramble?
Sky Scramble, created by the indie developers at BertoGames, is a puzzle game that is addictive and challenging. On the website, it is described like this,
“An original sliding puzzle developed by two mathematicians. Imagine you could touch the stars and move them! What would you do? Imagine you see a little red star that has been trapped into a constellation, but the red star will be able to escape from the constellation if it reaches the red ring.”
The basic idea is to move the red star to the red circle but you can only swap stars if they are touching.
Sounds simple, right? Wrong!
“It all started with a love of puzzles and also the idea of making something a bit different, different of the puzzles I normally see in the app store,” said developer, Roberto Canogar.
This game works your mind like it has never been worked before. The game, developed by college professors, including Canogar, has three level types; easy, medium and hard. Hard levels are no joke. I really enjoyed how simple the game seemed, coupled with how very complex it actually was.
“As you progress in the game, the strategies become a little bit different. You have to learn some tricks to solve the levels. We definitely had to work with a learning curve, so little by little the levels get harder.“
One thing that I think the developers could have done without is an undo button. It makes it very easy to just erase your mistakes, which might be nice for some people but I think it makes the game too easy at the moment. It also downplays the achievement of actually getting a high score without to go back and fixing your mistakes.
The making of Star Scramble
“In the beginning, the game was full of numbers”
You can tell the developers at BertoGames really put a lot of thought into what they were creating, but going from numbers to stars is a huge jump.
“To me, the numbers are very simple, I like numbers. In the beginning, the game was full of numbers. I started to think maybe it’s not such a good idea. Sudoku is famous but it’s not so easy to make something popular out of numbers. I tried to make something more graphical, more intuitive, more visual. Where math came really handy is generating all the levels.”
Canogar went on to discuss how being the developer isn’t a cakewalk, it took time and many attempts to get everything just right.
“A game is made with a thousand choices. Creating Sky Scramble happened little by little. At first it was just numbers and then spheres. At some point it became circles and lines. As a child, I liked astronomy so the gradual progression to stars was just natural.”
“One thing I really enjoyed while developing this game is the array of things that I had to learn. My math skills were strong for different points but there were things like the graphics and user-interface that I had to learn. We had to make the game as simple as possible.”
Sky Scramble releases tomorrow but this won’t be the last you see of BertoGames. Canogar plans of releasing plenty of additional levels and hopefully some updates, which would ultimately make the game a lot better. An update in graphics and some multiplayer aspects would make this game more interesting.
“I have some few additions of the game that I want to start working on. We definitely are looking to add more levels. We have tons of levels. Just depends on what the people think.”
I just hope that the extra puzzles won’t have a charge on them. The first 90 levels in Sky Scramble are free, the rest will cost you, but so far I think the extra money is worth it.
Overall, I give this game a 7/10
The graphics are a little lacking but it is an addictive game that deserves attention. I definitely suggest everyone check out Sky Scramble on IOS (IPhone and IPad) for a new addictive puzzle game.
