Community Spotlight: Yeti Set Go

Jeroen "SniperGen" Dessaux recently shared the first trailer for his studio's upcoming mobile game, Yeti Set Go, to the Shacknews community. In today's Community Spotlight, he shares some facts about the making of the game.

Ozzie Mejia

August 16, 2013 12:00 PM

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Yeti Set Go! is a 2D snowboarding game for mobile that offers time-control and gyroscopic gameplay. Jeroen "SniperGen" Dessaux walked us through his game.

"Yeti Set Go! is a physics based snowboarding game for phones and tablets," Dessaux told Shacknews. "Gameplay-wise, you could compare it to Trials mixed with Sonic. You control your yeti's position on the board, and the physics simulation takes care of the rest. So you have to make sure you make smooth landings while doing sweet flips and grinds to complete the levels without bailing, and be quick and nimble enough to get through tricky parts in each level. If you bail there are ragdoll physics for the yeti, and you can rewind time to go back to a point where you can recover, so that’s fun!"

Yeti Set Go! originally started out as a prototype two years. Triangle Factory, a small independent studio that Dessaux is a part of, worked on the title on and off, between paid client work. However, they recently found just enough time to push the project into completion.

"My colleague Timothy came into work one day and announced he had a great idea to make the game less frustrating when you crash off your board: rewinds." Dessaux explained. "Before the rewind system, we had a checkpoint system in place, like most games in the genre. But with the rewinds, players can decide where they want to restart from, so a checkpoint wherever you want one to be. It's definitely more fun and less frustrating when you try to complete a particularly hard level."

Dessaux adds that gyro controls for this mobile title make sense. "Gyro controls make sense for a mobile game, especially since our game is focused on balance and movement," he said. "They’re also easy to learn and let you play the game without having to cover half of the screen with your fingers. But we're also including the Wheel Controller option, a virtual on-screen thumbstick. With the wheel controller, you don’t have to look like a crazy person in public waving your iPad around all over the place."

Dessaux has been a part of the Shacknews community for five years and was more than happy to share his work with everyone as soon as the first gameplay trailer was released. As is normally the case, the community proved to be supportive. "I was really surprised with the amount of good feedback!" Dessaux exclaimed. "Everybody seemed to like the trailer and was looking forward to play it, and that’s really motivating."

Yeti Set Go! is set to release in September on iOS. Triangle Factory will regroup soon after and begin working on prototypes for their next game, which Dessaux says will involve "a tiny chameleon, balloons, and a lot of paint!"

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?