How I made a mobile game with my seven-year-old daughter – Reader’s Feature

Juno And The Dragon King – if you don’t like the games available make your own (Darren Crozier) A reader explains how he and his daughter made their own retro platformer together, and why it has no adverts or in-app purchases. I played Flimbo’s Quest on the Commodore 64 as a kid, and I played it to death. The bright, chunky graphics, the music, the letters you had to collect to spell a secret word before the timer ran out. More than 30 years later it’s still the game I think of when someone says ‘retro’. I’m not a game developer by trade. I make adverts and websites for local businesses on the Isle of Man. But I’ve got a seven-year-old daughter, Robyn, and I got fed up with the games aimed at her. She’d download something free, play for two minutes, and then a pop-up would ask for money for gems or extra lives. Every single time. So I thought: why not make the kind of game I loved, for her? The game is called Juno And The Dragon King. Juno has to get through 10 levels to rescue a princess, and it plays the way Flimbo did. One fixed jump, shoot the monsters, collect the letters to spell secret words, spend your money in the shop inside the level, and keep an eye on the timer. There are hidden bonus rooms too, because a Flimbo game without them wouldn’t be right. Every level’s music is a different take on the first tune, the way the old games did it. Robyn designed it with me, mostly sitting on her bedroom floor. The end-of-level bosses are her toys. There’s her baby bat and a sausage dog named after Dexter, a dog we walk together. There’s also a glow worm that was mine when I was a boy and now sits on her bed. Her favourite cuddly cheetah, the one she sleeps with every night, is a helper you can buy in the shop, and it follows Juno everywhere. The princess Juno rescues is Robyn, and the secret words spell out her best friends’ names. Want GTA 6 news? Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for the latest GTA 6 news, reviews of new games you should play and exclusive analysis of the biggest stories of the week. She was also my tester. If she got stuck on a level, it was too hard and I changed it. That’s why it starts gently and gets tougher as you go. It also means the later levels have been beaten by a seven-year-old, so there’s no excuse for the rest of us. A board meeting for the development team (Darren Crozier) There’s more going on under the surface than the 10 levels, but I won’t spoil it. I’ll just say that if you hear a sheep going ‘cluck, cluck, cluck’, that’s not a mistake. Getting it onto the App Store was more nerve-racking than making it. As a brand new developer account, the review took weeks, with a few questions from Apple along the way. It was approved on 27th October and went live two days later. Seeing it sitting there on the App Store, with Robyn’s toys on the screenshots, was a proud moment for both of us. It’s £4.99, once. No adverts, no in-app purchases, it collects no data, and it works offline, so it’s fine for long car journeys and holidays. If my daughter can’t run up a bill on it, neither can yours. To make it a bit more fun, the first nine players to complete the whole game will get their names put into the next update. If you grew up on Flimbo’s Quest, I hope it brings a bit of that back. And if you’ve got a seven-year-old in the house, they might beat it before you do. Juno And The Dragon King is out now on iPhone and iPad. By reader Darren Crozier Juno And The Dragon King owes a debt to C64 classic Flimbo’s Quest (Darren Crozier) The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro. You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you won’t need to send an email. Arrow MORE: The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel's hardest boss will be Todd Howard - Reader’s Feature Arrow MORE: The Legend Of Zelda is the best video game series ever – Reader’s Feature Arrow MORE: Why I bought Gears Of War: E-Day despite not being a fan of the series – Reader’s Feature GameCentral Get the latest GTA 6 news, reviews of new games you should play and exclusive analysis of the biggest stories of the week.