The Count's Party: Guest #0

[The Count]

Well, I explained the developmental skematics for this idea in my previous thread, but it seems that noone wants to respond. I know you guys are out there listening, so I'll post and you just listen. If there are any comments or suggestions you'd like to make, go ahead and do so; it can only make this thread all the better.

Guest & Number: Señor Zero (SS), Small marble 0.
Room/Area: Aztec Chamber.
Enemies: Piñatas: There are two kinds of orange oval-balloon shaped Piñatas. The first drop robotic soldiers whose hats, uniforms, and boots are blue; arms and legs smoky gray; and hands and laser rifles white-gray. The second throw out a small white orb that explodes on contact.
Jalapeño Poppers: Brown-red pepper shaped robots with white metallic Muppet-like orb eyes and a red stalk as a fuse. They pop out from underground and either explode immediately or move closer for greater impact. Upon exploding, the main body launches two smaller pepper bombs in arcs to the left and right.
Sun Discs: Golden sundisc coins with imposing faces on them. Their eyes open in order to shoot two golden lasers.
Boss Ghost: Fiesta Ghost: An oversized orbital spinning sombrero who drops the round, red fuzzy balls on its rim as miniature explosives.
Level Layout: Señor Zero enters the room through a black door marked by blue-gray blocks. The backwalls are a light yellow-brownish color featuring a design of three black bricks placed in the following order- one short brick connected edge-to-edge above a long brick connected in the same fashion to another short brick above it. Thin red-brown posts separate the wall into panelled sections. The sidewalls, ceiling and floor are of a brown rocky surface due to this room being underground. Starting at the door and scrolling from left to right, you'll find a soldier-dropping Piñata, Jalapeño Popper, and another soldier-dropping Piñata. These Piñatas are seen hanging from the ceiling and must be destroyed along with its soldiers, otherwise more will keep dropping from the sky periodically. Drop down a short ways to take out another soldiered Piñata, and then quickly move over to the platform at the left. You'll start a long descent down this shaft by jumping from side to side, thanks to the platforms provided. However, each platform hides the threat of a Jalapeño Popper. In addition, the previous platform shows a bomb-launching Piñata clinging to its underside. Both the Popper and Piñata must be destroyed to avoid multiple explosions taking away much of your life energy during this drop. Once you reach the bottom, a couple of Poppers await before you reach the stairs! The backwall darkens to black, and then to green as you climb a flight of cream adobe steps to reach the Valley of the Suns. At the top, you'll find a circular scaffold supported by thick red-brownish tubes, but be careful not to fall over the edge. Travelling round the rim of the valley, you'll have to take out the sundiscs by blasting their mouths until the face is erased. Go down the second flight of steps and destroy the next Piñata, laidened with soldiers. Use the following platforms to go up a short cliff, cautious of the Poppers and one more bomb-launching Piñata! Rid yourself of the last Popper by making it chase you until it's right at the edge and then jump over it as you watch the spicy flamer fall out of sight. Lastly, climb the few steps to the Fiesta Ghost's room, where you'll have to fight it to regain your marble 0. Once the boss ghost's defeated, you're immediately transported back to the main family room thanks to Mumford's magic.

The Count.

 

[Luke]

I don't get this - it doesn't seem to be very Muppet related does it ? I mean i've never heard of the Muppets being involved with soldiers and bombs.

 

[The Count]

Explanation for Luke

Too True, Luke! Too true! One doesn't really associate soldiers and bombs with the Muppets, unless you consider the ones that Palisades S2 Crazy Harry figure will bring with him. This is my attempt to design a Muppet-based video game one stage at a time. Just to refresh everyone's memory:
All the characters from FR, SS, & TMS and MT have gathered at the Count's castle for an anniversary blowout, bringing with them small marble numbers as gifts. Boss ghosts stole those numbers after overrunning the entire castle and its surrounding areas. Now, it's up to the Muppet family to recover the numbers and reclaim the castle before it's too late! You know that a videogame's different environments always features some sort of enemies and/or obstacles or traps. Thus, I'm creating the game level by level, and in order to do so, I have to fill each area with little goodies or baddies of this nature; hence the soldiers and bombs. I hope this helps you understand my plans for this thread. BTW: The stage for Guest #1 is pending final approval by the frogs to be.

The Count.

 

[The Count]

Kermit The Frog

Here's the game's next level.

Guest & Number: Kermit The Frog (SS, TMS), Small marble 1.
Room/Area: Swampy Moat.
Enemies: Ditzies: Small fairylike beings identified by their white shining lights. Though they're not an actual enemy, they are present in this area.
Willow-The-Wisps: Small fairylike beings identified by their flashing red, blue, or green lights. They infest the second half of the stage more notedly
than the first.
Water Gunboats: Small floating toyboats with a water cannon mounted on their decks.
Thorn Spitters: Gnarled bushes which immediately shoot out thorns in all directions, but mainly in a three-pronged formation.
Water Lillies: These plants look harmless, except for their spinning cerrated leaves.
Whirlpools: They can be found swirling away inside the river areas of this stage.
Gator Gallery: A series of gator-shaped mouths ready to snap out and take away a chunk of your life energy with their bite.
Horned Toads: Small robotic frogs with spike horns on their heads, who jump from one lilypad to the next and back again.
Boss Ghost: Moss Ghost: His main body looks like a bearish blob dotted by clumps of damp moss tied together with vines. He will ensnare you with his thorny
lasso, while draining your life energy, and then he'll hit you with his blasts of swamp liquid.

Level Layout: Kermit appears at the beginning of the stage by exiting a grate on the sidewall of the castle. He mounts a lilypad to begin the lazy river
ride. Clear blue skies with white clouds offer a contrast to the darker medium blue of the river waters and green of the grassy borders. Weeping Willows
dot the riverbanks, but be careful not to hit them with your candle. If so, they'll start crying and the entire stage will be seen as under a rain shower
until reaching the Gator Gallery. Scrolling from left to right, you'll encounter some Water Gunboats who offer no real danger due to the river's relaxed
course. At the end of the first section, the pad slides down a long waterfall and plunges into a shallow pool. Jump off of the pad before hitting the
pool and land on the grass nearby. This will allow you to enter the hidden room in the cave behind the falls. Here, you'll find either Kermit's banjo
or a heart bottle filled with life-replenishing liquid. The Ditzies and Wisps will fly in at random all throughout the stage, just remember which is which
by the color of their flashing lights. If you're sitting on the pad when it plunges after the falls, you'll immediately go on to the next river section,
curving like a mirrored question mark. Now it gets a little tougher! The Lillies can be avoided by swimming in between its bladed leafs, while Thorn
Spitters line both sides of the riverbank. Take them out with your candle when approaching them to be sure they don't stick it to you! If you get caught
in the Whirlpools, a unit of your energy is lost; but it also increases the river's course and the lillies' spinning leaves by one notch. The gator Gallery
is next. The mouths are placed into a brown, wooden headboard at the far end of the riverbank and will snap out in a random order at the pink lilypads.
Time your jumps correctly and make it across to a patch of grass where you can use the vine swing to cross the swamp. An oaken bridge awaits you here
with a loosened floorboard in its center. Fall down and find the other hidden room under the bridge, thus obtaining the other magic item. With his banjo
in hand, Kermit can enchant the enemies into a sleepy trance, thus ridding himself of any danger. Use the vine swing to get back and cross the Gator Gallery
again. Here, a new pad awaits for the next river section, which curves like a correctly shaped question mark. Avoid the spinning lily and Thorn Spitters
to move onto a lilypad leapfrog game with the Horned Toads. These toads will annoy you with their continuous jumping. Take them out, and the Thorn Spitters,
by aiming at the sharp little spikes near their heads. In the final bottleneck river section, you'll find some more Gunboats, until you float into the
fountain pool for the final fight with the boss ghost. Once defeated, the Moss Ghost reverts to a pile of moss plants and Kermit picks up his marble 1
just before being teleported back to the main gathering room with his treasures.

The Killer of Threads, the Count.

 

[The Count]

The Two-Headed Monster

Here's the game's next level!

Guest & Number: The Two-Headed Monster (SS), Small marble 2.
Room/Area: Twin Tower.
Enemies: Icicles: Sharp spiked icicles hanging from the roof of higher ledges.
Iceshooters: Water tanks with a hose positioned to shoot a blast of icy water straight at whatever's in front of it.
Snowballs: Small robots with dark blue bodies and dark brown muffled gloves and boots who throw small snowballs at any intruders.
Snow Serpent: (Midlevel boss) Two-headed serpent covered in lightened dark grayish scales whose heads breathe cold flames of fire and heated waves of ice.
Icemasks: Grayed, ghastly, goalie masks who breathe blasts of cold icy wind at whatever's straight in front of them.
Boss Ghost: Gemini Ghost: His head is a solid, white block of ice! He wears a crown with two spikes divided into shards of white and baby blue. The rest of his body is human-looking, including white-blue gloves and boots, whereas doubled ice chips cover the rest of his frame. Watch out when he splits into two identical beings, for he'll shoot his icicle beam which can freeze anything it touches and bounce off of walls!

Level Layout: The tower is divided in half right down its middle by a solid black wall. If you have Crazy Harry's bomb accessory from another level, you can destroy the wall to cross to the other side; but this will only make the wall creep up one section at a time, and you must go down the tower to find the opening. This shortcut means that you won't have to fight the midlevel boss! The tower features a darkened medium blue backwall with light gray accents and cold, gray stone ledges frosted over with white-blue ice. The Two-Headed Monster enters the room through a black door brimmed by blue-grayish blocks, from which he starts his descent down the tower's first half. The iced ledges have ramps at their ends, but it's not as easy as just sliding down from one side to the other. You must jump as you slide down the ramp to make it across. This is one level where a flaregun weapon comes in handy! Icicles may fall from above from the underside of higher ledges and Iceshooters will shoot their icy water at you as soon as you land on their ledge. Even though the Iceshooters and Icemasks are placed along the walls, their blasts can reach far forward to hit you. Some ledges will present the next danger of the Snowballs. Time your candle's blasts in between the snowballs thrown at you, and the robot will be toast! Upon reaching the bottom, you'll find a large room with no wall division. It is here where the Snow Serpent dwells. Make sure to blast away at the heads when they're not firing. Destroy the fire-shooting head first, and then the ice-shooting head before this serpent reduces the room to rubble! You'll have to climb up the second half of the tower. Here, you'll find more Icicles, Iceshooters, and a new enemy, the Icemasks. Just torch away at any and all enemies in your path as you did during the first half of the level. The iced ledges now feature frosted heads at their end, and a tricky mechanism. True to form with the Two-Headed Monster's sketches where a segmented word drew closer together, these ledges will inch forward to meet each other. However, they'll also receed back into the wall creating a sizeable void. You must jump from one ledge to the other, timing your jumps correctly to make use of the ledges back and forth movements as you make your way upwards. At the top of the tower, there's another full room with no wall division. You've reached the chamber of the Gemini Ghost. Face off with this ghost by employing your trusted candle flaregun on both ghosts, should he split in two. Once defeated, the ghost reverts into a lifeless double iceblock before the Two-Headed Monster recovers his marble 2 and is transported back to the main gathering room.

The Killer of Threads, the Count.

 

[The Count]

Telly Monster

Here's the game's next level.

Guest & Number: Telly Monster (SS), Small marble 3.
Room/Area: ShipShape Port.
Enemies: Triangle Snipers: Brown-red cylindrical pipe-guns attached to the underside of bright yellow and pink triangles, only visible when the triangle flips over.
Cannon Blocks: White square-shaped cannons mounted on wooden decks with rotational firing guns.
TriTips: Small yellow flying triangles that explode only after crashing into the room's walls.
Barnacle Balls: Round, rusted green spheres with short spikes stuck to the walls and ceilings around the tidal pool.
Swordsman: Pirate guard who wears a black pirate's hat and eyepatch, gray shirts, blue jeans, and black boots. Armed with gleaming silver swords ready to defend against any intruders.
Boss Ghost: Bermuda Ghost: This ghost's upper body is that of a human flagship captain, while his lower body is a ghostly warship. He wears a white captain's hat, blue shirt, and has dark gray beard and mustache. The warship features two iron double-barrel guns which fire when ready. This ghost can also summon whirling watery vortices from the sunken floor of his chamber.

Level Layout: Telly enters the room through a black door surrounded by blue-gray bricks. This room's main design shows off geometric pictures. Two cylinder columns support triangle wedges which in turn hold up the ceiling. Rectangle steinglass windows are placed in between the columns, and some crescent openings are seen near the topmost part of the walls. Scrolling from left to right, a few TriTips may fly in and you'll also see a couple of Cannon Blocks which must be destroyed before starting a downwards climb. As you make your way, you'll notice square-gridded netting curtains along the sides of the walls. Here, triangles block your path down. Just wait until they flip over and torch the pipe-guns with your candle flaregun to remove the threat. Once the triangle has moved over, you can proceed to the next part of the room. The second section is a long corridor with various decks featuring the Cannon Blocks and many TriTips. THR's, or Tuba Harness Riders, will facilitate your travels along this narrow hallway. When approaching the Cannon Blocks, you can destroy them from inside you tuba with either a candle blast or an air-pumped bellow from the tuba to send them into the stratosphere. Or you can dismount the tuba and jump onto the deck, from which you can rid yourself of a Cannon Block by torching it from close range. TriTips will fly in and out in this section and blow up after hitting any wall, so be careful not to let their impact hurt you. The last section of the room brings you to a wooden pier, from which you launch yourself into the tidal pool. Here, you can make your way across by riding the ebb and flow of various waves' crests of foam. Maneuver your way carefully, making sure to avoid contact with the Barnacle Balls lining the complex contour of the walls and ceilings. At various points, you'll have to face off against Swordsman, who stand guard above watery planks. Beat him by matching the Swordsman's sword move for move with your candle until he's been fried to a flaky crisp. Finally, the surging waves will slide you upwards into the boss ghost's chamber where you must make a final stand. The Bermuda Ghost will float into the chamber, which features a water-logged floor. Dodge the guns when they fire and move away from the water vortex upon its appearance to avoid being dragged into it. Fire away at the ghost's body until he's defeated, at which point he'll dissipate leaving behind an inactive warship and Telly's number 3. Pick up the marble 3 and get ready for an instant teleporter trip back to the main gathering room.

The Killer of Threads, the Count.

 

[The Count]

Barkley

_Here's the game's next level.

Guest & Number: Barkley (SS), Small Marble 4.
Room/Area: Dogged Ramparts.
Enemies: Ghost Bats: Transparent white bats that fly in and out of the tower portion of this level.
Skeletons: Dead white-gray skeletons who either line the walls or walk in from their shady resting place.
BoneCrushers: A blue bodied machine with white bones connected to its front press. These babies are also stuck into the walls of the tower.
Horsemen Rooks: Black chesspieces in the shape of a horse's head who can run either straight ahead or in patterns at great speed.
Dirtballs: Small robots with dark brown bodies, and light brown gloves and boots covered by a fringe of green grass who throw muddy dirtballs at oncomers.
Boss Ghost: Hound Ghost: This guy's nothing more than a big black phantom hound with an orange spike-studded collar around his neck and gleaming silver hubcaps mounted over his hips, along with black wheels for added mobility. His attacks include a howling shakedown, metallic scratching claws, and his collar which can be thrown like a returning ring.

Level Layout: Barkley enters the room through a black door or flap surrounded by blue-gray bricks. The ramparts are connected to a doghouse tower which features long white bone columns and an orange trapezoid doghouse roof as its topmost ceiling. Also, its walls are a medium smoky brown, and light gray forward-facing steps lead from one floor to the other. While in the tower, Ghost Bats will fly in to try to drain away some of your energy. Just dispatch them with a blast from the candle flaregun hanging from Barkley's collar. The BoneCrushers will also come out of the walls to flatten our hero, but they can be avoided if you time their crush correctly. Some Skeletons may stay along the walls and extend their hands as shackles to take away energy and others may march straight at you. Don't stomp them, since that will only result in their reconstitution after their bones fall to a heap on the floor. Torch the walking bones instead. When you reach the tower's last floor, a couple of bones form an open archway leading to the ramparts, a prolonged beige tiled corridor with the castle's teeth at its borders. The outside shows it to be a nice day marked by white clouds and blue skies. Watch out for the Horsemen Rooks who charge at you. Notice their running pattern and leap out of the way when one comes, thus making it surpass the screen's edge and no longer be considered a threat. At the end of the ramparts, you'll go down a grassy hill where several Dirtballs may impeed your progress. These little guys inhabit the hills and don't like strangers. They pop up from underneath and start throwing muddy dirtballs at anyone they see. Torch the robot, not the balls, or these pests will continue to annoy you. The hill's bottom yields an alleyed lane taking you under the bridge on which the ramparts are constructed. Here you'll have to deal with more Rooks and Skeletons, which can be easily destroyed. Another hill awaits at the end of the lane, which must be climbed to reach the ghost's chamber. Take out the remaining Dirtballs and then get ready to face the boss ghost. Battle the Hound Ghost with your canine tricks and candle flaregun. If Barkley happens to grab the spiked collar with his mouth, then you can throw it back to the boss ghost with damaging results to him. Once the ghost's been defeated, he'll dissipate into a small toy dog and Barkley can claim his marble 4 before being called back to the main gathering room. The outside design is planned to resemble the romp where Barkley led some kids and Big Bird during the complete ending credits of Sesame Street as a nod to hardcore fans.

The Killer of Threads, the Count.

 

[The Count]

Mary Monster

Here's the game's next level.

Guest & Number: Mary Monster (SS), Small marble 5.
Room/Area: Astronomy Outpost.
Enemies: Chandelier: Blue-white chandelier hanging from the ceiling with four small chards hanging from its corners.
Strobes: Two brown light fixtures with a bright yellow laser light as a platform between them.
Star Cluster: Small yellow five-pointed star with a pink mass of muscles in between its points, which moves slowly but surely towards its target.
Spider Lamp: A white-gray lamp which hangs in the ceiling's corner and has a black spider's head and at least four spider legs. Its legs can extend to capture enemies, and its chain allows it to lower itself onto the floor for ground attacks.
Radar Gunners: An orange radar dish with a pistol gun tucked into their antennai. These radar dishes rest on cup-shaped rims at the end of arching lamp posts.
Boss Ghost: Star Ghost: His head is an oversized yellow star and he wears a black cloak dotted by many twinkling stars, and white gloves and boots providing him with the gift of flight. He likes to fly around his room and bombard his opponents with a shower of light-flashing stars. As the battle proceeds, the light of his stars will become brighter and quicker due to his dwindling energy level. His starblazing flights will also become quicker and more erratic, so try to avoid either bumping into him or getting cut by his sharp shining stars.

Level Layout: Mary Monster enters the room through a black door surrounded by blue-gray bricks. The room's interior looks like a nighttime environment with red-violet walls, dark brown ceilings and floors, white framed windows that open up on the late evening sky, and tall white-gray columns that must be jumped in order to proceed through this room. Scrolling from left to right, you'll encounter a pair of Chandeliers, who'll crash to the ground. Try not to get flattened by the falling fixture and fry the chards as soon as they fly off their hinges in all directions, but mostly when they come straight at you! Climb the stairs and get ready for a new way to ascend through this spooky room. The Strobes have a laser light as a platform you can use to cross and keep going upwards. However, the laser light will go from one Strobe to the other as soon as you step foot over one of them. That's why you need to hurry when crossing the lasers to make sure that you don't fall through the gaps left behind in their wake. Also, some Star Clusters will fly inwards to impeed your progress, but these can be quickly dispatched with a flicker of your candle flaregun. At the topmost level, you have to jump over to the landing where a Spider Lamp awaits. This creature has a number of attacks. It can use its legs to capture you and drain away your energy, or it can trap you in its light web to do the same job. When its chain lowers it to the ground, the lamp will roll up and move from one side of the screen to the other and back again before unrolling itself and hooking the chain back up to the ceiling. Just jump over the lamp when it's rolling on the floor, stay away from the legs and webs, and torch away at the eyes or jaw to rid yourself of this menace. Now you can go up to the rooftops. Here the sky will darken immediately as if it were outer space. You can jump as high and as far as you want in this area. The big white stars are merely fixed into the background. The smaller yellow Star Clusters are the ones you should worry about. At the end of the first rooftop you'll find two Radar Gunners placed back to back. After destroying the gunners, the lamp post's cup-rim remains as an additional stepping block. Take out the first gunner, and then jump over the second onto the next rooftop from which you can destroy this particular gunner. More Star Clusters will try to home in on you as you reach the bridgeway. White bridges move up and down providing a crosswalk over a bottomless fall. Radar Gunners are positioned to stop you at the end of each bridge, so these must be destroyed before jumping over to the next bridge. On the last rooftop, you can merely avoid the coming Star Cluster by moving over to the staircase and going down the steps. You'll have to face a couple more Chandeliers, make use of the Strobes once again, and destroy another Spider Lamp on your way down to the boss ghost's chamber. The Spider Lamp is placed just before entering this chamber, and will put up quite a fight! Now you're ready to fight the Star Ghost! Avoid both the falling stars and the ghost's crazy flight patterns. You may notice that during the battle his attacks will intensify as his energy decreases. This is due to the continued furious light-burning coming from the Star Ghost himself, and it means that you're winning the fight! Keep it up until he explodes, leaving behind a burnt star as his bodily remains after dissipating into nothingness, and of course a marble 5. As soon as Mary Monster picks up her marble 5, she's brought back to the main gathering room thanks to a little stardust induced magic.

The Killer of Threads, the Count.

 

[CaptCrouton]

Count

You're so funny. Even though I don't totally follow what you're doing, I do admire your persistent singular passion about producing your game. Even if nobody is responding to your thread, I thought I'd just say, "Hey, I noticed."

It just seems like a mixed metaphor to me, Telly Monster entering a room to fight snipers and burning a swordsman to a flaky crisp. I would think Telly would instead run for all he's worth back to Hooper's store for a milkshake. Unless Telly's lactose intolerant. The concept makes me laugh, kind of like in that UHF movie where Ghandi is "not a pacifist anymore." I hope you don't mind, but that's how I see it.

Markus

 

[The Count]

Thank you for at least posting some sort of reply, CatpCrouton. Your suggestion about Telly was quite funny, but remember that every character has to do their part to reclaim the castle. As for my game's purpose or explanation, you can find this in the original thread "The Count's Grand Muppet Party" here in the General Discussion section of the forum. Maybe then we can establish an exchange of ideas to further the Muppet party. Hope you caught the fan nugget in Barkley's level; and as soon as it's ready, there'll be another fan nugget in the next water-logged level!

The Killer of Threads, the Count.