Popa: Invasion if the Green Things from Ickubackal
Release type: Freeware
Release date: June 27, 1996
Levels: 20
Author: Matthew Saul
Website: Chronically Unemployed
Related games: N/A
Another surprisingly rare genre for Game-Maker is the single-screen puzzle-platformer. There are several attempts at single-screen games or single-screen segments within a broader game design, but these are more likely to be a vehicle for special effects, like simulated parallax scrolling or sprite scaling, than as a straightforward design. There are some notable examples, but all are beset with some basic problems.
The first issue, which alone has a huge impact on any potential design, is Game-Maker's limitations in scrolling and screen orientation. The effect that this has on a single-screen game is twofold. One, due to the odd behavior of blocks at the screen's border -- they can't animate or add to or subtract from counters; they may be solid when they shouldn't be, or vice-versa; if the character gets caught up at the screen's edge, the whole game can glitch up -- fully 30% of the screen's already limited real estate (48 out of 160 blocks) is unavailable for use. (I say already limited, due to Game-Maker's use of outsize 20x20 blocks, compared to the more standard 8x8 or 16x16 -- not normally a problem, but relevant to this discussion.)
The impact of this limitation is in the level entry point, which is always positioned at the center of the screen. If we're talking about a game where every level is a unique puzzle, you can see where it would be helpful to be able to use every inch of available space, and to use that space however you wanted. Instead, every level has to be built around the character's central entry point. So between the limitations on the screen's center and on the screen's edge, there isn't much room left to design a functional puzzle.
The other issue lies in a limit on the subtlety of motion and mechanical interaction provided by RSD's game engine. However cautious the designer, any game's controls tend to be a bit fidgety. They get even more fidgety when you factor in collision -- both between character and monster sprites, and between the character and the background. Between the ostensibly helpful "edge bumping" -- where the game nudges the character sprite by a few pixels, allowing it passage, when it collides close to the edge of an obstruction -- and the bouncy, somewhat unreliable behavior of monsters, it can be difficult to plan a puzzle with foolproof accuracy.
Nevertheless, in Popa Matthew Saul has managed something elegant. Each level presents a distinct objective, with a new mechanism to carry out. Levels are interspersed with text messages, explaining some key concepts. The character's interactions with the environment are kept simple and often passive, to avoid banging up too hard against the engine's walls.
In Popa the typical puzzle is a sort of a minor Rube Goldberg affair. The player can only do so many things, but if he should do the right things to the right things, those things might do things to other things, which do things to other things, and so on. Combine a monster chain reaction with some lock-and-key mechanics and a little gravity, and you have a pretty good starting vocabulary -- and little of it really demands much of the engine or the character's abilities. Mostly all that the player needs is to find the right places to go, in the right order -- and maybe sometimes fire off a single shot, to set a chain reaction in motion.
If the design is clever and effective, the presentation is... interesting. By eschewing the standard differentiated palettes used by so many other Game-Maker games in favor of a smooth neon pastel gradient, Saul has produced a surreal colorscape reminiscent of early '90s programmer art. Combine that with some simple, highly abstract sprites and background tiles -- to the point that it's not always clear what a given tile might represent, or whether it may be harmful or not -- and you have a sort of trippy experience. All the game needs is a few palette cycling fractals between the levels and the tone would be complete.
Make no mistake, Popa is outsider art in the best tradition -- which is actually a pretty good fit for an outsider engine like RSD Game-Maker. If you come into this scene expecting a bunch of undisciplined creative weirdos, you will find much to fire the imagination. In that respect Popa is right in tune with the heart of this particular zeitgeist, to the point of being a sort of minor neglected masterpiece.
Story
Once upon a time in a solar system far far away from ours were two planets. One planet was better equipped for natural life.
That planet was named Papelimous after its kind, the papelimons.
Then there was the other planet,which was closer to the sun which was named Ickubackal after the green aliens that inhabited it. The green aliens eventually settled into other solar systems, but eventually they became greedy and now want to blow up Papelimous, the planet of the first race, for a movie they are going to shoot.
Your job as Papelimon Popa is to destroy the energy core on the planet Ickubackal, which the green aliens were going to use to destroy your planet. It's going to be tricky though. The caves are puzzling to get through...
Instructions
On numerical keypad:
- 7 - Jump left
- 8 -
- 9 - Jump right
- 4 - Left
- 6 - Right
- 2 - Down (Duck)
- . - Shoot left
- / - Shoot right
- Spacebar - Shoot up (Must get the red card first)
Note: Your vertical shooting power is stronger than your horizontal shooting power. However it is limited.
You will find hints as you play the game.
Credits
By: Matthew Saul
Music: Generic, royalty-free CMF music files.
Background
Matthew Saul:
- Welcome. This is another platform game I made with Game-Maker. Don't expect to just sit back in blast though. This game requires lots of thinking (once you get to the later levels). It has SoundBlaster music and 256-color graphics. Download it today!
- Popa is another one of my Game-Maker platform games. This isn't just a blast 'em silly game though. You have to make chain reactions to get the bad guys gone (and/or get the keys to beat the levels). Yes, this does have a master puzzle and there is an exciting story (Well, not that exciting). Why not Download it today!
Archive status
In late 2010 Matthew Saul's old GeoCities page turned up in several Web archives of Yahoo's now-defunct Web hosting service, linked from one of Alan Caudel's own GeoCities pages. Although several images were archived (now preserved on this page), the downloads were unavailable. After several months of on-and-off Web sleuthing, on November 23, 2011, Matthew Saul was contacted at his eBay account, and his two games Popa and Marley's Quest were provided.
Links
Downloads
- Popa (209 kB)
- Level array 1 (194 kB)
- Level array 2 (191 kB)
- Level array 3 (151 kB)
- Level array 4 (75 kB)
