Project: Doodle v0.4.0

Here is another alpha release of the videogame I've been working on, code named Project: Doodle.

New Guidebook Site

I've updated the user documentation that ships with the game. It now has tons of good information and screenshots showing various features of the game. I recommend checking it out to get a feel for what this game is about.

I'm working on a proper website for this game, but for now the Guidebook is a good stand-in!

What is Project: Doodle?

This is a "draw your own levels and play them" kind of game, like Mario Maker but completely free form. In the level editor you can draw whatever level you want, pick which colors are solid and which are fire, and drag-and-drop 'doodads' into your level to add interactive elements like keys and buttons.

And those doodads you can drag into your level? There will be some built-in ones but you can also create your own -- and program them with JavaScript to do whatever you want. This game is designed to be super mod friendly. In the future you'll be able to bundle your custom levels, with your custom doodads, and share them easily with others: your level will bring its custom doodads with it and "just work" on another computer.

See the About Page of the user manual for an introduction.

Note: "Project: Doodle" is just its code name while it's in early alpha and looking ugly.

Read this blog post for changes and download links.

Changes

This update brings improvements to the editor; you can now fully draw all the graphics for a custom doodad using the in-app tools!

A key difference between a Level and a Doodad is that doodads have Layers where they keep multiple frames of animation or state. The editor tool now supports working with these extra layers.

Other new features:

• The Guidebook has been updated with tons of good info and screenshots of the game's features. Press F1 in-game to open the guidebook, or check it online at https://www.sketchymaze.com/guidebook/
• Layer Selection Window for Doodads: when you're editing a Doodad drawing, a "Lyr." button is added to the toolbar to access the Layers window.
• Global UI popup modals: when you're about to close a level with unsaved changes, you get an Ok/Cancel prompt confirming if you want to do that. Hitting the Escape key will ask you before just exiting the program. Alert boxes are supported too, and an alert command added to the developer console.

Downloads

I currently build this game for 64-bit Windows and Linux only. The Windows version runs great under Wine too. Let me know in the comments if you need 32-bit Windows or other support.

• Windows: doodle-0.4.0-windows-64bit.zip (22.2 MB)
• Linux: doodle-0.4.0-linux-64bit.tar.gz* (20.4 MB)
• Linux ARM64 (like Pinephone): doodle-0.4.0-linux-arm64.tar.gz (19.5 MB; see this blog post)

* Built on Fedora 33, should generally be binary compatible with recent Debians and Ubuntus, let me know if not. A Flatpak build is in the works for future releases.