Totems of Tag is a video game for 2–4 players on the same device. It’s basically the game of dodgeball … but with absolutely all rules removed, and many powerups and variations added.

What’s special?

This game has no tutorial. Because the concept of dodgeball is so simple and well-known (grab a ball, throw it against an opponent), there’s not much to explain.

The only thing that needs explaining are which buttons to press. But that simply happens when you start the game for the first time: a bubble appears above your head that shows you what to do.

When testing, this really made a difference. People were playing so much faster and clicked with it so much more, that it convinced me to never do any upfront tutorials or explanations again.

What’s even more special?

This game was noticed by an online gaming platform (POKI). I ended up porting the game to their system, learning a lot during the process, making the game better and more accessible.

It was the first time I made a web game, supported by ads, as contracted work for a big gaming website.

July 14, 2021 professional own project