Alan Fun Game!
Release type: Incomplete
Release date: N/A (Last revised 12/1998)
Levels: 3
Author: Alan Caudel
Website: DummyDuck.com
Related games: Alan!, Alan B-Day, Alan '95, Alan '96
What we seem to have here is a dry run for Dummy Duck 4, in which Caudel experiments with digitized sprites. As in a few other games, notably Marty Valenti's Flying Guts, Caudel made the effort of posing, having photographs taken, scanning in and editing those photographs, and effectively resizing and resampling them to work within RSD's engine.
It's a heck of a lot of work, for what in the end is sort of a technical victory. You can tell that the characters are originated from photographs, and it's kind of neat to see, but with the limited resolution and color information it's hard to make out any meaningful detail. In the case of a more stylized subject, such as Caudel's Dummy Duck character, the process retains more useful information. Here, without the advisory that level two featured Caudel's friend Matt Wears, it would be hard to tell a difference.
But, clearly again, Alan Fun Game! is far from a serious work of expression. It's a test run for a technique that would be better employed later on. The levels here are obligatory, consisting of a foreground and a background color; flat surfaces and spikes. The monsters are photographs of whatever Alan had sitting around at the time. The whole idea is just to see how all of this stuff looks, and how it might sit together in a working game.
With that understanding, this is a genial enough platformer. You leap around, avoid hazards, explore, and look for the exit. Alan and Matt both control pretty well. The game's elements all stand out from each other, making for a clean presentation. There are no problems to speak of here, outside of the game's slapdash nature. Even with a bare minimum of effort, Caudel shows a pretty enjoyable sense of design. Had Caudel expanded it, Alan Fun Game! would have earned its name.
Contents
Story[edit]
N/A
Instructions[edit]
Space: Attack
On numerical keypad:
- 7/8/9: Jump left/up/right
- 4/5: Walk left/right
Credits[edit]
Designed by Alan Caudel
Background[edit]
Alan Caudel:
- I took digital photos of myself and turned them into character blocks. I made monster blocks out of random photos of things I had around my room at the time, like an alarm clock and a statue of Dummy Duck which was made by Adam Tyner. If you make it to level 2, you can play as Matt Wears.
Availability[edit]
This game is not known to have been distributed in any form, prior to its addition to the Archive.
Archive History[edit]
On August 22, 2012, Alan Caudel tracked down copies of Nuke and Alan Fun Game!, and provided them to the Archive.
Links[edit]
Downloads[edit]
- Alan Fun Game! (468.7 kB)p
