Spheroids now available for Windows 10 and Xbox One
When we started development of Spheroids, we wanted to do something inspired by the mechanics of a classic game that was popular in the arcades in Spain when we were young: Pang! (aka Buster Bros). It was a simple skill-based game that had you bursting balls over different stages around the world. We thought it was great and that it could be used as inspiration to evolve it and mix it with other genres to create something new and original.
The first thing we thought could improve upon were larger environments. After all, why should you be confined to a small screen? It might have been a constraint back in 1989, but now we could push the platforming and puzzle elements hinted at in Pang! to new levels in Spheroids.
Following up on that concept, we thought it’d be good to include the plane-switching mechanic. We thought having different situations could help develop interesting puzzles which meant we could open the game up to new gameplay mechanics and situations, adding more variety and different challenges.
Thus we had three pillars to base Spheroids upon: combat from Pang, classic platforming, and puzzle elements. We played with some basic elements for puzzles and platforming, like buttons, doors, moving platforms. That turned into “Combat Zones” so that, sometimes, when you enter a zone walls would appear to bring about the Pang!-like parts.
But we wanted to improve the platforming part of the game. That lead to the creation of the hook and grapple, which turned into hook shooting and jumping. Then we thought we needed just one more mechanic to complete our set of gadgets: inverting gravity. That’s how the gravity boots were born. With that, it was time to think of enemies.
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