The Blue Flamingo

The Blue Flamingo is a vertically-scrolling shoot 'em up. The player controls an aircraft called The Blue Flamingo and participates in a competition where people take turns on a dangerous track for a high score. The game consists of two environments that are repeated every two levels, with a higher difficulty level and new enemies each time. The ship can take multiple hits, but it has only a single life and damage is carried over between missions. By defeating enemies money is earned that can be used to upgrade the ship's firepower or bombs multiple times. If a group of similar enemies or a specific formation is destroyed entirely, coins appear for even more money. There is an economy system that allows you to invest your score in upgrades. If you choose not to buy an upgrade and you carry over the money to the next mission, you earn an interest rate on that money, eventually allowing you to buy more upgrades than if you would do it after every mission.

The ship can be steered anywhere on the playfield. There is a regular cannon, and a bomb that deals damage to everything on the screen. There is no limit to the amount of bombs, but it takes some time to recharge. At the end of every level there is a target practice section where green and red objects appear. The red ones need to be shot to turn them green. Additional money is provided based on the performance.

Visually, every object in the game is created using handmade models. This includes the ship and all enemies, but also the other assets and the two environments that were created as a 32 feet long model that was digitized. Also all effects, flares and explosions were made using firecrackers and pyrotechnics.