Gordon Wallis

Submitted by Dan Dooré on Saturday, May 26, 2018 - 17:46.
Picture of me at the Leicester Space Centre a few years back

AKA

HEXdidn't...
1-9-9-2

Biography

Graphic artist and budding game designer.

Creator of the mythical Sandman's Shadow, which may yet happen in some form or another. Making it a point'n'click adventure on the Sam would be awesome, but the project is on the back burner for the moment.

Attached to several aborted games, including Guardian 3 (a Stargate/Defender 2 style game), Deep Scan (a chess game) and Deadly Addiction (a Target: Renegade/Streets of Rage style game).

Graphic artist on The Lower Caverns, a remix of the original SAM conversion of Manic Miner, also featuring adaptations of Bob McFarlane's PC remix as well as 20+ new and unique caverns.

Very prone to coming up with half-baked game ideas due to being happily unencumbered with any understanding of programming, with several demos circulating in the public domain (and one or two more not currently out there) serving as ample proof.

Other images

Early mockup screen of Deep Scan, first draft sprites, player-specific timers and a text window for recording moves (which I believe would have been exportable?)
Guardian 3 main menu featuring a slot near the top for those scrolly things, and a "Today's Greatest" slot for the top score. I seem to recall there was some talk of allowing the high score table to be saved, but not certain...
Guardian 3 options screen - very console-inspired, and designed to look as though transparent overlays were used. Cheat options weren't really discussed, but I was hoping to add 'Penguin Mode' at least, because I like Parodius
Guardian 3 character select. One of the features I wanted to include was different pilots with their own unique ship sprites and weapons loadouts, upgrades, etc., changing the way the game could be played. Naturally, the best way to demonstrate this was with character profiles... Ahem...
'Secret' bonus artwork... this was scanned from the sketch that would have formed the basis of the inlay art. I'd even worked on a multi-page instruction booklet, with the idea of using CD jewel cases with 3.5" disk trays, which my employer at the time was able to obtain
Anyone getting the impression I like arcade shoot 'em ups? I think this was originally intended for an Asteroids-type thing
Another one of my random ideas, Iron would have been a Command & Conquer-alike action-strategy game with adventure and resource-managment bits
I'm hoping that more of my Deadly Addiction stuff is on the floppy disks I have access to... Otherwise it's lost on a hard disk that has long since ceased to function...
...Because everyone likes animated cut-scenes, right?
Mockup of the full first level of Deadly Addiction, The Slums. 3 screens outside, 2 screens in the bar, then one in the alley behind the bar. You can tell I'd lost steam by that last one as it's tiled. The bar is heavily based on (I think) one of the Streets of Rage games...
Deadly Addiction might have had a puzzle game as a bonus feature... because I really like Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. Ahem.
SamPaint mockup of Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon at Sam screen resolution/colour depth
SamPaint mockup of Metal Gear from the MSX - original screen resolution of 256x212 fudged down by shifting the life bar to an otherwise unoccupied space on the top/right
Found an absolute treasure-trove of my ancient stuff for the Spectrum & Sam while looking for the Sam hardware in storage at my parents' place...
...And something new: I have the seed of an idea for a horror adventure, presented like the old Gargoyle games Dun Darach and Marsport, with sanity (as represented by the swining of the clock's pendulum) being an important factor...

Interviews

SAM Revival issue 24 - "What Happened to Sandman's Shadow?"

Trivia

Worked on one published game - Reckless Rufus, a Spectrum conversion of the C64 game originally titled Awesome Dude, published by Alternative Software in 1992 - and always happy to play with pixels.

Attempting to learn Ren'Py, as visual novels are pretty cool.

Wrote a walkthrough to the Konami/Hideo Kojima game Policenauts, but hasn't yet updated it following the release of the English patch.

Collector of TransFormers toys.

 

Where are they now?

Usually works in Publishing (Archant Life, Rhinegold, The Bookseller, Centaur, amongst others), as Production Manager and print buyer for magazines, supplements, bespoke books, event guides, signage, etc.

Freelancing as a designer/artworker, most recently redesigning the Council for Dance, Drama and Musical Theatre's annual guidebook, and as a web content admin for the Crafts Council.

Potentially looking for a new direction... or maybe just suffering from a mid-life crisis.

http://www.hexdidnt.clara.net/