General Description
I joined LemonChili in August 2015, coinciding with the studio’s founding, as part of the core programming team. The studio’s mission—still ongoing—is to create mobile games of above-average quality, published directly to the public, featuring original intellectual properties and innovative concepts.
During my time there, I had the opportunity to collaborate with exceptional professionals across all areas of game development, including designers, fellow programmers, musicians, producers, and game designers. I hold them in the highest regard and learned a great deal from each of them.
At LemonChili, I consolidated my technical expertise and refined my working methodologies, while contributing to a variety of compelling projects for different platforms and audiences.
Key titles include Floyd's Sticker Squad, Tower Power, Tough Coded, and the most recent release, Boop Kids.
Floyd’s is a mobile game published on Android and iOS featuring microtransactions. It combines the best of several mechanics: runner, shooter, and platformer; while introducing a unique time-travel system that allows players to cooperate with their past versions to overcome levels.
The game also includes a collectible sticker album that progressively unlocks playable content as it is filled.
As of its release, Floyd’s offered six distinct worlds, each with unique aesthetics and enemies, along with four types of final bosses, each designed with their own mechanics.
Like Floyd’s Sticker Squad, Tower Power is a mobile game available on Android and iOS featuring microtransactions. Players take control of small avatars positioned at the top of a tower, defending themselves against enemies attempting to capture them. As the game progresses, the tower increases in height, raising the difficulty level of the enemies.
The game includes multiple enemy types with varied wave configurations, as well as 16 distinct playable characters, each offering unique projectile effects. These avatars are progressively unlocked by the player as the game advances.
Boop Kids is available on both Android and iOS and serves as a platform offering a wide variety of games for children aged 2 to 10, while promoting family connection and interaction. Its business model is subscription-based, with new content released weekly.
What particularly distinguishes Boop Kids is the diversity of its content and the emphasis on family participation in the child’s experience. It is not only an application designed to host games, but also to foster shared engagement between children and their families.
As of today, the application includes more than 20 games, 10 videos, a complete avatar creation and customization system (with avatars later integrated into the games), an activity tracking system for children, and a personalized experience engine based on interactive questions and responses.
Unlike previous projects, Tough Coded was developed for PC and features both online and local multiplayer modes. In the game, players control an “avatar/ship” that flies horizontally across the stage, destroying enemies and avoiding obstacles. As levels are completed, the avatar can be upgraded using the resources collected throughout gameplay.
What makes Tough Coded particularly distinctive is that players actually compete against the “Game Master.” The Master dynamically builds the level in real time, placing enemies, obstacles, music, and even final bosses, while directly interacting and speaking with the players.
The game was designed to be played periodically at events or streaming sessions, where participants could register and connect online with their characters, competing both with remote players and those participating locally at the event.
Tough Coded is further distinguished by its fast-paced rhythm and retro-inspired theme.
Each project presented significant challenges of its own.
Floyd’s Sticker Squad introduced a complex time-travel mechanic that was difficult to implement while ensuring it remained intuitive and easy for players to understand.
Tower Power featured a large roster of avatars and enemies, each with unique gameplay attributes, along with procedurally generated levels.
Boop Kids offered an extensive catalog of games and activities for its users, all entirely different from one another, while also requiring strict compliance with the restrictions and safeguards necessary for applications aimed at children.
Tough Coded posed major technical challenges in synchronizing online players, local participants, and the Game Master who dynamically generated levels in real time, all while maintaining a fun and engaging experience. The game also included a wide variety of weapons, enemies, music, effects, and bosses.
On a broader level, considerable effort was dedicated to app stores: publication, monetization, and promotion. Meeting the requirements of each store to achieve “featuring” was no easy task. Additionally, extensive work was carried out on advertising campaigns and post-launch monitoring of the games.