It’s been more than 2 years since I released the prototype of Drawn Story. Thank you everyone who provided the feedback for it and encouraged me to go on working on the game! Back then, I overestimated my capabilities of making a fast progress on the project while being employed on a full-time job. I kept developing the game all that time however, little by little. I quit my job this summer and was developing the game much more intensely since then. And now, I’m glad to announce that Drawn Story entered alpha development stage and I have an alpha demo version to announce. See the trailer:
Drawn Story is a 2D puzzle/adventure video game about a world painted on a sheet of paper. You control a stickman character living inside this world and an artist with a pencil in hand looking at the paper from above. As a stickman, you can walk, climb, jump and use different items. As an artist, you are able to create new items in this painted world by drawing them. Your goal is to use your imagination and lead the stickman through a variety of puzzles by drawing things he can use. There’s always a few ways to solve each puzzle.
The demo is already available at the downloads page (Indiedb.com) for Windows, Mac and Linux. The most meaningful changes in the alpha version of the game are:
- Better items recognition. An image recognition algorithm is used to determine what a player has drawn. The game does not expect a player to draw some particular item in each situation but rather tries to guess what was drawn based on how it looks like. The most confusing thing in the prototype version was that items were not recognized at all when drawn at 45 degrees, only horizontal and vertical items orientation was perceived. I fixed this issue and also improved the overall rate of successful recognitions. It is still far from perfect though so I am constantly looking for ways of making my algorithm better.
- Lots of graphical improvements. Here're some examples of how things used to look in the prototype and how they look now.
Old version:
New version:
Old version:
New version:
- New character abilities. Now stickmen can jump and climb ladders, not just walk. And yes, you're able to draw ladders now and go explore higher grounds:
- More levels. There’re 6 levels available now, including a hidden one. Some of the levels (like a level inside the castle) became more complex.
I also launched a Steam Greenlight campaign recently. So if you like the game please spend a minute to vote for it here:
Thank you!
My nearest plans for the development are further improvements for items recognition, making new levels and finally adding some music to the game.
Here’s the full list of changes for the Alpha Demo version compared to the Prototype:
1. Animate doors falling in the direction of impact when player breaks them
2. Faster levels loading
3. Nicer stickmen
4. Nicer drawings: sketchy effect
5. Ladders special recognition
6. UP and DOWN are used to climb ladders, SHIFT is used to pick up items
7. Items are recoginized when drawn at 45˚; better overall recognition
8. New character abilities:
8.1. Climb (use UP and DOWN arrows)
8.2. Jumps (use ENTER)
9. Water simulation
10. Nicer level backgrounds
11. Special effects:
11.1. Turn the page
11.2. Level overview
12. New levels:
12.1. Inside ship
12.2. Eagle's nest
12.3. Sea shore
13. Expanded ‘Inside castle’ level
14. More sounds added
15. New game items
16. Overall polishing & bugfixes
