Balding Is Back!

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: January 7th, 2009

After many restless nights, Balding’s Quest, the greatest community project since God invented community projects (okay, slight hyperbole), is back!

Balding’s Quest: The Quest of Guy Balding (also known as “BQ”) was started way back in The Dark Times, at the very beginning of the forums. I created a thread about Manic Miner which turned into a discussion of single screen platform games in general. Then Niklas “Arne/Prom” Jansson (of Cortex Command and Gravity Hook fame) posted a link to a gameplay concept of his for an original retro platform game. I opted to make this game, and BQ was born. It quickly became the largest and fasting moving thread on the young forums. People came out of nowhere to contribute and within five days the first Milestone was reached.

However, Milestone 2 didn’t come so easily. A little bit after Aquaria was finished, for many (mostly personal) reasons, I went on an extended hiatus. Most people assumed the project (and possibly I) had died. But it had not! I recently got back to work on Milestone 2 and, long story short, it’s done. The engine is now entirely open for community development, many, many additions have been made, tools and scripting are in place, and much more. With your help, we can bring BQ back to life!

Check it out and spread the word!

> Go here for the latest build and answers to all your questions.
> To get involved and see what’s in store for this project, go here.

This has been my White Whale for over a year now, so, please, show some love on the forums. (Especially if you were around when this project was first active!) Everything is in place to make a truly wonderful game here. But BQ needs YOU!

Additional screenshots here.

Posted in Community, Community Projects, Platformers, Windows | Tags: GlassOnion

http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

Yo! This is _by no means_ a complete game! It’s merely a demonstration of the engine.

Please, actually read the Milestone 2 thread.

And ENJOY! :)
BlademasterBobo

Pff, Cave Story ripoff.

(Seriously though, BQ is fuckin’ awesome, easy to make levels for, and the controls are perfect. Glad it’s finally being worked on again!)
shinygerbil

Wooyay :D
Jr

Yes.

Yes yes yes!
Powergloved Andy

I love this project so much!
Kareem

love to Brandon and Balding :)
may they see more milestones together
headcrab.

hmph…stealin’ jobs away from indie brawl…

grumblegrumblegrumble.
toastie

you go girl!
Lord Tim

Woo. This game rocks. Go make content for it, it’s really easy.
Tantan

Bro, I love you and this game.
You are awesome.
Keep the love flowin’.
splotki

this game is so awesome. the sprite art is amazing, just watching Balding walk is satisfying.
MattC

Hey, I’m from those Dark Times!
I don’t think I’ve logged into the forum or IRC in over a year!

I should do that!
Gravious

w00t!

Well done Brandon!
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

**@Everyone:** Thanks, guys! It really means a lot to me. :)

If you can help stir the pot on the forum, please do!

**@MattC:** Yeah, do that! :D

The old gang’s back in town. :’)
Bezzy

The love per pixel is high on this one.

I did a couple of clambering anims, and it was a joy to do :)
http://gnomeslair.blogspot.com/ gnome

Hip, hip !
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

Hehe, Bez, your climb animation is now The Climb Animation. Of all time. ;)
Gravious

oh, and @headcrab: Is that really the best compliment you can make? c’mon dude, share the love :)
xerus

Savage
Hamoozi

I like how slow he is. It’s like turnbased!
pyabo

Excitement!
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

Woo hoo — I’ve gotta organize a list of priorities for the next update. Hop on the forum and make requests, if you’d like.

**@Hamoozi:** Aw, well, I hope it doesn’t turn you off. It’ll make more sense as more abilities/objects/items are added. It’s a very conscious design choice. ;)
Cougarten

why does he move so fckng slow?
appart from that I’ll check it out further later
Dragonmaw

I love BQ.
Jad

I don’t feel the SLOW really?

This ain’t fucking sonic dammit.

This is a balding guy.

This is guy balding!
Kenzya

Game plays fine. Falling into ledges is very hard to do.
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

**Cougarten:** Because the game will be much better for it.
none

God damnit, I’ve lost progress in edting a map which was pretty much 99% done just because I died and when the game restarts the map goes back to default…
none

This has happened to me 3 or 4 times now (I’m not saying it’s the game’s fault, it’s probably the game telling me that something’s not right, ie. dying from a huge fall?)
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

You gotta press F9 to save the map! It’s probably that.

And in the next update I’ll put Pausing while editing back in (it got broke when I changed the logic system).
none

Thank you dear sir.

I know that you need to press F9 to save the map… It’s just that I get so excited creating the map that I just forget I haven’t even saved it yet.

By the way, congratulation on Balding’s Quest, it’s shaping up to be one hell of a game. I just love Guy Balding. The movement feels pretty smooth as well and all those little details are top-notch. I can’t wait to make some sort of ‘campaign’, or set of levels, for this game!
Anthony Flack

Hey! Good to see Guy Balding is still alive! Could this be The Community Game That Actually Gets Finished?
JP

Yay, I remember this!
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

**@none:** No problem! (So, I guess it’s working now?) I can’t wait for you to make levels, either. :)

**@Anthony:** Yes, absolutely! There’s no stoppin’ now.

**@JP:** I remember YOU. :o
Mike Hawk

Awesome, the hype machine is back. I really missed hearing constant updates about this game almost everyday along with level pictures.
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

Haha, I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not! :|

Anyway, that was Tim W who made those posts. I kind of miss those days, honestly. :
none

Hey BMcC,

could you lend me a hand?

How do I go about creating ladders and chains that are climbable? I tried it with the gfx tile editor but no dice so I thought ‘Maybe it has something to do with it being in the background…’ but it still didn’t work. Is it possible? Or is it a feature to be implemented in the Milestone 3 build?

Thanks in advance! ;-)
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

Sure! There are three Dev Editor modes: Tile Graphics Mode, Tile _Type_ Mode, and Objects Mode. In Tile Type Mode you set the obstructions/functionality for the tiles.

Press a number to change what tile type you can draw and delete. It’ll tell you the name at the bottom of the screen, and it’s color coded. (“Ladder” type tiles are brownish.)

I hope that helps!