This game looks sweet! Looks a bit like a mixture between Cave Story (here we go) and Game With A Kitty. Downloading it now to see if it plays like either of those.

Thanks for the mention Tim :)

Looks fantastic and is fun+funny so far, BUT.. hellishly slow with or without snow.

I'm using XP/p4 2.6ghz/geforce4ti; fullscreen doesn't seem to work (black screen then back to windowed mode).

While I'm reporting problems, this site has the same issue now that GameSetWatch has for me, which is that checking "Remember personal info" seems to have no effect (it's never remembered and the box is always unchecked)..?

Awesome work Ben. So far my fave CS clone ^^

Boss battles look screwed up for me. Only the tiles near the character and the boss show up. Also when I was killed by bandit king and reloaded, he just stood up there without any chance for me to get to him. He also had the same amount of health he had when I died, not the full bar. Had to quit the game and load again.

Ah, "villian". A classic error if I've ever seen one.

Found another bug. Got into the lab (before freeing the guy in a cage), got to a health booster, took it, then I died and reloaded (outside the lab, I didn't save in the lab expecting me to screw up because I got there earlier than I was supposed to). When I got to the place with the booster, it wasn't there.

how the hell do I get passed the part in the first level where I have to get across the bridge with a 3 second timer?

Troy: I don't know which bridge you are talking about, but you can jump farther that you think. There is a bridge before the house of the bandit king, with 3 blocks. You only need one of them, the one in the middle.

Another bug I found: when you respawn in the part where you have to blast your way through red and white blocks with spikes underneath you can see one of the enemies walk through the blue barrier.

Aaaaand yet another thing. Shorty's HP bar doesn't dissapear from the screen when you kill him.

Ooookay, Velthie's HP also stayed on the screen, and the switch on that screen isn't working...
Another thing - for those two boss fights the game authomatically switched the weapon to the rocket launcher, that was kinda annoying.

Looks like it only switches the weapon to glacier launcher if you had shard launcher selected...

Okay, I found no way to disable that laser, so I had to take the damage. The ending is very fitting, albeit terminally short.

One final note - all bosses are extremely easy. All guns have a limit on the number of bullets on screen (as opposed to reload time), so if you stick, say, shard launcher right into boss's face and pull the trigger - he will die in no time. Velthie's tad harder, but I've got the right side of the screen and kept jumping while shooting Ice Gun, so after a couple of minutes he died.

The last comment's mine.
Another two things I found.
When yuo switch the sound off and then on again, the music doesn't start unless you move somewhere where music is supposed to change. Also I didn't find a way to exit the credits. When I pressed Ctrl+R to go back to title screen, the music from credist kept playing.

BTW, what are the items for?

Anyway, apart from what I and raigan mentioned I really liked the game.
Yeah, where are all those 'Cave Story ripoff' trolls, by the way?

@Troy: Wait until the timer has very nearly run out, and then jump across at the last second. The blocks will disappear just before you reach them and you can continue on :) Hope that helps!

Thanks for reporting the bugs x_x, I'll get Ben to sort them out ASAP :)

You think I'm done with this game, don't you? Well, I looked through script.txt, and found a couple more bugs!
"Now you can a big shard that shatters!" (didn't see that one in the game since I upgraded the shard launcher with a powerup).
Also Veldthie's name has a typo in the health bar (Velthie).
Also there's a line that shouldn't be there in [Potty Caves 3] (#14)

Awww :( no love for Vista?

Well this game seemed to work fine on my laptop that has Windows XP SP2, it for some reason refuses to pass the main screen (choose New or Load) with a program crash in Windows Vista though -
crashes with a Multimedia Fusion Stand Alone Application stopped working popup window.

Here is the Event Error log:
Faulting application stdrt.exe, version 3.0.248.0, time stamp 0x47776e25, faulting module ntdll.dll, version 6.0.6000.16386, time stamp 0x4549bdf8, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x0002b28a, process id 0x1130, application start time 0x01c84e6ef735dad0.

No Vista support = epic fail.

I don't care if the system is popular or a failure all by itself. Many people (including me) are using it anyway (and don't have problems with it. =)

P.S. Yes, I know that it isn't your fault, SilverNova... It's a problem with Multimedia Fusion but well...

Now that is strange. I run a Vista 64 bit, Quad Core machine, and haven't had any problems like that!

We'll look into it best we can though. Thanks

Thanks everyone, especially x_x XD. I'll get right on to as much as I can... Though I can't think of why a couple of things happen, namely:

- Only the tiles near the player or boss show up
- The non reappearing health booster

Oh and the items, I never got the time to implement anything for them unfortunately :(.

Thanks a lot x_x, if you get in contact with me it'd be good to have you as a tester for some future projects, you seem to be rather good ^_^.

And thanks to everyone else who reported bugs, and sorry about the slowdown working on that too...

Oh and yes, IT IS AN EPIC CAVESTORY AND UNDERSIDE RIP OFF

Have you noticed how Gramps looks like Elder from A Game with a kitty? They even treat the hero in a similar way.
You can say it is a AGWAK rip off too. :).

I hope the full screen thingy will be repaired.

This needs comment editing, I really didn't want to do a triple comment... Anyway new version uploaded with all fixes and maybe even vista working :S

No, this is a new game right? And not a mod like Cave Story?

Ben: still very slow on my computer (1.6 Celeron, 768 ram), with or without snow - does not matter.

found a bug,
could run along the top of the screen, then fell into the void

Seems to work now in Vista.

Nice little game. The switch/jump puzzle are getting old quick, but still it's fun to play.

Yeah, I also encountered the same bug chris mentioned, I forgot about that... It's somewhere close the beginning, where you can get close to the top of the screen, there are those worms/slugs/whatevertheyare. It's a dead end there, so I decided to jump to see what would happen.

I concur: the game works on Vista now. It launched correctly before but crashed right after trying to start a new game.

Thanks for fixing this issue, guys!

P.S. It does look a bit like Cave Story, doesn't it? Are game designers everywhere making games to look like CS intentionally to generate controversy and poke fun at all the trolls that are bound to appear and start a flame war? =)

Wonderful work on solving the bugs mentioned so far - haven't gotten too far to find more if there are any. The latest release btw fixes my Vista issue as well with the main menu screen crash (Selecting a new game would crash). Good work, and really funny enjoyable game so far.

Not even going to touch the whole CS look - part of it's whimsy charm in my opinion.

I think it's more taking the piss out of Underside, since this is a more complete and fun game to play through.

I think it's more taking the piss out of Underside, since this is a more complete and fun game to play through.

Well, I'd have to see the FINAL version of The Underside before passing a judgement like this.

This big-head-with-tiny-body and possibly-a-gun-in-the-hand style starts driving me crazy...

I think it's not a problem with ripping anything off - it's just that EVERYBODY is jumping on the same bandwagon...

It's like with lens-flares back in the times when 3dfx was still around...

I mean, for God's sake, isn't there another way to draw pixel-graphics characters? Look at all the games of the past which really ARE old and don't just emulate retro-graphics. They were FAR more diversified in their styles...

Back then graphic artists struggled to make each game look unique, which was hard given the hardware limitations and here we are now, like 20 years later, with virtually no limitations when it comes to pixel graphics and suddenly all games start to look alike?

I mean, c'mon...

I'm not mad at any game in particular, I'm just mad at the overall trend...

I don't think there is anything wrong with showing your CS influences on your sleeve. These guys are generally making these games as a hobby so I don't see the problem. Really, it's the biggest compliment that CS could be paid and it's the mark of a highly influential game.

Be thankful that at least some of these actually play rather nicely as opposed to the 100s upon 100s of absolute cruddy Super Mario clones.

Looks very fun. Unfortunately, it's unplayably slow on my Sempron 2600 machine (1x window size, snow off).

:(

I don't think there is anything wrong with showing your CS influences on your sleeve. These guys are generally making these games as a hobby so I don't see the problem. Really, it's the biggest compliment that CS could be paid and it's the mark of a highly influential game.

I'm not talking about showing influences. I don't care if the style being emulated is found in Cave Story or in Pink Hopping Rabit (not an actual game ;-) - I'm saying that the trend as a whole annoys me.

It's just like the trend to make WWII-themed games (mostly shooters) in mainstream gaming.

I mean - people were annoyed by the similarity of The Underside to CS but now even games with COMPLETELY different gameplay mechanics are jumping on the bandwagon... Look at the main character from Fez... I could name several other games where "big headed characters with a certain silhouette" are used.

It's not a question of originality since all the game and character designs ARE original so obviously the graphic artists could have drawn a character that doesn't follow this shape...

Okay, I believe I discovered a bug in the new release. When you confront Shorty for what I believe is the final time ( Dhitotie) after he talks the battle never begins. He doesn't do anything where as you can shoot and jump around, but nothing happens - he is just standing there and the black things just go back and forth on the walls and floor without causing you damage. Other than that the game seems to be working just fine... just can't get past Shorty - shoot him until my fingers are numb - but nothing happens.

Argh - I made a boo-boo. It should read "Pink Hopping Rabbit".

Well since I'm already at it - how are Cave Story tributes better than Super Mario Clones? Because they are executed well and are only homages to the original instead of clones?

There are good Super Mario Clones too and they annoy me as well! Because I don't WANT more of the same - even as a tribute. I want something FRESH and original. That's why I have taken up indie gaming in the first place.

Now I can choose between the gazillionth WWII shooter in mainstream gaming or the gazillionth CS look-alike (albeit with more or less different gameplay mechanics)...

Again - nothing against EverEternal WinterWorld - I enjoyed the game because it's well-made. However, I'd have enjoyed it much MORE if I had seen a more personal style instead of this generic one...

i'm not one to be calling ripoff on anyone else, but that main character's sprite, like the main character's sprite in fez, is essentially the same as the main character in the underside, and before your eyes roll out of their sockets and saying "YOU MEAN CAVE STORY HEH HEH" you should probably first take a look at the character sprite in cave story. i'm not even gonna get into things like the french fries.

Indie games will always be a breeding ground for 'more of the same'.. that's just the way it is because you get an awful lot of devs that are just out to make something fun, not something especially original and ofcourse you also get a lot of the opposite. Personally I think everyone wins.

Regarding your questions about CS VS Mario clones, I would actually say yes and yes to both. Super Mario is drowned in absolute rubbish clones.. so much so that even if a good one comes along it would be hard to spot within the crowd and quite frankly with as many as there are, I would find it hard to believe that anyone wouldn't be turned off them.. but that's just me.

We haven't been drowned in CS clones.. at least not yet anyways and yes, the general standard that the homages go for does seem to be higher.

It just appears to me a little odd that these games get singled out more than most.. and as for the devs that make them aiming for exposure and controversy.. I find that to be a very strange argument to make.. it's a hobby that gets very little exposure as it is.. it only becomes controversial when someone decides to complain.

It's a joke guys... I didn't seriously expect anyone to not think it was a rip off. But I'll just chime in and say that the reason I wanted to do it in this game, is because that style of character is VERY EASY to draw and animate :D. The fries as HP points was something to show I wasn't trying to hide I was stealing XD.

The reason CS ripoffs are singled out is because it's an indie game and not a very old one. Meaning to most that it's not something everyone should copy from like Mario (well you know what I mean not should, but can)

Also TM I've fixed that bug very recently, try to re-download.

but i'm not saying it's a "cavestory ripoff", i'm saying your main character's animations are almost pixel for pixel the same as they are in the underside? fffffff

but to be constructive, the reason the game runs so slowly, ben, is because you have all of your game running in a layer that's not your first layer (the bottom-most layer). multimedia fusion 2 is funny in that doing that will make the game really really laggy -- that's the only reason parallax skies aren't externalized in the underside.

I finally figured it out. Apparently there's a run button nobody told me about.

And now I'm at a part that's impossible for my computer. I have to run and jump (My keyboard can't even do that) and then fire a rocket down. Oh well, fun while it lasted.

This is better than the Underside, welldone, Silvernova! :)

How do you pass this part? It's too high to jump and no weapon seems to affect the switch.

I think you'll find TU is copying Ever Eternal's health-boost system too, by using fast food!
heheh

How do you pass the part where you're on a ledge and there's a switch on another ledge that you can't jump up to (and there's a red arrow block with a crate on it even higher up)?

Thanks pod, and yeah I did look at Ip's animations XD.

I'll be sure to use background system boxes for parallax from now on, the old fashioned way. (can't they load images at runtime? man that sucks if they can't)

I'm not going to deny I copied loads from quite a few games, but that's all part of the fun. And since there was no Originality category in the competition I though this would be an interesting idea hehe. Release TU's editor!!!!!

@GameCreator:

Stand on the ledge, and just before it disappears again - jump towards the other blocks that act as a wall.

Timed right, you should make it through there just as the blocks you're about to knock in to, disappear - when the timer runs out :)

Hope that helps!

*GROOOOAN* is there no end to this cave story rip off garbage!!!!!!

Why does Pod keep doing that ffff thing. Is his keyboard broke?

LOL he tried something original and it comes off as crap.

Tim, thanks, but I'm not at any ledges that disappear. This is just after a jump across a wide row of spikes (there's a courtesy save point just before it). I have a screenshot uploaded but I tried to put in the link earlier and my post was screened and apparently unaccepted.

Let's try just pasting it in:
http://images.filecloud.com/656983/EEWW.gif

Let's try just pasting it in:
htt
p://images.filecloud.c
om/656983/EEWW.gif

Dude, just rocketjump there.

Oh that area! ^_^ You could only have got where you are by rocket-jumping over those spikes beforehand?!

Simply jump and hold down, and fire, when you have the glacier cannon equipped. You'll need to use this technique a lot! ;)

Is there a trick for rocket-jumping? I simply don't get it right. Whenever I try to reach the button to free the doctor I just don't get a bit higher than before although I'm using the glacier cannon. Is the function maybe broken?

Aaahh. I get it. It's a game issue. I'm at the spot where I am WITHOUT the glacier gun. And I can't go back. Fun game anyway. Thanks for the help.

Yeah, right! Like I said, I went into the lab before I freed the guy, so I didn't have the glacier launcher. I knew I was doing something wrong, so I didn't save there, so after I died I started outside the lab and went and picked up the glacier launcher. But it is entirely possible to get to where GameCreator is now without it. It kinda makes sense to lock the door to the lab until the guy in the cage opens it for you...

I made the same mistake, thinking that I would be able to go back through the door. Now I can't do jack. Great game nonetheless.

"Is there a trick for rocket-jumping? I simply don't get it right. Whenever I try to reach the button to free the doctor I just don't get a bit higher than before although I'm using the glacier cannon. Is the function maybe broken?"
Please, I need help. I can't leave this great game unfinished. :D