The making of...

VICTORIAN BMX

Victorian BMX: Death on Wheels is a browser-based Adobe Flash game, created by This is Pop for Adult Swim Games. This brief overview of the development process includes production documents, game schematics, concept art, a glimpse at the level design tools, and even several playable prototypes. Enjoy!

Proposal

The proposal is the earliest creative document produced. While some basic elements of the game appear here, this document illustrates the starting point for the various explorations we took through theme, character and mechanics.

Research on existing games is an important part of the proposal, both for the client and for the development team, especially when working in an established genre.

GDD

The initial GDD helps set the tone of the project and communicates to the client the avenues that we'd like to explore while beginning development.

The final GDD illustrates how nearly everything, from the controls, to the scoring, to the level structure evolved over the course of the project.

Information Boards

Defining the logic of the player's interactions with a game can be a time-consuming and unpredictabe task. Information boards, also known as game flow diagrams or schematics, are created in order to help developers anticipate the player's experience and to begin dealing with various information design challenges.



Early information boards included elements that were soon cut.

However, the final version of the game schematic is very similar to the completed game!

Concept Art

Concept art is created in order to to explore the appearance of the characters and the game world, and the interplay between the two. Though the look & feel of the world was established quickly, the character design went through several iterations.

More tests

Final animations

Once the characters and the world are defined, work can begin on all the variety of different poses and environments required for development.

More final animations

Sound Effects

The sound effect checklist is an index of all the sound that appear in the game and the events that should trigger them.

Level Design

Levels were designed using a custom tool and saved as XML files.



Level designers also added and modified levels and objects within the levels by hand.

Early Builds

Test with a Penny Farthing bike. Abandoned because the small wheel made wheelies difficult.
   PLAY!

These fat tires were fun and made wheelies easy to sustain but did not match the shape of a BMX bike.
   PLAY!

In this build the bike shape and physics are more refined and visual and audio assets have been added.
   PLAY!

Final Game

Play the complete game on the Adult Swim website!
Check out this full walkthrough from a fan on Youtube!