General Information
Two tales begin anew!
Welcome to Meander Forth!
Meander Forth Pilot: Teak's Tall Tale+ (Plus) is a collection of two demos for my upcoming project: Meander Forth. Meander Forth itself is a game about a small town that gets rocked by the resurgence of a strange, magical force that causes all sorts of supernatural phenomenon. It's still in development, though, so you'll just have to wait.
The first demo, Teak's Tall Tale, is a revised version of the 2019 demo of the same name. It serves as a relatively self-contained one-level campaign with a beginning, a middle, and an end, though it may explain some details of the full game's story. You take control of Oscar Teak, who must find and retrieve his best friend who has gotten lost in the forest. The gameplay is basic, but the story is packed tighter than the rest of the game.
The other demo is simply a sneak-peak at Meander Forth proper, containing only the first stage: Meander County. In this, you play as Garret Rapids, a 20-year-old otter who suffers from chronic shivers. For the sake of demonstration, all of Garret's main abilities have been unlocked right-off-the-bat. Garret can slide on ice, jump up walls, and charge his blaster's shots using a mysterious dark magic. This demo is short, but there's a lot of depth to your movement options.
That's right! This build of the game is exclusive to SAGE 2020. This demo will later come to itch.io, but the SAGE 20 version has some unique stuff.
Here's a funny story: I almost missed the deadline for SAGE 20! I didn't realize the cutoff was August 21st, so by the time I found out I only had five days to make this demo. I really had to hustle, but the end result wound up not being a COMPLETE disaster.Don't get the wrong idea, though! The folks at SAGE have been nothing but helpful. I just slept in, and I didn't wanna miss the 20th anniversary! I rushed myself because I feel a connection to SAGE. It brings me back to when I was just a kid on YoYoGames (Later the YoyoGames Sandbox) playing all sorts of little fangames and original works made in Game Maker. To me, those clunky games had a spirit to them that AAA or even big Indie releases could never capture. Whereas a bigger game "wows" you and makes you forget how the game was made, amateur games have a humble feeling of "wow, I bet I could do this, myself!" That's the vibe that I wanted to capture in this project.
(Keyboard and Gamepad controls can be remapped in the Pause Menu)
- Keyboard (Default)
- Arrow Keys - Walk/Aim/Navigate Menus
- Enter/Return - Start Game, Pause
- Z - Dash (Garret Only)
- X - Jump, Speed-up text
- C - Shoot gun, Skip through text
- Y - Skip cutscene text
- F3 - Windowed mode
- F4 - Fullscreen mode
- Gamepad (Default, Xinput Only)
- Left Joystick/Left D-Pad - Walk/Aim/Navigate Menus
- Start - Start game, Pause
- RT/R2 - Dash
- A/Cross - Jump, Speed up text
- X/Square - Shoot gun, Skip through text
- Y/Triangle - Skip cutscene text
CONTENT WARNINGS:
- Very Mild language
- Some brief references to mental illness and suicide.
- The opening "message from the developer" contains references to real-world current-events and tragedies and can be skipped with the "Skip Text" button (default Y on pad, S on keyboard.) It asks the player to prioritize supporting the community over supporting this game financially.