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| The goal of the game is to rescue as many cats from a fire as possible |
| Quick Info | |
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| Reviewed by: | Mark Goninon |
| Developer: | Glass Bottom Games |
| Publisher: | Glass Bottom Games |
| Release Date: | 14 Mar 2013 |
| Time played: | 0.7 hours |
A Short History of Endless Runners and Jones on Fire
The Endless Runner genre has its roots way back to the arcade games of the 70s so it's been around in some shape or form since the beginning of video gaming. My most memorable experience with the genre would come a decade or so later with 1991's SkiFree, a skiing game on Microsoft Windows 3.1 where you had to ski down a slalom as far as you can before being consumed by a yeti. At the time, I never realised I was actually playing an endless runner and I only realised it was a thing with the boom of smartphone games in the late 2000s and in particular, a game called Canabalt. Canabalt actually started as an Adobe Flash browser game in 2009 but shortly after was ported to iOS. Many clones would follow in the early 2010s with popular ones including 2010's Robot Unicorn Attack (which became an internet meme), 2011's Temple Run and 2013's Flappy Bird.
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| You can use any in-game currency earned to upgrade Jones and make life easier |
Megan Fox of Glass Bottom Games, published a post-mortem of Jones on Fire's development on 27 September 2013 which means we are fortunate to gain some insight on what motivated her to develop the game and how it fared critically and commercially. In her blog post, she mentions that back in 2012, while thinking of new ideas for a game, she too wanted a slice of that endless runner pie, so she went about developing one. A few months later, a charity game jam to support victims of a Colorado bush fire called "Blaze Jam" prompted Megan to quickly knock up a game with a blocky firefighter rescuing blocky cats (she wanted to add more animals but due to time constraints, just stuck with the cats). Thanks to Unity, Fox was able to quickly port the game to iOS but when it was released, it was up against some stiff competition on the Apple App Store. Originally the game was to be a free-to-play (F2P) title and money would be made off in-app purchases but due to the number of players being too low to make a F2P model sustainable she switched course and made it a paid title going for $1.99.
The change from F2P to a paid title didn't improve the situation despite some positive reviews from the gaming press. Fox concluded this was due to two reasons: firstly, mobile gamers don't really care much for reviews, store placement for your title was the main indicator of success. Secondly, it was the fact there were already many endless runner titles out there. The game would go on to be installed over 200,000 times and generate $7,000 revenue (despite having cost approximately $20,000 to make).
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| You must really like saving kitties because that's all you do in this game |
All the game is staged, and all of us merely players
So who is Jones and what is on fire? And is it anyway related to Jones in the Fast Lane?
Well, to answer the last question, no, sadly it's not. I'm still waiting for a remake or remaster of that classic Sierra take on the "Game of Life" but what I can tell you is that Jones is the protagonist of the game (Emily Jones to be precise) and you're trying your best to ensure Jones doesn't get set on fire.
The game is split into different stages. During each stage, you have to do your best to outrun an encroaching forest fire. You start with three lives and if you run out of lives, you'll have to start again from the beginning. To prevent this from occurring, you'll need to jump and slide to avoid obstacles such as fallen logs and while survival is its own reward, what you really want to do is rescue as many cats as possible. Cats will be floating around the stage like coins or rings you'd normally collect in other platformers: the more cats you collect, the more currency you get, and the more currency you get, the more you have to spend on upgrades, which can help you survive future stages.
Speaking of cats, you must really like cats to enjoy this game as you'll be "treated" to annoying meowing for music.
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| In the end, an endless runner is an endless runner, no matter how many kitties are in it |
Does this Game Stand Out?
So, what really stands out with this game? Sadly, not much. I mean, Fox pretty much admits that in her post-mortem, the biggest issue with the game, and this applies to just about any indie game, is that entering an already crowded market is not going to help your game stand out, and there is so much competition when it comes to endless runners. Provided you like cats and can tolerate low-poly graphics, there's nothing technically wrong with this game. It functions fine as an endless runner.
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7
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A competent, low-poly endless runner for those that love rescuing cats. Otherwise unremarkable. |
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