Fuel Tiracas – Twitch-On-Touch Done Properly

INTRODUCTION

What would you do if you made a public dig at the mobile gamer about their thumbs wasting away, and then one of the biggest games companies in the world kindly asks you to make some ‘Slick and FuturLabby’ touch-based games for their new mobile platform?

Well, you’re not going to say no, and whilst some might brush their comments under the carpet and pretend it never happened, we decided to try and help the poor thumb-whithered folks by getting twitch gaming working properly on touch devices. Yay for us :p

Fuel Tiracas represents our first stab in that direction.

Fuel Tiracas - Twitch On Touch Done Properly
Fuel Tiracas – Twitch-On-Touch Done Properly

INSPIRATION

Speaking of stabs, you remember that scene in Aliens when Bishop holds his hand over Hudson’s, and proceeds to scare him witless with his twitch gaming skills?

Well that scene has stuck with us for many years, and we thought it’d be cool to give people the opportunity to look and feel as awesome as Bishop might have.

As with all our games, Fuel Tiracas is simple, elegant and a little bit clever, and it takes everything we’ve learned about addictive mechanics from Coconut Dodge and Velocity, and boils them down to their absolute core essence, building the simplest game possible (we only had 8 weeks!) that adequately challenges the following faculties:

– Use manual dexterity to create fast paced action
– Use memory to take ownership of repeated patterns
– Make fast decisions in response to random events
Look really cool doing all of the above competently

These are the things that make Coconut Dodge and Velocity fun and addictive, and it’s these things that we have literally put right at the player’s fingertips – in their purest form – in Fuel Tiracas.

CONTEXT

Planet Tiracas, Toron Nebula Outpost

The game takes place on Planet Tiracas, which is a Toron Nebula Outpost. The planet currently has no atmosphere, and the player’s job is to use Tiracas’ natural resources as Fuel to power giant atmosphere processors!

Shameless J.C. fans ahoy…

GAMEPLAY

Balancing Fuel

Fusing together ‘Whack-A-Mole’, ‘Spinning Plates’ and ‘Simon Says’ gameplay, the player must quickly collect fuel (coloured circle) as it appears in one of the six fuel pods (three each side), to raise the fuel level in a selected fuel gauge (strips in the centre), making sure to balance each gauge within its threshold (the coloured area within each strip) for long enough to generate 100% power to the atmosphere processor (the ‘xx/100’ at the top of the screen).

This would all be really easy if the fuel didn’t slowly deplete over time, and that’s the kicker…

Bedlam Fuel - Quickly Select The Correct Coloured Fuel Or Suffer A Penalty
Bedlam Fuel – Quickly Select The Correct Coloured Fuel Or Suffer A Penalty

It’s simple, fast-paced action with a resource/time management slant, and it’s addictive as hell because…

Memorise Patterns
Memorise Patterns

…as with Coconut Dodge, the combination of random and predictable elements gives the player the opportunity to memorise and master the patterns that appear, whilst being kept on their toes by random events, leading to Bishop-level exhibitions of skill and speed; and people looking and feeling cool whilst playing 🙂

BANG FOR BUCK

Fuel Tiracas has 12 levels (and 12 trophies) that slowly introduce players to the various different Fuel Types included in the game, and the real value is in the huge amount of replayability as players learn the patterns and improve their best times, competing for the top spot on global high scores!

And… it’s going to cost £0.40p.

A PlayStation Vita game for 40p.

Hello PlayStation Mobile!

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14 Comments

  • Josh Read
    Posted October 2, 2012 at 6:02 pm 0Likes

    Oh poop. Looks great, but I’m color blind! The two color circles on the bottom left side look the exact same to me, as do the blues (blue and purple maybe?). This is frustrating, as I love your games.

    • James @ FuturLab
      Posted October 12, 2012 at 11:57 am 0Likes

      Hi Josh, can you please drop us an email through our contact form?

      Thanks!

      James

  • James @ FuturLab
    Posted October 2, 2012 at 6:05 pm 0Likes

    Hi Josh,

    Thanks for commenting.

    The two on the bottom left are identical, so you’re okay there.

    So you struggle to see the difference between the light blue and purple?

    Hmmz, anything you can point us to on the interwebs that shows a blue and a purple that you can distinguish easily?

    Thanks!

    James

  • Josh Read
    Posted October 2, 2012 at 6:13 pm 0Likes

    Thanks for the reply, James. I’m thinking something lighter on the blue (like this http://maycocolors.com/components/com_virtuemart/shop_image/product/FN011_x.jpg) and something darker for the purple (like http://lemonadelife.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Purple-Suede.jpg) would make it easier, as the there is a big difference between the shades, which helps a lot.

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  • Ben P
    Posted October 3, 2012 at 12:16 pm 0Likes

    Just want to say that the way you responded to the above comment is awesome. This is why indie games publishing is so good – you LISTEN.

    Nice work on the game too – looks amazing.

    B

  • AndyR
    Posted October 3, 2012 at 1:47 pm 0Likes

    Fittlingly, I snuck out with the smokers to give this a quick blast after downloading earlier this morning – that was twenty minutes ago – game is more addictive than nicotine! (Don’t smoke kids!)

    Some of the fastest times in the scoreboards seem a little… erm… ‘unlikely’… I guess would be the politest way to put it…

    But anyway, the commute home should go a little faster tonight!
    Any chance of Velocity or Coconut turning up on PSMobile?

    • James @ FuturLab
      Posted October 3, 2012 at 1:50 pm 0Likes

      Haha, great stuff.

      I think the scores for the first two levels are reached by people spamming the screen, but it’s fun to see just who the fastest spammer is 🙂

      EDIT: We have no plans to bring Velocity or Coconut Dodge to PlayStation Mobile. Neither work well with a touch screen (Velocity would be a disaster), and since both are already available on PS Vita via Minis…

      • AndyR
        Posted October 3, 2012 at 3:54 pm 0Likes

        Cheers for the reply James,

        Is it a pre-requisite of a PS Mobile game that it work PRIMARILY with touch controls, with physical controls an optional bonus?

        Of course you’re right about Velocity on a touch screen. I asked more in vain hope of playing it (and Coconut Dodge) on my aging – but much loved – Xperia Play.

        Thanks again.

        • James @ FuturLab
          Posted October 3, 2012 at 3:56 pm 0Likes

          Hey Andy,

          Actually I don’t think there are any prerequisites that a game works with touch or buttons. It’s entirely up to the developer I think…

          J

  • ASKidwai
    Posted October 3, 2012 at 6:14 pm 0Likes

    Sadly, I am still on the fence about getting this game. I am unconvinced abut rotating the planet and then whacking the “moles”. I’d be hopeless with managing the fuel 😛

  • WildCardCorsair
    Posted October 13, 2012 at 7:33 am 0Likes

    I absolutely love that Bishop was part of the inspiration for Fuel Tiracas. When you put what you love into a game, the love in the game is all the more evident!

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