Terror Tower - Revision history

Aderack at 03:59, 24 January 2016

2016-01-24T03:59:42Z

Aderack at 03:57, 24 January 2016

2016-01-24T03:57:56Z

Aderack at 03:57, 24 January 2016

2016-01-24T03:57:23Z

Aderack at 03:55, 24 January 2016

2016-01-24T03:55:14Z

Aderack: /* Downloads */

2016-01-23T23:56:09Z

Downloads

Aderack at 15:24, 23 January 2016

2016-01-23T15:24:59Z

Aderack at 02:20, 23 January 2016

2016-01-23T02:20:39Z

Aderack at 02:19, 23 January 2016

2016-01-23T02:19:36Z

Aderack at 03:36, 22 January 2016

2016-01-22T03:36:13Z

Aderack: /* Downloads */

2016-01-22T03:01:38Z

Downloads

@@ Line 25: / Line 25: @@
 With the game's glitch identity in mind, Thomas' decision to carry over ''Pipemare's'' Smiling Save Pete Pipeman reads as less of the expediency that it at first appears and more as an element of a postmodern design process. The entire game is sort of a hip hop remix, working within the system's error threshold to undermine the surface mechanisms and air out the uglier truths beneath the surface. So, why not use the engine's de facto mascot? If we're going to glitch out Game-Maker, let's bring along something familiar for context.
-This is a hard game to read. If you don't pay attention, it seems like the Game-Maker equivalent of a GeoCities page. The more you stare at it, though, the more that you realize its intention. ''Terror Tower'' is working with a fairly sophisticated set of ideas. It's just, it only had a couple of hours of design-work to explore them. So, maybe its argument isn't as well-defined as it might have been. And yet... it does haunt the subconscious. So clearly Thomas hit on something here.
+This is a hard game to read. If you don't pay attention, it seems like the Game-Maker equivalent of a GeoCities page. The more you stare at it, though, the more that you realize its expressive intention. ''Terror Tower'' is working with a fairly sophisticated set of ideas. It's just, it only had a couple of hours of design-work to explore them. So, maybe its argument isn't as well-defined as it might have been. And yet... it does haunt the subconscious. So clearly Thomas hit on something here.
 == Story ==

@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 In this case, Thomas approached the project sort of laterally. Instead of spending his time producing resources and developing a traditional game design, he chose to use the jam as an opportunity to pick apart RSD's engine and explore the nuances of its unusual error handling.
-One of Game-Maker's big strengths is its simplicity. Its file formats are pretty much raw, unencrypted data. Its parsing engines will accept pretty much anything and try to make sense of it, with few complaints or instability issues. You can feed the engine a corrupted file, and like the minus worlds of ''Super Mario Bros.'' or ''Metroid'', it will shrug and try to make something of the data. You can neglect to specify a file, and the engine will fill in the blank in the most logical way it can.
+One of Game-Maker's big strengths is its simplicity. Its file formats are pretty much raw, unencrypted data. Its parsing engine will accept pretty much anything and try to make sense of it, with few complaints or instability issues. You can feed the engine a corrupted file, and like the minus worlds of ''Super Mario Bros.'' or ''Metroid'', it will shrug and try to make something of the data. You can neglect to specify a file, and the engine will fill in the blank in the most logical way it can.
 Sometimes you can make good of these glitches; ''[[Blinky 3]]'' doesn't specify character files for most of its levels, allowing the engine to carry over the character you select in the very first screen. With ''Terror Tower'', Thomas chose not to specify a palette file -- so the engine carries over the palette of the randomly-generated title screen. Ergo, you will never quite know what the game will look like. It may be a pastel forest, a gloomy glitch-dungeon, or a technicolor eye-bleed.

@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 In this case, Thomas approached the project sort of laterally. Instead of spending his time producing resources and developing a traditional game design, he chose to use the jam as an opportunity to pick apart RSD's engine and explore the nuances of its unusual error handling.
-One of Game-Maker's strength is its simplicity. Its file formats are pretty much raw, unencrypted data. Its parsing engines will accept pretty much anything and try to make sense of it, with few complaints or instability issues. You can feed the engine a corrupted file, and like the minus worlds of ''Super Mario Bros.'' or ''Metroid'', it will shrug and try to make something of the data. You can neglect to specify a file, and the engine will fill in the blank in the most logical way it can.
+One of Game-Maker's big strengths is its simplicity. Its file formats are pretty much raw, unencrypted data. Its parsing engines will accept pretty much anything and try to make sense of it, with few complaints or instability issues. You can feed the engine a corrupted file, and like the minus worlds of ''Super Mario Bros.'' or ''Metroid'', it will shrug and try to make something of the data. You can neglect to specify a file, and the engine will fill in the blank in the most logical way it can.
 Sometimes you can make good of these glitches; ''[[Blinky 3]]'' doesn't specify character files for most of its levels, allowing the engine to carry over the character you select in the very first screen. With ''Terror Tower'', Thomas chose not to specify a palette file -- so the engine carries over the palette of the randomly-generated title screen. Ergo, you will never quite know what the game will look like. It may be a pastel forest, a gloomy glitch-dungeon, or a technicolor eye-bleed.

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 '''Website:''' [http://www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/node/8131 Glorious Trainwrecks]<br />
 '''Related games:''' ''[[Teatime Game]]'', ''[[PersiaTron]]'', ''[[Blipp in: Power Panic!]]''
-}}[[Category:Pending articles]]<center>'''FULL ENTRY COMING SOON!'''</center>
+}}''Terror Tower'' is one of four games designed for a [[:Category: KotM 85|game jam]] held by the Glorious Trainwrecks community, in celebration of Andy Stone's release of Game-Maker's source code. All four games were assembled over a short span on the evening of July 19th, 2014, while the authors chatted and exchanged design tips over IRC.
-''Terror Tower'' is one of four games designed for a [[:Category: KotM 85|game jam]] held by the Glorious Trainwrecks community, in celebration of Andy Stone's release of Game-Maker's source code. All four games were assembled over a short span on the evening of July 19th, 2014, while the authors chatted and exchanged design tips over IRC.
+There is only one level, and no exit point -- so ''Terror Tower'' is in effect a trap. The player can enter, but can never leave through any positive, deliberate action. The world is disorienting, filled with peculiar and slightly distressing imagery and difficult-to-predict behavior. All of these elements are original, and seem to look just fine no matter the palette.
-Talk about the strength and flexibility to RSD's very simple engine; it parses anything and rationally fills in the blanks. Instead of crashing or throwing out errors, it shrugs and uses what it's got -- the way that early NES games try to make sense of garbage memory, and turn it into mysterious new topography.
+With the game's glitch identity in mind, Thomas' decision to carry over ''Pipemare's'' Smiling Save Pete Pipeman reads as less of the expediency that it at first appears and more as an element of a postmodern design process. The entire game is sort of a hip hop remix, working within the system's error threshold to undermine the surface mechanisms and air out the uglier truths beneath the surface. So, why not use the engine's de facto mascot? If we're going to glitch out Game-Maker, let's bring along something familiar for context.
-Mention Blinky 3 characters and corrupted block data in Matt Bell's archive.
+This is a hard game to read. If you don't pay attention, it seems like the Game-Maker equivalent of a GeoCities page. The more you stare at it, though, the more that you realize its intention. ''Terror Tower'' is working with a fairly sophisticated set of ideas. It's just, it only had a couple of hours of design-work to explore them. So, maybe its argument isn't as well-defined as it might have been. And yet... it does haunt the subconscious. So clearly Thomas hit on something here.
 == Story ==
@@ Line 34: / Line 32: @@
 == Instructions ==
          P E R R I S H
@@ Line 82: / Line 78: @@
 * [[Media:TerrorTowerMap.png|Game map]] (57.8 kB)
 [[Category: Rylie James Thomas]]
 [[Category: Experimental]]

@@ Line 91: / Line 91: @@
 [[Category: Glorious Trainwrecks]]
 [[Category: KotM 85]]
 [[Category: Australia]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:24, 23 January 2016
Line 23:		Line 23:

	Talk about the strength and flexibility to RSD's very simple engine; it parses anything and rationally fills in the blanks. Instead of crashing or throwing out errors, it shrugs and uses what it's got -- the way that early NES games try to make sense of garbage memory, and turn it into mysterious new topography.		Talk about the strength and flexibility to RSD's very simple engine; it parses anything and rationally fills in the blanks. Instead of crashing or throwing out errors, it shrugs and uses what it's got -- the way that early NES games try to make sense of garbage memory, and turn it into mysterious new topography.
		+
		+	Mention Blinky 3 characters and corrupted block data in Matt Bell's archive.
		+

	All of this ties together to enhance Terror Tower's glitch aesthetic. In this context, reusing Smiling Savage Pete Pipeman makes a sort of postmodern authorial sense.		All of this ties together to enhance Terror Tower's glitch aesthetic. In this context, reusing Smiling Savage Pete Pipeman makes a sort of postmodern authorial sense.

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:20, 23 January 2016
Line 23:		Line 23:

	Talk about the strength and flexibility to RSD's very simple engine; it parses anything and rationally fills in the blanks. Instead of crashing or throwing out errors, it shrugs and uses what it's got -- the way that early NES games try to make sense of garbage memory, and turn it into mysterious new topography.		Talk about the strength and flexibility to RSD's very simple engine; it parses anything and rationally fills in the blanks. Instead of crashing or throwing out errors, it shrugs and uses what it's got -- the way that early NES games try to make sense of garbage memory, and turn it into mysterious new topography.
		+
		+	All of this ties together to enhance Terror Tower's glitch aesthetic. In this context, reusing Smiling Savage Pete Pipeman makes a sort of postmodern authorial sense.

	== Story ==		== Story ==

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:19, 23 January 2016
Line 21:		Line 21:

	No palette is specified, so the in-game colors vary every time you play, on the basis of the randomly generated title screen.		No palette is specified, so the in-game colors vary every time you play, on the basis of the randomly generated title screen.
		+
		+	Talk about the strength and flexibility to RSD's very simple engine; it parses anything and rationally fills in the blanks. Instead of crashing or throwing out errors, it shrugs and uses what it's got -- the way that early NES games try to make sense of garbage memory, and turn it into mysterious new topography.

	== Story ==		== Story ==

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:36, 22 January 2016
Line 17:		Line 17:

	''Terror Tower'' is one of four games designed for a [[:Category: KotM 85\|game jam]] held by the Glorious Trainwrecks community, in celebration of Andy Stone's release of Game-Maker's source code. All four games were assembled over a short span on the evening of July 19th, 2014, while the authors chatted and exchanged design tips over IRC.		''Terror Tower'' is one of four games designed for a [[:Category: KotM 85\|game jam]] held by the Glorious Trainwrecks community, in celebration of Andy Stone's release of Game-Maker's source code. All four games were assembled over a short span on the evening of July 19th, 2014, while the authors chatted and exchanged design tips over IRC.
		+
		+	In this case, Thomas put most of his energy into background blocks.
		+
		+	No palette is specified, so the in-game colors vary every time you play, on the basis of the randomly generated title screen.

	== Story ==		== Story ==