The Poppytales (Journal Thread)

I think it's a definite improvement over the original. I remember the assets from the first game were blurry and had a lot of artifacts. These are a lot cleaner and better defined.

Thank you. Instead of using the paintbrush feature in Pencyl to create what I and many other call "the crappy MS-Paint-style art",

My process of making TPT's art is time-consuming, but I think it's better than that from PT1-4. I draw the animation frame on paper and outline it in black pen (because I usually have more free time in the evenings to do this sort of thing) so that the outlines are easier to see. After that I grab my iPhone with nearly full storage, take a photo, email it to myself, get the image from the laptop, and crop it to the image I need. I then just do the outlines in black (0,0,0) or very dark grey (32,32,32) pixel-by-pixel, erase the paper background pixel-by-pixel, and then colour it pixel-by-pixel. Going from photo to sprite now takes me about two hours per drawing now, but I can always recolour sprites when I can (for all of those variant characters).

I am curious what mood you're going for, though. From the description of PT1 I was expecting something a lot darker and foreboding, where as your color and style choices suggest a more cartoony and light-hearted atmosphere.

Yes, this is intended to be more cartoony and light-hearted. That was exactly what I was aiming for. This game is a spin-off, not a main series Poppytail game. The art for main series is meant to be more dark and foreboding compared to this one’s art.

...and that heart attack.

How about I just literally call this "Heart Attack"?

And also, this is one of SLiM's attacks. You can see drawings of her idle side, front and back sprites in a previous image next to the heart. Hers will be one of the first enemy fights I design.

SLiM front animation frame.

I made some animations for the first attack: Poppy Projectile! This is obviously an attack that variations of Poppytail will have such as (but not limited to ) Poppytail, Pink Poppy, Poppy, Wicked Poppytail, and Beachtime Poppytail.



This one I did not have to draw, since I just took off part of Poppytail's tail and just made 16 frames of it spinning.

I'm also hoping to soon start making one of the game's first worlds. I'm saying "one of the first" because the game will give you options of which worlds you want to go to. The first one I'll do will be Easter Island, and this will be themed around Easter Fun. Since I'm doing SLiM sprites, her level will likely be the first I make.

Planned Levels for Easter Island world:
1) SLiM


2) King Ted


3) Jenni la Crevette


4) Fluoride

5) Virus Dizzy


6) Boss Rush #1 (Virus Greg, Virus Exister, Virus Nursina, Virus APPARITION, Virus Jawlock)







7) Boss Rush #2 (Virus Wicked Ulfytail, Virus Wicked Pirate Bunny, Virus Wicked Gizmo Girl, Virus Wicked Dizzy Dog, Virus Wicked Lizard Pepper, Virus Haunt-Cheesestick)







Note: In case I have not already explained, I'm not going to use the random encounter system that I was originally planning to use, but allow players to use the overworld to go to different levels or other areas. Of course, I will add shortcuts between areas so that moving from place to place does not take too long.

Edit: I’m also going to be working on the starter characters while I do this:
1) Poppytail (Pixeltail)- In progress
2) Easter Bunny (Pixeltail)
3) Gremlin Girl (Pixeltail)
4) Snarly Dog (Pixeltail)
5) Lizard Hunter (Pixeltail)
6) Pink Poppy (Pixeltail)- In progress
7) Batwingz (Pixeltail)
8) Towelwich (Pixeltail)
9) Vulcangoat (Pixeltail)
10) Nykolas (Pixeltail)
11) Nick (The World of Elecreatures)
12) Mum (The World of Elecreatures)
13) Stu (The World of Elecreatures)
14) Pirate (The World of Elecreatures)
15) Dizzy (The World of Elecreatures)
16) G-G (The World of Elecreatures)
17) Pepper
18) Lambie (The World of Elecreatures)
19) Lamp (The World of Elecreatures)
20) Aquadarty (The World of Elecreatures)

I made some backgrounds. Here is one for Fluoride’s fight, along with a scratch effect and grain shader. (I apologise for G-G barking in the background).

Video 2: This time I included backgrounds for Virus Poppytail’s and Classic Poppytail’s fights (this area may be recognised by those who played the first game), and one for SLiM.

Also made a tent for King Ted. He can't just fall asleep on the ground like he does in Easter Fun!



Plans for some other worlds:
GEOMETRIA (Century Game)
1) Century-G Block
2) Adrena Block
3) Sundine Block
4) Toby
HEDGE AVENUE (A Game About Trimming Hedges)
1) Purple Shirt Guy
2) Miss Trimm
3) Tiny
4) Leapyear
5) Rabby (Rabbit)
6) Ghost
7) Distort (Odd-looking Ghost)
8) Whinytail (Purple Wicked Ulfytail)
Levels 9-12 are for new characters that will be seen in a future AGATH update.
9) Duo Boss Fight- Mitchell-Jake and Barbara
10) Revenant Rabby
11) Dragon-Fly
12) Kah Boom
NON-EXISTENCE (Poppytail 4: Special Edition
1) Wicked Ulfytail
2) Wicked Pirate Bunny
3) Wicked Gizmo Girl
4) Wicked Dizzy Dog
5) Wicked Lizard Pepper
6) Haunt-Cheesestick
7) Snarler
8) Pi-Bun
9) Pepp Chop
10) Pappy Heads
11) Towel Baby
12) Mountain Goat
13) Lamb Guy

New character art:

APPARITION

JAWLOCK

JENNI LA CREVETTE

KING TED

VIRUS APPARITION

VIRUS JAWLOCK

I have released an "Art Demo" for The Poppytales on GameJolt (because I could not come up with a better name for it).

This will allow you to access everything seen in the two videos from two posts ago: a Poppytail with some finished animations that can move, and three level backgrounds that change when you press enter. That's it. It's a lot easier to see what is being done through the Art Demo than what can be seen on two crappy videos taken on an iPhone.







Note: The original images are the size of a normal laptop screen, so they are scaled down here.

The Art Demo can be accessed here: https://gamejolt.com/games/the-creators-are-watching-little-poppytail/293210

Also, this is the largest of any of the games I have made. I'm referring to the file size of the Art Demo only, with GameJolt telling me it's 130MB in size.

That's a huge download. From the looks of the screenshots you have so far, I bet you can scale the images down and still keep the details.

I wouldn't expect the art demo to be an effective way to promote your game. Considering how hard it is to get people's attention on the internet, I'd do everything possible to minimize the number of steps someone has to take to see what you want them to. Why not upload a video to YouTube instead?

That's a huge download. From the looks of the screenshots you have so far, I bet you can scale the images down and still keep the details.

I’ll see if I can do that.

I wouldn't expect the art demo to be an effective way to promote your game. Considering how hard it is to get people's attention on the internet, I'd do everything possible to minimize the number of steps someone has to take to see what you want them to. Why not upload a video to YouTube instead?

The Art Demo was not intended as a way to promote it. I wanted a way to show you all what the game looks like because it’s harder to see from an iPhone camera. I still can’t take screenshots of my games without them being completely black. I also have no idea how to film what’s on the screen. I guess I could set up a YouTube channel, but I do not know how the process works.

The Art Demo was not intended as a way to promote it. I wanted a way to show you all what the game looks like because it’s harder to see from an iPhone camera. I still can’t take screenshots of my games without them being completely black. I also have no idea how to film what’s on the screen. I guess I could set up a YouTube channel, but I do not know how the process works.

Wow, that's a persistent bug! I don't know how to capture video on Windows. I know it can be done. For Linux there's a tool called "recordMyDesktop". Maybe it's available for Win/Mac, too.

I won’t post anything on YouTube for a while because I’m on holidays and accessing Stencyl through mobile data (as I have done many times before). The screenshots may make it a little difficult to illustrate how the game looks as everything that isn’t just a still frame has a frame showing every 40 milliseconds (in this case, just Poppytail and the scratch effect). Video would be a much easier way to show how the game looks.

.
Wow, that's a persistent bug! I don't know how to capture video on Windows. I know it can be done. For Linux there's a tool called "recordMyDesktop". Maybe it's available for Win/Mac, too.

I’ll check it out soon.

The Art Demo was not intended as a way to promote it. I wanted a way to show you all what the game looks like because it’s harder to see from an iPhone camera. I still can’t take screenshots of my games without them being completely black. I also have no idea how to film what’s on the screen. I guess I could set up a YouTube channel, but I do not know how the process works.

Wow, that's a persistent bug! I don't know how to capture video on Windows. I know it can be done. For Linux there's a tool called "recordMyDesktop". Maybe it's available for Win/Mac, too.

Some tools is am using:

• GifCAM (free): to fast and easy capture a gif from your screen (region or fullscreen)
• CamStudio (open source): Captures very well region or fullscreen from your screen
• Fraps (free with watermark): Captures very well desktop executables
• Movie Maker (comes free with Windows): Easy to use edit tool for captures videos (in case your capture needs editing)

I am always editing my recorded gif and videos a bit btw.

To get the best gif quality try this (too much effort for me but has very good results:
Use Fraps to capture the video -> use Vdbub (avi to gif convert) -> use Photoshop or similar to mcrop if needed
Maybe this helps.

New Character Art:
 
Hood (One Million)



Cotton Candy (One Million)



Bonnet (One Million)



Chocbar (One Million)



Ampere (One Million)



Frozen Treat (One Million)



Carrot (One Million)



Sapphire (One Million)



Strawberry (One Million)



Miss Trimm (A Game About Trimming Hedges)



Ghost (A Game About Trimming Hedges



Also created drawings for:

• Distort (A Game About Trimming Hedges)
• Purple Shirt Guy (A Game About Trimming Hedges)
• Tiny (A Game About Trimming Hedges)
• Leapyear (A Game About Trimming Hedges)
• Rabby/Revenant Rabby (A Game About Trimming Hedges)
• Century-G Block (Century Game)
• Sundine Block/Toby (Century Game)
• Classic Alex (Poppytail)
• Papimannequin (Poppytail 5)
• Banana Prototype (Poppytail 5)
• Cakeface (Poppytail 5)
• Wicked Towelwich (Pixeltail)
• Ecto/Mandarin/Copper (One Million)
• Python/Toxicity/Chewing Gum (One Million)
• Alien/Martian/Spook (One Million)
• Shark/Caramel/Rose (One Million)
• Mushroom/Frostbite/Blizzard (One Million)
• Popcorn/Snacks/Party Time (One Million)
• Goat/Shadow Goat/Wizard (One Million)
• Dizzy/Virus Dizzy (The World of Elecreatures, Easter Fun, Poppytail Series)
• Lambie (The World of Elecreatures)
• Haunt (The World of Elecreatures)
• Chocster (The World of Elecreatures)
• Barry (The World of Elecreatures)
• Greg (The World of Elecreatures, Easter Fun)
• Ratty Tatty Squirrel (The World of Elecreatures)
• Watermelon Sorbet/Sky Sorbet/Lemonade Sorbet (The World of Elecreatures)
• Moon Chompa (The World of Elecreatures)
• Solar Power (The World of Elecreatures)

To sum it up, this game will have a crap tonne of characters.



Also made this Poppytail gif.

Hood (One Million
...
Ghost (A Game About Trimming Hedges

Your parentheses aren't closed

That is a lot of characters. I can imagine doing all the animation frames for each of them will take a long time!

Your parentheses aren't closed

Thank you. I'll fix that now.

That is a lot of characters. I can imagine doing all the animation frames for each of them will take a long time!

Yes. It will. I wouldn't be surprised if I went over the time I allowed myself to get this done by mid-2020. Without a doubt it will take a long time. (I'm still going to do it anyway )

Distort (A Game About Trimming Hedges



Purple Shirt Guy (A Game About Trimming Hedges)



Century-G Block (Century Game)



Edit: Here are some other characters I found that I hadn't posted

Wicked Poppytail (Pixeltail)



Virus Poppytail


Virus Pink Poppy

More art:

Ecto (One Million)



Mandarin (One Million)



Copper (One Million)



Dizzy (The World of Elecreatures/Poppytail Series/Easter Fun)





Virus Dizzy (Easter Fun)