Proto:Pizza Tower/Eggplant - The Cutting Room Floor (2024)

This is a sub-page of Proto:Pizza Tower.

The Eggplant Build, with revisions dated June 14th - 15th 2022, is the final Patreon exclusive build to be made before the game released on January 26th 2023, with most level layouts finalized and working (though rank requirements are hidden, so instead you get a rank with a big ol' eggplant).

Main Control Differences from the Final

Inaccessible things

• The debug console's code has been mostly wiped, thus disallowing any sneaky Patrons from easily accessing the unfinished hub areas and other spoilery locations of interest.
  • Stuff related to Pizzaface as a boss, particularly its final phases with Pizzahead, have also been removed for similar reasons. These would still exist in the enclosed private playtesting builds, as these were not meant for general audiences to yet see.

Peppino

Between Eggplant and the v1.0.184 release, Peppino's had some notable changes to his moveset, perhaps for the better.

Mach Run

Like (most) other builds, Peppino can do a mach run and keep a mach 3 pace when turning. However unlike those builds, the acceleration increase when going from mach 3 to mach 4 has been drastically decreased, making the extra gain of speed appear minimal at best. This was later reverted in the Octobe22 build.

Wallrunning

After one last hiccup, Peppino was re-granted his ability to willingly run on walls. In Eggplant, Peppino has a bit of weight to his wallrun; If he reaches a wall after falling in a downward trajectory, he'll kinda rubberband in a way, gradually picking up the necessary speed to climb that wall instead of instantly having the speed to do it right then and there.
He also can't run up walls if he's reached one by means of his grab move, and/or his Shoulder Bash.

Uppercut

Much like in the April 2021 builds, Peppino's uppercut can only be performed at a ground level.

Breakdance

In Eggplant, the player has to hold Up to make Peppino breakdance. In the final, this is done by holding the Taunt button instead.

Super Taunt

By this point, the Super Taunt is still visually as it was in the April 2021 builds, however its met requirements are now as they are in the final game.

Shotgun

Since the SAGE 2019 demo, the shotgun was a wide-range weapon that shoots out 3 projectiles at once, in a similar fashion to Contra's "Spread" power-up. Starting with Octobe22, this was changed to be more in line with how it was in the 2018 Halloween Demo, though now with fancy graphics for its blast radius. Also as a holdover from previous builds, the player is required to press the Shoot button to use the shotgun, which was removed in favor of being a temporary replacement for Peppino's grab move.

Gustavo & Brick

A few moves changed here and there, nothing really too out of the ordinary.

Ramming

Gustavo & Brick can dash not unlike Peppino, though their speedcap is already in place. Their max speed animation is instead the one where Brick is biting the air, instead of the one where he's rolling as a ball. They're still capable of ramming into enemies, and pressing Up + Grab still works as one would expect.

Double Jump

The double jump is functionally much different, and might possibly be another scrapped Yoshi allusion; Instead of doing a high second jump whilst Brick curls into a ball, Gustavo does a short double jump as he dismounts Brick, sending the rat plummeting down to whatever beneath. So then how do they wall jump?

Wall Jump

Instead of being part of their double jump, the player is expected to hold the Jump button for longer than they've jumped for. After the duo have landed on the ground, only then will Brick roll into a ball, and thus be able to perform the wall jump. If the Jump button is held for long enough, Brick will bounce pretty high off the ground, with one of the secrets in Gnome Forest being built with this feature in mind.

Visual Differences

HUD

• This build is notably the last available appearance of the Heat Meter underneath the score tally, though most of the functionality from the April 2021 and Rework builds has been taken out, with it only being able to affect the amount of points the player earns from collectables, and the animation speed of some enemies.
• The numbers on the score tally can appear in multiple different colors, ranging from red, green, dark brown, and light brown. In Octobe22 onward, only light brown is used, most likely to make the score tally more easily readable at a glance.
  • Only light brown is also used in this build's pause screen, which is generally unaltered from how it was in the Rework build, minus the removal of showing the player's current rank.
• The rank bubble is now present next to the score meter like the final game, though it only displays a placeholder eggplant icon, due to the ranks for some of the levels not being set yet. However, it still does the rank up/down animation when the player crosses a certain point threshold, even though the icon itself just stays the same.
  • The proper rank bubble icons + fill sprites have been drawn and can be found temporarily unused, with the exception of the P rank bubble.
• There is still shading present on a few of Peppino's TV HUD sprites, which was removed to make it easier to be adjusted for the final game's unlockable palette swap clothes.
• The TV screen transition animation is just a generic TV static effect instead of the final's white-out effect.
• The various combo titles that appear when the player's combo reaches a multiple of five appear above the player instead of below the combo meter.
  • There is also a bug present which prevents any combo title from "Brutal!" onwards from appearing, instead just repeating the previous title.
• The Pizza Time meter is missing the timer in the middle.
• The background during Pizza Time, security alarms in Don't Make A Sound, and the War timer, are also capable of creating a focal blur effect. This was likely removed as it can tend to briefly bugger out some computer screens for a brief frame, and potentially damage the system if it's left lingering.
• This is the last known build to use Pizzaface's old sprites from the Boss builds.

Differences in Levels

John Gutter/Entrance

• The 2nd secret has a checkpoint, which is absent in the final.
• The entrance to this secret, located in the "Sweden Heaven" room is not obscured, unlike the final game, which is obscured, with the only hint being a detail on the ground.
• In the "Deadly Escape" room, the last ladder is absent, so to access the 3rd secret the player has to jump over a gap, comparably making reaching said secret a bit more difficult.
  • No enemies respawn in said room either.

Pizzascape/Medieval

• This is the last known build where "Spaghetti" plays in the first four interior areas.

Ancient Cheese/Ruin

• This is the last known build where "Theatrical Mischief" is used instead of "Put On A Show!!"
  • The song change is also a bit later in the level than the final.

Bloodsauce Dungeon/Dungeon

• The third secret is entirely different, and doesn't involve the pizza cutters at all.

Oregano Desert/Badlands

• The main sky background lacks the additional layer of dark clouds at the top.
• The other outdoor background has a gradient sky which was replaced with a flat color after the Octobe22 build.
• The order of some of the rooms are slightly different, placing two Pizza Time rooms in the lead-up to the UFO section.
• A door that goes to an enclosed room which leads to the UFO section is absent; A placeholder teleporter object appears in its wake instead.
• Though their sprites have been drawn, there are no merchants in any of the Pizzamarts yet, so no "unnecessary violence" to be found here.

The Wasteyard

• Due to the track used in the final game not actually being finished by the time this build was released on Patreon, "Phantom Tower" is played instead.
• The Ghost transformation functions differently; instead of collecting ghost peppers to move faster and break ghost blocks, the player can just press the Dash button to dash at a set speed and the form is only used to move through cheese grater blocks and defeat Grandpa Peppers that block the way.
• Most of the rooms that utilize the Ghost transformation are constructed differently, acting more like obstacle courses with multiple Priests to dodge, instead of linear puzzles.
• The 2nd secret's layout is identical, though its setup is vastly different; Instead of the player going through a one-way path as a ghost flying past some Bandito Chickens, the player start showing at the end of the room, as they travel to the start while dodging various Grandpa Peppers. Then they pick up the Ghost transformation and head back while ramming into the Grandpa Peppers to destroy them.
• The John Ghost that chases the player during the escape is missing a few frames of animation compared to the final.

Fun Farm/Farm

• The tileset is still using the old staircase sprites from the Western build, complete with incorrectly colored step.
• The first secret with the Potato Farmers is different, and there aren't as much of them in it.

Crust Cove/Plage

• There are no visible red X marks to distinguish where a Treasure Guy is hiding.
• Captain Goblin doesn't visibly appear during the sections of the level where he shoots cannonballs at the player.
• The path to the third secret is different, requiring the player to take an upper path, rather than parrying a cannonball.
• The ditch between rapids near Pillar John contains a bottomless pit, instead of a hidden PTG.

Gnome Forest

• "Wudpecker" plays for the entire level, instead of starting with "mmm yes put the tree on my pizza" as Peppino and changing when the player switches to Gustavo.
• There are more Peppino and Gustavo swap areas, unlike the final where only one is present.

Golf

• Some of the Greaseball's collectables use monochrome placeholder art.
• The secret involving the Golf Demons is different, being more similar to Fun Farm's first Secret in the final game.

The Pig City/Street

• The bacon room doesn't have its own tileset nor the bacon god yet, and "Bite The Crust" continues to play here instead of "Meatophobia".
• Only two secrets can be accessed in normal play, as one of them was accidentally left out of the level.

Peppibot Factory/Industrial

• The tileset for the first two areas is practically unaltered from its use for the City level in the April 2021 hotfix (so the foreground wall tiles are purple instead of blue, for instance).
• The only Weenie enemies present are of the Elite variant, however they do not expel a can of whoop after their defeat.
• The spring object is the basic present with a boxing glove in it, rather than the stylized ones seen in the final game.
• Peppibots take multiple hits to defeat, instead of one like most other enemies.
• A hidden trigger point for extra collectibles can be found in industrial_2, near some dash panels.
• The first secret is very different, instead involving the player being expected to use a present box to be launched up into some Elite Weenies, rather than avoiding their afterdeath Whoop attack as they one-by-one run into a wall of electrical sockets.
• "Pizza Engineering" continues to play into the factory interior portion of the level, rather than switching to "Peppino's Sauce Machine".
• The various Peppibot decorations are missing.
• The 2nd Secret has a slightly different layout, and exploding the rat isn't required to exit out of the secret.
• The brief ball transformation segment in industrial_4 uses the re-spawning dough blocks seen in some areas of the Rework build.
• There are dash panels in industrial_5 that Peppino in the pizzabox transformation can interact with for additional speed.
• The sloped part near Pillar John can be entirely jumped over, as there are no enclosed walls guarded by Stupid Rats.
• The 3rd secret has a different layout, and no rats to kill, purely putting focus on the pizzabox transformation's ability to hover.
• The escape portion of industrial_2 has the first few platforms separated by ladders rather than cheese blocks. The Peppibots also don't respawn in subsequent laps.
• A teleporter object during the escape portion of industrial_1 hasn't been made invisible.
• The exit door doesn't have a unique sprite for when it's being carried up by a grabbie hand.
• The treasure door doesn't have a shortcut to the exit door right next to it, so when the player grabs the treasure, they're expected to go back down to where that door is manually.

Refrigerator-Refrigerador-Freezerator/Freezer

• The temperature bar at the right of the screen is always present in the main level, however it remains empty, as the old gimmick it was made for is no longer used.
• Peppino has a different, less lively animation for using the jet packs.
• The first secret has less spawning Snowmen, making getting to the end notably less easy.
• One of the rooms has a big ➡️ hanging around over a wide pit.
• "Celsius Troubles" doesn't play in any of the later rooms.
• The 2nd Secret has a lot of respawning dough blocks in lieu of extra jet packs (the primary ones are still there, however).
• The Pepper Pizza as it's presented in the final game is still a work-in-progress, and is not located in its own exclusive room; It uses a temp sprite of The Noise using his jet pack, and when Peppino reaches it, he will be granted what is temporarily dubbed "The Super Jet Pack".
  • Instead of being able to infinitely spin mid-air, this instead gives the player an extra double-jump.
  • "On The Rocks" doesn't play when the player has the super jet pack equipped.
• The 3rd Secret, although the layout is identical, also comes bundled with respawning dough blocks on account of the power-up only acting as a double jump at this point in development.

Pizzascare

• One of the more noticeable differences from the Eggplant builds to the final is that there are no priests to grant Peppino the power to kill the ghosts in Pizzascare, which makes the level slightly harder as a result.
• Some teeny tiny layout differences are also present here and there.
• A few animated decorations of "The Doise" and "Peddito" are absent.

Don't Make A Sound/Kids Party

• The Pineapple Toppin Monster is able to jumpscare the player if they run into a Toppin Monster awoken by the Pineapple one.
• The TV screen transition plays between jumpscare animations.
• All three secrets in the level are vastly different, and contain no Toppin Monster chases, nor any enemies in general.

WAR

The entire level is a lot more different in the final. A few comparisons can be drawn:

• The timer, alongside "Thousand March", start pretty much as soon as the level starts, unlike the final where both only start when the Shotgun is obtained instead.
• The timer in the HUD is noticeably taller; It would be shrunken down in the Octobe22 build, due to it originally occupying too much space.
• All of the collectible points are the regular pizza toppings, rather than the clocks that respawn between laps.
• The secrets and Gerome's closet are nowhere to be seen, as judged with the lack of both the Treasure (Eggplant) and Secret counter in the level select.
  • The Lap 2 portal is also absent; First because it's infinitely useable in this build, and 2nd because it wasn't initially built like other levels (noting the lack of secrets and Gerome).

General Differences

• During Pizza Time, the escape timer now pauses when the player is in a secret room, however points still get depleted as if the timer was still active.
• Pizzaface now chases the player at a faster speed than he did in the Rework build.

Unused Rooms

Pinball

• This level uses a few sections from Kung Fu, another scrapped level.
• There are tiles for some rooms, though they are made invisible and most are from the April 2021 builds.

Factory (April Version)

• Uses Peppibot decorations that, at the time of the Eggplant build, weren't yet used in the Industrial version of Peppibot Factory.
• Backgrounds that aren't used in Industrial/Peppibot Factory are used here.

Mansion

• This version of the level comes from the infamous Rework build
• Has a farmer buddy gimmick where the player had to use farmers (specifically Peasanto, Potato and Eggplant) to solve puzzles. However when touching a farmer without any modification to their code, it crashes the game.
• Fake Peppino appears in the stage and copies the player's movements to get attacks out.

Mansion (April Version)

• Only differences to the April 2021 builds is that most of the rooms are fully tiled, and that rooms 1 and 2 were cut entirely.

City

• No changes compared to April 2021 Hotfix Build, other than it using the updated Industrial tileset.