So, the first thing I ever got paid for, 22 years ago, was designing six games at a rapid clip for the CD-ROM release of Game-Maker 3.0. I had built up a relationship with the software’s developer, and after a couple of years of beta testing and Q&A they gave me this commission. The results are… well. I was proud of them at the time. I also was sixteen years old.
The most notorious of the batch is probably Peach the Lobster, which was inspired in no small part by Jazz Jackrabbit. The idea was that Game-Maker needed a mascot, so here was a lobster in a track suit. I don’t know; I didn’t have many friends.
It played terribly, and the level design was pretty thoughtless. What thought I put into it was of that novice mentality where it’s such a hoot to make life hard for the player.
So, for no real reason (i.e., to avoid life issues), I’ve recently been tweaking the game in subtle ways. Now, quietly, in this version I’ve yet to unveil, the character controls much more precisely, and the early levels have been adjusted so that they’re not a pain in the ass to play through. I adjusted the distance between platforms, removed some annoying traps, changed a few enemy placements. If you weren’t a huge student of the game you probably wouldn’t notice the changes except that the game didn’t seem as bad as you remembered.
The later levels, though – they’re really garbage. So the process has slowed down while I try to make something out of them. Here’s level 3-1. First, the original:
The map loops left and right, resulting in what at the time I thought was a clever drop way back to the start if you don’t make it across a chasm… that you can’t make it across anymore if you fall, because you’ll have destroyed the bridge. Lots of spikes hidden in plain sight on the floor, like the toys your toddler will strew across the living room. Huge vertical cliff that you need to glitch out the controls to scale. No especial thought to enemy placement.
Here’s the new version, just finished:
There are a few secret passages that, if you look closely, are betrayed by a very slight glimmer to the background tiles. I kept the basic structure of the original, minus the loop-drop, and… well. Tried to make it something a person might enjoy playing through. Some of those stalactites drip water; some wobble then try to fall on you.
Here it is, straightened out:
Any of you revisited super old projects to try to fix things that had always bothered you?