Quest Pals

Welcome to the Quest Pals homepage!

Play the WIP game here: http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/19744

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Tutorial Table of Contents

Tutorial 1 : Basic Four-Way Movement
Tutorial 2 : Basic Animations
Tutorial 3 : Health Set-Up and Drawing

(If you don’t see a tutorial for something in the game, please check FAQ below for “Why doesn’t game mechanic X have a tutorial?)

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Quest Pals Q&A

What is Quest Pals?

Short answer: a (WIP) top-down, pet-like adventure game… at least tenatively. Please remember this is a WIP! See the other questions below for more.

The focus of the game is meant to be more comical than serious. Though you raise your “quest pals” and do embark on official/unofficial/weird quests, its meant to more relaxed than it is lightning-paced. Ultimately, take your time, enjoy the view, and do what you like. Hopefully you will find a plethora of wonderful things to do as the game sees updates in the future.

Also, I made this game so that beginners could look at it side by side with the tenative Quest Pals tutorial series. Want to learn the ropes? Check out the tutorials above and watch how Quest Pals came together… or better yet, work on your own game and see THAT come together with the help of the tutorials! Whichever works for you. The bottom line is, LEARN!

Why did you make a game like this?

Besides being “another flash game”, Quest Pals was made for some specific reasons:

1. To serve as a companion to the Quest Pals tutorials. As I work on the game, I plan on writing tutorials that mirror elements seen in the game. Also, this game seeks to implement and re-enforce good “programming” practice. This will allow you to more easily keep your code organized and modify it later.
2. As a running experiment to mess with different gameplay ideas and mechanics
3. For fun. 😀

This game doesn’t look very complete. Why?

As stated in reason number 2 above, this game is more of a “experiment as I go” type thing. I’m not advertising it as a complete gaming experience for a reason.

Also, with reason 1, I sometimes will update the game in accordance with a corresponding tutorial that I have posted. The visual aid and hands-on experience certainly can be helpful to those trying to learn from the tutorials.

And then finally, with reason 3, I’m not treating this game as a “professional” project, so to speak. I’m NOT saying that the project isn’t important; I’m simply saying that the process is meant to be a bit more relaxed and open. I’ll probably be working on this alongside some of my more “serious” projects as well.

Do you have a specific plan for this game’s future?

Nothing that is really concrete. Like I said, this game is meant to be more relaxed than my other projects. It will become what it becomes. That being said, there is really no substitute for having a plan! If you have an idea that you truly want to make into something incredible, having a plan should be a vital part of your process! REALLY! But like I said, this game is meant to be more experimental than down to business. That’s also why good programming practice will hopefully play a key part in easily adding and changing features as we go along (good programming practice should be a part of ANY project you do).

Will you ever release this as a complete game?

It’s possible. But at the time of writing this, expect it to be a WIP for a while, if not perpetually so.

Are you taking requests for game features and related tutorials?

It wouldn’t hurt to ask. I probably will make no guarantees, but you can definitely ask. 🙂

Why doesn’t game mechanic X have a tutorial?

Tutorials take quite a bit of effort and time to write. To write a coherent, understandable tutorial with visual aids–ESPECIALLY on a more complex subject–is not something I can just typically “churn out” in the span of an hour.

On the other hand, if you do see something you like that doesn’t have a tutorial, feel free to bring it up. As this project grows in size, there’s a good chance I won’t have time to write a tutorial on absolutely everything; I may have to pick and choose. Perhaps unfortunate, but I have other things to do on any given day. So if you REALLY want to see a tutorial on something, feel free to ask!