Post by Admin (Kneesnap) on Dec 19, 2015 12:17:55 GMT -8
Start: A lot of the following questions are mine, but a few I gathered from some friends and other people (I'll mark them off with a *) who are also interested in the game. Do try your best to answer them all, but if there is any you can't give an answer just give a N/A or some relative short response. Thank you so much for your time!
Response: Hi Xiron I'll post my answers inline, but I'm sorry this is so long ago that I can't really help you much:
1.
Q. The game feels pretty polished and solidly complete, whether looking at the game internally, or the files extracted from the game's main .mwd archive, but regardless, are there any scrapped ideas and features that never made it to the full game?
A. The game was originally being developed on PC, for porting to PS1. Before I got involved It was a more free-roaming affair, with the camera not so top-down. The frog could jump in almost any direction. Unfortunately this did not make for a good game design, and after several months of frustrating development, the team looked for a major directional change. As part of that, I took over as lead programmer, focusing initially on PS1. We stripped the design back to basics, more in line with the original game, with just 4 directions of movement etc. Within 2 weeks we had a new working prototype that everyone could see was going to be a success.
2.
Q. a) Got any early versions of the game or that unused content asked about above still laying around? b*) and if so, is there a chance we can get footage and/or a download if the content still exists?
A. Sorry, no.
3*.
Q. What kind of debugging features were used in the game?
A. The usual stuff - set flags in the debugger to let you do anything, jump to any level, be immortal, etc.
4*.
Q. Most annoying bug/error you've had to deal with during development?
A. Can't remember, sorry.
5*.
Q. Is there any interesting stories regarding development on the game?
A. Can't remember much. We developed a map editor that ran on Silicon Graphics workstations, which were our choice of artist machine at the time.
6.
Q. How long did development last for?
A. I believe the new PS1 development phase was around 6 months. I believe I did most of the development solo, with a 2nd programmer joining around half way through. The PC port started late in the cycle.
7.
Q. WHO'S IDEA WAS IT TO MAKE THE GAME SO DIFFICULT!? xD Seriously though, I and everyone I know who has successfully manged to 100% the game has so much spite towards most stages (I still enjoy the butt-kicking difficulty though.
)
A. I guess that's part of the retro vibe!
8.
Q. Personal favourite stage and/or zone and why?
A. Sorry, can't remember.
9.
Q. Any hidden developer cheats/modes?
A. Sorry, don't know.
10.
Q. Is there a way to play the game without the archive and just the extracted files (PC)?
A. Sorry, don't know.
11.
Q. As the game is now considered abandonware due to Hasbro Interactive being long gone extinct and rights disregarded, are there any tools/tool plugins that were created specifically for the game that could be passed on to make modding this masterpiece easier? If you still have access to any of it that is.
A. Sorry, don't know.
12.
Q. Can you tell me anything regarding the files types of the .WAD, .MAP and .VLO (which are stored graphics) files under the PACKED folder (looking at PC version of the game)? Like what kind of files are they, and what tools were used to make em, etc. Some of us a trying to reverse engineer the game and wouldn't mind any bit of insight (not me though, I can't program for my life. xP).
A. WAD was our proprietary compressed archive, kind of like a big ZIP file. MAP sounds like our level export format, i.e. the data coming out of the Silicon Graphics tool (which was called, imaginatively, 'mappy'). VLO was our proprietary format for packing data into PS1 VRAM. Can't give you any insight into the exact format.
13.
Q. Can I post this Q&A to my forum highwayfrogs.freeforums.net/ (excluding any questions you don't want to publicly share)?
A. Sure, none of this is private. All the best, Tim
Posted by Froli.
Response: Hi Xiron I'll post my answers inline, but I'm sorry this is so long ago that I can't really help you much:
1.
Q. The game feels pretty polished and solidly complete, whether looking at the game internally, or the files extracted from the game's main .mwd archive, but regardless, are there any scrapped ideas and features that never made it to the full game?
A. The game was originally being developed on PC, for porting to PS1. Before I got involved It was a more free-roaming affair, with the camera not so top-down. The frog could jump in almost any direction. Unfortunately this did not make for a good game design, and after several months of frustrating development, the team looked for a major directional change. As part of that, I took over as lead programmer, focusing initially on PS1. We stripped the design back to basics, more in line with the original game, with just 4 directions of movement etc. Within 2 weeks we had a new working prototype that everyone could see was going to be a success.
2.
Q. a) Got any early versions of the game or that unused content asked about above still laying around? b*) and if so, is there a chance we can get footage and/or a download if the content still exists?
A. Sorry, no.
3*.
Q. What kind of debugging features were used in the game?
A. The usual stuff - set flags in the debugger to let you do anything, jump to any level, be immortal, etc.
4*.
Q. Most annoying bug/error you've had to deal with during development?
A. Can't remember, sorry.
5*.
Q. Is there any interesting stories regarding development on the game?
A. Can't remember much. We developed a map editor that ran on Silicon Graphics workstations, which were our choice of artist machine at the time.
6.
Q. How long did development last for?
A. I believe the new PS1 development phase was around 6 months. I believe I did most of the development solo, with a 2nd programmer joining around half way through. The PC port started late in the cycle.
7.
Q. WHO'S IDEA WAS IT TO MAKE THE GAME SO DIFFICULT!? xD Seriously though, I and everyone I know who has successfully manged to 100% the game has so much spite towards most stages (I still enjoy the butt-kicking difficulty though.
)A. I guess that's part of the retro vibe!
8.
Q. Personal favourite stage and/or zone and why?
A. Sorry, can't remember.
9.
Q. Any hidden developer cheats/modes?
A. Sorry, don't know.
10.
Q. Is there a way to play the game without the archive and just the extracted files (PC)?
A. Sorry, don't know.
11.
Q. As the game is now considered abandonware due to Hasbro Interactive being long gone extinct and rights disregarded, are there any tools/tool plugins that were created specifically for the game that could be passed on to make modding this masterpiece easier? If you still have access to any of it that is.
A. Sorry, don't know.
12.
Q. Can you tell me anything regarding the files types of the .WAD, .MAP and .VLO (which are stored graphics) files under the PACKED folder (looking at PC version of the game)? Like what kind of files are they, and what tools were used to make em, etc. Some of us a trying to reverse engineer the game and wouldn't mind any bit of insight (not me though, I can't program for my life. xP).
A. WAD was our proprietary compressed archive, kind of like a big ZIP file. MAP sounds like our level export format, i.e. the data coming out of the Silicon Graphics tool (which was called, imaginatively, 'mappy'). VLO was our proprietary format for packing data into PS1 VRAM. Can't give you any insight into the exact format.
13.
Q. Can I post this Q&A to my forum highwayfrogs.freeforums.net/ (excluding any questions you don't want to publicly share)?
A. Sure, none of this is private. All the best, Tim
Posted by Froli.
