Postbug
Eat bugs, break webs, push boulders, dive underwater, or command a swarm of killer bees against the spiders. Do whatever it takes to survive the most dangerous mail run in town!
Click the button below if you are on a desktop or laptop using Google Chrome, Firefox, or Opera. Safari, IE, mobile and tablets are not yet supported.
> Play Postbug
Postbug Music by the AIM Videogame Ensemble
Special thanks to the AIM Videogame Ensemble for composing the music for Postbug.
The 12 week program was lead by Meghann O'Neill and included David Forbes, Amanda Lim, James Mara, Mitchell Munro, Joel Pearson and Tim Steain.
Most rooms have a different track, so make sure you look around to get the full experience.
Postbug Trailer
Make sure you check out the gameplay trailer;
this is just a glimpse of some of the crazy moves you may need to pull in order to survive this hostile world.
Soundtrack credits: Cellofest (circa 2001) by Paul Fox (Indie Masters)
Postbug Pioneers Hall of Fame
The Hall of Fame is to honour the pioneers who have completed the game.
Their incredible efforts and service will always be remembered :-)
If you are interested in becoming a Postbug Pioneer, you only need a score of 33 to qualify.
Independent Game Festivals
Postbug has exhibited at PAX Australia, iFest and Freeplay game festivals in Melbourne.
Postbug at PAX Australia '15
Quotes
"Here's your love letter from an old friend. Sorry you drowned. I love this game so much."
- Meghann O'Neill
"You're trying to deliver mail around a bizarre invertebrate town where the recipients are usually dying as soon as they leave their houses, and where your role quickly shifts from mere postbug to one-man guerrilla army, civil engineer, thief, and battlefield commander, as you try to avoid getting killed by the myriad enemies that are frankly everywhere."
- James Baillie's Review
"Persistence, courage and 'going that one more round' will provide you the tools to get through a labyrinth of puzzle and death to give you the ultimate prize of a feat of significance."
- Battledrone
"This needs a Hard Mode."
- Joel Pearson (Postbug music composer and, to this date, the only person to achieve a perfect score in Postbug)
"You deliver mail, have lunch, solve puzzles and try not to be eaten by a ton of spiders or set on fire by lava. There is also flash floods, giant rocks, and other unmentionable horrors. You know everyday, run of the mill postal worker stuff."
- Petra's Work in Beta Review
"There's something kind of zen and addictive about navigating this big reactionary world, knowing that the more danger you sidestep the more chaos you cause... I feel like the butterfly flapping its wings and the hurricane all at once."
- Adam Carr
"Gameplay's fun and challenging, especially if you like fast-paced strategy games. Solid mechanic, funny premise, I'm in."
- Ashley Revlett
"Smooth gameplay and lovely balance of puzzle and process."
- Hamish Curry
"It is great seeing ideas turn into fruition!"
- Joseph Hemingway
Postbug Canvas coming soon...
Create your own levels and experiment with the Postbug system.
Screenshots
Do you have what it takes to deliver all 33 letters and become a Postbug Pioneer?
Command a swarm of killer bees to wage war against the spiders. Watch out though, the bee stuck in the web is a sitting duck!
Postbug Pro Tips
The following tips may give you an edge if you plan on taking the Postbug Pioneer Challenge:
- Spiders can't see behind themselves
- Eat honey to become the Yellowbug and lead bees into battle against the spiders
- You can help free bees (or food) from webs by pushing against them (they are vulnerable to spiders when stuck)
- Eating red bugs will give you the ability to annihilate spiders
Technical Information
Postbug's Game Design Objectives:
Postbug is a game which encourages experimentation, exploration, and strategy building
during gameplay. An aim of Postbug was to create an emergent system consisting of objects
with a diverse range of attributes and behaviours. These objects include grass, dirt,
rock, water, lava, bugs, eggs, spiders, fish, and crabs. In order to survive, players
will need to experiment with their environment to learn how these objects behave and interact.
Postbug Technical Overview: Compiling C# to Javascript:
Postbug was developed in C# and compiled to Javascript using Erik Källén's Saltarelle Compiler.
This allows for the game to be developed with a statically typed language and run in the browser on a wide range of platforms.
The game uses the Pixi.js library to render GPU accelerated graphics with WebGL.