Sucknblo is a cancelled action platforming Nitrome game, revealed on a Memory Lane post on September 6th 2012. The game was cancelled in early stages as it "wasn't much fun".

ControlsEdit

/ - Jump
/ - Move left
/ - Move right
/ - Unknown, but possibly this allowed the player to duck or perform some other unmentioned action.
- Fire push beam

It is not revealed in the document what action is mapped to the appropriate the arrow/WASD key (aside from the space bar), it is assumed here what the action is because of the setup of the level and WAD/↑← → being for jumping, moving left, and moving right, respectively (since this setup is most common).

GameplayEdit

The objective of each level of Sucknblo is to kill all enemies. Sucknblo is a platforming game, so thus, the level is divided up into multiple platforms the player can walk on. The player is armed with a weapon called the push beam, which when the spacebar is pressed, fires this beam.

The push beam is used for the killing of enemies in the levels of Sucknblo. Although it doesn't inflict damage, shooting this beam at an enemy would cause the enemy to lose its footing, presumably pushing it in the direction of the laser beam.

If used on an enemy long enough, the enemy would lose its grip on the floor and be crushed against a wall (due to the force of the beam). Alternatively, the player can push the enemy with the push beam into a trap that would kill it, instead of crushing it into a wall. Force fields - objects planned to be in the game - "interrupt the range on the beam", this possibly meaning force fields would prevent the player's laser from moving farther.

The unfortunate side effect of the push beam is that it can actually pull enemies towards the player, the player capable of harming themself through pulling enemies into themself. It is not gone into detail the effect of enemies being pulled towards the player, whether enemies are pulled at fast or slow speeds towards the player, or whether it is similar to enemies being pushed by the push beam.

Some levels will feature poles, which enemies can grab on to to prevent being crushed against walls. Enemies were not defenseless, some would fire bullets and possibly use other attacks. Enemies were also planned to have behaviours of varying complexity, some basic behaviours serving as the foundation for more complex versions of the behaviour.

Unrevealed contentEdit

Although Nitrome has revealed much content about the game in the Memory Lane blog post, the screenshots had some content in them which didn't seem to match with any content in the Memory Lane post. This includes the screenshot found on Simon Hunter's website.

Seen in both screenshots are orbs with a electric field around them. It is uncertain what these may be, but it is possible that these are the mentioned "traps", which enemies could be pushed into to be killed. It is also possible these would transform into enemies, as many orbs in the mock-up shot of the game provided on the Memory Lane blog post have been replaced with enemies in the Simon Hunter image.

Several enemies present in the Simon Hunter image are not present in the mock-up shot provided by Nitrome. It is possible these enemies present in the Simon Hunter image were redrawn into other enemies present in the Memory Lane image, or possibly the enemies in the Memory Lane image were redrawn and placed into the Simon Hunter image; the Simon Hunter image also features variations of some enemies.

Nitrome does not cover how the hero of the game has only three health blocks, and how possible collision with enemies lessens this bar. This object of the game was likely skipped as it was obvious by the bar that it indicates health. The image found on Simon Hunter's website showed the platforms of the level being blue instead of brown, as the platforms were brown in the Memory Lane image.

ScreenshotsEdit

When Nitrome unveiled Sucknblo, they provided a mock-up shot of the game. This "mock-up shot" was a screenshot of the game. Many months prior to the revealing of Sucknblo, a screenshot of the game was found on Simon Hunter's website. This screenshot was an possible earlier screenshot of the game, as it showed many different enemies and some other different coloured objects. At the time it was found, it wasn't known that this was a cancelled Nitrome game, as the name of the game was not revealed at that time.

Likely prior to the revealing of Sucknblo, Simon Hunter removed this image and many beta images from Nitrome games and art he had created for other companies, effectively only showing his work he had made for Nitrome.

It is interesting to note that the score for each screenshot is the same, along with the setup of the level (minus the enemies).

The image found on Simon Hunter's website

The image provided by Nitrome for the Memory Lane blog post

The superhero protagonist

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CancellationEdit

Nitrome decided to cancel the game after "mocking up the initial tech demo," as the game proved to not be much fun. This cancellation happened during the early stages of the game's production. Although Nitrome said that the game was started in October 2009, it was apparently cancelled in December or November, in a time that Nitrome called the "run up to Christmas".

Nitrome also stated that if the game wasn't cancelled, Avalanche possibly would have been cancelled instead, as it was close to Christmas that Avalanche was worked on.

Nitrome also stated in a comment on their Facebook page that the game "looked nice", but wasn't much fun to play, which is why they cancelled it. They also stated that they are not going to start up work on the game again because of that reason.

ReferencesEdit

• Nitrome Blog post: Memory Lane!