BYO Hero - Forest Adventure (Part 1) - COMPLETED

[ToeKnee]

BYO-Hero: Forest Adventure



The Story:
YOU (your drawing/picture) has been unceremoniously thrown out of the Royal castle and find yourself left alone in a forest. You soon realise that you have been booted out since you are next in line to the throne. You must use your wits and skills and the help of your sister to try and get back into the castle and back into your role. This is first part of what may be a 3 x part series depending on uptake.

UPDATE: Game was completed and the final AGS Announcement is located here: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=58435.msg636626678#msg636626678
Intro Video: http://p360.com.au/game360/BYO-Hero%20Game%20Preview.mp4 ***
Intro Music: https://www.bensound.com
Final Placeholder for the game is at: https://byo-hero.itch.io/byo-hero


Game is a typical 80's point-and-click adventure and this one is primarily directed at children/early teens. In this game I want them to *draw* their own character - and that will be used as the Main Playable Hero, walking around and doing things in the game (hence the name: BYO-Hero)
My kids and my family members have drawn their own pictures, and I have cut-out/digitised those for use in the game and I have found this is really (re)connecting them to this era of game and love it so far (since it is 'them' in the game they relate and become potentially more immersed in the experience(s)... and outcome).

Note: I work for people with disability in Australia, so I also hope to add in any coding that would help release an accessible version for those with disability to play!
- eg: If their carers/family could get a drawing (or a funny cartoon, or anything really) then I could digitise this into the game, record some sounds used in the game like dog-barking / bird-squawking or even talking if they wanted some key areas in the game as well.

Game has been 'in Production' since COVID-19 home isolations in Australia Mar-8, 2020 since i was hoping to get my kids engaged with this!
Target latest completion date is: July 2020

This will be my first game released for AGS. I made a AGS game in 2004 (for my eldest daughter who was then 7 years old) but that game has been long since lost unfortunately (in the house moves and the great family hard-drive/computer migrations of the past decade(s) as we all moved to Laptops etc!!)

All game graphics and video Intros have been done entirely in MS-Powerpoint (Pro-Plus 2019)!
Other areas done with open-source tools: Audacity for Sound and OpenShot for Video editing

Game Features;
- 21 custom-drawn screens
- 37 key tasks to do/complete
- 17 Inventory Items to collect and use
- Scoring total for key tasks and extra scoring for special tasks

Current Development stats;
Completed in 2020!
- graphics - 100%
- puzzles/plan - 100%
- scripting - 100%
- music/sound - 100%

Key Game Features

• Designed to play with kids, so you are both challenged
• Game hints help you on your journey (turn hints off for harder parent-mode)
• Save and Restore games - to keep your progress
• Point scoring throughout the game (find them all!)
• Kid friendly! (no violence actions or text that will offend children)
• 33 hand-crafted screens, objects, animals and characters
• Game Sounds and Music throughout to suit the scenes
• More than 200 Voice interactions
• Unlimited Inventory of items you can use
• Full mouse click game operation throughout and dyslexic fonts used for those with disability
• A game MAP you can use to get around the game fast (if you can find it!)
• Variable game Speed, Volumes etc

Some Screenshots:





















How it works;

[sthomannch]

Very unique style! And a funny idea to use a digitised picture. Hope you will be able to deal with the workload :-)

Following it with interest!

[ToeKnee]

Very unique style! And a funny idea to use a digitised picture. Hope you will be able to deal with the workload :-)
Following it with interest!

Thanks Sthomannch! yes the time\work could be an issue. Happy to do that for families with kids with disability though.
I will seek help in other technical forums to try and automate the drawing / loading, or at least automate the preparation so it can be complied - then it wouldn't need to be a full-/manual process, needing my time...
Cheers.
T

[Cassiebsg]

I like the idea.

I think you could prepare the game to accept custom images players create self, by loading dynamic spites.
That way you wouldn't not have to compile a new game for each player.
You could provide two default player characters (boy and girl) and an option for custom, where all they would need to do would be to place the appropriate images with specific name in the folder (with explicit and easy to follow instructions). And then provide help with the creation of the sprite images, if the user can't self do it. That would cut your post release effort in maybe half, or more. 

Also, first time I hear someone using PowerPoint to make game graphics.  But they look great, so whatever works. 

[ToeKnee]

I like the idea.
I think you could prepare the game to accept custom images players create self, by loading dynamic spites.
That way you wouldn't not have to compile a new game for each player.
You could provide two default player characters (boy and girl) and an option for custom, where all they would need to do would be to place the appropriate images with specific name in the folder (with explicit and easy to follow instructions). And then provide help with the creation of the sprite images, if the user can't self do it. That would cut your post release effort in maybe half, or more. 
Also, first time I hear someone using PowerPoint to make game graphics.  But they look great, so whatever works. 

Thanks a lot for your thoughts Cassie.

Dynamic sprites is something I will have to get into in the tech forums when ready. I think i'll still release it on time and, then work on this bit after that release - since this area could be a separate/'autonomous' part...
Eg: I am thinking about a 'utility' that I could write that might be separate to AGS (but could load the dynamic character slots)... since it would need to take legs and arms and move them with the character facing directions and allow you to see what it will look like when animated, in all directions..  This is something that would be really helpful - i.e: minimum 4 (Start, Mid, End, Mid) for each arm and leg movement, so not really that easy and therefore might not be viable or able to be done by mortals unless there's something that helps!

As per your other suggestion as well, I do have Girl and Boy characters already drawn that I can use... so I will create what you recommend and two 'default' characters can definitely be selected at the start of the game from the best of those (including change to their name at least, and the on-screen text messages that then repeat it after, in the game... at least then it's still a bit 'custom' and still a picture!
Thanks again for your ideas and feedback!

[ToeKnee]

Current Development stats;
There are 37 total key game automations. I have already developed 19 of these as at May 22nd, 2020 - so overall progress is now at 51% (and I am averaging ~10% completion / week)
Have updated most screens this week as well so they look like a busier 'forest' and more professional as well as coding of Inventory items to use on each other.
- graphics - 100% (excepting some objects I need)
- puzzles/plan - 100%
- scripting - 51%
- music/sound - 91%

[CaptainD]

This looks like a really nice project!   

[ToeKnee]

Current Development stats;
Updated the game with a lot more automation and a fully functional MAP (see graphics below)
There are more than 37 total key game automations. I have already developed 22 of these as at May 31, 2020 - so overall progress is now at 60% (and I am averaging ~10% completion / week)
- graphics - 100% (excepting some objects I need)
- puzzles/plan - 100%
- scripting - 60%
- music/sound - 100%

Additional/New Screenshots;

[ToeKnee]

Current Development stats;
I ended up spending a lot of time updating most of the screen graphics and even re-drawing some from scratch (now that I have Powerpoint 2019, and inbuilt 3D Graphics!)
Also added an additional couple of Characters and some hidden objects and additional Inventory! - so the amount of coding has risen a lot

Soooooo as of June 15, 2020 overall progress WOULD have been ~80%, but is still at 60% after adding the new functions and coding (but I have completed a ton of work! :-( ) - Anyway - still averaging ~10% completion / week so delivery is still on track for JULY release/beta-testing;
- graphics - 100% (excepting some objects I need)
- puzzles/plan - 100%
- scripting - 60%
- music/sound - 100%

[ToeKnee]

Current Development stats;
Moving along quickly now..

There are now 38 total key game tasks. I have developed 30 of these as at June 22, 2020 - so overall progress is now 80% (and I am still averaging ~10% completion / week so delivery is still on track for JULY release/beta-testing);
- graphics - 100% (excepting some objects I need)
- puzzles/plan - 100%
- scripting - 80%
- music/sound - 100%

[ToeKnee]

 
FINISHED 4-WEEKS EARLY!!

And... I am DONE. Good project scheduling is DEFINITELY required for AGS Games.... very easy to get stuck on wanting more and more things to watch and do, smoother characters and objects and or better and better graphics! (at the expense of moving forward)

Current Development stats;
There are now 40 total key game tasks using 25 Inventory items over 22 unique/Custom-Drawn Screens and characters (Many were also updated a fair bit over the life of this game as my skills and knowledge improved).
I have developed 40 of the tasks as at June 28, 2020 > so overall progress is now 100%

For anyone's interest in the time this took for a relative newbie (that learns fast!) - This game took around 6 weeks to draw 22 screens and objects and characters. Then it definitely took an average of ~10% / week coding over 10 weeks - so delivery for July could be maintained... This ended up being a great plan and balance to keep progression.

For interest: The total graphics and game coding was 16 weeks total work at approximately 25 part-time hours/week. This = ~400 Hours+ in total, plus learning/reading time of another, say, 40 hours.
Now though, I am really fast at drawing, scaling, automating and testing AGS code.

Now beginning release/beta-testing with family and friends. Then I intend on updating some things like a Dragon that could be great, plus my daughter wanted 'quicksand', that you have to get out of - so I have GOT to fold/work that, back in!

- graphics - 100%
- puzzles/plan - 100%
- scripting - 100%
- music/sound - 100%