Builder
Release type: Shareware
Release date: May 8, 2011)
Levels: 15
Author: A-J Games
Website: Builder: The Game
Related games: Beware the Gremlin
Builder is a game of environmental anxiety. The world is closing in on you, and you need to escape. To do this, you observe your environment, build footholds, and destroy obstacles to your progress.
Builder is designed on the 20-year-old Game-Maker engine by Recreational Software Designs. The engine is really not meant for games like Builder, which in some ways plays into the game's themes. Stylistic and technical influences include the work of Max Fleischer, Cab Calloway, Solomon's Key, Metroid, Super Mario Bros. 2 (US), Hero Core, La La Land, Seiklus, Braid, Berzerk, Magic Carousel, and maybe a bit of Silent Hill 2.
In addition to the normal DOS bundle below, the game is also available as a standalone program for Windows or Mac. Please visit the website for further details.
Contents
Story
Escape confinement and chaos.
Build footholds. Destroy obstacles.
Be observant.
Instructions
On numerical keypad:
- 7: Jump left
- 8: Jump up
- 9: Jump right
- 4: Run left
- 6: Run right
- 1: Step left
- 3: Step right
- [SPACE]: Build
- Z: Destroy
- `: Suicide
Alternative controls
Builder is designed for an extended PC keyboard. If you're playing on a laptop or other condensed keyboard, an alternative control scheme is available. Simply unpack the ALTCTRL.RAR archive, remove the hash marks (#) from the file names, and dump them into the main program directory.
Before you do this, you may want to back up the corresponding files from the original install. That's all up to you.
Credits
Design & Implementation
Engine & Toolset
Testing & Discussion
- Shepard Saltzman
- Amandeep Jutla
- Jenique Renée Tairne
- Brandon Sheffield
- Leander Hasty
- Andrew Toups
Music -
- A-J Games Theme
- Title Theme, "I'm Away Now"
- Story Theme, "Glock"
- Level 7 Theme, "Dissonant"
- Level 8 Theme, "Muel Boog"
- High Score Theme, "Dooka-Do"
- Eric-Jon Rössel Tairne
- Other Themes
- Various Unknown Artists
Stipulations of use
Although Builder is free to use and distribute, and indeed to dissect for your own enjoyment, I do ask that you neither reuse its components (including graphics, sounds, original music, text, and layout) in your own projects nor distribute the game in an edited form. The only exception is the non-original music files (which you can determine by reading the credits). As I found them in various music libraries over the years, so you too may reuse them at will.
Thank you, and enjoy.
Links
- Builder: The Game
- Let's Play A-J Games' Builder! Part 1: Dosbox! (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4)
- High Score theme ("Dooka-Do")
- GameSetWatch news blurb
Downloads
- Builder (175 kB)
