Over the Garden Wall (Ep. 1-3) [Pico-8]

"Over the Garden Wall (Ep. 1-3)" is a 2D Pico-8 Zelda-inspired adventure game where you play the titular characters introduced to us by Cartoon Network's gem of a mini-series of the same name, Over the Garden Wall. The story spans the first 3 episodes of the show: "The Old Grist Mill", "Hard Times at the Huskin' Bee", & "Schooltown Follies".

Controls:

• Arrow Keys (Up, Down, Left, Right): Move
• X: Progress dialog, use item
• Z: Switch characters in party
• X + Arrow Keys: Select object or NPC

This Pico-8 game was completed after on-and-off efforts over 3 years (first commit was Sept '21). The Pico-8 game uses 96.6% of available tokens and 99.99% of the compressed capacity.

Features of this game include:

• 7 Stages: Boot, Menu Scene, Main Menu, Controls, Intro Song, Play Map, & Game Over
• A retro GBA-inspired boot sequence
• Full screen intro menu scene from original show image
• Main menu with 4 randomized characters & show-accurate logo
• Controls menu displaying how to play the game
• Randomized frog name on each run
• Intro singing frog sequence and full song
• Story for first 3 episodes (Mill, Pottsfield, & Schoolhouse)
• More than 50+ story beats
• 130+ lines of dialog
  
• 21 distinct characters, with map and dialog sprites
• 3 hidden rock facts to find
• 7 hidden Edelwoods to find
• 6 useable items
• Achievement system w/ 7 achievements
• Game Over screen with score total based on time spent and achievement counts
  
• NPC behaviors like chasing candy/player,  walking in loop, going to new position
• 13 distinct maps, 7 exterior, 6 interior, and 5 distinct buildings
• 1 secret room!
• Fog-of-war type darkness with partial visibility & tile discovery system
• Lurking eyes in the darkness
• Party members & active party swap mechanics
• Map-locking trigger system which hints to player how to progress (e.g. “leave a candy”)
• Sprite world element randomization - e.g. specific tree textures are random each run
• Play map UI for active character, item, map title
• Player selection system with item descriptor texts and NPC idle texts