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(+ I added a Horsebag section to the beginning)

Since this game was basically one big reference parade (and writing about actual game design and progress stuff is much harder) I wanted to do a big post like this. Here's a bunch of those references and details showcased. They range from loose inspirations to very, very direct copying. (edit: At first I decided to leave random Idle Thumbs memes out of this list, but the Horsebag has a relevant game connection, weird backstory and mechanics with unexplored potential) Ah, the Nintendo’s Patented Horseback Riding Wii Controller aka Horsebag. Original idea was that it would be a more direct Mega Man's Rush equivalent (it still has the Rush colors and it does help you jump higher) until I decided it made more sense and was more fun if you could goofily ride around with it and bounce on things (like in Zelda 2 and Ducktales!). The behaviour of a loose Horsebag is not really explored in the gameplay/design, but it's something quite fun to play around with: Loose Horsebag acts as a bullet damaging enemies and has basic physics so it is affected by the wind currents and bounces off walls. It also bounces away when colliding with the player or player bullets, so you can do some cool trick shots. Spooky head flying in a sine wave pattern and a dragon head turret shooting fireballs are both very Castlevania. Those flame hands loosely resemble SMB3's Dark Land Hand Traps. They can't grab the player but they can catch a loose Horsebag causing them to withdraw. This is one of my favorite scenes in the game. Mr. Computer Products is the company behind Dot Gobbler. The Wizard appearing on a TV mimics how Shredder appears in TMNT2's second level. The statue silhouette is from the old Idle Thumbs Puffin, Wizard, Far Cry 2 guy image. I recently uploaded my pre Wizard Jam Idle Thumbs themed game Big Dog Run from 2014 to itch. I actually reused (after slight editing) some graphics from it here (police car, big dog (appearing later in the game), statue in the computer shop window). I didn't remember/have time to put the police car siren sounds in, which is pretty silly as the classic sound of sirens was the main reason I wanted those cars in the game in the first place. This is more of a general inspiration: Little Nemo The Dream Master (stage 6, The Cloud Ruins pictured here). Overall note to make here is how the clouds are the only moving part in the backgrounds, there is no parallax scrolling in the levels. Parallax scrolling can be super cool looking but I feel that heavy use of it can also break the familiar nes style look I was going for, so I pretty arbitrarily decided no parallaxing (...anyhow here's a cool showcase of nes games that did have plenty of that sweet scrolling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltuRuGM271Q ) The classic titlescreen building from Mega Man 2. Also the background has strong Cave Story vibes. Elevator screen from Metroid. This is super simple and probably the most direct recreation of a scene. This is all very SMB1 castle, you can even jump out of view/on top of the ceiling for a safe shortcut. The homing drone shooter resembles Spelunky's infamous arrow traps. You can confuse the trap by sending your Horsebag in to the trap's sight line so the drone will go towards the bag, leaving you alone. SMB1 castle ending where Bowser and Toad have been replaced by Boston Dynamics' Petman and a Dr Light lookalikes. I had an idea for a joke where the Petman would give a thumbs up Terminator 2 style when sinking in to the lava... until I realized Petman has no hands at all. Angry Moon, the not so distant relative of Angry Sun from SMB3's desert world. It was important to get the sun's movement pattern (swoop down, switch sides) implemented pretty closely. The moon only starts chasing the player when a vase is broken, so it is possible to run through the level in peace if you leave the pottery alone. This cave door is not a direct reference to anything but I love these kinds of slightly ominous entrances in old games. This is more of loose inspiration that I only noticed in retrospect. Gotta have those classic greek pillars. This whole tomb section is a fun and sneaky Pacman Dot Gobbler reference: A maze where you can destroy otherwise invincible ghosts with a power up. The barrier blocking the way to Dot Gobbler fight is inspired by the barrier in the Great Palace in Zelda 2. Yellow Devil fight from Mega Man 1. In a way, this scene was the whole reason for making this game. A couple of years ago, when I was randomly thinking about wizard jam stuff I got way too excited when I noticed how similiar the Yellow Devil and Dot Gobbler were. So when the final Wizard Jam came around, I had no choice but to actually execute this one very, very specific and obscure joke. Puffin version of the SMB2's strange bird door. The whole Wizard section is heavily Zelda 2 themed. It starts with the 'Return of Ganon/Gaynor laugh' and ends in a drop shadowed hero falling down. The Wizard boss is a general homage to all the big, screen filling final bosses, but Dream Master's influence shows here again (I noticed this only later but even the two different attacks (spectral blades & magic missile of course) are quite similiar to that game's final boss attacks. Here's all the screens that appear in the ending fall, showing a moment from every Wizard Jam game I made. It's just a quick slideshow but seeing that for the first time in context felt really special and wistful. Here's an unused enemy (yet another Zelda 2 reference). Also there's all the collectibles in one place. The mix of fruits and treasures is mainly inspired by Super Frog's selection (shout out to Bubble Bobble and James Pond 2 for having amazing and wild item sets also). And finally a bit about sound effects. My WJ1 game, Introduction to Video Games has no audio, but I actually made and prepared all of the needed sound effects after that jam had ended, I just never got around to implementing them in the game... Now, 5 years later I had a perfect opportunity to use those unused 8-bit sounds here. Thank you for reading, playing and jamming.

I just finished the complete version now a week later https://atteo.itch.io/farewellvideo games Thank you for playing the jam deadline version, please check this out too as it has a lot of new stuff. There's so much stuff and I'm not the most professional/careful coder/designer so there might be a crash or two hiding in there, or maybe, hopefully everything's fine.

First version here https://atteo.itch.io/farewellvideo games I have a lot more already done but this is what I could slap together for the deadline. There is a lot of fun stuff already so check it out. The idea for the whole game was/is of course hilariously over ambitious but I just couldn't resist, it was the final Wizard Jam after all.

Development has been going pretty well, don't know how long the jam deadline version will be but at least the showcase weekend version should have all the areas/enemies/hot memes I've been planning. Here's some random gifs. Because of the loose theme of magic and evil wizardry this looks like some kind of dishonored halloween game now. Updating the player graphics took some time, the black outlines tricked me making the character too thin. Eventually I just had to bravely embrace the thickness. And here's a fun effect I came up for the title screen.

Yep, the new version works fine. The mood and style is a very delicious mix of sincerity with a hint of strangeness. Two small additions that came to mind while playing. W and D for aiming also. View moving, so you could admire the course ahead even after the start.

Windows 10 Home 1903

Skull rodeo! So much stuff I want to add it's a bit overwhelming but the good thing is I can add/remove stuff pretty freely in this project because there is no strictly fixed level/area progression and the player abilites stay always the same.

Hmmm, clicking 'Let's Play Golf' is not doing anything (other than playing the fantastic professional announcer voices) for me.

Thanks everyone! I clearly remember seeing you in my WJ1 devlog, makes me feel strangely nostalgic I now have a clear(ish) plan of the whole thing I'd like to put together. Let's see how well I'm able to execute this stuff then. Here's an overview of all the areas. ...Yes those are pretty on the nose Mega Man and Mario references

Some early art stuff. Beginning of the game's first area (there's probably just two themes, city and then some temple/ruins later). And a collection of the evil wizard's various minions.

This looks and sounds very interesting For gif recording I've used these https://www.screentogif.com/ http://blog.bahraniapps.com/gifcam/#download

Very good! First time trying I got stuck in a way that felt like a bug/some weird edge case: But trying again later I had a good experience filled with enjoying the intriguing visuals and slowly but steadily making progress. Some random notes:

https://atteo.itch.io/farewellvideo games ---------------- I started with fake NES games and Thumbs memes in Introduction to Video Games, and now 9 jams later I'll celebrate once more those precious things (this will be a one multi level game, not a mini game collection). I started this a couple of days before the official start, putting the basic stuff in place. Even though the idea was to make a really simple and traditional action platformer, I pretty quickly veered off and ended up making this somewhat peculiar power up/collectible system: You can use the items as projectiles or try to collect three of the same for a health(fruits) or invincibility(treasure) boost. Aaand there's a Horse Bag for bouncing on enemies/ double jumping/ floating on water!

Thanks! In retrospect I could have done much more with the different movement abilities. There could have been pretty interesting platforming sections combining bomb jumps, steam hover and auto-movement. About the puffin room: Nick played through this yesterday, besides the accidental resets (I had forgotten the 'R' to restart that I used while testing was even there) it was super fun to watch and see Nick's and the chat's reactions. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/462074713?t=00h31m15s