2012 In Review 020 - Alice Falls Asleep

[Gizmog]

Pre-Thoughts:
Hey, I think this is the first review I've done this year of something I did! Did I do anything else last year? I don't know! I feel kind of weird going back to this, because it was the random collab contest and Sephy and I's original plan was, if I recall, more of a Dance-Dance-Revolution while being chased kind of thing, in hindsight perhaps vaguely reminscent of Clinger-Winger from Battletoads. I kinda put my foot in my mouth by suggesting that I, "The plotscripter" should do the art while Sephy "the artist" should do the plotscripting, not having remembered, or worse not even played a few of Sephy's games that showed he was waaaaaaaaay better at plotscripting than I will ever be. Played one recently that really made me feel like a boob. If you're reading this Sephy, sorry, I'm an idiot. So, either way, the deadline of the contest came and we were screwed, so somehow between the two of us we worked out a secondary concept, this one, that we could complete in 48 hours. The Alice in Wonderland theme was actually a carry-over from my original partner for the contest: There was some kind of goofiness where Spoonweaver had figured up the partners wrong nad as a result we all got shuffled around and I was lucky to draw Sephy the second time. I think the Alice theme came up from some goofy trip-hop music video featuring clips from the Disney movie that had been being linked around at the time, and I think I was the one who brought her to the table. Not sure.

During-Thoughts:

I'm not sure if this game is actually beatable or if we were trolling... did the best I could.

Post-Thoughts:

Weird how you make a game and you have no idea how the hell it ended up the way it did. I don't even remember exactly how the labor was divided, though I'm pretty sure I drew the sprite of Alice with her head down, and possibly the sprite of Alice walking right at the bottom of the screen. Pretty sure Sephy plotscripted the whole thing and drew the various icons you try to pick up while he was at it. I remember a debate about whether or not the lectures should actually match the topic or give you hints as to what was going on, and I definitely remember us agreeing that the answers to the questions should be somewhat smartassical instead of actual answers. I've seen a lot of people outraged by that, so I consider that mission a success.

I absolutely love the sound of this game. The weird kind of semi-music, semi-sound effect thing going on is awesome, and the way it picks up the tempo in later levels really helps make this thing what it is. That was all Sephy, who knew he was good at music too? (Answer: Anyone who looked up his stuff on CastleParadox's songlist. Still an idiot here, people!) I don't think I've ever been able to beat Level 10, though I came within 13 points this time. I hope to God there's not an Eleven and Twelve after it, but I won't ever find out. We probably should've called it quits at 9 or so, but I think we wanted to troll a little.

Long story short, I don't consider this one of my best efforts in terms of results, though the fact that we did muscle down and release something, albeit a little late, is something I'm very proud of. Had it been a 48 Hours contest, we would've cleaned up. As it is, basically all the good parts are RMSephy. I'd suggest it for the music, don't kill yourself trying to win because it's probably more luck than skill, just take a look at a semi-cool thing two dudes did and lament how much better it could've been if the two of us had really tried or communicated better. I wish I could say I learned a lesson from it, but the same thing happened again with me and Ichiro in the Random Collab contest after this one. I have no idea how to talk to dudes in a professional context and possibly never will. Next time we have a Collab slime Joke contest though, I'm your man.