3rd February 2021, 6:33 PM
Hello, and welcome to GANYMEDE.
The Trailer!:
Full gameplay walkthrough (it's gonna spoil ya):
The original, music video-styled trailer (from 2017)
Five Six Seven Eight (!) years in the making! Much more still to come. Chapter one is complete and ready for your enjoyment.
GANYMEDE is a Super Mario World hack. Though, at this point, it's more accurate to call GANYMEDE an original game which uses Super Mario World as an engine, because there is basically no visible trace of Mario left in here now. The basics of gameplay are quite similar, but there are a lot of additions and changes to be found. I wrote all of the words, I drew all of the graphics, and I designed and directed everything you see, play, smell and taste.
This is the first chapter of what will be a much longer game. If you find Super Mario World to be of a reasonable level of challenge, you should not be terribly frustrated with GANYMEDE. It includes a short manual.
If you take your time, you'll probably finish it in about an hour.
This is the story of a boy who seeks adventure and fun.
Why do kids seek adventure and fun? Part of it is that kids are just naturally wired to do that. But, another part of it is contrast; the grass is always greener somewhere else. If life appears to suck, it is a natural instinct to dream of a place where it doesn't, and to want to go and find it. Even if it isn't real.
For this boy, life could be better. This is not the first time noises from his parents' bedroom have roused him awake.
It used to be that, at times, weird noises came from their room, but this noise is a lot more familiar and relatable, and his first thought is that he's glad they are shouting at each other, because that meant that, if he stayed out of the way, neither of them would shout at him. That's just how it was these days, and it just kept getting worse and worse. Now, he couldn't even take a nap and get away from it.
So, maybe, the boy thinks, he really ought to get away from it.
Before he has time to stop himself, he's already out and into the pouring rain. He doesn't have anywhere in mind, and it really doesn't matter, does it? He could go wherever he wanted, and no one would miss him. What's more, he wouldn't miss them, either. And so, he wandered, in search of nothing, until finally, the rain ceases and so do his wanderings.
He has made his way to the edge of the sea, and it makes him think of the painting above his bed, with its bad ass sailor holding his own in a hurricane against the worst Mother Nature had to throw at him. The boat docked nearby makes it almost seem like fate and Mother Nature appeared to not be in a fighting mood at the moment. And so, it was in no general direction that the boy sailed.
For a brief time, the clouds clear and reveal a dazzling night sky, full of stars and constellations. Miles from anywhere and going who knows where, such a sight could only be witnessed by an adventurous seafarer such as himself. He enjoys it as long as he can.
And that is not very long. Because, without warning, the storm reignites all around the boy and his boat. Thunder stomps the seas into churning chaos as the squall blows in every direction at once. The boat is tossed, turned, and tumbled before a bolt of lightning strikes, smashing it to a great many smithereens.
When he awakens, many hours have passed, and it is the blinding stare of the sun into which he opens his eyes. He doesn't know where he is, or how, exactly, he survived to ponder the question. Maybe it doesn't matter. What matters is that he's here, apparently to stay.
A silhouette looms in the distance, which he recognizes as a lighthouse. It is tall and old, and looks like it has not been used in a long time. It is there he decides to go first. How cool it would be to live in a lighthouse! It's the adventure he was seeking, in any case.
But the funny thing about adventure is that adventure is dangerous. No going to the fridge for a drink, no stopping in the convenience store for a hot dog. No warm bed to snuggle in at night, no fan to keep you cool. Living like a kid is one way to learn some adult lessons. It seems certain that, by the time he makes it to the lighthouse, he will be relieved to finally find safety and maybe he will be wondering if this wasn't a big mistake after all.
The real-life story of GANYMEDE:
The year was 2013. My wife was then my fiancé, and we had just moved in together. A concurrent change in careers left me with a lot more free time (or, more to the point, I made my money tied to my desk now). This was a job that frequently left me with downtime. So, I decided to start hackin'. I had no plan or ambition, it was just cool that Lunar Magic let me make levels in a Mario game, because this was something I dreamt of doing since there was a Super Mario World. So, I made a bunch, pretty quickly, and had fun doing it. I thought I lost this first hack (eventually, I rediscovered it), so I just started a new one, armed with a greater skillset and more experience. As before, this was nothing but something to do, when I had nothing else to do. Within a few months, it sported about three dozen levels, some of which I was pretty proud of. And so, it finally occurred to me that this could be an actual hack people might enjoy. Over the next year, I began experimenting with custom graphics for the first time, constructing my own world map for the first time, and installing patches to alter the gameplay, and little by little, Thoughtful Mario World drifted further into what the kids call 'choconilla' territory. Still a Mario game, but starting to be something a little bit different.
It was around this time that I was introduced to a band I've since come to call my favorite. They are The Shills, and one of their albums was an album with a story, my favorite kind. And this one really touched me. It was about a man who runs away, and leaves his entire world behind, sick of humanity and all the bullshit. He gets caught in a storm and wrecks on an island. As the album progresses, his feelings about his situation progress from satisfaction and happiness to the realization that the real problem was himself, and nowhere you could run would be far enough to get away from it. It turned out that I related to this story in a deep and profound way, and rather entirely by coincidence, I thought, wouldn't it be fun to adapt this story to my hack? I have always wanted to make a videogame, but even more, I have always wanted to tell a great story. I redesigned Mario into the Man on the Boat, and it's been a process in the years since to transform Thoughtful Mario World into Ganymede.
So, originally, Ganymede was going to be, simply an adaptation, telling (roughly) the same story as the album, with a lot of extra detail in between the major plot points that existed as songs. But, then, a newer and bigger idea began to take hold. Instead of my Ganymede being a story about a man who runs away, it would be about a boy who runs away, not from the big bad world and its stupid people, but from the people who ought to love him and care for him most, because, instead, they are really screwed up, toxic people, so caught up in their own problems that they are unaware of how much it hurts their kid. This is Chapter One, as it now exists, and it ends on a cliffhanger as the kid finds himself trapped on an island with his regrets and no apparent way back home. The next several chapters will tell of what happens as the boy grows into a man, and comes to grips with the events of the night he ran away, all to culminate in a pair of climaxes: how the boy survived and made it back home, and how (or, if?!) the man comes to grips with his traumas and challenges afterwards. I say "if", because whether or not he actually does make it back and gains the wisdom he needs to finally be at peace, is entirely up to you.
Made it all the way down here? Cool. Now download it and play, and let me know what you think.
The Trailer!:
Full gameplay walkthrough (it's gonna spoil ya):
The original, music video-styled trailer (from 2017)
Five Six Seven Eight (!) years in the making! Much more still to come. Chapter one is complete and ready for your enjoyment.
GANYMEDE is a Super Mario World hack. Though, at this point, it's more accurate to call GANYMEDE an original game which uses Super Mario World as an engine, because there is basically no visible trace of Mario left in here now. The basics of gameplay are quite similar, but there are a lot of additions and changes to be found. I wrote all of the words, I drew all of the graphics, and I designed and directed everything you see, play, smell and taste.
This is the first chapter of what will be a much longer game. If you find Super Mario World to be of a reasonable level of challenge, you should not be terribly frustrated with GANYMEDE. It includes a short manual.
If you take your time, you'll probably finish it in about an hour.
This is the story of a boy who seeks adventure and fun.
Why do kids seek adventure and fun? Part of it is that kids are just naturally wired to do that. But, another part of it is contrast; the grass is always greener somewhere else. If life appears to suck, it is a natural instinct to dream of a place where it doesn't, and to want to go and find it. Even if it isn't real.
For this boy, life could be better. This is not the first time noises from his parents' bedroom have roused him awake.
It used to be that, at times, weird noises came from their room, but this noise is a lot more familiar and relatable, and his first thought is that he's glad they are shouting at each other, because that meant that, if he stayed out of the way, neither of them would shout at him. That's just how it was these days, and it just kept getting worse and worse. Now, he couldn't even take a nap and get away from it.
So, maybe, the boy thinks, he really ought to get away from it.
Before he has time to stop himself, he's already out and into the pouring rain. He doesn't have anywhere in mind, and it really doesn't matter, does it? He could go wherever he wanted, and no one would miss him. What's more, he wouldn't miss them, either. And so, he wandered, in search of nothing, until finally, the rain ceases and so do his wanderings.
He has made his way to the edge of the sea, and it makes him think of the painting above his bed, with its bad ass sailor holding his own in a hurricane against the worst Mother Nature had to throw at him. The boat docked nearby makes it almost seem like fate and Mother Nature appeared to not be in a fighting mood at the moment. And so, it was in no general direction that the boy sailed.
For a brief time, the clouds clear and reveal a dazzling night sky, full of stars and constellations. Miles from anywhere and going who knows where, such a sight could only be witnessed by an adventurous seafarer such as himself. He enjoys it as long as he can.
And that is not very long. Because, without warning, the storm reignites all around the boy and his boat. Thunder stomps the seas into churning chaos as the squall blows in every direction at once. The boat is tossed, turned, and tumbled before a bolt of lightning strikes, smashing it to a great many smithereens.
When he awakens, many hours have passed, and it is the blinding stare of the sun into which he opens his eyes. He doesn't know where he is, or how, exactly, he survived to ponder the question. Maybe it doesn't matter. What matters is that he's here, apparently to stay.
A silhouette looms in the distance, which he recognizes as a lighthouse. It is tall and old, and looks like it has not been used in a long time. It is there he decides to go first. How cool it would be to live in a lighthouse! It's the adventure he was seeking, in any case.
But the funny thing about adventure is that adventure is dangerous. No going to the fridge for a drink, no stopping in the convenience store for a hot dog. No warm bed to snuggle in at night, no fan to keep you cool. Living like a kid is one way to learn some adult lessons. It seems certain that, by the time he makes it to the lighthouse, he will be relieved to finally find safety and maybe he will be wondering if this wasn't a big mistake after all.
The real-life story of GANYMEDE:
The year was 2013. My wife was then my fiancé, and we had just moved in together. A concurrent change in careers left me with a lot more free time (or, more to the point, I made my money tied to my desk now). This was a job that frequently left me with downtime. So, I decided to start hackin'. I had no plan or ambition, it was just cool that Lunar Magic let me make levels in a Mario game, because this was something I dreamt of doing since there was a Super Mario World. So, I made a bunch, pretty quickly, and had fun doing it. I thought I lost this first hack (eventually, I rediscovered it), so I just started a new one, armed with a greater skillset and more experience. As before, this was nothing but something to do, when I had nothing else to do. Within a few months, it sported about three dozen levels, some of which I was pretty proud of. And so, it finally occurred to me that this could be an actual hack people might enjoy. Over the next year, I began experimenting with custom graphics for the first time, constructing my own world map for the first time, and installing patches to alter the gameplay, and little by little, Thoughtful Mario World drifted further into what the kids call 'choconilla' territory. Still a Mario game, but starting to be something a little bit different.
It was around this time that I was introduced to a band I've since come to call my favorite. They are The Shills, and one of their albums was an album with a story, my favorite kind. And this one really touched me. It was about a man who runs away, and leaves his entire world behind, sick of humanity and all the bullshit. He gets caught in a storm and wrecks on an island. As the album progresses, his feelings about his situation progress from satisfaction and happiness to the realization that the real problem was himself, and nowhere you could run would be far enough to get away from it. It turned out that I related to this story in a deep and profound way, and rather entirely by coincidence, I thought, wouldn't it be fun to adapt this story to my hack? I have always wanted to make a videogame, but even more, I have always wanted to tell a great story. I redesigned Mario into the Man on the Boat, and it's been a process in the years since to transform Thoughtful Mario World into Ganymede.
So, originally, Ganymede was going to be, simply an adaptation, telling (roughly) the same story as the album, with a lot of extra detail in between the major plot points that existed as songs. But, then, a newer and bigger idea began to take hold. Instead of my Ganymede being a story about a man who runs away, it would be about a boy who runs away, not from the big bad world and its stupid people, but from the people who ought to love him and care for him most, because, instead, they are really screwed up, toxic people, so caught up in their own problems that they are unaware of how much it hurts their kid. This is Chapter One, as it now exists, and it ends on a cliffhanger as the kid finds himself trapped on an island with his regrets and no apparent way back home. The next several chapters will tell of what happens as the boy grows into a man, and comes to grips with the events of the night he ran away, all to culminate in a pair of climaxes: how the boy survived and made it back home, and how (or, if?!) the man comes to grips with his traumas and challenges afterwards. I say "if", because whether or not he actually does make it back and gains the wisdom he needs to finally be at peace, is entirely up to you.
Made it all the way down here? Cool. Now download it and play, and let me know what you think.
YOU CANNOT HIDE FOREVER
WE STAND AT THE DOOR
WE STAND AT THE DOOR