The Patchwork Heart

The Patchwork Heart

Release type: Demo game
Release date: 1994 (original release)
Levels: 4
Author: A-J Games
Related games: Zark

Peach was an exhausting and time-consuming project, so to follow it up I cooled off by tossing together what seemed like a simple, brainless game. It consists of three maps, one tile set, a character with basically no animation, and no grand plan behind its design.

The character is a golden orb; for variety, and just to dink around with an unfamiliar technique, it emits motion lines when it jumped. The result is a kind of neat trail effect, which also serves as a secondary attack. To set the levels apart, the game plays around with palette swapping. To further break up the sameness, which could make the game confusing in places, every surface that the player touches also turns golden. This allows the player to sort of leave a trail, as well as generally establish a sense of ownership over the level geometry.

The level progression and variety is a little eccentric. The first level is immediately repeated, except with a different goal. After that the game switches to a weightless or top-down close-quarters maze (where the golden trail comes in handy), and then more of an action-platformer level where the idea is to fight through masses of enemies and avoid falling.

The game borrows monsters from Zark; since the monsters are mostly body parts, they drop pools of blood when defeated. Harking back to a secret from Wolfenstein 3D, the pools restore energy whenever the player touches them. Given the sharing of resources, the game a tenuous story connection to Zark.

Bloody business in The Patchwork Heart

Aside from a weird super-jump gimmick, that right there is the game. In retrospect, despite the lack of effort, it’s probably the most playable and progressive of the bunch I developed for RSD.

Some of the menus were created or altered by Gregory Stone.

- EJR Tairne

Story

L A T E R   O N . . .

The labs at Earth's station on the recently-terraformed Venus have sent down a self-propelled ball of uranium, dubbed "Patchwork Heart", deep into the crust of the planet,to destroy the horrid monsters that appeared soon after the starship Zark destroyed the invading aliens. The creatures appear to be the animated organs of the huge monster that Zark flew through and destroyed. The radiation should hold the monsters at bay, yet in case it doesn't, a special amplification crystal was installed.

Instructions

The first pass of Level 1, in The Patchwork Heart

7(Home), 8(Up Arrow), 9(PgUp): Jump left, up, and right, respectively.

4(Left Arrow), 6(Right Arrow): Roll to the left and right

2(Down Arrow: Speed fall downwards

[Space]: Emit wave of radiation

[Enter]: Rocket jump

[Tab]: Suicide

Hints & Junk

When you touch an idol you get the ability to rocket jump once. Make sure you use it wisely.

If you're caught in a stalemate, press [Tab] to kill yourself and start again from the beginning of the round.

The uranium needs to be kept cool. Roll over the pools left by the defeated enemies to regain some hitpoints.

Credits

Graphics, Sound, Animation: Eric-Jon Waugh

Menu Screens: Andrew Stone, Eric-Jon Waugh

All of the graphics in the game were drawn with Deluxe Paint ][ Enhanced. The menu animation was done with Autodesk Animator. The sounds were mastered with WinDat. The game engine is Game-Maker Version 3.00 from Recreational Software Designs.

Links

• The History of A-J Games, Part Eight
• The Integrator (DIYGamer)
• Laser Light (DIYGamer)
• Demu entry
• Play The Patchwork Heart online

Downloads

• The Patchwork Heart (423.0 kB)
• Level 1 Map (203.7 kB)
• Level 2 Map (208.4 kB)
• Level 3 Map (164.3 kB)