Hello, BOXBOY!

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be breaking down and reimplementing one of 2015’s best games — BOXBOY! for the 3DS. This is an exercise called “covering” a game.

So what does it mean to “cover” a game? It’s sort of like how musicians start by “covering” their favorite artists before writing music of their own. In the process of mastering someone else’s work, a musician develops a slew of new techniques, as well as better understanding why that track works the way it does.

For games (and gameplay in particular) that means determining how a game or mechanic works, and then actually implementing the design into a playable prototype. Building something is key — more often than not having to program an idea offers just as many opportunities to learn how and why a game behaves.

Which leaves us with BOXBOY! I’ve always wanted to cover a Mario game, since they’re some of my favorite games (And are best-in-class when it comes to gameplay and input). Having never made a platformer before, it felt like biting off more than I could chew. Instead, BOXBOY! allows for a happy medium — digital input meets an interesting “copying” mechanic.

The goal is to cover all of World 1. This means implementing a fair amount of systems (movement, collisions, input) while also ignoring more complicated features (Qbby’s “hooking” mechanic, enemy AI’s, etc).