Happyland Adventures is a freeware computer game that was developed by Johan Peitz (most famous for 2001's Icy Tower) for a contest hosted by GameDev.net
in 2000, where amateur developers submitted games that used the SpriteLib librarynote . It ended up winning the "Best Use of SpriteLib" award, and was soon published by Free Lunch Design that year for MS-DOS and Windows.
The main gimmick that distinguishes this game from other platformers is that the level exit is locked until the player guides enough inhabitants of the titular Happyland to a safety zone. The inhabitants in question are a species of various little creatures called Happylanders. The player can only guide five creatures at a time, forcing them to traverse each level several times which encourages exploration.
In addition to the original game, later versions include a Level Editor for creating custom levels, and an "X-mas Edition", where Santa's helpers have all disappeared, and the player is tasked with finding them lest Christmas will disappear forever. Instead of elves, Santa's helpers are the inhabitants of Happyland, and the player must once again guide them to a safety zone to unlock the level exit.
Happyland Adventures provides examples of the following tropes:
- Broken Bridge: With the exception of two levels in the X-mas Edition—including the tutorial level—every single level in this game cannot be completed until the player guides the required number of Happylanders to a safety zone. The required number is shown in the upper-right corner of the screen, just below the time limit.
- Death Throws: The Player Character falls offscreen in an arc when they die. It is a 2D platformer, after all.
- Funny Animal: The Player Character is an anthropomorphic dog, befitting their role in guiding the Happylanders like a sheepdog.
- The Goomba: Snails are the first enemies the player will encounter in both the original game and the X-mas Edition. They move very slowly and are easy to avoid.
- Midas Touch: A rare positive example. If the player guides all Happylanders in a level to safety (which is almost always more than the number of Happylanders needed to unlock the exit), all the enemies will magically turn into gold coins. Collect all the coins to unlock a bonusroom after completing the level!
- Mooks, but no Bosses: There are several enemies in this game, but no boss fights.
- Platform Game: The core gameplay consists of running and jumping to different platforms while guiding Happylanders, collecting items and avoiding enemies and spikes in the process.
- Saving Christmas: The plot of the X-mas Edition is that Santa's helpers have all disappeared, and the player is tasked with finding them in time for Christmas Day.
- Spikes of Doom: While the player can survive touching an enemy if they have collected at least one heart, touching spikes results in instant death. Even touching the side of spikes is lethalnote .
- The Spiny: It's very poorly telegraphed because only one enemy has horns on their head, but every enemy will hurt the Player Character if they try to Goomba Stomp them. The only way to kill enemies is to turn them into gold coins (see the Midas Touch entry above).
- Timed Mission: Each level has a time limit. If it reaches zero, the Player Character inexplicably drops dead.
- A Winner Is You: Complete the original game or a set of custom levels, and your reward is just a single screen consisting of the Player Character, four Happylanders, and an old man, accompanied by a congratulatory message. The X-mas Edition yields an actual ending cutscene.
Happiness achieved!
You completed the game!
