Fireboy and Watergirl

Last updated
Fireboy and Watergirl
Fireboy and Watergirl.jpeg
Cover art for the first game
Genre(s) Puzzle-platform
Developer(s) Oslo Albet
Platform(s) Browser
First releaseFireboy and Watergirl in the Forest Temple
2009
Latest releaseFireboy and Watergirl: Fairy Tales
November 1, 2021

Fireboy and Watergirl (stylized as Fireboy & Watergirl) is a puzzle-platform video game series created by indie game developer Oslo Albet in 2009. The first four games in the series were released on the now defunct software platform Adobe Flash and later converted to HTML5.

Contents

Gameplay

Fireboy and Watergirl is a cooperative puzzle-platform game. [1] Fireboy can be moved by using the arrow keys and Watergirl can be moved using the WAD keys. [1] Fireboy can only go through fire whereas Watergirl can only go through water. [1]

Development

Oslo Albet said that he developed Fireboy and Watergirl because he had "always found puzzle games to be fascinating". [2] He finalized the game mechanics before creating the characters as he was more interested in the game play. [2] Albet said it was "pretty obvious" that he required two characters with opposing elements for the game to feel natural to players and designed Fireboy first before spending "quite a bit of time" finding the right design for Watergirl. [2] After several changes, he designed Watergirl's "waterfall" ponytail to counter Fireboy's fiery hair. [2] He added that when developing the story and characters he knew that they had to appeal to "boys, girls and families as a whole". [2]

Release

The first game in the series, Fireboy and Watergirl in the Forest Temple, was released in 2009 on the software platform Adobe Flash and hosted on the online web portal Cool Math Games as the games' target demographic is 10 to 15 year olds. [1] [2] In June 2019, it was rumoured that Cool Math Games would be shutting down as Adobe Flash was set to be discontinued in 2020 but the company confirmed that they would continue to operate and Flash games such as Fireboy and Watergirl were later converted into HTML5. [3] [1]

The fifth game in the series, Fireboy and Watergirl: Elements, was released on Microsoft Store on December 9, 2018 [4] , later on Google Play on December 20, 2018 [5] , Apple App Store somewhere in 2018 [6] and Steam on January 24, 2024. [7]

The sixth game in the series, Fireboy and Watergirl: Fairy Tales, was released on Steam on November 1, 2021. [8]

Reception

GamerBolt praised the pacing of the game by stating that the "too-easy" introductory levels did not take too long to complete before the game became more challenging. [9] They stated that the game was "extremely well-executed" and there was a "decent number of levels" which meant the game potentially had several hours of gameplay. [9] However, they stated that it did not necessarily have the complexity or the longevity to compete with other 2D platforming games such as Spelunky or Super Meat Boy . [9]

Daria Paterek of Impact cited Fireboy and Watergirl as a game that made her "fall in love with gaming" and praised the games' replay value as each new instalment has levels of varying difficulty and takes place in a distinct setting such as a forest, a desert and during winter. [10] Nicole Clark of Polygon described the game as a "classic" and said that playing it "feels like traveling back in time". [1] Clark stated that fans of Fireboy and Watergirl had found characters in Pixar's Elemental to be similar in design, though she said that elemental characters were not a novel idea citing Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl as examples. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe Flash</span> Discontinued multimedia platform used to add animation and interactivity to websites

Adobe Flash is a discontinued multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich internet applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Browser game</span> Video game played in a web browser

A browser game is a video game that is played via the internet using a web browser. They are mostly free-to-play and can be single-player or multiplayer. Alternative names for the browser game genre reference their software platform used, with common examples being Flash games, and HTML5 games.

A Rich Internet Application is a web application that has many of the characteristics of desktop application software. The concept is closely related to a single-page application, and may allow the user interactive features such as drag and drop, background menu, WYSIWYG editing, etc. The concept was first introduced in 2002 by Macromedia to describe Macromedia Flash MX product. Throughout the 2000s, the term was generalized to describe browser-based applications developed with other competing browser plugin technologies including Java applets, Microsoft Silverlight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe AIR</span> Cross-platform runtime system for building rich web applications

Adobe AIR is a cross-platform runtime system currently developed by Harman International, in collaboration with Adobe Inc., for building desktop applications and mobile applications, programmed using Adobe Animate, ActionScript, and optionally Apache Flex. It was originally released in 2008. The runtime supports installable applications on Windows, macOS, and mobile operating systems, including Android, iOS, and BlackBerry Tablet OS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HTML5</span> Fifth and previous version of HyperText Markup Language

HTML5 is a markup language used for structuring and presenting hypertext documents on the World Wide Web. It was the fifth and final major HTML version that is now a retired World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation. The current specification is known as the HTML Living Standard. It is maintained by the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG), a consortium of the major browser vendors.

Kongregate is an American web gaming portal and video game publisher. Its website features over 124,000 online games and 30+ mobile games available to the public. The company also publishes games for PC, mobile, and home consoles. It was purchased by GameStop Corporation in 2010 before being acquired by Modern Times Group MT AB in 2017.

Poptropica is an online role-playing game, developed in 2007 by Pearson Education's Family Education Network, and targeted towards children aged 6 to 15. Poptropica is primarily the creation of Jeff Kinney, later known as the author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. As of 2015, he remains at the company as the Creative Director. The game primarily focuses on problem-solving through game quest scenarios, called "islands". Islands all center on a problem that the player must resolve by going through multiple obstacles, collecting and using items, talking to various characters, and completing goals. All islands, upon completion, award "credits," which are non-negotiable currency that may be used to buy costumes and special effects in the Poptropica store.

HTML video is a subject of the HTML specification as the standard way of playing video via the web. Introduced in HTML5, it is designed to partially replace the object element and the previous de facto standard of using the proprietary Adobe Flash plugin, though early adoption was hampered by lack of agreement as to which video coding formats and audio coding formats should be supported in web browsers. As of 2020, HTML video is the only widely supported video playback technology in modern browsers, with the Flash plugin being phased out.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe Animate</span> Animation software made by Adobe

Adobe Animate is a multimedia authoring and computer animation program developed by Adobe.

Modern HTML5 has feature-parity with the now-obsolete Adobe Flash. Both include features for playing audio and video within web pages. Flash was specifically built to integrate vector graphics and light games in a web page, features that HTML5 also supports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Epic Citadel</span> 2010 tech demo

Epic Citadel is a tech demo developed by Epic Games to demonstrate the Unreal Engine 3 running on Apple iOS, within Adobe Flash Player Stage3D and using HTML5 WebGL technologies. It was also released for Android on January 29, 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amazon Appstore</span> App store by Amazon

Amazon Appstore is an app store for Android-compatible platforms operated by Amazon.com Services, LLC, a subsidiary of Amazon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet Explorer 10</span> Web browser by Microsoft for Windows released in 2012

Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) is the tenth, and by now, discontinued, version of the Internet Explorer web browser and the successor to Internet Explorer 9, released by Microsoft on September 4, 2012. It is the default browser on Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, and was later made available for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. It does not support Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or earlier versions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft Store</span> Digital distribution platform for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One and Series X/S

The Microsoft Store is a digital distribution platform operated by Microsoft. It was created as an app store for Windows 8 as the primary means of distributing Universal Windows Platform apps. With Windows 10 1803, Microsoft merged its other distribution platforms into Microsoft Store, making it a unified distribution point for apps, console games, and digital videos. Digital music was included until the end of 2017, and E-books were included until 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Construct (game engine)</span> Visual HTML5-based 2D game editor

Construct is an HTML5-based 2D video game engine developed by Scirra Ltd. It is aimed primarily at non-programmers, allowing quick creation of games through visual programming. First released as a GPL-licensed DirectX 9 game engine for Microsoft Windows with Python programming on October 27, 2007, it later became proprietary software with Construct 2, as well as switching its API technology from DirectX to NW.js and HTML5, as well as removing Python and adding JavaScript support and its plugin SDK in 2012, and eventually switched to a subscription-based model as a web app.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chromium Embedded Framework</span> Free and open-source software framework

The Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) is an open-source software framework for embedding a Chromium web browser within another application. This enables developers to add web browsing functionality to their application, as well as the ability to use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create the application's user interface.

<i>Gravity Guy</i> 2010 endless runner video game

Gravity Guy is a 2010 side-scrolling endless runner action arcade video game developed and published by Miniclip.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenFL</span> Software framework for video games

OpenFL is a free and open-source software framework and platform for the creation of multi-platform applications and video games. OpenFL applications can be written in Haxe, JavaScript, or TypeScript, and may be published as standalone applications for several targets including iOS, Android, HTML5, Windows, macOS, Linux, WebAssembly, Flash, AIR, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One, Wii U, TiVo, Raspberry Pi, and Node.js.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cool Math Games</span> Online browser games portal

Cool Math Games is an online web portal that hosts HTML and Flash web browser games targeted at children and young adults. Cool Math Games is operated by Coolmath LLC and first went online in 1997 with the slogan: "Where logic & thinking meets fun & games.". The site maintains a policy that it will only host games that the operators believe are non-violent and educational and is partnered with coolmath.com and coolmath4kids.com.

<i>Elemental</i> (2023 film) Pixar film

Elemental is a 2023 American animated romantic comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Peter Sohn and produced by Denise Ream, it was written by Sohn, John Hoberg, Kat Likkel, and Brenda Hsueh. The film stars the voices of Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Wendi McLendon-Covey, and Catherine O'Hara. Set in a world inhabited by anthropomorphic elements of nature, the story follows fire element Ember Lumen and water element Wade Ripple, who spend time together in the city while trying to save a convenience store owned by Ember's father, Bernie.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Clark, Nicole (May 17, 2022). "Pixar's Elemental characters remind fans of classic platformer Fireboy and Watergirl". Polygon. Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Playing with friends equals gaming success". MCV. July 2, 2013. Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  3. Harbison, Cammy (June 3, 2019). "No, Cool Math Games Isn't Shutting Down: Company Confirms Adobe Flash 2020 Shutdown Won't Kill The Site". Newsweek. Archived from the original on January 4, 2021. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  4. "Fireboy & Watergirl: Elements on Microsoft Store". Microsoft. Retrieved October 11, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. "Fireboy & Watergirl: Elements on Google Play". Google Play. Retrieved October 11, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. "Fireboy & Watergirl: Elements on App Store". App Store. Retrieved October 11, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. "Fireboy & Watergirl: Elements on Steam". Steam. Retrieved October 11, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. "Fireboy & Watergirl: Fairy Tales on Steam". Steam. Archived from the original on January 21, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  9. 1 2 3 "Fireboy and Watergirl Review". GamerBolt. September 22, 2017. Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  10. "Reflecting On Video Games That Made Me A 'Gamer'". Impact. March 30, 2022. Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.