Hurdles
Release type: Shareware
Release date: ~1993
Levels: 10 (in demo version)
Author: Roland Ludlam
Website: Studio Walljump
Registration bonus: Complete game
Registration price: $5
Related games: none
There are at least half a dozen failed attempts to twist Game-Maker’s engine into allowing a traditional space shooter. Despite the odd moment of brilliance, none of those attempts has been successful. In his simplicity, and in his slightly shifted goals, “13 Year Old Wiz Kid” Roland Ludlam almost makes it work.
Ludlam describes Hurdles as “A game of timing, and skill.” Although it takes the basic form of a shooter, there is no actual shooting — rather like a side-scrolling F-Zero or OutRun. Instead, the game consists almost entirely of dodging back and forth to avoid obstacles and collect bonuses. The dodging itself is a bit unconventional; to move up and down, you use the left and right arrows.
Also notable is that the intended goal is not so much to finish the game as it is to collect as many points as possible — a bit of a novelty for Game-Maker. Hurdles may in fact be unique on that point. (So to speak.) Game-Maker has a built-in high score table, and score is one of the major default counters, yet the engine tends to lend itself more to action-adventure games than to arcade action, making the score table a bit extraneous.
The game is one of a handful to include an in-game menu system; hit start, and the game dumps you into a stage select screen. Available are stages 0-3, with 0 being a sort of training level, and — for the utter novelty of it — a music test. Ludlam put some not-insignificant effort into the latter, with custom visuals — some of them digitized from photographs — to accompany each .CMF file. Why he bothered, considering that none of the music is original, is unclear. Splendid show of effort, though!
For the main challenge, Ludlam provides dozens of lives. The goal, again, is to be challenging but not necessarily to limit the player’s progress. And the game is tough, and fast-paced. Every level seems to be built with hard right-leaning gravity that the engine just barely keeps up with and that gives the player just enough reflex time to dodge around obstructions. Each level is distinct, and some of the visuals are rather gorgeous. You’ll even find the odd bit of faux parallex scrolling.
Despite all this effort, Ludlam seemed to have little interest in presentation. He didn’t bother with a story or a title screen. It’s all about the content here — and the content is some of the most original, for its part, you’ll find in a Game-Maker game.
Instructions
Hurdles, A game of timing, and Skill.
Roland Ludlam.
To play Hurdles is very simple. Roll up by pressing the left key, and roll down by pressing the right key. The goal in this demo of the full game is to reach the end of the three courses, and collect as many points as possible.
Hurdles requires VGA, and about 512 K. SB and joystick are also available. To enable joystick, press F8 during play. Button 1 rolls up, 2 rolls down,
Have fun. It's tough!
Credits
Coding: Game-Maker 2.0
Graphics and Animation: Roland Ludlam
Sound: Roland Ludlam
Background
Ludlam was 13 years old when he designed Hurdles. For all its apparent innovation, he makes no secret about its origins.
OK, so here’s the confession: the Hurdles idea was stolen completely from the speeder level stage in Battletoads from the NES. I’m (still!) a huge NES fan, and have to say that NES games are my favorite games. Battletoads had this great area where you did exactly what I tried to mimic in Hurdles for a short while. I loved it and thought it deserved to be expanded into more than just a tiny sub-stage.
As usual for Game-Maker, the technical limitations defined the end product as strongly as the initial idea.
Unfortunately, I was totally bummed about the fact that Game Maker’s map size only allowed for a short level in Hurdles before it would wrap around on itself. If I had my way the levels would have been much longer. Oh well! I totally made a level that [wrapped around diagonally]! But ended up tossing it out for some reason. I think it might have been possible to see the previous area you’d passed through down below or something.
Similarly the score element arose out of playtesting, and was introduced as a workaround to a design oversight.
I put the points in because after I finished it initially, I found that people would just cheat and buzz through the level on the top or bottom and avoid the obstacles. Rather than try to prevent that and make them die, I decided to provide incentive to ‘do it right’.
Other novel elements seem to have arisen more ambiguously.
Wish I could remember [the sound test]. I think I did it mainly as a joke. I was just tinkering with GM and wanted to try to fake a mouse pointer, so that’s what I did it for.
The game as distributed is, effectively, finished. Ludlam never bothered with a title screen or storyline. "I made a few other games that had stories, but Hurdles was just really about the arcade gameplay!"
The game escaped into the ether the way that so many other Shareware games did, through a single upload and the enthusiasm of a few individuals.
I interacted a little with a few of the sysops in the area and on a whim, asked if I could upload my game to the user area so that other users could play it. He was delighted and prepared that file. Little did I know it would then make its way onto shareware CDs.
As it turns out, the Hurdles saga may not be over yet. When pressed, Ludlam has expressed some interest in revisiting the concept. "It would be pretty awesome to remake Hurdles in Blitz3D [...] and I doubt it would take long."
Links
- Mobygames entry
- Hurdles (DOS Museum)
- The World Wide Haystack (DIYGamer)
- Roland Ludlam on Liight and the Hurdles of Game-Making (DIYGamer)
- Play Hurdles online
Downloads
- Hurdles (242.8 kB)
- All course maps (63 kB)
