DD4: Canadian Boxing Day

Dummy Duck 4

Release type: Unknown
Release date: ?
Levels: ?
Author: Alan Caudel
Website: Dummy Duck
Related games: Dummy Duck, Dummy Duck 2, Dummy Duck 3, Dummy Duck 5

AKA DD4: Canadian Boxing Day

The fourth game in Alan Caudel's Dummy Duck series, and an early experiment with claymation.

Story

 Dummy Duck 4

Well, Mister Bad is back. And he's knee deep in EVIL! It's up to our favorite feathered hero to save the entire UNIVERSE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well...

maybe, the entire world!

umm...

Okay, just Middleburg.

So... Well, Mr.Bad uses his spaceship (which is 1 word!) to fly around and blow up stuff. Okay...Well, you know, that's not very good, so if you don't want stuff to be blown up, then BEAT THE GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Instructions

You can either use the joystick, arrow keys, or the numeric keypad to control.

UL U UR

\ | /

L - - R

/ | \

DL D DR

- - - - - - - -

joystick controls:

button B = fire

button A+D = duck

button B+A = pick up

- - - - - - - -

keyboard controls:

space bar = fire

"/" = duck

"p" = pick up

Credits

ALAN CAUDEL drew the pictures and took photos of the clay figures

ADAM TYNER scanned the photos

YURIK NESTOLY did the voice of Dummy Duck

MATT WEARS did Lil' Red's voice

ALAN CAUDEL was Foo-Foo

ADAM HENNON tested the game while I was making it, and gave me the idea for the sea monkey level

ADAM TYNER's Questor series was the inspiration for the overhead level

NATHAN LEWIS told me how cool the game was

ALAN CAUDEL did all the design, sound effects, storyline, and everything else!!!

YOU played the game!

 THANK YOU!

Background

Cool guys don't look at explosions

Dummy Duck 4 in-game screenshot

Dummy Duck 4 in-game screenshot

Dummy Duck 4 in-game screenshot

How do you defeat the giant boss? Don't ask me, I forgot!

Whack-a-mole style mini-game

Alan Caudel:

The game's alternate title, "DD4: Canadian Boxing Day" was a parody of the movie "ID4: Independence Day" which was popular at the time.

This is a random memory that I just had while I was typing. Dummy 4 came out around the same time as the movie Desperado. I hadn't seen the movie, but I remember seeing the commercial that had someone shooting a rocket out of a guitar case. This seemed like such a ridiculous idea that I had to include it in the game. So, the main weapon in Dummy 4 is a guitar case that shoots rockets. I don't think I ever explained it in the game.

The idea for a claymation game probably came from playing The Neverhood. I built clay models for each of the characters and animated them. Digital cameras really weren't around much back then, so I had to take all the photos for each frame of animation with a regular film camera and wait for the film to be developed. Then I scanned in each photo and imported them into Game-Maker.

The claymation process was very arduous. I was pretty economical with the photos that I shot. I think I used every photo that I took. I knew what a pain it would be to redo any of it, so I tried hard to get it right the first time. I don't think I had to go back and re-shoot anything.

If I remember correctly, I used tons and tons of .FLI animations in this game. Almost every level got an animated cut-scene or two. I had just gotten a scanner, and I did several hand-drawn animated sequences. I think out of all the games I made, I probably put the most effort into making this game and it might just be my favorite.