Aiming to breathe life into 'God games'

Rebeccah Cox said <i>Jelly God</i> was a combination of all the things she loved about games.

A Rotorua game developer hopes her new creation will reignite the popularity of "God games" for smartphone and computer players.

Bexcellent Games owner Rebeccah Cox is developing her latest game Jelly God with funding from global crowd-funding platform Kickstarter.

In Jelly God, the player becomes the only hope for an otherwise grey and barren world.

The player cultivates a tribe of jelly people, breathing life into the new world and turning it colourful.

The village of genderless jellies can be expanded by gathering resources, building homes, unlocking new colours and discovering new ways to combine items.

Ms Cox said Jelly God was a combination of all the things she loved about games she had played, leaving out those aspects she didn't like.

"When playing Sims I loved the creating aspect and being able to build my city up but hated when a disaster tore through my town destroying everything. In Jelly God, there will be no random destruction, gender stereotypes, or violence because they were things I never liked in games."

Ms Cox said she had been mulling over the idea for about six months and started developing the game a month ago.

A screen grab from Jelly God showing the grey world turning colourful.

"There are not many premium 'God games' out at the moment so I think there will be a market for it. I've also decided to have one upfront payment for the game, instead of having players buy developments within the game."

Ms Cox said games such as Sims, SimCity and Minecraft had a "huge" following because "people enjoy creating and tailoring their own worlds".

"Adult female gamers now outweigh teenage male gamers and 80 per cent of mobile gamers are female as well so I know my game will appeal to women. However I don't specifically target that demographic and it has the potential to attract a wide-ranging fan base."

Ms Cox has developed three other small smartphone apps and hopes to release Jelly God on Windows, PC, and iOS mid to late next year.