Terrain
Release type: Demo game
Release date: 1991
Levels: 1
Author: Joan Stone
Related games: Sample, Houses, Pipemare, Nebula, Penguin Pete
Not to be mistaken for Robert Brandon's Terra.
One of the more overt demo games to come with Game-Maker, Terrain seems to take place in the same world as Sample, just a little further down the road. It features the same character and monsters as Sample, and the same background tiles in a similar configuration, with grasslands up top bounded by a stone maze at the bottom.
Unlike Sample there seems to be no real goal to Terrain, though as the map is similarly well-developed it takes a while to tell the difference. Previously rare objects like the revolver are now simply lying around to claim, and the map is now studded with curious features like apparent doorways in a stone face and a sky and apparent cliff face at the top of the map. The map also wraps from left to right.
The object of Terrain is to demonstrate how background blocks are used to paint a map, and to show how all of the qualities demonstrated in Tutor work in practice.
Many of the background elements in Terrain (indeed also in Sample and Houses) are borrowed from Andy Stone's Labyrinth, the Ur game that led to the development of Game-Maker. Those tiles include the maze walls and some of the grass and mud elements.
| Previous | Current | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Sample | Terrain | Houses |
| Sample series | ||
Contents
Story
Terrain will show you how the 'Terrain' picture blocks can be used in a scene.
Instructions
Terrain is not really a game, but you may roam around the scene using the arrow keys or the numeric keypad keys and get some ideas of some of Game-Maker's capabilities.
The 'p' key picks up objects. You had better pick up the lazer gun. The 'd' key drops objects. The numeric keypad keys 1, 3, 7, and 9 shoot. The Space Bar shoots four ways. The 'b' key drops bombs, if you have any. Stay clear of the bombs you drop.
Credits
Designed by Recreational Software Designs.
Monsters by Joan Stone.
Notes
- Unlike Sample, you now can see the sky.
- The Book of Knowledge is just sitting there, near the start.
- Likewise the pistol -- previously a rare item -- is lying around in the grass, toward the top of the map.
- The world loops horizontally, but the sky at the top and the perspective maze at the bottom keep things contained.
- There are several apparent doors or caves on the map -- marshy or mossy, shaded nooks within stone overhangs. They don't lead anywhere, but they create an atmosphere more suggestive of exploration than you get in Sample.
Resources
- Background blocks, character blocks, character, monster blocks, and monsters reused from Sample.
- Several of the monsters are common to all of RSD's games.
Availability
Distributed with all versions of Game-Maker.
In addition, full versions of Game-Maker and its gameware were illegally distributed on several shovelware CD-ROMs in the early-mid 1990s, such as Softkey Entertainment Pack (July 1996)
Archive history
Terrain was introduced to the archive with the purchase of Game-Maker 1.02 in September 1992.
Links
Interviews / Articles
- Bonus Time with Andrew Stone (Gamasutra)
Listings
Misc. Links
- Older gameplay video (YouTube)
- Play Terrain online
Downloads
- Terrain (260.9 kB)
- Terrain map (290 kB)
