Also known as "DUANE: The Iconic Video Game Based on the Hip Dancing Celebrity!"
You take on the role of Duane, a young boy growing up in the late 80's whose only goal in life is to live it to its fullest. He goes about this through his passion and incredibly devout love for dancing.
Duane's Origin, for those unaware. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGvdVXxFkY4)
Inspired somewhat by the RPG Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, my aim in creating 80'SQUEST is to poke fun at typical tongue-in-cheek conventions regarding age, changes in society over time, cultures by the decade, and generally pointing fingers at a whole lot of media from that time period. Its intention is to be lighthearted and generally amusing, based off an absurd circumstance and world that almost takes itself too seriously. It's a hyper-80s view through the lens of a smart, clever, but hopelessly oblivious child who only wants to be the best at what he loves to do. Now, I want to clarify, while the journey he takes may seem silly to us, I assure you that to Duane, it is in fact very real to him.
It's centered around the most pivotal point of Duane's childhood -- the night he's scheduled to dance at the Barbie Dance Club (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtOR9ghSKx8). The event, to him, represents his entire livelihood. He's worked his entire life mastering dance so that he can show he is truly the best, and he does this at the Barbie Dance Club (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtOR9ghSKx8).
Screenshots (more to come later):
(http://i.imgur.com/hjwnNhm.png)
A line from the intro
(http://i.imgur.com/LFga0Mu.png)
Duane in his room
(https://i.gyazo.com/289e53f26ff3a7e8508c990ba92de8ae.gif)
Amidst a dialogue scene with Duane's best friend, Donny
The style of the game is intentionally bad and drawn to resemble MS-Paint art. Overall, chances are that if you'll find anything bad or particular awful about 80'SQUEST, it's intentional about half of the time.
Development Progress:
Story: 80%
Scripting: 20%
Graphics: 65%
Sound/Music: 90%
FEATURES:
A chiefly unique style of bad
Cinematic cutscenes
Roughly an hour to two hours long
Somewhat limited open-world
Day-and-night mechanic
Multiple endings
Midi music
Expected completion date: Mid-April?
HAHAHAHA!!! The game looks like a ton of fun!!!
As someone who entered their teens in the early 80's and became an "adult" by the end, I LOVE all the references in the screenshots:
Even though the main character's speech text window hides the face: I know that's Vanilla Ice...I'm sure I would not recognise his face if his hair was cropped out, but I can sure as hell recognise his hair with his face cropped out...Which is in itself alone a great (probably unintentional) tribute to the 80's...Mostly just product with no lasting value...Mostly...
They mostly come out at night...Mostly...
^^There were some exceptions...
Thank you so much!
It's totally Vanilla Ice behind his character portrait. He's one of Duane's biggest idols, in fact. If anything, definitely in the hair. And, for sure on the whole emphasis on product stuff with little lasting value. The game's going to poke at a whole lot of craze over... Substance-less things, for lack of a better term. Vanilla Ice is somewhat of a key example there.
QuoteDonny
...Or should we call him OceanSpirit Donny, considering his hair!
Donny's hair actually switches at least three times over the course of the game for seemingly no reason. This was originally a problem because I designed each sprite with a different hairstyle thinking I'd decide which one to use later, but figured all three could work because Donny's hair is just an interchangeable 80's entity.
Edit: Here's his speaking sprite, for example:
(http://i.imgur.com/SygnqQp.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/I0zzNRh.png)
The project's still very much alive, and was just delayed to work on a more serious MAGS entry. Once January hits back up, Duane is back.
This looks amazing - I'd never heard of Duane before, but youtube has taken care of that for me.
Looking forward to an epic adventure!
In many ways, Duane is a certainly a gem to be found.
I really appreciate it!
It's (apparently) taken longer than anticipated to finish the serious project I put off this one for, but now that it's hit a sort of standstill, I feel there's no better time to come back to Duane and work hard at it until its completion. For real.
Major updates coming soon!
Good luck with it. (nod)
This looks interesting.
I look forward to about these major updates. :-D
Thank you both!
Some updates:
I'm really glad I took the time off I did to come back to the game, as in that time I learned a hell of a lot regarding my own work process, style of writing and storytelling.
After doing some reading, supposedly 800 x 600 was not a good resolution to choose. I'm going to be shifting the whole game to a widescreen resolution, which may take some time.
Edit: Apparently 640 x 480 is NOT a widescreen resolution. I confused it with 640 x 400, and somehow didn't notice all my new backgrounds were the exact same shape as my older ones, except smaller. Extremely frustrating; I'll have to redo everything again.
The game's getting a bit of a graphical shift. It's going to retain its bad-MSPaint-style, but I'm simultaneously looking for ways in which to make it look more aesthetically pleasing.
(http://i.imgur.com/5p9fazS.png)
So, lots of stuff!
Duane's sprite has been updated, but the entire game has been, really. Don't want to say too much else!
At this point, my hope is that the game is out within the next month. I've been sidetracked projects that have far more personal significance, so the game got shoved around a lot, but I'm really looking to settle down and get it all done now.