Smuhley!

An Arcade-Style Action Game

in GameMaker: Studio

Smuhley! is a fun, fast-paced action mobile game for Android

You control Smuhley! the character in the center, tapping the screen to fire

Kill all the Ghostals!

Enemies and power-ups relentlessly attack

Your gun "sploots" on the walls, creating obstacles. Don't run out of space!

Smuhley! was designed and implemented in GameMaker Studio

GML - a fairly C-Like language, was used extensively

Smuhley! was fully deployed to the Google Play Store

Smuhley! feature-list:

  • Fast-paced, touch-based mobile action
  • Score multipliers and dynamic difficulty levels
  • High-Score feature: try to beat your best!
  • Stylish graphics inspired by 70s-80s arcade games and early PC gaming

Reflection

My lifelong passion for gaming has significantly influenced my journey into computers and programming. I spent countless hours in my youth creating small games in QBasic and ZZT, which laid the groundwork for projects like Smuhley!

This project marked a significant milestone for me as it was my first fully-fledged release on the Google Play Store. This experience taught me a lot about the complexities of software deployment which, in this case, proved almost as challenging as the development itself. Optimizing the game for various device required a lot of work and presented an exciting set of challenges.

Developed in GameMaker: Studio using GML, I applied my knowledge of object-oriented principles to streamline the development process. While the game never gained widespread popularity, I consider it a success in terms of learning and execution.

An interesting anecdote: the game was initially to be titled "Sploot," but I discovered just before release that another game with that name exists - a quirky VR title where you play as a seagull and poop on things. No kidding!