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074: The Quest of Life Part 1 Author: Stephen Martindale Release Date: August 28, 2000
Ludum Dare, started back in 2002, is a game development competition that challenges its participants to make a game based on a theme in just 48 hours. Dink programmer Seth A. Robinson is currently one of the staff of this project, and his games won a couple of the past competitions. I mention this because "The Quest of Life" was made in 48 hours itself. It's not the first DMOD to be made in that amount of time or less, of course. Redink1 made "Dink Goes Trick-or-Treating" in a day, and I knocked out Dink Forever in an afternoon, for example (bet you aren't surprised). I saw "48 hours" mentioned with this one, though, and made the connection. Anyway, the author makes a point of advertising the short development time in this case.
It got me to wondering about that 48-hour time limit. Yes, this is off-topic and I haven't even played "Quest for Life" yet, but this'd get boring if I didn't meander a bit, right? "I liked this part of the DMOD and I didn't like this other part of the DMOD." Let me know what you think.
Anyway, what's to be gained by setting a time limit? After all, the disadvantages are obvious - the limit of scope, the possibility of just plain running out of time, the necessity to forgo polish. Despite this, this concept is incredibly popular - and not just for games (see "24 Hour Comic Day"). Well, there's the challenge itself - people like a challenge. But I think the real hook is something even more obvious: just getting something done.
Think about it. Isn't that liberating? Just getting something done. There's something admirable about that. The finish line never really out of sight. I just made a DMOD, though it isn't quite ready for release yet, and let me tell you, I often despaired. Even though I knew exactly what I had to accomplish, I couldn't see myself getting it all done. For three months, it was hard not to give up. Thinking about doing another one makes me ill at this point. But two days? What's wrong with that?
If I were to say I'm making a DMOD right now and submit it the day after tomorrow, even if it weren't anything special, wouldn't that be kind of cool? How about if several people did it at the same time? (Ludum Dink?) Can you imagine? When I think like that, I think maybe it isn't impossible to get some life back into this thing. I dunno, maybe I'm nuts. Even if I am, I think I've realized the special kind of enthusiasm that the LD people have tapped into.
OK, but really now. Quest of Life. Actually, it's a good thing I spent so much space talking about 48-hour games, because there's not a lot to this one. There's really no plot, except in the literal sense of "a series of events" (and I will admit I've seen a DMOD or two that doesn't even meet THAT standard). All you get are a series of quite simple tasks to accomplish.
At the start, Dink finds a letter. It's a bit confusing - it tells you to meet a wizard in the forest, but also admonishes Dink "not to venture into the forrest today!" What you've got to do is examine Dink's bed so it'll be tomorrow. Step 1: Nap. Going to the meeting point will simply reveal another letter (get ready to read a LOT of letters) telling you to go to another meeting point, and you'll get your tasks at last - really, I think this should have been called "Quest of Totally Unexplained Chores." The tasks could hardly get more basic: Go here, retrieve this, kill that - sure, these are the basic forms nearly all video game quests take, but they're rendered here in their most simple form. The most interesting thing you have to do is kill a pillbug you can't actually reach. This is hard because it moves fast and those mushrooms and that duck are actually invincible fireball-blockers. Ooo, stuff your laughing, you indolent isopod.
I encountered some bugs, but happily, not a single one that interfered with my gameplay. The ones I did see were pretty glaring, though, like the warp point for Dink's house being a good four feet from the door, and more than one forest edge screen looking like this for some reason. Still, the maps looked OK (better than mine usually do, to be brutally honest) and had a surprising amount going on. The map was tight and purposeful instead of large and empty. I like that. Oh, also the spelling is terrible. "Dink, you beet the pillbugs!"
The end still explains nothing except what you were told early on, that this has been a "test" of your abilities. It leads into Part 2, which, amazingly, exists. Getting stuff done!
Honestly, this is a totally generic little romp that took me ten minutes to finish, and there's nothing special (or good, really) about it, but I was a bit impressed by how competently put together it was, considering the development time and the fact that the author had never made a DMOD before. I've seen (and made) notably worse.
075: The Quest of Life Part 2 Author: Stephen Martindale Release Date: September 2, 2000
This claims to be part 2 of a trilogy. Oh, we know how that goes. Of course there's no part 3. I think there are more two-part trilogies than actual trilogies in the world of Dink by a fair margin. Like the first mod, Part 2 was finished in just a couple of days.
This part certainly has more of a proper story than the first, even if it is quite thin, silly, and at any rate incomplete. I don't think I need to get into the details, because this DMOD doesn't seem overly concerned with them itself, but there are some nice turns of phrase here, spelling aside. The tradeoff is that the maps are for the most part not as surprisingly good looking as they were in the first part - with the exception of a few interesting screens (you're required to use an item you've been given earlier to escape here), they look more like (ugh) my maps.
Having a bit of plot seems to be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it makes it easier to get interested and invested in what's going on. On the other, it leads me more easily to disappointment. In the original, I was fairly willing to accept that Dink was just supposed to do a bunch of tasks for some ill-defined "test;" why not, right? Here, something is established about goblins and a kidnapped daughter and it's kind of annoying that this thread doesn't really hold together. It ends even more quickly than part 1, right after you save up to buy a claw sword. I mean, it was to be expected, but it was still a bit disappointing after the events up to that point had felt a bit more like a proper quest than the list of tasks from its predecessor.
There are some moments of weird humor here that I enjoyed - everybody is so deliberate and enthusiastic in these, and I enjoyed Dink actually shouting, "HARK!" at the beginning of reading a poster more than I probably should have. Still, although Stephen's DMODs are a bit more interesting than you might think, without the third part this claims to lead into, they really can't leave much of an impression.
I still like the idea of quick DMODs, though. You could do something with that, especially if given a theme to work with like the LD competitions.
Ludum Dare, started back in 2002, is a game development competition that challenges its participants to make a game based on a theme in just 48 hours. Dink programmer Seth A. Robinson is currently one of the staff of this project, and his games won a couple of the past competitions. I mention this because "The Quest of Life" was made in 48 hours itself. It's not the first DMOD to be made in that amount of time or less, of course. Redink1 made "Dink Goes Trick-or-Treating" in a day, and I knocked out Dink Forever in an afternoon, for example (bet you aren't surprised). I saw "48 hours" mentioned with this one, though, and made the connection. Anyway, the author makes a point of advertising the short development time in this case.
It got me to wondering about that 48-hour time limit. Yes, this is off-topic and I haven't even played "Quest for Life" yet, but this'd get boring if I didn't meander a bit, right? "I liked this part of the DMOD and I didn't like this other part of the DMOD." Let me know what you think.
Anyway, what's to be gained by setting a time limit? After all, the disadvantages are obvious - the limit of scope, the possibility of just plain running out of time, the necessity to forgo polish. Despite this, this concept is incredibly popular - and not just for games (see "24 Hour Comic Day"). Well, there's the challenge itself - people like a challenge. But I think the real hook is something even more obvious: just getting something done.
Think about it. Isn't that liberating? Just getting something done. There's something admirable about that. The finish line never really out of sight. I just made a DMOD, though it isn't quite ready for release yet, and let me tell you, I often despaired. Even though I knew exactly what I had to accomplish, I couldn't see myself getting it all done. For three months, it was hard not to give up. Thinking about doing another one makes me ill at this point. But two days? What's wrong with that?
If I were to say I'm making a DMOD right now and submit it the day after tomorrow, even if it weren't anything special, wouldn't that be kind of cool? How about if several people did it at the same time? (Ludum Dink?) Can you imagine? When I think like that, I think maybe it isn't impossible to get some life back into this thing. I dunno, maybe I'm nuts. Even if I am, I think I've realized the special kind of enthusiasm that the LD people have tapped into.
OK, but really now. Quest of Life. Actually, it's a good thing I spent so much space talking about 48-hour games, because there's not a lot to this one. There's really no plot, except in the literal sense of "a series of events" (and I will admit I've seen a DMOD or two that doesn't even meet THAT standard). All you get are a series of quite simple tasks to accomplish.
At the start, Dink finds a letter. It's a bit confusing - it tells you to meet a wizard in the forest, but also admonishes Dink "not to venture into the forrest today!" What you've got to do is examine Dink's bed so it'll be tomorrow. Step 1: Nap. Going to the meeting point will simply reveal another letter (get ready to read a LOT of letters) telling you to go to another meeting point, and you'll get your tasks at last - really, I think this should have been called "Quest of Totally Unexplained Chores." The tasks could hardly get more basic: Go here, retrieve this, kill that - sure, these are the basic forms nearly all video game quests take, but they're rendered here in their most simple form. The most interesting thing you have to do is kill a pillbug you can't actually reach. This is hard because it moves fast and those mushrooms and that duck are actually invincible fireball-blockers. Ooo, stuff your laughing, you indolent isopod.
I encountered some bugs, but happily, not a single one that interfered with my gameplay. The ones I did see were pretty glaring, though, like the warp point for Dink's house being a good four feet from the door, and more than one forest edge screen looking like this for some reason. Still, the maps looked OK (better than mine usually do, to be brutally honest) and had a surprising amount going on. The map was tight and purposeful instead of large and empty. I like that. Oh, also the spelling is terrible. "Dink, you beet the pillbugs!"
The end still explains nothing except what you were told early on, that this has been a "test" of your abilities. It leads into Part 2, which, amazingly, exists. Getting stuff done!
Honestly, this is a totally generic little romp that took me ten minutes to finish, and there's nothing special (or good, really) about it, but I was a bit impressed by how competently put together it was, considering the development time and the fact that the author had never made a DMOD before. I've seen (and made) notably worse.
075: The Quest of Life Part 2 Author: Stephen Martindale Release Date: September 2, 2000
This claims to be part 2 of a trilogy. Oh, we know how that goes. Of course there's no part 3. I think there are more two-part trilogies than actual trilogies in the world of Dink by a fair margin. Like the first mod, Part 2 was finished in just a couple of days.
This part certainly has more of a proper story than the first, even if it is quite thin, silly, and at any rate incomplete. I don't think I need to get into the details, because this DMOD doesn't seem overly concerned with them itself, but there are some nice turns of phrase here, spelling aside. The tradeoff is that the maps are for the most part not as surprisingly good looking as they were in the first part - with the exception of a few interesting screens (you're required to use an item you've been given earlier to escape here), they look more like (ugh) my maps.
Having a bit of plot seems to be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it makes it easier to get interested and invested in what's going on. On the other, it leads me more easily to disappointment. In the original, I was fairly willing to accept that Dink was just supposed to do a bunch of tasks for some ill-defined "test;" why not, right? Here, something is established about goblins and a kidnapped daughter and it's kind of annoying that this thread doesn't really hold together. It ends even more quickly than part 1, right after you save up to buy a claw sword. I mean, it was to be expected, but it was still a bit disappointing after the events up to that point had felt a bit more like a proper quest than the list of tasks from its predecessor.
There are some moments of weird humor here that I enjoyed - everybody is so deliberate and enthusiastic in these, and I enjoyed Dink actually shouting, "HARK!" at the beginning of reading a poster more than I probably should have. Still, although Stephen's DMODs are a bit more interesting than you might think, without the third part this claims to lead into, they really can't leave much of an impression.
I still like the idea of quick DMODs, though. You could do something with that, especially if given a theme to work with like the LD competitions.
