Hypercasual

Ripple Jump

Ripple Jump is a hyper-casual game inspired by UQ42. Both projects were developed by a small team of four, using my custom C++ engine. The original plan was to hand the game over to a publisher, but unfortunately it didn’t perform well in terms of metrics. I believe the main issues were the level balance, excessive difficulty at times, and a lack of dynamic gameplay in certain situations.

The first version came together fairly quickly, but the final build ended up consuming far too much time. One of my biggest mistakes was trying to please every “expert” who had an opinion on how a feature should be implemented. Their advice often led to unnecessary changes, while none of them were risking their own time or money. Looking back, this was a significant factor in the project’s failure.

Although the game never had a built-in editor, it did include the ability to load balance settings and custom levels externally, and even launch arbitrary levels. Naturally, this functionality was disabled in the release build.

Ripple Jump supports both portrait and landscape orientations. The mechanics are simple enough that it could be played not only on mobile devices, but also on Android TV, Apple TV, or even desktop in landscape mode. Development began on macOS with support for macOS and Web builds, and closer to release I added projects for iOS and Android.

It’s unfortunate that the game turned out to be a commercial failure, because I truly like both the art style and the core idea. Maybe someday I’ll revisit the project, rework the level balance, add a few new mechanics to improve variety, and build proper versions for Apple TV and Android TV.

Tricky Blocks

Tricky Blocks is a classic Tetris-style game with expanded gameplay. Players progress through levels by completing various objectives. These can include destroying a specific shape or clearing a certain number of lines – single, double, triple, or even quadruple.

The game is inspired by the original Tetris from Fuxoft. Below are a few screenshots of the original game running on the ZX-Spectrum.

On mobile devices, the game is controlled via gestures, while on the web and desktop, you can use a keyboard.

Tricky Blocks is available on iOS, Android, Facebook Instant Games, Yandex.Games, and the web. The game is built on my custom C++ engine, which I use for all of my projects. Since development was done on macOS, a version for this platform is also available.

The game includes a level editor, allowing you to create and edit levels and test them immediately. The editor is only accessible in the developer version; it is not included in the public release.

One unique feature of Tricky Blocks is that shapes move smoothly across the grid, rather than snapping abruptly from cell to cell, as in most Tetris games.

The most challenging part of development was iterating on the game design and interface layout to make it look good across different aspect ratios. I solved some of these issues, but I believe there’s still room for improvement. Designing and balancing the levels was also difficult – and unfortunately, the balance isn’t perfect yet.

Tricky Blocks for Web browser.

Cubic Tower

Cubic Tower is a classic arcade game that has made its way from the old-school arcade machines to modern mobile devices and desktops.

In this new version, I’ve switched to the latest build of my custom C++ engine AGE, refreshed the game’s interface, and reworked the core gameplay. The game now features proper levels, the option to continue after a missed block, and a smoother introduction of super cubes so that new players aren’t overwhelmed by too many features at once.

As always, the game is available on iOS, tvOS, Android, Android TV, and Web (on my website, Facebook, OK, VK, and Yandex.Games).

The Web version includes a custom-built game center that stores leaderboards and player profiles. This allows VK and OK users to keep their progress even if they switch browsers or devices – start on desktop, continue seamlessly on mobile.

There’s nothing particularly “secret sauce” about the game – animations and sequences are all handcrafted with my own action system. Thanks to the AGE engine, the game is easily portable across platforms.
A new update is already in the works: it will fix the animation for precise block placement, improve navigation with keyboard, gamepad, or TV remote, and most likely rework the super cube, which currently duplicates the last placed block.

Dance Hero: Swipe to Dance

A hyper-casual game by Diesel Puppet for iOS and Android. The player’s task is to draw gestures shown in the left column of each wave. You have to do it quickly, since the list of gesture icons keeps moving downward. The game also features a shop where players can unlock different dances. At the moment there are 10 dance variations, each delightful in its own way. I especially enjoy the character’s animations.

I participated in the game’s development as a programmer. The concept, graphics, Spine animations, and balance were all created by the Diesel Puppet team. The game was built on my cross-platform engine, AGE.

At first, I used a neural network for gesture recognition. For the “engine,” I tried the open-source GRT. However, I couldn’t achieve high recognition accuracy despite spending a lot of time training the network. Most likely, my kung fu was far from master level.

In the end, I completely abandoned the neural network and switched to the $P+ algorithm with some small modifications. These tweaks mainly minimized false positives but didn’t affect the core principle. It’s worth noting that this algorithm is quite fast and requires no lengthy training – you just need to describe gestures in mathematical form.

For level design and gameplay balancing, I made a web version of the game with configs loaded from a server. In the release version, this functionality was disabled.

Dance Hero: Swipe to Dance for iOS
Dance Hero: Swipe to Dance for Android

Ultimate Question 42

Yesterday marked the deadline for submissions to the international Ludum Dare game jam. Developers are challenged to create a game from scratch in 72 hours (for the jam) or 48 hours (for the compo) based on a given theme.

Our team of four created Ultimate Question 42 in just 72 hours. I took on the role of programmer and technical specialist (well, what else could I do? :)), Shevadzutskiy Alexander was our game designer, and Artem Khodas and Dojo handled the art.

On the morning of the first day, we learned the theme, brainstormed ideas, and dove straight into development. By midday, we had a rough concept of the game, and by the second day, we had a playable version.

We decided to build the game on my engine directly for the Web, as it allows immediate testing without installing anything on desktop or mobile devices. A native Linux version is available on the project site, and I can run the iOS version on my smartphone. In the future, we plan to release public versions for iOS, Android, Apple TV (tvOS), Android TV, and Facebook Instant Games.

Although I was completely exhausted by the evening of the third day – like a squeezed lemon – I was incredibly satisfied with our work. Our team functioned seamlessly; everyone clearly understood their responsibilities, and in the end, we delivered a great result.

You can find the official Ludum Dare page for the game here: Ultimate Question 42

Way of Tanks

Way of Tanks is a tank runner game with endless gameplay and diverse tracks. Players control a tank using swipes, keyboard buttons, or Apple TV gestures, aiming to cover as much distance as possible without hitting obstacles or dying in boss battles.

The tank can switch lanes, shoot, and even jump over trenches – yes, it’s that kind of modern tank! The game features various power-ups that temporarily enhance the tank’s abilities: agility, super shots, doubling collected coins, or the ability to break through obstacles.

Players can also use coins collected during runs to purchase new tanks or upgrade existing ones. There are four tanks in total, each with unique stats and capabilities.

With the permission of Ogurec Apps, I took on porting Way of Tanks from Java to iOS, tvOS, macOS, Linux, and Web, using my old but familiar and convenient game engine. The game is now ready to be handed over to its owner, though I retain the source code of both the game and the engine.

The game is already available in the browser – Way of Tanks. Hopefully, it will soon appear on the Apple AppStore for iOS, tvOS, and macOS. As for Linux, the decision rests with Ogurec Apps, but I really hope they won’t mind.

Death Hop

or maybe Death Jump… who remembers these names anymore?

We definitely overcomplicated things – it says Hop on the icon, but Jump in the menu.

A rather interesting hyper-casual game with endless gameplay. I really liked this one – fun mechanics, a nice setting, and good animations for both the character and the platforms he hops on.

The rules are simple – you know the drill: tap the screen at the right time, collect the red-and-yellow soul orbs – they’re needed to respawn.

Both the engine and the game were written in C++. It was made by a small team at Synesis. If I remember correctly, there were no real difficulties during development – everything went smoothly and quickly. That’s how it usually goes when you actually like the game you’re making.

By the way, this game would have worked perfectly on Android TV and Apple TV in landscape orientation. I’m pretty sure I even created builds for tvOS and Android TV at some point.

It seems the game now only survives on my iPhone and Android devices.

Flawless Hit

The first attempt to create a classic stacker game in an isometric projection was made at Synesis. The custom engine and game code, written in C++, allowed the game to run on multiple platforms simultaneously – Android, Android TV, iOS, and Apple TV. Development was done on macOS, so the game also ran perfectly on macOS. The engine even allowed the game to run on Windows.

This game belongs to the category of my creations that I’ve enjoyed playing for many years.

Snow Swords

I worked on the engine and game code while at Synesis. Graphics, music, animations, and all other non-programming aspects were handled by other talented specialists.

I can’t go into full detail about the development process or the internal structure of the engine and game. Both the game and the engine – as well as the toolchain needed to build the game – were written in C++.

The development process itself was similar to most casual games: we chose the game concept, the artist/designer created sketches, and we approved them together. Animators and integrators then got involved, while I focused on writing the game code and, when necessary, refining the engine.
Everything was then combined into a single project, resulting in a game for iOS and Android.

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