By TerryCave Story is one of those special games that turns me into a blathering fanboy. I’ve got so much respect for the game and its creator that I can’t even articulate my admiration properly – save to say that I think it’s one of the best games ever made; a five year labour of love by a talented, modest, creative genius, released for free and quietly spread by word of mouth. In a hundred years time when this industry has changed into something unrecognisable, people will still be talking about it. (hey, I did warn you about the blathering fanboy thing…)
If you feel the same way, then you’ll love this: Apparently Cave Story had more than one iteration before its final release, one of which was was nearly finished. In the last couple of days, Pixel has put together a collection of screenshots and some concept art from an earlier build!
Here are a few of my favourites:
You can find the zip file containing all the images over at the Doukutsu Monogatari livejournal community. Derek’s also put up a page at TIGSource with all the images, which you can find linked to from Brandon’s post here.
I love the cute little Balrog-spawn, but I was hoping there’d be some hints on how to beat the difficult ending when you suck at platformers.
Oh… well, it’s not actually as hard as some people make out. It just takes a bit of practice 🙂
You might find this video helpful (if you haven’t already seen it). It’s a speedrun of the sacred grounds:
When I originally beat the level it took me about 11 minutes or so. Thanks to a few tips I got from watching this, I managed to get my time down to under seven. It might help you beat certain parts if you’re having trouble (for example, beating Heavy Press).