Josh's Adventure
From RPGMMWiki
| Josh's Adventure |
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 Developer: 1ce, Quixotic Productions Genre: Platformer Release: Proposed for Winter 2010 Platform: RPG Maker 1 Rating: Everyone Site: [1] |
Josh's Adventure (also previously known as Josh's Out-of-Body Adventure and Sourdough Eyeglasses), is a platforming game currently in development by 1ce, at Quixotic Productions. The project is considered to be a spiritual sequel to another, earlier released game called Donkey Kong, from which it shares many gameplay features. Production began in August 2009 and is slated for a Winter 2010 release date.
Contents |
Gameplay
Basic Gameplay
Gameplay in Josh's Adventure consists of running and jumping through a level in order to reach the end, marked by a rainbow circle on the ground. There are four levels and a boss battle in a world. Josh's objective is simple; simply step on this tile to complete the level. To block Josh's progress, enemies and obstacles try to get in his way. Josh must avoid enemies and jump from platform to platform, occasionally using the envoriment to help him. For example, in one level Josh must use a big gun to destroy a boulder blocking his path to the level exit. Other requires him to ride a horse, which can eat bushes allowing him to reach the exit. Josh starts out with five lives; should they run out, he'll have to start the world over again from the beginning.
Jumping
In Josh's Adventure, you can only jump by using jump pads on the ground around each stage. By pressing X on a jump pad, Josh will 'jump' to a different area. The jump pads often don't indicate where they will go, so memorization is important. There are many varities of jump pad. A regular jump pad glows white and is seen often in the game. A red jump pad indicates that the jump will be higher than usual, going into areas the player may not be able to see. Blue jump pads allow the player to choose where to jump. Regardless of the jump pad, changing course midstream is impossible.
Bonuses
During the course of the game the player may have a chance to obtain different items in treasure chests. Some of these treasures include points which are tallied in the player's inventory. The point system, as described by 1ce: "Is a throwback to the arcade days of old, where you'd collect points for a highscore. The point system doesn't have any real use in the game, but it's a fun little extra." Also included are tokens, which can be redeemed for items in the main hubworld. The player can also find extra lives in chests; these tend to be rare and difficult to obtain. Even rarer are three hidden items in the game that unlock a hidden world
Planned Features
-Requires four memory cards
-Four worlds, and one hidden world
-Two difficulty levels
-Dexdrive and PS3 formats on launch day
-Artwork
-Designer notes
-Token reward system, point tracking, games played and death counting
-Want an extra challenge? Throw away your lives!
After beating the game on Normal, you unlock access to the credits and the Hard difficulty.
This section to expand as game development continues.
Development
Conception/Sourdough Eyeglasses
After completing Donkey Kong, 1ce wanted to create more platforming games. While he was very proud of his work and what he did with Donkey Kong, he also felt there were many areas that he could improve upon. So, while working on his Time System Tech Demo, he also worked on the hubworld for the new platforming game. 1ce wanted to make a platforming trilogy of games, with Donkey Kong as the first. On September 15th Sourdough Eyeglasses was announced. The game would see a brave knight entering a lair to obtain the Sourdough Eyeglasses, a mystical item said to bring great powers to cooks, and would be the second game in the trilogy. Ten days later, however, the game was scrapped. The reason for it's demise was simple; if there was a trilogy of games, 1ce was going to pool all of the best resources and ideas into the third game, and Sourdough Eyeglasses would have been left with filler content. Rather than create the trilogy, 1ce opted to cut out Sourdough Eyeglasses and instead work on the third game in development, which he later called Josh's Adventure.
The platforming trilogy would have looked like this:
* Donkey Kong * Sourdough Eyeglasses * Josh's Adventure
Rebirth/Josh's Out-of-Body Adventure
After Sourdough Eyeglasses was cancelled, 1ce announced a new platforming game using the same tools of Sourdough Eyeglasses. The game changed dramatically in scope; the game's story was completely changed, new items were added, and worlds would have eight levels instead of four.
Here's the story as posted in the game's offical topic: "There's a rumor running wildly around schoolyards all over the town of Littletown. The rumor states that anyone standing in the local arcade at the stroke of midnight will witness all the lights turn on magically, and all arcade machines will play for free. Tempted by the idea of playing his favorite games for free, Josh sneaks out of his bed one foggy evening to see if the rumor is true. Sneaking into the local arcade, he waits until midnight for his favorite machines to turn on.
It turns out the rumor is only half true. While all the lights do turn on, the games don't play for free. Josh understandably gets a little upset. Thinking the switch for free play is somewhere close, he reaches into the back of his favorite arcade game to find a switch, only to recieve a nasty electric shock!
When Josh next opens his eyes, he's having an out-of-body experience! The grim reaper shows up to take Josh where no mortal should go, but the grim reaper is shocked to learn that Josh's body still has a heartbeat, and according to Death rules, he can't take any soul away until the body is completely dead. So, to humor both Josh and himself, the grim reaper challenges Josh to a series of tests to see if Josh should be allowed to live. Careful there Josh. In this game of life and death, you only get one credit."
Progress was slow at first; since the game was made from the ground up, many different structure concepts had to be designed to balance the game and make it run smoothly. Jukeboxes were laid out in the hubworld; these could be changed to switch the music every time you entered the level. Progress was moving at a steady pace, but there were many obstacles and even uncertainties about the game itself that held production back. Later on switches were individualized and the game got it's new title, Josh's Out-of-Body Adventure. The first world was nearly complete, but things had slowed to a crawl by the time 1ce got to the first boss. The pressure and weight of having too many features eventually destroyed his motivation. The fact that a picture progress topic he created was forced to be cancelled only fueled the fire. The game went into limbo for two weeks, and it was anyone's guess whether the game would continue production or be cancelled.
Boom or Bust/Josh's Adventure
The game was beginning to reach a breaking point: there were too many features and other things to worry about. After think over it for some time, 1ce decided to make some cuts to the game to make it easier to manage. The biggest change 1ce made was cutting the story; this dramatically reduced his workload and gave him a much needed motivational boost. Other changes include removing the jukeboxes and reducing the levels from eight back down to four. Progress was slow at first, and difficult, but eventually 1ce managed to work his way out of several problems he was facing (the first boss was quite difficult to code), and the game's title was shortened to Josh's Adventure. Since then progress has been somewhat steady, and many decisions that held him back in the past, like structuring the game, have been taken care of. More recently, custom graphics have been drawn for arrows to be used in-game, or letters for a custom title. The title now appears to be moving on from it's rocky start and moving into maturity, and seems to have reached a point where it will be completed, with 1ce stating, "This game will not be cancelled".
Excitement/Magcon Announcment
After making the decision to complete the game, and after the first boss, progress continued through till December, completing four levels on World 2. The month of January would see a small project, Calculator, get most of the development time for that month. However, one big announcement was made relating to JA, and that was the announcement that the game would be playable at the third Magcon. The demo would also be available shortly after the Magcon. This was something of a surprise, even for 1ce; while he wanted to release a demo in 2010, he hadn't predicted he'd do so, so early. Much time was spent polishing and debugging the game for a public demo to be released, and the second boss was completed after a few days of work. Several changes were made just for the demo; an incomplete tutorial is unlockable, tokens simply need to exceed a point to get demo-exclusive extras, the custom graphic title can be arranged in the hubworld, and cut levels are accessible through a hidden cheat. The demo was finished on 2/22, and a patch was finished on 2/23 to remove some tutorial level bugs found the next day.
Disappointment/Magcon Showing and Public Demo
On March 27, the video of the Magcon demo for Josh's Adventure was uploaded. The game was faring very favorably with the Magcon group, until they reached level 2-3 when it was discovered that the game was glitched and had a fatal bug that prevented the crew from continuing. 1ce quickly opened up the game and discovered that a bug turned many switches on instead of off. He quickly fixed the problem and released the bug-free demo the next day. This issue combined with a frenetic lifestyle kept 1ce away from making the game, and the disappointing reactions kept him from making the game with much motivation. Slow progress was made through 3-2. The title unfortunately hit another low point.
Realization/New Motivation
After some time, 1ce remembered something he had forgotten, a golden rule about making RPGs. When making a game, you should make it for yourself, and the more you enjoy what you've done and what you've made, the more others will be able to recognize that. So with that renewed idea in mind, 1ce found new motivation and started making a ton of progress, rebuilding 3-3 and making fixes to old levels, such as adding lava to the first boss level and an entirely new hubworld, two big complaints by the Magcon crew.
Determination/Frail's Influence
As World 3 came to a close, motivation was again at a low point. 1ce considered making a new game called Frail, a very-hard game that had players platforming over several levels with one life. Unfortunately handling more than one game at a time was too much, and the game was cancelled. The flipside to this is, several levels and ideas of Frail were merged into JA, and make up the majority of World 4. When there was too much work to do, 1ce had to choose what to do, and cut a co-operative feature he had planned for the game. It disappointed him quite a bit, but the new motivation helped him continue working.
Fun Facts
-As of 8/27, the game uses 5 system blocks, 10 scenario blocks, and 8 custom graphic blocks.
-1ce originally was planning to make games for RPG Tsukuru 3 and 4, but he decided to make a new platformer to give something to the community that they could actually play.
-The original release date for JA was set for Feburary 2010.
-JA was made from the ground up. That might not sound so important, but most titles produced by Quixotic Productions have been made from pre-existing code. In fact, it's the first game since Don't Move (2007) that holds this distinction.
-A homage to Arcadia Mania can be seen in the scenario data name, which is called Arcade Pack 2.
-A cooperative mode was considered for the game, but ultimately was cut.
External links
Quixotic Productions forums: http://www.rpgmmag.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=64
Josh's Adventure topic (Mag): http://www.rpgmmag.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=8206
Josh's Adventure topic (Pav): http://www.pavilionboards.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22314
JA Picture Progress report : http://www.rpgmmag.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=8229
Sourdough Eyeglasses topic: http://www.rpgmmag.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=8181
Magcon announcement for JA: http://www.rpgmmag.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=139&t=8527
Demo at Magcon:
Part 1: http://www.viddler.com/explore/RPGMM/videos/12/
Part 2: http://www.viddler.com/explore/RPGMM/videos/13/
