Octolris

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Octolris
OctolrisTitle.gif

Release type: Shareware
Release date: June 10, 1994 (original release)
Levels: 13 (in shareware version)
Author: A-J Games
Registration bonus: 10 additional levels
Registration price: $40
Related games: A-J's Quest

Remember Wacky WallWalkers? I used to collect the things. To prevent them from drying out, I would preserve them in clear film canisters filled with dishwashing liquid. Somehow this turned into a running joke in my Andrew-Jonathan comic.

A-JOcto.png

They were never exactly characters; more like a recurring concept. Yet I always felt empathy for the WallWalkers. They seemed sincere, with their huge eyes and surprised expressions. The film tubes weren’t just a grotesquerie; I wanted to protect the Walkers from decay. This, I suppose, plays into the scenario of Octolris.

Searching for the sea in Octolris

The game describes the titular hero as the last of the slime octopi; to avoid becoming soup, he embarks on a treacherous journey back to the sea. The levels he navigates make very little sense. He travels from an ambiguous green and purple area to the seashore, then to a disco. Between standard levels, Octolris explores tight mazes — storm drains, air ducts, plumbing.

The character can walk, leap in three directions, and climb up or down certain walls. The mechanics here are sort of unusual. Jumping is an all-or-nothing thing; when you press the key, you travel in a specific arc and land in a specific place. I wanted to address the weirdness of jumping in earlier games like A-J's Quest, which encourages the player to spam the controls in order to glitch into higher and farther jumps. The mechanic works well; it’s just that I often fail to account for it in the level design, which makes some areas harder than necessary.

Octolris.gif

The other oddity is the wall-climbing. To reflect the way that Wacky WallWalkers lose their stickiness and slowly dry out, I chose to mete out the octopus slime. One problem with this idea is that, guess what, I failed to account for it in the level design — so if you run out of slime, you’re stuck. There is no other way to complete most levels. The other problem is that Game-Maker does not provide a display for special counters, and so the player has no way of understanding how much slime is left. I got around these problems by overwhelming the player with slime refills. Instead I should have just ditched the limit.

If you will, Octolris seemed to have more legs than many of my games. I see it pop up here and there, and I have gotten some positive feedback.

This game underwent a bunch of revision when Game-Maker 3.0 came around. In particular all of the menus and interfaces got an overhaul.

- [Azurelore Korrigan]

Story[edit]

Level 2-1 of Octolris

Octolris is a slime octopus; the only one of his species. While he was florping around one day, he got snagged in the net of a crazed sushi fishing boat and bludgeoned by one of the workers before he could escape.

Octolris can live on land for a short while, but he dries up quickly and needs slime to coat his body regularly. When his body is totally covered with the stuff, it becomes adhesive, enabling Octolris to stick to things.

To get back to the story, when he awoke, Octolris found himself in an odd warehouse that smelled like fish. He wriggled out of the net. The air was cold, but moist enough that Octolris could manage. It was very dark, but he was able to find the door.

Octolris made up his mind then and there that he had to find a way back to the ocean. Whatever way there was, he would take it.

He had to get back.

The adventure begins . . . .

OctoMons.gif

Instructions[edit]

Level 1-1 of Octolris

Here's how to control Octolris

Left, right arrows:

Walk those ways

Up arrow:

Jump upwards

Up-left, up-right (Home,PgUp):

Jump those ways

Down arrow:

Duck, slide down

Slash (/):

Climb up
OctoItems.gif

The little blue hearts give you a hit point and the vials of slime enable you to climb.

Credits[edit]

GRAPHICS, ANIMATION:

Aderack

SOUND:

Aderack

MUSIC: It's just some PD junk we found as a substitute while we wait for MOD support

TESTING:

Aderack
M.O.S.H.
No Peach Jam

Background[edit]

[Azurelore Korrigan]:

A sidescrolling platformer, in which the last slime octopus is trying desperately to reach the ocean. There's little of real note about this game, except perhaps that I did some work on the registered version. Since no one ever registered, I rarely had the motivation to bother with the full versions. Once I had the initial idea down, generally I would get bored and move on to another game.
In the case of Octolris, I still didn't finish the registered portion -- but I did start it. I've got it sitting around somewhere, and I seem to remember that I had a few halfway interesting ideas. Nothing thrilling, but bits of it may have been stronger than bits of the early stages.
I kind of like the sound effects in this game.

Availability[edit]

This game is distributed in the shareware directory of the Game-Maker 3.0 CD-ROM.

During the early 1990s the game also was available for download from:

Also available on several shareware compilation CD-ROMs, including:

Archive history[edit]

Octolris was retained as part of the archive from the game's inception.

Links[edit]

Interviews / Articles[edit]

Listings[edit]

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