Doodle Quest

Started by WhiteRose, January 30, 2010, 05:44:12 pm

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WhiteRose

January 30, 2010, 05:44:12 pm Last Edit: February 02, 2010, 05:09:31 pm by WhiteRose
Doodle Quest is not the first game I've made, but will be the first I'm taking seriously. Well, seriously as in I'm actually going to make it to completion; the story itself is not really serious at all. One interesting thing about this game is it does not require any RTP to be installed.

Title Screen
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Concept
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The game takes place entirely on various pieces of paper. All of the characters are designed to be like stick figures drawn with a pencil, as are the enemies, weapon icons, even the font; all of it is original art (if you can call it that) by me.




Story
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Pablo, the holder of the pencil and author of the Doodle, is a god-like figure who doesn't take his doodles seriously. His doodles, on the other hand, feel quite the opposite. The story follows one particular doodle, who not long into the game decides to do something about this and goes on a quest against Pablo, unbeknown to Pablo himself, who thinks that his creation is still playing along with his game. The story is all very light hearted, and tries to emulate how a real doodle would be (ie: incorrect punctuation usage, etc.)




Scripts
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Legacy Class Change by Legacyblade
Tons of Add-Ons by Blizzard
Battle Icons by Juan
UMS by Ccoa




Characters
(Note that the names are in all lower-case on purpose, in keeping with the theme of the game, with the exception of Pablo. Also note that all of the character's names are based on their appearances, as Pablo, their creator, never game them actual names.)

guy
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The main character in the game. He's fairly quiet, but brave enough to stand against Pablo.
Age: About two seconds at the start of the game, but was created to act about 17.


girl
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Very talkative and outgoing, girl is always enthusiastic about the quest. She also has an unnatural fear of fish.
Age: Again, very young, but the age imagined for her by Pablo is about 16 or 17.


goth
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The group's Deadpan Snarker, he always is willing to explain exactly why the plan isn't going to work and why everyone is going to die.
Age: Similar to guy, possibly a little older. 17 or 18 is about how old he acts.


hat
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Often mistaken for a boy, and with good reason. hat is a shoot first and ask questions later tomboy, though she is actually more emotional than she lets on.
Age: Probably should be taken as the youngest of the group, as she is the shortest by a few centimeters (not much, but for a doodle, every one counts! About 15, probably.




Screenshots
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I hope to have a playable demo up in the next week or so! Please share your opinions on what you think so far. Thanks for looking!
--WhiteRose

EDIT: Added author of UMS script to credits. Project's coming along on schedule; expect a demo soon.

C.C. rOyAl

Hmm it looks pretty interesting, I can't wait to see how to first demo is  ;)
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Lore

I think...I just fell in love.

Something about your art is just so freaking epic. I would totally play this game no matter how shitty it is (No offense if it happens to turn out this way, but from what I can see, it is awesome.)

Amazing concept, I give you large points for creativity, but the only flaw I see is the battle. Try to make the enemies stand out more from the background, they look kinda merged in. I know it's hard on paper, but see if you can just make them darker :P
If you can, just make their image non-transparent so the background lines don't appear to go through them.
Facebook is like your fridge. You know nothing is in there, but you check every 5 minutes anyways.

Aqua

Ahahaha... this is pretty funny :)

Story reminds me a liiiiittle bit of Animator vs. Animation.
http://alanbecker.deviantart.com/art/Animator-vs-Animation-34244097

Anyway, I'd like to see a screenshot of the map D:

Also, perhaps make the facesets not cut off so abruptly?
girl and hat look like they can fit inside nicely if you moved them a bit to the right

Lore

Quote from: Aqua on January 30, 2010, 05:52:45 pm
Anyway, I'd like to see a screenshot of the map D:


That's exactly what I was thinking. :P
Facebook is like your fridge. You know nothing is in there, but you check every 5 minutes anyways.

WhiteRose

Quote from: Lore on January 30, 2010, 05:51:45 pm
Amazing concept, I give you large points for creativity, but the only flaw I see is the battle. Try to make the enemies stand out more from the background, they look kinda merged in. I know it's hard on paper, but see if you can just make them darker :P
If you can, just make their image non-transparent so the background lines don't appear to go through them.


I know exactly what you mean. What I'm trying to do is find some way that that I can make the enemy sprites non-transparent for the background lines, but not for the lines on the paper. Unfortunately, I've had no luck with this so far, so at the moment it's a toss up between the background lines going through them, or the paper lines not going through. Fear not, though; I'm hoping to come up with a solution sooner or later. Making them darker actually isn't a bad idea, though I wouldn't want to make them so dark that they wouldn't appear to be "drawn" like they should be.

As for the menu, at the moment I'm just using Simple Facesets from Tons of Add-Ons; I'm either going to adjust the coordinates of the pictures, resize the faces, or just come up with a entirely different menu system. I considered using the Stormtronics CMS, but the way the windows fly in from the sides and stuff is cool, but doesn't entirely fit the style of the game. This is one of the problems I'm hoping to fix before releasing the demo.

Here's a screen of the map:
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At the moment, the character sprites are in a top-down view while trees and stuff are in a slightly different perspective. I know this isn't quite realistic, but hey, it's a doodle, right? I may or may not change the character map sprites.

Aqua

I thought the characters were rocks until you said they were in top-view

C.C. rOyAl

A suggestion on the enemy battlers, what you could do is on the pic itself draw it over the crumbled paper, so the paper is part of the bg, and the background lines are invisible. lemme know if i didnt explain that clearly :P
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WhiteRose

January 30, 2010, 08:57:24 pm #8 Last Edit: January 30, 2010, 09:07:26 pm by WhiteRose
Quote from: C.C. rOyAl on January 30, 2010, 08:51:10 pm
A suggestion on the enemy battlers, what you could do is on the pic itself draw it over the crumbled paper, so the paper is part of the bg, and the background lines are invisible. lemme know if i didnt explain that clearly :P



That's not a bad idea, except that battle scenes are drawn on the lined paper instead of the crumpled white paper used for windows. I would have to line up each enemy's lines with the lines on the battleback. Thanks for the suggestion, though; I'll keep it in mind.

Quote from: Aqua on January 30, 2010, 08:49:29 pm
I thought the characters were rocks until you said they were in top-view


It helps when they're moving. I actually tried putting the characters in the same perspective as the trees and stuff, but the animations didn't look natural so I scrapped the idea. As you can probably imagine, it's rather difficult to properly animate stick figures walking along the Y-Axis. I understand though that the current situation also isn't ideal. Hopefully, I'll come up with something. Suggestions are most welcome!

EDIT: Alright, I just came up with an idea for the enemy battlers. What if I drew each of them on a piece of lined paper with edges that looked like they were ripped out of a larger sheet, so they would each be on their own piece of paper, and then placed that on the battleback? I don't really like the concept as much, as it seems less like they're being drawn then and there right before each battle, but it would probably look a little nicer. What do you all think of this idea?

legacyblade

OMG, this looks awesome. But I think your torn out paper idea sounds good. Maybe add a piece of tape to the top of them :D

G_G

This looks epic. I can't wait to try a demo.

C.C. rOyAl

Quote from: WhiteRose on January 30, 2010, 08:57:24 pm
EDIT: Alright, I just came up with an idea for the enemy battlers. What if I drew each of them on a piece of lined paper with edges that looked like they were ripped out of a larger sheet, so they would each be on their own piece of paper, and then placed that on the battleback? I don't really like the concept as much, as it seems less like they're being drawn then and there right before each battle, but it would probably look a little nicer. What do you all think of this idea?


Thats a good idea! go with it!
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RoseSkye


Jackolas

think you just struck gold :P

wolfspirit


Lore

You know, I might be able to fix your non-transparent problem in Photoshop. PM me your email or anyway I can get a hold of you, and I'll talk to you about it, I have a few ideas how to make it work.
Facebook is like your fridge. You know nothing is in there, but you check every 5 minutes anyways.

Jackolas

i'm not sure but your project is so interesting that probably everyone from CP is willing to help you with problems :P

WhiteRose

Alright, here's the first draft of an enemy sprite reworked to appear on a torn piece of paper taped to the battlefield:
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Here's a picture of it in battle:
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I think I might need to rework the edges of the torn paper a little, but overall I think it doesn't look half-bad.

C.C. rOyAl

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legacyblade

Love it :D This game looks SOOO freaking awesome.