Friction

Friction

Release type: Shareware
Release date: March, 1995
Levels: 13 (in shareware version)
Author: A-J Games
Registration bonus: 20 additional levels
Registration price: $40
Related games: none

Friction harks back to my first glimpse of RSD’s software, in those ads in the back of VideoGames & Computer Entertainment.

I’ve talked of how those shots caused my mind to race. They spoke of magic and variety, like a trip to the arcade or the front desk at Kay-Bee Toys, or a new disk in the mail filled with unknown surprises. In particular the image of Block Designer, its sandbox window filled with tiles from G. Oliver Stone’s Pipemare, called to mind radically diverse games like Tower Toppler, Alleycat, and Arkanoid — none of which, as it turns out, Game-Maker was meant to replicate.

Still that hypothetical game stayed with me — something involving towers and bridges and inscrutable barriers. It was a vertiginous thing where the player passed in front of and behind objects, collected power-ups, and found the best and safest route skyward. It would be something to do with poles and gravity — leaping or climbing from pole to pole, as on a giant jungle gym. Scattered around the poles would be obstacles, threats, and bonuses.

The previous summer I had tasked myself to break down Game-Maker into its constituent elements, so as to show off its properties. That notion returned with a new clarity, and I went back to basics. My new game would simply explore the engine’s physics. Gravity could go up or down, or it could be static. Tiles could be solid or not, on various sides. They could injure or heal; increase or decrease counters. They could animate, and change on contact with the player. These would be my limitations; rather than fight against the engine’s boundaries, I would demonstrate its features.

I drew every tile by hand, in RSD’s own tools. Although I used Deluxe Paint for the menus and splash screens, I restrained myself to just a few colors, simple geometry, and a consistent shading technique. Every element was new, every piece was simple, and every part of the game served to illustrate the basic concepts at its core. The result was an action puzzler called Friction, which — some quirks aside — may also be the finest game to rise from my Game-Maker career.

Climbing around in Friction

As I focused on the background physics, I focused on the environment. As I took pains to clearly demonstrate the physics, it happened that I found a sense of level design. For possibly the first time I agonized over a game’s maps. Each tile had to be placed just right, and to stretch out and highlight the fairly limited palette of concepts I had to introduce them carefully, one at a time.

Whereas most of my games had been object-oriented — they were about the character, or about mimicking a game that I liked — Friction was all about the subject. The story, the character, the visuals all served the game’s central purpose as extrapolated and narrated by the level design. Since I had extrapolated that purpose from the engine rather than imposed it upon Game-Maker, I also hit fewer of the engine’s limitations — meaning those limits showed less clearly. By embracing the given boundaries, Friction is one of my few games not to feel defined by them. In that sense I would consider it my first mature design.

It had its problems, of course. Even with all of my concessions I felt that the engine did not want to work with me. Due to issues with the physics and certain “features” like the helpful way that characters bump their way around corners, I had trouble keeping the character aligned with the ropes and poles. I also hit the Pac problem: due to the engine’s persistent counters, if the player picks up a key and then dies then he begins his next life with that counter still increased.

Thus puzzles are never truly reset, and the player can easily bank items for later use. In retrospect I suppose I could have placed a tile at the start of each level that drained any artificially raised counters — but I was not yet at that level of hackery. I was still approaching the engine in earnest, and I expected features to work as proscribed.

Level 9 of Friction

The game has a story, though it is of no consequence. I figured that anyone who would be inclined to acrobatically leap around on ropes and poles would be something of a daredevil; this brought to mind an old whimsy stemming from a DOS-based brainstorming and poetry generation suite, Rosemary K. West’s Thunder Thought and Versifier.

Basically this software called from a huge database of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and phrases. The user would choose a template and set a few variables; the software would randomly fill in the structure with content from the database. When I got the software I scrubbed the databases and then entered the bare minimum of my own content — which meant that the same words and phrases tended to recur with some regularity. One of the first proper nouns that I entered, which quickly became a joke, was a reference to a genial hot dog vendor in my home town. Through poem after poem, “Hank the Hot Dogger” went on wild adventures and learned deep life lessons. On the basis of his name, I figured he would make a good protagonist here.

By this point in my design career I was big on customization. If I was going to make something, I figured I might as well use all original elements. Whether they were any good or not, at least they were my own. Accordingly I recorded and edited all new sound effects which would have a long life in future Game-Maker projects, well beyond my tenure. I’ve lost count of how often I’ve heard the grunts and chomp sounds reused in other users’ games.

The only thing left to customize was the music. I’ve talked about this before, but here’s a missing chapter in the tale. Since its introduction to Game-Maker I had been frustrated with the Creative Music Format that RSD’s engine supported. As I now understand it, RSD had grander plans for music but Creative’s code was ready to hand so with a deadline at their heels they slapped it in to provide at least provisional support.

Level 5 of Friction

That would have been fine, as CMF is a perfectly respectable format from an aural perspective. It’s a sequenced format, like MIDI, that uses the Sound Blaster’s Yamaha FM chip — a close cousin to the chip in the Sega Genesis, one of my favorite sound chips in any game console. The problem is the lack of any obvious compositional tools. This means that nearly every Game-Maker game draws from a small pool of library tracks, in particular the six tunes that shipped with Game-Maker and the scores to several early Epic Megagames releases.

There were tools available, as I would later discover — some more practical than others — but the support wasn’t what it could be. Furthermore by the time I lost patience with the situation, other better music formats had become prevalent. Later Epic Megagames releases used Amiga-style module formats, which sounded great and were simple to compose. With Friction I felt I had played fair and mastered every aspect of RSD’s engine. I had created something totally new and original within the given boundaries. The time was up: I wanted to finish the job, and write the music. I had been playing with Scream Tracker; I felt I could do a decent job. I was ready. Where was the feature?

Thus began my nagging, which RSD must have loved as it was constant. And thus began the spiral into my fabled “strike” from design — a decision with no immediate and obvious benefit to anyone.

- [Azurelore Korrigan]

Story

Hank was roaring down a dark country road when his car broke down. At that instant, the clouds decided to let loose their burden of rain.

The blackness was of pitch, but in the glare of his headlights Hank was able to see a house about a block away. Having not much of a choice, he trotted over, hoping for assistance.

After pounding the door until his knuckles were raw, recieving no answer, Hank started back to his car. Once he turned around, however, he heard the door open behind him. Hank spun around on his heel to stand face to face with a small robed figure. He jumped back in surprise, but the figure did nothing.

"Uh... He-Hello?"

No reply.

"My car broke down about a block back in that direction." He gestured. "Can I use your phone?"

Again, no reply.

"I mean, I -- I need some help, here."

The figure pointed at him. Suddenly Hank felt strange. His head started spinning and he collapsed.

When he awoke, Hank found himself in the middle of a field, with nothing anywhere in sight except for large structures, somewhat resembling the climbing sets in a playground. Hank knew not what else to do, so he grabbed a rope and began to climb. Maybe somewhere up here is the way out of this hellish place. There has to be a way out.

... Hasn't there?

Instructions

Hazards on your path

• The arrow keys move Hank in those directions.
• Silver poles let you slide down. Golden poles let you slide up.
• You can climb on ropes.
• To open a door you need a key.

Items and mechanisms

• Hearts give HP. A-Js are 1-Ups.
• Items such as grapes, floppy disks, dollar bills, and apples give you extra points.
• Stepping on springboards bounces Hank up slightly.
• Blocks move around in your path.

Hazards

• If the rope is burning, find another route.
• Water and spikes are dangerous if landed on. Spikes will kill you even if you just touch the side.
• Watch out for lasers -- they zap you instantly. With flames, however, you have time to dodge.
• Snakes, Dwids, and noses pose a constant threat. Watch how they move.

Credits

• Graphics: Aderack
• Sounds: Aderack
• Testing: M.O.S.H.
• Engine: RSD

And who is this mysterious M.O.S.H.?

Morphio - OmegAkira - Silverhawk - Hackman

Background

[Azurelore Korrigan]:

A puzzle game involving the use of ropes and poles. Some of the character movement is a bit off, although that's more due to the engine than the design. The graphics also are very simple, but hey -- they work.

Although the files (and related reviews!) have now been removed, Friction is one of two games which mysteriously wound up on ZDNet Downloads. And through whatever weird machinations produce our daily dose of surprise, both games were given three (out of five) stars!

Not the most glowing score in the world, but it's certainly adequate, especially considering how out-of-the-blue it was.

Availability

Available on several shareware compilation CD-ROMs, including:

• Sixteen Bits CD-ROM (June 1996),
• Public Software Library's PSL Monthly #4-05 (1996),
• Public Software Library's PSL Monthly #4-08: Games, Sound (1996), and
• PC-Ohio's Shareware Extravaganza 8 (1997).

In addition, for several years Friction and Zoom the Super Bear were available fom ZDNet Downloads. Both games received a three-star rating (out of five).

Archive History

Friction was retained as part of the archive from the game's inception.

Reviews

Hank's car broke down, and when he knocks on the closest house's door for help, the silent inhabitant just points at him and make him collapse.

A puzzle/action game where you have to hop from rope to pole to collect keys that will let you proceed to the next level. 13 levels in the shareware package, and 10 more for registered users.

Puzzles involve ropes along which you move freely in both directions, fireman (?) poles that pull you either up or down.

- Pype/PPP Team

Links

Interviews / Articles

• The History of A-J Games: Part Ten

Listings

• archive.org entry
• demu.org entry

Misc. Links

• Sixteen Bits Online: June 1996
• Play Friction online

Downloads

• Friction (386.6 kB)
• Level 1 Map (9.2 kB)
• Level 2 Map (10.8 kB)
• Level 3 Map (17.3 kB)
• Level 4 Map (34.6 kB)
• Level 5 Map (28.6 kB)
• Level 6 Map (11.8 kB)
• Level 7 Map (28.6 kB)
• Level 8 Map (9.9 kB)
• Level 9 Map (19.7 kB)
• Level 10 Map (24.5 kB)
• Level 11 Map (49.5 kB)
• Level 12 Map (30.5 kB)
• Level 13 Map (37.0 kB)