Proto:Purble Place/Build 5219 Prototype

To do: Investigate a lock graphic located in 9Sheet25.dds. Create a sub-page documenting the differences between this build's graphics and the final game's. This page could use a rewrite. Wouldn't it be neat if someone were to take screenshots with Aero window frames?

This is a sub-page of Proto:Purble Place.

The earliest available known Purble Place prototype, included in Windows Vista Build 5219. It has a lot of differences compared to the final game. It doesn't work on Windows 7 and above, as clicking any of the buildings there does nothing. Interestingly enough, this prototype is actually compatible with Windows XP!

General Differences

• The window is named "Purble Place v0.4 - Aug 30 2005" , because it's the build date.

Title Screen

Build 5219 Prototype	Final

• Purble Pairs is absent.
• The Red X sign is a yellow left arrow.
• The "Purble Place" text is not present.
• The buildings were moved more to the right in the final.
• The smoke from the Comfy Cakes building's chimneys is absent in the final.

Comfy Cakes

• You are unable to undo after you dispense a cake pan or batter.
• With the Difficulty set to Advanced, the player is able to rotate cakes. This mechanic was omitted later in development, as a result of the game's tight deadline.

(Source: The Guardian)

• The TV on the right does not count how many cakes are required/sent. Instead, the game's window counts them.

Build-a-Purble

• Since the Purbles do not have visible bodies, outfits are not available, and accessories are there in place.

Graphical Differences

Comfy Cakes

• The machine and cake textures notably have art styles that differ from the final build.
• Chef Purble has a rather.... weirder look than his final incarnation.

Build 5219 Prototype	Final

• The Comfy Cakes background has a few differences compared to the final. The pedals were moved more to the right in the final, and there's a reflection of the buttons in the prototype. Interestingly, a Lemon Filling and an earlier smiley button texture can be seen on the reflection.

Purble Shop

• The Purble heads and features also have zanier designs than in the final build.

Build 5219 Prototype	Final

• The background for Purble Shop in the prototype is quite different from the final version, having more-reddish floor tiles, bigger lamps, and overall having a more rudimentary art style.

Sound Differences

Comfy Cakes

Build 5219 Prototype	Final

• The sound for the conveyor belt is different, and dispensing sounds didn't exist yet.

Purble Shop

To do: Upload them, and do comparisons.

• The sounds are more cartoony than in the final build.
• A sound (which would become one of the final version's Green Mouth sounds) would play when clicking on a feature.

Other Differences

Comfy Cakes

• The W and E key binds for moving the cake are absent in this build.

Purble Family Oddity

To do: Are there remnants of this minigame in the files?

Interestingly, an unseen minigame is documented in the help files, named "Purble Family". The gameplay would involve the player dragging family Purbles from the left side to their houses on the right side.

Debug Menu

As with other prototypes of the pre-bundled Windows Vista games, this build includes a debug menu.

Purble Shop

The only option that appears to work here is "Toggle Curtain", which toggles the visibility of the curtain.

• 

  Toggle Curtain in action

Comfy Cakes

None of the options shown here appear to work. Reload Variables might have been intended for what its name speaks, and Time Attack Mode would've enabled the automatically-sliding conveyor belt mechanic.

Unused Graphics

To do: See if there's more to find. XML files for the unused Purble Shop features exist, and can be read by the game. Try to hack them all back in.

Purble Shop

Features

There are graphics for unused Purble Shop features left in the sprite sheets, one of which only has a shelf graphic. They were either intended as third available feature graphics, or early features. Oddly, the purple eyes appear to be rather a bit unfinished, since the right eye isn't overlayed by the eyebrows.

Shelf Features

These appear to be earlier, more rudimentary-looking versions of the green hair and yellow nose features.

Leftover Yellow Hair PSD

Leftover .psd file of one of the yellow hair graphics.

Comfy Cakes

Early Roasted Chocolate Icing

This appears to be an earlier version of the roasted chocolate icing, heart-shaped.

Unused String

Practice Mode

A (possibly) scrapped game mode. It's unknown what minigame this belongs to.

Early Game Name

Interestingly found in Windows Vista Build 5219's Windows\Help\Windows\en-US\gamesh1S\games_inbox_new.xml is that the name "Purble Place" is not documented, but instead, "Learning Fun" is. This suggests that "Learning Fun" could be an early name for Purble Place. This is further supported by the fact that the help file for the prototype is "games_howto_learn_IT.xml".