It’s hard to believe that Glitch Dash, an intense twitch platformer with stunning psychedelic visuals, was created by just one man. But David Marquardt is no ordinary developer.
By day, he’s lead artist for Swedish studio Turborilla, best known for the Mad Skills BMX series. But once the sun sets, he toils away at his own projects—the first of which was the hit Pull My Tongue, published by Noodlecake Studios.
So how does someone with a full-time job, not to mention a wife and two kids, find the time to develop his own games?
“The answer is probably that I’m stubborn as heck and have a great wife who’s fine with me sitting by the computer at night while she watches TV,” he jokes.
Glitch Dash is easily Marquardt’s most ambitious undertaking to date. It reimagines classic 2D run-and-jump or object-avoidance platformers, rendering everything in three dimensions with a fresh first-person perspective. It’s an atmospheric ride through trippy landscapes that morph before your eyes, with an ambient soundtrack that delights your ears.
Marquardt handled every facet of the relentless game, from the core design and art to the music and code. Perfecting the levels was especially difficult.
“The hardest part about designing them was balancing difficulty,” he says. “I put an early version of the game in the hands of some friends and they didn’t even make it through the first level!”
So if you’ve obliterated your score in Super Hexagon, owned the leaderboards in Impossible Road, and made easy work of Geometry Dash, we’re certain Glitch Dash will itch your twitch reflexes.
“I’ve screamed at levels while playing them far more times than I can count—and I designed them,” says Marquardt. “It’s hard. Real hard.”