By @alex

Ready to make a complete game by typing a few sentences?

Making a game with Astrocade is as easy as describing it. We call it wishing. This tutorial demonstrates how easy it can be with the creation of a Doodle Jump-inspired game called Duck Hop. In only about six steps, Duck Hop will go from an idea to a fully playable game, with plenty of room for a creative mind take it even further.

Step #1: The Creation Wish

Creation on Astrocade begins once you press the Create button on the side menu. Thankfully it’s pretty hard to miss:

From here, you have two options: describe an idea for a game, or let Astrocade help you brainstorm something new.

We won’t need any help brainstorming today, though, as my vision for Duck Hop is ready to go. Let’s talk through it.

The idea for Duck Hop

As you can see from this highly technical engineering schematic, the idea for the game is simple. It’s an endless jumper in which the player controls a duckling that must hop upward from log to log, attempting to reach the highest altitude possible without falling.

E = mc2

Before making a wish, though, I like to organize my thoughts a bit. Here’s a more detailed summary of what I have in mind:

• The game should look cute and colorful. I think an anime art style would be fun.
• I want the background to be a blue sky with white clouds, and maybe some natural scenery.
• This is a simple game, and its interface should reflect that. A big score counter (which just tracks the player’s altitude) should be plenty.

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I want to create an endless jumper called Duck Hop. Use an anime art style.

The background should be a 9:16 image of a blue sky with white clouds with a mountain valley visible at the very bottom.

The player controls a baby duckling viewed from the side. Arrows, A/D keys, or an onscreen joystick (mobile only) move the duckling left/right. The duckling should always face the direction it's moving. The space bar (on desktop) or an on-screen jump button (on mobile) makes the ducking jump.

Generate a tall level (10 screens' worth) of horizontal logs. They should be evenly spaced vertically but randomly placed horizontally.

The object of the game is to hop upward from log to log. A single score value at the top of the screen tracks the player's altitude. Do not add any other UI (nor does the game need a pause button).

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Most of this should be self-explanatory, but there are a few details worth calling out:

• I spell out the “9:16 image” aspect ratio for the background because Astrocade games are optimized for mobile devices by default. Although not required, this detail ensures the background will be created at the right size.
• Similarly, I like being explicit that characters in platform games should always face the direction they’re moving. Astrocade often gets this right on its own, but I like to be sure.

The mockup