A Sneak Peek at Monkey Shines 2 - Gorilla Warfare         All images remain the property of Fantasoft Software and may not be reproduced in any way The following is based on a 'pre-alpha' version of MS2 : Gorilla Warfare and subject to change Work is well under way for what is shaping up to be one heck of a game - combining all that was great with the original Monkey Shines, with all new action, new worlds and more. I've been fortunate to become part of the development team for MS2 (my official role is that of 'level design') and Fantasoft have generously agreed to me letting you in on a few of the secrets surrounding MS2. So what follows, is a few of the things I'm allowed to tell you at this stage...plus a few things I'm not meant to be telling ;-) MS2 features an all-new monkey (Darwin) fighting his way through 5 all-new worlds. The loose theme running through these worlds is that of 'Time Travel'...starting in a prehistoric world, Darwin will work his way up to a futuristic world in level 5 (Mark has a real cool idea for Level 5's name, but we're having to check on a few things there!?). The 'look' to MS2 is quite different than MS1, with new Graphic Artists on board. Nik Mikros (of Flying Mikros Interactive) is developing the artwork for MS2 and is being ably assisted by Joe Dellinger, who is doing a lot of the 3D modelling. MS2 is looking superb in these early stages. Download (and register) "Alien Attack" from Fantasoft, if you want to see more of Nik's work. But I'm sure what you really want to know is about game-play... Ultra-smooth scrolling at 60 frames per second on most current machines, but due to techniques used in our sprite engine, the game will still be smooth and feel as fast on slower machines (including acceptable performance on 68040 Macs), so it is likely (but not promised) to work on 68K machines The Monkey will be able to throw bananas at the 'baddies' A 'run' button will allow the monkey to speed across screens...but at a price. Running will make him tired. Springy platforms will be included, so that the monkey can 'trampoline' off these and jump at great heights Baddies will be much more intelligent than before, and will be able to appear when you least expect it!! The cool new startup screen...note the banana clip-belt!!   What I'm not allowed to tell you... The game will have some intelligent twists to it. The monkey will get stuck walking against the direction a conveyor belt is turning in. You'll need to use the "run" button to build up that extra speed to get across it. Sprites are set to appear in the most unexpected places. Not every sprite will be on-screen when you first arrive!! One of the machines I test GW on is at school (running AtEase so no-one can pinch it!) and a few kids have caught me testing it. They love what they see and think the banana throwing "rocks" (that means it's really cool by the way). If you haven't realised, the game's title is a pun (play on words) of Guerilla Warfare. I thought that one up and I'm rather proud of it ;-) The 'Options' screen is totally cool, with neat images!! Note how each option lights up with the cursor over it Specially for authors (Yes...there will be a Level Editor released)... Sprites are now sized 48 by 48 pixels (as is the monkey) Hazards and platforms will be 24 by 24 pixels Coding sprites will be quite different and "hot spot" events will be able to be set Pict 130 is being split into 3 sections!!!! Since I'm going to be using the editor quite a bit, I'll try and get some cool features added to it A quick glimpse at an early version of the monkey's banana-throwing skills (I had to do quite a bit of cutting and pasting to put this together, so it's not perfect). Bananas actually bounce off walls if they don't find their target. And that's it I'm afraid :-( There is so much more I want to tell you, but can't. I promise to twist a few arms and fill you in more as MS2 progresses. I hope you've enjoyed this look at Monkey Shines 2. It is really going to be awesome!!

Last Updated : Tuesday, 4 January 2000