It’s here. Prosperity. Level 0 is ready for testing today, before uploading onto our download service. Here’s the rundown of CLASS ZERO — each is complete in itself and consists of seven large dungeons and six overworlds, all designed by me for your personal suffering, misery and torment, or joy, merriment and fun, depending upon your typicality and condition of Being.
CLASS ZERO – LEVEL 1
ACHIEVEMENT = “Waltzing Mathilda”
You’ll be walking through a very large orb with many levels. There is no threat at this level, just space to walk through and tedium to fight. You can pick up items and treasures, health and other good things, from the Loot Boxes all around the dungeons. This does not stay with the character from orb to orb at this level, but later this will change, and they will continue from one class to the next.
CLASS ZERO – LEVEL 2
ACHIEVEMENT = “Acid Rain”
You’re expected to walk through the same set of dungeons, but this time not bump into any of the walls, even when picking up treasures from the aforementioned Loot Boxes. Penalty for blundering into a wall? Why, humiliation, of course, but you already knew that. All the walls have been coated with deadly acid raindrops — when you bump up against a wall … any wall anywhere in the orb … you’ll hear a humiliating rebuke and general sounds of “dissing” — disapproval — and utterances of “You failed!” and such, plus fart sounds, burp sounds and of course the “Braaaack” of the ever-popular Bronx Cheer. Ordinarily, I’d send you back to the start of that dungeon level if you blundered into a “hot” wall, but for a beginner, it’s enough to hear the sound and see the redness on the screen to know that you made a boo-boo as a Prosperity Runner.
CLASS ZERO – LEVEL 3
ACHIEVEMENT = “Bump on a Log”
Now you must negotiate the same spaces, but they now have a number of constrictions, narrow beams and such, over a section of lava. You’re expected to manage to walk through these obstructions while gathering Prosperity Items such as gold, health, magic, etc. from the Loot Boxes and Treasure Chests along the way. At this point, you’re expected to master the art of balance on a narrow beam, and to find ways to negotiate the obstacles, mainly by combining looking down and looking straight ahead, crouching to see the beams, and more. This level brings home many very basic skills of movement and environmental awareness, meaning having a sense of the surrounding area.
CLASS ZERO – LEVEL 4
ACHIEVEMENT = “Leap Frog”
You can easily guess what happens next. Same spaces, same Loot Boxes, same constricted spaces and narrow beams or weirdly-shaped logs to cross over lava, but now something has been added. Nope, it isn’t extra time. We haven’t put in the timer yet, but we will, really, really soon, and then you’ll have to beat the clock. But not in Class Zero, you won’t. So this achievement is really about how to jump, turn, twist and shout in cyberspace.
CLASS ZERO – LEVEL 5
ACHIEVEMENT = “Work-Around”
Just a few more things to master and you’re on your way to running actual Prosperity Levels. In Level five, you’re expected to figure out how to maneuver up and down a variety of slanted floors and beams and rods and things, plus negotiate around bizarre obstacles placed in your way. This is the level where you’ll learn to crouch, swim, crawl and fly.
CLASS ZERO – LEVEL 6
ACHIEVEMENT = “Engineer”
You’ll be learning how to pick up, carry and assemble items to make larger more complex arrangements or devices. You’re also expected at this stage to learn how to use your HUD, Heads Up Display to your advantage, so there will be some stresses loaded onto your HUD during this phase of your pre-training for Prosperity.
CLASS ZERO – LEVEL 7
ACHIEVEMENT = “Happy Hooker”
Here’s the payoff for all your hard work!!! You get to master the grapple, the most fun you’ll ever have in cyberspace is yours to use! Zip around and learn how to maneuver through spaces with this marvelous tool. You’ll wish you had one on your actual person.
Those adventures will bring you to CLASS 1 LEVEL 1. Good luck. I’m promised the new HUD as soon as VAL can get it done; plus in a week or two, we’ll add a lot of new programming to handle this style of shamanic training.
Look for downloads from now on … I’ll post CLASS ZERO – LEVEL 1 the moment it’s Ready For Prime Time.
I’ll issue each level as I complete it and test it. If you have any trouble running any of them, let me know immediately, and I’ll fix it within the hour.
This is a very exciting time for all of us here. We finally have an artistic 3D engine that is capable of producing the transcendent experience that’s in there, just waiting to be uncorked. You will enjoy the fog, the mist and the steaming hot boiling lava and the cold, sickly green slime that one seems to encounter everywhere, these days.