I’m back! Welcome to the second installment of Miscellaneous Character Showcase! Now, let’s begin.
Introducing: Quackers
This is Quackers, who really only exists for comedy’s sake. As you can see, he’s a young duck child. He doesn’t talk, he only quacks. He’s also a close friend of Randy. The two are quite similar and have common interests. I mean, for one, they’re both non-verbal communicators. Well, I’m not sure if Quackers counts as one, he does say “quack”, even if it’s the only thing he says. Quackers likes to play instruments, such as the accordion, as pictured. Scratch that, it’s actually a concertina. There’s a difference y’know!
I got the idea for Quackers from a dream I once had, where there was a human-sized duck child who lived in a neighborhood near me, and all he could say was “quack”.
There’s really not much to this guy. Like I said, he mostly exists for comedy. He doesn’t really have a major arc or anything… or does he?…
“Stop playing that stupid board game and get a life, you baby! You’re such a Quackers!”
Quackers’ Theme
So, I’m going to be generous and let you listen to Quackers’ musical theme I made, which plays in scenes involving him. I’ll do the same for the next character I show in this post. Quackers’ theme was one of the very first songs I made for this game several years ago, and it’s slightly atypical of the game’s usual style of songs.
I gotta warn you though, the song you’re about to listen to isn’t the final version. I said this in the last post where I talk about the music, but I haven’t got all of the perfect instrument samples for the OST just yet. The songs you’ll hear in this post are using the soundfont called SGM as a placeholder, so the final version will sound better. Also, like I said before, even though this game is set within an Atari 2600 title, most of the music doesn’t sound like it belongs on the 2600. Anyway, here’s the song:
Quackers Quotes:
“Quack!”
“Quack! Quack quack!”
(screaming) “”””””QUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!!!!!!””””””
(I think you get the idea there. Not gonna overdo it.)
Introducing: Corny
This is Corny the Squirrel. “Corny” is short for Cornelius. And fittingly enough, he loves corn, as you can see in one of the drawings in the image above. He’s also fairly difficult to draw, apparently. Corny is pretty much one of the main characters, so he’s much more important of a character than Quackers. His role in the game within this game is that of the, well I guess you would say “villain”?
So, in the cartoon sucker ads the in-universe game is “cashing off of”, Corny is the familiar “funny animal who’s obsessed with sugary product and wants to take it”. Corny also has a team of squirrel minions, who all wear scarfs to distinguish themselves from him. His role in the sucker commercials translated to the brand’s advergame as him being the antagonist Randy needs to stop. And for the first level of the real game, after it’s been put on the shelf, Corny is just that, the antagonist. I mean, he absolutely shouldn’t steal candy from anyone. Well, except for THIS MAN, heh, he’s the worst!
Corny really likes to act more sinister than he actually is. I don’t want to spoil too much right now, but during the story, Corny is initially Randy’s rival. The two have the same goal they want to accomplish. But, Corny wants to accomplish it for his own “villainous” benefit. Though, at the end of the first level, Corny admits that he’s not a good “villain”. After he and Randy discover that they have more in common than they thought, Corny joins Randy’s side, though slightly begrudgingly. He’s later replaced with a much, much, much worse villain who will serve as the story’s primary antagonist.
“WHAT!?” indeed, Corny.
Cruel Irony
Corny becomes more sympathetic towards Randy as the game progresses, and he even comes to recognize the serious health meter issue Randy constantly faces. So, like I mentioned in the first Miscellaneous Character Showcase, the game’s enemies are programmed to attack Randy, and this gives them an instinct to do so even when the game isn’t being played, meaning he’s frequently at risk of taking damage. Just adds to the list of many things Randy has to sadly put up with that the rest of his family will never know what is like. Most of the other stuff being the DISRESPECT, pushing around, and ego-bruising he gets from his family. Very much the kind of stuff I’ve always dealt with from my own family sadly, and I’ve based it off that, of course.
Everyone knows about Randy’s health meter issue. And, (almost) all of the game’s denizens are really supportive of helping Randy in this regard by giving him free suckers, which heal him in-game. There’s even an absolutely, unavoidably, inescapably ubiquitous merchandise campaign dedicated to giving Randy and no one else free candy for his health bar, known as “Free Candy 4 Randy” (which I’ll definitely incorporate into this game’s merchandise when that becomes a thing). This altruistic fact factors into the gameplay a little bit. And now back to Corny. The fact that he comes to recognize this issue Randy has is pretty ironic, considering most of the game’s enemies work for the rodent.
Corny’s Origin
By the way, a partial basis for this character was an Atari 2600 game called, get ready for this if you haven’t heard of it, “Snail Against Squirrel“. Here’s the cover art:
Source:AtariAge
That’s why there’s a snail in Corny’s artwork. There are a lot of freakishly large snails living in the big, hollow tree that acts as Corny’s lair, where he and his minions live.
Corny’s Theme
The audio file below is Corny’s musical theme. Just like Quackers’ theme, this was one of the very first songs I conceptualized for this game a few years back. And also, it too is a temp track that uses the SGM soundfont. The final version of the song will use better-sounding samples. Here it is:
Corny Quotes:
“Our tree is absolutely FULL of sap!” [Someone then says something to him, to which he then responds] “No, I said full of ‘sap’, not ‘saps’! Anyway, why am I saying this? Well, I used some of the sap to make a sticky trap, just for you, Randy! This particular sap is some of the stickiest out there! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!… I’m… I’m gonna need a glass of water after that laugh…”
“Y’know what? Can’t we just settle this over a pint? A pint of corn syrup? I love drinking corn syrup! The stuff sure is addictive! It’s very sweet, and it has corn in it I assume! I love corn! So, would you like a taste? Come on, you know a mug of corn syrup’s what you want! Come and join me in a sugar high!… W-why are you looking at me like that? It’s not like I drugged the mug of corn syrup I’m giving you! It’s not like it’s gonna make you loopy or anything!…”
“Hmmm, what can I say here?… Ahem! I do mean business, don’t ya know I do? Would ya settle for a slow death? ‘Cause I would give you one for sure! Too bad there’s next to nothing that would make it permanent……………….. But, I WOULD execute you, and slowly, MUHAHAHAHA!” “Why is my hand behind my back? Isometric exercise, of course!”
“Since I’m helping you now, I better go do some investigating!” [Walks over to a floating sucker] “Hmm… This sucker seems a tad bit suspicious… So I better investigate it!” [Proceeds to unwrap the confection and suck it]
New Developments
By the way, if you’re wondering about the huge gap in-between this post and the last, that’s mostly because I’ve been busy with other things, like getting the game’s Game Jolt page ready, for example, and also maybe, just maybe, because my good old depression had flared up a bit lately to cripple me again. However, there’s another factor. Recently, my complete hunk of junk laptop finally became almost unusable for good.
My laptop was about to update, but it would never, ever finish, nor could finish a restore when I tried that. For a good while now, every time it needed to update, it has always taken an unfathomable amount of time to finish, but it finally reached a point where it can’t finish period. When I had my old laptop, I used to wait like a lion, for every single time something bad goes on in the computer, I’m always like “AAAAALLLLRIGHT, THIS IS IT! THIS IS THE END! THERE’S NOOOO GOIN’ BACK NOW, AH TELL YA! YOU DONE HEARD ME!?”, which would result in sleepless nights or nightmares… Well, at least I eventually ended up being right, unlike… No, this isn’t the post to be talking about that side of the game’s story… What a creep!
Anyway, I ended up getting a new (used) computer, and had to get my programs reinstalled and move my files to it. I also had to fiddle around with the display calibration because oh my goodness some of the colors didn’t look very good. It also makes a horrendous sound whenever it boots up.
Game Engine Switch
In addition, and I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, I’ve decided I’m moving this game from Unity to another engine, because of what Unity planned to do on January 3̷̡̦̥͕̄͋r̷̍͜d̶̥̜͗͂͆͝͠ 1st. Absolutely dreadful.
So, I have officially just downloaded GameMaker. Though, I’m kind of worried, since I haven’t moved the project to the engine yet and don’t know how to, and I’ve also heard the engine can be frustrating to use. So, now that I’ve downloaded GameMaker, I might soon start asking around for programmers to join in and help me actually make the game once I finish outlining the demo.
That’s all for now.
lOoK!!!!!!!!!!
