Since finishing my latest small project, I've been mulling over the possibilities for other new works.
Being the wonderful, customer-loving fellow that I am (certainly having nothing to do with a strong personality disposition toward indecision...), I would very much like input upon the next project. Titles obviously subject to change, and both projects probably to be completed eventually.
The Rise of Haven: A prequel story focusing upon the life of Franklin William Lange, detailing the many years of his life, the creation of the city, and his gradual descent into madness. Much more focused upon storytelling over a large span of time.
The Legend of Sid: A story set a number of years after the events of The Legend of Ivan. Archivists disappear from all quarters of the galaxy, high-security corporate interests are breached, and rumors whisper as to who is responsible. The not-quite dead Keritas Company struggles to keep its business from crumbling completely by crafting a new human augmentation project. Intended to be the end-all product of information-gathering, corporate espionage, and everything else, the very first Specialist is charged with the task of finding out about these new mysteries, both of which are said to involve Archivist Sid and the subject of his original hunt.
As you might imagine, I've put more at least a little more thought into one of the concepts. I can say with almost supreme confidence that The Legend of Sid would be easier for me to write (following a similar style to its predecessor).
Conversely, The Rise of Haven will follow a story structure I've not attempted as of yet in my works. Covering the highlights of a hundred years of history presents a potential challenge. I'm confident it wouldn't actually pose a large amount of trouble, but it definitely will require quite a lot of thought and preparation.
So, I'll set up a little poll on the side here to run for... however long. Feel free to post any comments below or engage in discussion. I'm honestly curious toward what various folks would like to see happen. Either project would have a timetable of roughly 4-6 months (ideally less, but I'm not going to make promises).
Oh, small side note: as a side project, I'm strongly considering recording an audiobook for the The Legend of Ivan (to start). More on that later, perhaps.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Poacher (by Yahtzee) Secret Boss Help and Tips
This post has absolutely nothing to do with books, but a random blog every now and then isn't going to hurt me or anyone else. This post is mostly for people google searching something like, "Poacher Secret Boss Help," as I recently finished the game and sort wished I had a resource to go to. People not looking for a summary can scroll down to find the hints and tips:
You may or may not be familiar with Zero Punctuation (be warned, the videos are definitely NSFW), a weekly game critique video by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. Well, aside from being rather funny and quite good at writing and criticism, Yahtzee has also produced a few small-scale games of his own.
One such game is Poacher, which is very similar to Cave Story in that it's a side-scrolling shooter with varied upgrades, exploration elements, fairly high difficulty, and so on.
Also like Cave Story, by fulfilling certain requirements throughout the main game, you can unlock a secret ending complete with a brutally difficult multi-part boss fight. Naturally, at this time of writing, Poacher has barely been out for a week, so there isn't much in terms of places online where you can look for help on this subject.
This is where I come in. Today, after considerable time spent on it, I beat the super-secret boss, and along the way I picked up a few small notions. Obviously, there are a few minor spoilers ahead, so you are forewarned.
HOW TO GET TO THE SECRET ENDING
Pretty easy to figure out, especially if you play through the game once before you go for any secret ending runs. Once inside the abyss, the Judge will go through the various sins you've committed in the game. There are three different things you must not shoot in order to get to the secret ending:
- White Rabbits in the beginning. Just walk through 'em, easy enough.
- The crazed Blemineg in the Great Library. This is somewhat tricky, but definitely doable. The Blemineg do take two hits to kill, but I haven't confirmed whether or not you can shoot them once to knock them away without it counting against the secret ending.
- Don't shoot Gamey. When he confronts you, just jump over him and walk away. No problem at all.
Doing all of this will get you to the aforementioned secret ending, which involves a VERY difficult boss fight.
HINTS AND TIPS
The fight has three phases. First you shoot out two large and obvious glowing eyes while dodging a lot of random projectiles. The best way to get the hang of this part is just to keep doing it. Eventually, you'll get the hang of each firing method, and really: don't worry, you'll get plenty of practice at this section when you're dying a hundred times in the second and third phases. If you want a full breakdown of every projectile action, mention it in the comments section, and I'll add it in later. Tips:
- Fire off a few spirit bombs at the eyes to make the first phase go quicker once you can beat it reliably. By the time you've fallen and died 30 times in the second part, the eyes won't give you any trouble at all in terms of health or remaining spirit charges. Making the 1st phase pass more quickly will grant more opportunities to try out the 2nd and 3rd, which will also stave off frustration and boredom as you eventually should be able to do the 1st phase in your sleep. Do make sure to save a few spirit charges (if you have the healing spell equipped), just to make sure you have decent enough health, however.
- Honestly, just making it through this first phase with any health intact should be fine the first few to several times you succeed. I never once died in the second or third phases from running out of health. Maybe use healing to get yourself a small buffer, but don't worry too much.
The second phase involves a side-scrolling platform jumping sequence (with instant death if you fall). There is no checkpoint in between phases, so dying means fighting the eyes again. After a few jumps, the Judge's face will come into the background and bounce around. His eyes will flicker, followed by a vertical strike of lightning which quite often means an instant, falling death if it hits you (barring careful placement of your character on platforms: see below).
After a number of dodged strikes, the face will leave the background and start encroaching upon the left side of the screen. The teeth need to be shot five times in order to send the Judge back to the background, and this needs to be done before the teeth cross all the way over and kill you. Yes, in addition to falling, touching the judge's face when he's not in the background causes instant death.
Once finished with two rounds of background lightning and teeth-shooting, lightning will come much faster. It doesn't increase the number of strikes before he switches back to the teeth phase, which is quite nice, but it makes timing your jumps a little more tricky. In addition, during the teeth phase, little projectiles will rain vertically and scroll from left to right. Make sure to jump over them, as getting hit will likely make you fall to your death.
In total, there are 5 rounds of background lightning and teeth shooting. This phase is bloody difficult, and you'll probably die. A lot. Here are some minor tips for survival in the 2nd phase:
- If you can't shotgun jump, you're probably not going to be able to do the 2nd and 3rd phase. Apologies, but that's kind of how it is. It takes quite a bit of precision and practice.
- Once the face appears in the beginning of the phase, it will bounce five times (you'll hear the sounds) before the lightning starts. Count 'em off, and position yourself for jumping.
- Cover enough horizontal distance. If you just kind of go straight up and down, the lightning will get you. When the lightning comes slower, most of the time I'd jump across pretty much the whole screen, skipping one or two of the platforms.
- I'd suggest not trying to anticipate the eye-flash. Wait for it to happen, and then jump. If you're in mid air when the eyes flash, chances are you'll be landing just as the lightning strikes, which probably equals death. If you can the hang of it, by all means. Use whatever method works best for you.
- Positioning yourself between strikes can be important: once you get the hang of the time between lightning strikes, maybe try to get on platforms ready to provide yourself with favorable/easy jumps. However, it's also good to try to get used to a couple of the trickier jumps because you'll probably encounter them. Or...:
- I found it very helpful to *occasionally* eat one of the lightning bolts in order to survive what may have been a tricky/risky jump. This is usually when the boss has less health and fires the bolts off more rapidly, and maybe you jumped all the way to the end and the next platform hasn't spawned yet. All you need to do is stand on the right half of the platform, facing right without moving your character, and just take the hit. The knockback with the platform scrolling will keep you from falling off. Obviously don't do this too much, or, y'know, you won't have any health left =\
The third phase still involves instant death falling, but now the platforms go vertically, from top of screen to bottom, and the Judge's face is below you. You must jump between platforms without falling, while shooting down into his face a number of times which I didn't have the presence of mind to count. He doesn't have a health bar in this, but it's not that many times.
When you hit him with a downward shot, he'll fire out one or two blue projectiles which must be avoided, or you'll almost certainly fall to an instant death. I think this is a bit easier, but you might be pretty strung-out by this point. Tips:
- Normal jumps can get you to most of the platforms, avoiding the need to shotgun jump to survive. Obviously, shotgun jumping means you hit the face below, but hanging in the air, unable to dodge the projectiles really sucks.
- Try to minimize excess hang time with shotgun jumps so you can see where the projectiles are coming and avoid them appropriately. This means shotgun jumping to a quick landing on another platform and then perhaps normal jumping if you need to avoid the projectiles.
- I can't confirm this, but I don't think there's any rush or time limit to the third phase. He kind of moves up and down, but I never had a death from crossing the face: it's not like the encroachment and instant death of the teeth in the second phase. Even if there is a time limit, it's a pretty darn long one, I think? Whatever, this basically means you can take your time and find the right moments to get your shotgun jump in to land on platforms and avoid the little blue bullets.
- I think you can also wall jump off of the edges of the screen to increase jumping options, but I was never brave enough to try.
Once you shoot him enough times, he'll do the boss bleed-death animation you should be familiar with. Keep carefully jumping the platforms, and you'll make it out without too much trouble. In kind of a nasty move, you will have to exit the abyss without a save point (although to be honest I don't know if there's a checkpoint or not. I recommend not testing it if you happen to get that far) It's easier than when you might've done it without the secret ending portion. No projectiles from below when you're climbing among the cages this time, and no skullbunches to kill: just mild platforming stuff to handle. Be careful, and if you had decent health/spirit charges, you should finish it without much trouble.
You may or may not be familiar with Zero Punctuation (be warned, the videos are definitely NSFW), a weekly game critique video by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. Well, aside from being rather funny and quite good at writing and criticism, Yahtzee has also produced a few small-scale games of his own.
One such game is Poacher, which is very similar to Cave Story in that it's a side-scrolling shooter with varied upgrades, exploration elements, fairly high difficulty, and so on.
Also like Cave Story, by fulfilling certain requirements throughout the main game, you can unlock a secret ending complete with a brutally difficult multi-part boss fight. Naturally, at this time of writing, Poacher has barely been out for a week, so there isn't much in terms of places online where you can look for help on this subject.
This is where I come in. Today, after considerable time spent on it, I beat the super-secret boss, and along the way I picked up a few small notions. Obviously, there are a few minor spoilers ahead, so you are forewarned.
HOW TO GET TO THE SECRET ENDING
Pretty easy to figure out, especially if you play through the game once before you go for any secret ending runs. Once inside the abyss, the Judge will go through the various sins you've committed in the game. There are three different things you must not shoot in order to get to the secret ending:
- White Rabbits in the beginning. Just walk through 'em, easy enough.
- The crazed Blemineg in the Great Library. This is somewhat tricky, but definitely doable. The Blemineg do take two hits to kill, but I haven't confirmed whether or not you can shoot them once to knock them away without it counting against the secret ending.
- Don't shoot Gamey. When he confronts you, just jump over him and walk away. No problem at all.
Doing all of this will get you to the aforementioned secret ending, which involves a VERY difficult boss fight.
HINTS AND TIPS
The fight has three phases. First you shoot out two large and obvious glowing eyes while dodging a lot of random projectiles. The best way to get the hang of this part is just to keep doing it. Eventually, you'll get the hang of each firing method, and really: don't worry, you'll get plenty of practice at this section when you're dying a hundred times in the second and third phases. If you want a full breakdown of every projectile action, mention it in the comments section, and I'll add it in later. Tips:
- Fire off a few spirit bombs at the eyes to make the first phase go quicker once you can beat it reliably. By the time you've fallen and died 30 times in the second part, the eyes won't give you any trouble at all in terms of health or remaining spirit charges. Making the 1st phase pass more quickly will grant more opportunities to try out the 2nd and 3rd, which will also stave off frustration and boredom as you eventually should be able to do the 1st phase in your sleep. Do make sure to save a few spirit charges (if you have the healing spell equipped), just to make sure you have decent enough health, however.
- Honestly, just making it through this first phase with any health intact should be fine the first few to several times you succeed. I never once died in the second or third phases from running out of health. Maybe use healing to get yourself a small buffer, but don't worry too much.
The second phase involves a side-scrolling platform jumping sequence (with instant death if you fall). There is no checkpoint in between phases, so dying means fighting the eyes again. After a few jumps, the Judge's face will come into the background and bounce around. His eyes will flicker, followed by a vertical strike of lightning which quite often means an instant, falling death if it hits you (barring careful placement of your character on platforms: see below).
After a number of dodged strikes, the face will leave the background and start encroaching upon the left side of the screen. The teeth need to be shot five times in order to send the Judge back to the background, and this needs to be done before the teeth cross all the way over and kill you. Yes, in addition to falling, touching the judge's face when he's not in the background causes instant death.
Once finished with two rounds of background lightning and teeth-shooting, lightning will come much faster. It doesn't increase the number of strikes before he switches back to the teeth phase, which is quite nice, but it makes timing your jumps a little more tricky. In addition, during the teeth phase, little projectiles will rain vertically and scroll from left to right. Make sure to jump over them, as getting hit will likely make you fall to your death.
In total, there are 5 rounds of background lightning and teeth shooting. This phase is bloody difficult, and you'll probably die. A lot. Here are some minor tips for survival in the 2nd phase:
- If you can't shotgun jump, you're probably not going to be able to do the 2nd and 3rd phase. Apologies, but that's kind of how it is. It takes quite a bit of precision and practice.
- Once the face appears in the beginning of the phase, it will bounce five times (you'll hear the sounds) before the lightning starts. Count 'em off, and position yourself for jumping.
- Cover enough horizontal distance. If you just kind of go straight up and down, the lightning will get you. When the lightning comes slower, most of the time I'd jump across pretty much the whole screen, skipping one or two of the platforms.
- I'd suggest not trying to anticipate the eye-flash. Wait for it to happen, and then jump. If you're in mid air when the eyes flash, chances are you'll be landing just as the lightning strikes, which probably equals death. If you can the hang of it, by all means. Use whatever method works best for you.
- Positioning yourself between strikes can be important: once you get the hang of the time between lightning strikes, maybe try to get on platforms ready to provide yourself with favorable/easy jumps. However, it's also good to try to get used to a couple of the trickier jumps because you'll probably encounter them. Or...:
- I found it very helpful to *occasionally* eat one of the lightning bolts in order to survive what may have been a tricky/risky jump. This is usually when the boss has less health and fires the bolts off more rapidly, and maybe you jumped all the way to the end and the next platform hasn't spawned yet. All you need to do is stand on the right half of the platform, facing right without moving your character, and just take the hit. The knockback with the platform scrolling will keep you from falling off. Obviously don't do this too much, or, y'know, you won't have any health left =\
The third phase still involves instant death falling, but now the platforms go vertically, from top of screen to bottom, and the Judge's face is below you. You must jump between platforms without falling, while shooting down into his face a number of times which I didn't have the presence of mind to count. He doesn't have a health bar in this, but it's not that many times.
When you hit him with a downward shot, he'll fire out one or two blue projectiles which must be avoided, or you'll almost certainly fall to an instant death. I think this is a bit easier, but you might be pretty strung-out by this point. Tips:
- Normal jumps can get you to most of the platforms, avoiding the need to shotgun jump to survive. Obviously, shotgun jumping means you hit the face below, but hanging in the air, unable to dodge the projectiles really sucks.
- Try to minimize excess hang time with shotgun jumps so you can see where the projectiles are coming and avoid them appropriately. This means shotgun jumping to a quick landing on another platform and then perhaps normal jumping if you need to avoid the projectiles.
- I can't confirm this, but I don't think there's any rush or time limit to the third phase. He kind of moves up and down, but I never had a death from crossing the face: it's not like the encroachment and instant death of the teeth in the second phase. Even if there is a time limit, it's a pretty darn long one, I think? Whatever, this basically means you can take your time and find the right moments to get your shotgun jump in to land on platforms and avoid the little blue bullets.
- I think you can also wall jump off of the edges of the screen to increase jumping options, but I was never brave enough to try.
Once you shoot him enough times, he'll do the boss bleed-death animation you should be familiar with. Keep carefully jumping the platforms, and you'll make it out without too much trouble. In kind of a nasty move, you will have to exit the abyss without a save point (although to be honest I don't know if there's a checkpoint or not. I recommend not testing it if you happen to get that far) It's easier than when you might've done it without the secret ending portion. No projectiles from below when you're climbing among the cages this time, and no skullbunches to kill: just mild platforming stuff to handle. Be careful, and if you had decent health/spirit charges, you should finish it without much trouble.
There you have it. If you have any particular tips or tricks, post them in comments, and I'll try to add them in later on.
Cheers!
Saturday, April 7, 2012
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