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Skeletons in the Closet PLUS

thesycophant's picture
Wed, 05/03/2017 - 00:14 — thesycophant
Screen_22.png
Game File: 
application/zip icon
SKELPLUS.zip

Find all bottles to move onto next stage. Avoid skeletons.

Use arrows to move, X to jump.

A tribute to CGA IBM compatible games and to jfroco's Skeletons in the Closet, a tribute to Sinclair ZX Spectrum games.
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Here is my very late submission to this most excellent idea for a game jam! As Danni said about the original Skeletons in the Closet, "This is neat but it needs way more levels." So I present to you, Skeletons in the Closet PLUS! Whereas the original game had only three levels, this enhanced port gives you TWELVE.

jfroco's game is a tribute to the style of ZX-82 games, which they grew up on. I really liked the game when I played it in the GDC Pirate Kart. Personally, I don't have any particular nostalgia for the Spectrum, but my equivalent would be early Apogee-type shareware platformers . So my little headcanon is that this is the MS-DOS port from the late 1980s that alters the original Spectrum game, moves things around, and expands it a bit. All three original stages are adapted for this version!

Link to original game: https://www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/node/3053

(If this game gets too hard, use the secret cheat code for more lives: Hold down L and press Space!)

Event Created For: 
The No Pressure Appreciation Nicejam
Made For: 
An event

Comments

Sun, 05/07/2017 - 19:32 — let-off-studios (not verified)

Skeletons

Very nice work with the tribute here! When I saw the graphics, my eyes immediately brightened up. I love seeing new games with old-skool graphics. There's a lot of elegance in using a single colour to detail a sprite, and the silhouette of the explorer is a nice touch, identical to the original.

I enjoyed figuring out where the "safe spots" were in the levels, and in some cases for how long they would last. If I were nit-picky, I would love to see a time-based feature added to this game, either limiting how long the player has to finish all the levels, or adding to a player score depending on how much time is left. An unlimited lives toggle would go great with this time limit, as well.

Had lots of fun making my way through all 12 levels. Great job! :)

Tue, 05/09/2017 - 14:04 — thesycophant
thesycophant's picture

Thanks! That's awesome you

Thanks! That's awesome you played it through to the end! I was really enamored with the original game when I played it and one thing I really liked was its use of space and "safe spots," like you say. I'm glad if this version successfully built on that!

I like your ideas a lot! I kinda wanted to introduce unlimited lives or some sort of scoring or timing system, but I was trying to stay faithful to the source material. The 1-ups are my concession to this. (As is my cheat code for extra lives.)

Reverse engineering a game you like for a "port" and then trying to build it out in ways that expand the original but retaining what made the source compelling is a cool exercise (and a lot more energy-intensive than I expected). I wouldn't be surprised if having worked on this ends up influencing some future games of mine in some pretty direct ways.