devblog#1: the genesis of Boy's Quest
Sep. 23rd, 2025 12:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
f0rrestFor the past few months, I’ve been toying around with the idea of making a role-playing game with RPG Maker. This is something I’ve tried once or twice in the past, with varying degrees of progress, yet I always ended up getting distracted, moving on to other things. This time will likely be no different, but that’s not going to stop me from trying, again.
The idea came to me months ago when I was watching my son play in the living room. He’s always been fascinated by long, sword-like things, the swiffer-duster thing being a favorite of his. We always kept the swiffer-duster thing on a high rack above the washer and dryer, and my son knew that, so he would push stools and boxes and things up to the washer and dryer, then position himself dangerously on the stack of these wobbly things, then climb up and grab the swiffer-duster thing, then run around with it, smacking anyone he could find, all while making cute little battle noises. And one time, he fell from the perilously stacked boxes and hurt himself pretty bad, so my wife and I found a new place to hide the swiffer-duster thing, deciding on this thin space between the cushions of our big green couch, thinking that surely the boy would never find it there.
But, of course, we were wrong. And one day, as I was walking through the living room, I saw my son digging through the couch cushions, looking for some lost toy or other, and he paused for a second, looked back at me with this mischievous look on his face, then slowly slid the swiffer-duster thing out from between the cushions, as if he were pulling the sword from the stone, and then he held the thing above his head for a moment, like Link after opening a treasure chest, before running all throughout the house smacking everyone with the thing while making cute little battle noises, at which point we had to find a new hiding place for the swiffer-duster thing, a place so hidden I now have no idea where the thing actually is anymore.
Anyway. The whole thing put this idea in my head of like, what if, upon pulling that swiffer-duster thing out of the cushion, instead of a swiffer-duster thing, it was actually a sword, and all of a sudden, upon pulling that sword out of the couch, instead of being in the real world, my son was now in some fantasy, video-game-like world, where the normal everyday stuff he interacted with on a daily basis was now like walking and talking and being all anthropomorphic? And then I thought, what if, hypothetically, a boy who was neglected by his parents, not that I neglect my son or anything, but what if, what if a boy concocted this fantasy world in his head, because he was so starved for attention due to his parents’ neglect, what if he concocted this fantasy world and sort of like dissociated from the real world to live in this fantasy world, all so he wouldn't have to deal with the confusing pain caused by his parents' neglect, and then I started thinking like, how exactly would that all play out?
And that’s when the idea of “Arthur’s Quest” came to me, which eventually I started calling “The Boy’s Quest,” to sort of distance it from my own life and make it more relatable to a potential player, until eventually I changed the name once more, to “Boy’s Quest,” because I didn’t like the “The” in the title, for flow-related reasons, thinking it made the game’s title a little too awkward and unwieldy to say out loud.
So that’s what I’ve been doing for the past few days, using RPG Maker MV, writing and programming “Boy’s Quest,” a game that will likely never manifest into anything more than yet another incomplete project amongst hundreds of other incomplete projects, but hey at least I’m having fun, for the time being. And I do have the general story overview, main character descriptions, and first scene already mapped out, in a “script” document I've been keeping, and I’m going to share that, and future progress, occasionally, in these “devblog” entries, and I’m only calling these entries “devblogs” because it gets the point across, I’m not actually a developer or anything, as I have absolutely zero experience in real-game coding, RPG Maker being sort of like a drag-and-drop, just-fucking-do-it-for-me kind of game-making tool that I suspect real game developers scoff at and look down upon, and I'm using stolen assets to make the beta version of the game, but hey I’m having fun, at least for the time being.
Anyway, that whole ramble up there was really just a preface to share with you some of the progress I've made, so here's a general overview of the game's plot and a description of some of the main characters.
Overview
This is the story of a boy. A boy who is six years old. A boy who lives in a quiet suburb called Goose Creek. A boy who loves comic books and toys and Final Fantasy and cats and birds. A boy whose parents are too busy working or staring at screens to notice him. This is the story of a boy who longs for nothing more than to live in a world of fantasy, of swords and sorcery and talking animals of all kinds. This is the story of what happens when that boy’s wishes come true.
Characters
The Boy:
The main character. His name can be customized by the player, although he defaults to “Boy.” He is six years old and has orange hair. He lives with his mom and dad in a modern middle-class suburb named Goose Creek. His parents, preoccupied with work, hobbies, phones, and digital entertainment, do not spend much time with him. His interests include fantasy cartoons, samurai anime, video games (particularly his Game Boy Color, which is a hand-me-down from his dad), birds, toys, and playing outside with his best friend, who also happens to be his rival. The Boy possesses a strong sense of right and wrong, but he is also naive and guileless, his blunt honesty often landing him smack dab in the middle of trouble. In combat, he uses sticks and swords and is naturally gifted with fire, holy, and fortification magicks.
Dame Quillvy:
A goose The Boy meets upon entering Gooseland. She was once a soldier for the Gooseland Empire but has since defected for personal, ethical reasons. She is serious about chivalry, honor, and doing the right thing, and she defies many of the standard goose-gender norms. She is often the voice of reason and wisdom within The Boy’s party. She is proficient with spears and skilled in water, wind, and healing magicks.
Shanks the Cat:
The Boy’s family cat, a Maine Coon with dark and tan fur. In Goose Creek, Shanks is a normal house cat, often staring longingly out the glass door, waiting for someone to open it so he can escape outside, where he spends hours roaming the neighborhood until inevitably returning home for food and ear rubs. In Gooseland, he is a local menace, a thief who at some point gets captured by the Gooseland Empire and thrown in prison. Shanks is clever, sarcastic, and rarely takes life seriously, which often annoys those around him, especially Quillvy, yet occasionally he can be surprisingly deep and insightful. In combat, he uses his claws and is skilled with earth, profane, and debilitation magicks.
The Rival:
A six-year-old boy with dark hair and a bad temper. He is the only character besides The Boy who can be named by the player, although he defaults to “Rival.” In Goose Creek, The Rival lives only a few houses down from The Boy, and as one of the few children in the neighborhood within The Boy’s age range, he spends a lot of time playing outside with The Boy, where they pretend they’re in video games and play-fight, which often leads to real fights about who gets to be the main character. The Rival often says cruel things and threatens to beat The Boy up when upset, but he never follows through with his threats. In Gooseland, The Rival is aligned with The Duchy of Duckland, a rebel group seeking to liberate the land from the Gooseland Empire. The Rival serves as The Boy’s dark foil, leading his own party of adventurers, each of whom serves as a dark foil to The Boy’s party members, yet despite this, The Rival’s goals often mirror The Boy’s, although his methods of achieving those goals are cruel and violent. Throughout the game, The Rival often shows up at the worst times, attempting to hog The Boy’s spotlight or challenge him to a duel, all to prove that he’s the greatest warrior in Gooseland. In combat, he uses sticks and swords and is naturally gifted with water, profane, and debilitation magicks.
Waddlesbert:
A ruthless knight of The Duchy of Duckland. He is part of The Rival’s party, serving as a foil to Dame Quillvy. He is a muscovy duck with a mixture of white and black plumage. From birth, he had known only the oppression of the Gooseland Empire, which has turned him into an anti-Goose extremist, viewing all geese as monsters and showing no mercy to geese or anyone who helps them. Although his methods are merciless, he always gives his opponents a chance to defend themselves, never resorting to dishonest tactics in battle, as he places high value on valor and “The Art of the Duel,” values he believes geese do not share. In combat, he uses a spear and is skilled in fire, holy, and healing magicks.
Dogamota:
An Alaskan Malamute who closely resembles The Rival’s dog from Goose Creek. In Goose Creek, he was usually chained to a tree in The Rival’s yard, but he would often violently break free whenever Shanks passed by, chasing the poor cat down the street, all without ever making a single bark. In Gooseland, Dogamota had once been a samurai serving the Howling Moon Clan, but once The Rival showed up, he abandoned his former master to follow his new master, The Rival. Dogamota has many scars from a long, storied history of battle, with one of his eyes missing entirely, replaced by a single blade scar. His inner thoughts, feelings, and motivations are a mystery, as he barely ever speaks, but he seems to take everything very seriously, which puts him at odds with Shanks the Cat, who takes nothing seriously. In battle, Dogamota uses a katana and is skilled in earth, fortification, and debilitation magicks.
The next devblog entry will likely be an overview of the first scene, including the script and a short video of said scene playing in-engine, something that is already about 90% of the way done.
The idea came to me months ago when I was watching my son play in the living room. He’s always been fascinated by long, sword-like things, the swiffer-duster thing being a favorite of his. We always kept the swiffer-duster thing on a high rack above the washer and dryer, and my son knew that, so he would push stools and boxes and things up to the washer and dryer, then position himself dangerously on the stack of these wobbly things, then climb up and grab the swiffer-duster thing, then run around with it, smacking anyone he could find, all while making cute little battle noises. And one time, he fell from the perilously stacked boxes and hurt himself pretty bad, so my wife and I found a new place to hide the swiffer-duster thing, deciding on this thin space between the cushions of our big green couch, thinking that surely the boy would never find it there.
But, of course, we were wrong. And one day, as I was walking through the living room, I saw my son digging through the couch cushions, looking for some lost toy or other, and he paused for a second, looked back at me with this mischievous look on his face, then slowly slid the swiffer-duster thing out from between the cushions, as if he were pulling the sword from the stone, and then he held the thing above his head for a moment, like Link after opening a treasure chest, before running all throughout the house smacking everyone with the thing while making cute little battle noises, at which point we had to find a new hiding place for the swiffer-duster thing, a place so hidden I now have no idea where the thing actually is anymore.
Anyway. The whole thing put this idea in my head of like, what if, upon pulling that swiffer-duster thing out of the cushion, instead of a swiffer-duster thing, it was actually a sword, and all of a sudden, upon pulling that sword out of the couch, instead of being in the real world, my son was now in some fantasy, video-game-like world, where the normal everyday stuff he interacted with on a daily basis was now like walking and talking and being all anthropomorphic? And then I thought, what if, hypothetically, a boy who was neglected by his parents, not that I neglect my son or anything, but what if, what if a boy concocted this fantasy world in his head, because he was so starved for attention due to his parents’ neglect, what if he concocted this fantasy world and sort of like dissociated from the real world to live in this fantasy world, all so he wouldn't have to deal with the confusing pain caused by his parents' neglect, and then I started thinking like, how exactly would that all play out?
And that’s when the idea of “Arthur’s Quest” came to me, which eventually I started calling “The Boy’s Quest,” to sort of distance it from my own life and make it more relatable to a potential player, until eventually I changed the name once more, to “Boy’s Quest,” because I didn’t like the “The” in the title, for flow-related reasons, thinking it made the game’s title a little too awkward and unwieldy to say out loud.
So that’s what I’ve been doing for the past few days, using RPG Maker MV, writing and programming “Boy’s Quest,” a game that will likely never manifest into anything more than yet another incomplete project amongst hundreds of other incomplete projects, but hey at least I’m having fun, for the time being. And I do have the general story overview, main character descriptions, and first scene already mapped out, in a “script” document I've been keeping, and I’m going to share that, and future progress, occasionally, in these “devblog” entries, and I’m only calling these entries “devblogs” because it gets the point across, I’m not actually a developer or anything, as I have absolutely zero experience in real-game coding, RPG Maker being sort of like a drag-and-drop, just-fucking-do-it-for-me kind of game-making tool that I suspect real game developers scoff at and look down upon, and I'm using stolen assets to make the beta version of the game, but hey I’m having fun, at least for the time being.
Anyway, that whole ramble up there was really just a preface to share with you some of the progress I've made, so here's a general overview of the game's plot and a description of some of the main characters.
Overview
This is the story of a boy. A boy who is six years old. A boy who lives in a quiet suburb called Goose Creek. A boy who loves comic books and toys and Final Fantasy and cats and birds. A boy whose parents are too busy working or staring at screens to notice him. This is the story of a boy who longs for nothing more than to live in a world of fantasy, of swords and sorcery and talking animals of all kinds. This is the story of what happens when that boy’s wishes come true.
Characters
The Boy:
The main character. His name can be customized by the player, although he defaults to “Boy.” He is six years old and has orange hair. He lives with his mom and dad in a modern middle-class suburb named Goose Creek. His parents, preoccupied with work, hobbies, phones, and digital entertainment, do not spend much time with him. His interests include fantasy cartoons, samurai anime, video games (particularly his Game Boy Color, which is a hand-me-down from his dad), birds, toys, and playing outside with his best friend, who also happens to be his rival. The Boy possesses a strong sense of right and wrong, but he is also naive and guileless, his blunt honesty often landing him smack dab in the middle of trouble. In combat, he uses sticks and swords and is naturally gifted with fire, holy, and fortification magicks.
Dame Quillvy:
A goose The Boy meets upon entering Gooseland. She was once a soldier for the Gooseland Empire but has since defected for personal, ethical reasons. She is serious about chivalry, honor, and doing the right thing, and she defies many of the standard goose-gender norms. She is often the voice of reason and wisdom within The Boy’s party. She is proficient with spears and skilled in water, wind, and healing magicks.
Shanks the Cat:
The Boy’s family cat, a Maine Coon with dark and tan fur. In Goose Creek, Shanks is a normal house cat, often staring longingly out the glass door, waiting for someone to open it so he can escape outside, where he spends hours roaming the neighborhood until inevitably returning home for food and ear rubs. In Gooseland, he is a local menace, a thief who at some point gets captured by the Gooseland Empire and thrown in prison. Shanks is clever, sarcastic, and rarely takes life seriously, which often annoys those around him, especially Quillvy, yet occasionally he can be surprisingly deep and insightful. In combat, he uses his claws and is skilled with earth, profane, and debilitation magicks.
The Rival:
A six-year-old boy with dark hair and a bad temper. He is the only character besides The Boy who can be named by the player, although he defaults to “Rival.” In Goose Creek, The Rival lives only a few houses down from The Boy, and as one of the few children in the neighborhood within The Boy’s age range, he spends a lot of time playing outside with The Boy, where they pretend they’re in video games and play-fight, which often leads to real fights about who gets to be the main character. The Rival often says cruel things and threatens to beat The Boy up when upset, but he never follows through with his threats. In Gooseland, The Rival is aligned with The Duchy of Duckland, a rebel group seeking to liberate the land from the Gooseland Empire. The Rival serves as The Boy’s dark foil, leading his own party of adventurers, each of whom serves as a dark foil to The Boy’s party members, yet despite this, The Rival’s goals often mirror The Boy’s, although his methods of achieving those goals are cruel and violent. Throughout the game, The Rival often shows up at the worst times, attempting to hog The Boy’s spotlight or challenge him to a duel, all to prove that he’s the greatest warrior in Gooseland. In combat, he uses sticks and swords and is naturally gifted with water, profane, and debilitation magicks.
Waddlesbert:
A ruthless knight of The Duchy of Duckland. He is part of The Rival’s party, serving as a foil to Dame Quillvy. He is a muscovy duck with a mixture of white and black plumage. From birth, he had known only the oppression of the Gooseland Empire, which has turned him into an anti-Goose extremist, viewing all geese as monsters and showing no mercy to geese or anyone who helps them. Although his methods are merciless, he always gives his opponents a chance to defend themselves, never resorting to dishonest tactics in battle, as he places high value on valor and “The Art of the Duel,” values he believes geese do not share. In combat, he uses a spear and is skilled in fire, holy, and healing magicks.
Dogamota:
An Alaskan Malamute who closely resembles The Rival’s dog from Goose Creek. In Goose Creek, he was usually chained to a tree in The Rival’s yard, but he would often violently break free whenever Shanks passed by, chasing the poor cat down the street, all without ever making a single bark. In Gooseland, Dogamota had once been a samurai serving the Howling Moon Clan, but once The Rival showed up, he abandoned his former master to follow his new master, The Rival. Dogamota has many scars from a long, storied history of battle, with one of his eyes missing entirely, replaced by a single blade scar. His inner thoughts, feelings, and motivations are a mystery, as he barely ever speaks, but he seems to take everything very seriously, which puts him at odds with Shanks the Cat, who takes nothing seriously. In battle, Dogamota uses a katana and is skilled in earth, fortification, and debilitation magicks.
The next devblog entry will likely be an overview of the first scene, including the script and a short video of said scene playing in-engine, something that is already about 90% of the way done.
no subject
Date: 2025-09-26 01:44 pm (UTC)The one thing that snagged me was the mention of Final Fantasy. Do six-year-olds like Final Fantasy? We're talking first graders here. Like eight or nine, I could believe, but six? But maybe so? Things drift down, age-wise when they've been around for a while. Like Zelda, Link, I can believe! But Final Fantasy just felt like a stretch to me. But everything else about the characters and setting feels right for a six-year-old, and you have an actual, verified little kid in your life, so I'm probably just out of touch.
Question: How come you guys don't want your son to get the swiffer? Is it that he'll knock stuff down? ... It's probably that, huh.
no subject
Date: 2025-09-26 02:58 pm (UTC)You're right, probably, about Final Fantasy, perhaps too advanced. Of course this is a draft, so I'm open to feedback, especially yours. Final Fantasy Adventure, for the Game Boy, however, is actually a pseudo-Zelda clone, so it could work, and that's actually the game I chose to be in the Game Boy that's in The Boy's room at the beginning of the game, but I'm now realizing, due to the content of that game, that it conflicts with certain other elements that are present in both my concept and more traditional Final Fantasys which my game is loosely based on.
I chose Final Fantasy because I wanted a justification for the fantasy world and the battle system, which is turn-based, and of course Final Fantasy is my own inspiration for wanting to make an RPG, so I wanted that homage or whatever to be there.
Anti-swiffer because my wife is anal about this stuff. I don't actually care. I am actually fairly loose in my parenting style and outlook on life in general, which often conflicts with my wife's parenting style and outlook on things, which often leads to disagreements, but I suppose that's a common balance thing most nuclear families deal with.
no subject
Date: 2025-09-26 03:07 pm (UTC)Yeah, if the other parent has a thing they really care about and you don't care, and if you don't mind going along with it--definitely I've done that too. As my sister says, if it floats their boat and doesn't sink yours. Is it that she doesn't want him playing with the swiffer in particular (e.g., because it's a cleaning tool), or that she doesn't want him bashing things with a sword substitute? ... Although now, the thrill of outwitting you guys and discovering the hidden swiffer is probably as much fun as actually playing with the swiffer itself.
no subject
Date: 2025-09-26 03:10 pm (UTC)I think it's mostly because he has a habit of pretty much breaking anything he touches.
no subject
Date: 2025-09-26 03:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-17 04:46 am (UTC)https://retroandreformed.netlify.app/projects
You will see that I have a game I made a decade ago in RPG Maker VX-Ace. I haven't tested the download or if it runs properly because I haven't had another person interested. If you wanna download it and see if it works and give it a go, feel free to try it and give me feedback.
It's a quirky game about the Melbourne Australia Eastern Suburbs in a silly apocalypse. But it does do some cool stuff to push the RPG Maker engine to its limits.
If you ever make a game, I'd be keen to try it.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-17 02:28 pm (UTC)If I get some free time, I'll check it out. Thank you.