The Dink Network

I'm called Tim. I've been playing Dink since it came out, when I was a young, dumb kid.

timthreethreethree@gmail.com
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While I worked on "Crazy Old Tim Plays All the DMODs," I started feeling early on like I should make a new DMOD, to prove to myself if nothing else that I could make one worth playing. I made my DMOD, but "Malachi the Jerk" wasn't actually my initial idea.

I came up with it because the first idea I had was far too ambitious, and I knew it. I thought, "I'll come up with something way simpler, so I can just make a silly DMOD. Then I'll see how I feel about my epic." That was the actual genesis of "Malachi the Jerk," which turned out to be a much bigger job than I'd planned. It was hard enough to finish that that I'm now sure I'll never realize my original idea. It's too bad, because I really like it as a story. The story of MtJ is kind of thrown together by comparison.

"The Dark and Cloudy Day" was intended to be a rather dark epic. The title comes from a poem by A. E. Housman. I was going to have some lines from the poem appear as an epigraph at the start of the DMOD:

"Therefore, since the world has still
Much good, but much less good than ill,
And while the sun and moon endure
Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure,
I'd face it as a wise man would,
And train for ill and not for good."

...

"And I will friend you, if I may,
In the dark and cloudy day."

The poem is about how depressing poetry prepares one well for our depressing world, but I just wanted it to help establish a tone here.

There were a few themes upon which I wanted to focus: hard times, friendship, and the nature of a video game world from the perspective of its inhabitants. I ended up working the first and third points into Malachi the Jerk somewhat.

The plot was going to be that the creators of Dink's world come into it and throw it into chaos and destruction. I had written a little summary:

"Like Seth was the author of the game and the original Ancient, the Ancients come from a different dimension and are the creators of Dink's world. The people rebelled against their strict rule long ago, however, and it was an ancestor of Dink's - Rather Smallwood - who fought seemingly impossible odds to reject their control. King Daniel is actually one of the ancients and, learning from Smallwood about the free will of their creations, helped him seal away his fellow Ancients in their own dimension. Their magic has slowly seeped back into this dimension since then, however, and that is why Dink was hidden away as a kid and why his mother kept his being from a long line of heroes a secret - to protect him. The cultists of the Ancients found out about him anyway, though, and the fire that killed his mom was meant for him. (Incidentally, Daniel only became "King Daniel" more recently, to keep continuity with what's said in the original about the Goblin War.)

Only Dink can defeat the Ancients because the ability to bend reality has somehow stayed in his family line, but he's powerless to do so on his own. He can't do it without the help of a magical artifact he doesn't know how to use. He'll need help..."

The game was to start with Dink and a companion named Geoffrey Cox returning home on a boat from a perilous mission for the King. I actually wrote the intro out:

Caption: Nearly two years after Dink defeated Seth...

(Dink stares off into the waves, unmoving)

Geoff: Hey Dink. Are you OK? (pause) Dink?

Dink: Oh, Geoff. Yeah, I'm all right. It's just that it really just hit me now that we're really going home. How long have we been gone?

Geoff: Well, it's been about seven months since we set sail from Port Town.

Dink: dang, it feels more like fifteen years. Those days back home... they feel like a past life. I remember being there, but it's like that was someone else.

Geoff: It was you, all right. Dink Smallwood, savior of the world! That's how you introduced yourself to me.

Dink: Hah. And you said, "but who will save me from the tedium of listening to you brag?"

Geoff: Well, somebody had to deflate that ego. At the rate you were going you'd have been demanding people worship you inside of a week.

Dink: You old donkey. You're lucky I was drunk or I'd have kicked your ass.

Geoff: Drunk enough to hit on that waitress.

Dink: She told me, "You're really ugly."

Geoff: You said, "So are you, but that ain't stopping me!"

(both laugh)

Dink: Yeah... seems like forever ago. (pause) It's still safe, right?

Geoff: For crying out loud, man. It's still in the same sturdy chest it was the last twelve times you asked.

Dink: Yeah, sorry. I keep imagining it getting lost or broken somehow. It's just so important for us to bring it back.

Geoff: ...If you say so.

Dink: Well it has to be, right? If it isn't, why did the King send us to get it? Why'd we have to go through all of that?

Geoff: Whatever it is, it won't bring Marcus back.

(Pause. Dink turns away)

Dink: It dang well better be important.

There were going to be three playable characters: Dink, Geoff, and a girl named Tharia. I wrote little profiles for them.

--Dink Smallwood--

Strengths: Tough. Powerful. Adaptable. Lots of initiative. Can be quite clever in certain situations.
Weaknesses: Losing confidence in himself. Often tries to punch his way through problems better solved in other ways. Only of middling intelligence. Rarely knows exactly what's going on.

Notes: Dink is not quite the same guy he used to be. All the death he's seen has caught up to him, and he realizes that his mother died before he was ready to be on his own. However, he still acts like classic Dink a fair amount of the time. Plot-wise, he has magical aptitude and protection because he is descended from Rather Smallwood, the first man to rebel against the creators (with the help of one of them, Daniel).

--Tharia Northwind--

Strengths: Strong. Logical. Willful and capable. Can use certain magic that Dink can't.
Weaknesses: Can be naive. Sometimes her passion overwhelms her logic and she gets reckless. Could never master destructive magic.

Notes: Introduced early in the story as a young admirer of Dink's. His example inspires her to become a knight against all odds and defend the realm.

OK, so she's the Strong Female Character who keeps a cool head when our hero can't, but she, too, experiences doubt in everything she believes in as the horrors mount. Despite her talk of results-based practicality, she does hang on to a certain heroic image of Dink that doesn't hold up to scrutiny as time goes on. Dink requires her help to defeat the final bosses, but she is injured at a critical point and must be revived by Dink in a long, quiet and tense non-combat sequence.

--Geoffrey Cox--

Strengths: VERY clever. Shapeshifting abilities. Extremely difficult to kill.
Weaknesses: Excessive cynicism. Holds grudges. Gets frustrated.

Notes: Shapeshifting ability comes from his being one of the last of a tribe who practiced a trance-based form of witchcraft. Requires supplies to do his transformations, and has to "cast his mind out" to find the form. While in another form, his mind is somewhat altered by its nature. Has an uneasy relationship with the beliefs of his people that is only made worse by the events of this DMOD, and finds his trick harder to do during bouts of nihlism.

Tharia was going to spend a lot of time in one of the standard suits of armor. I'd done some pretty laughable work stretching out the maiden sprite to make her taller so that would make more sense.

Here are some basic area ideas I'd written down:

* The Hideout. A hideaway from the world gone mad. Dink is led here by Tharia, our female warrior.

* Pleasant Hollow. People here must act like everything is OK or the robots will come. People's minds are monitored by a strange machine that doesn't belong here. Dink must destroy the final savebot - this is how the Ancients have been spying on him all along! Further saving is done at magic beacons.

* The Darklands - they've spread most everywhere.

* Goblin Glacier - Goblin lands have been overrun by snow, which they are poor at tolerating. Guest appearance by Hembar as the cause of this.

* The Nightmare - ruled by Somnus, Ancient creator of dreams. A journey through Dink's own mind. Traps Dink upon confrontation in "The End of the World" and a short segment of "Dink Forever." Is finished off by Tharia.

*Have nutso stuff happen. While the status bar is not shown, the fire that killed Dink's mom "kills" him, his death anim displays, and a fake "Load, Restart, Quit" choice statement comes up identical to the real one. Ducks everywhere. Signs are enemies. Coconut Monkey sighting. Dink backstory.

* The Ruins of Terris, wherein the backstory is laid out. libby is still hiding out here, but the endboss sends an agent to kill her just for the purpose of tormenting Dink.

* Adell, a town that has already been rescued by Tharia from a fearsome beast. Still, they would like Dink to run some errands for him.

*Looneyland. Optional hidden area near Adell with a few extra powerups. Feels like Quest for Cheese and has some of my old ideas from Crossroads and my abandoned "midlife crisis" mods in it. Not big, but has a sort of (non-combat, mostly) quest.

* The Treasure Chest. A bar and casino where people gamble and drink, drink, drink their problems away. They are happy, and so is Dink at first, but the others ignore atrocities going on right in front of them. Dink defeats a totally human villain, but the drunkards here are too far gone to care. Dink reflects on the futility of his struggle.

* The Dragon's Nest. Dink ends up being in the wrong here, and finds out too late to avoid fighting a very powerful mother Dragon. Tharia is here and aghast to learn of what Dink has done. She thought he was a hero. Dink is not sure he's ever been a true hero. Tharia's image of him is ruined. She needs time to think.

* The Magical glade. Enemies here are immune to physical damage except a magic weapon Dink can acquire (weaker than other weapons). Dink must assist in the weaving of a powerful spell to eliminate the poisoning mystical powers of a magical beast.

* The Endless Cavern. Dink meets Tharia again to figure out the mystery of this exitless cave. They begin to bond over their shared struggle, the horrors they've witnessed, and all that they've both lost (Tharia tearfully reports that they got to the Hideout).

* The Long and Winding Road. Dink (and Tharia if I can find a way to work this out, if not they split up somehow) make their way through a difficult labyrinth. At the end is Coda, the second-to-last boss. He is very difficult and Dink is only able to win with Tharia's help; however, she is badly injured. Dink must go through a quiet segment of the game before the final dungeon in which he helps her back to health.

*The end of creation. As Dink approaches the final boss, the game-world starts to come apart. Backgrounds show bits of DinkC script and editor screens, which Dink does not comprehend.

I dunno if all those areas would've made it into the game (probably not), but I'm sure about the basic plot structure. The segments I had in mind for Geoff aren't even listed there. I was especially keen on the scene of "quiet desperation" as Dink has to carry the injured Tharia across a desolate land to reach shelter and help. He would just try to keep her talking, because if she went to sleep he wasn't sure she'd wake up again

This whole idea came from me thinking a bit too hard about all the fourth wall breaking that goes on in DMODs. What if we took it seriously instead of making a joke out of it? From the creators' perspective, they can't really do any wrong in ruining Dink's world - after all, they aren't destroying anything they couldn't simply make again. From the characters' perspective, the world is real to them.

Something that becomes clear to Dink and his friends as they near the end is that a happy ending may not be possible, that the very act of winning may bring their world to an end. The question here is whether a game-world ends when the game is won, or whether we can imagine that it keeps going. They proceed on faith.

There was a lot more written (edit: nothing to see here) and even more in my head, but this post is rather long as is and I'm not sure if anybody is particularly interested anyway.