Skatenig
Release type: Incomplete
Release date: 2001
Levels: 11
Author: John Brandon
Related games: Skate Board
Not to be mistaken for John Brandon's Skate Board.
After the completion of Skate Board, Robert Brandon took up the pieces of his brother's game, reinterpreted them through his own filter, and built on what worked best. Out of these efforts he drafted two sequels in the "SkateGhoul" series, each pulling further from the performance-based design that John had intended and more toward an open-ended exploration-based design.
Skatenig, developed at roughly the same time as the third and final "SkateGhoul" game, Terra, seems to be John's attempt to revisit Skate Board with the benefit of hindsight and a little more experience in RSD's tool set. As with most of John's games (Skate Board, Seal Boarders), Skatenig places a strong emphasis on play style over discrete function. In principle the game is less about what you do than how you do it. The game funnels you in one direction along an obstacle course, and your mission is less to get to the end (which is almost inevitable) than to play every beat with style.
Whereas Skate Board dilutes that intent by asking the player to focus on basic horizontal and vertical movement, turning it into more of a platformer in effect, Skatenig streamlines the interface by (at least in attempt) pushing the player's character on a constant forward trajectory. Unloading the question of basic movement helps to cement the player's function and makes it easier to focus on the nuanced work of doing tricks and making the quick decisions to keep the character on the correct path.
At least, in principle. With its roller coaster styled design and branching paths, Skatenig gets closer to the ideal. This is still Game-Maker, with all its attendant quirks and limitations. The engine does not easily lend itself to performance-based progression. It's getting there, though. Compared to Skate Board, Skatenig is faster, more dynamic, more responsive. It's full of setpieces that pull the player up and down the stage, making good use of vertical space. In some ways it resembles a largely peril-free Sonic the Hedgehog.
Skatenig is a work in progress, both in its own right and in its concepts and execution. Here, John Brandon inches closer toward his performance-based design ideal. It's not there yet, but it's more grist for the mill.
Contents
Story[edit]
N/A
Instructions[edit]
On numerical keypad:
- 4, 6: Skate left, right
- 8, 9: Ollie up, right
- 2: Duck
On number row:
- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0: Pose for special tricks
Credits[edit]
Designed by
- John Brandon
Engine and Tools by
- Recreational Software Designs
Edited by
Background[edit]
John Brandon:
- The title has nothing to do with racially charged language, but was inspired by a song I heard in the mid-'90s by a group that I think was called the Skatenigs.
- This time I tried some new ways to play with the concept of "getting air" and using ramps, and doing grinds on the rails. Grinds and tricks can be done by pressing the number keys (1-5 I think). Each number key puts your character into a different pose that doesn't move by itself, but if you do it on a rail for example, the blocks above the rail will push you while you are in the pose. If you press the up arrow key, your character will do 360 spins! You could theoretically skate up to a railing, do a 360 spin onto it, and land on the railing in one of the number key poses. Or you could go and be launched up by a ramp (blocks above a ramp pushing you up) and hold a pose or do consecutive 360s!
- Because of the limits of Game-Maker, doing tricks didn't do anything but look interesting, and since GM seemed to be created for top down or platformer games only, there is an exit area for the level. I remember there was a much more complete version of this game that had lots of levels, more tricks for the character to do, and the character had a human head instead of this yellow cartoony weird head, but I guess it's lost to time.
Availability[edit]
Prior to this archive's online presence, this game is not known to be publicly available.
Archive history[edit]
On January 21st 2010, Rob Brandon pseudonymously responded to a Reddit thread with a passing comment about Game-Maker. When pressed about his history with the software, he replied that all of his games were stored on a couple of defunct computers, either inaccessible or destroyed.
Over 31 months later on August 23th 2012, John Brandon commented on a YouTube clip that he had found an archive of his and his brother's old games. The next day he composed a long e-mail describing the contents of a jumbled collection of gameware files, adding up to an ostensible sixteen games. All of the games were in pieces, many of them incomplete.
Over the next five months, through regular consultation, the games were all reassembled as well as the materials would permit. The games were reconstructed or otherwise recovered on the following dates:
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Links[edit]
Downloads[edit]
- Skatenig (123.5 kB)
