The Pony Express

The notion of triumph through adversity is inspirational. So when William H.Russell, Alexander Majors & William B Waddell founded the Pony Express on April 3rd, 1860, they set in motion a wonderful yet daunting method of communication.

What a concept- Riders with letters on horseback racing from California to Missouri and vice versa to deliver mail in 10 days or less! Nearly exactly true to their word, the first mail arrived on April 14th.

The Pony Express felt like a great game concept to us at Google. We've made time based games in the past so our new idea was simple. Collect letters, avoid obstacles and aim for the ultimate 100 letter delivery!

The Pony Express needs YOU. And ultimately, whatever happens in life, what's more important than earning trust and respect from a horse?

Play the game HERE

Roll call:

Engineering wizardry- Mark Ivey, Kris Hom, Brian Murray.
Background wonderfulness- Kevin Laughlin.
Project management- Greg Capuano.
Game ideas- Everyone here!
Art direction & character design/animation- Matt Cruickshank.


Below are all my concepts, ideas and animation from development:

























8 comments:

Nicolette Davenport said...

Congrats, Matt - the designs and the game play are simply beautiful.

Matthew Cruickshank said...

Thanks Nicolette- appreciated!

Tymn said...

Dude! What pencils did you use on those sketches. Amazing work, as usual!

Matt Jones said...

Where were the sketches made exactly?

Unknown said...

Tres tres chouette, bravo!!!

Matthew Cruickshank said...

Mendocino Matto!

Beth Ann said...

HI Matt, I am with the St. Joseph, MO Visitors Bureau. Wanted to reach out to you regarding the Pony Express Google Doodle. (which was awesome by the way!) We're doing a report on how the doodle affected web traffic to our Pony Express landing page and wondered if you could tell me how many people played the game?
Our Pony Express landing page saw an increase of 92% in site traffic that day!
Any info would be appreciated.
Beth Conway
bconway@stjomo.com
StJoMO.com

bonenb said...

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