Mile High Taxi: How a Computer Programmer Created His Ideal Game
A new game to be released in March takes us back to the early days of video game creation, with a single programmer working through the night to complete a game that they’re passionate about. How has Mile High Taxi been created and what does this mash-up of an existing video game with a popular movie tell us about the future?
The Story of Mile High Taxi
Cassius John-Adams is a computer programmer from Canada who loves the Crazy Taxi game and the Fifth Element movie. After chatting with work colleagues and realizing that a mash-up of these things could be hugely successful, he went on an epic three-year quest to create a new game by mixing them together.
The result is Mile High Taxi, which mixes the atmosphere of the 1997 movie by Luc Besson and the wild sort of gameplay from the arcade game first published by Sega in 1999. Both are considered classics in their respective genres, and this new game puts the same sort of taxi-driving mayhem in a futuristic city that reminds us of the Bruce Willis movie, even if there’s no official licensing deal in place for this new game.
He wrote this flying cab game on the same standard Dell computer that he plays games on, and says that the only substantial cost – of around $10,000 – came from hiring voice actors and music licensing. Mile High Taxi will go on sale on Steam on March 13 and has already been added by thousands of people to their wishlists on that site.
Is This Type of Mash-Up Going to Become a New Trend?
While the idea of a single programmer making games by working through the night might not be feasible in this age of giant software companies dedicating so much time to their games, Mile High Taxi could inspire other types of mash-up games. This list by Gamerant of possible combinations they’d like to see includes some intriguing ideas like mixing Fallout 3 and Tetris. We’ve already seen lots of games based on movies and TV shows, so combining them with existing games could be a way to generate something new.
One area where we can already see this in action is in the online casino industry. The top casinos have hundreds or thousands of games and BonusFinder has reviewed them here. Looking at sites such as FanDuel and Hard Rock, we can see Slingo Lightning and Slingo Big Wheel, both based on a mixture of bingo and slots and which sit alongside slots based on movies and TV shows. Live table games also provide a way to combine existing titles, with Gonzo’s Treasure Hunt an example of a slot converted into a live game.
The Mile High Taxi game probably isn’t typical of the way video games will be created in the future. However, the idea of mashing together different games or mixing games with movies looks like it could be an interesting way forward in the future.