Dirk Trivia

[surfingpenguin]

To the Dirk Dashing developers: I was just wondering if there were any interesting facts or trivia about the game that you would be willing to share?

[TroyHepfner]

Well, I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for, but here are some things you may not know:

Dirk Dashing was heavily inspired by Commander Keen, my favorite DOS game from the early '90s.
Other inspiration came from Secret Agent, another old DOS platformer that I enjoyed, even though it didn't have any working gadgets.
The idea for throwing stun grenades came from Keen Dreams. I liked how Keen threw things in an arc instead of shooting in a straight line - I felt that added an interesting twist to the game series and allowed for skill development on the part of the player to learn to throw accurately.
The level design for Chapter 2-2 was inspired by Super Mario Brothers - you'll note how it doesn't scroll vertically, only horizontally.
The level design for Chapter 2-4 is very similar to one of my favorite Commander Keen levels in Episode 4, "Cave of the Descendants".
The level design for Chapter 3-6 mirrors one of my favorite levels from Crystal Caves, an old DOS platformer.You can find some additional information in our Production Diary at: http://www.dirkdashing.com/production/index.htm.

[surfingpenguin]

Great! Thanks for the quick answer. I like the production pages.