Production Diary: The Making of Dirk Dashing

Game Concept

Game Animation

Game Scenery

Game Engine

Game Music and Sounds

Game Levels

Fine-Tooning the Game

Fine-Tooning the Game

Although the hand-drawn animation and hand-painted backgrounds look great, we realized it wouldn't be enough to provide a unique gaming experience.  Our goal was to create a game that felt like an interactive cartoon, and for that to happen, we needed to add an interesting variety of cartoon elements to the game play.

We spent months overdosing on cartoon shows, studying them to learn what elements make an entertaining cartoon.  From the beginning, it was apparent to us that, if we were going to pull this off successfully, the player needed to be directly involved in the cartoon interactions.  In other words, the cartoon aspect of the game had to be more than just something the player watched - the player had to be able to participate in it, and even have the freedom to initiate it.

From this realization, we developed the following guidelines for developing cartoon interactions in the game:

1. The player must have the ability to set up a cartoon gag on demand and make it happen.
2. Setting up cartoon gags must feel natural to the player, without any clumsy interfaces or break in the flow of the game.  It must be an integral part of the game play.
3. The game must provide a wide variety of cartoon gags for the player to discover and use.

Based on our study of popular cartoon shows, we sat down with our list of guidelines and brainstormed ideas.  We came up with a number of ways that the player could use the game environment to his advantage.  Given the right elements in the game environment, the player can set up a cartoon gag and make it happen.

Here is an example taken directly from the game.  In this situation, Dirk is being chased by an E.V.I.L. henchman.  He could just turn and toss a grenade at the villain, but what fun would that be?

As the player moves Dirk across the screen, he comes to a wall and can run no further.  At this point, the player has all the ingredients needed to set up a cartoon gag: a wall and a rather dumb bad guy.  Let's see if we can trick the bad guy into running into the wall.

In the screenshot above, Dirk stands in front the wall while the bad guy runs toward him.  At the last moment, Dirk jumps over the bad guy.

The bad guy runs past Dirk and slams into the wall.

Congratulations!  He's out cold!  Dirk saves a grenade by letting the bad guy knock himself out, and the player is treated to an entertaining cartoon gag.

Each cartoon gag in the game has a set of "ingredients" - conditions that are required for the player to trigger a cartoon gag.  When the player recognizes these conditions are present in a given scene, he can set up the cartoon gag and try to execute it.

We've added numerous cartoon gags to the game, and we encourage players to experiment!