It's finally here. Please download this game and support us by telling your friends and encouraging downloads!

Spoiler Free - Plot Summary:

The player controls Sam, a character of an unspecified gender, who has mysteriously washed ashore on a very small
and empty island. On this island, there is only a large shack. Inside this shack are many arcade-games. Sam learns
that in order to leave the island, Sam must pass (or, beat) the highscore of an arcade game entitled, "Psychopath".
However, Sam will also be uncovering the mysteries behind the lone shack as he/she makes headway through
Psychopath's complex levels.

General Information:

Highscore is the product of over a year and half's worth of work. Created by two individuals who had too much time
on their hands, Highscore is a very full adventure that includes at least six hours to eight hours of game play. The
game's engine is smooth and unique, combining aspects of first-person shooters, puzzle games, and classic
platforming games all into one. The game contains graphics that purposefully resemble the work of a deranged child
to help boost the game's surreal atmosphere. The soundtrack, though midi, is comprised of all original pieces. The
in-game text was precisely written with care (well, the subject matter was. Please forgive any slight grammar or
spelling mistakes for now). The platforming is aimed at the extreme, the puzzles are balanced throughout, and the
combat requires fast-thinking. We (designers Nathan Ball and Ben Cochrane) very much hope you will enjoy Highscore,
despite how confused it may leave you in the end. The game is, after all, very mysterious and surreal by nature.

Starting Controls:

ASWD - Movement
Spacebar - Jump
Left Mouseclick - Execute/Select

Enter - Pause
END - Options Menu
HOME - Progress Menu

The remainder of the controls are revealed and explained within the game. Just make sure to stop and read the signs
that say 'INFO' on them.

==================================================

SCREENSHOTS:



[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
==================================================

DOWNLOAD LINKS:

Mirror 1 (Dropbox) [Recommended, if updated this will be the first to be updated
Mirror 2 (Mediafire)
Yoyogames Link
GMArcade Link
==================================================

VIDEOS:
Gameplay Video
Just me being creative in one of the levels. <- this shows how awesome the line part of our engine is

==================================================

BASIC CREDITS:

Nathan Ball - Story, Director, Artist, Musician, Designer

Ben Cochrane (Syynth) - Programming, Designer, Tester, and a lot more programming than it already seems - Background Artist,
Supporting Melodies

Nice, I am sure if you check out deviantart.com you could find an interested artist that would be willing to polish up the game's graphics.

Pretty good. This was one of the most original platformers I've played. Unfortunately I got frustrated with Squares and was unable to progress as far as I would have liked. Also it's unclear, when you first examine the Psychopath arcade, how to return to the game after the audio clip has finished.

Well it seemed cool but wasn't very fun. Just not my type of game, I hope you understand. I'm more of a 'stick-to-one-type-of-game-play' kinda guy.

Good game though, I liked the graphics.

awesome it's finished! Gotta check this out, the demo wa great

Thanks! And thanks for the other feedback, and anyone who gets to the end, please let me know what you thought! The ending to this game is absolutely awesome

Also, feel free to recommend it to anyone else you talk to. *nudge nudge&
I think more people would respect it if it could just get a little more attention.

Heh, normally I'd post with gripes with what I've done so far, but it's just pretty awesome now that the stupid fitting the box exactly into a box-sized hole is gone. Is half the demo gone or just moved later? Also, those library puzzles were so bizarre O.O, that took forever to figure out how to get the third "P". Anyways, took a break right after I got that, I'll playtest some more later this week.

Well, yeah, actually. Half the demo is gone. Because we were going to make all the worlds as big as the demo, but we realized that was too big a work-load, and we could get the point of the game across without it dragging as much. Also, it's kinda funny you stopped there, that's really close to where the games first 'twist' is. Also, for the area with the rising water, I helped write that song Not the third world song, but the part right before it.

And yeah, I handled most of the library puzzles. I figured they should be more difficult, since that was one of the few areas of the game that was set up to rely heavily on puzzles with not much else.

I actually almost like the worlds in the order they come. The third world is really awesome, unless you don't like bats. There's some serious... battage.

Also, pay as much attention to the story/details as you can, because they're sparsely littered throughout the game, but do go pretty in depth about the plot. This is meant to be a pretty engaging experience Though, the fact that you've gotten the third shot-line-power-up-thing means you're either just good at the game, and problem solving in general, or really into it, either of which is good! The last puzzle of the game is pretty awesome though.

Finally, one more note; if you do find any bugs/glitches/things you think aren't intended to be there, please let me know, but keep in mind this is a finished product, so we're not going to be doing too much more with it. (Though, if it catches on around here, I might actually release a more difficult version, with no story, that loads a lot faster, etc)

EDIT: however, i know for a fact none of the puzzles are broken i've been told they are, and i've actually had to boot it up and run through like 5 rooms just to prove they were possible to Nathan, the guy who actually designed half the game xD

yeah they're possible alright, just sometimes really weird with the camera! I've never seen a puzzle game utilize the camera itself as such a huge element to puzzles.

Btw, can you go back to previous worlds? I so far have not missed a powerup (assuming each powerup goes in a set position on the home menu), but I've noticed that some later puzzles require more than 3 angles. It'd suck to get stuck permanently.

Also, don't worry about this fading into oblivion. I've played most or at least looked at the cage match winners, and this is better than most of those. Just gotta give it time, puzzle games are slow to pick up fans.

Edit: 2 things before I forget.

A) so far the "mind crushers" or whatever they're called are a cool idea but I've never come close to being hurt by one. I've literally killed everything around them and had 5 seconds or more spare time. I'd think they should be the priority target rather than the last, so maybe halve their wait time or something.

The old "square sized hole" problem occurs in underwater levels.

Also, the swimming hint was really funny XD I probably even accidently swum in the level and didn't even notice.

Well, the player is given an extra line each world, as we made sure the minimum number of lines could solve each puzzle. Something you probably didn't notice is the fact that with the more lines used to fire a shot, the more damage it does. It's not very much more, and I know that sounds like it's useless, but it does have it's practical applications if you know where an enemy is going to pop up

Also, thank! I appreciate the positive feedback. Me and my friend put an incredible amount of time into this game, and from what we can tell, it seems to be a fuller adventure than most, at least here on the GMC.

Also the Psi-cannon (mind crusher) is mainly just to sneak up on you. It's supposed to catch up with the lazy ones Though, in one of the water levels (it might have been the last, actually) I was trying to make a video for someone, but I could NOT find the stupid thing, and I would die after like 20 seconds of swimming around searching for it! But yeah, I think our biggest shortcoming with this game was simply in the planning stages, so not everything got all the attention it should have.

Also, you can't get back to the previous worlds just yet, but once you beat it, you're allowed to kinda move freely thoughout the game. This allows you to find the other items too.

and you meant the red maze kinda room in the dark, right? I actually intended that to be something you had to figure out, but you simply throw the square up against the wall over the hole and it'll fall straight down

by the way, everyone: PLEASE FIND SQUARES 2. IT'S REALLY REALLY GOOD.

Whoo! okay just played till 5000 points. only griped so far is the 4500-4600 score was much more frustrating than it was fun It took me maybe 45 to get through just those two areas and the puzzles weren't the problem, it was that you would have to restart over and over because you didn't do the buttons in the right order, and there was no way of knowing sometimes if you were screwed for a while.

Other than that, the game does indeed manage to stay very good through this whole time Also, nice forshadowing, I remember the last "high score" recorded when starting the game was 5370 or thereabouts, 5 bucks says there's a corpse lyin' around there with an evil muhahaha psychologist or something

it was 5308

you'll really like the ending, i think. don't give it away for anyone else, but let me know what you think

WOW. Okay, so... To be perfectly honest, this tops iji and cave story to be my all time favorite game. And I was a big fan of those! This is awesome, this has to be the best game on Game Maker and I'm the first to beat it Anyways, I won't say anything else, too spoilery.
Btw... how do you get additional masks? I only see my own figure.

Edit: More stuff... the page up/ page down to flip between save points doesn't seem to be working. Where are you supposed to use it? Nvm, had numlock on.

Edit Edit: Just completely deleted any spoiler. I can pm ya.

For the masks, as well as the Sound Test, those menu's are pretty underdeveloped, but they consist of using the left/right keys to switch, and space to select. Backspace will exit the menus. Unlocking those machines will unlock all the masks/songs respectively.

And you're the first on the GMC, anyway. I really appreciate it (and I'm really glad you enjoyed it, that makes my day ), and hopefully you can help prod some people into this thread. It could use the attention xD

So again, thanks a ton, and everyone else, PLEASE check this game out.

Hmmm... actually I think a great part of the reason this isn't getting any replies is simply that people aren't playing it. 46 plays is rediculously tiny for how long this game's first version has been up. You should probably change your title description to quote one of my praises, and add in better screenshots, specifically the cooler looking non-spoilery areas of the game. Try the water rising, and maybe the world after the library.

Ah yeah, and actually put two of the screenshots as pictures, not links to pictures. Some people are lazy

Yeah, I updated the post a bunch. I really wish more people would take a look at this I appreciate you sticking around, though.

I won!

Cool game, bro.
I always like a good, hard video game but the increasing amount of fake difficulty in the later levels was aggravating. Nothing is more painful than finding out you shouldn't have stepped on that button. Especially when you didn't know which button was the bad button. This game was missing some boss battles. Those would have been good, and some teeth monsters. Yeah!

I tried playing Squares 2 but things got bad when the graphics were being drawn incorrectly with a chewed up image of the previous level on top of the current level.

Also, I would sooner file this under platform section of games rather than the adventure field since it is a platform game after all with the basic stage to stage game play. In fact, I only found this because I accidentally clicked the adventures link.

Thanks, I appreciate it! The fake difficulty thing - something that kinda came to me later. But hindsight is 20/20. We're still proud of the fact it turned out as well as it did, honestly! (also, as a side note, it took me like two hours to get off tvtropes once linked there)
About the boss battles... we forgot entirely until it was too late, however, it can be said in our defense, that the Psychopath section of the game is meant to just continue flowing, since it's supposed to be designed entirely with moving forward as the primary goal. (it's like.. meta-game theory, since it's the design of a game in a game, haha) but the area at the end is intended to feel like a final puzzle sort of thing.

As for Squares 2, I thought I fixed that, but it's possible if you have an older graphics card that it's subject to the whim of your gpu. Usually returning to the menu and then going back to the level should solve the problem. It was some random bug with surfaces, I believe. The Dropbox link is the one with the most recently updated file, so if you don't have that one, I'd encourage it. (granted, i can't promise it'll be compatible with the older save file, but if you can even get to open Squares 2, you're home free)

Anyways, thanks for playing!

Game description:

The player controls Sam, a character of an unspecified gender.

You would name a girl Sam?



back ontopic this game is really good, wont play though good job!

Samantha? (see, it could be either!)

Also, why won't you play? It's fun! Haha

Update!
I never realized that I hadn't posted the video trailer for this game, and today I made another video (just me fooling around with the game) and I figured I might as well get two birds with one stone. It's possible a new video might go up in the future, as that video was made from gameplay only in the demo, but Nathan's computer is dying, and he's more the one who'd be doing the video editting, so it might have to wait.

I just downloaded this. After figuring out what to do, I was excited to finally get to play. But, unfortunately...

Uhh... Both of those variables are initialized in the create event of the object. Which mirror did you download from? I know you can get those kinds of errors loading from an old save file (if you had say, the demo or something) but otherwise I have no clue how that would have happened. I'm guessing this error popped up when you clicked on the machine? If you could, please give me some of your specs, just so I know a little more about this.

Nice twist on the jumpy platform types. I like the gimmick where you set a path for your shots.

This is only my initial reaction.

I think the path should be set until you release the path. That way you can spam something around a corner.

Moving the view with the arrow keys is inconvenient. Perhaps if you just hold in SHIFT and use WASD you could shift (hurhur, pun) your view?

I dislike the colour scheme >.< Too bright for my taste. Some buttons seemed hidden in the landscape. Maybe make the buttons more obvious?

I like the movement, it's smooth, you've done a good job coding. I can't say the same for the graphics, sorry, not my type^^

I know this sounds like too many dislike than likes, but seriously, overall, it's a great piece of work you've got there guys. Really great.

I liked the game alot. I think that it is very colorful, and that kind of kills the whole drama of being trapped on an island. But, hey, thats your style, so cool. The movement was smooth, the story line was awesome, and i liked the narration of that Greke dude (couldnt remember the other names lol). The only thing you need is to have, maybe, guns or different types of psy energy that freezes or sets dudes on fire? And maybe coop (online) and versus mode? Well, good lick. And dont get stressed about multiplayer, i suggest it to everyone. I doubt you would get stressed, but, u know...

...

Yeah.

Awesome. You guys are giving great feedback. The over-happy graphics are on purpose, by the way.
I might do a multi-player mode for my own amusement, but I won't release it if I do. I realize I could probably get really popular this way, but Highscore was intended to tell a story, and by golly, it's going to tell a story!

It was downloaded from the Box mirror. I had clicked "Play" or whatever it was on the machine. I had tried the Yo-yo Games version moments earlier.

Hm... The DB link should work fine, that's always the first to be updated, etc. Since that one technically is routed through my personal computer, it's easy for me to check, and it works just fine for me. Can you tell me about your system? I'm not really sure what could possibly be causing this error.

Forgot how to check.

I just mean your OS, how fast your cpu is, how much ram, video memory, stuff like that. If you're on windows xp/vista, you can hit win + r and type 'dxdiag' and it'll open a diagnostic that'll tell you everything you'd need to know.

OS: Windows XP Professional 5.1
Processor: Intel Celeron CPU 2.20GHz
Memory: 758MB RAM
Display: Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller
Approx. Total Memory:64.0 MB

This?

Yep. That's not too much memory, but I don't have a feel for the strain it puts on XP, only Vista. Highscore feels pretty heavy to me on Vista. (maybe it's the 64mb of VRAM?) otherwise I don't know what could be causing that sort of error. I'll ask around. If you can play it on another computer, please try to do so It's worth it, if you enjoy platforming games, I promise.

Unfortunately, my laptop won't turn on(virus; no money to fix) and my sister uses hers as much as I use my desktop(24/7).

Dang.

Well tell her to move over, you got important business!
But seriously, I'm really sorry that you aren't able to play. You haven't tried re-installing your laptop's OS? Usually failure to turn on isn't a virus. If it's a virus deleting everything will delete it too. (not that you'll necessarily want to delete everything, but that's always an option)

Edit: Just a quick note, I'm also uploading to Roket-Games, so maybe you'll have some luck there? I'll re-edit once it's finished uploading.

No... no... not the spray bottle again.


I've tried that dozens of times. It always fails right at the end. Also, it's been at my brother's friend's garage. He fixed my desktop, but he can't fix my laptop until I get a charger. (Sister broke hers, she used mine then broke it. Now she has another. )

Well if the charger is her fault, then tell her she should definitely let you Anyway, I hope you get your laptop fixed, and get a chance to try Highscore out once you do, but I think we're a little off topic, so if we could steer it in the right direction, that would be great