About Who Killed the Dinosaurs?

A father's bed time story quickly gets derrailed after his young daughter tentatively asks him "who killed the dinosaurs?" What appears to be a simple question, with a simple answer, turns out to be a lot more complicated as the daughter is too saddened by the truth. Thus, in order to console his daughter, the father begins spinning the truth of what happened in surreal, imaginative, and comical ways.

In this hand-drawn, storybook style 2D adventure, you play as the last remaining dinosaur attempting to outrun its inevitable death. As the dinosaur travels through this surreal world, they are confronted with obstacles that can only be avoided by drawing on the pages to change the narrative.

This is my current passion project, and is still a work in process.

I am using Godot, and currently all assets are self-made usign InkScape

Game Mechanics:

Drawing:

In addition to controlling the dinsoaurs movement, the player can use their mouse to draw solid lines on the screen. These lines can act like barriers to block objects, or platforms for the dinosaur to avoid hazards. In order to make this mechanic a little more interesting, and nuanced, in level designs, I gave these lines that are drawn three states. The first state is when the line is immediately drawn. In this state, the line is solid and unmoving. However, once you start drawing a seocnd line on the screen, the line you had previously drawn transitions to its second state. In this state, the line is affected by gravity. Thus it will fall to the ground, and if the dinosaur was trying to use it as a safe platform, the dinosaur will fall as well. Finally, after a third line is drawn, the first line that you drew (that is now in its second state) will disappear from the scene.

Hazards:

This game is centered around hazards that the dinosaur must avoid, and thus this is a central part of the game design process. The first hazard that the dinosaur comes across is, as expected, the asteroid. However, as the game progresses, hazards become less linear including a western shootout, and one very determined banana peel.

Narrative:

In working on the narrative of this game I am primarily focused on how to tackle a rather dark topic, death and grief, in a lighthearted and manageable way. Thus, in writing this story I am focusing on dialogue and scenes that created a nuanced experience with a diversity of emotions.