Scurvy the Squirrel
Release type: Incomplete
Release date: 1993
Levels: 9
Author: Alan Caudel
Website: DummyDuck.com
Related games: Adventure
Scurvy is another Alan Caudel doodle -- in this case a precursor to his work on Adventure. Here we're starting to pick at the edges of RSD's tools, but we're also sitting firmly in that early character game framework where many designers start -- or did start, in the early '90s. Here the technical tricks are the catalyst to a silly joke -- the squirrel gets hit by a car! And you can't really avoid it, probably! It's one of those games.
The posterity here comes in exactly what Caudel seemed to learn from the experience. Scurvy doesn't work. The required timing is weird, there's only one option per level, and the levels (all of which are identical) wrap around in a weird way. It's not playable, and it wasn't really made to be. Yet from Scurvy we get Adventure -- and we get a whole way of looking at the toolset.
With Scurvy we enter the land of lateral design. Instead of complaining about what the tools can't do, we start to explore how else we can use what's in front of us. It's not a final draft; it's a first spark of insight, that will pay off down the road.
Contents
Story[edit]
N/A
Instructions[edit]
At the proper moment, hit Enter to dodge the oncoming truck.
Press too early, and you lose!
Press too late, and Scurvy is roadkill.
Credits[edit]
Game designed by Alan Caudel.
Background[edit]
Alan Caudel:
- Scurvy the Squirrel was based on a character my friend Nathan came up with. The object of the game is to jump out of the way just before the Jeep Wagoneer hits you. Wait until right before the meter turns red and press "enter". It has to be timed exactly right or it won't work. If you lose, you'll see one of three animations, depending on the level. Saving your game frequently helps. There's no real way to beat the game. It just goes on forever.
- This was one of several games where the character block was invisible, so what you see on the screen is all background animations. The character's only movement is by pressing the enter button, but if you do it at the wrong time, the background block timer goes off and kills you.
- I think this was inspired in some way by fully animated arcade games like Dragon's Lair. I made other attempts to mimic that style with Game-Maker's limited abilities.
Availability[edit]
Prior to this archive's online presence, this game is not known to be publicly available.
Archive History[edit]
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[edit]
Downloads[edit]
- Scurvy the Squirrel (87 kB)
- Level map (6 kB)
- Failure 1 map (5 kB)
- Success / Failure 2 map (9 kB)
- Failure 3 map (7 kB)
