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Pest Control Twang Thin Ice

Twang is a platform game that Nitrome released for MTV Arcade during the time period of November 20th - 22nd, 2007[1]. The player helps the main character, Black Ball, cross a magic ocean with the various colored lines that appear in each of the 25 levels.


Controls[]

PC Mouse Left Click Click mouse button on line faces - move lines around.

Levels[]

Twang has 25 levels. Each level involves the player trying to get Black Ball to the end of the level by moving lines.

Level 1[]

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Level 2[]

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Level 3[]

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Level 4[]

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Level 5[]

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Level 6[]

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Secret room

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Level 7[]

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Level 7 begins at 0:58 in the below video

Level 8[]

This section is empty. You can help Nitrome Wiki by adding info. Intended way

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Level 8 begins at 2:37 in the below video

Unintended way (water wheel passed via glitch)

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Level 9[]

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Level 9 begins at 2:33 in the below video

Alternative way

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Level 9 begins at 4:27 in the below video

Level 10[]

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Level 10 begins at 5:31 in the below video

Level 11[]

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Level 12[]

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Level 12 begins at 0:53 in the below video

Level 13[]

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Level 13 begins at 3:39 in the below video

Level 14[]

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Level 14 begins at 4:55 in the below video

Level 15[]

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Level 16[]

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Level 17[]

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Level 17 begins at 1:10 in the below video

Level 18[]

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Level 18 begins at 3:23 in the below video

Level 19[]

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Level 19 begins at 4:41 in the below video

Level 20[]

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Level 21[]

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Level 22[]

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Level 22 begins at 1:23 in the below video

Level 23[]

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Level 23 begins at 1:56 in the below video

Level 24[]

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Level 24 begins at 2:43 in the below video

Level 25[]

This section is empty. You can help Nitrome Wiki by adding info. Intended way to complete the level:

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Level 25 begins at 3:13 in the below video

Unintended, quicker way to win the level:

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Ending[]

Penguin 1

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Twang

Enemies[]

55?cb=20120317190109 Incomplete section

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Lines[]

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Main article: Lines (Twang)

Lines can usually be moved by holding the heads and moving them with the mouse. Using these, the player can move Black Ball around. Some of them have certain abilities.

  • Red lines - Can be stretched in all directions
  • Blue lines - Cannot be stretched, spinning in some stages
  • Cyan lines - Cyan lines cannot be stretched, but moving one causes all the cyan lines connected to it to also move
  • Purple lines - These lines can be inserted into holes
  • Green lines - When the player stretches these, Black Ball is flung extra high
  • Orange lines - These lines disappear for a short amount of time, then become solid, infinitely repeating this
  • Ghost lines - These lines cannot be interacted with by the player, but enemies walk on them
  • Finish line - Black ball's primary target, which will end the level once it reaches the line

Interactive objects[]

55?cb=20120317190109 Incomplete section

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  • Stars - can be collected for points
  • Thumper bumpers - Black ball just bumps back from bumpers when hitting them

Hazards[]

Development[]

Twang went through many redesigns during development, one such redesign being how the background environment was originally made up of red hues instead of purple[2]. The following concept art was shared by Nitrome in a blog post detailing some of Twang's development.

Awards[]

Site/Event Year Contest Prize Outcome
Flash Forward Film Festival[3] 2008 Flash Forward Film Festival - Games Peoples choice Won[4]
Jay is Games 2008 Jay is Games Best of Casual Gameplay 2007 Action or Arcade game (Browser games) of 2007 Nominated

Unused content[]

Twang contains three unused objects: possible placeholder text, an arrow, and an unused interactive object.

Text[]

The placeholder text appears as an image that reads "fdasfdas", which is not an actual word bit gibberish.It is likely that this would have been used as text placed on a hovering sign where no text has been assigned, or text is planned to be assigned.

Arrow[]

The second unused object is a simple arrow that is not drawn like any other object in the game. This arrow is identified internally as "background auto scrolling", this likely meaning it is an arrow that causes the screen to automatically scroll on the menu, or to automatically scroll the background when the player moves to the edge of the screen.

Motor[]

The final unused object appears as a black ball that has a white circle on it, and in this circle being an isosceles triangle that points either left or right, in the direction it is pointing being an arrow either at the top-right (if pointing right) or top-left (if pointing left) side of the ball.

TW3

Right motor, one triangle

TW4

Left motor, one triangle

TW5

Right motor, two triangles

TW6

Left motor, two triangles

TW7

Right motor, three triangles

TW8

Left motor, three triangles

Six sprites exist for this object, three for each direction. All three sprites are the same for each direction, except that the first, second, and third sprite have one, two, and three triangles (respectively) for both the sphere and the corner of the sphere.

Internally, this object is identified as "Motor", this name given by the only animation in the game for it, as all other images are still images. Considering how this object is circular, and the only other spherical object in Twang is a thumper bumper that is interacted with by touching it, it seems as though that Black Ball would have interacted with Motors by colliding with one.

However, no sprite exists in Twang for it being hit, unlike how the thumper bumper has an image that is used for it being hit. Furthermore, no other transparent image exists in Twang that could be placed over the Motor to show that it has been hit when it is hit, possibly showing that this object was cut from the game early in development.

The Motor likely would have functioned as an object that would change the speeds of moving objects, such as moving lines (as is seen in later levels). The presence of sideways triangles placed in front of each other in a straight line further supports this, as triangles placed in ways such as these are commonly used for buttons that increase speed.

Only one sprite of this exists, that sprite going through all versions of the Motor.

One, two, and three triangles may have been used to indicate slow, medium, and fast (respectively), or one triangle may indicate regular speed and more triangles may indicate faster speeds. It is possible that Motors are in fact used, but placed off screen so the player cannot see them, as adjustable speeds likely would have been exploited by the player in order to get past difficult sections that use these objects, and these objects could be adjusted in a level editor to determine the movement of objects.

A possibility for them being cut was possibly that no good use could be found for them, or they could be easily exploited by the player to get past difficult sections that use these objects.


Trivia[]

  • Canopy has elements from Twang and the Chisel series.
  • If the player presses quit during a level, when they are returned to the main menu the in-game music will continue and the menu music will not play.

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. Nitrome website: Play Free Games by Nitrome, retrieved 3 May 16. (games sorted in the order they were released)

    Twang was released after Pest Control, which was released on November 20th.

    Jay is Games: Twang - Walkthrough, Tips, Review, 22 Nov 7, retrieved 27 Apr 16. (has a link to Twang on Nitrome's website)
  2. Nitrome blog post: Memory Lane - Twang! posted 14 Feb 2012
  3. Nitrome blog: - Flash Forward Nominations
  4. Nitrome blog: - Twang wins an award!


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