WARNING: If you don’t want the game spoiled for you, download it from this page, and finish it before reading further. It’s not that difficult, or that long. If you get stuck, the answer is “gun”. =P

In the same way that save meant something other than you expected it to in Alternate Path, tomorrow meant something other than you expected it to in my previous post. Hehe.

LEVEL 4 - This was where a lot of people got stuck. Having to type in the answer to a question is a little too open-ended a puzzle, I suppose.

Although, as Tom Russell pointed out in his review of Alternate Path (page 60), the answer made perfect sense in the context of the game, and gaming in general. And a few people DID figure it out on their own. And I needed an exciting way to give the player the gun. So maybe it wasn’t thaaaat bad after all…

Still, I feel it would have been better if I had given hints for when the player typed in the more obvious “key” or “passcard” or “battering ram”.

LEVEL 5 - This followed the same basic concept as level 3, in that a feature commonly associated with the game interface actually became part of the game. Pressing F1 for help really WAS helpful.

LEVEL 6 - Ah, the health level. Anyone who managed to get past Level 4 got stuck here, doing stranger and stranger things in an attempt to hurt themselves.

This idea comes from something I once saw on some simple-minded cartoon, where two people were playing a game, and the one shot the points off the other’s score. I’d say it fits in with the theme of “there’s nothing separate about the interface” that I built up in Levels 3 and 5.

LEVEL 7 - Once again, this was an excuse to introduce a new feature without just introducing it. I don’t know how wonderful this level was though, as its solution was really pretty arbitrary.

LEVEL 8 - As some of you have no doubt gathered, this level was heavily inspired by JW’s fantastic 10800 Zombies. I wanted to have a similar weapon switching mechanic, and so I figured out a neat puzzle I could use it for.

Looking back, this level was probably overlong and a little tedious. The player solves the puzzle when he kills the first enemy, and then is forced to reuse that solution to kill a whole lot more. I really should’ve put in another puzzle or two to justify the level’s length.

LEVEL 9 (BOSS) - Well, well, well. Here we have it. The final level of the game. The boss battle. This level is what I’m most ashamed of. The first puzzle is arbitrary, and the second requires lightening-fast thinking, something the player has never been forced to use before within the game. Had that puzzle not been a rehash, it would have been game-breaking.

I had another idea for the boss fight, a really grand three-stage battle, but as this game was made for a competition, I just didn’t have time to pull that off, so I had to settle for what’s in the game now.

In his above-mentioned review, which I hold in very high esteem, Tom Russell described the fight as “overlong”, which is understandable, as you spend forever redirecting the AntiPlayer’s bullets before he decides to take away your weapons. So I suppose the fight should have been shorter, or maybe just more interesting.

LEVEL 10 - Now I’m really pushing my luck. The final cutscene cannot be called a level. And that’s why I have nothing to say about it.

Some general thoughts

* At one stage, I had the idea of allowing the player to either take the “alternate path” or continue through eight or nine levels of dull, badly made platformer. Then I decided that that would use up valuable time that could be better used in making the rest of the game.

As I think about it now, though, it would’ve added something to the end thought of “Makes you wonder how alternate the AntiPlayer’s path for you really was…”. But unless I made things completely clear, a feature like that may have given me some damning reviews. =)

* Hands up if you’ve noticed what I did with the menu. For those with their hands down, I made the menu background and music change depending on which level you had reached. Seeing as the game can be finished in one sitting, though, I don’t expect many to have noticed that.

Alternate Path 2: The Alternater Path

First off, that’s not what the game is going to be called. I absolutely abhor meaningless sequel numbers, almost as much as I despise subtitles.

Apart from better graphics and longer length, the sequel is going to follow this concept, which I came up with about thirty minutes ago:

“An enjoyable, fulfilling game experience that breaks convention to create its own convention.”

While you try to figure out what that’s supposed to mean, I’m going to hope and pray I can actually pull that off. I’ve got one or two ideas for puzzles and such, but the game is still in foetal stages, so it won’t be finished for quite some time. You’ll probably see a few other things from me before you see this.

Well, I’m glad that I actually wrote this, and I’m glad that you actually read it. Good morning/afternoon/evening/night, friend.

Keep on making conventions by breaking others,
F1ak3r

Hey all, it’s F1ak3r, one of the RoboSquid people who volunteered to write stuff for this, and, coincidentally, the guy who made Alternate Path, which was reviewed in the post preceding this one.

Seeing as so many people like Alternate Path so much, I decided to give a bit of inside information on its development, tell you all why I did certain things, and suchlike. Without further padding, here’s the piece of my brain I’m offering to you:

WARNING: If you don’t want the game spoiled for you, download it from this page, and finish it before reading further. It’s not that difficult, or that long. If you get stuck, the answer is “gun”. =P

Alternate Path was an idea in my head long before I even created the source file or drew any of the horrendously complex and beautifully shaded graphics. Of course, it was vague back then, and looked very different in my head.

The basic concept was this: “What if you had this game that started out like a run-of-the-mill platformer/arcade game, and then, within the first few minutes of play, became something much less conventional, and much more confusing? Wouldn’t that be a cool way to fool the player?”

I don’t know that I pulled off that idea too wonderfully in Alternate Path (even the name, Alternate Path, gives away the game’s “secret”), but I wanted people to actually download the thing. And besides, it became more than a simple way of punking arbitrary people on the Internet as I got down to making it.

LEVEL 1 - Level 1 was the most straightforward level, and featured dull, cliched gameplay, just as I had intended. The only real purpose of Level 1 was to slide the player into the game smoothly, as plonking them down in Level 2 would’ve scared them.

LEVEL 2 - I can’t really call Level 2 a level. It was more of an interactive cut-scene, which basically gave the player a taste of the AntiPlayer’s attitude, and introduced the higher jump, the first of many ability upgrades.

Ability upgrades were an important part of Alternate Path. I planned to put more in (double-jumping, wall climbing, running), but there wasn’t any need for them. Perhaps they’ll appear in the sequel…

LEVEL 3 - At last, the first actual puzzle, and definitely one of my favourites. I feel the saving puzzle really embodies the game’s spirit (the spirit of taking conventional gameplay mechanics and conventions, and turning them on their heads). In retrospect, the “You don’t need to save now.” messages, great portrayers of the AntiPlayer’s personality though they were, made things a little easy. But maybe I’m just being silly.

They say you should always leave your audience wanting more. Which is why this is a two-part article. That, and I’m embarrassed about the mess that is level 4. Hehe…

I’ll see you tomorrow for my thoughts on the rest of the levels, and some general conclusions! Maybe I’ll even give you a taste of my ideas for the sequel, provided you’re a good little boy/girl/other and eat all your veggies. Maybe…

Keep on alternating your paths,
F1ak3r

Alternate Path, a game by F1ak3r, is a puzzle-platformer somewhat-mini game. You play as a generic space-man-with-visor type character trying to complete a simple platform level- at least to begin with. But apparently, that is not your path. The game progresses through several puzzle levels and ends with… hmm, play it.

The graphics are pretty good for what the game is, although they could have used a bit more polish.

Gameplay is amazing, thus this review. The puzzles are all nice and tricky, with the exception of one where you have to type in an arbritray word.

Mechanics are pretty good, the platform physics are all nice except the jumping which seems a little… jumpy.

Overall the game is great, a bit of graphical and jumping-physics polish are all I can reccomend.

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