BLARF is a 2D “fall forever” game where the player controls an armadillo that has the ability to vomit an unlimited number of additional armadillos. The armadillo can also be eaten by other animals to assume control of their abilities. The goal is to live for as long as you can before you die.
 I built this game in 48 hours with a team of seven friends from Zynga for the 2012 Global Game Jam. The theme required us to create a game inspired by the Egyptian image of the Ouroboros, the snake eating its own tail that signifies life and rebirth. We found it to be a lot more fun to interpret it as a creature that is perpetually vomiting itself.
We weren’t able to attend an official jam site, but we all met up in San Francisco and made our own. I led the core concept design and composed the music. It was heavily inspired by some of our favorite iPhone games like Jetpack Joyride and Doodle Jump. I was really happy with how well our team worked together – we managed to produce a polished game in 48 hours without killing ourselves, and we’re all still friends. 🙂
Play it for free here! (Flash Required)
I’m pretty used to doing music with this team as I did in Super MATADOR 3, A Sticky Situation, and Audiball. This game presented a challenge in finding a tone that fit the cute art style, and I probably overloaded a bit on the cuteness. Late in the project, I made a version with alternate instrumentation to act as a “power up mode” theme at one of the designer’s suggestions.Â