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theakrillictimes · 2 months ago

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Plok is actually the second Plok game. The first was called Fleapit, an arcade title that John and Ste Pickford (then at Zippo Games) began for Rare in the late ’80s. It was never released.

“I was working at Zippo when John and Ste were developing Fleapit on the Razz Board, Rare’s custom arcade hardware,” explains Lyndon Brooke, who was on the Plok design team and created most of the pixel art.

“It was already playable—you could throw Plok’s limbs, and some stages were full of food items.”

Sadly, almost nothing of Fleapit survives today, apart from a few screenshots on the Pickford Bros website that show the logo and title screen (www.zee‑3.com). There are, however, plenty of Ste’s design sketches, which reveal that Fleapit’s main character, Plok, grew out of John’s idea for a hooded executioner. According to Ste’s own notes, the earliest doodle appears in the margins of the 1989 design docs for Ironsword. The loss of the code is especially unfortunate, because the Pickfords say Fleapit was “half‑finished and completely playable.” The project was canceled when Zippo Games closed, but what they’d started was revived at Software Creations under the new name Plok.

“No one had a playable build any more,” says John Buckley—the sole programmer—of his arrival on the project. “All we had was a video of the original game showing Plok sliding down slopes and shooting his limbs at fleas. That’s where I began.”

That set the core team for the new project: John and Ste Pickford handled design and graphics, Brooke and Buckley joined them, George and Tim Follin composed the music, and later Chun Wah Kong came in for quality control. “I was 18 and started in the spring of 1993,” Chun recalls. “We worked in the basement—nicknamed ‘the dungeon’—and were play‑testing Equinox. Plok was already far along; pretty much everything was there: graphics, music, levels. Buckley and Brooke were eager to see how I’d react.”

The early ’90s were a time of creative freedom for the small Manchester studio. Software Creations was among the first companies to get an SNES dev kit, and you can tell they were having fun with the hardware. Over development Plok gained multiple jump types, a unique physics system built around firing and separating limbs, several inflatable costumes, and a host of puzzles that made you use those abilities. Golden shells could be collected for an extra life, but once you found the amulet Plok could unleash a buzz‑saw attack by pressing L and R, blasting shells from his head. He could also send “buddy hornets” he’d gathered after enemies. The list of quirky ideas seems almost endless—far more than most platformers offered.

John Buckley credits the Pickfords for all of that: “Plok was just another project when I came on board. But John and Ste gave Lyndon and me plenty of room to add things, which made programming a joy, and I’m sure the artists felt the same. The hero was brilliantly designed and full of character. Plok has a huge move set for a platform game, and flinging his limbs is great fun. But you quickly realise the strategy: solving certain puzzles leaves you without both legs, so you have to bounce around on your backside.” Chun adds, “When I saw that, I couldn’t help thinking, ‘Wow—ingenious!’”

Although the early stages on Cotton Island are simply about reaching the goal, later areas force Plok to sacrifice his own arms and legs—literally—to open doors, blow up parts of the scenery, or trigger platforms. You can pick your limbs back up at certain spots, but you still have to manage how and when to spend them.

As Lyndon already explained, throwing limbs existed in Fleapit and was always part of Plok’s design. He adds: “The lock‑and‑key puzzles came later. First we built the system to animate huge chunks of scenery, but our early examples just looped, which looked clunky. That led to the idea of using limbs to activate things, and it took a couple of weeks before the perch design popped into my head. The biggest challenge was animating the background without breaking collision and making it shake horribly.”

Buckley ended up coding those features. “It was a unique idea—fire your limbs and have them come back,” he recalls. “It was also tough to program: the limbs would travel out nicely in order, then get tangled on the way back. In the first eight stages the limbs were only used to clear obstacles, but soon we realized that, because they take a little while to return, players could exploit that as a mechanic.”

Anyone who has played Plok knows Cotton Island’s opener is fairly straightforward. Next you hit the flea‑hunting levels in Akrillic (larger still in Poly‑Esta), which are wide‑open areas stuffed with hidden flea eggs. Clear out every flea and the exit appears. After that come the sepia‑toned flashbacks starring Plok’s Grandpappy—more linear than Cotton Island but still busy, since you have to wake the old guy and wipe out his flea infestation—before finally reaching Fleapit. That last section, which justifies the game’s subtitle, is a string of…

…brilliant vehicle levels leading to the final boss. But back to those opening stages for a moment…

“Something you can double‑check with Buckley and Brooke,” Chun suggests, “is that they told me the early black‑and‑white Grandpappy Plok stages originally sat right at the start of the game as part of the dream sequence. It was an early idea, but we later felt it was too extreme—no real visual appeal.”

“Well, if that’s true, I didn’t know,” Buckley says. “The first eight stages they’re talking about are what shipped. All the basic concepts were built in the first six weeks of the project. The later stages only appeared once we needed the amulet, more speed upgrades, and ways to ease players through certain spots.”

Lyndon’s memories line up with Chun and Buckley: “The Grandpappy sequence grew out of the original Cotton Island stages. Those were the first levels we ever made and—even though they were fun—they were too huge for players just starting out. So we chopped them up for Cotton Island and rebuilt the later maps. The opening is easy, but players get a shock when the density ramps up. It may look cute, yet Plok is tough.”

Ask Chun if anyone worried that the curve was too steep: “It’s challenging, sure, but never unfair. Somebody—probably the publisher—wanted stage one easier, so we made the bouncing sprouts die in one hit instead of two. You can see it in the tutorial: Plok fires an extra arm at every sprout when they’re already dead, because that footage was captured before the tweak.”

Buckley agrees. “I never thought it was that hard. Mind you, I played it in an emulator a few years ago and couldn’t even finish! We always saw it as a game that looked like it was for little kids but was really for grown‑ups. If we’d had save files back then it would’ve been simpler, and during development we were told we’d get them, but cost killed the idea. At least we added the Plokontinues.”

Why not go with passwords once battery saves were cut? In one interview Ste said they considered it, but decided against it because magazines would print the codes and anyone could jump straight to the last stage. Buckley laughs: “I remember Rick Kay, our producer, dropping by all the time saying, ‘Every week I see this game, there’s a new level!’ He was hyped until I told him there were another 32 levels to see.”

Players skilled enough to reach the end will discover perhaps the game’s only real flaw: aside from a few bonus stages and some cynical gag levels in the final stretch of Fleapit, most of the vehicles in the game…

Although the early stages of Cotton Island only require you to reach the goal, later stages force Plok to literally sacrifice his arms and legs to open doors, blow up parts of the scenery, or activate platforms. It is possible to recover your limbs from certain spots, but players need to manage how they “spend” them.

As Lyndon already explained, throwing limbs existed in Fleapit and was always part of Plok’s design, but he adds: “Lock-and-key puzzles came later. We built a system for animating big chunks of scenery, but the first examples just looped, which looked rough. That led us to the idea of using limbs to activate them, and a couple of weeks passed before I thought of the coat hanger design. The main challenge was figuring out how to animate the background without breaking collisions and creating some awful shaking in his movement.”

Implementing these features fell to Buckley. “It was quite a unique idea to fire off limbs and have them come back,” he recalls. “Programming it was a challenge. The physics were fine, kind of fun. In the first eight levels we designed, you only used limbs to remove obstacles. But then we realized that since they don’t come back until they land, there’s a delay. That meant you couldn’t keep shooting limbs repeatedly as a feature.”

“It was challenging but never unfair. Someone wanted the first level to be easier—probably the editor—so we made it so that the bouncing sprouts only needed one hit instead of two. You can see it in the tutorial, where Plok fires an extra arm at each sprout even after it’s already gone, because we’d recorded that behavior before the change.”

Buckley agrees: “I never thought it was that hard. Then again, a few years ago I tried it on an emulator and couldn’t play it! It looks like a kids’ game, but it’s really for adults. Being able to save your game in the cartridge would have made the game easier, and during development, we were told we’d have that feature, but it got cut for cost reasons. At least we put in the ‘Plokontinues.’”

“As for why the team didn’t go with passwords—since we scrapped the battery backup—Ste said in an interview that they considered passwords but decided against them, because magazines would publish them and then anyone could jump straight to the last level. Buckley laughs, recalling: ‘I remember Rick Kay (the producer) coming by, and one time he said: “Every week I see this, there’s a new level!” He was so excited, until I told him we still had 32 more levels to go.’”

Those who made it to the end discovered what might be the game’s only real flaw: apart from a few bonus levels and a series of odd events late in Fleapit, most of the game’s vehicles—the incredibly original vehicle sections—appear before the final boss. But going back to those early levels…

“Something you can check with Buckley and Brooke,” Chun suggests, “is that they told me that early in development the black‑and‑white Grandpa Plok levels were actually placed right at the start of the game, not in the dream sequence. It was a brave idea, but later we felt it was too extreme because it didn’t have the same visual impact.”

“Well, if that’s true I never knew,” Buckley admits. “The first eight levels I was talking about are the ones that shipped in the finished game. We nailed all the basic concepts in the first eight weeks after the project began. The dream levels were created so we could introduce the amulet, speed the character up a bit and help the player in a few spots.”

Lyndon’s memories dovetail with Chun’s and Buckley’s: “Grandpa’s sequence was based on the original Cotton Island stages. Those were the very first levels we built and, while fun at the time, they were far too big for a player’s first steps. So Ste built new, tighter levels for Cotton Island and we reworked the old maps.”

The opening is simple, but some players are shocked by how sharply the difficulty rises. It may look cute, but Plok is a demanding game. We asked Chun whether this ever came up in testing. “I never felt it was too hard,” he says. “It was challenging, but never unfair. Somebody—probably the publisher—wanted level one easier, so we made the bouncing buds die in one hit instead of two. You can still see it in the tutorial, where Plok fires an arm at every bud after it’s dead, because we recorded the footage before the change.”

Buckley agrees: “I never thought it was that tough. That said, I tried it in an emulator a few years ago and couldn’t play it! We treated it like a game that looked like it was for little kids but was actually for adults! Having a battery save would have made it easier and during development we were told we’d have one, but it was cut for cost reasons. At least we put in the ‘Plok‑continues.’”

As for why the team didn’t switch to passwords after losing the save battery, Ste said in an interview that they considered it but decided against it because magazines would print the codes and anyone could jump straight to the final stage. Buckley adds, laughing, “I remember producer Rik Kay dropping by regularly and one day he said, ‘Every week I come in and there’s a new level!’ He seemed really excited until I told him we still had another 32 levels to go!”

Players who manage to reach the end will discover, perhaps, the game’s only real flaw: the 13 sprawling bonus stages and the series of one‑off set pieces in the final Fleapit area, along with most of the game’s vehicles…

They never appear anywhere else. The truck, the motorbike, the jet‑pack, the helicopter, the tank, the UFO and the boots don’t get nearly as much screen time as they could have. You finish the game with the feeling that pushing these vehicles to the final stages was a missed opportunity.

Lyndon puts it like this: “We always meant to add costumes as power‑ups and to have a different vehicle in every Fleapit level. As far as I remember, the helicopter came straight from the original design, while the other vehicles were born in the level‑design meetings. Our goal was to offer a wide range of maneuverability and fire‑power.”

“The transformations came in when we realised we needed them,” Buckley adds. “They gave us new functions at various points. All four of us (John, Ste, Lyndon and I) were involved. When the bonus stages were devised, we went back to certain levels and added them as shortcuts for more experienced players—like heading left at the start of level one.”

We asked Buckley if anything had to be cut from the game. “I think only a few levels,” he says. “Every costume and vehicle made it in.” Still, if you browse Plok’s online portfolio of vehicle sketches, Ste explains why they’re rarely seen: “A huge part of design is making sure features don’t clash with, break or unbalance the game. Limiting where a function can be used is a quick and easy way to avoid a major balancing headache.”

Geoff and Tim Follin’s superb soundtrack also deserves a special mention. Fans have noticed that the title‑screen music reminds them of The Champs’ classic “Tequila.” “That was partly inspiration and partly coincidence,” Tim explains. “We’d filled up the memory, so for the title music I was trying to write something using the samples we already had. I must’ve heard ‘Tequila’ on the radio or somewhere and I realized that the two adjacent chords could be done with just two samples—small enough to fit in memory—and it worked! I didn’t have many solo instruments to play with, so I started thinking of tiny samples I could squeeze in and hit on the idea of a harmonica sound. I think it was BB King I heard playing his Les Paul; I noticed the tone was basically a click at the start of the note followed by a not‑too‑smooth square‑wave‑ish sustain, which meant it would fit in a very small sample. After that it was just a case of juggling the samples so they sounded like they were being played on two channels at once to give harmonies, and chopping up the “guitar” part to mimic real strumming. Tequila was an inspiration, but I’d never have got there without those very specific technical constraints.

The original plan was for Nintendo to publish Plok—Shigeru Miyamoto even called it “the best platformer.” We demoed Plok to lots of publishers while it was still in development. Nintendo of America showed serious interest and visited the studio more than once; Tony Harman actually played the game less than four weeks after development started! Unfortunately the deal fell through: Tradewest ended up publishing it in the U.S., Activision in Japan, and Nintendo of Europe sublicensed it to Tradewest for Europe—then sabotaged it with pointless advertising. Magazines worldwide gave it glowing reviews, but a glut of new platformers on the market meant most players never discovered Plok’s originality.

John Pickford talked about it when we asked. “Obviously we’re disappointed Plok wasn’t a big hit, but it’s been years now and it’s a fun story to tell—it makes Plok feel less bitter about ‘Blubsy the Blobcat’ and the rest.”

A Mega Drive port was started—with some maps already imported—but was soon abandoned. “I think Ste Tatlock was doing the MD version,” Buckley says. “What I saw looked good; it even managed some Mode‑7‑style rotations. I’ve no idea why it was canned. The SNES version was finished by then; the Mega Drive one began while I was doing the language conversions.”

In 2013, roughly 20 years after release, the Pickford brothers brought the character back in a weekly webcomic, and more recently the soundtrack was issued on vinyl.

The brothers still own all the creative rights. “We’d love to make a new Plok,” says Ste. “We’ve built a prototype and designed it pretty thoroughly, but we’ve had to shelve it while we take on paid work. It wouldn’t be a straight sequel—another platformer—but rather an adaptation of the comic, mixing in a bunch of ideas we’ve been developing since going indie.”

I got this Spanish magazine in 2020 because they announced an article about Plok and tried my best to scan it, I thought it might interest you despise you know, being in Spanish.

thank you!!!

#gallery #I think this is just a translation of the English retro gamer interview

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flaetsbnort · 2 years ago

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These are all great suggestions, but I'd like to add that Ironsword has a standalone version named Starforged with very similar rules for science fiction, just in case you're not into fantasy

Hermits: Playing RPGs Alone

I personally enjoy one-player RPGs. They can be a little weird for some, certainly, but as a Goblin in a world of elves and men, it is nice to sit down now and again, flex my creative storytelling muscles, and match them against fate in a game of singular minded striving.

Now, you can play Sword & Backpack as a singular player. It is quite easy. You split your D20 into 10 and 10, rolling 11 or above as a success and 10-below as a failure. You have to create your own setting and your own obstacles, but that is all part of the freedom of it.

But as a RPG Hermit, I have played a few other systems I would like to recommend. Each has its benefits and drawbacks, and depending on what you want in your Hermit games, each might suit your desires. The ones I find most helpful are “the Basic Fantasy RPG 3rd Ed,” and “The Black Hack” - “Stormbringer” and “Ironsworn”.

“The Basic Fantasy RPG” is an Old School Renaissance game, emulating the mechanics of older Dungeons & Dragons editions. It is free online, which is fantastic, and has a number of online adventures to run in various settings [it is also easy to run Old D&D adventures that are often free online as well]. It has the simple four iconic classes and races, spells to use for spellcasting in its Vancian system, and a series of tables to create random encounters. Mechanically, you roll your six D&D stats, then when you perform a check, you roll under the number on the stat to succeed; while maintaining the combat mechanic from D&D of overcoming an Armor Class to hit an enemy. Its clearly defined numerical lines make it possible to play alone, with its drawback being rolling for the monster and tending to have more of a mechanical “video game” feel than a “story crafting” feel. I recommend for anyone who wants to have a quick adventure all to themselves with minimal hassle and maximum “huzzah!”.

For those uncomfortable with rolling for the enemy, I recommend “The Black Hack”, which is also free online. The Black Hack was put together by David Black and has the same “roll under” mechanic as the Basic Fantasy RPG; but replaces the combat mechanic of D&D with its own Black-Hack Roll-Under system. The mechanics become more uniform in the Black Hack and make it easier to arbiter your own games. The Black Hack also comes with its own miniature bestiary, spells, and mechanics for various classes; and for the most part, it can be easily run with the supplements and adventures of the Basic Fantasy RPG and older D&D adventures.

“Stormbringer” is a little bit more complicated than Basic and the Black Hack, but for those looking for a more Dungeons & Dragons sort of experience, it is a good choice. It runs off of the Basic Role Playing System, currently in use by Runequest. Character creation is a bit complicated, dedicated to dolling out various statistics for various feats - but those who want something more D&D adjacent won’t feel out of place. Each stat falls within a percentage scale - essentially denoting the odds of success on a one-hundred point scale. The player then rolls a d100 to try to roll under the necessary stats for a particular action. Stormbringer is easy to convert over other old adventures and even Basic adventures, simply taking the 20 point stats of D&D or Basic and multiplying them by 5 to get the percentile. Once again, the roll-under mechanic enables single player play, and with a little Black Hack mixed in, one need not even roll for villains. Its drawback is its statistically heavy nature and the need to prepare materials ahead of time; even with short cuts, character creation took me 2 hours my first try. The benefit of Stormbringer though is in its setting, which comes pre-stocked with content and challenges based on the Stormbringer Novels; with adventures online for free. I recommend this for those looking for a more comparable game to that of Dungeons & Dragons in statistical heft, intentionality, and long term play.

Lastly, there is Ironsworn. Ironsworn is truly unique in that it involves its own mechanics, its own world, and its own special tables for generating an adventure. It even comes with instructions on single player. Ironsworn has taken the hermit community by storm, and rightly so. It is the most comparable experience to the feelings, thought processes, and striving of playing Dungeons & Dragons with a group. It has a three dice system, in which two d10s are rolled against a d12 - how many of the dice roll above whatever the D12 rolled determines a full success, a partial success with consequences, and a complete failure. Its character stats are used to boost the d10 rolls when completing a task related to a stat. It is used for all actions, including combat - paired with an interesting combat mechanic involving momentum, allowing a player to continue striking so long as they succeed. I recommend Ironsworn for anyone who is looking to have a genuinely holistic “one-player” RPG experience, with all the detail and intense thought that comes with that.

Hermit play can be very fun. We are lucky to live in an age when the internet transports free adventure content right into our homes and creative people craft ways for us to enjoy ourselves when we are apart from the adventure team we love. And for those of us struggling to find a group to play with, Hermit play offers a lot of opportunities to continue honing our storytelling and game playing. Lastly, to all of my Hermits out there, please know you are not alone in playing alone - and so in that sense, we are playing together.

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