16 years old is hard enough. School as well as dynamic changes in friendships and other relationships. For some, that’s when you get a job and start making money. Parker Anderson, the one person program behind PlugWorld, took over all of that and started developing a game that you could play with one hand on your own. He’s 17 years old now, and Weaponeer is about to have a big (paid) re-release on February 14th.
While Anderson developed the exclusive game on his own, its re-release gets some extra help in the form of VoxPop game and charity AbleGamers. VoxPop was founded during the COVID-19 pandemic by current CEO Charles Yu and COO Marc Rodriguez. Yu jumped into game development right out of college, working in quality assurance in the Apple App Store ecosystem and elsewhere. Rodriguez also has a history in the games industry, having worked at Capcom and Rockstar Games, among other companies.
The two created VoxPop to help projects like Weaponeer and developers like Anderson.
“I wanted to create a platform that indie developers can use to promote themselves that influencers can also use to help monetize their channel and fill the gap between them. their sponsorship,” Yu said. “I want to create a platform where [developers] can make a living. You can make this your job if you’re really willing to go into it.”
VoxPop is a peer-to-peer game development and distribution platform – one-stop shop – that aims to link developers with streamers, influencers, and perhaps most importantly, players with each other. in a “rising tide”. The VoxPop website states, “we enable developers to leverage a small portion of their future earnings to users and streamers who help promote their games, thus giving exposure developers and other influencers.”
Weaponeer, a classic 8-bit action platformer, was already available on Google Play and Itch.io because when Anderson felt it was ready, he simply released it for free. In the end, it gained enough traction for Rodriguez and Yu to see the game’s gifs and images. You only need to worry about two things in Weaponeer, making it the perfect game to play with one hand. Wherever your protagonist’s sword points is where they’ll go – that’s one button and you can jump with another as well. The concept is really simple, but many of Weaponeer’s levels are particularly challenging.
Rodriguez and Yu love what they get to see. Rodriguez commented on how much it played like Sonic Spinball, a Sega Genesis game from 1993, and how far it went. The two tell Anderson about VoxPop’s “Made For” tag. In Weaponeer’s Made For VoxPop edition that hits stores on February 14, you’ll find what’s essentially the final edition, with new exclusive content.
“[VoxPop] Anderson told me about finding a charity to donate the profits to because I really didn’t want the money. “I thought that would be absolutely amazing and they asked me if I was planning on doing any charity. They recommended AbleGamers. ”
Anderson’s games weren’t necessarily designed with accessibility in mind at first. But with Weaponeer being a mobile title, playable with one hand, the game has become more accessible than many other projects. Between that and his desire to donate the profits to a charity, Anderson felt that AbleGamers was the perfect fit. So much so that he was willing to give the charity 100% of the profits, but founder and CEO Mark Barlet immediately rejected the idea.
“He was just like, ‘hey, I want to split 100% of the proceeds with you guys,’ and I said it was a terrible idea,” Barlet said. “I told him, ‘I’m really proud you want to do it, but I think you should keep some money because you’re working hard, you need to go to college, and the only thing you there is time, so make sure you get something out of the time you’ve spent on this. “
Working with AbleGamers to re-release his platformer, Anderson says he’s learned a lot about game design and development. Barlet says that’s why Anderson has to take some money from this. If he continues to design accessible games, he needs money, lest the game development world lose someone committed to accessibility.
“The game is really cool and fun,” says Barlet. “Can it be accessed on purpose or was it accidentally accessed? Or is it a mixture of both? I don’t know, but when I talked to him, he seemed committed to making an accessible game. But, you know, The Last of Us Part II is an accessible game, but it’s not a single-axis game. [like Weaponeer]. I think the uniaxial thing is also an additional design challenge that makes this title stand out.”
After a bit of persuasion, Anderson decided that 50% of Weaponeer’s profits would go to AbleGamers.
“I thought we were looking for an opportunity to share his experience and work,” Barlet said of why AbleGamers decided to partner with Weaponeer’s Made For VoxPop re-release. “I think there’s something uplifting about a young man, a kid, using the available technologies to create a game that’s really fun. I really hope it’s commercially successful, not just because [AbleGamers] is a benefactor of it, but also because it shows the power of what one can do when they choose to do it. I want this young man to have a bright future, being able to become an agent of change in the gaming industry as it can take some desperate use. ”
While VoxPop helps Anderon’s Weaponeer, Anderson has also paid back: he inspired the platform to create a charity feature for developers that does exactly what he’s doing.
“Had the opportunity to talk to all of these developers about how passionate they are with their own projects and how passionate they are in trying to make a broader impact outside of the industry. the game industry… it’s been a really rewarding experience to be able to help them bring in Yu said.
Rodriguez said that VoxPop was the platform he wished was available to him when he was 17 years old.
“Honestly, what we’re trying to accomplish is raising the voice of people where they want their passion projects to be profitable,” he said. “We want to be a place where a developer becomes the next viral trust, maybe like Among Us… but we also want to be a place where developers can simply make a living. by releasing the game there.”
Rodriguez and Yu don’t expect any games to be among us next, but they certainly won’t be upset about it. They just want developers whose games can be overshadowed by other releases on traditional platforms like Steam to make a bigger impact through VoxPop’s peer-to-peer platform.
“I think there’s definitely going to be pressure when someone else soothes,” Anderson said. “When you’re doing something for yourself, you don’t really feel a lot of pressure – you just do it until you’re happy with it. [which is what he did with Weaponeer’s original release]. But when you’re doing it for a certain party and you have to make sure it’s good… for that platform, [you] definitely feel that pressure.”
He also feels pressured to re-release a game in which some of its profits will go to a charity, although Barlet says the organization is simply happy to be involved. But Anderson wanted to make the game better, more intuitive, and more accessible. He tweaked the way boosters work in Weaponeer, fixed the moving platforms he found annoying in the first release, and experimented with quality-of-life changes to improve overall experience.
Anderson isn’t sure what the future holds – he’s only 17, after all. He may continue to develop the game, but he is also interested in video visual effects. Right now, though, he’s focused on getting Weaponeer out and using VoxPop’s unique storefront to raise funds for AbleGamers.
This is Anderson’s first time making a game for someone other than himself, and while he’s nervous about what that means, he’s super excited about Weaponeer’s Made For VoxPop release. So did Barlet, Yu and Rodriguez.
“The Weaponeer is out on February 14, on Valentine’s Day,” said Rodriguez. “It’s like a love letter to the indie gaming community, a community we all love.”
The PlugWorld’s Made For VoxPop Weaponeer re-release will be available on PC on February 14, 2022, for $6.99. You can list the games here.
