After numerous requests for a playable version, I’ve finally gotten around to releasing the playable Scribble Koopa. Mostly I just didn’t want to do the write up.
Controls:
Arrow Keys: Movement, Navigate Pause and Battle Menus
Spacebar: Jump, Confirm Selection, Timed Hit
Control: Pause (outside battle)
Scribble Koopa was intended as a spinoff to A Koopa’s Revenge, which I developed around the same time as early development for A Koopa’s Revenge 2. It has been completely cancelled, with no hope of revival. Just so we’re clear, don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up.
It was to serve as my version of Paper Mario. What A Koopa’s Revenge was to Super Mario Bros., Scribble Koopa was to Paper Mario. I emulated the gameplay, but kept things a bit simpler by not including helpers. They aren’t just not in the demo because I hadn’t gotten to them yet, I planned not to use them at all.
The special moves were all to be based on other Mario enemies abilities. Those seen in game include, a Thwomp, a Spiny, and Koopa himself. I also had ideas for throwing hammers, and jumping into Lakitu clouds, but these ideas didn’t get implemented before I scrapped the project.
The scribbled art style served two purposes. First, it acted as a counterpart to the flattened paper look of Paper Mario. Second, it allowed me to be lazy in development and use bad art. RPGs require a ton of assets, so scribbling was my way of getting through those assets without hours of work. I also think it’s kind of charming, particularly Koopa’s animation for when he gets hit.
Why I scrapped it:
After getting a basic game engine up and running, I started to lose interest in the project because the challenge was gone. I had AKR2 to work on, and making a spinoff for a one game series didn’t seem like a big priority. These were big franchise dreams for my situation.
I’ve never been a huge RPG fan. Pokemon and Mario RPGs are the only ones I’ve ever actually finished. Mario RPGs with their timed hits and Pokemon with it’s typing system feel skill based enough for me to enjoy, but traditional JRPGs with their grinding and over reliance on story just don’t interest me. I quit FF7 after Aerith died, not because I had any emotional attachment, but because all the materia I had equipped to her was lost. I was pissed the game would do that to me.
RPGs need to be big too. A short platformer feels like a nice light snack, but a short RPG feels like they’re taking something away from the player. I could have finished a short version of the game, but it needs to be long to really do the idea justice. I didn’t have the inspiration to make a longer game, so if I forced myself it would most likely would have resulted in a pretty underwhelming game experience.
Long story short, I wasn’t interested in making an RPG, so I scrapped it.