This article originally appeared in the Dutch Daily newspaper for West Friesland on Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Interview: Gerard Stroomer (45) builds the game 'Rock Pit' on his own

Game app as a personal project in times of corona

For four years, Gerard Stroomer (45) from Hoorn (The Netherlands) worked on the mobile game Rock Pit, all by himself and in addition to his work as a web designer. Only his son Luuk (9) occasionally provided him with input. Last weekend the game went 'live' and now it's time for a new 'hobby'. “It was a nice distraction during the corona time.”

Stroomer, who originally hails from Wognum, has been creative from an early age. Drawing in his childhood turned into a study at the University of the Arts in Utrecht. As a graduation project he built an electronic comic magazine and in the years that followed he lends himself as a DJ G3RSt for the necessary musical evenings.

When that stops after six years, he wants to do something else. “When I just became a father, I played a lot with my Wii or Xbox in my spare time, but I had less and less time for that. So I started playing mobile games more: things that looked like GTA or Zelda, or arcade games. I made a game for the Commodore 64 together with a friend once (game console, ed.) and I can program a little. This is how the idea arose in 2017 to make my own game.”

Cheese

Rock Pit is about a spaceship that transports a load of cheese (“The most important raw material of the universe in the future”) to a planet. The flying saucer appears to be about to collide with an asteroid, but the crew can avoid this at the last minute by flying into a tunnel that leads through the asteroid. It is the player's task to get through the debris. You do this by rolling, falling, jumping and shooting.

“Whenever I could, I worked on it. Sometimes on the laptop on the train, then at home from the couch or in my office.” One of the monsters in the game was drawn by son Luuk, who was then in group 1 of primary school, on a piece of cardboard. “Group 2 was going to draw a monster and we weren't,” the 9-year-old remembers. “Then I made one myself at home.” Adding lava was also his idea.

Old school

Stroomer also drew inspiration from “old school” games such as Metroid, Wizball and Hero. Building involves coding, but also a lot of drawing.

“First you create the mechanics of the game. Monsters do not yet have sharp teeth, but are simply blocks or circles. If that works, you start working on the details.” Stroomer shows hundreds of drawings with which he built the levels. “There are about three hundred of them.” He took the rock music he used from the web, royalty-free.

The moment of truth is getting closer. Once he's created a website, social media pages, and even a trailer for the game, it's time for the launch. Last weekend he pressed the button to go 'live'. “Very little happened,” he says with a smile. “The game has only been downloaded twelve times, I know most of the players.”

That doesn't matter to Stroomer. “Building this game was fun and a nice distraction during corona times.” He has now also started teaching at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and therefore has even less time left. He does not rule out a new app. “But first: relax.”

Original Dutch article by: Martijn Mak