Oof McBrewster’s Haunted House Adventure - Completed

[Razzie.P]

Oof, if you're reading this, I'm dead. -- Uncle Crodie




Oof McBrewster receives a letter from his dear Uncle Crodie, only to learn that his uncle has died, leaving behind a haunted mansion, a friggin’ fortune, and a call to adventure for our fearless hero.

• Navigate the dangers within Crodie’s mansion
• Avoid deadly traps and dangerous creatures
• Arm yourself well with a slingshot and err… coffee
• Find those scattered notebook pages
• Go get that fortune!
• Most importantly… Don’t get GOT!

Special thanks for the following forum members for helping make this game happen –

Woogz – sprite design for “Oof” + extra graphics
CutterCross – Music / Sound FX + invaluable feedback
dale_coop – ASM Support
FrankenGraphics – ASM Guides and Info
Red Moon – Feedback + Title Screen Assistance


More info can be found on OofMcBrewster.com
Rom + Extras available on ITCH.IO – however, any member of this forum who wants a copy, feel free to send me a message and I’ll hook you up.

 

[Razzie.P]

A couple bits of (hopefully) helpful gameplay info (stolen from my updated WIP thread, which was stolen from another forum post where we discussed the game a bit) –

• Not all enemies can be shot. At its core, the game design is built around dodging/avoiding the enemies while collecting the items, kinda like Pac-Man (and many other maze type games) I suppose. Some enemies can be shot/destroyed, however. I didn’t specify which, as I decided to leave it up to the player to discover. I loved watching players approach a situation in different ways, often working to find a path around, while I'm thinking "shoulda just shot that thang..."
• And like Pac-Man, touching a certain item (coffee, in this case) causes you to be invincible and can now destroy the enemies by touching or shooting.
• To fire the slingshot, the player needs to stop, plant feet nice and solid, aim, and fire. Simply put… just stop moving, then shoot. Oof can’t shoot while running (try as he’d like, he’ll never fit in with those Contra guys) Press B to fire left, and A to fire right.
• However, if you drink a coffee and are all powered up, the previous point no longer applies. Oof can Run n’ Gun with the best of ‘em!
• You only need to collect the notebook pages to complete a level. The treasures are optional, but possibly needed for the high score. The goal was to, hopefully, encourage players to find the best possible path though the mansion to amass the most treasure at the end. Sometimes, collecting a treasure might take a bit longer than it’s worth, so you may decide to ignore it and move on.
• In the event that the timer reaches 0, the game doesn’t end. It just means there’s no more treasure in the vault. So if you reach the end of the game and the vault is empty, you’ll still have any treasure you found along the way, just nothing extra will be added to your total.

 

[Basty]

Well, the idea is simplistic but alright. Though it was really confusing at first to figure out that A shoots left and B shoots right which is... Uh...
Sort of an odd choice in a game where you have 4 directions to move to and it ain't Double Dragon 2 style beat'em up so it really doesn't make any sense.
Also, most of the enemies doesn't seem to care about getting shot aside for bats so that mechanic was quite pointless.

One thing I noticed was that you can completely ignore the treasury and apparently it's not even worth risking your life for.
Not like there seems to be anything to buy in this game anyway so why bother.

I did play through few stages until I got... Uh... GOT...? Apparently... Which is another thing I'd like to point out. It might sound good on google translate but
in all seriousness, it sounds just dumb and nonsensical in english even though we understand what it means. Proper term would be "Don't get caught!"
I wouldn't bring this one up otherwise but you're asking money for the game so I'm bit more critical about things like these than usual.

However, one huge pro goes to the music. It's catchy and pleasing to listen to thus far even though I've heard only one track.

 

[Razzie.P]

Though it was really confusing at first to figure out that A shoots left and B shoots right which is... Uh...

Sorry to hear it wasn't to your liking, but thanks for checking it out and taking the time to comment.


On the line that I quoted, those are reversed. B shoots left and A shoots right. Maybe it was a typo, but if they're actually shooting in reverse like you mentioned, I can imagine that would feel pretty weird.

Regarding the one pro that you mentioned -- CutterCross did an amazing job (in my opinion) on the entire soundtrack. If you'd like to check out the rest of the tracks without suffering through a game that you don't dig, he has them all posted on Soundcloud

 

[omniretro]

I tend to enjoy simple games that are easy to pick up, so this is right up my alley! I've not finished it yet (I'm a couple screens into the garden) but so far I'm really enjoying it.

I gather that this is done and finished and you aren't looking to make revisions, but if you're interested at least in some notes:

I actually don't mind the fact that the slingshot is ineffective without coffee, but if it were up to me, I'd just make the slingshot inaccessible entirely unless you have coffee. That'd be less likely to confuse people who didn't read the manual (though I did, and it was nicely done) or otherwise just don't realize that most enemies aren't affected by the slingshot unless you're in caffeinated mode.

I loved watching players approach a situation in different ways, often working to find a path around, while I'm thinking "shoulda just shot that thang..."

You'll be happy to know this exact thing happened with me when I realized I could just shoot Batty Batterson.

For what it's worth, the A and B thing didn't bother me at all once I figured it out.

Speaking of the name of that enemy, I really liked the instruction manual, too. With games like this that exist only as ROMs, having little touches like that are neat.

All in all, a simple but enjoyable game. I like it.

 

[omniretro]

I did play through few stages until I got... Uh... GOT...? Apparently... Which is another thing I'd like to point out. It might sound good on google translate but
in all seriousness, it sounds just dumb and nonsensical in english even though we understand what it means. Proper term would be "Don't get caught!"
I wouldn't bring this one up otherwise but you're asking money for the game so I'm bit more critical about things like these than usual.

I can't speak for the developer here, but my impression was that "don't get got" wasn't a mistranslation, but rather a reference to the slang phrase "get got," which, to quote Urban Dictionary, means "killed; attacked; some sort of hostile action done to a person."

 

[Razzie.P]

I can't speak for the developer here, but my impression was that "don't get got" wasn't a mistranslation, but rather a reference to the slang phrase "get got," which, to quote Urban Dictionary, means "killed; attacked; some sort of hostile action done to a person."

Yep, you nailed it!

I’ve always loved when writers sprinkle in bits of slang, unique dialect, vernacular, ect, when adding a wee bit of whimsy and/or flavor to the voice of characters.


Those old Carl Barks comics were the best for that sort of thing!
Gawrsh!
Muh biskits is a burnin’! (his ass was on fire)
Give ‘im whut fer! (about to throw a whoopin’ on somebody)