agaricus5
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1838
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

I managed to find a copy of this game somewhere recently, and was rather intrigued by it, especially as the creator of DROD, Erik, had something to do with the making of this particular game. It was referenced to (although not well documented) in Erik's biography, which was probably why I noticed it when I happened to spot the name. I don't expect many people would have heard of it or have played it (I don't own even a floppy disk copy of it, and first played it only recently), but since it is tangentially DROD-related, and I don't think anyone's already mentioned it on the Forum, I thought I might comment on it here.

Basically, it's a semi-text command based adventure, with clicking and dragging replacing some of the more common actions, such as moving, examining and manipulating items. You play (apparently) as an FBI agent, stranded on an island by some cannibals who discovered you were working as an undercover agent in their tribe, and are rather angry with you for doing so. You need to explore the island and try to find some way of escaping it (it looks like there are probably several ways to leave, but I haven't quite found one yet), before the cannibals return and find you.

The game is a little unusual in the sense that you do appear to be on a time limit. I don't know what the timing is based on (perhaps numbers of actions?), but if you are too slow, you will end up being discovered, and in the end, rather gruesomely boiled in a pot and eaten (something that might have been avoided with a strategically positioned mimic potion). Unless you're lucky, you'll have to play the game at least a few times to complete it, since guesswork penalises you, which is a little annoying in a way. Guessing some of the more complex actions, since you can't just USE an object on another (I'm told to be more specific), is also a little annoying, but overall, the game appears to be reasonable at interpreting my commands. The drawings are also reasonable, although perhaps not the most detailed I've ever seen, but nonetheless relatively imaginative.

Although not actually playable by most people (and although apparently freeware, I'm not going to post details of how to obtain a copy here), it is an interesting 10-20 minute play if you do have access to it.

____________________________
Resident Medic/Mycologist

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

I was 18 or 19 when I worked on that. John Olsen did all the coding. I did art, "music", and some UI design. The game was packaged with an adventure-authoring system for the Amiga called "Visionary", published by Oxxi/Aegis. John wrote a book about adventure-authoring with Visionary. I think he made some money from the book, but we didn't get paid to work on Cannibal. We started on a 2nd Visionary game after that, a graphic version of Dr. Death's House of Horrors. John had already written several text adventures at this point, and it was his aim to upgrade them with graphics. I got a little distance into it and just got bored. It's hard to keep your attention on one thing for very long when you're young and life is whirling around you.

I have a greater appreciation for John in hindsight. He spent a lot of time making games because he really liked doing it. The games he wrote were based on themes found in pulp adventure novels, and that unique style was probably the best thing about them. He was a big fan of oldtime radio programs, something I got into much later. I remember once the Visionary publisher wanted John to write a strategic game based on historic exploration (or something close to that), but John really wanted to stick to his adventure games and gave it a pass. So this was my first contact with somebody who wrote games as a labor of love. He was pretty cool--I learned a few things from him.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)