This week’s game spotlight is VRPlaying Games’ SwipeTrix. It was an entry in our month-long cyberpunk-themed game jam and has been featured in 33 different countries all over the world. This innovative swiping puzzle game also was featured in a ‘5 New Games We Love’ story in the US app store.
So, let’s take a closer look at VRPlaying Games’ SwipeTrix!
SwipeTrix An Old School Puzzle Game with A Twist
SwipeTrix is a swiping puzzle game that’s all about strategy. The goal is to collect all of the scattered diamonds placed on the neon-lighted board while avoiding the enemy-occupied squares. To clear each level, players have to be very strategic in their moves. One wrong swipe into an enemy’s square, and it’s game over! As you get further in the game, the puzzles become larger and harder to solve. There are over 100 challenging puzzles to solve in SwipeTrix. It’s a fun challenge. There’s also no time limit, making it a great casual puzzler to play when you have some free time. You can unlock playable characters like a Pig-Man, 8-Bit, or Scuba-Mate and even complete daily challenges. The graphics in SwipeTrix is also stunning with a cool neon retro style.
If you enjoy solving puzzles and like to be challenged, then you’ll definitely want to give SwipeTrix a try!
SwipeTrix is available for download on iOS today!
Congratulations to the team at VRPlaying Games on the success of SwipeTrix! We had the honor of chatting with Rakshak Kalwani, one part of the two-man indie studio of VRPlaying Games with Vikas Pawar. He shared with us his game development journey, thoughts on design, and the success of SwipeTrix.
VRPlaying Games Interview
Buildbox.com: Can you tell us a little bit about your background? How did you get started in game development?
Rakshak Kalwani: Vikas and I met each other while working for a game studio (now defunct) called Synqua Games. This was way back in 2011 and was coincidentally our first job. Back then, the iPhone revolution was in full swing, and all kinds of games we’re making big waves on the App Store, and we realized we could also make a small dent in this space.
Buildbox.com: How has Buildbox helped with your game development and design process?
Rakshak Kalwani: Vikas is traditionally a UI/UX designer. His vision and sharp eye are what give our games a unique look that most people adore. I, on the other hand, have an engineering background, so I am familiar with development and coding. The two of us launched our first title called ‘A Thief’s Journey’ in early 2019, and the game took almost a whole year from start to finish. It was exhausting and extremely time-consuming. The thought of making another game was daunting, but Buildbox changed that drastically.
With the help of this awesome software, we rode the wave of #NoCode and complemented with our design and development skills. We could make several prototypes instantly, and so there came to be a radical change in our approach to making games as we could very quickly implement our ideas (on a small prototype scale).
Buildbox.com: Your game SwipeTrix got into the Top 10 in our cyberpunk-themed game jam, congratulations! What were your motivations for entering the Buildbox Game Jam? And what advice would you give other devs that want to participate in future game jams?
Rakshak Kalwani: There were two things on our mind while entering this game jam. One was to make a game that our friends would love to play. Being the winner or being in the top ten wasn’t something one can plan . But what you can do is make a big game that you would be proud of. So that was the first and most important thing for us, make a game that we would genuinely enjoy and be proud of sharing with our friends.
The other was to become a core part of the Game Dev community, and here’s where game jams tend to be spectacular. Game Dev community as a whole is huge, and more often than not, you need ideas/feedback/criticism/ appreciation from this community to make a stellar product. People often make the mistake of thinking that their Game Dev adventure is a solo mission. We believe its quite the opposite. It’s a very social process, and its the only way to help you think out of the box (by showcasing your work in early stages) and getting a lot of feedback.
Buildbox.com: What were your inspirations for SwipeTrix?
Rakshak Kalwani: Several puzzle games have contributed to us wanting to make a good puzzle game of our own. Even our previous games, such as A Thief’s Journey and Park Tiny Cars, have been cute little puzzle games, and we like to continue on that trend. We love games that challenge players to think. We were quite inspired by Go To Gold and Mekorama amongst many of the puzzle games that we have played.
Buildbox.com: What have you done marketing wise to help get your game noticed? Any tips for other developers?
Rakshak Kalwani: We rely on the experts in the Buildbox community to help spread our word. We are constantly posting progress of our work on twitter with various IndieGames handles and always ensure to have a page for our game on TouchArcade.
Buildbox.com: What’s one tip that you think every game dev should follow for success?
Rakshak Kalwani: Finish and launch your game. So many of our attempts die out because we give up too soon only to regret later. Making a prototype is relatively easy; making sure to finish and launch your games is the most important part. One that many many developers give up on. It doesn’t matter what your game is like, what genre it is, what it looks like, you must make a sincere effort to complete it and launch it. The whole process of going through to the very end is a very humbling one. It teaches you much about aesthetics and priorities.
Secondly, make a game you would love to play. If you stay true to this, only then will you end up with a product you will be proud of as a developer.
Buildbox.com: What can we expect to see from you in the future? Any upcoming games in the works?
Rakshak Kalwani: We are working on more puzzle games. Our latest hit Puzzle Pieces Mania is now available on iOS. And for more info, you can check out our website VRPlaying Games.
Buildbox.com: That’s great; Puzzle Pieces Mania has already been featured across Europe in the app stores. Congrats on that success as well!
We love to see what our customers create! They inspire us, and we hope our spotlights help to motivate you to get busy creating your own hit game using our software too.
Will Your Game Be Next?
If you’d like to be our next spotlight feature, all you have to do is post a tweet that mentions us @buildboxcom and add a link to your game to show us your app. We’re also on the hunt for new games in our official Buildbox forum and Discord channel in the Game Showcase section.
And remember, keep on developing!
Is it possible for people from africa to buy a subscription ?