Jinx 3: Escape from Area Fitty-Two
Escape from Area Fitty-Two is the sequel to a pair of great original graphic adventure games on YTV.com (YTV is like the Nickelodeon of Canada). The first two games, A Dark and Stormy Night and Miracle in the 34th Dimension, were featured Hallowe’en and Christmas games, respectively. They were created by Toronto-area game design phenom Michael Lalonde, whose work you’ll see in a lot of kids’ games made here in the city. Michael is also the creator of Orneryboy, which is a bit like Garfield, if Garfield were a multi-tentacled Lovecraftian demi-god in a zombie-filled world imagined by the love child of Edgar Allen Poe and the creator of the Care Bears. i like to call it “pop occulture”. (Content warning: Orneryboy is for older readers. Ask your parents first, kids.)
So working from characters created by Michael, a concept by Michael, and an aesthetic i lifted from Michael’s first two games, i went for broke and created the biggest Jinx adventure yet. (Michael would be spinning in his grave right now, but despite an occasionally pallid complexion, he’s very much alive. :) Audience expectations were very high, and given the nearly ten year release date gap since the second game in the series, we were very worried that the game would never be made. But last year, YTV pulled through, commissioning the second sequel and making a lot of fans and new players very happy.
Jinx 3 features three playable characters that you can switch between on the fly, a waypoint system for greater freedom of movement, and a bunch more puzzles and cutscenes than you found in the first two games. i would really like to have added voice-over, because Jinx 3 is pretty text-heavy. Maybe YTV will commission a Special Edition?
Here’s a fan-made walkthrough of the first half of the game from teh uTubez, if you want to watch someone else play it:
Note: The choppiness in the video is due to the fan’s screen capture software. The actual game plays smoothly. The writer character’s disappearing head is due to the YTV site embedding the game at a different aspect ratio, which causes animation glitches.
Introducing UGAGS
Jinx 3 was the first game created with UGAGS, the Untold Graphic Adventure Game System, which is a code framework and set of tools we’re building to help us create these kinds of games more quickly and easily for ourselves and our clients.
Jinx Fans Only
Everyone else can stop reading right now, but if you’re a Jinx/Sitekick/YTV fan, you may be interested to know how this game ties together the mythology of a lot of the original content on YTV. Here’s a list of trivia:
WARNING: Here be spoilers!
- The game reveals where Dr. Frantic got the red vat of mysterious alien ooze that you see in his lab when you go back in time in the Friday/Sunday chapter of the Sitekick Saga … he STOLE it from Area Fitty-Two!
- The alien ooze comprises the black gelatinous ooze core of the Sitekick, offering a possible explanation as to how Sitekicks gained sentience (note: the current Sitekick redesign doesn’t allow you to open your robot to see the ooze core any longer, which is a shame)
- YTV released a casual downloadable game called They Came for the Ooze. It was a match-3 game featuring little aliens that look a bit like Sitekick. The game hinted that the aliens returned to Earth to reclaim their ooze, but it never explained how Dr. Frantic obtained the ooze in the first place. Now we know!
- Dr. Frantic gets the idea for the Sitekick from the design on the wall of the small room inside the hangar. The design was confiscated from the Gnat aliens, which may mean that the Gnat aliens originally designed the Sitekick.
- The metal plate on the back of Dr. Frantic’s head joins a new revelation: when Dr. Frantic walks through the X-Ray, he’s a robot!
Holy crap – it’s like the X Files up in here!
- Michael’s original concept for the game had Dr. Frantic losing his head, and Jinx had to rewire him to put him back together. The idea didn’t make it into this version, but it would be really neat to see it in a sequel.
- Michael made a time management Sitekick Factory, where one of Evil Santa’s E.L.F.s (Evil Loyal Followers) had to build Sitekicks. At the end of Jinx 3, Dr. Frantic offers the E.L.F. a job, which is a reference to Sitekick Factory.
- Between Jinx 2 and Jinx 3, Michael created an animated short where a UFO kidnaps Jinx while Jinx is camping. The UFO was a repurposed asset from Michael’s quickie game Nero the Hero. It was reused once more in the hangar in Jinx 3.
- At launch time, there was a Sitekick code in the small room inside the hangar. Get it while it’s still active!
- DID U KNOW? Jinx is never referred to with a gender-specific pronoun, which leaves it up to the player to see Jinx as either a boy or a girl
- There’s nothing under the sheet when Jinx walks through the X-Ray (another of Michael’s great ideas!)
- It’s tricky to catch, but when the E.L.F. walks through the X-Ray, he has a cupcake in his tummy. i threw that in there because i know Michael has a thing for cupcakes.
- Dr. Frantic gets his hovercar from the hangar, which he uses again in the Sitekick Saga – Wednesday chapter to battle the rampaging Monster Sitekick. One early idea was to have the characters all escape in their own hovercars.
- The inventory items are consistent and carry over from game to game.
YTV.com has a rich creative history packed with some fantastic original content. It would be great to see Corus, YTV’s parent company, exploit some of that IP worldwide. i think it would be a hit! Meantime, Jinx 3 was a fantastic project to work on – a real labour of love – and an itch i’ve been wanting to scratch for nearly ten years. i think it’s the funniest game i’ve ever written. Hope you enjoy it! (Now go let YTV know you want to see the much-rumoured sequel to Freaky Friday! :)
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Nice to see this game finally up it was pretty fun when I played it in beta. The game doesn’t seem to be loading for me though which is to bad because I really wanted to try it out.
Hi, Jeff!
i have the game loading from the YTV site in an iFrame. i noticed YTV.com was a little pokey yesterday … the latest WoW expansion came out today, and i noticed that put a dent in Internatz traffic. i just checked, and it’s loading for me … you think the iFrame might be causing problems for you?
Here’s the deep-link to the game:
http://www.ytv.com/gamepad/play/games/Jinx_Episode3_complete/jinx3.swf
The game is loading fine for me now. It was probably just some temporary server issue or something along those lines.
This game is great! I really enjoyed playing it.
I hope to see a post on UGAGS soon :)
Thanks again for your help testing this one, MJW. i’ll write a UGAGS post as soon as i (finally) release Heads.
Oh — no problem! It was fun :) Cool, I look forward to that.
Can aybody tell me where I can get a detailed description of the Jinx 3 COMPLETE walkthrough (not just chapter 1)? im having trouble figuring out how to get the E.L.F. into the dark room.
Hi, Miranda. i don’t know if YTV has any plans for producing a walkthrough. i’m talking to them this week, so i’ll ask.
Meanwhile, if i understand correctly … the E.L.F. won’t actually go into the dark room. You have to send Jinx in there first with a flashlight, which you get from the General’s office.
I have a question. How can you open the door to escape?
hey! to open that door, first you need to get the ray gun from the room with the monkey. then, you get the gun juice by going into the monkey cage again, and clicking twice on the banana pile. this will load the ray gun. then you go to the hangar, shoot the guards men and walk into the hangar. then you pick up the empty red book, and take it to the writer. he will fill it in. then you go to the elf and click him. then make the elf go to the unconscious guard that jinx took the jacket from.click on him and elf will take the sheet. then go back to the hangar and go into the giant ufo. next make jinx and the proffeser go to the room with the xray. then change back to the elf and make him click the purple button in the ufo. next make the adjuster go to the bottom then click the purple button. then your done :)
[...] world. The innovation we attempted with Heads came directly out of the first UGAGS game we created, Jinx 3: Escape from Area Fitty-Two. Jinx 3 had a LOT of character dialogue and was very wordy. Heads was a reaction to that; we tried [...]
[...] ugags@untoldentertainment.com.Here is a list of games that have been made to date with UGAGS:Jinx 3: Escape from Area Fitty-TwoHeadsSummer in SmallywoodSissy’s Magical Ponycorn AdventureAnd here are some movies and teevee [...]
da game is stuck
Stuck? Could just be slow to load. Be patient – it’s worth it!
[...] Game System), our internal game engine that we use to make games quickly. We’ve built three other games with UGAGS, and are working to prepare the engine for an eventual commercial release, [...]
no longer to do and fix the Martian ship and I’m with and the doctor will not be soon in place of only Authorised but not to do with the ghost that is the robe of the Lord and there and fix the ship and not what to do !!!!!!!! Help me not to do that puden please? not open the locked door and help !!!!!
I HOPE THE ANSWER!!
PILIII
PS: Seriously HELP ME
As Jinx, pick up the book in the hangar. Take it to the author.
and where the hangar?
There is no book in the hangar. Which part? I can not find any book there and if I enter the place where only authorized personnel will not be!! Please tell me which part of the hangar this book because I do not see it !!!!!!
KISSES I HOPE YOUR ANSWER
Pili
Let the same understanding and THANK YOU if you say I have a question!
When it was 4 ????????????????? I WANT IT NOW !!!!!!!!!! IF THERE!
Email YTV and ask them to get Untold Entertainment to make part 4!
This is the most do the following this re taken over this adventure!
This game is so much fun but i cant open the door!!!
Thanks! Which door? :)
how do you get jinx past the guards
You need a weapon from the other side of the compound.
I’m so happy with this game, but I can’t find the 2nd chapter, I mean, I can’t find the 3rd part complete. And the link you give us is not working =(
Weird. It works for me?
[...] a reason since i’m in this attention today. i’ve worked on a array of them (including Jinx 3: Escape from Area Fitty-Two, Heads, Summer in Smallywood, Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure, and a arriving Spellirium), [...]
ammm i need halp i dont now how to turn 1 banna into 5 and make the wepond work too
O que faz depois que o robô ta la no lugar da espaçonave o Jinx (não sei onde deixar ele) e o E.L.F. que está depois do túnel
I’m getting really annoyed because I’m stuck on the wires part where E.L.F has to do the wires and all that, to get the door to open, but I can’t and now I have to re-load the game, and start right at the beginning! Can someone please please help!
Pwetty pwease help!
The easiest way to do it is following the wires backwards. You start from the right to the left.
Has anyone finished part 2 and know a step by step way through it? I’m stuck at the part where they fixed the hovercraft but I don’t know what to do after. I think I should find a way to open the door, but I’m not sure how. Help please!
Different characters may have different reactions to things. Try taking a closer look at the book in the hangar while playing as different characters.
I cannot get Jinx going to the hangar? Someone suggested using the ray gun, but it appears to be out of juice. How do I load the gun?
The cartridge for the gun is in the same room where you found the gun.
Completed! Thanks for the great game!
I can’t pass the guards!
How do I get more bananas?
Clone them!
how do you clone them? I am dying for a walkthrough!
can’t open the door!
isooooooooooo hate this game it is
o.k im confued with the wireing someone tell me the answer in order plz
Finished nicely and smoothly. Maybe I will do some walktrough for complete game when I improve my English. :P Great game, absolutely gold among the others.
Thank you!
demais mais nao presta
Hi! Where can you play ”Jinx 3: Chapter 2 (and maybe chapter 3 if it is a chapter 3)”? :)
i can get to play this game!!!!! i just see a project and YTV small websites!!!!! how can i play jinx 3 ????????
PS: i need some help!!!!!!!!!!