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GameLab: Touring More of Pip the Dinosaur

Originally published 2026-09-01 on Advisory Hour.

Originally published as an Advisory Hour Substack post on 2026-09-01. This first-party site copy preserves the text, localizes public supporting media, and connects the record to its project trail.

Original post

GameLab: Touring More of Pip the Dinosaur image from the original Advisory Hour post.
GameLab: Touring More of Pip the Dinosaur image from the original Advisory Hour post.

Pip’s villainous rival is Mr. Blank and his M.E.T.E.O.R. doomsday weapon that threatens to erase the planet. The aesthetic of Mr. Blank and his weaponry is of an ornate, gold infused variety to offset the bright folds of origami paper. The end of stage boss fights admit a level of triviality, but are each a kind of horror unto themselves in the world. The boss of level two is a flying machine contraption of scissors.

GameLab: Touring More of Pip the Dinosaur image from the original Advisory Hour post.
GameLab: Touring More of Pip the Dinosaur image from the original Advisory Hour post.

Pip the Dinosaur translates the high-quality concept renders into gameplay at a reasonable clip. The distinctive aesthetic compared to many other titles has me think I’ve steered my available tooling into a very interesting place.

GameLab: Touring More of Pip the Dinosaur image from the original Advisory Hour post.
GameLab: Touring More of Pip the Dinosaur image from the original Advisory Hour post.

The inter-level artwork is just stunning. The image below is of Pip with the shield smashing thru one of Mr. Blank’s flying contraptions.

GameLab: Touring More of Pip the Dinosaur image from the original Advisory Hour post.
GameLab: Touring More of Pip the Dinosaur image from the original Advisory Hour post.

The minor character movements might go un-noticed. The details make for a more vibrant game experience. Pip has a half dozen idle animation sequences, which builds on learnings from island V4. There’s also a gameplay tweaks that I’ve pulled in to this from the Founderman2 game series. When running fast, if you push down Pip will enter a paper-ball and smash thru obstacles until velocity slows. If you push down on the keyboard while in the paper-ball mode, then pip will “hop out” relative to how much velocity you have left. Then there’s the foot slide that happens relative to how fast you’re moving and whether you shift left or right. If you hold ‘down’ and press spacebar, then Pip does a “crease charge” which gets you to top speed without having to run. These movement operators were surprisingly difficult to tune. The anime speed lines that appear as Pip gains ever faster speed just feels right.

GameLab: Touring More of Pip the Dinosaur video 1 from the original Advisory Hour post.

The stages are just a real treat to look at.

GameLab: Touring More of Pip the Dinosaur image from the original Advisory Hour post.
GameLab: Touring More of Pip the Dinosaur image from the original Advisory Hour post.

The music generation for this project I’m leaning away from Suno. Typically, I’d use Suno for music projects. Recent limitations around downloads and their software is pushing me into a space of trying alternative open-source music options. If all goes well, I’ll share those tracks and get them up on music lab in an upcoming post.

GameLab: Touring More of Pip the Dinosaur image from the original Advisory Hour post.
GameLab: Touring More of Pip the Dinosaur image from the original Advisory Hour post.

Until next time!

Connected work

  • Folded Thunder: See the complete game overview, controls, worlds, artwork, and build story.
  • Play Folded Thunder: Try the tuned movement rules against Mr. Blank's machines.
  • Pip the Dinosaur in Video: Follow the next step as richer sound, music, loops, and generated video expand the character.