Condition and Cave Story

A few people on Newgrounds seem to think that Condition took too much from Cave Story.

How much did we copy, apart from the controls and basic weapons? I mean, all the brawlers on Newgrounds copy the same controls and attacks. All the brawlers share the same style. The same can be said about first person shooters, rogue-like games, RTSes, you name it, and they are still totally separate experiences. This game was build from scratch using flixel and drawn from scratch using photoshop.

Media isn't only about new things, it's also about self-reflection and interpretation of existing works. Keep in mind there are a substantial number of "cave story"-like games out there, most notably The Underside and IWBTG!.

And also keep in mind that you can compare other popular games to cave story. Look at Mega Man, Metroid, and Castlevania. They all share the same style pixel art, almost the same weapons, the same HUD, same controls, etc. Yet people consider them vastly different games.

Maybe it's just that this type of game is new to flash. Maybe once more of these games reach a finished state (And by visiting the Flixel.org forums, you'll just how many follow this run-and-gun genre) it will become more accepted.

In the mean time, I hope you have fun! That's all I was personally trying to accomplish with this game :)

Comments

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Corbele 2010-03-03 18:41:10

I completely understand what you mean. I admit when I played the game I immediately thought "Cave Story!", but I respect the game as it's own entity, and I don't think you "took too much" from it at all.

I-smel 2010-03-03 19:24:21

Wow. If you would've jus said "yeah, I like cave story" then I would've bin fine with that, but come on! You use computer terminals with floppy disks and red crosses on em to both save and replenish health, and they're usually in designated rooms right next to each other! You've got the same UI, even the red numbers that pop off guys when you shoot em, missiles do that smoke-trail thing. This is SO Cave Story. I'd have no problem with that if you'd just admit it.

Anyway I came here to say that it's really fucking good. I don't usually play a flash game for more than ten minutes, but I've come back to this one at least twice to try n beat it. The first (and last? I dunno) boss is so hard :(

abielins 2010-03-03 19:24:21

I'm glad you like it for sure!

Against the boss: Try rockets. They do 7 damage + 2 splash per hit. Also the plasma cutter might be useful ;)

ScottFalco 2010-03-05 00:26:59

I understand as well, I mean, yeah, its like Cave story,
but you built it from flash, I wish I knew howto script this
and make my own version

People on NG dont seem to take in effort when judging stuff

SwineLord18 2010-03-05 23:54:38

I totally agree with that. This game rules!
When I left a review for Condition, I put the wrong link. Here's the real one.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cUgsbUamQ8">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cUgsb UamQ8</a>

abielins 2010-03-05 23:54:38

Wow that's amazing! I haven't actually been able to get the live commentary from a gamer before! This is great!

Some tips on the game: Boss weakness? Plasma cutter ;)

lenkalamari 2010-03-07 07:09:12

i loved the game but yeah the CS parallels are very obvious:

-first weapon is an unlimited weak pistol
-second is a missile launcher with limited ammo, however its much more powerful and slower and has a big ol blast radius
-like ismel said, the save points/health replenishers are pretty much identical
-exact same controls pretty much

cave story didnt invent pixel art though, so i cant really say anything about that

abielins 2010-03-07 07:09:12

There sure are similarities! Almost all shooters have a pistol as your first weapon, and a rocket launcher as your second. Ever played any Metroid, any Duke Nukem, or any Contra for that matter? :)

The save points and health are intentionally a reference to cave story :) I was going to make them a toaster and peanut butter, but that got confusing (but we kept the pixel art... can you find them?)

The controls, we thought, would be familiar to those that have played the likes of Duke Nukem and Cave Story.