Bubbles was a 2D, 4 directional scrolling shoot-em-up. Not really a metalic and violent shooter, but one made as a children’s shoot ’em up. This game was bought up by Jared Derret who has kindly shed light on a number of titles.
According to Jared, the game was shaping up rather weakly with no sandbox code really. There was conceptual art completed and some production art, but that was it. Sadly the game was shelved during its early stages to make way for another project. Once this new project was complete, they never re-opened Bubbles again.
Jay got in touch in 2013 and confirmed that the game was an attempt at getting into the fine pixel scrolling of sprites and overlapping masks. It was a kind of proof of concept for Jay. Apparently it got about half way and then Cookie came out – and the guys called it a day, feeling they couldn’t compete.
It is very unlikely that anything of this game will be salvaged in the future, but we will try to find something.
Contributions: Jared Derrett, Jeff Lee
Supporting content
Creator speaks
Jay Derrett recalls work on Bubbles:
“Wow, that takes me back. I was just getting into fine pixel scrolling of sprites, including overlapping masks (the stuff Ultimate were kings at) and this was a sort of proof of concept for me. I think we probably got half way through it, then saw Cookie and gave up, knowing we were beat!”
I didn’t know that Clem did graphics! And why not? He tried his hand at most things. It’s also strange to read about this game being in the pipeline at that time. Firstly, Jared must have been doing things from home at that time, because he only started to appear in our offices in the summer of 1986. Wow, he must have been what, 14 in 1984? Maybe he was out of sight because he was at school! And you think you know the company you work in! Secondly, the bubble game I recall was (as one of the million ideas we abandoned in meetings) the upward scroller on the C64 in 1988. Maybe it was abandoned through bad memories of 1984?
Thanks for the comment Jeff! … yeah, this seems to be an early title that Jared worked on which didn’t get too far. Sadly its lost in the midsts of time!
As for the Clem credit for graphics, I think we may have messed up slightly!… a fallout from the recent site upgrade. Will fix that now.
As for the other bubble related game – i’d be interested to learn more about it if you can recall any more about it? :)
Wow, that takes me back. I was just getting into fine pixel scrolling of sprites, including overlapping masks (the stuff Ultimate were kings at) and this was a sort of proof of concept for me. I think we probably got half way through it, then saw Cookie and gave up, knowing we were beat!