Proto:Grapple Dog/Grapple Hook Prototype
This is a sub-page of Proto:Grapple Dog.
From March 15th 2019 to May 22nd 2019, Joseph Gribbin, the developer of Grapple Dog, would post regularly playable prototypes to his Patreon to experiment with different concepts to receive feedback from his small audience. Among these prototypes is a very primitive build of what would become Grapple Dog (then titled "Grapple Hook Platformer" or "Swing platformer"), and the Patreon post showcasing this concept would be the very first mention of the game online. This also remains to be his only prototype on his page that's playable for everyone, so no donations are necessary to access the files.
At this point, no characters were created beyond this simple grapple platformer concept. There's only three levels (counting five if you count some unused ones) and there's no audio. The levels that are here would later be shown off on the developer's Twitter in a more fleshed out state (which can be seen here and here). And in a weird twist, some content (such as some sprites or objects) in this build is still in the final game.
Contents
Levels & Controls
The game boots you into a world map that lets you pick between three levels. There's also two options for selecting what you want to happen when the grapple makes contact with something; a brief pause, or a slow motion effect, neither of which made it in the final game. The three levels go as follows:
- level1 is a linear tutorial type stage with signs teaching you the controls.
- level2 is a tower stage that has you grapple your way to the top.
- level3 is an open level where you need to look for gems and watch out for open pits.
As for the controls:
- A/S - Move left/right.
- L - Jump/select
- K - Throw grapple/climb.
- R - Restart level
- M - Go back to world map.
General Differences
...for the ones that are even remotely similar.
- The game plays in a 768x432 window compared to 960x540.
- The collectible fruit were first gems. They're the only collectible here.
- A pointer is drawn on the screen whenever you can or can't grapple onto an object.
- Grappling onto an object adds a brief pause before the game continues.
- You only have one life. Getting hit by spikes will kill you instantly and show a Game Over screen of sorts.
- Additionally, a skull appears on screen instead of a pinhole fading out. This graphic is still in the final game, albeit unused.
- There's no bell. Instead, you walk into a checkmark icon ending a level while the text "Level complete! Press any key" appears.
Control Differences
- There's no ground pound.
- You build up full speed without a meter filling up.
- When sliding on a wall, going to the opposite direction makes you fall immediately.
- You can only climb up, and climbing is done by holding K instead of pressing W or S.
- Grappling feels a lot more stiff, as the game fixes itself to a certain grapple speed.
Grapple Debug
Setting hookDebug to 1 will draw data on the screen when you grapple onto a solid. This debug feature is almost identical to the final game, only lacking coordinate speed info.
| Prototype | Final |
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Unused Levels
test_level
An alternate version of level3 that drops you in a pit. It's otherwise an exact duplicate.
| test_level | level3 |
|---|---|
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level_three
An unfinished third level lacking grapple solids or ways to get over huge gaps of spikes, making this unbeatable without changing the stage layout.
Unused Object
oCamera
A simple object that snaps the camera in place once the player stands in it. A layer for the camera object even exists in level1, but it's nowhere placed.
oEffect
An object that's tied to a script for creating effects (effect_create). Placing it in a level will immediately delete itself and it does nothing otherwise.
Unused Sprites
sGemHUD
Gems, one being a trace and the other being an outlined gem that was meant for the HUD. Instead, the game just shows with text how many gems you have.
 
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(Dis)appearing Solids
Two colored solids titled sSolid_red and sSolid_blue that would activate if you did something. Only the first sprite in sSolid_blue is used for grapple objects.
Player Types
Two different player types stored in sPlayer_type. By default, your character is always red, but there are types for gray and blue.
The default image index is 0. On the left is index 1 and on the right index 2.
