Assassin

After Dojo Dan, we decided to find a different publisher. Allister Brimble, who was handling our music and sound effects at this point, recommended Team 17.

We met Martyn Browne from Team 17 on a cold winter morning at our office. We described what we were building, and Martyn agreed Team 17 would publish it. Milestone payments were sorted, and then we headed to the local pub for lunch and many pints. This became the routine whenever Martyn visited to check progress and deliver payments.

The Strider Influence

Assassin was inspired by the arcade game Strider. I loved the freedom of movement - the way the player could run, jump, climb, and swing through levels. That mechanic felt fresh and exciting.

Since this was Amiga-only, I could take advantage of more specialized hardware features. The 8-way scrolling was challenging, but I figured it out quickly after talking with another Team 17 game team. The scrolling used the copper and built-in hardware shifting to move the entire screen efficiently.

Technical Quirks

Something unexpected happened with the scrolling. The whole screen moved, including the sprites. You'd think erasing and redrawing sprites during scroll would cause visible judder, but somehow - probably due to frame rate and TV refresh timing - the sprites appeared to move smoothly.

Crunch Time

I still remember the final week. Beer, fast food, and programming around the clock to get the game ready for the disc duplicators Monday morning. Pulling a couple of all-nighters felt normal back then. Sure, I was exhausted, but mostly I was just excited to be getting paid to make games.