Sign of the Hedgehog

Sign of the Hedgehog

Release type: Shareware
Release date: 1993 (original release)
Levels: 18
Author: A-J Games
Registration bonus: Sign of the Hedgehog 2
Registration price: $40
Related games: Sign of the Hedgehog 2

From a very young age, I was obsessed with hedgehogs. From the first I saw it, I was obsessed with the Sega Genesis. Such it was that when, in the early ’90s, I read of Sega’s upcoming mascot game, I was on top of the world. The game arrived, and it was very good, but — Sonic wasn’t really a hedgehog, was he. He didn’t look like a hedgehog, he didn’t move like a hedgehog, and he wasn’t really characterized the way you’d imagine. About the only parallels you can draw are that Sonic has spines and that he can roll into a ball. My mind got working.

Over the next couple of years, more Sonic games kept coming out to decreasing returns. Sure, each game had more stuff in it, but those were just things. The actual themes and spirit that made the first game so intriguing was being sidelined in favor of… stuff. It got so that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was the last console game I bought or played until the Sega Dreamcast, another five years on. I was totally disenchanted with the direction that games were moving in.

And yet here I was in response, comporting more stuff into my own fetishistic ideas of propriety. I would draft my very own hedgehog game, the way that Sonic should have been. My hedgehog would of course be British, and as a Briton he would be enamored of all things tea. He would be reserved and conservatively dressed. As a hedgehog he would live in green places and only rarely stray out of his comfort zone. It would take a spectacular quest to shake him from his Hobbit-like indolence — something like a personal request from the Queen.

Crusading for crumpets in Sign of the Hedgehog

So we have a reluctant hedgehog with a tea obsession invited to see the Queen. What would motivate him to actually attend? Well, let’s make it tea with the Queen. What makes his journey an adventure? Maybe he needs to prepare for the visit. Let’s say he needs to bring supplies. What sorts of supplies? Goods for a tea party. So what goes with tea? If we’re being stereotypical, then crumpets.

You can see the game taking shape here. Now we have a journey, and a scavenger hunt. Although there is a linear goal, this is a game about exploration and discovery rather than about speed (which is just as well for a hedgehog). Since it’s broadly linear but narrowly not, let’s scatter the levels around an overworld rather like Commander Keen‘s.

I’m not sure that this is very deep stuff, but at least the design concepts do come from the basic premise. If you squint, the game might even look a bit like satire regarding British conventions and the arbitrary decisions in mainstream game design. I don’t think any of that was deliberate. So far as I was aware, I made the game in earnest.

The game’s title is both a none-too-subtle nod to Sega’s game and a play on British public houses — or at least my adolescent concept of them.

In the end, Sign of the Hedgehog is more linear than I intended. You can thank those constant Game-Maker goblins of flags and counters. There was no easy way to prevent players from entering the same level over and over again to rack up provisions, which could only be a problem because Game-Maker will never reset special counters. Thus the player could keep collecting crumpets and 1-ups, dying, and then starting over to build up a wealth of currency and blow through the later levels.

Of course since the counters don’t reset this is a problem anyway, but at least making the level progression linear prevents players from abusing the system too terribly. In retrospect there are a few other unexplored solutions, but this is what we have.

This game underwent a bunch of revision when Game-Maker 3.0 came around. In particular all of the menus and interfaces got an overhaul.

- [Azurelore Korrigan]

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Sign of the Hedgehog series

Story

Urban expansion in Sign of the Hedgehog

PART 1: CRUMPETS

One bright Thursday morning, Hedrick went out to his letter box. Of course, he didn't expect to have gotten anything; who would send mail to a hedgehog?

When he opened the box, however, he had a feeling that there was something in there for him. That feeling might have come from the shiny, white envelope which fell out onto the ground, but one can never tell.

Hedrick bent down and plucked the mail from his lawn. He tore it open and began to read.

A woodland cabin in Sign of the Hedgehog

Without getting into the exact wording, the letter was from the queen. She wanted him to come to Buckingham and have tea that Friday.

Before Hedrick had the chance to leap and click his heels, however, he noticed a smaller piece of paper hidden behind the main letter.

A mysterious stone circle in Sign of the Hedgehog

It was a note which said to bring one hundred crumpets for the tea.

Hedrick did a double-take.

"One hundred?" Hedrick almost fainted. "How am I ever going to get one hundred crumpets?"

He staggered into his pantry. There were ten left over from that day's breakfast.

Hedrick put those in a sack, which in turn he placed into his pocket.

"One hundred," he said, dazily, as he headed out the door. "Where am I ever to find those?"

Instructions

Still waters run deep in Sign of the Hedgehog

Left, Right: Walk those ways

Up: Jump upwards

Up-Left, Up-Right: Jump those ways

Down: Duck

Down-Right, Down-Left: Roll those ways

G, H: Pour tea to the left, right

T, Y: Blow steam to the left, right

+: Pick up

To pour tea you need to find a teabag. To blow steam, you must find a specially-equipped teapot.

The small hearts give you energy, and the arge ones give extra lives.

You have to find ten crumpets in order to finish a level.

The lay of the land in Sign of the Hedgehog

Any other items that you come across will add to your score.

Levels

• Building
• Stone Hedge
• The Dark Pool
• Woodland Cabin
• Rolling Fields
• Large Tree
• Subway
• Big Ben
• Buckingham

Credits

Trees are angular in Sign of the Hedgehog

Graphics, animation:

Aderack

Sound:

Aderack

Engine:

Recreational Software Designs

Idea:

Aderack, Yetta

Testing:

M.O.S.H.

No Peach Jam

Note: The music is just some PD stuff that Aderack gathered together in lieu of MOD support.

Availability

This game is distributed in the shareware directory of the Game-Maker 3.0 CD-ROM.

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

Archive history

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

Reviews

SotH is an enjoyable joke on British habits. Weapons and mission are built around tea-time and work well to give the game a unique feeling. It will take you some imagination effort to see the protagonist as a hedgehog, though (his overall shape could equally be the one of a bear), and connection to Sonic the Hedgehog of SEGA is limited to the import of a few sound effects that had already appeared in Bounerim.

Your "artillery" is somewhat limited (one-tile pouring of tea, which requires you to locate a teabag first), and is unefficient against the fastest (and most common) ennemies.

- Pype/PPP Team

Links

• Play Sign of the Hedgehog online

Downloads

• Sign of the Hedgehog (1.3 MB)
• Forest Map (114.5 kB)
  • Building Map (95 kB)
  • Stone Hedge Map (74 kB)
  • The Dark Pool Map (268 kB)
  • Woodland Cabin Map (57 kB)
  • Rolling Fields Map (73 kB)
  • Large Tree Map (129 kB)
  • Subway Map (15 kB)
• City Map 1 (203.5 kB)
  • Big Ben Map (253 kB)
• City Map 2 (17 kB)
  • Buckingham Map (32 kB)