This page documents my foray into the realm of game programming. Most of it is fairly old by now: An Atari ST monochrome Dungeon Crawler from 1993, and a Visual Novel from 2006. Others are in progress and will be added here when completed. As of 2025, work is still progressing on my latest project.
Completed Games
GO! Magical Boy
GO! Magical Boy (G!MB) was a Visual Novel released on 29 March 2006 using the cross-platform Ren'Py engine, which is based on the Python programming language. This story with a playtime of an hour was a proof-of-concept to demonstrate dynamic changes in a game soundtrack. The music consists of many snippets that are queued in near-realtime depending on the mood of the scene, resulting in one seamless background track (here is a three-and-a-half minute example of the soundtrack). The game was featured in the "Free games" section of Finnish computer magazine Mikrobitti in August 2006 and distributed to magazine subscribers on the magazine's yearly DVD in December 2006.
Screenshots
Synopsis
Life would be pretty nice if it wasn't for the fact that you seem to be the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time. You just moved, have made no friends yet, are late for dinner, and about to bump into the scariest situation you could have imagined. On top of that, a strange woman picks you up and burdens you with an impossible task. And boy, now you're really late for dinner. Did I mention the girls? No? Well, there's even more trouble ahead.
Resources
- The lastest release 006 was published on 28 Oct 2008. It included unobfuscated game sources (script, images, sounds, soundtrack) so you can have a look behind the scenes. The license is a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5. Download the latest version for Windows (10 MB), Mac (14 MB), Linux (10 MB). The Windows version is also mirrored at download.com.
- Release 005 (26 Oct 2006) is still available here and as a Czech language release (translation by denzil).
- Release 004 (02 April 2006) can still be found via the Go! Magical Boy Permalink at the Ren'Ai Archives.
- The GO! Magical Boy discussion thread for questions, support, and news. Feel free to post feedback, I'd be very happy to hear your opinions!
- The soundtrack is downloadable from www.mikseri.net/magnify.
QueST
QueST is a Shareware game developed on, and released for, the Atari ST computer in 1993. To my knowledge, this is the only existing dungeon crawler for the Atari ST's monochrome mode. For programming, I used the powerful GFA Basic 2.0 with compiler. Map editors, graphics editors, and music composition application I developed myself. Music and sounds play without interruption even when the game draws the screens and accesses the floppy disk. Back in the days, the game got distributed on diskettes by several Shareware/Public domain distributors.
Screenshots
Synopsis
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away lived an utterly untalented magician called Blorz. Utterly untalented magicians always seem to tend towards becoming inhabitants of deep, gloomy and dangerous dungeons. Blorz stole His Majesty's Sceptre, defying the king to send his best warrior to get it back. The warriors' guild took the wise decision not to waste any of its members. Bad luck: This means that YOU are sent on The Quest For His Majesty's Sceptre.
Resources
- The lastest release (16 May 1995) can be downloaded here (72 kB ZIP file). It requires an Atari ST with 1 MB RAM and a monochrome monitor. I hereby release the game into the public domain. Note that QueST will ask for an access code further into the game; please contact me and I will provide one free of charge.
- QueST also runs on emulators. I tested the game on Hatari. Most likely, other emulators will work as well.
Games in progress
Cyberlin
Cyberlin evolved from a short science-fiction/cyberpunk story I wrote around 1988. Originally, I wanted to release it as a text-only adventure using Inform/Z-machine code. I however quickly realized that the rather screenplay-ish dialogues called for a Visual Novel format and therefore switched to the cross-platform Ren'Py engine. As of 2019, the script is mostly complete (50.000 words). Work is progressing slowly due to daytime work and family.
Concept art/screenshots
