Lil' Choklit Donit Man in: Choklit Terror!!
Release type: Incomplete
Release date: March 8, 1995
Levels: 3
Author: Alan Caudel
Website: DummyDuck.com
Related games: N/A
Lil' Choklit Donit Man is, as with many Alan Caudel projects, a promising proof of concept that ends the moment the concept is proven. Here the experiment is in style and presentation. Inspired by David Perry's Earthworm Jim, the game proceeds with highly stylized characters and backgrounds and highly wacky thematic material.
The game here plays well enough -- save some issues we'll discuss -- but the design is secondary to the way the game looks and hangs together. The game opens with a neat, functional take on a cutscene: a sequence of comic book panels, some animated, painted on a game map. The character moves from one panel to the next, scrolling the action dynamically, until the story transitions into the first level.
I say first level; there really only is a single map, broken up into three segments. From the opening cavern, find the door to a maze; then find the door back out to another part of the cavern, and the exit from the game. The maze section is kind of obligatory; it's there to break up the two cavern sections, and it's clear that not as much thought went into its impact. The cavern, though, is exceptionally well-rendered. The drippy platforms stand out well from the backdrop, which uses a neat diagonal shading technique that in the best 16-bit console way helps to disguise the tile-based design.
In appearance, much of Lil' Choklit Donit Man seems to transcend the format, and give an impression of an intensive hand-drawn or hand-painted work. Aside from the title menu and the maze level, this doesn't look like a Game-Maker game. It looks like it could be an abandoned demo for a professionally developed Sega Genesis platformer.
In performance, it's still clearly a Game-Maker game. The key bindings are one of the big give-aways, as is the awkward jumping. It's nothing unique to Donit Man, which is the point; you can tweak the mechanics, but there's only so much you can do. As with another gorgeous Alan Caudel project, FireAxe, there is also the issue of level design and flow. An important upgrade may only be found on an early platform that is difficult to reach and impossible to escape from without a later upgrade, yet there is no way to know this for sure until you've put yourself in a pickle. In at least two places (one immediately before the end) the player could easily wander forever or waste endless lives on leaps of faith without thinking to use a super-jump upgrade to peek upward.
But, this is just a proof of concept. There's no final word here; just a suggestion of what might be. And for that, Donit Man has quite a lot to say.
Contents
Story
N/A
Instructions
On the numerical keypad:
- 4/6: Walk left and right
- 7/8/9: Jump left/up/right
- 2: Scoot downward
Other moves:
- P: Pick up items and equipment
- Space/Enter: Toss donit high/low
- Space/Enter: Fire laser right/left (with appropriate item)
- F: Fly upward (with appropriate item)
Special equipment includes a laser gun and the amazing, legendary Soopar Choklit Donit.
Credits
Game designed by Alan Caudel.
Background
Alan Caudel:
- Earthworm Jim was an inspiration for a few of the games I did, including Lil' Choklit Donit Man as well as some of the elements of Adam's Birthday Game 3, I think that's where I got the idea for the floating "level 1" banner that explodes after the level starts.
Availability
This game is not known to have been distributed in any form, prior to its addition to the Archive.
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
Downloads
- Lil' Choklit Donit Man (115 kB)
- Intro map (17 kB)
- Levels 1-2 map (131 kB)
