The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #545 and Like A Hood Ornament #88: Updates on the Rocketeer vs. the Third Reich Video Game 1
The Thirteenth Hour Podcast
In today's episode, I'm discussing some progress I've made on the Rocketeer game that I started a number of years ago. I was learning to use the program before by making a one level demo game which ended up being the precursor to the story and card game of The Rocketeer vs the Third Reich. But I'd always meant to get back to the actual video game. In the past two weeks, I had to reacquaint myself to the program, Gdevelop5, and pickup where I left off a few years ago. I discuss some of the design challenges and decisions I've been working through recently. More details can be found in this youtube video: https://youtu.be/0wvP29BKk-k
One thing I did in preparation was play replay the NES version of The Rocketeer - a very frustrating game made much better by using emulation, save states, cheat codes, and the developer's code, which gives you essentially infinite weapons and health as well as ready access to rocketfuel, which I always found in very short supply in the game.
Playing the game on God mode (which made it tolerable) essentially drive home two points - 1.) sometimes difficulty does not make a great game in that it may simply discourage play rather than motivate it, and 2.) you shouldn't overly limit something's best feature (in this case, flying - that should have been easier and more prominent in the game). The cut scenes, however, were very well done, some of which you can see below: https://13thhr.wordpress.com/2026/01/19/the-thirteenth-hour-podcast-545-and-like-a-hood-ornament-88-updates-on-the-rocketeer-vs-the-third-reich-video-game-1/
More to come next week!
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Once Upon a Dream, the second Thirteenth Hour soundtrack, is now out in digital form and on CD!
It is out on most major streaming services such as Bandcamp, Spotify, and YouTube Music. (If you have no preference, I recommend Bandcamp since there is a bonus track there and you will eventually be able to find tapes and special editions of the album there as well.) The CDs are out now!
-Check out the pixelart music videos that are out so far from the album:
-->Logan's Sunrise Workout: www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7SM1RgsLiM
-->Forward: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9VgILr1TDc
-->Nightsky Stargazing: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S0p3jKRTBo
-->Aurora's Rainy Day Mix: https://youtu.be/zwqPmypBysk
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