glad you still make animations :))

Pelo here. A little back story on the project:

In either 2007 or 2008, Noodle and I stumbled upon each other; he had found and used some of my (lousy Garageband) music for one of his animations, and I reached out to him to potentially work together on a game: Bill's Quest. I do not have an eye for art, and Noodle was gracious enough to lend his talents to the game. His art style was exactly what I was looking for, and he managed to bring everything we discussed to life (even stumps and stalagmites).

I had been learning how to make games in Flash, and I figured a turn based RPG would be the easiest to make for a high schooler who's most advanced coding skills were goto(), variable manipulation, and switch statements.

Somehow, I had managed to put together the most bare bone basic engine, and we actually managed to put together a working beta of the game. There were four types of attacks: Body (punch, headbutt, etc), Sword, Magic, and [Nerf] Gun, and more powerful "combo" moves could be unlocked once you learned certain moves (like Fire + Gun = Flamethrower). You were allowed to use 4 moves at a time, but could switch around what you had equipped at any time outside of battle. We had five levels (Castle Town, a Beach, a Cave, Mt. Nyos, and Chad's Castle), and each had 2 or 3 common enemies, 1 rare enemy, 1 WTF enemy (Stump, Coconut, Stalagmite, Cloud, and Candle), and a boss, all with their own unique attacks, animations, strengths, and weaknesses. The last thing that we had done was testing balancing, making sure bosses weren't too easy or too hard (I think the level enemies were well balanced).

Bill and Chad were two characters I created in my 11th grade English class for a vocabulary assignment; I would draw them in different situations, and the class would guess what word they were showing. Bill was the "cool & tough" guy, and Chad was actually a gentle, kind, and somewhat naive soul (you can see more of them on my page, and maybe even on my *shudder* deviantArt page). So why was Chad the bad guy? The ending I originally had in mind was that the entire game was a pitch by Bill to the rest of the characters (including myself, Noodle, and the boss characters you face in the game) as something he wants to make...but looking back it was a lame ending and wouldn't have made a lick of sense.

So what happened? Why did the game suddenly just cease to be?

Two things: College and Breaking Flash

In late 2008, I had gotten to college. I still kept my momentum up and continued testing wherever I could, asking new friends to try it and whatnot. But then in 2009, I just...burnt out. I discovered new things, and just wanted to try these new things. Thankfully, I got over it come summer time and was back to testing and editing, but college life did slow it down considerably.

And then it happened. My laptop couldn't handle the project anymore, and I was forced to start using the university's computers to continue working on it. This presented me with two new problems: I had Flash 8 but they had CS4, and their Windows run computers couldn't open the .fla file without it crashing (darn you, Vista!). The temporary fix was split the file in two: the battle engine into one file, and the rest in the other. And at some point I bit the bullet and purchased CS4 for my laptop (which was great because it came with other wonderful programs I would later use as well...though I will say Flash 8 was the best version I ever used!). Progress continued on and off, and I still did the best I could.

And then it all came crashing down one fateful day. I opened the Battle Engine file, and all the enemy values had shifted by one. It just...broke me. Because of my duct tape, bubblegum, and prayer structure of coding, I couldn't find all the pieces to put it back together. So I quietly shelved it. I was beyond disappointed in myself, and I couldn't face Noodle for what felt like ages because I thought I had let him down.

I do remember receiving a lovely email from him on a day where I needed it, and he assured me that he had no ill will, and thanked me for helping him grow. And now here we are, several years later, reminiscing about what was probably one of the best memories I've ever had.

Not to say that this entire endeavor was a complete waste. I was proud of the engine I had made, and the move select menu was the most ambitious thing I've ever made. For years I've looked back on the design choices I made, and I realized how horrible they were. It was unintuitive, overly wordy, late game moves felt like they punished you for taking the time to unlock them, and it was even possible to lose the Tutorial Battle (what the hell was I thinking?!). I even sent the last .swf file I had (on a Flash Drive now lost in the cluttered mess of my home) to a friend who was working on his own RPG as a warning of what not to do.

I have recently (albeit very slowly) learning Blender 3D Modeling and C++ so I can make games again in Unreal, and maybe one day (when I get off my lazy ass and finish the damned classes!) Bill's Quest can make a return!

Perhaps the moral of the story, dear reader, is that even if a project fades out of existence, you can still learn many things along the way, and use the lessons of success and failure to make the next thing you do better.

And to you, Noodle, my dear friend, I'm happy that you still think fondly of this project, and I'm glad you're doing well. I apologize for not clicking the accept button sooner, but I haven't been on Newgrounds much these past few years, and I don't receive many emails from the site anymore. If you ever want to talk or try working together again, you have my email. =)

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I cannot tell you the joy I felt thinking about this game again.

~Pelo

Finally, something good on modern day NewGrounds! Hmm, this is from 2011? That explains why it's good! Shame it'll never get finished, though.

Great to see some of this! Amazing animation (and the 2008-2012 age of nostalgia hits so hard)