Found at last!

A curious little puzzler which involves unscrambling various famous structures of world famous works of art created by Dr Devious by controlling JJ (JoJo) Maverick, the hero of the game.

The game featured some smart GFX. Vivid Image's graphic man Bob Stevenson had put a lot of effort into the graphics, which sadly was to event to nothing. Commodore Format stated also
that Martin Walker was playing a part in this game too, handling all the various audio twinkles. This was later to be confirmed also for the C64 version.

Originally it was rumoured that John Twiddy or Doug Hare were behind the game, but both have been crossed off the list. Doug Hare confirmed to GTW that it was none other than Myth/Salamander creator Peter Baron who was the coder of both the C64 and Amiga versions.

Peter started out on the C64 version, mainly because he had not quite picked up the Amiga/ST code at that point. When Peter finally did pick up the code, he did a source conversion in a
day and had the game playable on the Amiga/ST, even having Bob's graphics ported from the C64!

The game made it out fully onto the Amiga/ST, but unfortunately the C64 version didn't. The Amiga version then suddenly took priority during the C64's development, and this was completed. By this time, the C64 version was 2 months behind schedule. Imageworks spoke to Peter and Bob, and told them to drop the C64 conversion as the C64 was dying out. And sadly it was shelved. It was nothing to do with Imageworks going under as first thought!

Peter was tracked down in 2005, and very kindly has given a detailed account of the game (even though he is a very busy man) and you can read in full detail in Creator Speaks.
Peter tells us that the game was born in a pub while drinking with Bob Stevenson, where they came up with the main character who had mystical powers, and could walk up walls and on the ceiling.

Although the game was produced very fast and at a good flow, the game was way too complex to play because of its cramming of many controllable features into a joystick with one button.
Levels had to be dumbed down to add a good learning curve, but it was proving difficult. Most of the complex ideas were reluctantly dropped to try and save the C64 version slightly. Even
the easy levels were not quite so easy! One of the test levels (Which featured the Big Apple) was later moved to an Advanced level as it was so hard!

The game production lasted about 9 months in total on the C64.

Sonically, Martin Walker was to do dynamic music that reacted to the game and the player's actions. This was a very complicated idea which apparently caused Martin various
problems (On the Amiga/ST versions). GTW spoke with Martin Walker and confirmed he would have been doing the C64 music had the game been completed, though because he did music at the last minute for games, nothing for the C64 version was sadly ever started.

BUT... Now for the news you have been waiting for....

At long last, GTW is proud to present the first ever release of the C64 conversion of Devious Designs. Approximately 80% complete, and very playable indeed.

Pete tracked down his disks and passed on the remaining code to GTW. There were around 14 playable levels as far as we could see and 3 bonus levels to play, complete with SFX (but no music sadly). There were many bugs and the game was not as complete as some Source code from PC which Pete later passed on.

Thanks to Glenn Rune Gallefoss and Pete Baron, the game has been carefully pieced together from its sources to get the Bonus levels working which were corrupted in the original executable we were given. It's Glenn and Pete therefore who have made it possible to see Devious in its most finished possible state.

The guys originally found a manner of other goodies hidden away in the sources, including a hidden 4 player mode (Not at the same time), and some other various bits and pieces. Not all the pieces could however be put into the game. Eventually it was decided by Pete to go with the original controls in the new source code, before Mirrorsoft changed everything. This is therefore most complete version of Devious in accordance Pete's guidance during the compiling of a final version. The sources could well be added to the site at a later date, pending if Pete gives permission for this as an additional interest point.

This is a great puzzler which has some really nice artwork by Bob. The extra bonus is that Pete has supplied 6 previews of the game in various early stages as part of the launch of the game at last. You can find these in the original ported disk images also in the download.

We now await comment from Bob on his side of the work, but download the game and enjoy a piece of C64 history which has been saved from obscurity. Don't forget to leave your comments and feedback on the game in the forums. Pete will hopefully answer any questions when he has some free time.

The biggest finding since Solar Jetman. Check it out...

Frank and Jazzcat
(Additional source credits - Doug Hare, Bob Stevenson, Peter Baron, Andrew Tuson, Glenn Rune Gallefoss)