Three Childhood Games, Reimagined

I’ve been thinking about the games I used to make as a child. They were ambitious, a little bit ridiculous, and almost certainly influenced by whatever games I was obsessed with at the time.

Back then, I didn’t have the experience, tools, or technical knowledge to build the games I imagined. Sometimes I barely got beyond a single level. But the ideas were there, and some of them still make me smile.

Rather than simply remaking those old games, I thought it would be more interesting to take their original concepts and reimagine them using modern game design. What if I took the core idea of each game and rebuilt it around a completely different genre?

Three games have made the cut: Monkey King, Time Sheriff, and Cycic Citizen.

Monkey King: From skateboarding apes to downhill chaos

The original Monkey King was a platformer about apes on skateboards and roller skates. Naturally, they also had bazookas and guns.

Looking back, I’m not entirely sure what else you could possibly want from a game.

The original concept was all about running and jumping through levels, with armed apes causing as much chaos as possible. For the modern version, I’m taking that core idea and turning it into a downhill runner.

Imagine hurtling down increasingly dangerous courses, jumping over ramps and obstacles, and shooting enemies as you go. The emphasis shifts from carefully navigating a traditional platforming level to maintaining momentum, reacting quickly, and finding opportunities to cause maximum destruction.

It’s a much more natural fit for a fast-paced arcade game, and it gives the original idea a new identity without losing the absurdity that made it memorable in the first place.

The apes are staying. The guns are staying. The roller skates might be a little more dangerous at speed.

Time Sheriff: Cowboys through the ages

Time Sheriff was originally a shooting gallery with levels set in different historical periods. The premise was simple: pick a time period, aim at things, and shoot them.

For the new version, I’m taking the time-travelling western theme and turning it into a D&D-style encounter game.

The twist is that your entire party consists of cowboys. Each encounter drops your posse into a different time setting, where you’ll have to work together to survive whatever that era throws at you.

One encounter might take place in the Old West, while another could throw your cowboys into a completely different period of history. The contrast between a party of gunslingers and the worlds they find themselves in is a big part of the appeal.

There’s another important change: each player controls their own party member using their phone.

Rather than everyone sharing a controller or taking turns, each player can participate directly in the encounter using a device they already have in their pocket. It opens up some interesting possibilities for a more social, party-based experience, with the tactical decisions of a tabletop role-playing game and the immediacy of a video game.

The original game was about shooting targets across different time periods. The new one is about getting a posse of cowboys through them alive.

Honestly, I think that’s a much more interesting problem to solve.

Cycic Citizen: From sneaking into a base to surviving the swarm

Cycic Citizen was my attempt at a top-down spy game in the style of Metal Gear Solid. I managed to make exactly one level, in which you infiltrated a base and stole a tank.

Presumably, this was heavily influenced by GoldenEye, because apparently sneaking into a military installation and stealing a tank was the natural conclusion to any childhood spy fantasy.

For the modern version, I’m taking the espionage theme and turning it into a Vampire Survivors-style game.

That might sound like a strange direction for a stealth game, but the underlying idea translates surprisingly well. Instead of carefully navigating a single base, the focus shifts to surviving waves of enemies, building up your abilities, and becoming an increasingly dangerous operative.

The original game was about getting into a dangerous place and stealing something you probably shouldn’t have touched. The new version is about becoming so ridiculously powerful that the entire base regrets letting you through the front door.

It’s a significant change in genre, but it keeps the core fantasy of being an outnumbered operative taking on an overwhelming enemy force.

And, of course, there is still a tank somewhere in the back of my mind.

Why revisit these ideas at all?

There’s something interesting about looking back at the games you wanted to make before you understood how difficult game development could be.

As a kid, you didn’t necessarily worry about whether an idea was achievable, whether the mechanics would work together, or whether the scope was sensible. You just thought something sounded cool and tried to build it.

Sometimes that meant making a single level about stealing a tank. Sometimes it meant giving roller-skating apes heavy weapons.

The challenge now is to take those ideas seriously enough to turn them into proper games, without losing the weirdness and enthusiasm that inspired them in the first place.

That’s why these aren’t straightforward remakes. I’m not trying to recreate the original games pixel for pixel or preserve every mechanic. I’m interested in finding the most compelling part of each concept and asking what kind of game it could become today.

Monkey King becomes a fast-paced downhill shooter. Time Sheriff becomes a cooperative, time-hopping cowboy adventure. Cycic Citizen becomes an escalating survival game about an operative taking on impossible odds.

Three childhood ideas, three very different directions.

Now I just have to build them.