If you are interested in game development, we’d like to share with you a little bit about where the game came from, and why we made the choices we did.

Poh Tun Kai, Designer:

How did you design the levels?
In Jewels of Cleopatra 2, the levels are divided into 5 “temples,” which, in an in-joke, are mostly named after Aztec characters from an old BBC TV show I watched when I was a kid. We tried to gradually introduce new elements in each of the temples: Basic gameplay and dark levels in the first temple, moving rooms and some creatures in the second temple, water traps and more creatures in the third temple, and so on.

What’s the coolest new feature in the sequel?
Well, one of the cool new things in the game was the idols, which transform or destroy a lot of jewels around them when you activate them. To activate the idols, the players have to match the right kinds of jewels until the idol fills up and activates. By triggering the idols the players can get past some difficult spots. One thing we tried to avoid was putting too many idols in the same area, because when that happens you can get some really explosive chain reactions that rearrange the whole screen! Still, we did leave a few places in a few of the last levels where you can find multiple idols. Those are the places where you can really blow up half the temple!

Was it a challenge to balance the difficulty of the game?
Oh, yes! Originally, we were going to make things a LOT harder in the fourth temple onward by changing the number of types of jewels from 5 to 6 per level, but it just got too hard! There were some narrow corridors where bad luck could get you stuck, and making all the corridors wider wasn’t a good solution. Besides, we were also putting in new creatures and more types of idols in the later temples, which already made things more complicated. We liked the more narrow corridors and we liked the pace of the game with 5 jewel types, so in the end we dropped the idea of going to 6 jewel types and balanced all the later levels for 5 jewels. I think it turned out much better that way.

Ben Wong, Artist:

What went into creating the art for Jewels of Cleopatra and its sequel?
Basically we start off by deciding the overall theme and feel for the art of a particular project… For the original Jewels of Cleopatra, it was Comic-Fun-Styled-Egyptian-Treasure-Adventure, so most early concepts were developed to illustrate that look and feel. Somewhere along the way, there would be unanimous decisions, which would bring about significant changes like our main character, who was initially modelled after Sean Connery with an Indiana Jones twist. There’s also an abundance of art, which sadly, did not make it to the final product, partially due to excessive file size and the fact that it wasn’t really essential.

Feedback from the initial JoC release prompted the changes for more vibrant colours. With JoC2, with most of the base-styles set, it was easier to just get the colour tones right.

Initial Feel:

Significant Changes:

Art Not Used:

Sample Test:

Art Not Used 2: