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who says a lady can't slay a few monsters? (JILLOJUN)

 
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dessgeega
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PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2008 3:25 am    Post subject: who says a lady can't slay a few monsters? (JILLOJUN) Reply with quote

in the early days of shareware, the publisher currently known as epic games was a fledgling shareware house with the more colorful name of epic megagames. (and before that, they were potomac computer systems. but that's not today's story.) they'd had a few modest commercial successes and were ready for a big one. that would come, they hoped, in the form of a new platform game called "jill of the jungle".

jill of the jungle, more than anything, embodies the philosophy of the epic megagames of the day: what they aspired to provide, and advertised, was a console experience on the home pc. jill would be everything the home videogame console represented to them: a platformer, bright, colorful, loud and beautiful. it would have bombastic sound effects and gorgeous music. it would have character. it would feel like an adventure.

for the sake of a little videogame history, i'm going to be documenting the three games in the jill trilogy - jill of the jungle, jill goes underground, and jill saves the prince - in this thread. things to look out for: tim sweeney was fresh from his ascii-based zzt games, and much of his design philosophy carried over from those games to this. for example, tim favored the use of doors and keys (which can be collected in any order) to provide a sense of choice in a larger linear game progression.

also note the way the game changes over the course of the three episodes. while the first, shareware episode sets out simply to establish what the game is, the second episode (jill goes underground) is a more conceptual exploration of the possibilities and limitations of the game's engine, ultimately arriving at the final episode (jill saves the prince), which features the most ambitious and layered design in the series. there's a real sense of the author exploring and coming to master his own tools.

(and there must be an editor, one that resembles zzt's. wouldn't it be great if epic released that editor after all these years?)

there's a real playfulness to the level design. the levels are full of signs and comments, scrawled into the margins like liner notes. you can find numerous places where tim signed his name in game elements. there's a sense, i've said, of the artist exploring his craft.

one more thing to keep in mind: each episode in the series approaches the idea of the "world map" in a different way. the first episode features a hub world which is itself a another level of the game, with a door leading to each of the proper levels. the second eschews the map entirely, linking every level together tail-to-mouth in a long chain. and the third has a scrolling overhead map, clearly in the style of super mario bros. 3.

today, the first of those episodes: jill of the jungle.



jill (the episode) is the shareware episode: players could download it off bbses or get it off of shareware disks, and were encouraged to give copies to their friends. if they liked the game, they could purchase the remaining two episodes in the series.





here's the main menu, complete with big-pixel portrait of jill. the high score table, when the game is first played, reads "LOOK OUT WORLD HERE COMES EPIC MEGA GAMES".



story screen! "WHO SAYS A LADY CAN'T SLAY A FEW MONSTERS?"



here's the first screen you'll see upon starting the game. this is the world map, the hub level that joins all the other levels. on the right you can see a lock; each of these can only be opened with a gem. there's one floating on the left, and we learn our first lesson about playing jill of the jungle.





the number one on the right indicates the first stage:





here we are. on that stone platform is a knife, our first weapon. the knife is an interesting and nuanced weapon: when thrown, it functions like a boomerang, finding its way back to jill. you can maneuver jill to make the knife slide around corners and catch enemies who might otherwise be out of range.



here's our first enemy, the humble firebird.



similiar to gems in zzt, apples provide both health and points. they serve not only as guides (as in super mario bros.) but as rewards and bonuses tucked in out-of-the-way places.



that undulating EPIC is worth quite a few points.



hmm. how do i get over there?



another enemy, the alligator. no trouble at all.



unlike these guys. the frog is one of the trickiest opponents in the game: it rests low on the ground below the range of jill's knife, and can only be killed while it's jumping.



after bounding through some boulders, we come to the obvious exit. but...



there's a hidden path down there. it's going to require squeezing through those spikes, though. note: cleavage.



below, a hidden chamber. small spinning enemies slide up and down those chains.



climb.



a secret area! there are going to be a lot of these.



back on the jungle map, we can proceed to level two: the forest.





here jill's being chased by bees, another tricky enemy: they can't be harmed, and always move toward jill. also: shiny ant.



a small cave, but what's that wisp of vine at the top of the screen?



in the cave: lava and falling spikes.



this key will open the locked door below, leading back to the map.



but what's this up here?



this item makes us jump higher!



now we can go back and reach that vine at the entrance to the cave.



a secret area, full of ants and apples.



back on the map we're given a key.



which will open the door to this hut.



to get into the dungeon, we'll need two gems. there are three levels to visit here, each of which contains a gem. we only need two, but something good might happen if we collect all three.



let's start with level three: the hut.



this level is based around avoiding, rather than fighting, monsters.



elevators in this game are solid platforms, and will eventually be used as puzzle elements.



torches spew dangerous flames periodically.



a rolling boulder.



and crabs, a climbing enemy.



these ghosts, an obvious pac-man homage, patrol this part of the level.



because elevators function as both lifts and walls, there's only one possible route through this area. later levels will capitalize on these properties even more.



this key will open the way to the third and last stretch of the level.



crabs, boulders and torches. the last stretch of the level is easily the hardest.



the final key is at the top of this ziggurat of crabs.



uh oh.



i died! jill crumbles to a skeleton.



this time i make it, and retrieve a gem from this cackling skull. the hole leads back to the map.



jill gets sassy if you keep her waiting too long.



up here is level seven, the forest. the other levels are around here somewhere.



in this level we receive jill's other weapon: the spinning blade. this weapon, aside from bouncing around in a viscerally satisfying way, is useful because it travels down rather than forward when thrown - allowing jill to attack the ground enemies who are below the reach of her knife. also note the gorgeous vga sunset.



not actually much of a forest, most of this level is spent in a cave under a waterfall.



that water is dangerous: jill can't swim. (not while she's human, at least.)



in the center of the cave we find a high jump power-up...



...allowing us to climb the cliff to the left of the starting area.



ADVICE.



the eyes follow jill as she passes.



what could be down here, protected by all these firebirds?



"ZZZZZZZT" (zzt!) this magic symbol introduces us to the first of jill's transformations: a firebird.



as a firebird, jill can shoot fireballs at enemies. she can also fly!



now we can go up.





hmm, what's up here?





AHA.



these "JILL" icons turn us back to human form. with a "FOOF!"





down here we find the next gem we need.



and the last stage outside the dungeon is stage six, the castle.



the gem is right next to us when we start the level, but it's locked behind a door.



entering the castle proper, this wall seals behind us. we're trapped!



the only way out is to find the keys that will open those doors. this level is actually based around jumping puzzles and features no combat. it is a good introduction to the fixed height of jill's jump.





tricky! if you jump from too high a platform, jill will actually land on the platform above the key rather than on it (because of the fixed height of her jump.)



to unlock the door or not?



if you don't take the door, this wall actually closes behind you, forcing you to find a key for that door in addition to the one to escape the castle! it balances out!









on the battlements of the tower we at last find the key to that first door.





onward to the dungeon.





but first...

that extra gem we collected allows us access to the secret bonus stage.





a vine maze.





and here's the bonus level.



a pyramid of apples.





at the top of these bridges...



...there's a key.



and a switch.





the key lets us grab a ridiculous three high jump power-ups.



there. that's how i'm going to get up there.





back on the map, we get a handy high jump.



now back to the dungeon.



in arg's dungeon we discover a handy new use for our throwing blade.



it can cut through these stone blocks!



this area is full of elevators, but the blocks need to be cleared out of the way if you want to use them.







the key to exit arg's dungeon, at last.



another bonus?



hmm, but the way seems blocked.



here are the next two levels: the phoenix maze and the knight's puzzle.



as you might expect, the phoenix maze requires jill to transform into the firebird.



four keys are required to exit. that switch opens the way to the maze. that's a little touch i like: instead of just dropping us into the level, the author requires us to engage with the game to open the way into the maze ourselves.





HINT.



unsurpisingly, the phoenix maze is a big labyrinth jill needs to navigate as the firebird. it's even patrolled by ghosts!









woo! falling!



and there's our gem.



next is the knight's puzzle.



the puzzle is that those knights will kill jill...IF their axes are down.



the switches make the knights raise their axes. each switch affects one of the knights.









in this next part of the puzzle, each switch turns a single gate on or off. easy.



last part, we're destroying blocks and collecting keys. but those blue blocks and fading in and out of the screen, and they're only safe to stand on when they're visible. this isn't close to the last we'll see of them.





with the two gems in hand, we can leave the dungeon.



if you've gotten the high jump (completed the bonus stage), you can skip level eleven. we're not going to, of course.



you can also head up here.



hmm, a switch. I WONDER.



yes, the gate to the dungeon bonus area is open.



tim's signature. if you're a painter, you sign a portrait. if you're a game developer, you sign a world.



level eleven is the creepy forest. you're forced to start this stage from the beginning if you die, and spikes are everywhere.



scary thing in the water. what's below the forest?



SCARYVILLE.





this switch opens a bridge back to the other side of the pond.



this little waterfall cave is one of the neatest bits of architecture in the first episode.



with the key we find at the edge of the forest, we can pass through the waterfall cave back to the place we came from.



key in hand, we can now leave.



under this castle...



are the last two levels.



level twelve is the underground river. time to start collecting gems.



here we're introduced to the second of jill's transformations...



the fish. "KABOOM!" is apparently the sound of transforming into a fish.



the fish is capable of firing fish shots. also SWIMMING.



watch out for jellyfish.



and collect those gems!



this is actually a fairly layered level. you have to collect half the gems as jill, the other half as jill-fish.



there we are.



slugs!





this gem's ours to keep, then back to the map.







a giant, inexplicable M drops out of nowhere. startling but harmless. later we'll see where it comes from.



climbing a tower full of ants.



this puzzle is actually based around transformation, and here is the last of jill's transformations: the frog.



note how the frog's two verbs are "HOP" and "LEAP". cute.





these flags are worth points if you touch them. at the top, a gem.



with wings, we can travel up here.







back to the map with the final gem.



past here is the last level in the game:



the plateau.



notice those background tiles, unique to this level in the entire episode. we'll see them again.



a reflection.









jumping up from this stone platform, we reach...







this is what the kids call "machinima" these days:



an animated scene scripted entirely using the game engine.







flying through space, jill arrives at...











...a strange mushroom grove.







JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS OVER.



look out world, here comes epic megagames. the first episode is concluded, a basic romp through the mechanics of the game. there's some neat stuff going on in this episode, design-wise, but as it's the shareware episode of the trilogy it's fairly conservative. much more interesting stuff begins to happen when we dig into the next episode.



hey, a high score.



the noisemaker screen is a neat little way to play with the game's sound effects - and there are some great ones, from the YEAAH! that plays when jill collects a key to the gutteral AAHAHA that mocks you when she dies. my one regret is that i can't capture the game's music in these screenshots; it's all beautifully composed and often a bit haunting.



a few more screens for posterity.





"thank you for joining us on our journey." i probably don't need to tell you what a journey epic took from this humble shareware platformer, or where they ended up. these are the first steps, right here. this is history.
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Intentionally Wrong
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PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2008 10:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

What's "turtle"?
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PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2008 8:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Man, I remember those damn flame birds. Like, just seeing them in a screenshot sent nostalgia flooding back in.
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PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2008 10:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

that's uncanny -- this evening my mom was talking about this game, how i used to sit and watch my brother play it.

i remember being afraid of the phoenix maze. it was so confusing and claustrophobic.
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Harveyjames
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PostPosted: Tue May 20, 2008 7:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I just remember the design of Jill being too overtly sexual for my delicate 9-year-old sensibilites. Her bum wiggles about when she climbs ropes!
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PostPosted: Tue May 20, 2008 11:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you make her duck, you can totally see down her top!

I had a great time with the first game when I was younger, I tried playing it again recently and it wasn't as playable as I remembe but still pretty fun. I never tried the others in the trilogy. I look forward to Dess documenting them! That mushroom place weirded me the hell out.

The version of Jill I have seems to have cut out all the punches thrown at other games Sad I remember reading the Keen one as a child and being all like NO WAY, KEEN WOULDN'T GET BEAT BY A GIRL.

Also, every 5th banner is a Jill one.
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PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2008 2:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Intentionally Wrong wrote:
What's "turtle"?


it makes the game run more slowly, presumably for if it runs too fast on your computer.

shaper and i were talking about why imagery like the firebird and the space mushrooms stuck out in his mind after so many years when none of the levels or situations did. we decided it was the result of the bizarre choices the developers made in trying to replicate an 8-bit aesthetic on a platform with a deeper color range, richer audio, and fewer of the limitations that affected the games that inspired them. that's why the first enemy you encounter is a living, moving gradient.

jill goes underground is the second and easily most interesting episode in the series. having established the fundamental elements of jill in the first episode, tim used the second episode as an opportunity to explore more conceptual level design that really articulates the nuances of the game engine. the entire game is an almost entirely linear string of loosely-connected setpieces. there's no world map, just a progression from one videogamey situation to the next, from starlight to daylight.



the menu for jill goes underground. note that jill's outfit changes color in each episode: this time it's flame red.



the story so far!



we begin where the first game left off: in the mushroom grove.



the giant purple mushrooms are inhabited by these bunnies, who behave similiarly to frogs. their one and only appearance!



we start by scaling this small mushroom.



the episode starts by reintroducing us to the first rule of jill: find gems to unlock doors.



now we get to climb the big mushroom.





high in the night sky, we find this suspicious-looking switch. i wonder what it does?







and with that little bit of exposition - which we played through ourselves, remember - our new quest begins. the quest: through the underground and out the other side.



here's where we start. do those background tiles look familiar? we'll see them again!



a key, a door, a weapon, an enemy. and vines. this is a quick little refresher on all the basics of jill of the jungle.







one level leads right into the next, you see. the number blocks in this episode function as checkpoints, the markers jill returns to when she dies.





vine jumping over spikes.



and a doorway to the next area of the underground: montezuma's castle.



montezuma's castle opens with this neat little bit where you must position jill carefully to avoid getting tagged by firebirds. the design of this puzzle is based around an intrinsic understanding of jill's collision size and the way jump-through platforms work that isn't as much in evidence in the first game. the kind of design will become a characteristic of this episode.











the combination of jump-through platforms and jill's fixed jump height creates platform mazes.



between patrolling ghosts.



the return of the disappearing block. they're used extensively throughout this episode, as tim methodically explores all the ramifications of their behavior. this climb is a gentle introduction: after this, prepare to see spikes underneath.



these little guys like to spit flames.



here we go.



this is a far longer climb.



phew!



at the top, this switch...



creates a solid platform to stand on.



another mystery M.



some simple switches and gates.



and more disappearing blocks.









not this one.



high jump! again, these spikes are perfectly positioned along the arc of jill's fixed-height jump.





switches are used much more extensively in this episode.













uh oh.



heck is the most grueling part of the episode. that's because of the inhabitants. those triple blades should serve as foreboding.



demons! they fly, they shoot fireballs at jill - often in huge quantities - and they take many hits to kill. there are a ludicrous number of them heck, and you will die a few times before you manage to kill enough to pass.



burnt to ash. note that neat little castle built out of black tiles.



slaying a demon.



deciding discretion is the better part of valor.





finally, the exit from the demon fields...



and down into this. a giant maze of breakable blocks and keys that must be collected. note that the larger blocks can't be destroyed, so even if you break all the blocks platforms remain for you to use to get around.







uh oh.



that was excessive.



finally!





the red puzzle is actually a giant switch puzzle. it introduces a new mechanic: getting other things to hit switches for you!





that platform also means that boulder can reach us now.



now the boulder's out of the way.



more manipulation of boulders.



we need to get that boulder down so it'll hit that yellow switch and open the way.













next: the waterworld.



the waterworld is predictably wet.







a new enemy: these balls simply bounce up and down. here we need to jump over it; most of the time we need to run under them, and frequently they're paired.



six gates.



and six switches. we need to open all the gates, but we can only see the state of three of them initially. so we have to open the ones we know, drop down and check the state of the rest, then open the ones that are still closed.



this switch creates a bridge way back at the entrance.





underwater!







we'll finish the level as a fish.



doors!



keys!



many apples are placed just out of the water so fish-jill has to jump into the air and get them.







this is the "demonic maze": the first genuinely branching area.



we need four keys hidden in four sections of the level.



the leftmost: THE DEMON'S HIDEOUT.



AHHHH.



phew.



AHHHH.



the next section is just a long tunnel of enemies and apples. but it also contains...



...THE COMPLETE EPIC MEGAGAMES LOGO. finally.



and an inexplicable falling S.



the third section is a big maze.



there are numerous paths to choose from. the number blocks are here used to keep track of how many levels deep in the maze you are.



some playtester spent hours searching this maze for all four keys.



dead end.







at last.



these periodic notes really give a sense of the author's character and presence. that's rare in contemporary game design - you get the sense tim was really having fun playing with the editor.



the last key, hilariously, is guarded by a single firebird.





ADVERTISE.



next: the bonus level.



as you can see, you're free to leave the bonus level at any time.



the bonus level is full of score-granting apples suspended over tiny platforms. fall and you'll have to start the whole thing over.





low ceiling!



completed!







welcome to the land of eternal weirdness. this place epitomizes episode two's philosophy of design over theme. interesting to watch in this level: the way background tiles are used out of their original context to create interesting-looking repeating wall textures.



WINNERS DON'T LOSE FROGS. these frogs turn the gates on and off as they hop. currently, i'm stuck in one.



those are strips from the sunset in episode one, if you didn't notice.



OH BOY.





these switches activate at a touch: as you pass them by, you have to make sure you leave them in the "open" position.





the real elevator maze. remember, elevators function as walls when they're extended.





check out those tiled sunsets.



this firebird opens and closes gates as it flaps back and forth. you can use the switches to block it off from bumpers.







i love this level. jill must jump back and forth over spike-topped walls, collecting high-jump power-ups that let her jump over taller spike-topped walls.







eventually she can jump high enough to catch the vines at the top of the level.



in this area, jill must search for keys while dodging firebirds.





whoa!











jill must collect four keys while she plummets down this narrow shaft.



...and not fall into the lava at the bottom.





this is the episode's final challenge: four keys again hidden in four chambers.



the first one's in an obstacle course of bumpers. you don't want to touch that one above the lava.



next: the bat hangar.





how can i possibly get that gem in the deadly lava, though?



the third key is guarded by this tiny bouncing ball.



and the last one's hidden in a jumping maze.



when you collect the key, this gate closes, forcing you to find another way out.



now that i've got all the keys, i can...



...transform into the firebird! you fall into this pool of lava first thing upon changing, teaching you that the firebird can travel in lava safely.



now i can collect those gems. this is really a cleverly-layered area.



at last, the end. i really admire this part: as you collect high-jumps, they allow you to jump higher and higher, allowing you to read text that indicates you are getting closer and closer to the surface. it's such a perfect way to connect gameplay with storytelling.





















STAY TUNED FOR THE MIND-BOGGLING CONCLUSION.



my second-highest score, again.

next: the return to the jungle, and the conclusion of the series.
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PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2008 3:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

wow you sure do have a lot of time now dont you
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PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2008 3:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I agree, I like the way they use text!
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PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2008 4:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

No janis thorns.


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PostPosted: Fri May 23, 2008 4:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

jill saves the prince is the final episode in the jill triology, and a cute inversion of the then-common (and still-common) game story trope of a male hero rescuing a princess from captivity. episode three returns to the jungle setting of episode one, but with the deeper understanding of the game engine afforded by the formal explorations of jill goes underground.

the final episode's design is the most ambitious of the series: the levels often attempt to evoke real architecture: places, not just platforms. they're also the most complex and interestingly-shaped levels in jill. they often like to show the player somewhere she can't reach, then give her the means to reach it shortly after. this trick is often attributed to shigeru miyamoto, whose super mario is one of the obvious inspirations for jill.

here, now, among the green of the trees, above the blue of the water, beneath the red of the sunset: jill's final adventure in the jungle. (not counting epic pinball's "jungle" table.)



the menu screen shows jill on castle parapets. you can just make out the color she's wearing this episode: ocean blue.



the threat of industrialization looms over the jungle. rescuing the prince will somehow foil the lizardmen's plans.



as you can see, this episode has a top-down map, with a tiny jill sprite plodding across it. recognize that tileset? it's the background from episode one's plateau, serving its final duty as a map of the jungle. the little huts are levels.



the first level, the valley, is a smart little reintroduction to the game.



that knife is too high for jill to jump to. show the player something she can't reach.



that ledge is too far to reach, too, but jump for it...



...and you'll fall...



...into this little tunnel. discovery! this is smart level design.









now we get our knife.



and these treetops lead us over to that ledge.





a closed gate. but what's down here?















back to the jungle.



the first rule of jill: find gems to open doors. look what a cute little bridge this is.



here in the village we'll find our gem.



and here's our first traditional locked door, right away.



the village is mostly about reacquainting yourself with the way jill moves as you dodge enemies.



climbing a structure clearly meant to suggest a bell tower.



at the top, naturally, is a demon. uh oh!



this isn't a fight, though. this is an invitation to run away.



at the top of the tower.



running away!





dodging green bouncing balls.



the key.



if you jump up here while backtracking...



...you'll find some bonus apples.



with key in hand we get our gem.





the level on the river is actually "the dam."





a considerable step up from "jill bounds through the boulders," the juxtaposition of water and rock in this level does a believable job of creating the image of a dam.



the ledge on the left, again, is too high to reach. but we can hop across the stones in that stream.







a suspicious hole.









down this shaft we collect a high-jump power-up.



now we can reach that ledge! i like the way the small splashes of blue and red in this level offset the predominant grey of the environment.



another too-small space.







only the horizontal water tiles kill jill, so we're actually able to go under the water here. a cute trick on tim's part.











as a firebird, jill can fit through that small space.



and continue up into the sky. the water here serves as a nice natural boundary to the firebird's movement.



BEES.



and the exit, high over the dam.





this optional stage serves to establish the lizardmen as villians.





the lizardmen march back and forth across the decks of their ship. you're given no weapons to fight them, so this level consists mostly of running and hiding from lizardmen as you collect the keys that will let you escape.













note how tiles are arranged in shapes to suggest architecture.





a cute little "rowboat" tethered to the larger ship.



after spending a level running from lizardmen, we're free. we won't see the lizardmen again until the very end of the game, and then we'll be allowed to fight back against them.

there are a handful of levels strewn across this part of the map that we can solve in any order.



here's THE AERIE. another interestingly-shaped level: we start in the middle, the exit is on the right, but we need to gather keys from the left in order to get there.





"the weird and wild world..."



"...of epic games."







now down the other side!



there are elevators all over the ground on the right side that will take us to little bonuses in the air.



the new epic logo is made of big, bright, spinning letters.



next up: the secret forest.















now we have a key that will let us deeper into the forest, but we're underground, and we can't go back the way we came.



aha!









and that takes us back to the beginning of the level, key in hand. interestingly-shaped levels!







TEMPTING APPLES.



but not that tempting.





next is the aqueduct, which really conveys a nice sense of structure.







cute.





frogs!











with three gems collected, we can cross the bridge to the next area, which contains more "puzzle" sorts of levels.



again, these three levels can be completed in any order. we'll start with the MEGA PUZZLE.



uh oh! disappearing blocks in their final appearance!



here's a somewhat new enemy: a green bouncing block being orbited by a red block.



HARRUMPH. i guess we need a key.



ah.





tim really got the timing of these things down perfectly while building jill goes underground: this section is perfectly paced.





KEY.



the shaft is just the right length that you can drop straight from the top to the bottom of it without the blocks reappearing while you're in mid-air.





EPIC MEGA, but i can't quite reach it!



a sly little ZZT.







HEY WHAT THE.







a nice little reward for finishing the level.



the pyramid puzzle is another puzzle revolving around transformations, like the one in the first episode.



we can see outside the pyramid, but we'll need a gem to get there.



water.





on the far side of the water, frog-jill can grab a throwing blade.





the switch and key open the way to our next transformation.





now we can fly to the top of the pyramid and find the gem at last.



this is neat: now that we've explored the interior of the pyramid, we get to explore the exterior of it. the exit's on the far side, and we'll have to climb up and over it to get there.





this level really draws attention to that nice sky gradient.







next is the jail.



the jail starts with jill stuck in this tricky situation.



whew!



oh, you went right? HAVE TO GO BACK.





jill has to turn into the firebird to get past the "guard".



the firebird is not immune to those fires.



and a fish for the next section of the level.





now we're breaking out of the jail through a secret underground tunnel. you can really see that tim put thought into the narrative shape of these levels that wasn't present in the first episode of jill.



at the far end of this stream is a throwing blade. the tricky thing about this level is that it's fairly linear, and dying means going all the way back to the beginning. most levels, the aerie for instance, start jill out in the middle and travel first one way and then the other, so death rarely forces you to repeat much. dying here tosses you back into the jail.





this level requires you to use a skill that you've never been forced to use before: jumping off of ropes rather than merely letting go of them.



yikes.



you ascend from the tunnel up what is clearly intended to be a well. i love this stuff.





this final, huge room is full of switches.



which control the four gates leading out of the jail, two of them already open.



fiddling with this one, you learn that "down" is the "open" position. now just to find the one remaining switch in the "up" position and flip it. it's an exercise that rewards observation a little bit more than the usual key-fetching.



got it.



cute: the flags are positioned so that it looks like the knights are holding them.



the last gate opens as you approach.



and the bridge collapses the moment you take your foot off it. ha!



freedom! i really like the little narrative scope which plays out in this level.



nice little reflection.



those gems allow us to enter this little maze.



but we need one more!





"level eleven!" near the end of the episode, we abandon the premise of themed levels to explore just a few more abstract level concepts.





CAVE OF FROGS!











this part is neat in that the goal is to descend to the lowest place.



once we have our key...



..we can just jump back up!





demons!



you can stand and fight them, but if you choose to run past them, odds are you'll make it out with just a hit or two left. which makes the subsequent sections pleasingly tense.





can you spot the frog in this picture? there's a bunch of frogs in this area, visible just by their beady red eyes.



dodging bouncing balls. remember, the demons only left us with a sliver of health.





AAAH.





the exit. this laughing skull is actually unique to this level.



now we can proceed to...





um.



whee!



this episode, the penultimate in the series, is themed around jumping between lots of small platforms.



sometimes with spikes.









arriving at somewhere we saw earlier but couldn't reach. these little threads draw the level together.



here the path branches four ways.



we need four keys to leave.



neat visual patterns like these keep the platforms from blending together.



here's our first key. "EPIC RULES"













if you jump from here you will die. a cute little bit of design sadism.





precision jumping with ants.





the slug ladder. the last key is at the top.



the quick way down!



i've got all the keys, but what's this over here?







a nice little bonus area before the end of the game.













the last level is appropriately ominous, and has a strong sense of architecture to it, especially after the last two loosely-themed levels.









you'll get this message if you try to attack a knight.





up on the parapets!



the sense of dread in this level is reinforced by the predominance of the same dark tones, though the textures vary quite a bit.





tip: don't go down that hole.











psyche! this will absolutely kill you the first time you encounter it, but you won't mind because it's such a clever bit of design.





outside the castle. we'll need to transform into the frog one last time to find the key.







little bonuses hidden under and across the water.









weapons!



the lizardmen at last! unlike the last time we met them, when we were forced to run from them, this time we're armed. it's an inversion that provides a satisfying sense of narrative closure. the first part of the castle is the harder part; this second part feels much more like a winding down.











this is a satisfying little sequence too.



bridges and bouncing balls. each switch drops a bridge, putting another bouncing ball in your path as you run back and forth between switches.











at last, the prince. but his cell is locked with a gem. there's only one place left to explore: the castle parapets.



or you could choose to leave the level without the prince.







HMM.



AHA.



lots of frogs.







a switch and a gate.







the end of the world.



and the gem.



a flip of the switch opens the prince's cell.



so epic licensed the jill engine to a christian developer called onesimus: a quest for freedom. the prince is actually a recolored version of onesimus's sprite.













high score!

thus ends jill's journey. epic's, on the other hand, was only beginning. jill would prove the success they were looking for, and would allow them to fund future projects, including a first-person shooter called "unreal." there is no longer a "mega" in epic games.
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aderack
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PostPosted: Fri May 23, 2008 10:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That's a lot of images, there.
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Harveyjames
the meteor kid
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PostPosted: Fri May 23, 2008 10:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's these kind of insights that cement Eric-Jon's position as one of the leading lights of New Games Journalism.
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D-A-I-S
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PostPosted: Fri May 23, 2008 11:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Would you be willing to do Xargon as an encore?
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dessgeega
loves your favorite videogame
loves your favorite videogame


Joined: 16 Jun 2005
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PostPosted: Sat May 24, 2008 2:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

xargon never appealed to me, not just because of how it's just jill with a masculinized iconography but because of how seriously it takes itself, how polished it is, how bland. there are none of the interesting design choices and strange compromises that make jill, for me, so memorable. the game just doesn't tell that same story of an artist mapping out the raw possibility-space that surrounds him, he's just covering ground that's already been explored.
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parkbench
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PostPosted: Tue May 27, 2008 11:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't know how interesting this would be after you just played through and documented this, but hey--thought I'd drop it just in case it was of use to anyone.

edit: on second thought the guy uhm isn't funny. but you can mute it.
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Harveyjames
the meteor kid
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PostPosted: Wed May 28, 2008 6:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah I really wanted to watch the Let's Play La Mulana thing, but the guy doing it was an unfunny faggot D:
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daphaknee
just enemies now
just enemies now


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PostPosted: Wed May 28, 2008 7:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Harveyjames wrote:
but the guy doing it was an unfunny faggot D:


i really really really wish people who made lets plays stopped trying to be funny i seriously cant watch 90 percent of them
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Winged Assassins (1984)
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PostPosted: Wed May 28, 2008 7:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I wish people who add commentary didn't have nerd voices. Either learn to not sound like a nerd or get someone who isn't one to talk over the game and drown out the original musical score.
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