Game Development

11 October 2010

Released in 1997, Monkey Shines by Fantasoft Software quickly become a well-loved shareware game on the Mac, receiving the Mac User "Nostalgic Game of the Year" award. Enjoyed because of its 'arcade' feel, side scrolling adventures, quirky music and exceptional graphics, it is a shame that the game wasn't updated for OS X.

Update 2015 - I'm thrilled to say that Monkey Shines has been ported to Java as an open source project by Erika Redmark! You can download the port (and contribute to it) at https://github.com/ErikaRedmark/monkey-shines-java-port/

I created the most popular add-on world for the game, won a development contest, designed a tutorial for users on how to develop their own add-on worlds, launched a fan site (originally called "Bonzo Hits Cyberspace" on Geocities, but later "Monkey Shines HQ") which then became the official web site for users of the game. It was the first site I ever made and ran it for two years.

"Phil's Mac World" had a Mac OS 8 theme to it, with Bonzo (the game's hero) being chased around an Apple-like world. It's all a bit kitsch now, but still fun to look back on classic Mac designs and icons that were incorporated into the world. To this day, I still get emails about it or from people wanting Monkey Shines help (download the port mentioned above!).

This lead to my involvement in the initial stages of the sequel to the game, whose name "Gorilla Warfare" was also my idea, but by this stage my commitment to the project/game was waning...

Tags : Games