In 2009, Jason 'Gigapede' Siadek from 3Pin Media reached out to me for a fun little project: a promotional Flash game called Astro Boy Rescue, tied to the Astro Boy movie featuring an all-star cast: Nicolas Cage, Kristen Bell, Donald Sutherland, and Charlize Theron. (Sadly, I never got a chance to hear Nicolas Cage dramatically narrate my code.)

The gameplay was straightforward but satisfying: in each of the four levels, Astro Boy had to rescue his friends one by one. To do this, he grabbed colored spheres and dropped them onto matching ones below. When four or more spheres of the same color lined up, they vanished in a satisfying pop. Clear the screen, save a friend, move on: simple yet effective.

My job? I coded the game in ActionScript using Adobe Flash (now Adobe Animate) and contributed a few assets and animations along the way. Most of the visual elements and interface were provided by Crew Creative & Imagi Studios, so I got to focus on making sure Astro Boy did his heroic thing without breaking the game.