Canabalt III: the Return of Canabalt

I loved Canabalt, MRW aka Michio loved Canabalt, everyone loved Canabalt. So no wonder that I am writing yet another post on the game, especially since I've got some juicy bits to bring you.


First of all, if you haven't got an iPhone and happen to go offline from time to time, haven't you ever wished that Canabalt was portable? As in, you could download it, put it on your netbook and play on the plane when you have no internet access? If so, then your wish has just been granted, since there is a portable version of Canabalt available for download here. And if you actually do own an iPhone, then don't be a greedy bastard, go buy the damn game from AppStore. Go on. Do it now.

Secondly, if you would like to know more about how Canabalt was created, how the development process was going and how the final result came to life in its final form, please read this interview with Adam Saltsman and have a look at his early design sketches available here. These two links constitute an excellent post-mortem and are truly invaluable insight for anyone trying to get their feet wet in game development.

Thirdly, while we are speaking of great resources for game makers, wouldn't it be cool to have access to the framework that Adam used for making Canabalt and his other games? Guess what, Adam has made it publicly available for no charge at all! It is called Flixel and can be downloaded from flixel.org (additional information can be found here). If you are not sure how to even approach Flash / Flex / ActionScript programming, this post of mine might be of help. So now you have no excuse not to make your dream game, as the very same code that makes Canabalt work lies at your feet.

Incidentally, it also means that I have no excuse either, which could be a bad thing or a good thing, depending on how you look at it.