"Akuma's YoYo" is a game in development by S+F Software (known for their "Trevor" series, among other old-school style games), which they hope to have out by the end of the year. It is a vertical-scrolling puzzle game, which requires players to switch between two different on-screen characters in order to reach the goal. S+F’s own website officially describes the game this way: "An unlikely duo try to save sacred relics from a sinister poacher by making it through his foe-infested yoyo factory."

Apparently, a man named Akuma owns a yo-yo factory in which he’s hidden precious eggs. Andro, a platypus, and Ned, a dingo, are the "unlikely duo" that need to work together to recover all of those eggs. Unfortunately for them, Akuma’s yo-yo factory is filled with sinister combinations of girders, conveyor belts, elevators, "No Platypus/Dingo Traffic" areas, switches, stone blocks, rings, and other foes. But to their credit, the strange pair already has the needed tools for the job -– namely, Ned’s biceps and belly, and Andro’s world-class yo-yo tricks.

The player alternately controls Andro or Ned through the arrow-keys and the spacebar. Pressing tab will switch between the characters. Most puzzles require the player to use one character to solve a small problem –- flipping the right switch to cause elevators to move to the proper position, for example -– then switch to the other character to solve another. Eventually, the two will get everything properly aligned to meet at the end-of-level flag, or to recover one of the coveted eggs. Along the way, you get to make use of a couple of neat tricks. Andro can not only throw his yo-yo out to flip switches, but he can use it to swing from conveniently-position rings across open air from one platform to another. And Ned can break blocks with his fists and bounce enemies off his belly.

The version of the game this author was able to play was a pre-beta copy compiled this past January. Already, the primary game engine showed to be smooth and cohesive, with no obvious in-game bugs. The graphics –- with a few place-holder exceptions –- looked quite polished and worked well together. The music (which didn’t impress me when played outside the game) fit nicely into what happens on-screen. And the sound effects seemed natural enough. In fact, this could be the best effort for S+F in putting together all the usual game elements (engine + graphics + music + sound + gameplay).

But this was still a pretty early version of the game, and I found a few problems. First, the switching between Andro & Ned was pretty jerky –- this could be done much more smoothly, and probably even with some flashy transitional effect. Second, one of Ned’s abilities -– bouncing enemies off his belly -– wasn’t very instinctive, and a bit cumbersome to execute. Third, the level design just wasn’t there yet: too many easy levels doing the same thing –- run Andro over there, flip a switch, run Ned over there, flip a switch, etc. But these are all things that can get sanded and polished as the game goes through beta testing.

I had a chance to conduct a short e-mail interview with Steve "Fuzmeister" Thompson from S+F:

Q: How many people have been working on AYY? How have the tasks/responsibilities been distributed among the team?

A: I'd say four for the most part. I am doing the main programming, but Brandon is backing me up when I need him. Andrew Bado is doing the artwork as usual and Josh Deeb has composed the tunes.

Q: What was learned from previous games that made the AYY development a bit easier?

A: Practice makes better. :) As I see it, we learn a lot on each project. If you look at some of the stuff S+F put out years ago it's nothing compared to some of our pending projects. Overall - we just are getting better.

Q: What's been learned from the AYY project that you'll take with you to future projects?

A: Do not take long breaks from working on your project. From my end anyway, I took some several month breaks from AYY and upon coming back was totally lost at some parts due to my lack of commenting the code properly. ;)

Q: The graphics engine looks like something a lot more advanced than earlier S&F titles ... any comments on that?

A: Ooh - This is totally true. S+F Software is moving towards more advanced game engines all the time with our newer projects. That's why I wish a lot of the pending projects (including AYY) would get done. A lot of people are still judging us by our pre-2001 projects and, believe me, the new stuff totally blows that junk away.

Q: What is your AYY release schedule? Do you plan on any public/private beta testing before a final release?

A: I'd like to hope Akuma's YoYo will be out by the end of 2003. It really depends on how soon the graphics are done. Andrew Bado is an exceptional pixel artist, but also very, very busy. We will probably be looking for testers outside of S+F Software's usual bunch - keep those eyes peeled.

Q: All of your other games have been free ... same plan for AYY?

A: No comment, yet. The game is going to be massive - with over 100 levels and mini-games to spare, I cringe at giving it away. We'll see... that's all I can say now.

Simply put, this game has a lot of potential. It already plays quite well, despite its early development state. Also, this type of puzzle game could give birth to a lot of different level design styles -– almost begs for a level editor to be released with the game (something I forgot to ask Thompson about in the interview). Finally, thanks to Bado’s quirky art and in-game animations, Andro and Ned could become the most popular critters in the S+F stables … is Trevor getting worried?

Article by: Brykovian
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