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Piglet's Big Game
Piglet's Big Game (2003)
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In 2024, interest in Piglet's Big Game was unexpectedly revived by a series of tweets noting that elements of the level and sound design (specifically in Owl and Eeyore's dreams and the music track "Foreboding 1") had mild similarities to survival horror titles such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill despite not being a gory and graphic game. This renewed interest led to the game selling out on eBay and being relisted by scalpers for triple and quadruple-digit prices, despite previously being fairly cheap to get on the platform.
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Level Design, Meme, Music, Real Life, Similarities, Social Media
person Salnax calendar_month November 14, 2024
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EarthBound
EarthBound (1994)
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Attachment If the player enters Threed's circus tent and repeatedly uses the Check command on the rightmost corner, the game will glitch in a variety of unpredictable ways. The most minor of these outcomes involves a short delay in when the "No problem here." text box is thrown up, while more major results can escalate into full-scale corruptions; most results involve the text box spewing garbage data. The reason for these phenomena is because of a programming oversight: the game stores every map in a single file that players are transported around via warps. However, the corner where the glitch occurs contains a gap in the room's boundaries, enabling the player to use the Check command on out-of-bounds areas that the game was not programmed to read.

Following its discovery, the bug, popularly known as the "Threed Tent Glitch" and the "Check Area Glitch," became a key asset for speedrunners, as one possible effect gives players access to a debug menu, from which they can warp directly to the game's epilogue. Its utility only further increased after players discovered that it can be triggered very early in the game by using additional glitches to reach the top-right corner in Onett's map, which similarly gives access to an out-of-bounds area.
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Cheat, Debug, Glitch, Level Design, Mistake, Speedrun
person VinchVolt calendar_month November 13, 2024
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YouTube videos showing the glitch in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPCFmr3Itog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu6G_QTg9zY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htkuzxxTV24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRWAvpeYgwY

TAS Videos page explaining the glitch:
https://tasvideos.org/GameResources/SNES/Earthbound#CheckAreaGlitch

The Cutting Room Floor article about the in-game debug menu which mentions the glitch's ability to open it:
https://tcrf.net/EarthBound/In-Game_Debug_Menu

YouTube videos showing how the glitch can be used to speedrun the game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tliMUZG1QY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am3A3kQE2U8
World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck
World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck (1992)
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Depending on if you choose between Mickey, Donald, or both through 2-player co-op, the second section of each stage will be different. For example, in Stage 1, if you choose Mickey or Donald, the second section will be themed around giant flowers and beanstalks with a slightly different map design between the Mickey and Donald playthroughs, but if you choose co-op, you will instead be taken to an underground stage set in a mine.
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General, Level Design
person Ya Block calendar_month November 12, 2024
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New Super Mario Bros. U
New Super Mario Bros. U (2012)
subdirectory_arrow_right New Super Mario Bros. 2 (Game)
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With the development of New Super Mario Bros. 2 and New Super Mario Bros. U happening simultaneously, Nintendo created a "Mario Cram School" to teach developers from outside the core Super Mario team how to design levels. Most of the core developers of New Super Mario Bros. 2 were "graduates" of this program, while New Super Mario Bros. U was developed by the same core team that made prior games in the series.
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Crunch/Overwork, Development, General, Level Design, Real Life
person Salnax calendar_month November 11, 2024
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Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko
Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko (1999)
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Attachment In 2023, a previously undiscovered Easter egg was found in the secret level "The Abyssmal". However, while it is possible to activate this secret legitimately, the steps to do so are uncertain as to how many are really needed to activate it. In order to make it appear, Gex needs to whack all 6 pearls, whack all 7 mines in a specific order, whack every fish, whack the turret without activating it, and whack the target inside of the sunken ship. Another possible step is going inside of the ship's funnel, but it's still unknown if this is supposed to be an invisible trigger for something or if it's unnecessary for triggering the Easter egg. When all of these steps are completed, a spinning cube with pictures of three family members of the developers will appear on top of the Deep Sea Explorer. Destroying the cube will award you with a Star Token for the Vault.
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Bonus Content, Cameo, Easter Egg, Hidden Credit, In-Joke, Level Design, Secret, Unsolved Mystery
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month November 5, 2024
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Star Fox 64
Star Fox 64 (1997)
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Attachment Hidden in the files for Star Fox 64 are what seem to be remnants of an unused first-person turret mode. Several files reference a stage with the initials "SB", with its header file, fox_sb_poly.h, being titled "スター ブレード 擬き" (Sutā burēdo ki). This translates to "Star Blade Imitation", named after the 1991 on-rails space shooter by Namco, where the ship's guns can only be used in first-person. Dylan Cuthbert and other developers of the original Star Fox admitted to being heavily inspired by Star Blade, claiming that one of their main goals was to recreate the experience of the game.

The file, fox_play.h, defines 3 scroll types of levels: corridor, all-range mode, and "JYUZA", or "銃座モード" (Jūza mōdo), which translates to "Gun turret mode". This file also defines five player modes: ARWING, TANK, SUB, HUMAN, and P_JYUZA, While the SB stage is listed with the other corridor stages, it still specifies that it's in the "JYUZA" category. The SB stage itself appears to be a shortened copy of the Area 6 stage devoid of any content except for one Moras enemy, suggesting that it and other stages were meant to be played in the turret mode during development.

In the game's source code, stages such as "SB", "CL" or "Colony", and Area 6 are subtitled "Great Fox", suggesting that the Great Fox mothership was also intended to use the turret mode. It would likely have been about firing lasers and guns from the ship while trying not to take damage, as there is a string for the ship's health bar named gfox_life. The game's levels, such as the Landmaster stages, are organized into overlay groups to save on memory; Area 6 strangely isn't grouped within the turret mode stages, but Sector Y is.

This unused game mode was restored via a fanmade patch on October 30, 2024, taking a few liberties to make up for the missing code and assets.
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Controls, Development, Early Idea, Filename, Inspiration, Level Design, Source Code, Suggested, Unused Code
person Dinoman96 calendar_month October 31, 2024
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Antonblast
Antonblast (2024)
This trivia has been marked as "Not Safe for Work".
It may not be appropriate for all visitors and definitely isn't appropriate for work or school environments.
Click here to unhide it.
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Demo, Development, Early Idea, Level Design, Meme, Parody, Real Life, Reference, Sprite/Graphical Animation, Trade Show, Unused Graphic
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 15, 2024
comment Comment (0) | Source
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Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (2007)
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According to an Electronic Gaming Magazine interview (published in Issue #224, January 2008) with Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells and the game's director Amy Hennig, they were asked if they ever had plans for a different final boss battle after the interviewer expressed disappointment with it. Wells stated that the boss battle was designed to fit within the confines of the island and world they created, and that they could have made it more elaborate if they had a few extra weeks, but the overall direction remained consistent with their original plan. Hennig added that many games face the issue of jumping-the-shark at the end, as they need to escalate to a climax. She contrasted this with movies, which "get away with less" as they focus more on narrative and emotional experiences, and suggested that game design might benefit from shifting away from traditional boss battles to creating peaks in the overall experience.
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Development, Early Idea, General, Level Design, Real Life
person ProtoSnake calendar_month August 20, 2024
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Bushido Blade
Bushido Blade (1997)
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In a 1997 Dengeki PlayStation interview with the game's director Kunihiko Nakata, he mentioned that while they had a partial idea of what they wanted for the graphics, specific elements like the castle ruins map were conceptualized during the development process, and that the details of the world were worked out while they made it rather than being planned from the start.
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Development, General, Level Design
person ProtoSnake calendar_month August 15, 2024
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Super Mario Bros. 3
Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988)
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Attachment In World 8, it's possible to bypass almost the entire battleship level by dropping into the water and swimming beneath the ship, jumping back on once the autoscroll reaches the vessel's stern. In the international version of the original NES release, one tile is removed from the rightmost portion of the ship in order to make the final jump easier.
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Cheat, Level Design, Regional Difference, Version Difference
person VinchVolt calendar_month August 15, 2024
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Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (1986)
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Attachment World 3-1's map data includes a Red Koopa Troopa inexplicably placed right above a pit, one space next to a ground tile. Because of its location, the enemy cannot be seen without the use of hacks or glitches, as the Koopa will have fallen into the pit by the time Mario reaches the spot where it spawns in. The enemy's unusual placement resulted in it going undiscovered until November 9, 2020, 34 years after the game's release.
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General, Level Design, Mistake
person VinchVolt calendar_month August 8, 2024
comment Comment (0) | Source
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Phantasy Star II
Phantasy Star II (1989)
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Attachment Sometime in 1987-88, Sega and the Japanese magazine "Beep!" held a "Story Recruitment Campaign" to let readers submit ideas to be considered for Phantasy Star II. This contest was held both to set a base for the start of development and to market the game to a wider audience on the name value of Phantasy Star, with the game being heavily advertised in Beep! thereafter. Despite the contest's name, Sega accepted any idea and gave out awards for scenario writing, illustrations, and game mechanics. Out of over 2000 entries, 29 were selected as winners and awarded with individually numbered "Associate Planner" certificates. They were also offered to meet with the game's developers for a planning meeting on March 20, 1988 at Sega's headquarters in Otorii, Tokyo, among other prizes. The events of the planning meeting and the top 7 winners were published in the June 1988 issue of Beep!, including a picture of the full roundtable. Producer/programmer Yuji Naka and artist Rieko Kodama were two of the developers in attendance.

Associate Planner No. 001, the Grand Prize winner, was Fumiko Sato. Of the 29 winners, three of them are known to have gone on to work in the video game industry and returned for work at Sega:

• No. 004 was 17-year old Masahiro Sakurai, who won the "Game System Award". Sakurai often recalled the contest without mentioning the game by name, claiming he came up with "something like the action-focused Active Time Battle system seen in JRPGs" before it existed. It's believed that this meeting was what prompted Sakurai to drop out of vocational school to pursue a full-time career in game design, using the award to advance his professional image until he was hired by HAL Laboratory after graduating high school in 1989. Sakurai became known for his work with them and Nintendo, creating the Kirby and Super Smash Bros. series.

• No. 005 was Yukinobu Arikawa, who won the "Game System Special Award" for his entry titled "Those who inherit the legend". While it's not known if he attended the planning meeting, Arikawa would join Sega's AM2 team in 1990 and is still employed at Sega as of 2022. He became known for the comedic touches he adds to the games he works on, having worked as a game designer, writer, localizer and texture artist on different games in the Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Super Monkey Ball, Virtua Fighter, and Daytona USA series.

• No. 011 was middle schooler Keisuke Ōuchi, who described his proposal as being full of "middle school syndrome", but was unable to attend the planning meeting because he lived in the countryside at the time. Ōuchi worked on games as a character designer and graphics artist in various capacities, and created and directed the 1998 visual novel Ojou-sama Express, which similarly to Phantasy Star II held a long-term reader participation contest in the gaming magazine "Dengeki G's Magazine". He also works as a collectors' toy designer under the name Alan Moriguchi, specializing in mechs and robots.

It's unknown if or how any of the winners' ideas were used in the final game, as all of the developers used pseudonyms in the credits and no Associate Planners were credited.
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Advertisement/Commercial, Artwork/Illustration, Credits, Development, Early Idea, Level Design, Magazine, Pitch Bible/Proposal, Real Life, Sweepstakes, Unsolved Mystery
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month July 31, 2024
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Beep! - screenshots of March 1988 issue (in Japanese; it's believed that this issue is where the full list of winners were first published, but no full scan of the issue is available online):
https://retoge-mag.websa.jp/archives/215

Beep! - June 1988 issue (in Japanese; Page 86 in the magazine):
https://archive.org/details/beep-1988-06/page/86/mode/2up

Beep! - September 1989 issue translated developer interview:
https://shmuplations.com/psiirelease/

Masahiro Sakurai (No. 004) on Creating Games video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk8WsbCQXGc#t=194s

Sakurai translated magazine column on school/early work experience:
https://sourcegaming.info/2015/07/06/school-work-and-specialists-sakurais-famitsu-column-vol-3334/

Sakurai - The Guardian interview:
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/aug/08/super-smash-bros-ultimate-masahiro-sakurai-35-years-gaming-history-nintendo

A conversation between gamers and game journalists about the future of computer games, held on August 15, 1989 at Dempa Publications, Inc. (19-year old Sakurai partook in this, and is credited with winning the Game System Award in the Phantasy Star II contest) [published in "CHALLENGE!! Personal Computer AVG & RPG 5 JP Book"] (Pages 341-355 in the book, Sakurai only appears on page 348 and did not participate in the rest of the conversation):
https://retrocdn.net/images/d/d5/CHALLENGE%21%21_Personal_Computer_AVG_%26_RPG_5_JP_Book.pdf

Yukinobu Arikawa (No. 005) career history:
https://segaretro.org/Yukinobu_Arikawa
https://www.mobygames.com/person/69425/yukinobu-arikawa/credits/

Keisuke Ōuchi (No. 011) tweets:
https://x.com/AlanMoriguchi/status/1320302751096553472
https://x.com/AlanMoriguchi/status/1321068321450553347

Alan Moriguchi (Ōuchi) revealing his identity in 2014:
https://x.com/AlanMoriguchi/status/520581151493070849

Ōuchi MobyGames page:
https://www.mobygames.com/person/456584/keisuke-ouchi/

Dengeki G's Magazine - August 1998 issue (Pages 49-61 in the magazine):
https://archive.org/details/dengeki-gs-magazine-013-august-1998/page/48/mode/2up

Japanese Wikipedia article on Ojou-sama Express with magazine citations (including the above issue):
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/お嬢様特急

Sega Associate Planner No. 017 tweet:
https://x.com/suginov/status/1321062605033664513

Sega Associate Planner No. 019 tweet:
https://x.com/unlucky_numbers/status/1539132578120486912

1988 contest materials were reportedly republished in the reprint mook " Beep(ビープ) 復刻版―特別付録 音楽CD2枚組 ":
https://www.amazon.co.jp/Beep-%E5%BE%A9%E5%88%BB%E7%89%88%E2%80%95%E7%89%B9%E5%88%A5%E4%BB%98%E9%8C%B2-%E9%9F%B3%E6%A5%BDCD2%E6%9E%9A%E7%B5%84-Softbank-mook/dp/4797326239

Tweets that served as a starting point for researching this submission:
https://x.com/gosokkyu/status/1585114095329898496
https://x.com/gosokkyu/status/1705220228828045506
Yeah! You Want "Those Games", Right? So Here You Go! Now, Let's See You Clear Them!
Yeah! You Want "Those Games", Right? So Here You Go! Now, Let's See You Clear Them! (2023)
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This game, also referred to by the shorthand title "Those Games", is a parody of mobile game advertisements, specifically those that depict fake minigames that are not representative of the actual game once it is downloaded. The game's producer Maya Ito stated at its release that it was developed in just eight months, and came about about from her own desire to play those minigames "thoroughly and to my heart's content!" She described the process of balancing each minigame and trying to turn them into fully realized games as being particularly challenging, and felt that she "could've done some things a little differently" after noticing that players at launch had found many different ways to play the minigames.
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Advertisement/Commercial, Balancing, Development, False Advertising, General, Inspiration, Level Design, Minigame, Parody, Real Life, Reference
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month July 28, 2024
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Doodle Champion Island Games
Doodle Champion Island Games (2021)
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The game originally began as a smaller interactive Google Doodle game to celebrate the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo, but after the events were delayed to 2021, Google were effectively given another year to expand it into a full-fledged video game with at least two and a half hours of content. This made it the largest interactive Google Doodle produced in the company's history. Their engineers were surprised at the large amount of side quests and dialogue they were able to fit into the game, but they struggled to get the game to run on mobile phones, tablets and desktop computers as it needed to be displayed on Google's front page. They managed to get the game to remember save data by saving it to users' local storage, so the game could be continued at any time. It is not fully known what the game's technological specs are, but the level design and sprite animations were created by Google in Adobe Animate, while the animated cutscenes were created by Japanese animation studio Studio 4°C in Toon Boom Harmony and Adobe After Effects.
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Artwork/Illustration, Development, Early Idea, General, Inspiration, Level Design, Real Life, Sprite/Graphical Animation, Storage/Memory, Technology, Website
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month June 20, 2024
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Yume Nikki
Yume Nikki (2004)
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Attachment In Version 0.04, Dense Woods A contained two jellyfish instead of just one, with the second being located by a lamppost near the center of the map; interacting with it only causes it to ring, without any additional results. In all recovered later builds, this jellyfish is moved out of bounds, well out of the camera's view; however, it can still be interacted with if the player uses cheats or glitches to access it. In Version 0.10, interacting with this jellyfish crashes the game due to its associated files being renamed: the jellyfish is programmed to call a file called イベント5, which was renamed to イベント_005 in Version 0.10.

Additionally, Dense Woods A's layout was redesigned in Version 0.07 to remove a gate that originally led to Mural World. Instead, the upper path is expanded to loop over to the western portion of the main road in Dense Woods A, and the remaining gate leading to Puddle World was redesigned.
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Development, Early Idea, Filename, Glitch, Inaccessible Area, Level Design, Mistake, Release Difference, Removed Feature, Reskin, Sound Effect, Sprite/Graphical Animation, Unused Character, Update Difference, Version Difference
person VinchVolt calendar_month June 17, 2024
comment Comment (0) | Source
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The Cutting Room Floor article:
https://tcrf.net/Proto:Yume_Nikki/Map_and_Event_Differences/Minor_Maps#Dense_Woods_A

YouTube video showing the use of a noclip glitch to access the offscreen jellyfish in Version 0.10:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9gNNPmZxd8
Gex: Enter the Gecko
Gex: Enter the Gecko (1998)
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Attachment In the bonus level, "Chips and Dips", developer photos with humorous text can be found across the stage. A photo of producer Jeffrey Zwelling was found during gameplay by accident, and to date, the criteria to activate the picture is uncertain.
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Bonus Content, Cameo, Development, Easter Egg, Hidden Credit, In-Joke, Level Design, Secret, Unsolved Mystery
person Regen-33 calendar_month June 17, 2024
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Yume Nikki
Yume Nikki (2004)
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Attachment Prior to Version 0.07, the guillotine NPC that provides the Severed Head effect when interacted with was located in Block World rather than the Guillotine Room (the latter of which is commonly known as such due to the guillotine's presence there in later builds). Instead, the latter area only features the lunatic Toriningen and cupboards.

This early iteration consequently made Block World one of only two areas in the game that featured more than one effect (the second being the Hat & Scarf effect, which is obtainable from Block World in all known builds). From Version 0.07 onward, this distinction is only held by Mural World (which features both the Blonde and Long Hair effects).
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Development, Early Idea, Level Design, Release Difference, Update Difference, Version Difference
person VinchVolt calendar_month June 15, 2024
comment Comment (0) | Source
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Yume Nikki
Yume Nikki (2004)
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Attachment Version 0.09 updated the Witch effect so that a unique sound plays when moving around while riding the broom, rather than simply reusing the regular footstep sounds. This is accomplished by giving every map two copies of the same tileset: one for regular mobility and one for the broom, with the game swapping between the two as needed. While this is retained in Version 0.10, the code is simplified in the later build so that a copy of the full string is not needed on every map.

However, three areas of the game were not properly accounted for during the conversion process: the second room in Neon Tile Path, the room full of beds in Number World, and the Pink Sea all play the regular footstep sound regardless of whether or not Madotsuki has the Witch effect equipped and active. Additionally, these areas still contain leftover event data from Version 0.09's method of swapping between the two tilesets. Because the indexes for the game's tiles were altered concurrently with the streamlining of the broom code, triggering these leftover events with cheats instead swaps out the maps' graphics with ones from other areas:

• The pyramids in the second room of Neon Tile Path are replaced with Henkei Shita heads from Footprint Path A, and sitting down changes the entire tileset to that of Snow World, with the background additionally changing from solid black to solid white. It reverts back to the mostly complete Neon Tile Path tileset when Madotsuki sits back up.
• The tileset for the room full of beds in Number World is replaced with that of Forest World, temporarily reverting back to the proper visuals whenever Madotsuki sits down. The background, however, is unaffected.
• The Pink Sea is completely blacked out, as the game attempts to call blank divider tiles when in this state.
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Cheat, Debug, Development, Early Build, Glitch, Leftover, Level Design, Mistake, Optimization, Release Difference, Sprite/Graphical Animation, Unused Code, Update Difference
person VinchVolt calendar_month June 9, 2024
comment Comment (0) | Source
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Yume Nikki
Yume Nikki (2004)
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Attachment The unpatched release of Version 0.10 contains unused data for an event on Mars called "階段←↓". Re-enabling this event opens an alternate, invisible entrance to the Martian underground, to the left of the hole that leads to it in the final game; however, the map's collision data prevents Madotsuki from actually using it without the aid of further cheats.

Furthermore, the game contains unused graphics for a stairway that matches the visuals of the Martian surface, and the Martian underground features several flights of stairs at the beginning. This indicates that the underground was originally meant to be accessed via the unused stairway rather than needing Madotsuki to activate the Midget effect, with the summit's layout being changed concurrently with the altered entrance. The Yumesyuusei Patch and all releases based on it (including the official English release) remove the data for 階段←↓, though the unused stair tiles are unaffected.

Additionally, the game's code contains tiles for doors on the walls of the Martian underground, indicating that the sub-area was originally planned to feature multiple rooms rather than just one. This, combined with the unused alternate entrance, implies that Kikiyama had to leave Mars incomplete for unknown reasons, polishing up what was already completed late into Version 0.10's development.
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Development, Early Idea, Inaccessible Area, Level Design, Release Difference, Removed Feature, Sprite/Graphical Animation, Unused Code, Unused Content, Unused Graphic, Update Difference, Version Difference
person VinchVolt calendar_month June 8, 2024
comment Comment (0) | Source
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Yume Nikki
Yume Nikki (2004)
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Attachment In all earlier builds of the game, Neon World featured a radically different layout, matching the open-world structure of the other "main" locations accessible from the Nexus. The sole relic of this in Version 0.10's segmented design is the room that Madotsuki starts in, which is much bigger and features a more spread-out tile pattern compared to the other rooms in Neon World.

One noteworthy casualty from the layout change is the removal of various head-like figures scattered across Neon World in Version 0.09. These figures are not seen anywhere in Version 0.10, making them the only documented "characters" that were outright removed (rather than relocated) in a later update.
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Development, Early Idea, Level Design, Sprite/Graphical Animation, Unused Character, Unused Graphic, Update Difference, Version Difference
person VinchVolt calendar_month June 7, 2024
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