Dead Awakening
Release type: Freeware
Release date: October 31st, 2002
Levels: 3
Author: Sean McNulty
Website: Untitled Studio
Related games: N/A
Melee and hand-to-hand combat are not a natural fit for RSD's engine. You can make them work, but "work" is the operative word. Most developers never try, or give up quickly, or not for lack effort stick with a solution that doesn't quite work. Combine this with Game-Maker's often strange collision handling, the limitations on character states and monster behavior, and a bit of eccentric scrolling, and a good close-combat action game can be hard to find.
With Dead Awakening -- an Evil Dead tribute by way of Namco's Splatterhouse -- Sean McNulty took account of the engine's peculiarities, aimed low, and hit the target. Not dead center, but close enough to prove his point.
In this game the character always faces, and attacks, to the right. That's okay, because it's a walk-and-punch game. Pretty much all of the action action moves in one direction, chopping through a march of horrors, while the character leaves carnage in his wake.
Story
Justin and his friends went up to a cabin in the woods for Halloween. They heard of the cabin from a friend of a friends, one of those "some guy" tips. Either way, they went to the cabin.
Everything was going good, they were all a little scared, and it seemed like a good Halloween night. But at 3:00am, something happened.
Everyone was asleep, and in their sleep, a demonic presence crept over them. Luckily, Justin woke up in time to avoid being cursed. He went to the aid of his screaming friends only to find them as... zombies!
Now the whole underworld is broken loose, and Justin must make his way to safety!
Instructions
This is a one-way side-scroller. You can go left, but there is no turning back! The final stage is an exception.
Once you pass a zombie spawner, it is blocked off.
Spacebar = attack
Right arrow = go right
Use F2 to view Justin's stats and use F5 and F6 to save/load.
CAUTION: Sometimes, it takes more than one hit to kill a zombie...
BUG: Sometimes it gets a little crowded and when you kill one zombie, its falling corpse hits the legs of another zombie making the zombie a floating torso. This does not cause any real problems though.
Credits
Game made by: Sean McNulty
All music by: Matti Minkkinen
- main.cmf - Original Winter_of_Lapland.mid
- cabin.cmf- Original Untitled.mid
- woods.cmf - Original Crown_of_the_Ages.mid
- car.cmf - Original Dragon_inthe_Storm.mid
- end.cmf - Original Ruler_of_the_wind.mid
Dead Awakening was made with Microforum's Game-Maker
Background
Sean McNulty:
- This is a little Halloween gift from us here at ___. In the game you play Justin. He and his friends were visiting this abandoned cabin in the woods as a Halloween fun thing. Anyways, you can read the storyline further in the game itself. Armed with a bat, an axe, and a car you must kill zombies to escape from the cursed woods! Yes, inspired by Evil Dead.
- So download Dead Awakening and have a happy Halloween! (If it's still Halloween!)
Links
- Shroud of False (site of Matti Minkkinen)
- Driving Board post
- 3D Movie Maker forum post
- Play Dead Awakening online
Downloads
- Dead Awakening (195 kB)
