Boston Indie Game Spotlight – Yin Yang BANG BANG

<p>If you stripped every truly unnecessary element from a game&comma; leaving only the most fun&comma; core gameplay mechanics&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;d have <em>Yin Yang BANG BANG<&sol;em>&period; The second project from John Butler&comma; founder of <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;mooseknucklegames&period;com&sol;press&sol;sheet&period;php&quest;p&equals;yin&lowbar;yang&lowbar;bang&lowbar;bang&num;factsheet">Moose Knuckle Games<&sol;a>&comma; YYBB is a minimalist&comma; endless runner for Android and iOS&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In YYBB&comma; you must divide your attention between guiding your protagonist &lpar;in this case&comma; the black or white dot of a Yin Yang symbol&rpar; and tapping incoming shapes to change their color&period; Running into shapes of the opposite color cause your dot to shrink and eventually die&comma; while shapes of matching color will increase your dot’s size&comma; consequently making it more difficult to dodge opposite colored shapes&period; This mechanic ensures a player-regulated&comma; progressing level of difficulty&comma; making the game more or less difficult based on your performance&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>To keep you on your toes&comma; your dot will also occasionally flip from one color to the other&period; Your score is tallied by multiplying your time with your largest size and&comma; in one of the few instances of color in YYBB&comma; this total explodes into a flurry of bouncing shapes you must then tap as quickly as possible&period; The faster you pop the shapes&comma; the higher your ultimate score&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;02&sol;05035925&sol;High-Score&period;png"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-72143" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;02&sol;05035925&sol;High-Score&period;png" alt&equals;"High Score" width&equals;"1874" height&equals;"1051" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While the unique&comma; minimalist&comma; hand-painted art-style and far-east audio harmonize with the peaceful&comma; Taoist theme&comma; the gameplay is far from calming&period; The concept is easy enough for anyone to pick up and play&comma; but simultaneously guiding your dot while tapping the incoming shapes gets tricky in a hurry&period; When there’s a lot of &&num;8220&semi;enemies&&num;8221&semi; on screen&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s easy to accidentally tap the wrong color&comma; turning friendlies into enemies&comma; or simply miss your taps altogether&period; Early on&comma; I was missing my targets so often&comma; I thought the game was actually failing to register the taps&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; after I noticed the subtle gray circle displayed where I&&num;8217&semi;d actually tapped&comma; I realized I was just missing&period; After I began to lead fast-moving targets&comma; my score increased dramatically&period; I also found it easier to accurately target the incoming shapes on an iPad&comma; but with the much larger screen&comma; the hectic portions of the game became dizzying&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;02&sol;05035903&sol;Main-Gameplay&period;png"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-72144" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;02&sol;05035903&sol;Main-Gameplay&period;png" alt&equals;"Main Gameplay" width&equals;"2208" height&equals;"1242" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Unlike many mobile games&comma; <em>Yin Yang BANG BANG<&sol;em> is most suited the the platform on which it&&num;8217&semi;s presented&comma; knowingly utilizing touchscreen controls instead of trying to recreate an analog control scheme&period; As the speed of the game requires concentration and your full attention&comma; YYBB actually pauses when you remove your guiding thumb from the screen&comma; preventing you from accidentally dying when you&&num;8217&semi;re forced to look away from your device&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;02&sol;05035839&sol;End-Level-Reward&period;png"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-72145" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;02&sol;05035839&sol;End-Level-Reward&period;png" alt&equals;"End Level Reward" width&equals;"1874" height&equals;"1051" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Minimalist to the core&comma; what you see is what you get with <em>Yin Yang BANG BANG<&sol;em>&period; There are no multiplayer or alternative modes&comma; so if you have no desire to improve your own high score and climb leaderboards&comma; you may get bored quickly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; true to it’s theme&comma; the single &dollar;0&period;99 purchase buys you the entire game and there are no in-app purchases&comma; which makes climbing the leaderboard possible only through determination and pure skill&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;d like some <em>Yin Yang BANG BANG<&sol;em> for your buck&comma; check it out when it becomes available in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store on <strong>February 15th<&sol;strong>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;