Game Prototype: Escalator Escape

To entertain myself from every slow escalator ride, I always have this image of myself escaping from pursuers by vaulting from one escalator to another just like in Jackie Chan’s movie, Mr. Nice Guy.

I have always wondered if such a mechanic would be fun in a game. This eventually led me to the creation of Escalator Escape.

“Escalator Escape is a gameplay experiment done using HTML5 and Javascript. The main goal in this game is to stay on the elevators for as long as possible by vaulting from one escalator to the next.”

I was planning to add more to the gameplay like power-ups and enemies, but halfway through coding, the gameplay didn’t turn out as fun as I originally thought so I figured I would only be wasting my time if I add more to it.

At first I was afraid that my idea would play out like Frogger, but it did not because it wasn’t as fun. In Frogger, you need to avoid oncoming cars, in my game, you don’t have to worry about such a mechanic because you go with the flow once you jump on to a new escalator. So vaulting through escalators is just a matter of pressing left or right on a vacant space.

But don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that the gameplay idea is a complete failure since there’s still some fun to be had trying to stay alive when you play around with the escalator’s speed and movement orientation. It’s just that my execution of the idea wasn’t as good as I initially hoped.

Works on the latest versions of FireFox, Google Chrome, Safari and Opera.