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Message: 4153
Author: andrewbroad
Date: 01/05/2004
Subject: Andrew's beta-review of Role Reversal
[Re: Files > Arcane design > JSW - RR beta.zip]
Let's get the linguistic points out of the way first:
* Readme.txt: Jopn Eliott -> John Elliott
* The room-titles are inconsistent in their use of capitals - some
nouns are capitalised, others not so. For a given game, you should
decide the rules by which words should be capitalised in room-
titles, and stick to these rules.
Okay, onto the rooms:
`@' denotes rooms which are, IMO, exceptionally good.
[0] "Back door": That's the first time I've seen a non-swinging rope
outside of my own games! :-) Of course I'm way behind in playing
others' games to completion, something I /do/ plan to rectify...
@[1] "Burial site": Excellent use of colour-attributes, and
apparently two static-nasty types! The green ones must in fact be
guardians - otherwise it would be necessary to sacrifice a life
after collecting the item. Navigating the conveyor with two HGs is
deceptively difficult! The design-style reminds me somewhat of Adam
Britton's.
[2] "The Jobcenter" (Jobcentre - "center" is an Americanism). What's
with the black hole at the top? Why not instead make the player have
to jump up against the wall to get past the green letter?
[3] "The Roof garden": Simply beautiful.
@[5] "Forgotten realm": Those blinking platforms - reminiscent of
Booty - create a frustrating and non-snapshot-sympathetic challenge!
But frustrating rooms give me the sweetest feeling when I finally
crack them. :-)
[6] "Trashed!": The red and green switches to stop and start the
rope are a cool idea, and made me think before I saw how to collect
the item without sacrificing a life!
[9] "Septic tanks": An attractive room, with deceptively frustrating
guardian-interaction! Is the jerky bird supposed to be sick? I like
the Promised-Land niche at the bottom-left (even though it's only
two hops away, so not much of a Promised Land). I would definitely
make the player /have/ to jump through the ILB!
[10] "Air patrol": A cross between "Wacky Amoebatrons" from Manic
Miner, and "Under the mansion"/"Outskirts of town" in _Join the Jet-
Set!_. The zigzagging bird was quite a shock!
[11] "Back staircase": Another Adam-Brittonesque room. If you jump
through the overhead wall-block at the very top-left, you can walk
through the left wall in "Top of stairs" - unintended? I
deliberately exploited this very move in We Pretty! :-)
[12] "West Bedroom": An attractive "ladders and levels" room, with
references to the original "Master Bedroom", and reminiscent of "The
Egg dealer" in JSW III.
[13] "The local ruins": A strange and disorientating screen-layout,
and a questionable colour-scheme. I'm not sure what to make of this
room. Is the switch really supposed to kill you? The non-colour-
cycling items are unfair - I had to make my way back here at the end
of the game when ItemsJSW informed me that there were three
uncollected in this room.
[14] "The Workshop": A nice `Vatish' room with a _Monty On The Run_
atmosphere - escaping without sacrificing life is a nice extra
challenge! :-) Worthy of a more exciting room-title.
@[15] "random Gun Shop": A truly splendid room, complete with switch
to toggle conveyor-direction. The jumps required to pass the two
rolling boxes are unorthodox and fun, as is the way you can jump out
of the shop on the right! The dog-sprite is quite cute, too - may I
use it in my own games?
[16] "Skyla\B"landing\"": A delicious quirky feature for collecting
the rightmore item! :-)
[17] "Waste disposal": Taking the player on a conveyor-trip is a
technique much underused in JSW games.
[18] "Storage room": A good example of a Promised Land. I wish there
were more in this game, and indeed in almost all non-Broadsoft JSW
games.
[19] "Deep Freeze": Hail to the sticky conveyors. That green
wraparound VG is tough! Quite an atmospheric room, too.
@[22] "A secret stash": A nice hidden room - the way to access it is
the kind of loophole JSW-authors often leave in their games
unintended, so I was pleased to see it lead here! The conveyor-
animated rubber stamp (a switch) is a masterstroke.
@[23] "The Library": A beautiful atmospheric room, with excellent
use of colour and of multi-coloured guardian-sprites. Reminiscent
of "THE CELLS (AKA BEDROOMS!)" in Goodnite Luddite, and would not be
at all out of place in a Harry Potter game. I like the walking
candles, and the lovely underused manoeuvre of stopping on a
conveyor in order to jump straight up.
[24] "The Balcony": A nice exploitation of Erix1 Mode. I like the
switch to change the conveyor-direction, and the psychotic
horizontal chef that smiles in one direction and turns murderous in
the other! Not sure I like the one-way entrance though.
[25] "A Polluted lake": Always cool to see horizontal lifts in a JSW
game! When are we going to see vertical lifts à la JSW II?
The "poisonous pansies" from Manic Miner would have to be my all-
time favourite static-nasty graphic - I use it quite often in my own
games. The black bird with a white `undersparkle' looks somewhat
unattractive though.
[26] "Laundry/Landing": Which way eh? Another Adam-Brittonesque room.
[27] "Master Bedroom": Interesting for me to see this room after
writing "bedroom role reversal games" for Party Willy! :-) Wish
Willy would animate like Maria in the original JSW.
[28] "Top Landing": I like having a Promised Land right at the start
of the game! I did likewise in Goodnite Luddite; Sabre Wulf was the
first example for me.
[31] "Toxic leakage": Reminiscent of "The TROUBLE with TRIBBLES
is..." from JSW II - slower, but just as tough in its own way
(although it didn't take me six years before I got past it! ;-) ).
[32] "The Dining Room": One of the better crumbling-floor rooms in
this game, requiring a bit of timing and forward-thinking.
[34] "The Fridge": A good conveyor/guardians timing-challenge:
getting back is the harder part, so I would have made the player
have to exit and reenter the room (to get an item in a Promised
Land).
[35] "The Sand-pit": A unique crumbling-floors challenge.
[36] "The Hall": This room reminds me of _Bulgarian Requiem_.
[37] "The Front Door": Another room which, for me, gave an early
impression of a high branching-factor. I like the outdoor colour-
attributes, evocative of a city-skyline. I'm not particularly keen
on the way the upper HG closes in on you when reentering at the top-
left - when exploring an unfamiliar JSW game, I always like to poke
my head through all doors before deciding which exit to go with!
[38] "Toolshed": It's too tempting to kamikaze the rightmore item
with a long fall, so this should be blocked off either at the top,
or with crumbling floor at the bottom. You could even put a
crumbling-floor block at the item's coordinates! I do this often to
protect items in my MM games, so this is definitely the solution I'd
go for.
[40] "Crazy Kitchen": Who's been playing "Wiredlife" in _Ma jolie_
then? ;-)
[42] "The Back Garden": An attractive room, almost unique yet
reminiscent of _Jet Set Willy: The Lord of the Rings_. The
interaction between the white bird and the yellow box is very
frustrating!
[45] "A compost heap": A very atmospheric if not visually attractive
room, with some good technical touches too. Slightly reminiscent of
a couple of rooms from _Jet Set Dizzy_ ("Andrew Broad's Computer
Study" and "The Mountain"). I like it how the item is Maria's head,
the zig-zagging path of the green bird, and how the BORDER is blue
like the background-PAPER, enhancing the sense of a wide-open space.
Almost worthy of a `@' IMO.
[46] "Onto the Roof": A combination of crumbling floors, horizontal
lifts and a relentless vertical guardian, creates a challenge of
almost Broadsoft proportions! ;-) The way down to "the Zen room" is
a novel (at least to me) combination of crumbling floors and JSW-
exits.
[48] "West Lookout": The jump over the pit at the top reminds me of
Renegade III! I like the way you have to jump down through the floor-
blocks on the left (to paraphrase the Cowboy in Mulholland Drive:
you will do this one time if you do good; you'll do it two times if
you do bad).
[49] "Nightmare Room": A good crumbling-floors challenge; nothing
particularly nightmarish about it! ;-)
[50] "The Town sewer": Fond of sewers and _Monty On The Run_, aren't
you? ;-) The way you miss the item and cannot go back for it if you
exit Room 51 too far to the right, is frustrating and should be
eliminated. The way the ramp interacts with the crumbling floor is
most intriguing! Perhaps crumbling floor should make you sink like a
ramp does.
[51] "Down a manhole": Love the running-water effect!
@[52] ">House outlet>": A great combination of fast-crumbling
floors, switches and horizontal lifts. Damb, I wish I'd gone left
from "The Town sewer" when I had the chance!
[53] "The Crypt": A visually attractive room, but jumping back from
the water is an occasion of infinite death.
[54] "Eternal Unrest": A nice Buffy-the-Vampire-Slayeresque
atmosphere. The single animated conveyor-block looks unattractive,
though - is this a must in Erix1 Mode?
[55] "The mashup room": This is the first time I've seen a switch
used to freeze moving platforms! (Haven't got round to playing the
original MvSB seriously yet - sorry Vidar.) I wish you could flick
it back to make them move again though.
[56] "Temple of Doom": Another nice switch-effect (and an
atmospheric, visually attractive room to boot), and I like the way
you have to jump through an overhead wall-block to collect the item
behind the yellow nasty - even had /me/ fooled for a minute! ;-)
[57] "A busy road": Striking use of more colour-attributes than I
would have thought possible in a JSW game before I saw Erix1 Mode!
The wraparound HGs make it way too easy to cross from left to right
though - I don't suppose Erix1 Mode supports fast HGs à la Geoff
Mode?
[58] "Swimming pool": Reminds me of "Spooky Corridor" in _Jet Set
Dizzy_. The blocky yellow graphics look unattractive.
@[59] "Kamikazi Cavern" (Kamikaze): Clever use of crumbling floors,
especially if you are to escape with your life! I like the modified
Moonface sprite, too. Please may I do a Manic Miner conversion of
this room? I wouldn't be able to call it "Kamikaze" though! ;-)
[60] "The Shouts Room": I take it the blasphemous text-message is a
residue from _Maria vs. some bastards_? Should be edited or
eliminated. Innovative use of conveyor-blocks though.
[61] "Hopscotch Traps": First time for me to see this effect! (sorry
Vidar). Like sticky conveyors with induced jumping. Crossing the
bottom is bl**dy difficult! ;-)
Overall, Role Reversal is a very impressive game technically, and a
very attractive game visually. The Erix1-mode special effects make
up for the lack of quirky features, although there are a few quirky
features just crying out to be deliberately exploited or added (e.g.
Rooms 9, 11, 38).
The use of crumbling floors is rather mundane in many rooms, but
there are some great crumbling-floor challenges too. There are a few
Promised Lands, but if it were my game I'd try to get more Promised
Lands in, and of course more quirky features! :-)
I finished with 255 items. Role Reversal cannot be item-completed
because the 256th item is in Room 62, which is unreachable, and in
fact contains half of the item-table.
I tested the end-game sequence using POKE 34271,1 at runtime (this
sets Status 1, making Maria - or in this case Willy - disappear as
when the last item is collected). You run right in "Master
Bedroom"... and stop at the wall (I solved this in _ylliW teS teJ_
by having a cavity at the bottom-right of Master Bedroom, leading
back to The Bathroom).
So Role Reversal needs two fixes: one to make it item-completable,
and another to make it toilet-completable.
Erroneous coloured squares started to fill the screen from the
bottom-right when I had about 147 items. Wasn't this the bug that
was fixed in Revision E of _Maria vs. some bastards_?
--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/willy/
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