The Dink Network

This D-Mod is Tim Maurer's earliest D-Mod still available on the Dink Network. As he himself admitted, his early D-Mods weren't that good. This is certainly the case with The End of the World.

Story:
So, the world is ending and Dink has to stop it from happening. I guess? The story is a bit of a mess. The locations you visit feel like a collection of several different areas that have little to with each other. The best way I can describe the story and gameplay of this D-Mod is that they feel like stiched together, combining a set of random ideas and areas. You might ask: but aren't there many good D-Mods that feel like this, yet the transition is seamless? Yes, there are. Stone of Balance is a good example. I have to admit, I liked that D-Mod less then many others, but it does this aspect well. The main difference between SoB and End of the World is that in SoB, you had a story that you could actually follow. You are given information about where you are, and why are you there. Also, you have a main quest and a clear goal. Unfortunately, End of the World fails in this aspect. There are also some interesting concepts that could have been much more refreshing from the typical D-Mods, had they been executed well (ex.: a microscopic world with bacteria, a town inhabited by signs).

Mapping:
The put it bluntly: the mapping is ugly. The different tiles used don't seem like they belong together, or at a proper place. No, I'm not talking about bad tiling, I'm talking about bad aesthetics. You can see examples of this in the screenshots. This actually has a good explanation: Tim had no design sense. As in, he was incapable of good map design. Not because of the lack of talent, but because he was born with disabilities that prevented it. It's kind of like asking a blind man to draw a portrait. As such, I can't really blame him for not making good maps. In a more positive sense, there also doesn't seem to be many hardness errors in the D-Mod.

Gameplay:
In the terms of gameplay, there's not much variety. Your tasks are either combat, or just talking to NPCs, mostly for fetch quests. There are also technical issues. You can get a bag of pig feed that you have to give to one of the characters. But the catch is: if you try to use it, it'll kill you. While the game warns about this, upon delivery the item doesn't get removed from your inventory, which could cause you to accidentally use it later, and die from it. Many of the NPCs use Dink's yellow colour in their dialogue, which I'd call a bug or oversight. Also, many times NPC dialogue doesn't freeze Dink, and gets skipped if you accidentally press the space or shift key. At one point, you need to talk to a woman to get strong enough to defeat some pillbugs. There are two problems with this: 1) you never get any indication you have to do this, 2) the talking occurs in the middle of combat! Some of these annoyances may be minor, but they can still affect the enjoyment of the D-Mod. Also, the final boss is the author himself. He doesn't have a proper walk animation, and his attacks are easily avoided because he's slow. But he has 1000 HP! Your weapons are kind of useless here: the fire bow barely damages him, and the Hellfire spell, while damages him much more (about 20-30 HP), needs to be recharged, and it still doesn't help much. To be honest, I never beat him. I have given up because I found the battle boring and tedious.

Overall:
This D-Mod was a clear improvement compared to Tim's earlier D-Mods. Years later, grown up, he'd do his most famous achievement, the COTPAD series of writings. He also developed some high quality D-Mods, far better then these childhood attempts. Would I recommend this D-Mod? No. You have far more better options for your time then this, including stuff from Tim himself. Play Malachi the Jerk, or Dinkgon Warrior. Hell, read Tim's writeup about his own D-Mods. You'll likely have a fun time.

Dink dreams, wakes up and is in another world in which he talks to a duck and then has to fight various pillbugs and bonca before meeting Milder.

The DMOD has lots of bugs, hardness errors and ugly map design.

Graphics: new tiles and that’s about it.

Map: Hardness errors, limited decoration, mismatched tiles

Sounds: nothing new

Midis: one that kept playing and was really annoying. X-files theme appeared to help counterpoint the level of polish this DMOD doesn’t have.

Game play: frustrating in that it starts out way too hard with lots of pillbugs and not enough stats to fight them. Bugs with the bombs, couldn’t use them. Milder says he can only raise your stats once, be he does it all the time. Shame he didn’t appear before the pillbugs.

Overall 3 out of 10. Don’t bother.

While taking a nap, Dink suddenly finds himself in a strange world. In order to find his way home, he has to fulfil some tasks.

Storyline: It is clear that Dink has to find his way home, but it is not that clear what to do. Luckily, the different parts of the game are rather small in mapsize, so you can easily check everything.

Map and graphics: The screens mostly do not have any borders, but once you are used to the fact that the difference in background is indeed the border, it is not that annoying anymore. There are some new graphics.

Music: The music is good.

Good: Once you are used to certain things, they are actually quite good, since they are new and different. Such as all kind of objects, like savebots and walls, that will hurt you. But before you have learned those things, you have died several times and that is annoying. A small hint or tip about this would have been useful. The interaction with the signs is real good.

Not so good: More savebots would have been nice, sine you die a lot before you learn to be careful when touching something. There are too many enemies in the beginning. Since there are rather large borders (different background) on a screen you do not have the space you are used to when fighting. So often when you dodge or want to walk a bit further, you are stuck on this border and suffer damage. There are several screens after one and other with enemies on it and since you can not heal, you die a lot. A lot of tiles do not blend; especially the cave looks like it was done in a rush. There are several bugs; I was teleported to a wrong screen and had to start over, and I could not use the bomb the first time, so I had to start all over again. With the D-mod came some other files (in the main folder) such as saved games and a script.

Overall: A D-mod with good potential.

Fit for: If you want to play a different kind of D-mod.

Dink goes to sleep and wakes up in another world or still asleep in a dream world, anyway, not much to this DMOD. I found multi bugs and hardness errors. You can buy bombs but can't use them. everything seems to be an enemy; walls, fountains, savebots, etc. The only part of the game I found enjoyable was the X-files music.

I really liked this weird d-mod.
well i have always liked Tims[coconut monkey] d-mods but this one was something extra.The story was weird but i liked it.The only bad about this d-mod is all the bugs it has pretty much bugs in it like when u need the keys to open the gates and if u dont have any keys the game kicks u back to windows again.
overall:A fun little d-mod with some bugs in.If u like Coconuts d-mods then u will enjoy this to.