Cybertechno 3D Genius: The Making Of

2025/02/06


I have always been a sort of a neurotic perfectionist and never liked most of the games I made, especially the joke games that were never meant to be taken seriously. Not sure how I ended up being the one upset with them, but in the end I knew they had to go. Deleting your own works is cruel because you lose the time spent making them, however miniscule it had been, and to other people who might eat them with the plate and ask for more.

2 of my 3D games (ACiD3D and it's sequel) always bugged me due to being only 5 levels long and easy to combine thanks to the engine, so there has always been a plan in the works to combine them into a single, more coherent game, with an additional, third part which would be in yellow colors. Unfortunately every time I'd try to play I'd think "Good god, this is irredemable" and postpone the idea. That is until I realized that the other 3D games I made could also be somehow combined together with these 2, opening more possibilities for a larger, more exciting project.

By that point I had already finished Mr.Bean VS Scatman and was wondering if I could somehow expand my other 3D games the same way. There was a prequel/sequel game planned for it, but working on the same retarded engine seemed ridiculous. It is a child's toy with crazy limitations and broken raycasting. It was very shameful to still be bothered with it after all this time. 4 years later I managed to piece together a compelling story for the combined game and got to work.

The first hurdle was figuring out what to keep and what to discard, I was ready to discard most of the levels of the first 2 chapters. I cracked open a christmas ale and then another and played through the whole thing for old times' sake and realized that even the newer levels (everything past level 4) is OK, I felt mostly satisfied after improving only the first few and then sealing a couple of doors in chapter 2 because I kept getting lost while playing. I really hate handholding the player with annoying advice, but the various quirks of the engine have to be exposed ASAP before the player realizes he or she somehow can only refill one gun at a time.

Chapters 3 and 4 were different. Comprised of 3 joke games I have made, there was a lot to rework to make them more proper so they fit the story. It didn't take as much time as I anticipated (mainly since there were only a few sprites & textures in chapter 3 and only a few levels in 4). The third game was a SOMEMONG joke where the player got instakilled at the start of the level, which unfortunately couldn't be as lethal due to engine constrains (also it forces ranged enemies to show an ugly default projectile). Past that, chapters 5 and 6 were the aforementioned ACiD games. I decided to discard a lot of sprites from the first one, because they were taken from other games and were mostly random. I also didn't want to go out of my way to redo some of the weapons, so I made them inaccessible instead. Finally, I reduced the number of levels. ACiD 3D 2 went through much less alteration, though both feature a much simplified final level, mainly because I actually want people to beat the game.

Now that some time has passed, I have to say I am very, very satisfied with the result. I would still consider re-adding the other levels to chapter 5 and tweaking the final text a bit, but overall, it's a great game. In addition, this was the game that brought me back into game design, as I went on to improve most of my games shortly after.

ADDENDUM: As of 2026, I am no longer satisfied with the result. First of all, the games are too wildly different and as such in most cases you'll want to play one or another separately, not all of them in one go (I certainly don't want to suffer through all of this game just to get to ACiD). In addition, KLoP3D is not fun, it is a pain in the ass and the 2021 update simply bloated it with too many levels without any reason. Not being able to relax and perpetually wanting to improve games and make them more serious / connect them all to a single universe is what drove me insane back in the day. At this point, I'm considering putting up all of the games alongside CT3DG, plus the original 2017 Pure Black 3D alongside the 2021 one, all back on my games page. Yes, this includes The Last Stand 3D (the somemong game). Maybe I'll add a normal level to it like it was meant to have initially.

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