Eggy's Games

When I was only a teenager I made a viral game that spread all over the internet called Draw-Play. It was a simple yet powerful concept. All you had to do was draw the ground yourself that the player could walk on. It was the first ever of that genre.

Birth of the Idea

When I was coding, I was experimenting with 2 simple concepts. I had my usual platformer code that a player could run and jump on platforms. Then separately I just made a simple bitmap drawing code that could write on the screen. One day when I was in high school I thought wait a minute, what if I combined the two? surely that won't work?....

I'd like to pretend I was a coding mastermind here. Yet all it took was 2 seperate pieces of code I combined. I changed the drawing lines into it's own movieclip and grouped this as one entire object called "Ground" I then made sure my platform code could interact with anything named "Ground" and made it account for slopes by always pushing it up. Then when I hit player I was like, no way... this is awesome! you can draw anything for him to jump on! no longer did I need to put platforms where I wanted them, instead the player could now do their own.

Improving The Idea

After its success and the game going viral I decided to set to work on some sequels. Number 2 wasn't received too well because it was basically an extension of the first and introduced an "ink limit" which people did not like at all. Woops, lesson learned!

So I began work on the 3rd and this is where it hit it's best yet. I was able to incorporate destructible bitmap now by improving the code. This new feature meant I could expand the levels in twofold. I was able to let the player erase ground and I could make enemies and level objects that would rip through the ground like fire, missiles and my personal favourite - lasers.

Easter Eggs

On the main menu of Draw-Play 3 if you press the edge of a square to the right of the word key. You will be taken to a level with the twin towers being erased by planes. Tasteless joke? sure. But hey, gotta keep the players surprised right?

Banana On Head Mode

At a certain point in a game developers life, you get to a point where you make something and cringe at yourself. Why did I make this? I don't know. Why does this exist? I don't know. Should it exist?.....Good question. All I know is I may have made the most pointless unlockable in the history of gaming itself. Why? BECAUSE I CAN THAT'S WHY AND NO ONE CAN STOP ME! MWAHAHA

Legacy

In the end I gotta say, I am proud of this trilogy and one day I may bring it to a new home on a new system. For now I can honestly say I completed everything I set out to do with the idea and I am proud of that.

Also some people may be wondering what actually IS the Draw-Play character?....

Well some mysteries are just best left unsolved I'm afraid ;)