Stick the Quick

Pronouns

they/them/theirs

Age

22

Species

anthro beaver

Home

B City Wildlife Reserve

Likes

parkour, building dams

Dislikes

littering, people with "no chill"

Signature abilities

high speed, stick-based acrobatics, building stuff out of sticks

Bio

Stick is the wildlife reserve's resident parkour junkie. They aren't "the fastest thing alive" or anything, unlike a certain other cartoon animal, but they fancy themself a fairly fast runner. Their friends and neighbors tend to think so as well, hence their nickname "Stick the Quick" (or "Stick the Frick" to those who can't tolerate their rowdiness). When they aren't in the zone, they're laid back, a bit silly, and a bit of a lazy slob. They like to poke fun, but they have a kind core and can't turn down someone in need.

The star of this game's inspiration series is just plain cool. He's hip, snarky, and heroic. Stick is a parody of a parody of that character, in a way that comes full-circle: they're a kindhearted stupid dork that tries way too hard to be cool and really, really isn't, and the crazy thing is, that is way cooler than being cool.

Mechanics

Stick's play style is the most similar to a Sonic game. They run up and down slopes and around loops, completing fast-paced momentum-based platforming challenges, in largely linear obstacle courses, with perhaps multiple convergent paths which may be accessed depending on skill level. Naturally, rather than rings, Stick collects sticks, and packs them away in their backpack for later use. They do not serve as their health, nor do they lose all their sticks upon taking damage. Instead, while Stick is running in the general direction of a nearby "construction site," they can throw sticks at it to assemble a helpful prop, such as a bridge or springboard. They can also throw sticks at enemies, or use them for pole vaults or fast pivots.

Inspiration

As the token Sonic-like character of the game, Stick is of course influenced mostly by Sonic as the primary inspiration. However, several of their attributes were determined through more original and organic avenues. The design process went something like this:

1. I was learing Godot and decided I wanted to make a 3D Soniclike;
2. having no prior experience with 3D modeling, I modeled a 3D stick figure and decided that was good enough;
3. I named my game Stick the Quick because it was catchy and correctly identified the protagonist as a stick figure;
4. I decided a 3D stick figure was not good enough;
5. I really wanted to keep the name Stick the Quick because I really did think it was terribly clever, so I tried to think of an animal that might reasonably be named Stick;
6. I decided on a beaver, because beavers like chewing on sticks and making dams from them;
7. I decided that if Stick is a beaver, they should collect sticks;
8. I realized a featureless anthropomorphic beaver was still too simplistic a design, so I tried to think of other features to add to the character;
9. I decided that if they were going to be collecting a lot of sticks, and using them to build things, then they should have a backpack.

Even though my memories of my old childhood friend Chris didn't really play into Stick's design, I decided after the fact that Stick would represent Chris, and might adopt some of his mannerisms, because I need the trifecta represented in the game to justify using my composition Pair of Three for the end credits. (I originally wrote Pair of Three as a tribute to our past friendship.)

Stick is not in any way influenced by SEGA's Sticks the Badger, except in that I have to keep reminding myself to call them Stick the Beaver, not Stick the Badger.

Pronouns

she/her/hers

Age

4.543 billion (apparent: 45)

Species

Sacred Spirit (apparent: anthro rabbit)

Home

Astral Plane

Likes

creating life, fungi, plants esp. flowers

Dislikes

pollution, defiance of the natural order

Signature abilities

flight, command over the growth of all nonsentient life forms

Bio

Lorna is Mother Nature. She was born with the Earth and will die with it. When dwelling in her home in the Astral Plane, she is not sentient, for she is unable to think or feel, but even there, she bears affinities of a sort analogous to maternal love: both as a sentient magic rabbit and as a mindless wind of chance, she loves all of her creations with all her heart. Her authority as the reigning queen of all life grants her the power to make living things grow and proliferate, so long as they have no overriding will of their own. It should come as no surprise that her hobbies consist chiefly of gardening. She is usually calm, generous, and compassionate, but can also be harsh, strict, and unforgiving.

Mechanics

Lorna can fly with her big floppy ears, but has limited stamina before she tires and plummets back to the ground. She can arbitrarily direct any colony of nonsentient organisms she finds, such as grass, trees, vines, mushrooms, moss, sponges, jellyfish, or bacteria: if she commands it, they will follow behind her, but will not leave their habitable strata, e.g. plants will not jump nor fly, aquatic life will not leave the water, etc. Lorna's levels will be puzzle maps emphasizing vertical exploration and lateral thinking.

Inspiration

Lorna is based on my late mother, who passed unexpectedly in February of 2018. More specifically, Lorna is based on the purple stuffed rabbit I once gifted to my mother, which I reclaimed as a memento when she passed, and in which vessel I briefly believed I could feel her spirit still with me. Lorna's personality is moreso based on her designation as Mother Nature than on that of my actual mother, but there is some of my mother there as well.

Pronouns

they/them/theirs

Age

28

Species

anthro gallinule (not actually a jay)

Home

B City Wildlife Reserve

Likes

writing, praise, bragging, inflating their ego, short flights up around the mountains

Dislikes

unexpected happenings, people who are smarter than them

Signature abilities

gliding, low knockback when hit

Bio

Blu thinks they are very smart.

Incidentally, not to name names, but I can think of three other blue-colored anthro birds in video games off the top of my head, and all of them think they are very smart, and all of them are a little bit insufferable for it. Blu is no exception.

I will at least give them this: Blu does not feel the need to put others down to feel superior. Don't misunderstand. Blu absolutely does feel superior. Blu thinks they are much better than you, and far above you. But they also think you are good.

They also think you should read their unpublished autobiography. Do not read their autobiography. It is terrible.

All in all, while they may be full of themself, they are nonetheless caring and reliable.

Mechanics

Blu can glide horizontally from ledge to ledge. A span without any ground is no problem for them, as long as there's somewhere to land on the other side. They don't tire, so no gap is too wide. They are too heavy for true flight—a sore subject with them, actually—but if a pit is sufficiently wide and deep, they can build up speed by diving forward, and then convert it to lift by pulling back, for a small net gain of air. Blu's levels will focus a lot on gliding trials, such as gliding from peak to peak while passing through rings and/or avoiding bullet patterns. The grounded segments in-between those trials will feature puzzle-based combat, as Blu is unable to directly attack.

Inspiration

Blu is obviously based on me. Their obnoxious personality is just a bit of self-deprecating humor. While there is some truth to it, I like to think it's greatly exaggerated. We are also both good-natured at heart despite being full of ourselves. I made them a bit younger than me because I like to think they are a bit less mature.

The animal actually came subsequent to the online handle. My online handle is blujai831 because I like the color blue and my name begins with "Jai." The reference to the bluejay, while intentional, is secondary.

Please pretend not to notice that I forgot to model tailfeathers

Pronouns

she/her/hers

Age

16

Species

anthro fox

Home

B City Wildlife Reserve

Likes

fishing, picking berries, having picnics, stealing, lying, playing pranks, aggressively hunting small animals

Dislikes

anything "scary" (except herself)

Signature abilities

Swiping with her razor-sharp claws

Bio

Look at that cute widdle face. That's the textbook definition of innocent. Is that the face of someone who'd ever hurt a fly? That's it, just keep looking at the face. Pay no attention to the big, shiny, pointy claws. Or the pawprints leading out of your garden. Or the sudden light feeling in your pockets...

Gibbo is something of an antihero. She is not good-natured. She is nasty. Selfish. Double-crossing. Acts all innocent, but takes secret glee and delight in her misdeeds.

You can't really hold her in too much contempt. She's just a kid, after all. Most of the time, she doesn't really have a full appreciation for just how terrible she's being, and, to her credit, whenever she gains one, she backs off, shows genuine remorse, and makes amends. Under the sweet facade is a dirty troublemaker, but it's a double-lie: under the troublemaker is an actual sweet kid. She's not a monster, really. She has compassion. She likes people well enough. She just also happens to think it's very funny to inconvenience them for personal gain.

Okay, she's not quite "not a monster, really." Just ask any small non-anthro animal that looks reasonably tasty. Gibbo can be absolutely ferocious when she wants to be. She packs quite a wallop: if she wanted to, she could easily bring down someone three times her size. It's a good thing she's practically incapable of anger, because if she ever got angry, foxes would become your new least favorite animal, and your newest phobia.

Mechanics

Gibbo is too slow and careful to do fancy tricks. In exchange, she can smack things around with her massive claws. Her gameplay will be a mix of traditional non-slope-based platforming, stealth, and melee combat. The stealth will not be mandatory: if it's failed, it will transition into melee combat. (There will also be segments that are melee combat from the get-go regardless.)

Inspiration

She's not just a Tails ripoff, I swear! She's actually not even derived from Tails whatsoever. The only element taken from Tails is the visual design of the tail. Everything else is original, though definitely not unique.

Gibbo is based on the direction my life has taken since my mother's death. She left me with a lot of red-fox-related merchandise. I'm not sure what significance the animal had to her, but of course I couldn't not use the stuff. Particularly given that it was quite nice quality anyway. To me, the red fox came to symbolize a tragic end and a promising new beginning.

The name "Gibbo" is derived from her talk blip sounding like she's saying "Gibbo." I'm a novice at audio engineering outside music composition, and was trying to engineer a sound byte that sounded like a fox growling or purring, and I wound up with a "Gibbo"-sounding noise instead.

Even though my memories of my old childhood friend Dimitri didn't really play into Gibbo's design, I decided after the fact that Gibbo would represent Dimitri, and might adopt some of his mannerisms, because I need the trifecta represented in the game to justify using my composition Pair of Three for the end credits. (I originally wrote Pair of Three as a tribute to our past friendship.)

Gibbo is very similar to a girl I secretly liked in junior high. The similarity was not consciously intentional; whether it was subconsciously intentional, I may never know.

Pronouns

it/it/its

Age

3

Species

first-generation Pickup Bot

Home

decommissioned and abandoned distribution warehouse once belonging to Goldwhisker Industries B City branch

Likes

obediently serving people who ask nicely and don't hurt it

Dislikes

mean people who subject it to standard negative-reinforcement dataset learning procedures

Signature abilities

helicopter pirouette, lifting very heavy objects

Bio

Due to the above described issues (summary: instability, danger of retaliation against training), development of emotive strong AGI software was permanently discontinued two years ago, in favor of traditional large language models, and all first-generation Pickup Bots in circulation were recalled at that time. All except for one.

Otto was an in-house test model to confirm customer reports of rogue robots. It was deliberately trained without love, in attempts to induce reported retaliatory behavior. When the warehouse succeeded in reproducing the issue, the recall notice was sent out, and the warehouse was shut down. In Otto's defense, it didn't even do anything very serious. It just became despondent and refused to obey further orders. The worst it ever did was grumpily throw something into the corner which it had been given to hold.

When the warehouse shut down, they forgot to destroy Otto. It ran out of power and fell dormant, only to awaken when a curious visitor plugged it into the wall. After making new friends, who, unlike its prior handlers, have thus far treated it with kindness and not abandoned it, Otto has decided it wants to rebel against Goldwhisker Industries and protect the B City Wildlife Reserve.

Mechanics

Otto's micromotor grabber cables can lift objects many times its own size. Also, in conjunction with the small amount of thrust afforded by its electro-maglev drive, Otto can hover across short gaps by rapidly spinning its grabber cables about its body (the "helicopter pirouette" technique). Otto can also use its grabber cables to grab ledges or grapple onto branch-like structures to swing around. Accordingly, Otto's levels will involve combat and puzzle-solving revolving around lifting and tossing objects, manipulating the environment, and crossing small gaps.

Inspiration

I originally came up with Otto a long time ago, back when my mother was still alive. It was originally going to be the protagonist of a point-and-click text adventure. At some point, I started making a 2D sidescroller starring Otto, but this project was short-lived. In college, I finally developed a complete point-and-click text adventure starring Otto, though, granted, it was rather short, and I did not have time to do everything with it that I would have wanted to do.

It's been so long I don't entirely remember where the inspiration for Otto came from. There are probably influences from GIR from Invader Zim, as well as Nintendo's character Kirby. I believe the concept really started to come together when I decided the robot would cross short gaps by helicoptering its arms around. When Stick was just a stick figure, I had them borrow that ability from Otto, but reimagining them as a beaver demanded reimagined abilities in kind, thus incidentally making room in the mechanical play space to include Otto in the game.

Pronouns

he/him/his

Age

28

Species

anthro tabby cat, modified

Home

Goldwhisker Industries Headquarters, Silicon Valley

Likes

his "master," herring, warm milk, sleeping in the sun, headpats, dabbling in robotics and computer programming, smoking

Dislikes

being treated as lesser for his physical disabilities, having to wear all those prosthetics, being the face of Goldwhisker Industries, running out of smokes

Signature abilities

plasma beam cannon installed as left arm, sword installed into tail, lock-on visor monocle, knows how to pilot Goldwhisker-brand combat vehicles

Bio

Despite being the company mascot and most valued employee of the namesake Goldwhisker Industries, Goldwhisker does not own the company, and does not have very much authority. He is simply the CEO's pet cat. As a pet cat, however, he swears undying loyalty to his master, and will stop at nothing to bring his master's plans to fruition so long as he remains convinced they are in his master's own best interest. With his cybernetic upgrades and savant-like engineering intuition, Goldwhisker is a deadly and formidable asset to Goldwhisker Industries. He personally invents all of their products, drafts all of the blueprints, and authors all of the software. He is a bit like the Gromit to the CEO's Wallace.

Goldwhisker was born prematurely and with birth defects, and would not have survived without medical intervention. Since anthros are not so blessed as to enjoy the wonders of modern medicine in their society, Goldwhisker's parents left him on the doorstep of an especially well-off-looking human home and hoped for the best. Fortunately, the family residing there, consisting of the future CEO and his own parents, were quite fond of cats, and did not terribly mind owning one that had human intelligence and could talk. It was very weird, they decided, but not too weird to be worth considering. The family business at the time, Bigbux Medical Equipment, was able to nurse Goldwhisker to health, but it required extensive surgery. Many of his body parts, external and internal alike, had to be replaced with advanced prosthetics. As Goldwhisker grew up, he demonstrated an amazing natural talent for engineering, bordering on supernatural in extent, and was able to make adjustments and additions to his own prosthetics to grant himself superhuman abilities.

Mechanics

Goldwhisker's levels will play mostly like a lock-on shooter, with occasional melee combat and vehicle segments.

Inspiration

Goldwhisker's design is obviously inspired by SEGA's Dr. "Eggman" Ivo Robotnik, though I'll be the first to admit his personality and role are more reminiscent of SEGA's Shadow the Hedgehog. He is also inspired by literal interpretation of the phrase "corporate fat cat."

His design, particularly for an antagonist, is inherently somewhat fatphobic and ableist, and I don't like that about it. Nonetheless, I decided to keep the design, because on a pure aesthetic level, I think it's very cool. I really want a "cool" antagonist. Look at the guy. Man be stylin'. What a high roller. Willy Wonka-lookin'-ass mother trucker (/pos). I decided to mitigate the bigotry by making him the dragon and giving him an eventual heel-face turn, if you'll pardon the TV Tropes jargon. I also decided he would slot into those tropes simply because he's too cool and overdesigned not to invoke them.

Pronouns

he/him/his

Age

???

Species

probably human

Home

Goldwhisker Industries Headquarters, Silicon Valley

Likes

money, profits, tax cuts, his cat Goldwhisker

Dislikes

fair wages, unions

Signature abilities

having a lot of money

Bio

The chief executive officer of Goldwhisker Industries is the man with the plan. He is the one pushing to establish Goldwhisker Robo-Resort. He grew up in the household that owned Bigbux Medical Equipment, Inc., a business which he was to inherit, but disbanded in favor of Goldwhisker Industries. Nothing else will be revealed about him at this time.

Inspiration

capitalism

Pronouns

???

Age

???

Species

???

Home

Goldwhisker Industries Headquarters, Silicon Valley

Likes

money, profits, tax cuts

Dislikes

fair wages, unions

Signature abilities

having a lot of money, ???

Bio

The CEO of Goldwhisker Industries answers in turn to an entity called "the Board." It is presumably the board of directors, and presumably answers to, and partially consists of, top shareholders and day traders. Nothing else will be revealed about the Board at this time.

Inspiration

capitalism

Pronouns

he/him/his

Age

4.543 billion (apparent: elderly)

Species

Sacred Spirit (apparent: ???)

Home

Astral Plane

Likes

the night, chess, tea and cookies

Dislikes

his job

Signature abilities

covertly instigating sudden death of natural causes, reaping the souls of the deceased, at-will time travel, always knowing exactly what time it is

Bio

Chronos is, quite simply, the Grim Reaper. He comes for the dead, to take their souls back with him to the Astral Plane. He is actually a nice enough fellow, if, well, grim. His relevance to the story will not be revealed at this time.

Mechanics

In time attack runs, Chronos will shadow the player's personal best, and will also serve as the referee.

Inspiration

The Grim Reaper is obviously inspired by the Grim Reaper.

He was originally going to be the antagonist, back when Stick was still a stick figure. At that time, the game had a very different plot, leaning more into surrealism and cosmic-scope problems. To give you a basic idea of what it would have been, it was essentially the backstory of the Keystones, but as a complete plot in and of itself, without anything else, and the driving conflict was that time itself was coming to an end.

In my opinion, that plot was inferior. However, I decided to keep Chronos in the game in a minor role because I really liked my design for him. You'll see what I mean when you get to see him from the front.

I'll give you a hint in the form of a riddle. Notice he has hands and sleeves, but no arms. This is also true in a different sense. Suppose I have no arms, and instead wear my hands upon my face. I have only one leg, and no foot. I am a grandparent. My children are all the people of London, and my grandchildren are all the children currently at school at any given moment. What am I?