About Builder

Builder is a game of environmental anxiety. The world is closing in on you, and you need to escape. To do this, you observe your environment, build footholds, and destroy obstacles to your progress.

There are at least three ways to play Builder. At first you have a puzzle platformer -- obtuse, and full of glitches. Often the puzzles have more than one solution; the way that you choose depends on your perspective, and may affect what comes next. When you've learned your way around, the game becomes a race. And when you embrace all that is wrong with the world -- well. You may be on the right track.

Builder is designed on the 20-year-old Game-Maker engine by Recreational Software Designs. The engine is really not meant for games like Builder, which may play into the game's themes. Stylistic and technical influences include the work of Max Fleischer and Cab Calloway, Solomon's Key, Metroid, Super Mario Bros. 2 (US), Hero Core, La La Land, Seiklus, Braid, Berzerk, Magic Carousel, and maybe a bit of Silent Hill 2.

Alternative controls

Builder is designed for an extended PC keyboard. If you're playing on a laptop or other condensed keyboard, an alternative control scheme is available. Simply unpack the ALTCTRL.RAR archive, remove the hash marks (#) from the file names, and dump them into the data directory.

Before you do this, you may want to back up the corresponding files from the original install. That's all up to you.

Play under Linux

Linux users may do well to ignore the included settings, and instead to dump the Data/ directory directly into DOSBox, using whatever local preferences work best on the user's individual system.

Stipulations of use

Although Builder is free to use and distribute, and indeed to dissect for your own enjoyment, I do ask that you neither reuse its components (including graphics, sounds, original music, text, and layout) in your own projects nor distribute the game in an edited form. The only exception is the non-original music files (which you can determine by reading the credits). As I found them in various music libraries over the years, so you too may reuse them at will.

Thank you, and enjoy.

About A-J Games