Dummy Duck! II
Release type: Shareware
Release date: May 10, 1996
Levels: 9
Author: Alan Caudel
Website: Dummy Duck
Related games: Off the Page, Dummy Duck 3, DD4, Dummy Duck 5, Dummy Duck 7
FULL ENTRY COMING SOON!
Deeper than his yen for games squirms Alan Caudel's love for cartoons. Dummy Duck was first a comic strip, and Caudel planned the original game on paper long before he had the tools to implement it. Basically, the games are great, but the drawing comes first.
Indeed, Caudel's Game-Maker work grew slowly. His first year brought three games. Year two, another two -- and that's including his yearly gift for Adam Tyner. Things picked up in 1994, with five new experiments, each in a different genre.
And then, in August 1994, David Perry released Earthworm Jim, a side-scrolling platformer distinguished by its slapstick humor and Termite Terrace style hand-drawn sprites. This is the game that even today defines Perry's legacy, and clearly Alan took its lessons to heart.
Four months after Perry's opus, Caudel designed Adam's B-Day 3, which wears its Perry influence on its sleeve. Three months from there, it's Lil' Choklit Donit Man, which forgoes sleeves in favor of a full-body tattoo. Somewhere in there, he also composed Mr. Berkel Derkel!. There's a certain logic to this progression, that you'll see in many forms throughout Caudel's catalog. He doesn't just leap into a new project; first, he sketches. He tries out all of the techniques he'll use, both technically and stylistically. These one-off games, we can take as early drafts for what would become the Chuck Jones festival that is Dummy Duck! II.
In his second venture, Dummy experiences an upgrade for the animation era. His design now closely models Chuck Jones-era Daffy Duck, and is elastic enough for extreme takes as needed. The backgrounds too become stylized in full "Duck Amuck" splendor, while the game's props (anvils, S'Good missiles, etc.) owe a weighty bill to the Acme Corporation. Cosmetically, tonally, and mechanically Dummy Duck II is everything Caudel seems to have wanted from the first game -- and as the change in title suggests, it sets the standard for all future Dummy Duck games, leaving Off the Page to feel like a curio.
Less overt variety in action and setpieces, in favor of a more consistent tone and set of mechanics.
The game is as clever as it is attractive, and as obtusely difficult as it is clever. It also is rather convoluted.
Not-strictly-linear level progression. Curious re-use of the same map for several levels.
If Off the Page serves as an initial thesis for Alan Caudel's work with Game-Maker, Dummy Duck II serves to define that work. It's refined, yet convoluted; it's one of his most finished works, yet highly unfinished. It's charismatic, yet formidable. It also, along with its sequel, is one of Caudel's most public, widely distributed games.
| Previous | Current | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Off the Page | Dummy Duck II | Dummy Duck 3 |
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Contents
Story
Umm... okay, this whole thing was made up in Dummy's imagination. It's like an interactive dream. It shows his thoughts, his dreams, his hopes, his fears, and also his corn!
There's no real point, except to go into any doors that you see. You'll know when you've won I'm sure.
Instructions
Controls
Use the numeric keypad to control all Dummies, and the space ship!
Numeric Keypad Instructions: (If you can't figure 'em out by yourself, you shouldn't be playing!)
up-left up up-Rt
7 8 9
\ ^ /
left 4 < > 6 Right
/ v \
1 2 3
Dn-Left Down Dn-Rt
Each Dummy can throw exploding cookies by pressing "SPACE". He throws s'good missles (not scud missles!) by pressing "M". Holding "R" makes him run (I REEEALY LOVE this effect that I did with the clouds behind him! It's incredibly cool!"
Cosmo Dummy's space ship is controlled thusly:
- Press "D" for Destruction Gun (you have a limited supply, so use sparingly, and pick up the red "FUEL" cans often!)
- Hold down "C" for cloaking (You can't move, but you can hold it down as long as you like, unlike teleporting)
- Press "T" for teleporting (You move to another area automatically, but you have no control of where)
- Hold "R" for rockets
- Press "SPACE" for your Sucky Laser Gun (You can't run out, but in order to control where it goes, you must be pointing towards the enemies)
The Stage is Set
(the levels so far)
Normal Dummy walks around in some uncharted territory that really has no point. Cosmo Dummy appears in two levels, (Once in the unregistered version) once in a space ship (is that two words?) and once in some weird unfinished map I made. (Find the secret Tunnel of MYSTERY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Disco Duck Makes An Appearance! Wahoo! He comes from a long series of unfinished comics by my friend Adam Tyner!
Keep in mind that this is only around HALF of what's really in the game. It's not hard to register! Y'ALL HAVE FUN NOW!
Version 1.2
UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've added a CGA Heck level, a Flume of Doom level, and a Virtua Dummy level (oh BOY)! FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN!!!
(Virtua Dummy isn't in this version! Now you MUST register! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!)
Credits
Every last stinkin' pixel in this whole game was expertly rendered by Alan Caudel!
Also thanks to Game-Maker!
Dummy Duck is copyright Alan Caudel!
Visit my homepage!
e-mail me!
Tell me what you think! I'd really love to hear form you!
Thanks!
- Alan!
Background
I think that Dummy Duck 2 was far less planned out [than Off the Page] because I figured, "What's the point of planning things if I'm just gonna find out I can't do them!" Instead with Dummy 2, I think I just said, "Let me see what I can do, and try to make that work!"
I'm not sure if there was ever a definitive version of Dummy 2. With most of my projects, I just kept adding more stuff until I turned my attention to a new project.
The spaceship level [...] there's so many things wrong with that level. It's too hard to early in the game. There's absolutely no way to know where to go. And the aliens immediately attack when you get anywhere near them.— Alan Caudel, email exchange, October 19-31, 2016
Availability
This game was published to the On Target Programming Web site, as well as to Alan Caudel's personal page.
Also available on several shareware compilation CD-ROMs, including Global Star's 100 Action Arcade Games (January, 2000).
Archive History
On October 20, 2010, Caudel posted a comment to a YouTube video of Peach the Lobster, under the name dummyduckrulz; following up the conversation, on June 29, 2011 he provided a link to a collection of games recently uncovered by Adam Tyner. This initial archive included:
Links
Sites
Articles
- The Game-Maker Story: Infoboxes (Gamasutra)
Other Links
Downloads
- Dummy Duck II (321 kB)
- Dummy Duck II (unregistered) (337 kB)
- Dummy Duck II Windows icon set (3.7 kB)
- Difficulty Select map (7 kB)
- Levels 1, 4-5 map (22 kB)
- Level 2 map (83 kB)
- Level 3 map (48 kB)
- Level 6 map (16 kB)
- Level 7 map (35 kB)
- Level 8 map (10 kB)
- Level 9 map (5 kB)
- Corn map (7 kB)
- Ending map (29 kB)
