Drawn Out Development Logs

• X
• Instagram

16/02/2024 – Social Media Pages Running

• The Drawn Out respective social media accounts for X/Twitter and Instagram have now been launched with respective indication of activity (aka some very nice first posts were made to begin marketing) so make sure to stay tuned on those respective socials as an Itch.io or potential Steam page are planned for later in the game’s life cycle.

22/02/2024 – Meet The Cast Revealed!

• The first initial look at the games major characters is beginning to release to the public on the major social media platforms X and Instagram. The main NPC characters of importance shown and detailed will be the ‘cowboy’, the ‘slime’, the amazing ‘scribble’ and the ‘marsupials’ who will be a very important part of fleshing out the game as well as showing their visually distinct styles and characterisation.

24/02/2024 – Behind the Scenes Sketches

• Sketches of the first ideation of the Eraser (Tisat) are released showing that during the process of making the game a full half a year before production most of the major characters but mostly the two titular ones have had a major amount of re-work and refining before settling on an official design. The Eraser is very reminiscent of a rubber hose style character with great inspiration from the game ‘Cuphead’ for facial expression reference while using references to cartoonist attire and traditional design schemes of older 50’s tropes like the white gloves and the rounded shoes as well as lanky limbs that make the Eraser distinct to the limbless but short and round aesthetic of ‘Skriblekins’ our main pencil protagonist.

28/02/2024 – Winchester Games Slime Promos

• A promotional GIF of the slime character in her casual attire (which I have been told looks eerily similar to marge Simpson) mirroring cotton candy was developed early in the design stage. The hair itself was actually one of the winning top two designs for the character but the default hair style you see in other material eventually was deemed the favourite. Winchester.Games holds the course games that will all release simultaneously with ‘Drawn Out’ and note worthy memorabilia is drawn along side the slime in the GIF to pay homage for the amazing work my course colleagues have created, because although Drawn Out is born from the Winchester GDA course for Year 3, it will always mean that the creation of the game no matter how far it goes will be linked to my own course experience along side the others good looking games! Check them out just type in Winchester.games in your URL!

02/03/2024 – Colour Wheel

• Process work on a colour wheel with every character in the early conception was released and this art work was made in pre-production before the social media pages were active. The ‘Clay King’ and the ‘Purple Dragon’ were characters that would be included but after scope checking it seemed to taxing for the time to develop the game (12 weeks). The first marsupial was also a racoon because of the heavy influence of ‘Night in the Woods’ but with greater emphasis on geometric shape elements, which eventually changed after further exploration of designs and more appropriate tones the other marsupials had.

04/03/2024 – Official Posters Released!

• The official posters are released to the public and these I plan to use for major showcase events along side the degree show and the London event where the Alpha launches for the public. I use my MED (tablet) to make the posters because it is the current best way to accommodate work flow and time the game needs. The result and quality doesn’t affect the final visuals for the game and I think as long as the file types of the assets mirror what is needed for the game the software isn’t such a priority for game making.

07/03/2024 – Sprite Work and Animation

• The sprite work was quite hard to make but necessary to show for the hand drawn pencil character especially. The process of animation was easier done on tablet but the exporting process had to be done sprite by sprite and as tedious as it was it looked great in the game!

09/03/2024 – Test Day

• The test day was had and a lot of valuable feedback and documentation about the move set and favourite game modes were taken to be improved. The movement was very floaty and the running was very fast and momentum based like a sonic game, but since this effect was unintended further iteration must be made to make it closer to scope ideas.

12/03/2024 – Public Gameplay Showcase

• The gameplay of the very rough beta version of the game was released to moderate acclaim and in hindsight the boss character and the visual look of the pixel desert were one of the best looking elements. The pixel desert assets are nearly complete and have become the very first thing people think of when Drawn Out comes to mind during these test days.

07/04/2024 – Stickers

• The first look at every character coloured and in full form was released and pitched for stickers! The very concept of having stickers will be very good for some of the future shows the game intends to be in so we will definitely develop this idea further.

09/04/2024 – Scrapped Pixel Desert Character?

• The cowboy is the head for the pixel style and the first NPC you encounter in the game itself so fleshing out that setting and character was an idea worth exploring so the idea of another gunslinging cowboy companion was conceived but ultimately saved for later on (to be continued folder). This character was going to appear in the cowboy minigame indicating a win or lose state as the cowboys wife, and if she saw you didn’t complete the task when she arrives in the given time limit it would be deemed a lose state while the opposite would indicate a win state.

20/04/2024 – Who’s Got Game? John Hansard Gallery Showcase

• The gallery showcase was the first ever showcase of Drawn out to the public eye on any level and was a key moment to see audience and gameplay engagement as well as how the game performs in crucial areas like the pixel desert or the mini game areas which for the sake of showcase were the ‘ARCADE SECTIONS’ which included the dodge minigame as well as the running one. The feedback was also released with notes of issues being the jumping movement, UI, Sound and more.

25/04/2024 – WASD London

• We attended WASD and learned a lot about how to market and show our own games as well as simply enjoying them! The course developers also attended and had similar insights that we shared extensively once the event had ended. We also met a certain lamb from a certain game which we found quite humorous.

02/05/2024 – ITCH.IO Page Online!

• The creation of the itch.io page was created and will remain active as long as the game is in continued development. This will be where the game is first released on digital in multiple versions as well as potential alpha builds. The site has also been tied along side other branches of games that were included along side the course of WSA Game Design.

22/05/2024 – Drawn Out Dev YouTube Channel

• The Drawn Out Dev official YouTube channel is now online with unlisted videos at the ready for official release make sure to subscribe and check it out yourself!

28/05/2024 – GDA Show Fundraiser

• Fundraisers for the showcase events of course games such as the degree show in Winchester as well as the CRTL ALT DEL show in London Hoxton arches have an open fundraiser page for items and drinks to further boost the events longevity and appeal so more people stick around to talk and play the games in the showcase!

30/05/2024 – Promotional Push

• The last piece of major promotional material for the game for the shows was released having a heavy inspiration from the ‘Splatoon’ promotional poster styles used in many instances which I found very appealing and interesting enough to use as a nice foundational core to base my own final ominous promotional images.

01/06/2024 – Documentary + Trailer Public Release

• The documentary showing the game process visually as well as the teaser trailer showing the very first cutscene of the game were released as preludes to the showcase events the coming days! Check them out on the Drawn Out Dev YouTube Channel.

06/06/2024 – Mysterious Update

• Ominous posts were made indicating a change on a Drawn Out themed platform. The platform in question was itch.io which held the first ever playable digital alpha build of Drawn Out! Only the lucky few who went to look for it found such ways to play the game early.

12/06/2024 – Cabinets

• Arcade cabinets that were themed to look like our games were made through out the course and this included the painting and drawing of a golden orange Drawn Out cabinet with traces of white paint splotches with highlights! Overall the look captured the theme and look of the game as well as the sticker header we used for the title at the very top of the cabinet! lastly, the left over stickers were used to improve the cabinet in the final day before the showcase!

13/06/2024 – Degree Show!

• The Degree Show in general was very great experience and a lot of feedback and build augmentations were made DURING the days and time in between showcase days! The inclusion of major visual changes as well as animated cutscenes to boot really elevated the experience players had with the game itself! The first boss was difficult to master but beatable by the few with engagement to beat the entire game and we learned that the running fireball game was the most difficult part of the game! The amazing scribble drawing minigame as well as ‘level clear’ win states were heavy indicators of completion and every major section had visual redrafts to better illustrate style change!

14/06/2024 – Degree Show 2!

• The Running mini game was changed the most drastically visually. The initial idea of an oil painted aesthetic was replaced with a sketchy and rough monochrome cartridge paper like aesthetic which fit more with the eerie rainy last section of the alpha. The most important change would have to be the full movement and attack updates to the player, the movement is more smooth as well as added attack states (three attack states per click) which were able to fully make the alpha more enjoyable than ever!

19/06/2024 – CTRL ALT DEL

• The final show has launched with a private view and a public view the next day including most students and curious people at London Hoxton arches which saw the games in their final states! The game build was updated to version 1.0.2 which included a teaser for the slime minigame at the end as well as a fully animated returning DRAGON enemy which was now a returning character previously thought to be scrapped due to scope! The event held talks, drinks and gameplay of all course games and Drawn Out had a good run being played by people of all ages indicating the target audience once and for all! Drawn Out is a game for everyone while still a little tough.

21/06/2024 – Launch Run ENDS

• Drawn Out’s alpha launch run has officially come to an end after the two days of CTRL ALT DEL in London and after those events posts were made indicating that the launch was successful and a general success! We did it and it could not have been without your help and support!

28/06/2024 – Working on it

• We will be planning to continue development on Drawn Out past initial launch release of the alpha and there are rumours that version 1.0.2 will be updated in itch.io! Talks of a Steam page are in session as well.

01/07/2024 – Amazing Scribble Web Announcement

• A promotional video featuring an animated amazing scribble promoting the updated site was released with slight indications that there could be an update to the Drawn Out games future.

02/07/2024 – Alpha V.1.0.0 Taken Down

• An announcement for the continued development of Drawn Out as an indie game title was officially made on the social media pages but the secret itch build of the alpha version 1.0.0 was taken down and the limited visitors who sought it out may keep the build. However taking down the build was only to make way for the newest and best version yet V.1.0.3 which keeps all of the showcase elements from the CRTL ALT DEL show game builds while adding just a little more flare!

08/07/2024 – Launch of Public Drawn Out Alpha V.1.0.3

• The Alpha that has been highly anticipated has been released along side a very in depth and full official alpha gameplay trailer on YouTube and other important social pages to promote the game launch. The builds that are hosted on the site itself are the Mac and PC builds of the game with heavy refinements and updates to the show version of the builds which were less glamorous than that of this current release! So far the release has been successful and the launch is now free alongside a build ANYONE can now play. OUT NOW!