Firefall

Firefall

Release type: Freeware
Release date: October 25, 1992
Levels: 2
Author: Firefall Softwarez
Related games: Shanna

Firefall is maybe the definitive Game-Maker game. It’s not that it's all that great, really. It’s more that this is the a perfect example of the kind of game that Game-Maker was designed to produce. In this case the enigmatic “Firefall Softwarez” clearly tried to clone Gauntlet, and wound up with something rather different. What has always impressed me about this game is the rather nifty Deluxe Paint-derived visuals. Granted they’re hit and miss, but some of the monster design and most of the item and background tile design is rather grand.

You, a warrior, slowly wander around a dungeon, hacking monsters and collecting keys and potions. There are way more keys than there are doors to unlock (rather like Gauntlet, yes), and the potions have various effects. Sometimes they restore health; usually they upgrade the character's weapons.

I don't know about strengths, as Game-Maker is kind of all-or-none with power levels. You can't set it so that a more powerful weapon does more damage to a monster; either it kills it or not. Instead, the different weapons are differently useful. The axe is wider, and chunkier, and easier to hit things with. I think it may fly faster than the default sword, too. Then the fireball is super fast, also wide, and it passes through solid walls.

There are only the two levels, and they were kind of thrown together. Really, Firefall feels like a first, experimental effort by a legitimately talented designer employing a very early version of the Game-Maker package and not yet used to the tools at hand. There are grander ambitions at work here, that may or may not accurately map to RSD's game engine.

Angelo Felix reused some graphical elements in Shanna.

Level one of Firefall

Story

You, a brave warrior, while exploring in the wilderness, come upon an ancient stone door in the side of a cliff. There are runes upon it which read, "Doom comes to all who enter the dungeon of Firefall" Taking that as a challenge, you tug at the door. Strangely you have the strength to open it. You enter, and as you do, the door vanishes. Trapped. The darkness recedes, and as soon as it does, you wish it hadn't....

Instructions

CONTROLS:

• Arrow keys move those ways.
• Space bar launches attacks.

POTIONS:

• Green potion - Health
• Blue potion - Axe
• Violet potion - Fireball

KEYS:

• Match colors or themes to the corresponding doors.

EXIT:

• Search for the flashing skull slab.

Credits

This game was produced by Firefall Softwarez, using Game-Maker, a game development environment by Recreational Software Designs.

Special thanks to Recreational Software Designs, designers of Game-Maker

Firefall (c) 1993 Firefall Softwarez; all rights reserved

Downloads

• Firefall (212.2 kB)