Tiny Nightmare
Tiny Nightmare is a homebrewn game for the N64 by Team TN64 Devs and released on 31 Oct 2022 for the 2022 64brew Game jam. The game is unfinished, but you play as a boy with a big ‘fro throwing candies around a cemetery.
You can download the ROM from the download page for this homebrew game by using the password thatcrazywolf
or see the source code on Github and download from Drive.
Tiny Nightmare style and gameplay
Unfortunately, Tiny nightmare is an incomplete game so there isn’t much to say about the gameplay, but there are a few things you can find within the stage.
The game takes place in a walled graveyard in which there are halloween objects aplenty. Pumpkins, withered trees, a creepy mansion, gravestones… you name it.
The most interesting thing though is a crazy wolf that jumps around and spins in circles. Those are likely just the animations that it cycles through, but I just find it hilarious to look at.
The player character can jump, roll and shoot candies, but it doesn’t affect anything on the stage (that I know of).
Strangely, the game always crashes after 37 seconds. It might have to do with the wolf moving out of bounds or some kind of memory leak.
‘Spooky’ theme
There’s the whole graveyard scene and the wacky werewolf… Definitely spooky.
Credits
Tiny Nightmare was made by Team TN64 Devs which consists of:
- Zoncabe – Game engine & animated models
- Jaltekruse – Programming & some models
- Swagneto – Planning & level design
- Mr. Glitch – Toolchain integration & programming
Review and conclusion
Like other unfinished games, it’s hard to pass any kind of judgement upon Tiny Nightmare. It was originally intended to be a Banjo-Kazooie type of game with 3D platforming where the kid protagonist wakes up in his nightmare and has to jump his way out of it.
I like the untextured Gouraud-shaded models, they give the game a very N64-prototype-ish kind of feel which always feels welcome. The animation on the characters also looks great. It does feel like you’re going to embark on a fun cartoony adventure.
It would have been great to see what Tiny Nightmare would end up being, but I hope that it at least give the team a feel of what it is like to work on the Nintendo 64. Zoncabe has even continued working on it for a few weeks after the contest, so I’m looking forward to how this project turns out if it completes.