Don't Shoot the Puppy! - A mobile port of the popular flash game

I recently acquired the rights to the flash game Don't Shoot the Puppy from www.rrrrthats5rs.com. I plan to port the game to iOS within the coming months with a few non gameplay obtrusive additions.

Being a popular little flash game with 40,000,000 pageviews, I decided it would have to be defined in a modern fashion. I'm calling the game a hardcore executioner simulator, with a touch of rage inducing inaction, giving it the right to be the most pacificial game on earth.

It's really exciting to be porting such a popular game and I'm happy to share the experience and gain some valuable feedback on the way. Expect a fairly constant progress update, I hope to see you here.

Find the original game here: http://www.rrrrthats5rs.com/games/dont-shoot-the-puppy.

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Posts:

• New start menu and new content [INFO]
• Unity 4.6 Beta UI change [GIF]
• New turret model [IMAGE]
• Puppy animation finished! [GIF]
• Gun tracking and button changes [GIF] [INFO]
• Playable game! [GIF]
• Happy sign. Sad sign. [IMAGE]
• First build! [DOWNLOAD]
• Scrolling demo [GIF] [INFO]
• Completed fail menu [IMAGE]
• First look at achievements [IMAGE]
• The rest [IMAGE]
• Tweaks and changes: 2015 edition [INFO]
• Scroller changes [GIF]
• Muzzle flare created [IMAGE]
• Implemented flare [GIF] [INFO]
• Finished level select menu [GIF]
• Finished levels and achievements [INFO] [IMAGE]
• New trailer and platform [VIDEO] [INFO]
• Don't Shoot the Puppy Releases on Google Play! [RELEASE]

 

I have recreated the Don't Shoot the Puppy starting screen in Unity. What differs from the original game is the three buttons along the bottom, missing their icons. They will move the screen to the level select, achievements and about pages respectively. This may seem like a big jump from the original game but they only exist to extend total play time, not to change gameplay.

The main reason I am adding these features, despite the game being so mobile friendly already, is that it really lacks the content required to keep the player interested. Once they figure out the only thing they need to do is hold the start button to win, 15 levels are simply not enough. This is why I will be shooting for 30 unique levels.

The biggest problem with the larger amount of levels is the original gameplay mechanic stating when you die, you start over. No exceptions. Nobody wants to start over from level 99, so to fix this I'm planning to add a checkpoint system. For every 10 levels you play, you reach a checkpoint. When you beat all 10, you can replay those 10 levels as many times as you want in any order. If you fail a level however, you have to start from the first stage in the 10 level set.

The achievements however are only added as a supplement to gameplay and can be ignored altogether. They will range from awards in total time not shooting the puppy, to total puppies killed, and even more level specific challenges.

All of this will be discussed in detail later.

 

I went ahead and switched to the new Unity 4.6 Beta UI system. It's turned out to be a great help and is well suited for my needs. I have also changed the position of the settings and help menu items to the upper right. This is the result:

 

The turret has been created as well, although the dimensions may change in game.

 

The animation has been completed for the puppy, yay!

 

Gun tracking now works as it should with a wonderful cubular puppy to shoot.



You will also notice some buttons have been removed. First in the top right, only the "about" button remains. This is because there is no need for a settings button as there will be no music or sound, just like the original game. If you want some additional background, the about text is here:

Also, I removed the large buttons from the bottom that used to lead to level select and such. I considered them ugly and they will be replaced with a swipe to scroll.

 

A few changes this time:

• Start button begins the game
• Particles on death
• Gun recoil animation
• Replay option after death

 

Happy sign. Sad sign.

 

The first build is here!

It is a download because Unity 4.6 Beta will not work as a webplayer. This is an early demo, only 10 levels, and a development build, which means everything is subject to change.

Mac: (Aspect problems)
Download Link

Windows:
Download Link

 

I finished the scrolling mechanic for the title screen. Swiping will move the ACHIEVEMENTS or LEVEL SELECT screens into view. They are a work in progress.



You will also notice the gun animation is gone. I felt like it was straying a bit too far from the original game and I am working to make it tighter. Along with this I changed the save system from 100 separate scenes to prefab objects. Hell yeah.

 

The statistics have been completed for the fail menu. In the beginning of development I actually created the PlayerPrefs for "puppies killed" knowing I would want the total number later. 632 dead puppies later I come to you for forgiveness.

 

The first achievements are in. Below are the first six which are the "special" awards. They are content based which means the remaining 20 achievements can only be obtained by performing special actions.

 

And the rest:

 

Great progress getting things setup in Unity already. I recently switched to the new Unity Beta UI as well, and I'm very happy with it so far. Seems as though you're taking to it as well.

Any plans to port to Droid and/or Windows Store? I can see this game as a great way to get out some frustration when gamedev bugs get me all

 

Thanks. Good choice switching, the new UI has been pretty sexy so far.

Yes, I do have plans for other systems, Android most likely. However the original flash creator told me that he thought it would be hilarious if it got popular on mobile devices, so I'm taking that as an incentive to push the game as far as I can. I'll keep you updated.

 

Hello again! It's been a long time and with a new year I can happily say I have some time to update the project again. I've been testing the build on the iPhone and I think I can say all navigational bugs have been ironed out and I am satisfied with the fluidity of the UI. I made a few changes that depart from the original game's menu, along with a few other changes I made when I had some spare time.

Changelog:

• Moved the start button down to bottom of screen to prevent finger-scene obstruction
• All UI hitboxes made larger
• Implemented Unity Ads *
• Added vibration after shot
• Created levels 1 - 15 **
• Started achievement system
• Created achievement skins
• Fixed many, many bugs

Decisions on gameplay:
* I've decided that making the app paid will completely ruin the spirit of the game. However, I don't like ads just as much as you do, so I've done my best to make them as unobtrusive as possible. Ads will be thrown after dying twice and will be in the form of a picture than can be closed immediately. That's it, nothing more.

** 30 levels on launch. 50 in total.

 

Today I went ahead and changed the scrolling to a simple button tap. I thought this was a bit easier to use on mobile and fit the theme better. What is not included in the image is the play game state which causes the buttons to disappear. As always, feedback is welcome and I'll see you in the next update.

(Sorry about the black border)

 

You're unlikely to get this past Apple, unless you know someone or just get lucky. I did riff of something like this years ago when the iPhone first launched, but with a wario-ware like progression of mini-games where you have to react fast to save a kitten from a maniac. An old video of it is here :

They rejected it for being cruel to animals; that same week, they let an app go through where you play santa-clause and mow children down with a lawn mower.

Good luck; and at least with Unity, the switch to Andoid will be easy.

 

I'm sorry about your experience, but from my friends that have published animal related games in the apple store, it seems like Apple has either become more lenient in its policies or you simply got unlucky. I am fairly confident about Don't Shoot the Puppy because two years ago Addicting Games released a game pack featuring the original flash app without the developers permission. While buggy as hell, it did get past Apple and leaves me to work on this newer version. Thanks for the warning and I'll definitely look into Android permission or not.

Also, wow! Really similar game concept. Maybe they took it down due to gore? Either way shame it didn't work out.

 

This weekend I went ahead and made the muzzle flare sprites. They are meant to mirror the original effect by being big, colorful and fast to add to comedic effect. They will be implemented by tomorrow.

 

At one point they actually called me to talk about the submission, but wouldn't really tell me anything on the phone - which was odd, because why did they call then? I can only guess that they didn't get the joke, and weren't willing to give me the "you're a bigger entity, such as a publisher, etc" pass.

Apple's review policies are really not evenly applied. As such, I pretty much only do iOS stuff if someone else is footing the bill for my time. Luckily, since your using unity, a port to Android should be fairly easy and you'll see release either way on some platform (mine was written in ObjC). Best of luck to ya..

 

Thanks again, based on your experience it seems like I'll need it.

I went ahead and implemented the muzzle flare, it's non-repeating and very quick. It's only to demonstrate the consequences of letting go of the button and I think it serves that purpose. Any tips on game design would be helpful of course, I would love the feedback. Just assume you know more than me about everything.



I also made the puppy death particle a bit slower, just for impact effect.

 

I finished the level select menu today.

To reiterate, checkpoints are after every 10 levels. If each respective checkpoint is not reached, any levels preceding that checkpoint are unavailable to jump to. It mostly exists to give the player an alternative to finding a level for achievements besides playing through the game. Something that is not shown in the gif is the rejection message after selecting a grayed out level. It reads "Max Level Too Low". I could need to be more subtle.



One thing I've found is I really like the grainy compression effect on gifs and how it adds some pleasant noise to the game. I may look into that.

 

BIG update today.

All the levels have been completed and achievements added. I am now moving on to play testing before the full release. The game will have a total of 30 levels and 23 achievements at launch.



Also, I added a little crown to the sign when you complete all the levels, which I thought was quite satisfying. Maybe a trophy for the achievements next.



Also, if you see any spelling errors, don't hesitate to point them out. Thanks.

 

They didn't really have the right categories on SlideDB for Don't Shoot the Puppy, so I had to go with second best:

 

It's been a productive week both in the way of code and messing around in Premiere.

First of all, there is a new trailer for consumption with some great mentions from both Koterku and Giant Berm. While there isn't much in the way of gameplay due to level spoilers, I tried to make it as entertaining as a game about not shooting puppies can be. Luckily, you all seem experts in that already so it shouldn't be that difficult to comprehend.

In other news, due to some hacky letterboxing and aspect ratio fixes, I'm happy to say that Don't Shoot the Puppy will now release day one on Android Tablets as well as cellular devices. iPad will be coming soon after.

 

Hey guys, it's been a while. But I've got great news: Don't Shoot the Puppy has been released on Google Play! You get can get it for your Android phone, tablet or TV, if you're into that kind of thing, right here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.company.dstp.

Wooooooooooooooooooooooo

Note: Due to complications with Apple, Don't Shoot the Puppy will come to the App Store at a later date. Thank you for your patience.