Shanna

Shanna

Release type: Shareware
Release date: October 1, 1993
Levels: 1 (in demo version)
Author: Angelo Felix
Website: Nahunta.org
Registration bonus: Full game
Registration price: $10
Related games: Firefall

On its own merits, Shanna is a rather unassuming, cleanly presented platformer. You’re a knight off to find the eponymous lost little girl.

Although the game is fairly modest, Angelo Felix exhibits a better-than-average mastery of (very early) Game-Maker’s quirks, has his own voice, and manages to paint a game that is enjoyable on its own terms regardless of the whole Game-Maker thing. Rather like Mark Hadley, Felix avoids enough of the typical pitfalls, complications, and tropes of many of his peers’ games that Shanna hardly feels like a Game-Maker game. It’s just simple, charming, and itself.

With the exception of a few sprites, the visuals are mostly original and for their part are both striking and appealing. Something about the world that the game paints, with its spare yet well-defined, slightly surreal imagery -- the occasional enormous sunflower, the confusing leaf monster sections, the chunky red bricks, the classical way the scores drift up from slain monsters -- exhibits a refreshing spirit. With just a little a nudge and some polish, this could get really interesting.

As it turns out, Felix named Shanna after his daughter. This may explain the game's intangible appeal. Its author just cared a heck of a lot about what he was doing.

Story

Hidden leaf monsters in Shanna

Shanna, a cute little pig-tailed girl, was out running around one day with Mandy when her good friend Te'Tare got lost. She had to find him! So off she went, and has yet to return. Where is she?

"That's for me to know and you to find out!" says the evil 'Scard. "And you had better hurry up, 'cause she lost Yito and she's drivin' me nuts!!!"

Well, it's not right for a little Princess to be alone in 'Scard Land. So you, Lance, set out to find her.

And there you have it, the first episode of Shanna. Here you need to find her, and believe me little Shanna can be stubborn!

Hope 'Scard doesn't get her... Or vice versa...

Instructions

The map to Shanna

Rescue Shanna!!!

Here are the controls:

Left arrow (4) -Move left

Right arrow (6) -Move right

Slash (/) -Climb Up

Up arrow (8) -Jump up

Down arrow (2) -Climb Down

PageUp (9)-Jump diagonly right

Home (7)-Jump diagonaly left

SpaceBar - Throw the Axe

Joystick Recomended...F9 Sets it and F8 Turns it on

Save (F5) often!

Credits

Graphics.........Angelo

Story............Angelo

Music..RSD and Creative Labs

My Teacher.......Ernesto Perez

Special thanks to :

Ernesto

RSD

Creative Labs

Adios.. HECHO EN PUERTO RICO !!!

Resources

Shanna and Firefall

Some of the monsters and weapons appear to have been borrowed from Firefall. Deluxe Paint and palette artifacts betray the original.

It's unclear why Felix felt compelled to borrow the sprites, as he has such a lovely visual style of his own, and frankly Shanna is a much better game than Firefall. It is clear, though, that Felix put some effort into personalizing the sprites. He only borrowed the animation frames he needed, and then altered them a bit to match the game’s style. If anything, his edited axe is more attractive than the original.

When asked, Felix remembered Firefall but was hazy about the details.

Background

Angelo Felix:

It was a lot of fun making [Shanna], I named it after my daughter Shanna. I need to try and find those games, I'm sure I have them stored somewhere. But the sprite (character), I remember spending a lot of time working on it.

I should have kept the Game Maker box - still possible it may be laying around in storage somewhere. I think the Game-Maker kit came with a set of default sprites and graphics; the idea to Game-Maker was to get the end user quickly up and running with your own games. Later, if you decided, you could take more time and make your own graphics. Probably, a lot of the graphics and sprites you see in Shanna were taken from the kit that Game-Maker came in. I also might have altered them (which was allowed), I think the most original was the character sprite, I remember spending a lot of time on that one (I think the graphics were original too).

I actually played Shanna for a while today and as remembering some of what I did to make it (after over 10 years!). Some of the routines you see were hackish as I was told by the makers of the box, it couldn't be done yet. For example the 'upward floating score on kill' was not conventional, took me a long time to figure out a way to get it to work.

Availability

During the early 1990s the game also was available for download from GameLynk's Frontline BBS.

Also available on several shareware compilation CD-ROMs, including Gold Medal Software (1994).

Archive history

This game was introduced to the archive in c1994, through download from the Frontline BBS.

Links

Interviews / Articles

• Easy Lifting (DIYGamer)
• Shanna (Nap'n'Retrogaming)

Listings

• archive.org entry
• demu.org entry

Misc. Links

• Play Shanna online

Downloads

• Shanna (133.5 kB)
• Game map (274 kB)