Many years ago, back when I was a little person, I enjoyed drawing out maps for video games that existed in my head. My brother did likewise when he was a kid (some of my early works were definitely influenced by things I saw him make).

Unfortunately, I knew nothing about programming, and my digital graphics skills were limited to scribbles in MS Paint. So nothing became of these ideas for a very long time.

However, years later, I discovered Game Maker and Clickteam and thought, "Hey, maybe mere mortals could make their own games!" I made lots of Mario fangames early on, since I had always been a Mario fan and thought it would be fun to my own spin on some of the cool concepts the official Mario games introduced but hadn't fully explored. (Of course, it helped that places like MFGG, TSR, and VGMusic made it really easy to find graphics, music, sound effects, and tutorials for making Mario fangames.)

Ever since I first discovered GM and Clickteam, though, I'd had something simmering in my mind - making a fully original game based on these old ideas. A few of these concepts (and occasionally characters - one of my old enemy concepts, Tirgy, ended up squeezing his way into one of my fangames) were used in my fangame projects. However, I really wanted to make a game built around these old ideas.

And this is what the Bibby Platformer Project is! That global pandemic gave me a lot more time to catch up on projects that had been sitting on the back burner for far too long. This game is a platformer with a lot of Mario influences, along with a hint of Zelda and Kirby.

This game hearkens back to a somewhat simpler time in the world but also endeavors to apply modern standards to writing quality code, designing creative and fun gameplay, and delivering respectable graphics and sound. I'd be lying if I said this is the most innovative game in the history of humanity, but I hope you'll find it to be an enjoyable thing to play! There are still lots of placeholder graphics that are subject to change in the final version.

I'll share a demo and screenshots shortly.

Want to check out a very beta-y demo of this? If so, Version 0.5 is here!

Download link

This game is coming along nicely! I have a suggestion for the designated projectile however.
As it is, it's easy to throw the baseball over the target, because it flies in an arch.
Perhaps a variable is in order. while standing or moving forward it flies more straight, holding up it would fly higher, and down it would fly lower, and shorter.

@Nite Thanks! You've always been able to hold Down and throw baseballs while ducking - they won't travel as far or as fast, since it's awkward to throw things while you're on the ground. However, I agree that adding an upward trajectory would be helpful. So now if you throw a baseball while holding Up, your throw will have a much higher trajectory than if you weren't holding Up.

This thing is still coming along - I'm trying to finish one new level every week, and I've been pretty good about staying on track. I've now finished 13 of the 17 levels that I originally planned. If all goes well, I'll have a demo with all 17 levels in a month or so.

Version 1.0 is here! This version includes all 17 levels - and, if all goes well, no massive game-breaking bugs. I hope you enjoy this game that I spent a lifetime (of procrastination) making!

Let me know if you find any bugs or issues.

There's a ghost of a chance that someday I might release an updated version with more bosses/levels/features, but I'm not making any guarantee about that. Who knows!

Have fun!

I just uploaded Version 1.0.1 (same link as previous post). This update makes a few small fixes to issues that players have noticed during the first day of playing this game. Thanks everyone who offered feedback!

Perhaps most notably, you can use the X and Z keys if you don't like the default Shift and Ctrl setup (thanks Dustin for reminding me about that!).