For the past few weeks I’ve been working on a small iPhone/iPad game called Lost in Space. In the game, you control an astronaut who has disconnected from their spaceship and is now flying through the infiniteness of space. You dodge asteroids, collect power-ups and try to see how far you can get before the inevitable happens.

I had the idea for this game after watching the movie Gravity many months back, however I just haven’t had the time to sit down and make the game. I thought the idea of an untethered astronaut could make a great infinite runner.

Current Progress: Alpha

As of right now, I am about 20 hours or so into the project. I’ve been tracking my progress through a modified version of a burndown chart, made for tracking just myself and the entire project at once instead of on a weekly basis. For more on burndown charts, head on over to Wikipedia or check out Agile Game Development with Scrum, by Clinton Kieth. (I highly recommend this book!)

Currently, the features I’ve implemented make me believe that the game is in a solid state to be considered Alpha. These features are:

Basic mechanics: Player movement & Asteroid spawning.

Player movement & Asteroid spawning. Handful of pick-ups: 2X Score, Protective Bubble, Coins.

2X Score, Protective Bubble, Coins. Increasing difficulty: Game get’s harder and faster as time goes on.

Game get’s harder and faster as time goes on. All necessary menus: Main Screen, Options, Credits, Pause & Game Over

Main Screen, Options, Credits, Pause & Game Over Art! All art is done and imported. (There’s still art that can made and done, but it’s 99% there.)

Upcoming Features:

For the most part, the game is done, and playable from start to finish and can be restarted. A lot of the finishing features I need to code in are minor features or optional features that will just help the game play better in the end. Some of them include:

More powerups: Speed Up, Slow Down, Asteroid Destroyer

Speed Up, Slow Down, Asteroid Destroyer Game Center Support: Leaderboards & Achievements

Leaderboards & Achievements Menu polish: Right now, menus are really ugly and don’t function 100% of the time.

Right now, menus are really ugly and don’t function 100% of the time. Sound & music: Currently have some sound effects done, and music being worked on.

Currently have some sound effects done, and music being worked on. More resolutions: The game works best in only a few resolutions. I’d like to optimize it to work on any resolution flawlessly.

Screenshots, Media & Links:

These screenshots simply show off the current state of the game, with the GUI hidden.

Wrap Up!

That’s all for this development update! I’m going to do my best to keep these as frequent as I can. Seeing how the game is very low in scope, it should be finished in a few more days worth of work. I just need to find some free time to do some work in! 🙂

Until next time, please feel free to follow me on Twitter, or subscribe to my newsletter to stay up to date with my game development!