(And yes, I promised to write this a while ago)

I played a simple series of flash games on Newgrounds called "Escape" in which you had to collect keys and unlock new areas while avoiding hitting traps and enemies. As I did this, I realized how easy it would be to transplant this concept to a BYOND game.

So, I sat down and tried to find out what elements would work best in text-mode - text mode because of the Linux users, my rather horrid artistic abilities, and the fact that I like the @ as a player character ever since I first played Nethack.

As every good game designer does at this point in time, I thought of similar games and STOLE the elements I liked. In this case, from Escape and from the Legend of Zelda dungeons, since those were relatively simple rearrangements of a few base gaming elements.

Once I had that down pat, I started on writing the engine, and this is where it became a bit tricky. The first thing I made were two general atom/procs for O.Bumped and O.Over - events which are called when you are bumped, or when an object is stepped on, respectively. The latter was for the auto-pickup objects and traps. I then started on working on an activation system which automatically turned on all traps and monsters when you entered the level and deactivated them again when you left it. And, to simulate Zelda and to make pushing-puzzles actually solvable, I had blocks have an optional tag to return to their original positions when you returned to that room/level (I actually used different z-levels for each room).

At this point the game was composed entirely out of two "testing ground" maps which had all types of objects on them to allow me to try them all out. I had particuarly fun working on the hookshot, trying to find the best way to make an object not interact with overlap-objects, yet pull you in if it hits certain types of blocks. I am quite happy with how that turned out.

And then, once I had everything set up, I decided to release the minigame demo within an hour or three in order to show others what I had done. And yes, I had to hardcode certain elements (the door activating when you "kill" all of the wheat, and having Jared give you the scythe. I could softcode them, but I hadn't thought it worth the effort during the coding on the minigame demo.

And now what? I usually don't tend to work on projects after I release that I am, indeed, capable of actually finishing them (the challenge is no longer there for me) - but I have had thoughts for a full-fledged minigame-engine RPG/Adventure with many more items and monsters (already coded up but not used in the minigame-demo), a basic plot, and even an online high score list in order to brag to your friends. However, I am not a fan languages to do that type of thing in), and I'll probably be distracted anyhow.

Next time (or not): Thoughts on DIRTjaw!