has watched with great interest the rising popularity of , which now has locations in LoDo and on East Colfax Avenue, and he wishes more bars, theaters and public areas had vintage-style gaming options.
“I thought they could use new games with classic style gameplay to keep people coming back,” said Coate, a 28-year-old Denver resident and longtime gamer who programmed Flytrap in his spare time.
“I’ve also viewed the mobile/smartphone market as very oversaturated so was looking for a more under-served market. My end goal is to create a platform for independents like myself to get distribution and exposure they wouldn’t have otherwise.”
Coate’s Flytrap is a two-person arcade game in which players, represented by humanoid Venus flytraps, must attack and eat oncoming waves of enemies, Space Invaders-style. The colorful, detailed graphics recall early ’90s 3D arcade games more than the blocky, flickering stuff of the Pac-Man or Galaga, but the gameplay is old-school all the way.
The coin-op title, which debuted in the gaming room of this year’s , is available for purchase for $2,500. But if you want to drive before you buy, check it out in the lobby of the Lakewood Belmar Century 16 Theater.
Like countless indie games, Flytrap had a fraught birth. Coate originally programmed it for the now-defunct Xbox Live Marketplace, where it was lost amid dozens of other, often cut-rate titles.
A Google search of Coate’s name will also dig up between Coate and some gaming writers/commenters from 2009. (“I wrote that out of frustration and anger and it blew out of control. It’s kind of followed me around ever since,” Coate said, nothing that he’s learned a lot about maturity and marketing himself in the years hence.)
A former game designer, producer and project manager for places like Sony Online Entertainment, Coate said his ideal is to create a system in which companies buy his custom-designed cabinets, then receive free updates of new games without having to change out the hardware. He approached The 1Up but hasn’t had any luck placing his machines in their bars, he said. His next target is the Punch Bowl Social on South Broadway.
Flytrap’s cabinet was custom-made with the help of John Gerlach at . The shell came from an old Atari cabinet called Vindicators, which was cut up and reassembled. Then Coate turned to AIA Plastics in Denver to manufacture a custom top for the machine.
“I put privacy film for shower doors around to the top to diffuse the LEDs, and it looks really cool,” Coate said.
After watching a good amount of gameplay footage, we can’t help but agree. Here’s hoping this isn’t the last coin-op, indie arcade game we see to come out of Denver.
Fore more check out or e-mail Coate at adamcoate@gmail.com.
