It's a game that lets you draw anything you want! The only limit is your IMAGINATION!
Requires Flash + keyboard.
The controls are based on the classic game: Etch A Sketch, and as such, are a bit tricky to get used to (Left hand = up/down, right hand = left/right)!!
Game made with Stencyl. Music made from scratch, by me.
About me:
I'm a composer, not a game developer! But I like to challenge myself at game jams as much as possible. Scrawl A Draw is very simple by design because I spent most of the weekend making the music for this and three other LD games. :persevere:
Thanks for playing!
p.s. - If you draw something pretty, please upload a screenshot! I'd love to see what kind of art people come up with.
Good job completing a project for the compo. That music is baroque baby!
I don't know if it's something with Stencyl, but why can't up and down be controlled with the keyboard arrows just like left and right? It takes some getting used to.
Overall though great nostalgia for an Etch-a-Sketch. Project is consistent with the theme too.
The controls were a design decision! The original Etch-a-Sketch is infamous for it's tricky controls (with up/down on one side and left/right on the other). I decided to be true to the nostalgia and make Scrawl A Draw the same way.
Absolutely loved the baroque song for the game. You absolutely killed it man!!
Wished the line while drawing was kind of bigger or that you could change the color of the lines. Also there seems to be a issue sometimes moving and it not drawing anything! I found it pretty frustrating at times and sadly gave up drawing my masterpiece.. :c
I to thought the controls were a little odd as well but after reading the comment above this one I think you definately made the right choice! I like the homage to the original Etch-a-Sketch however I will add that I to did find it a little odd. Maybe add an option to pick controls?
Loved it overall! Was a good project! Congrats again on finishing a compo project!
Thank you for the feedback, as well as the kind words!
I encountered that bug as well (though it was actually much worse before!). I think it is somewhat tied to performance/processing (as opposed to logic), as different machines seem to have different levels of dropout. I don't know enough about Stencyl to say for certain, though.
Man, going back to flash was quite the experience, I really like your take on the theme, you really start with nothing but it's not a game you'd expect to see in a jam! It's a great mood make too, brought me back to when I was younger looking at experimental stuff like this on the web.
@marchmain Thanks! I'm glad you like the style of music. I knew the controls would be frustrating (just like the original Etch A Sketch), so I decided to compose something interesting enough to distract and also, inspire creativity! Baroque was a natural fit (although I took some *ahem* liberty with the style to spice it up a bit).
Cool! It's a simple idea but it works well. The music is really excellent - I can't believe it's possible to compose a whole piece like this in a weekend. Nice job.
@eugsun You are forgiven! I knew it was only a matter of time. ;)
@marhalis "I can’t believe it’s possible to compose a whole piece like this in a weekend." Thanks! I honestly couldn't believe so either. :persevere: I went one measure at a time though, and ended up very happy with it! And now, I know that it CAN be done. I won't doubt myself as much in the future.
Fun toy - this really achieved flashbacks to my youth. I was tempted to do what I did with Etch a Sketch and try to color the whole screen purple, but I must be fusty now that I'm old and lacked the initiative. The music was great - I love the harpsichord and all the ornaments. Very neat.
@nachtwitch Maybe? I spend most of my time making music, but if I have time during a game jam weekend, I like to try to work at least a little bit in something like Stencyl/Unity. I don't have the time to devote to fully making games, though. Music is my life!
@pilarius AWESOME! That's adorable. Thanks for sharing it with me. :heart:
"Propably spend too much time with your game :D"
What?! Nonsense! I don't believe any person can spend "too much time" drawing/painting/singing/dancing/etc. Creativity is a fundamental part of being alive. If it brings you joy, that's all that matters.
@terribly-awesome-games As this was a game jam, and I was pressed for time, my workflow was pretty much just: improv on my keyboard. :sweat_smile: I noodled around a bit to come up with the main theme/motifs (first four measures), then recorded it into MIDI. After that, I basically just went measure by measure, adding the kind of motion/harmony that I thought would be appropriate by recording each measure, then making adjustments by hand if I needed to.
Occasionally, I'd have to stop and think through things like voice-leading ("Oops! That's a direct octave") or harmony ("Wait a sec, what key am I in? How the hell am I going to get back to Gmin?!"). A lot of that kind of thing comes naturally to me now after having studied/played/written music for so long. I used a lot of suspensions/fourth-species, because they're *ahem* relatively easy to use, sound great, and helped to 'slow down' the music after some of the very 'active' passages.
To keep the entire song familiar (and not be TOO confusing/jarring), I started off with a strong theme that I knew I could use again and again, then simply brought it back, in different keys, at different times, with different rhythms/notes. One of the ways to make interesting music seems to be balancing contrasts, and that's a lot of what I 'thought about.' E.g., I started in a minor key, so I wanted to make sure to have a strong secondary theme in major. I started in simple duple (4/4 or 2/4), then at some point moved to compound duple (6/8 or 12/8). I had sections that are slow followed by sections that are fast, sections with long notes followed by sections with short notes.
I knew that I wanted to have a basic ABA' sort of structure, and I knew I could get away with having a crazy long development (B) so long as the expo+recap (A+A') was pretty solid. I started the recap off by returning to the main theme in MAJOR, which is uncommon but not unusual, then I basically just wrapped it back around to the beginning to get it feeling as seamless as possible.
A lot of the weird key changes ('modulation') that I accomplished were due to using very strong 'dominant pedals', which is basically just a V -> I/i. I used a lot of leading tones as non-chord tones (primarily neighbor tones) to set up the movement, then reinforced them through longer phrases to emphasize the pedal. Dominant sevens helped a lot too.
It may seem like a lot, but this kind of stuff is pretty much all I ever do or think about anymore. I play piano and practice musicianship and ear training every day specifically so that I don't have to 'think about' this kind of stuff when I'm composing, so a lot of it happens by reflex.
Really really liked the music and the Etch-a-sketch feel is kinda nice though sometimes it would stop placing new pixels until I changed direction. Still enjoyed it though.
Now you just need to add sensor support so I could shake my laptop to clear the screen :P
Pretty cool that you made game like etch a sketch and it's awesome we can draw whatever. I think it would have been nice for there to be a reset button.
Nice BGM, although SFX are missing and that did take away from the sound quite a bit.
With all due respect, I think having awkward controls is a questionable way of imposing difficulty/interest. Sure games like QWOP get away with it, but here it feels quite artificial.
The game itself would have been a much more relaxing and pleasant experience, if the cursor did drew the whole time. But as already mentioned by other people it didn't do that quite often which is quite frustrating.
After a minute I stopped drawing and just listened to the music (still doing while writing the review :D)
The music is definitely the highlight.
Btw: On my german keyboard the z and x keys are actually quite far away from each other which did make it even a bit more awkward for me ;)
Comments40
I don't know if it's something with Stencyl, but why can't up and down be controlled with the keyboard arrows just like left and right? It takes some getting used to.
Overall though great nostalgia for an Etch-a-Sketch. Project is consistent with the theme too.
Thanks for playing!
Wished the line while drawing was kind of bigger or that you could change the color of the lines. Also there seems to be a issue sometimes moving and it not drawing anything! I found it pretty frustrating at times and sadly gave up drawing my masterpiece.. :c
I to thought the controls were a little odd as well but after reading the comment above this one I think you definately made the right choice! I like the homage to the original Etch-a-Sketch however I will add that I to did find it a little odd. Maybe add an option to pick controls?
Loved it overall! Was a good project! Congrats again on finishing a compo project!
I encountered that bug as well (though it was actually much worse before!). I think it is somewhat tied to performance/processing (as opposed to logic), as different machines seem to have different levels of dropout. I don't know enough about Stencyl to say for certain, though.
:purple_heart: :dart: :frog:
It's a great mood make too, brought me back to when I was younger looking at experimental stuff like this on the web.
Great job! Enjoyed my little (ahem) 5 minutes with the game.
@marhalis "I can’t believe it’s possible to compose a whole piece like this in a weekend." Thanks! I honestly couldn't believe so either. :persevere: I went one measure at a time though, and ended up very happy with it! And now, I know that it CAN be done. I won't doubt myself as much in the future.
I drew my zz plant :)
@pilarius AWESOME! That's adorable. Thanks for sharing it with me. :heart:
"Propably spend too much time with your game :D"
What?! Nonsense! I don't believe any person can spend "too much time" drawing/painting/singing/dancing/etc. Creativity is a fundamental part of being alive. If it brings you joy, that's all that matters.
Occasionally, I'd have to stop and think through things like voice-leading ("Oops! That's a direct octave") or harmony ("Wait a sec, what key am I in? How the hell am I going to get back to Gmin?!"). A lot of that kind of thing comes naturally to me now after having studied/played/written music for so long. I used a lot of suspensions/fourth-species, because they're *ahem* relatively easy to use, sound great, and helped to 'slow down' the music after some of the very 'active' passages.
To keep the entire song familiar (and not be TOO confusing/jarring), I started off with a strong theme that I knew I could use again and again, then simply brought it back, in different keys, at different times, with different rhythms/notes. One of the ways to make interesting music seems to be balancing contrasts, and that's a lot of what I 'thought about.' E.g., I started in a minor key, so I wanted to make sure to have a strong secondary theme in major. I started in simple duple (4/4 or 2/4), then at some point moved to compound duple (6/8 or 12/8). I had sections that are slow followed by sections that are fast, sections with long notes followed by sections with short notes.
I knew that I wanted to have a basic ABA' sort of structure, and I knew I could get away with having a crazy long development (B) so long as the expo+recap (A+A') was pretty solid. I started the recap off by returning to the main theme in MAJOR, which is uncommon but not unusual, then I basically just wrapped it back around to the beginning to get it feeling as seamless as possible.
A lot of the weird key changes ('modulation') that I accomplished were due to using very strong 'dominant pedals', which is basically just a V -> I/i. I used a lot of leading tones as non-chord tones (primarily neighbor tones) to set up the movement, then reinforced them through longer phrases to emphasize the pedal. Dominant sevens helped a lot too.
It may seem like a lot, but this kind of stuff is pretty much all I ever do or think about anymore. I play piano and practice musicianship and ear training every day specifically so that I don't have to 'think about' this kind of stuff when I'm composing, so a lot of it happens by reflex.
Now you just need to add sensor support so I could shake my laptop to clear the screen :P
Good job!
With all due respect, I think having awkward controls is a questionable way of imposing difficulty/interest. Sure games like QWOP get away with it, but here it feels quite artificial.
The game itself would have been a much more relaxing and pleasant experience, if the cursor did drew the whole time. But as already mentioned by other people it didn't do that quite often which is quite frustrating.
After a minute I stopped drawing and just listened to the music (still doing while writing the review :D)
The music is definitely the highlight.
Btw: On my german keyboard the z and x keys are actually quite far away from each other which did make it even a bit more awkward for me ;)
So strange I'm giving you bad rating on graphics because I can't draw! Just kidding! :laughing:
Thanks for the fun toy!