Houses

Houses

Release type: Demo game
Release date: 1991
Levels: 3
Author: Joan Stone with Sheldon Chase
Related games: Terrain, Sample, Tutor, WW: Outer Limits, WW: Attack from Below

Along with Terrain and Tutor, Houses is one of the more overt demo games to come with Game-Maker, and along with Terrain it may be considered it a spin-off of or crossover from Sample.

In its original incarnation, Houses was a single-level affair involving the biker character. Find the right door; exit the level. As with Terrain, its main purpose was to illustrate various tiling patterns. For later releases of Game-Maker, Houses was updated with two further characters and a branched structure.

In its ultimate incarnation, the object of the game is to teach designers how to incorporate multiple characters within a single level. The player wanders a map riddled with houses of various designs. If one follows the path, each of the first few houses is a hotspot. Depending on which door one enters, the path branches off into a parallel version of the map featuring a different character.

The extra characters include "Sam Stone" from Sample and Terrain, and a basic version of Chase’s Muybridge lady, wearing just a blue swimsuit — more or less a selective palette swap, adding both a bit of color and a bit of modesty to Muybridge's original black-and-white photos. A fully nude version also exists (as per the original photographs), although only as a raw sprite set; it is not incorporated into any game.

Ghostly faces in Houses

Altogether, Houses seems to have undergone heavy revision along the way; although early instruction manuals mention the game, in the final version Sheldon Chase’s character sprite, which was only introduced in late versions of Game-Maker, holds center stage.

Some of the background elements in Houses (indeed also in Sample and Terrain) are borrowed from Andy Stone's Labyrinth, the Ur game that led to the development of Game-Maker. Those tiles include some of the grass and mud elements.

Notes:

• Why does the biker character live in the ritziest house of all? Is it a consolation prize for being relegated to a third-tier character in his own game?
• Wow, what's the deal with the shadowy forms in the row house windows?
• There is in fact a goal to find. It's a house with the word "EXIT" above the door.
• You can only actually finish the game with the biker character.

Story

The prime real estate of Houses

Houses illustrates how to make buildings out of the blocks in the HOUSES block set. It also illustrates how you can have the character change to another character.

Instructions

Use the arrow keys to move. Other keys do various things for each of the characters.

Follow the green path to change into another character. To leave the game, press the ESC key or enter the door with the EXIT sign.

Credits

Designed by Recreational Software Designs.

Female character by Sheldon Chase.

Resources

• Background blocks, character blocks, and character reused from Sample.
• The biker character is also used in Tutor.
• Sheldon Chase's female character is based on photographs by Eadweard Muybridge, and is further adapted in his Woman Warrior games.

Availability

Distributed with all versions of Game-Maker.

In addition, full versions of Game-Maker and its gameware were illegally distributed on several shovelware CD-ROMs in the early-mid 1990s, such as Softkey Entertainment Pack (July 1996)

Archive History

Houses was introduced to the archive with the purchase of Game-Maker 1.04 in September 1992.

Links

Interviews / Articles

• Bonus Time with Andrew Stone (Gamasutra)
• Sheldon Chase and the Warrior Woman (DIYGamer)
• Muy Blog

Listings

• archive.org entry
• demu.org entry

Misc. Links

• Older gameplay video
• Play Houses online

Downloads

• Houses (220.5 kB)
• Houses map (281 kB)