Kevin & Friends - Video Game
Developer: Ages Team
Publisher: @Papichi05
Director: @Papichi05
Series: Kevin & Friends - Video Game Series
Platform(s): Scratch, Gamejolt
Release: August 16th, 2020
Genre(s): Platform
Kevin & Friends - Video Game ("K&F VG" for short) is a basic platforming game developed by the Ages Team and published by Papichi05. It was the first game and installment for the Kevin & Friends - Video Game fandom. The game was released on August 16th, 2020, on Scratch and then February 9th, 2021, on GameJolt. The setting takes place as a Season-3-styled spinoff based on the Kevin & Friends series on YouTube. The plot follows Kevin, Mariela, and Sonic, in which they set off to defeat Trixie, an evil female magician who wishes to capture girls, enslaves them, and hypnotize them to scare off boys, or capture every orphan in the "Amous Base" and imprison them in a dark dungeon in Sin City.
The development for this game was completely restarted after a failure attempt to create a slope-detection platformer engine in the prototype build during October 2019. The prototype build contains a very basic startup screen, title, and transition which was all made by Papichi05 with no help from the other Ages Team members at all. The team members drastically lost interest of building the game and decided to develop a Sonic-hack-based game instead, which was Sonic 3 & Knuckles - Hard Bosses - Edition 2 - v400.0 - Demo, then another Sonic game, Sonic 2 - Master Edition 3 - Demo.
Kevin & Friends - Video Game did not receive any positive or negative reviews from Scratch or GameJolt combined, and it only received less than 200 views, so it is considered as an underrated game.
Plot
Kevin & Friends - Video Game takes place in a multi-trillion-dollar spaceship, which endlessly floats in the sky around North Pacific Ocean and North Atlantic Ocean, which is called the "Amous Base". The Amous Base is a giant community spaceship where millions of orphans live inside to have endless entertainment, activities, and survival. The orphans have all kinds of resources as much as a middle-class or high-class family, including electronic devices and access to the internet.
A few months after Trixie was summoned after an alien-like asteroid crashed into the earth's surface, she prepares herself for invasion. Flying into the Amous Base, she attempts to use her magic to hypnotize girls and enslaves them to scare off boys and then spread the fear worldwide. As fear is taking over, Kevin, Mariela, and Sonic steps in to stop the invasion. After the first fight inside the Amous Base, Trixie manages to escape, and initiates her plan B. Trixie's plan B is to fly up in Heaven and search for a magic star, in which if she gets her hands on it, she will dominate the entire world. Kevin, Mariela, and Sonic chases Trixie from the Amous Base to Western Island (Hill Top Zone), in which Trixie distracts them with evil entities. Once Kevin, Mariela, and Sonic reaches Heaven, Trixie was just a few miles away from the magic star, but the final fight caused a success to the 3 heroes as they defeated Trixie.
Returning to the Amous Base, Kevin, Mariela, and Sonic reversed the curse Trixie has casted on girls, and everything went back to normal.
Gameplay
The game uses very simple controls for the PC. Arrow keys are used to move around, and space bar to jump. The game also uses "video sensing", which allows the player to move one of their body parts around in front of the webcam to perform an attack. If the video sensing feature is turned off, the player must press Z to perform an attack.
The game contains a few graphical flaws from the program, and the team added the ability to add an R key, which the player must press to reset the background and the graphics.
Since the team is not program-skilled enough to make a good engine, they noticed that the player could run through walls, floors, and ceilings. So, they added red lines in certain spots of the level to prevent the player from running through. If the player touches the red line, the game will immediately stop with an illegal instruction code with a blue background based on SEGA's illegal instruction crash on Sonic the Hedgehog for the SEGA Genesis. If the player passes a zone and obtains a password, they can use that password to type it into the menu to continue where they left off.
Development
Development began sometime after the Sonic ROM hack remakes on Scratch. Kevin directed the team to start making a title screen first, then the menu, and Kevin will work on the characters and some level designs in the meantime.
Before the Sonic ROM hack remakes, a prototype build was being made with an intention to build an advanced slope detection engine. The prototype build includes a very basic title screen, with only Kevin and Mariela that is hand-drawn from the "Paint" tools. When the game starts, there are no playable levels, except some Kevin sprites, which different animations can be played when using the arrow keys. But due to technical limitations and multiple failure attempts to get the engine to work, the team gave up.
After a few successful tests on the title screen and a few sprites, the team compresses all of the work into a project. Kevin then decides to release an Alpha release, to let people know what the game will be like. The alpha release features a downgraded level, and Trixie infinitely attacks the player with no damage taken whatsoever. The alpha release also did not feature a full boss or 3 zones, the player is just stuck in one level with no verity or entertainment out of it.
After the alpha release, the team builds new zones. The girls worked on some background art, while the boys worked on level designs and boss concepts. Kevin did most of the programming, including the password/save system, which is a requirement for the game since it can crash purposely due to lack of wall detection.
Kevin directed a Heaven zone, which the team gets confused since it is mainly for eternal life and Trixie is a bad guy, which she is forbidden from entering. Kevin told them that Trixie is only entering heaven to get her hands on a magic star so she can use it to dominate the world. The team somewhat agreed to his idea and proceeds to develop the last zone.
After the last zone was completed, Kevin develops the last part of the game, which is the final cutscene, and the staff/credits roll. He even included his social media accounts, Agesite, and Discord on the credits roll.
After a few successful beta tests, the team feels confident to publish it. Kevin releases a trailer on Scratch and YouTube, then released the full game on Scratch by August 16th, 2020.