Hands up if you’re a fan of the critically acclaimed American comedy Community?
Aside from you being as cool as whatever the passing meta reference of the week is, you’ll also know that a big ol’ chunk of one recent episode took place in a 16-bit platform game.
I could explain why the main characters are playing a game involving themselves but the chances are it would make no sense if you’re not already familiar with the programme. So, like Jeff Winger acting on an invite to an out-of-college event, i’ll just avoid it.
After watching the episode I had an urge to play the game, and it seems that I wasn’t the only one: the side-scrolling adventure has been faithfully recreated by a Community fan, and is available to download and play on Ubuntu (as well as Windows and OS X).
Journey to the Center of Hawkthorne Demo
I’ll repeat the last word of the above sub-heading: demo.
So far the demo doesn’t stretch that far in terms of playability.
Whilst the charcaters, sound effects and locations all look like they were ripped straight from the TV show, you can’t, for example, enter the blacksmiths shop (and murder him, and his wife, then burn the building down).
Nor is there any interactive characters in the town to fall in love with Abed style.
But you can skip through the three available levels with a massive grin on your face, dress your chosen member of the Greendale 7 in one of their more ‘well known’ costumes from the last 3 series (Troy as Kickpuncher for the win), and hope that the developer behind the recreation sticks with it.
Anyone wishing to track work on the game can do so via this reddit thread.
Download Journey to Hawkthorne
On to downloading it.
The 2D platformer is available for Ubuntu, as well as OS X and Windows.
You will first need to download the hawkthorne.love game file from projecthawkthorne.com
Then, to open and play the game, install the lightweight LÖVE game engine.
I should note here that the version of LÖVE in the Ubuntu 12.04 Software Center wouldn’t work with the game file above when I tried it, but it may for you. Clicking the button below will install it.
If you encounter an error when trying to run the game then it’s likely that the version is just too old.
No worries, you can grab the latest release, albeit unstable, in .Deb format from the LÖVE website @ love2d.org
With LÖVE installed the icon of the game file you downloaded earlier should turn into a blue orb. Double-click this to open and play the game.
Reddit, via The Verge