Jouhou

In January of 2022, I was finishing up testing the first hack I ever playtested: The Friends We Made by Jibjig. Prior to this, I blindly played hacks and thought it would be neat to make something, but it would be outside of my ability. I made 2 or 3 terrible Mario Maker levels and never really explored it deeper.

However, playtesting had me downloading lunar magic to try to see how I could better explain something to Jib, and it made me realize that I could probably figure it out. I set a simple scope of seven mostly old school inspired exits, limited ASM, and no boss. Seven exits were chosen based on the number of people I had met and regularly talked to in the SMW community via Twitch. That way I could hide a portrait for each of them in a level. I set myself a limit of one month to have it in a fully testable state.

That one month included learning the very basics of lunar magic, leaning heavily on DanOfMostTrades YouTube videos, as well as help from Jibjig and Saela. I used the RHR baserom after flummoxing with trying to get on/off blocks working and feeling like it was burning self imposed timeline. Surprisingly, I was able to cobble together everything in just under a month (including a cut level that won't see the light of day) and sent it out for testing.

Saela was the first person to see and play it at all, and his feedback was invaluable. This, along with working with him on Ascension, taught me a ton about lunar magic and general level design. The remaining tester list had some definite overlap with the portrait list: NikDudeN7, Metallichepe, SprocketMX, and Stucat_. Stucat_ ended up making a cover image for it, hiding references to bands similar to those referenced in the hack, which started the box art tradition for my and Saela's hacks.

Testing went on for about a month. I tried to tend to everything that the testers brought up to me, with Fear of Ghosts being the level that really needed a ton of work (and to be honest, even after the huge 1.1 update to it, could still use work.) When Nik was testing the final level, which was a fast vertical autoscroller, I joked that my next hack was going to be all vertical autoscrollers. Saela saw it in chat and immediately messaged me on discord, saying "I'd work on that." So while he was finishing up Enter the Void and I was finishing up Jouhou, we started work on Ascension.

I would be lying if I said it wasn't rad to see people playing it after release. I honestly expected 10 people to download it. But watching it being moderated and watching someone reach the 400 Winters chuck gate and say "That's fucked up. You know that's fucked up right?" made me laugh and want to continue making more. It will never make someone's recommended hack list, but I'm perfectly ok with that.

In the end, I am fully aware that Jouhou is an incredibly rough and dirty hack. There are too many similar setups, a huge abundance of necessary p-speed, and very poor aesthetic choices. For a time, I played around with the idea of doing a Jouhou Redux, around the time Saela remade Memento Mori. There are two levels sitting on my computer from a year ago that will probably just continue to sit there. Despite it's flaws, I will keep this hack in it's current state as a time capsule to myself.

And regarding the hack and level names:

Jouhou - An album by the band Discordance Axis

You're My Way Home - A song by I Come to Shanghai

A Series of False Starts - A song by The Family Ghost

The Diamond Sea - A song by Word As a Virus

Oh, Up North - A song by September 22nd

400 Winters - A song by Bark Psychosis

Hallucinus - A song by Antarctica

Fear of Ghosts - A song by The Cure

Cardinal Movements - A song by Bottomless Pit

Honey, I Play to Win - A song by Homesick For Space