Project: Doodle (Working Title)

Homepage: https://www.kirsle.net/tagged/Doodle

Doodle is a drawing-based maze game.

The theme of Doodle is centered around hand-drawn, side-scrolling platformer type mazes. You can draw your own levels using freehand and basic drawing tools, color in some fire or water, and drag in pre-made "Doodads" like buttons, keys and doors to add some interaction to your level.

This is a very early pre-release version of the game. Expect bugs and slowness but get a general gist of what the game is about.

This alpha release of the game comes with two example levels built-in for playing or editing and a handful of built-in Doodads.

Features

(Eventually), the high-level, user-facing features for the game are:

• Draw your own levels freehand and then play them like a 2D platformer game.
• In Adventure Mode you can play through a series of official example levels that ship with the game.
• In Edit Mode you can draw a map freehand-style and lay down physical geometry, and mark which lines are solid or which ones behave like fire.
• Drag and drop Doodads like buttons, doors and keys into your level and link them together so that buttons open doors and levers activate devices.
• In Play Mode you can play your level as a 2D platformer game where you collect keys, watch out for enemies, and solve puzzles to get to the exit.
• Easily Share your custom maps with friends.

Mod-friendly

(Eventually) all these features will support custom content in the game:

• Users can create Custom Doodads to extend the game with a scripting language like JavaScript. The sprites and animations are edited in-game in Edit Mode, but the scripting is done in your text editor.
• In Edit Mode you can drag custom doodads into your maps.
• To Share your maps, you can choose to bundle the custom doodads inside your map file itself, so that other players can play the map without needing to install the doodads separately.
• If you receive a map with custom doodads, you can install the doodads into your copy of the game and use them in your own maps.

Keybindings

Global Keybindings:

Escape
  Close the developer console if open, without running any commands.
  Exit the program otherwise.

Enter
  Open and close the developer console, and run commands while the
  console is open.

F3
  Toggle the Debug Overlay.

F4
  Toggle debug collision hitboxes.

In Play Mode:

Cursor Keys
  Move the player around.
"E" Key
  Edit the map you're currently playing if you came from Edit Mode.

In Edit Mode:

Cursor Keys
  Scroll the view of the map around.
"P" Key
  Playtest the current map you're working on.
"F" Key
  Switch to the Pencil (Freehand) Tool
"L" Key
  Switch to the Line Tool
"R" Key
  Switch to the Rectangle Tool
Ctrl-Z
  Undo
Ctrl-Y
  Redo

Built-In Doodads

A brief introduction to the built-in doodads available so far:

• Characters
  • Blue Azulian: this is used as the player character for now. If dragged into a level, it doesn't do anything but is affected by gravity.
  • Red Azulian: an example mobile mob for now. It walks back and forth, changing directions only when it comes across an obstacle and can't proceed any further.
• Doors and Keys
  • Colored Doors: these act like solid barriers until the player or another doodad collects the matching colored key.
  • Colored Keys: these are collectable items that allow the player or another doodad to open the door of matching color. Note that inventories are doodad-specific, so other mobs besides the player can steal a key before the player gets it! (For now)
  • Electric Door: this mechanical door stays closed and only opens when it receives a power signal from a linked button.
  • Trapdoor: this door allows one-way access, but once it's closed behind you, you can't pass through it from that side!
• Buttons
  • Button: while pressed by a player or other doodad, the button emits a power signal to any doodad it is linked to. Link a button to an electric door, and the door will open while the button is pressed and close when the button is released.
  • Sticky Button: this button will stay pressed once activated and will not release unless it receives a power signal from another linked doodad. For example, one Button that links to a Sticky Button will release the sticky button if pressed.
• Switches
  • Switch: when touched by the player or other doodad, the switch will toggle its state from "OFF" to "ON" or vice versa. Link it to an Electric Door to open/close the door. Link switches to each other as well as to a door, and all switches will stay in sync with their ON/OFF state when any switch is pressed.
• Crumbly Floor
  • This rocky floor will break and fall away after being stepped on.
• Two State Blocks
  • Blue and orange blocks that will toggle between solid and pass-thru whenever the corresponding ON/OFF block is hit.
• Start and Exit Flags
  • The "Go" flag lets you pick a spawn point for the player character.
  • The "Exit" flag marks the level goal.

Developer Console

Press Enter at any time to open the developer console.

Commands supported:

close
  Exit to the game's title screen.

new
  Show the "New Level" screen to start editing a new map.

save [filename]
  Save the current map in Edit Mode. The filename is required if the map has
  not been saved yet.

edit [filename]
  Open a map or doodad in Edit Mode.

play [filename]
  Open a map in Play Mode.

echo <text>
  Flash a message to the console.

clear
  Clear the console output history.

exit
quit
  Close the developer console.

Cheat Codes

The following cheats can be entered into the developer console.

Play Mode:

• import antigravity
  • This disables the effects of gravity for the player character. Arrow keys can freely move the player in any direction.
• ghost mode
  • This disables collision detection for the player character so that you can pass through walls and solid doodads. Combine with antigravity or else you'll fall to the bottom of the map!
• give all keys
  • Adds all four colored keys to the player's inventory.
• drop all items
  • Clears the player's inventory of all items.

Experimental:

• unleash the beast
  • Removes the 60 FPS frame rate lock, allowing the game to run as quickly as your hardware permits.
• don't edit and drive
  • Allows editing the level while you're playing it: you can click and drag new pixels with the freehand pencil tool.
• scroll scroll scroll your boat
  • Enables Editor Mode scrolling (with the arrow keys) while playing a level. The player character must always remain on screen though so you can't scroll too far away.

Author

Copyright (C) 2020 Noah Petherbridge. All rights reserved.