Matt Rasmussen

Dumped, like the browser-based kart game, so that I may free up some synapses.

The Idea:

• A browser-based sidescroller
• Based on an inversion of Christina Rosetti’s “The Prince’s Progress”
• With high realism movement, ala Flashback: The Quest for Identity
• Built in SVG and JavaScript
• With zooming in-engine cutscenes

The Unusual Bit:

• The game can be ended at the end of each level
• Via branching dialogue
• With a woman one encounters there
• Triggering a cutscene showing the future
• The endings are better the earlier one stops playing
• Because no one will stop playing
• There is no woman at the end of the last level

The Story:

• Rosetti’s poem follows a prince’s voyage to meet his unknown beloved
• He dallies too much with wrong turns and mystical women
• When he gets to the castle, the princess has died
• I wrote (but never finished editing) a response
• This game is based on my version
• The prince meets a series of mystical women
• He could have (should have?) stayed with any one of them
• He doesn’t
• He journeys on to meet his perfect beloved
• He finds the castle at the edge of the world
• Inside, no one opposes him
• No one’s ever lived there

The Art:

• Animated vector graphics
• Multiple foregrounds and backgrounds
• Not quite a sidescroller
• Camera usually stationary
• Re-centers when the character reaches predetermined spots
• Foreground and background layers adjust
• Foregrounds and backgrounds less detailed than midground
• Expressive style
• 24 frame per second character animation
• Realistic motion
• Zoomed in in-engine cutscene

The Gameplay:

• A mix of platforming and combat
• Level passwords
• No HUD, health bars, or data overlays of any kind
• Character can’t do anything a reasonably fit person can’t do
• Can only fall so far
• No twenty foot vertical jumps
• No changing direction in midair
• Must leap, grasp and climb to reach higher ledges
• “Step based” movement
• No creeping one pixel at a time ever necessary
• One walking step the minimum distance a movement can take
• Running, leaping, climbing, swimming, etc. all in increments

Character Mechanics:

• No lives or continues
• Health recharges
• No “medkits”
• Short recovery period
• Character movement indicates health
• Extremely low health makes character weave back and forth
• Requires micro-correcting
• With left and right keys
• To keep character from falling down

Falling Down:

• Not “death” as such
• “If you want to teach players not to do something,
• you don’t need to smack them.
• You need to give them zero feedback.“
• Tile the player falls on stretches past edges of screen left and right
• Player must get up (weaving initially) and walk across flat ground
• Uninteresting expanse takes time to cross
• Long enough to dissuade
• Not long enough to ruin game
• Poem displayed in BG
• Expanse ends at portion of the game world just as it was
• Level resumes without break
• No real death, lives or continues — just the expanse to pass

Levels:

• The Ravine
• Mostly platforming
• Lush green riverside
• Moon maiden at end
• The Desert
• Black rocks
• Ground crawling with scorpions
• Character weakens as level goes on
• Heavy use of weaving mechanic
• Alchemist at end
• The Valley
• Rivers
• Final long swim
• Lose your armor, all but knife and gloves
• The Ariel Sisters at end
• The Edge of the World
• (Movement noticeably sprightlier without gear)
• Mountain slope
• Crags
• Endless field of white flowers
• Clouds
• Castle, overgrown by enormous tree
• Phantoms “attack” inside
• Vanish before they reach you
• Empty room at top
• Plaster tubs, drop cloths, uninstalled windows
• Overgrown with white flowers from window box
• No one’s ever lived there

The Women:

• The Moon Maiden
• Milkmaid
• Starry cloak
• (Midevil milkmaids rarely got smallpox)
• (Exposure to milder cowpox virus vaccinated them)
• (Origin of the “clear/white faced milkmaid” literary meme)
• Best ending
• In-engine zoomed in cutscene of player with family
• Carefree young children
• Spreading the starry cloak on a hilltop at night
• Watching the stars wheel overhead together

The Alchemist

• Older woman, works a forge, strength and wisdom
• Second best ending
• Zooms in for cutscene as a couple
• Lonely in the desert
• Always working forge
• The Ariel Sisters
• Three nymphlike sisters
• Rescue you from river in the valley
• Flighty, impossible to pin down
• Other two give you more attention the more you focus on one
• One you focus on colder toward you
• Always out of reach
• A lot of trouble for a neutral ending
• The Princess
• Doesn’t exist
• Cutscene shows only the unfinished state of the chamber
• No ending
• Level just leaves you to wander until you quit the game

Why It’s a Bad Idea:

• Engine would have to be built from scratch
• Lots of art assets
• Lots of animation
• Small potential of SVG drawing speed problems
• SVG a low priority in modern browsers
• Animation toolchain would have to be built from scratch
• No SVG drawing program does animation yet
• If one adds support, it will likely save as SMIL
• (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language)
• Despite being a standard, no browser supports SMIL
• Would have to use JavaScript for animation instead
• Animation would either have to use substitution
• (One unique SVG image every frame, 24 frames/second)
• Or morphing
• (SVG objects changed by JavaScript every frame)
• Even more complicated to develop toolchain for
• Morphing better, would allow some smoothing between actions
• Would allow some physics as well (cloaks, particle, etc.)
• No clear business plan beyond banner ads on the homepage
• Banner ads in-game would kill the mood
• Would also slow down the browser, in the real world
• Is it possible to sell access to a browser-based game?
• Game that subverts common mechanics of genre to ask questions
• Would be compared to Braid
• Would lose the comparison