ElecHead

ElecHead
Developer: NamaTakahashi Publisher: NamaTakahashi Platforms: Windows, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One Released internationally: October 14, 2021 (Windows), June 23, 2022 (Switch), March 24, 2023 (Xbox One) This game has unused areas. This game has unused objects. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused abilities. This game has unused music. This game has unused sounds. This game has debugging material. This game has a prototype article

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

ElecHead has you use your head and behead yourself to solve soreheading puzzles to head to your own doom. Try and wrap your head around that.

To do: Several unused objects. Upload the unused sprites. An older revision of this page linked to nonexistent pages for two prototypes (June 23, 2019 alpha; September 23, 2020 Tokyo Game Show demo) and a prerelease element (a fully-completed track for Section 4).

Unused Rooms

rmStageIdea

A scratchpad of sorts with five ideas for area layouts.

Idea 1 is an early version of the slot roulette mechanic that would've taken place in section 3, though rather than unlocking one of the chips, it seems like you were supposed to open a locked door. Getting three keys on the slot roulette crashes the game because no hidden key exists off-screen. This also would've been the starting point for either area 5 or 6.

Idea 2 would've taken place in section 2, using the moving platforms as a base for the puzzle. A chip would be waiting right at the exit for the player to collect. To solve the puzzle, you have to activate the moving platform, deactivate it to let it roll to the player, at the right moment throw your head onto the platform, walk to the other side and get your head back.

Idea 3 also would've taken place in section 2 and uses the key door for its puzzle. The puzzle can't be solved unfortunately, but it seems like you were meant to throw your head to the other side to prevent the key door from opening. Any interaction with the key, let that be throwing your head or touching the key just with your body opens the door, hence why it can't be beaten.

Idea 4 would've taken place in section 1, using the electric walls and a key door. There doesn't seem to be a way to solve the puzzle without the rocket ability, since this section would've been very early in the game. Something similar to this puzzle appears in the final returning sections.

Idea 5 would've taken place in the returning section and has a few puzzles. When entering the area from the right, you'll encounter a monitor with poop displayed on it. Moving past the covered area reveals a puzzle where you have to use your rocket head ability to dodge the lazer and grab a key to unlock the door on the left. The second puzzle has you throw your head onto the door and jump up on the stack of electric walls to open the door. All of this works as intended, though was probably scrapped because it was too easy for one of the final sections.

rmStageTest

A mostly empty area with a few key objects and all sorts of backgrounds. There's no area layouts or anything else to walk on.

Room1

An empty room with nothing in it. Might've been created on accident.

Unused Sprites

Battlloon is a promo for the developer's game that was released the year before. You can see it in the Tokyo Game Show demo by holding Left before the game starts, in which you'll be able to access a secret area with this billboard.

Unused Tiles

There are many, all stored in one tileset (tsBackground). Some were eventually converted to objects.

Section 1

A small fence.

A toxic waste barrel. The graphic was reused as an object and had its toxicity symbol removed.

Wall corners for the floor.

Barbed wire, with tiles to put holes in them.

A back sign.

A warning sign. Could've been used for the beamer's introduction screen.

Section 2

Two variants of a bar. It's only here because it's among section 2's tiles.

A vertical hollow pipe. Only the horizontal variant and rest of the tileset is used.

Section 3

Single metal bar stands. It's too small to stand on.

Section 4 (scrapped)

Seemingly all tiles for the planned fourth section for areas 7 and 8 are here. From these tiles and some leftover objects, it's looks like this section would've been a robot scrapyard.

Some kind of cloud or fog.

Solid tiles.

A crate.

Stars with a planet. The stars were reused for the section 3 background.

3/4th of a pile of robots for scraps.

A small background hill.

A background mountain.

Computers, which were reused for section 3, but only as objects.

An in-between for the key doors.

Several heads of abandonned robots. The last head was given finishing touches and put in across the stage as an object.

A broken pipe.

A stop sign for robots.

Parts of a portal. The final game uses objects instead of tiles.

Misc.

Upside-down monitor stands. The final game uses chains if a monitor hangs from a ceiling.

Faint light. This only exists in the part of the tileset for light up stuff.

An alternate generic block. Only the first variant is ever used.

A short rope, probably meant for hanging monitors to a ceiling.

Horizonal and single danger striped blocks. Only the full tileset and vertical variant is used.

Parts of the ElecHead logo. The final game uses an object for each letter.

Gravel and parts for walls. These don't have light up variants.

Unused Wallkick Ability

A fully functioning wallkick ability can be re-enabled by setting global.canWallKick in scDef to 1. It can be seen in the Pre-Alpha trailer and was disabled in the Alpha Demo a month later, meaning it was either scrapped around that time or would've been an unlockable chip.

Unused Audio

sndMonitorNoise

A looping buzzing noise that plays when a monitor is turned on. It can be heard in the Alpha build.

sndSection4

A track used for the Pre-Alpha trailer. A fourth section was planned, though this was just a placeholder (a fully completed track for section 4 was composed, however).

Debug Mode

Some simple debugging options are present without having to modify the game's files. At any point during gameplay, press Left Shift + Right Shift + D (keyboard) or Start + Select + A (Xbox controller layout) to toggle a debug mode with extra features to mess around with.

• Right Shift or RB - Toggle free movement. (Can also be enabled by setting global.debugMove to 1.)
• Left Shift + B or LB + B - Toggle head throwing ability.
• Left Shift + Y or LB + B - Toggle rocket head ability.
• Left Shift + G - Show grid overlay.
• Left Shift + F - Toggle the GMS FPS counter on the top-left.
• Left Shift + C - Toggle CRT screen effect.
• Left Shift + P - Scroll through all 16 available palettes, regardless if they've been unlocked or not.
• Crtl + V - Reload soundVolume.txt and reset volume settings.
• Crtl + G - Start recording a GIF. Press again to stop recording. The output file is saved in %localappdata%/ElecHead/ as elechead_XXXXX.XX.gif, with the Xs being the date and time outputted as a string by Game Maker Studio. (Text will display reading "Gif Capture Start" and "Gif Capture End" if the game is ran in the GMS debugger. These can't be seen in-game.)
• Crtl + S - Take a screenshot. The output file is saved in %localappdata%/ElecHead/ as screenshot_DD-MM-YYYY_HH_MM_SS.png. (You'll get the same result by taking a screenshot through Steam, even if debug mode is disabled.)
• Crtl + L - Toggle camera. Disabling it will disable transitions when moving to another screen. This feature was used for getting certain trailer shots.

One inaccessible debug feature exists titled keyDebugWarp. The name suggests this would've let you warp to any of the seven teleporters. This was made obsolete when it became a key feature.