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--Crazy Old Tim Plays All the D-Mods--
Directory
1998 | HTML version
1999 | HTML version
2000 | HTML version
2001 | Article version
2002 | Article version
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008-2009
2011-2015
The improbable resurgence of D-Mod development continued into 2010. My list has twenty D-Mods for 2010, although my record of sticking to these kinds of numbers has been terrible lately. If it does hold up, 2010 is not just the last year to see the release of at least twenty D-Mods, it's also the last year to see the release of at least ten. It is therefore the last year that's getting its own topic.
"Historical Hero" came out in 2010, bringing the community its first "epic" in several years. The Non-Combat D-Mod contest took place this year, receiving six entries and marking the start of a three-year run of successful contests.
305: Platform Dink (Development) Author: Iplaydink Release Date: January 12, 2010
"Welcome to dink platform. press B to jump"
I must admit that this project's definition of "All the D-Mods" is debatable. For the most part, I've excluded "Development D-Mods," which exist to demonstrate graphics and/or scripting techniques. There are a lot of these. I remember the first one I ever saw. Back in 1999, I downloaded Dan "Two Sheds" Walma's "Weather Demonstration D-Mod." I "played" it late at night, and something seemed kind of magical to me at the time about the atmosphere established by the effects, as simple as they were. As you can tell, I do find these files interesting - they just don't fit with this project, which concerns D-Mods that provide a game to play or, on occasion, a movie to watch.
If I wanted to be consistent (and you'd think that I would), I would just exclude all of these files from COTPATD. However, there's a few of them that just interest me too much not to take a quick look at them. "Platform Dink" shows how you can make a typical sidescrolling platform game (like Mario) in the Dink engine, in what seems to me like the most radical departure yet from the way the game normally handles movement.
This is the first time I have ever thought Dink could be described as cute.
It works, which I find quite impressive considering the limitations of the engine, but it's pretty rough. Dink can walk, he can jump, and he can land on platforms. He can even ride on a moving platform. This is achieved using a "gravity" script that constantly moves Dink downward and scripts for the platforms that keep him on top of them. It's a rough ride and a bit sluggish, although I have (sadly) played platformers with worse controls. I did have trouble clearing the only enemy, and if Dink says anything, the text moves madly up and down due to the constant opposition of the gravity and platform scripts, making it hard to read.
A worse problem is that vertical movement is not disabled. Gravity and the platforms prevent Dink from simply walking up or down, but you can mess with jump height and falling speed by pressing up and down. Jumping from a platform moving upward also gives Dink a lot of extra momentum (this may be intentional?). Unfortunately, I can't think of an easy way around this, but fixing this issue would be a priority for anyone hoping to make a real game in this style.
You could say there's a little bit of a game here. You have to jump from platform to platform to make it to the end, spikes and an enemy will damage you, and there are even a few "checkpoints" where your game is automatically saved. There are only five screens, however, and the ending is just a sign telling you the test is over. Still, that's more of a game than most Development D-Mods. Hell, it's more of a game than a few regular D-Mods I could name.
Dink's silent "Ahhhh" when he falls to his death makes me chortle.
"Platform Dink" demonstrates that a platformer is possible in the Dink engine, but it would take more work to make much of a game out of it, if that's even possible at all. Still, you should look at this just to see it in action. I'm always interested in these kinds of projects that make the Dink engine do things you wouldn't think it would do, and this seems like the furthest it's been stretched yet.
306: Dink's Quest in the Icelands (Demo) Author: Skorn Release Date: February 6, 2010
"Alright, Skorn. I'll see you later."
This is the first D-Mod by Skorn, also known as Skurn, Absolution, Skorn Flakes and Skorn on the Cob. Okay, I made those last two up. Skorn's had quite a history of spamming and irritating people, but anybody who declares himself forum Santa and buys me a computer game is okay in my book.
"Dink's Quest in the Icelands," unfortunately, is not okay. This is because it was barely even started, let alone finished to the degree you'd expect even from a demo.
Again, I have to laugh when I think back on my criticism of "The Orion" for being light on content as a demo. Compared to this, "Orion" was "Crosslink." "Icelands" runs out of content so quickly that I was stunned into literal disbelief. I kept walking around in circles long after I'd already determined that I'd seen everything. That couldn't be all of it. This D-Mod has been left unfinished at a random point in development. Just a few screens from the start, the map trails off into unfinished, borderless screens. The story directory contains several unused scripts. Some of them are clearly unfinished, but others seem complete.
The first screen is kind of interesting. Dink holds a yard sale! That's a new one.
If there were just a little more to this one, it wouldn't be getting the DFMAOB. The first screen looks pretty good (I like the path to the house), and most of the objects on it are scripted. The dialogue is of reasonable quality. That's all there is, though. The next screen has a sign that reads "Town East;" after that, there's nothing. The closest thing to a story lead is that Skorn (the character) tells Dink to go to the post office to receive a message. His eventual quest may have involved some kind of icy lands, but that's just speculation. I doubt it would have involved the nation of Iceland.
The author also seems not to have known about hardness tiles, and there are hardness gaps all over, making it easy to walk on trees or water. The only other thing to see are some pillbugs whose size is randomly determined. That's... a fact about this D-Mod. Look, there isn't much to say about some of these. This is less of a demo and more of a snapshot of a point very early in development. Releases like this are generally a bad idea.
Directory
1998 | HTML version
1999 | HTML version
2000 | HTML version
2001 | Article version
2002 | Article version
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008-2009
2011-2015
The improbable resurgence of D-Mod development continued into 2010. My list has twenty D-Mods for 2010, although my record of sticking to these kinds of numbers has been terrible lately. If it does hold up, 2010 is not just the last year to see the release of at least twenty D-Mods, it's also the last year to see the release of at least ten. It is therefore the last year that's getting its own topic.
"Historical Hero" came out in 2010, bringing the community its first "epic" in several years. The Non-Combat D-Mod contest took place this year, receiving six entries and marking the start of a three-year run of successful contests.
305: Platform Dink (Development) Author: Iplaydink Release Date: January 12, 2010
"Welcome to dink platform. press B to jump"
I must admit that this project's definition of "All the D-Mods" is debatable. For the most part, I've excluded "Development D-Mods," which exist to demonstrate graphics and/or scripting techniques. There are a lot of these. I remember the first one I ever saw. Back in 1999, I downloaded Dan "Two Sheds" Walma's "Weather Demonstration D-Mod." I "played" it late at night, and something seemed kind of magical to me at the time about the atmosphere established by the effects, as simple as they were. As you can tell, I do find these files interesting - they just don't fit with this project, which concerns D-Mods that provide a game to play or, on occasion, a movie to watch.
If I wanted to be consistent (and you'd think that I would), I would just exclude all of these files from COTPATD. However, there's a few of them that just interest me too much not to take a quick look at them. "Platform Dink" shows how you can make a typical sidescrolling platform game (like Mario) in the Dink engine, in what seems to me like the most radical departure yet from the way the game normally handles movement.
This is the first time I have ever thought Dink could be described as cute.
It works, which I find quite impressive considering the limitations of the engine, but it's pretty rough. Dink can walk, he can jump, and he can land on platforms. He can even ride on a moving platform. This is achieved using a "gravity" script that constantly moves Dink downward and scripts for the platforms that keep him on top of them. It's a rough ride and a bit sluggish, although I have (sadly) played platformers with worse controls. I did have trouble clearing the only enemy, and if Dink says anything, the text moves madly up and down due to the constant opposition of the gravity and platform scripts, making it hard to read.
A worse problem is that vertical movement is not disabled. Gravity and the platforms prevent Dink from simply walking up or down, but you can mess with jump height and falling speed by pressing up and down. Jumping from a platform moving upward also gives Dink a lot of extra momentum (this may be intentional?). Unfortunately, I can't think of an easy way around this, but fixing this issue would be a priority for anyone hoping to make a real game in this style.
You could say there's a little bit of a game here. You have to jump from platform to platform to make it to the end, spikes and an enemy will damage you, and there are even a few "checkpoints" where your game is automatically saved. There are only five screens, however, and the ending is just a sign telling you the test is over. Still, that's more of a game than most Development D-Mods. Hell, it's more of a game than a few regular D-Mods I could name.
Dink's silent "Ahhhh" when he falls to his death makes me chortle.
"Platform Dink" demonstrates that a platformer is possible in the Dink engine, but it would take more work to make much of a game out of it, if that's even possible at all. Still, you should look at this just to see it in action. I'm always interested in these kinds of projects that make the Dink engine do things you wouldn't think it would do, and this seems like the furthest it's been stretched yet.
306: Dink's Quest in the Icelands (Demo) Author: Skorn Release Date: February 6, 2010
"Alright, Skorn. I'll see you later."
This is the first D-Mod by Skorn, also known as Skurn, Absolution, Skorn Flakes and Skorn on the Cob. Okay, I made those last two up. Skorn's had quite a history of spamming and irritating people, but anybody who declares himself forum Santa and buys me a computer game is okay in my book.
"Dink's Quest in the Icelands," unfortunately, is not okay. This is because it was barely even started, let alone finished to the degree you'd expect even from a demo.
****This D-Mod, "Dink's Quest in the Icelands,"**** ********Has been awarded the prestigious********* ****DINK FOREVER MEMORIAL AWARD OF BADNESS***** ********On this day December 27, 2014********
Again, I have to laugh when I think back on my criticism of "The Orion" for being light on content as a demo. Compared to this, "Orion" was "Crosslink." "Icelands" runs out of content so quickly that I was stunned into literal disbelief. I kept walking around in circles long after I'd already determined that I'd seen everything. That couldn't be all of it. This D-Mod has been left unfinished at a random point in development. Just a few screens from the start, the map trails off into unfinished, borderless screens. The story directory contains several unused scripts. Some of them are clearly unfinished, but others seem complete.
The first screen is kind of interesting. Dink holds a yard sale! That's a new one.
If there were just a little more to this one, it wouldn't be getting the DFMAOB. The first screen looks pretty good (I like the path to the house), and most of the objects on it are scripted. The dialogue is of reasonable quality. That's all there is, though. The next screen has a sign that reads "Town East;" after that, there's nothing. The closest thing to a story lead is that Skorn (the character) tells Dink to go to the post office to receive a message. His eventual quest may have involved some kind of icy lands, but that's just speculation. I doubt it would have involved the nation of Iceland.
The author also seems not to have known about hardness tiles, and there are hardness gaps all over, making it easy to walk on trees or water. The only other thing to see are some pillbugs whose size is randomly determined. That's... a fact about this D-Mod. Look, there isn't much to say about some of these. This is less of a demo and more of a snapshot of a point very early in development. Releases like this are generally a bad idea.
