One weekend when I was around 12, I installed a copy of AGS on a computer belonging to my grandmother, Barbara. I started making an adventure game starring her, then forgot about it for two years. In 2005, I discovered that the source files were still there, added an ending and showed Barbara, who unsurprisingly appreciated it. In 2012, I discovered that the source files had somehow still survived despite a couple of computer changes and decided to release Barbara Kwest via Pirate Kart V: The 2012-in-one Glorious Developers Konference Kollection.
I also took the opportunity to make a sequel to the game, this time with Barbara’s assistance. The original was an adventure game because that was the genre Barbara enjoyed most at the time, but now she’s more into hidden object games (hence the radical new direction taken by Barabara Kwest 2012). We used Klik & Play, because I missed it and Barbara’s computer is capable of running it natively. The version posted here will run on 64-bit Windows, though.
A Klik of the Month game made at age 19. Based on a dream a friend of mine had, the details of which are included in the ZIP file. At this point I’m starting to link to files I originally uploaded to Glorious Trainwrecks rather than files uploaded specifically for this blog, so from now on folders for the games won’t always be included in the ZIP files. I’m probably the only one who cares about this, though.
The title Bluegirl alludes to another project of mine, tentatively titled Blueman, which I started in 2005. It was an exploration based platformer featuring a large game world filled with surreal locations. The chances that this game will ever see completion or release are quite low… but then again, the last time I made changes to the project file was February this year, so you never know. Read more to see some screenshots of Blueman at various stages of its development.
Liam 3000 was my first released platformer, made at age 15. This game was based on remarks made by my friend Liam during biology class about how cool it would be to have a gelatinous sheath, although the sheath ended up playing no role in the actual gameplay. This game became pretty popular among my friends due to so many of them being in it.
Keyboardiac was made at age 16 as an idea submission to Jonny Smeby’s Mind Menace project. The premise is that Jonny has stolen all but one of the keys on your keyboard and as your character regains the abilities tied to those keys upon retrieving them. The game is also known as Liam 1000 because I tried to convince Liam it was a prequel to Liam 3000… he wasn’t impressed.
An annoying Breakout clone and an annoying shoot-‘em-up, both made age 15. Development time was less than a week for both games. While Space Invaders looks like an obvious inspiration, it’s more likely that I was being influenced by the extremely awesome Nomltest FS. Enemy designs for Envados are mostly lifted from Nomltest FS and Space Invaders.
Made at age 14 for the 2005 Retro Remakes One Switch competition. Weem is a prototype for a one button adventure game interface inspired by discussions on the AGS Forums. I liked this interface enough to make a sequel in Klik & Play 5 years later.
Count Pacula was made at age 13. It’s the first thing I did with Game Maker; an edit of the Pacman example. On most modern computers, the game breaks pretty severely on a level called ‘The Sanctuary’ and your character’s movements become invisible, much like the kill screen in real Pac-Man. I challenge you to attempt beating the level in this state if you can be bothered.
Pacula Resurrection is a sequel I started working on and never finished. At age 15 I added a bunch of disclaimer messages and released the game as abandonware. The game eventually gets ridiculously difficult, at which point I encourage gratuitous use of the F5 key (extra life) and the F7 key (skip level). Some of the enemy death animations in this are quite great, I especially like the red bat that collapses into a pile of bat bits larger than its body originally was.
