A downloadable game for Windows

Author's note: This is a prototype game meant to be made for an assignment. There are certain things, such as musics, assets, etc that belonged to other people that we've used for our project. For instance, Galaxytrail for the music and assets and LeiYunWolfie for their remix on Freedom Planet's ost: Relic Maze. All the assets used in this project are under fair use and mainly used for educational purposes only. With that stated, we will not receive any form of profit out of this project and will refuse to. I will remove said assets if it is requested by the people that I have mentioned or at some point in the future if this game were to ever be set for a full development. And yes, I will eventually plan to release this game WITH all copyrighted assets removed.

Far into the distant lands of trees and ancient statues, a sudden mix of foreign metal had been seen sweeping into the uninhabited forest, along with accompanying baddies. Seen as an enviromental concern, a group of heroes had been dispatched to look into the situation. Of course, they've received more than what they've bargained for when an old enemy reveals himself!

D-Drive: Operation Eleutheria is a fast paced 2D platformer. The game takes inspirations from Freedom Planet, a legendary Sonic fangame turned original. In D-Drive OE, you run, shoot and beat up robo baddies and what not as Denise the Fox, or any other characters available! Your task is to free the once uninhabited forest of Eleutheria from the clutches of an evil man, and apparently he and Denise has history! Can Denise and her friends free the forest of Eleutheria? Or will this evil nemesis end up executing his plans of taking over the world?

Author's Note: The development of D-Drive took 7/9 weeks to make. So here will be the list of stuff (characters, concept, layouts, drafts, etc) that we've compiled for you all to see ^^

I will list down 3 sections coming from 3 members and show exactly what they've given input on or their concepts to the project.

Muhammad Danial Rafi'e Bin Muhammad Dini (99902)'s Section

Character Design

"For the first character concert, I want to create a character base on one of monster from Japanese character which is Ghidorah, a monster with 3 head. But now we change our game concept so I have to change my character that look more like machine and a hybrid look with a living thing. For a second design I got a approval from lecturer but I have too simplify it more"

Sprite Sheet for said characters

(Boss sprite sheet)

(Minion sprite sheet)

Concept Development

- first of all, I made and Environment base on futuristic timeline. But after few discussions, when we briefed about our concept game I changed my environment into a city that facing pollution

Mohammad Wafiy Bin Kamaludin (99807) a.k.a, LeWafflez

The idea of D-Drive came personally from me. It was an idea I had for a long time even before I went to Unimas, especially the characters that I made for the game, Denise and Gadget. Speaking about that tho, Daniel and Pie have of course done their part of the contributions so I wanted to went ahead and post some things I've had in mind for the game. D-Drive is mainly inspired by the sonic franchise, but it also has some inspirations taken from Freedom Planet, a sonic fangame turned original.

To start off, let's go with the initial sketch ideas!

Sketching the concept for the game

I first started with this small sketch here of what I imagine the game's characters would look like (I was initially planning to work on this game alone, but decided to form a group instead)

As you can see, everyone here is designed by me, but of course the only thing that did made it into the final game is my oc Denise. Instead of my designs, we decided to use Danial's designs as the enemy robot.

This is a sketch of what I imagined the UI would look like

This is my initial plan for our game level. It is meant to be similar to that of a classic style 2d Sonic game (Specifically, Sonic 3 and Sonic Mania), where the character has to go through 2 phases of a single stage. This is what I imagined our first and second level should look like. But due to constraints and the fact that we're pretty inexperienced with Godot, we had to abandon the level system TwT

There was also the idea of adding novel style cutscenes for the game, supposedly taking place before the first level. But that too had to be scrapped in favour of completing the project before the deadline. It's such a shame too cause I really wanted the cutscenes to work but oh well, can't be too ambitious.

Perhaps at some point I'll actually implement cutscenes and the previously mentioned sonic 3 style level system when I start developing the game in my free time.

Concept Ideas and Game Layout

Now let the actual presentation begin. I started my sketches as soon as we were given the greenlight by our lecturer to proceed with the project. I consulted with my mates on the concept of nature trying to gain freedom from metal, which is why I named this game, Operation Eleutheria. Eleutheria is a greek word that translates to liberty, or more obvious, Freedom. So with that in mind, the game would be set deep into the forest. The forest was meant to be an uninhabited area, at least until the villain showed up and 'metalized' parts of the forest. It's up to our main group of heroes to save the day of course UwU

So let's start of with the location

We've discussed amongst ourselves that the first level should be an almost virgin forest with a few ancient artifacts left here and there. This shows that the first level, at least that part of the forest is still left untouched. The players should be able to look at how harmonious the forest is without any sort of intervention from those of sentient mind. Then there's the second level, where we get to see the same forest, but is now covered in metal. The second level is meant to be a twist surprises given to the player, to show them how serious the situation is getting. The forest had became a wasteland of metal and pollution, which in turn causes the forest to lose it's charm and beauty. The second level will obviously be filled with man made platforms and obstacles, and the enemies are meant to show up frequently. The trees are covered with metallic contraptions and the surrounding areas will have factories and man made structures everywhere.

Sketches of the first level

The first level takes place in a seemingly undisturbed part of the forest. The whole concept of the first level is to show the grand beauty of the Eleutherian forest, seemingly without the interference of man. Fewer enemies would show up in this level as well as lesser danger. Makes it feel like a stroll in the park. The level terrain would be unpredictable, with lots of hill tops and cliffs to travel through, so the real threat to this level is the location itself.

Sketches of the second level

This is where it starts getting more intense. The second level takes place in the same forest. Only this time, that part of the forest has been taken over by metal as well as
robotic enemies as well
Game layout concept for Level 1

Now, this is not part of the game but rather, an illustration of what the first level could look like. Each layer has a different saturation of blue to give people the exact distance of each layer in the picture. The first game layout features a calm, mesmerizing view for the players to look at as they travel through the first level. I want the players of the game to look at the first level to look in awe of how lovely and beautiful the forest is. Cause eventually the players will have to go through a screwed up version of the forest in level 2

Game layout concept for Level 2

For the second layout, we can see that the Eleutherian Forest is in a state of chaos. Metal has been placed on the trees and the background is replaced with a haze of flames from behind where players can see what looks to be the silhouette of an industrialized place with bigger, more threathening robots roaming across the hellscape. This was a last minute change instead of my original plan to use the previous level's background, only to put a bunch of man made structures on it. I went with this change cause I wanted a shift in the previous situation where everything is calm and mysterious but is now chaotic and ravaged. The music that I used for this part of the level is LeiYunWolfie's rock remix of Relic Maze.

The reason why I chosed this song is because I wanted the player to have a sense of urgency as they work through this level. A much more, intense rendition of the calmer original Relic Maze would make this level much more intense to play through, urging the player to quickly jolt to the end to save the currently ravaging Eleutherian forest.

Character development and ideas

As I mentioned before, Denise and Gadget are ocs of mine made way before I entered Unimas as well as the main cast of the D-Drive lore. Through guidance from my lecturer, I was able to do a lot of improvements and modifications for my ocs to fit the game itself. Now will I type out their backstory or who they are? Maybe a bit once I show the full ref

This is Denise. She's my personal oc and the darling main character of D-Drive. I've been holding on to her ever since 2016 and have been redesigning her since then. Denise is a spunky, outgoing, cheery and sometimes ditzy gal who can sometimes be as mischievous as well, a fox! Which is why I decided to keep her as a fox. (She was originally a Pokemon called Dewott and while I do have sketches of her before her fox transformation, it'll take a while for me to rumage through my books TwT) People call her an airhead cause they assumed that she's dumb and stupid (due to her ditzy, almost wreckless personality) but has the bravery of a beast when in battle. Apart from being a well renowned hero and protector of her country, Leamvox, she's also Leamvox's most adored idol. Which is where her cute side shines the most UwU.

Denise mainly uses the D-Drive system, which is a momentum based booster set that allows her to run at high speeds. They act similar to the Air shoes worn by Shadow the Hedgehog. The booster system is also made of titanium metal, described as light and strong, which is perfect enough for Denise to fight against any sort of enemy.

Then we have Gadget. Gadget is an oc that I made for Denise to have a partner with (Possibly around 2019-2020) Originally she donned a mechanic's jumpsuit but I decided to give her a more modernized look. She is a lovable, smart and most times, cheery girl who'd be willing too help people if it makes them happy, but at times she can also be pretty shy at certain things. She is also very intelligent, being the brains behind some of Denise's gizmos and weapons as well as the orchestrating mastermind behind some strategies Denise would often employ against their enemies. Gadget is a rather, supportive ally and she would sometimes stray away from most of Denise's battles, giving her intel and advice on certain things while Denise is on the job instead. She has joined in on some of Denise's battles but she would resort to using her Feline Fighter/Cat Copter to bring air support for Denise

That is at least up until recently. After some training with Denise and her father, Gadget is now able to fight in hand to hand combat. As a cat, she's naturally pretty high on reflexes and agility, which can surpass even her partner Denise who's known to be fast. She fights with her gadgets and her Cat drones, making her pretty difficult to take down in a fight.

Selfie UwU

(Don't they look adorable UwU) These are pictures of Denise and Gadget before their Eleutherian redesign. I was told that while both look distinct colourwise, they both seem to share similar designs especially if blackened out as a silhouette. People won't be able to tell the differences from one another if it's just theiir silhouttes showing so I had to give them some redesigns. So let's talk about that hall we?

I started out by sketching both characters on paper. Denise is given minor changes to her looks cause I wanted her to retain some of the key features of her design, especially things like hairstyles and outfit colour as well as a few other details. What I did had change was her outfit. Instead of the standard black tracksuit that she wore in most depictions, I gave her outfit a bit of a modern look as well as a few initials here and there to represent entities that supports her.

Gadget went through a major glowup compared to Denise. What is being shown on sketch right now is her 'battle mode' gear. Staying true to her name, I gave Gadget some well, gadgets! This is so I can completely give her a different design silhouette wise. Things that I managed to keep for Gadget would be her pilot suit, her jacket and her head bow.

I gave Gadget a completely new Hairstyle. This is so that her hair would look differentiate between her and Denise. Of course the bow stays on UwU

Denise and Gadget still retain most of their previous colour palettes. Denise is mainly unaltered except for a few modifications. For instance, her combat suit has a now modern look that complements her previous design The VIX logo on her side thighs are meant to represent her mother's tech company that supplies her and Gadget with the parts they need.

Of course most of Gadget's colours remain unaltered except for the new arm and eg guards she's currently wearing . Her new gear would be merely based on her current outfit with green highlights to not only retain her palette but to also improve her looks. The most challenging for me would be to create her new gear since this is an entirely new thing I designed for her, But I'm satisfied with how she looks UwU

I might have her fight without her gear for most of the time tho but I will keep the new hairstyle for her.

And now here's the character refs ^^

Eleutherian Denise

(Due to Itch.io's limits I had to lower the quality a little. click the picture to see the full resolution of the character refs )^^

Idle sprites

Jumping sprites

Landing sprites

Running sprites

Cut sprite: Ball sprite

Eleutherian Gadget

Cut sprite: Gadget Cutscnenes

Since we decided that Denise is will be the only person playable, I didn't give Gadget her own player sprites. However, I did made some sprites for what was supposed to be her cutscene sprites ^^

Bonus content! (As well as cut content from my end)

While we were polishing our game, I've got a little bit of time to do this cover art for game. It features Denise, Gadget as well as a few a third character battling against Daniel's X-100. I've had a lot of help from some other friends over on the furry community on compositions as well as saturations to this piture in order to make it work. Personally, I believe that this cover art could do with some more improvements, but I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out UwU

We ended up using this picture here for the front menu, just a last minute effort to make this game seem a little more put together. Hopefully I can remember about this game later in the future and eventually try to create more content or finish what we didn't implement.

Cut/Considered Character: Bonnie the Bunny

I've had some thoughts on including a third character to the roster, Bonnie the Bunny. She is a white rabbit with pink eyes that was also cut from a previous comic I made based on D-Drive (Which is actually also a final semester assignment). Bonnie is a rather, chill and at times, mature bunny who takes pleasure in doing things her way. She is an athletic bunny who works as the lifeguard at a grand Leamvoxian beach called the Palazzo Dei Partigiani. She's got quite the fanbase at the beach of course, thanks to her beauty. But don't let that doll face of a bunny deceive you! Also once a renowned police officer, Bonnie is a very skilled fighter, sometimes surpassing even Denise and Gadget as well as a sharp dual shooter, carrying her 9mm Bunny Busters.

Bonnie is actually not meant to be a character for the D-Drive lore, originally an oc for a different lore idea I have, but due to circumstances I decided to have her in for convenience. Her main skill would be jumping high as well as being the only shooter in the roster. I mean sure, there's Gadget who can summon drones at will and the drones do the shooting for her. But with Bonnie, players get to fire projectiles at enemies at will. But due to the problems we were facing we had to mainly focus just on Denise. I had Gadget as the second character for our assignment to fill the quota, but I didn't want to leave Bonnie unnoticed, so I decided to have her in the cover art.

Bonnie in the previous comic assignment with the 4th member of the Vigilante Gurls, Officer Xian Fei. But I had no absolute plan to include Ms Fei into the game so there's no new sketches of her yet. I might include her once the game gets revisited.

Cut antagonist: Dr Mercury

Now let's discuss a character that should've made the cut but I decided not to include. Meet Dr Mercury, Denise's arch nemesis. Think of Dr Eggman and And Lord Brevon (Freedom Planet) combined, and you get this handsome evil doer. Dr Mercury is a human scientist and warlord who wishes to control not just Leamvox, but the entire world. Coming from a neighbouring bunker planet, Dr Mercury came back to Earth in order to see exactly what the earth had looked like after humans had left it after an apocolyptic war (that took place 2000 years ago). He is disgusted to find out that the anima, once a race of slaves created by humanity had taken control over the planet since their absence. He may seem like the type of villain that would show up on a Saturday morning cartoon but don't be fooled by his seemingly laughable personality. Dr Merc was responsible for lots and I mean LOTS of horrific war crimes, and he'd definitely do it again if it weren't for Denise who's always one step ahead in stopping his heinous plans, as well as other figurehead vigilantes like Officer Xian and a few others.

Just like Bonnie, he was meant to show up in the comic assignment, notably as the guy piloting the giant robot in the final page. His role in the game would definitely be the main antagonist, as he is responsible for the Eleutherian Forest's deforestation. His reasons are unclear, but definitely under interests of the Vigilante Gurls that they had to investigate his presence at the once uninhabited forest. I was going to also have him show up in a cutscene but just as I mentioned, we never had the time to make cutscenes so he was definitely cut from the game. If I were to ever revisit the game, he's definitely going to be in it

And I believe that's it for my part UwU Before you go my next mate's page, here's a Gadget doing normal cat things.