School’s out for the summer which means family outings and long trips in the car are already scheduled for the rest of the season. Luckily, iPhones come to the rescue to make the car’s backseat more bearable for your little ones. If you’re looking for another game to add to their arsenal, there’s a new app called Balloon Buffoon, a simple, 80’s throwback game featuring a hover car-wielding rabbit and a vengeful, balloon crazed clown seeking revenge for a broken heart.
The AZ Tech Beat team felt the game was easy to play and would be a nice companion to cheer up a boring road trip. The game uses the device’s accelerometer (sensors that pick up movement) function so that a player can just tilt the iPhone back and forth to maneuver a flying car to pop balloons released by the clown below. Players avoid floating bombs and levels increase in difficulty. The simplicity, bright colors and old time circus music are perfect to keep young children occupied.
The game was developed by Mockingbird Development LLC, a small venture led by Rick Hamilton. This is its fourth app, but the first video game to be released.
Hamilton is actually a working architect, and was looking for projects to fill his time when the recession hit a few years ago. Coincidentally, it was around the same time that the iPhone was introduced to the world, and Hamilton knew he needed to be a part of it. So he taught himself how to code at the age of 40, and has been steadily making apps since.
Hamilton gets his inspiration for kid’s games from his 8-year-old son, who, he jokes, is his “collaborator” and “consultant.”
But Hamilton got the idea for the game’s characters while goofing around at work with the game’s artist, Roxana Morales. He said when he first got an iPhone in his hand, he pictured a game involving popping balloons.
“Then I had to create the back-story to it to meet the gameplay. So then we just started brainstorming, and having silly conversations,” he said.
Hamilton is currently working on an iPad version of the game, adding more levels, and plans to integrate Game Center so friends can compete with their scores.
Get the app for $0.99 in the app store by clicking here.
Photos provided by Rick Hamilton.
