PAW PATROL: PUP-FU
Client: Nick Jr
All paws on deck! We’ve made a match-3 game for Nick Jr. and it is totally pawsome! You might have guessed by now that it stars Marshall and the rest of the Paw Patrol team and focusses on their quest to master the ancient art of Pup-fu. The player must help each pup level up their skills by breaking boards, eventually working their way up to the legendary gold belt!
After being introduced to the Paw Patrol pups, players must search the game grid for a group of three or more shapes of a matching colour. Clicking on a group dismisses them from the grid, and more boards fall to take their place. Successfully matching colours increases the player’s score until they have earned enough points to move onto the next belt, and a more difficult challenge.
Occasionally, a special board will fall. Matching one of these will summon the Hen-keido master, Chickeletta, who will fly onto the grid and destroy several boards using a special move. This gives the opportunity for even more points, so players should watch out for these opportunities to score big.
After each level is competed, the pups show off their special moves and the player is given the opportunity to work toward the next belt. At the end of the game, all of the pups congratulate the player in a final animation.
Making a match 3 game for a pre-school audience gave some unique challenges. The game had to be simple to understand yet fun to play. More complicated Bejeweled style ‘swipe-to-match’ mechanics wouldn’t suit the under-5s, so we took a far simpler ‘tap the group’ mechanic and made it highly engaging by adding smooth animations, particles and wonderful artwork. Performing Chickeletta’s special move could be made more technical in a game for an older audience, but keeping the conditions as simple as possible meant that even the youngest fans of the series could enjoy and understand the game!
Built using Flambe and Haxe, the game runs brilliantly on both mobile and desktop browsers. This technology helps us to quickly build and iterate on responsive games for multiple platforms and devices. The game launched in the USA last week and we’re told it’s proving extremely popular!
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