From Idea to Reality: My Yearlong Creative Pursuit
A project of mine recently hit its one year anniversary. It has challenged me in ways that I could never anticipated, but has also had its rewarding moments. Rather than doing something special for its anniversary, I did not do anything. I think this post should handle that.
Apelox is a custom mini-games network (in the works) on Minecraft. My team makes completely original and custom Java coded games with their own sounds, music, art, models, and ideas.
It all started one day when I was simply bored. I was very interested in a show called Squid Games, and wanted to make my own games. Apelox originally started with the smallest mini games, the first being Red Light Green Light. I should mention, "Apelox" is the server as a whole, and "Apelox Games" is the series of games that I have been apart of making.
We hit a gold mine. These extremely short and simple games that anyone could pick up and play made my friends keep coming back and begging for another game night. These sessions would start at like 8-9pm and then end at 2-3am. This was the same even when we only had 3 mini-games.
There were some things that I was dissatisfied with, though. One of the rules for the mini games was no respawning; meaning players could not come back alive if they died. This extremely limited what games we could make. At this point of Apelox, there were no custom music, sounds, art, etc. We simply hadn't thought of it yet.
I decided to bring out the big guns; Apelox Games got a whole rewrite. All of the old games were scrapped, and there were completely new requirements for any new games. This was an extreme risk that could of backfired; people could of hated the new changes. This time, though, we started exploring custom art, sounds, music, and more.
The first BETA Test was approaching, and we were terrified. The only game we had was Survival Games (a non-original idea, but a classic game inspired off of the Hunger Games), and a few old games just to have some variety. In the last week approaching the test, we spent time working on a new game called Payload. The objective of Payload was to score an explosive cart on the other side. This was a big hit.
Apelox had been going on for a long time; this meant that my new and old friends were about to experience it. The feedback on Payload was insane, and people wanted more. To this day, with all of the new games, it is still the most favorited game. It still shocks me how it is, with how simple it is.
Payload was the game that made Apelox kick off and start, and whilst I will not go into all of the current games, I will say that they are all listed on Apelox's website.
Coming up with original mini games is very hard, but we pressed on for Apelox's next hit. The next game decided was Hole in the Wall. The following description was taken from Apelox's website.
Based on the popular game show, players must survive walls that approach them from all directions. Some walls may unexpectedly disappear, adding an element of deception to the game.
The reason why I thought I would quickly mention this game is because it pushes Minecraft to its limit. This game, including the breaks that we took because of how difficult it was to make, took 6 months of development. The game though, is working now, and is an extremely unique and fun experience.
We are now trying to push for a release to the public, but this will probably be at least another year, and a whole lot of work. Apelox, as of December 25th, 2022, has never made any money. It was never the original intention, I simply just wanted a hobby and have fun with friends. Also, it would be weird to ask my friends to pay for cash to have fun.
This paragraph is simply a big thank you to some people. First, the main developer, and one of my best friends, Alex. Second, to all of the testers, artists, producers, and modelers. Finally, one more thank you to my friends who volunteer their time to help, asking for nothing in return.
Happy belated 1-year anniversary Apelox! You are now an entire year old.