Why V2, and what actually changed
The original Hang Tuah's Journey was an endless runner. Fun for what it was, but a runner only gives you so much room to build a world in. V2 isn't a reskin of that game with new art slapped on, it's a genuine rebuild from scratch, and a genre pivot along with it: top-down action-adventure instead of endless runner. You move around in four directions, you fight with melee attacks, and there are enemies standing between you and what you're trying to do.
The part I didn't want to lose was the educational spine. In the original, that meant a quiz screen you'd hit at set points. In V2 there's no separate quiz screen at all. Instead, history trivia is woven directly into the world as a lore scroll you find while exploring. The questions themselves still come from the original's quiz data, so both games are pulling from the same canon of trivia rather than two separate sets someone has to maintain.
On the art side, I'll be upfront: the character and prop sprites in V2 aren't hand-drawn and they're not the original's assets either. This is a solo side project and I don't have an artist, so I used a CC0-licensed asset pack sourced from the web. It's credited properly in the game's CREDITS.md if you want the specifics on what's used and where it came from.
Worth saying clearly: this is an initial playable slice, not the finished game. There's no audio yet, enemy variety is limited, and there's no boss fight. It's a foundation I'm building on, not a final release.
How to play
Quick rundown, since it's a different kind of game than the original.
Move
WASD or the arrow keys. Four directions, top-down.
Attack
Space bar. Strikes whatever you're currently facing.
Objective
Defeat the raiders standing in the kampung, then find and recover the lore scroll.
Taking damage
If a raider touches you, you take damage. Don't just stand next to one, get in, hit, and back off.
The trivia moment
Finding the scroll opens a real history question pulled from the original game's quiz data. Answer it, right or wrong doesn't matter, you recover the scroll either way.