Splintered Realms Dizzy

Devlog

• Minigames
  June 23, 2021 by Queex

  It's common to see minigames these days. But how should they be defined? To me, 'minigame' means embedding a distinctly separate game within the structure of the main game. I've got several thoughts a... Continue reading
• Glass Pockets
  May 30, 2021 by Queex

  One of the changes in the later LucasArts games was replacing the text descriptions of objects in the inventory with pictures. That lost a little bit of the charm for me; even though the text names fo... Continue reading

  
• The Final Stretch
  May 18, 2021 by Queex

  In Lost Temple Dizzy, there's one section near the end where you need things from a number of other areas. The shrines were mostly self-contained chains of puzzles, and one key puzzle element from eac... Continue reading
• Powering Up
  May 06, 2021 by Queex

  The key innovation of Iron Tower Dizzy was a humble slingshot. I realised that by co-opting the item use/drop routine, I could have an item in the inventory that could spawn arbitrary behaviour. I use... Continue reading

  
• Difficulty, Completion and Challenge
  April 26, 2021 by Queex

  The 8-bit era was a wild time. No-one really had much idea what made one of these new-fangled 'video games' good or bad, and making the games was primarily a battle against the limitations of the hard... Continue reading
• Fixing a Puzzle
  April 15, 2021 by Queex

  Getting started on this game was a bit of a struggle. I had greatly under-estimated how much I had forgotten about using the game engine and its map creation tool. Making the first parts of the game,... Continue reading
• To Every Screen a Purpose
  April 04, 2021 by Queex

  In the flick-screen world of Spectrum platformers, there was always a tremendous drive to spend your room wisely. Each room needed a reason to be there, taking up precious bytes. There wasn't really m... Continue reading
• Tutorials
  March 30, 2021 by Queex

  Back in the heyday of the Spectrum, it was rare for a game to come with full instructions. Granted, a lot of the time it was because the games were got were copies of copies of copies, recorded tape t... Continue reading

  
• Demo Available Now!
  March 27, 2021 by Queex#demo, #release

  This demo is the first section of the game, up until the Splintered Realms themselves make an appearance. This shows off the core gameplay, and some of the extra features I've added beyond the usual D... Continue reading
• Poached, Scrambled or Boiled
  March 26, 2021 by Queex

  The original Dizzy games came from an era where you were expected to die, even in cartoon puzzle games. There was little facility to save your position, so most games were short enough to feasibly com... Continue reading
• Collectibles, Schmollectibles
  March 24, 2021 by Queex

  One of the recurring features of Dizzy games is the need to collect all of a certain type of item in the game. Coins, stars, cherries and so forth all feature. After solving all of the puzzles in the... Continue reading
• The Damsel in Dese Boxing Gloves
  March 20, 2021 by Queex

  The first Dizzy game was a straight up assassination quest. Granted, it was of an officially Evil wizard via the medium of a magical potion, but still. The second game found Dizzy stranded on a desert... Continue reading

  
• How To Make a Large 2D Map Work
  March 18, 2021 by Queex

  Among the official Dizzy games, those that seem to be the least well-regarded by fans are the largest ones. There's the question of length (particularly when limitations of the platform prevent saving... Continue reading