We made a game using only MS Paint and other as ludicrous tools

[19//Moach]

 

This is the same I had posted in the Kerbal Space Program boards (where I used to be an admin, long time ago) - I somehow had neglected to mention it here though (d'oh!)

 

So here's the latest child of my curiously unusual career as a game developer: 

 

Doctor Tsunami, the game is called. 

All the artwork in it was made using nothing other than MS Paint;  And it was put together with Game Maker Studios (The "Paint" of game engines) to boot.

But why? I hear you cry. What ever could have possessed someone to do this? Well... I can't really say. It's art I think. Or maybe its just a way to prove that you don't need modern tools that promise to make it all easy for you; And anyone can make a game if they just put their mind to it. Even without expensive specialized software.

As for me, this game is special because well... I was part of the very small team who made it. I got in half-way through development, but then I ended up buffing up most of the code, redoing anything that didn't really work and whatnot (especially whatnot, when the rest of the team is ONE other guy)

But mainly, I feel my biggest part in it was writing the original soundtrack. I had been brewing up some of this music for eons, as if waiting for some big project where it would fit. When my friend Rob (the guy who did it all in Paint) asked me for help and I saw the game, I felt this was somewhere I could put down all those ideas, not saving any for "later" as I had done so far. 

And since he was doing it all in Paint, animation included; (over 4000 individual images, in the end) I had no reservations about the fact that I did not have any of my music equipment ready at hand. And kept with the spirit of the project by scoring all in MIDI by mouse and keyboard. 

Of course, there are many better ways of doing it... But I think this was the whole point of the exercise, to show that games are not made by the tool, but by the hands and minds that wield it.

And recently, the game was finally released on Steam: 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/8618 ... r_Tsunami/


Needless to say, as a two-man team just breaking in to the gaming industry; We got quite a lot riding on this. Anyways, I hope you like it.  


Ps:
If you find any bugs, let me know. There are over 180 levels in Doctor Tsunami, and you can probably guess that a team of two is by no means sufficient to cover it all thoroughly enough to find them all. We've set up a forum for it here: https://www.doctor-tsunami.com/forum



Well, enjoy!

 

Edited January 9, 2019 by 19//Moach

[AndyJWest]

Paint? Too easy. Real games are written in Z80 assembler, compiled by hand, and then poked into memory from a BASIC program loaded from cassette tape.

[Leon_Portier]

Oh nice, there are many doom mods made with paint sprites too.

I´ll check out the game of yours.

[NETSCAPE]

I thought we aren't allowed to advertise on here? 

 

I have gamemaker but have barely messed with it. I am artistically inclined and can pull off decent pixel art out of the gate. But lately I've been diving into Blender after not touching a 3d program since Rhino like 15+ years back.

 

 

Here is my first ever attempt at pixel art I did some months ago.

 

I also make music: https://soundcloud.com/jared_johnston

 

Jack of all trades...master of none...on the brink of homelessness... what a great time to start making a game I say! lololol.

 

On 1/9/2019 at 9:42 AM, AndyJWest said:

Paint? Too easy. Real games are written in Z80 assembler, compiled by hand, and then poked into memory from a BASIC program loaded from cassette tape.

 

 

Real men program their own compiler.

 

[19//Moach]