Faces of Evil & Wand of Gamelon Remastered FAQ

Faces of Evil & Wand of Gamelon Remastered FAQ

IMAGES: https://imgur.com/a/ASPPA7J

To pre-emptively answer some questions (either in public or on my Discord), I’ve decided to write a Q&A that should hopefully cover everything.

Download Link:

https://archive.org/details/FOER-and-WOGR

Performance Issues (Game Plays at Half Speed)

If you have a high-refresh monitor, you’ll need to set your refresh rate to 60 Hz. Same goes for it if you have a refresh rate lower than 60. Unfortunately this is an engine limitation I can’t fix, so apologies for that.

Why did you do this?

I wanted to prove to myself that I could make a game. It started as a joke between friends, but then I wanted to see if I could actually pull it off. I’ve flirted with game making for a while but never finished something. This was my chance to do that (well, over the course of four years, I guess). Over time, remastered versions of these notorious titles was something I wanted for myself as well.
Was it just you who made these?

As far as programming and putting together the overall project, yes, all me. However, these remasters wouldn't be possible without the large community effort of deconstructing them piece by piece. The following individuals…

KirroBomber/LuigiBlood
SuperArthurBros
TZMG

...all deserve credit for contributing to the various asset rips over the years.

More than anyone though, this project wouldn't have been possible without the help of my good friend Pyro Demon, who over the years faithfully bugtested, contributed art, fixed sprites, and so much more. Their attention to detail and genuine love of these games made these remasters happen. I can't thank them enough.

Are these exact, 1:1 remakes?


No, they were remade from scratch, so movement, enemy spawns, and a litany of other things will be different (I’m sure someone will catalog all the differences eventually). However, they are based off of the originals and mimic them very closely...as mentioned, speed of movement, slight collision differences, and frequency and some locations of enemy spawns will be different. The game was tweaked and re-balanced around these changes for a more fun experience. I did my best to create what I think a modern release of these games would look and play like.

Are you really not updating these? I found a bug!

I’m sure you did, as the bugtesting team was limited to close friends and myself. I’m sorry about that! Unfortunately, due to the nature of these games, I am not touching them once they’re out in the open. If I’m asked to remove them from download, I will, but I’m going one step further and just committing to ‘no more commits’, as it were.

Okay, but are you releasing the source code?

The “source code” in this case would be GameMaker project files, but as proud as I am to have released these, I really don’t want everyone seeing my progress from shoddy coder to slightly less shoddy. You’d probably be so upset you’d want to remake them all over again, which is an effort I don’t think anyone should undertake, haha. For the reasons stated above (see last question), I’d rather just send the executables out to the world and then be done with it.




Will you be releasing the games for other platforms, like Mac OS?

Unfortunately I don’t own a physical Mac, which is a requirement for publishing GM games to that platform. I don’t own licenses for the other platform exports, so no on that count as well. I apologize.

How difficult was development?

I definitely underestimated the challenge (after all, it took me about 4 years in my spare time). Thankfully, the nature of the originals made a remake using the original assets easier to pull off and hide some of the coding amateurity that I’d definitely redo if starting from scratch nowadays. But that was the whole point, really, to go through an entire “simple” game from beginning to end and see if I could replicate it and improve it.

What do you think about the games themselves?

I think they're alright. These new versions definitely improve them, in my humble opinion. They have a terrible reputation, save for the hilarious cutscenes (which I adore and never got old throughout hundreds of hours of testing, by the way) but as far as games, if you give them non-horrific control schemes and decent performance, they're fine. As a connoisseur of bad and weird games, I’ve most definitely played worse.

I also think the background art is genuinely gorgeous, and the music is fantastic. I’m excited for people to experience the excellent soundtrack for the first time.

Will you do any other of the infamous CD-i games?

I considered it. Hotel Mario specifically, but the assets were not as thoroughly ripped as the two CD-i Zelda siblings. Ultimately, however, I’m done with remakes. These two games had potential, and Hotel Mario would be fun, but Zelda’s Adventure is just absolutely dreadful with zero redeeming qualities. I’m ready to move on to original games; these were fun exercises more than anything.

Other Thoughts

The director of these games, Dale DeSharone, was a legendary developer, responsible for cherished title Below the Root and being part of the team that developed the Red Book audio standard. He unfortunately passed away in February 2008, and my only regret about this project is that he can't see the remasters. Honestly, reading his interviews on HG101 for Retro Gamer magazine gave me a newfound motivation to finish these things. I hope my interpretation of the games does him justice and celebrates his work. I recommend these articles to read more about his life:
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/09/feature_meet_the_unsung_pioneer_behind_the_most_reviled_zelda_games_of_all_time
http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2012/09/dale-desharone-unspoken-legend.html

Oh, there are also fun unlockables and maybe a cheat code or two hidden in the games. Please enjoy playing and finding these!

Anything else we should know about you? How to contact you?

I have a normal boring job by day, but when I'm not playing or discussing games, I'll continue to make them in my spare time. Other than that, I run a community gaming Discord called “Merlin’s Palace” that I'd like more friendly faces to join in on. If you want to contact me or follow me, I'll share future plans for whatever I work on next there and probably social media (I am not particularly an active participant in public social media). Thanks for taking the time to read all this!