Paperstory

A free first look, playable in your browser Paperstory is a side-scrolling action RPG in the spirit of MapleStory, drawn entirely in ink on paper. The world is a living book: its towns, forests and mills are hand-inked scenes, its folk are stick figures built from a MapleStory-style part stack (hair, face, hat, outfit and weapon on one rig), and every blow you land is painted with the same brush as the backgrounds. The Proof Copy is the first twenty lines of the game, with ink (experience) boosted so a first session takes about 90 minutes. That figure is an estimate from a scripted bot, not from human players, so please tell us your own time. What you can do in the Proof Copy Start in Quillmarket, the market town below the old paper mill. Meet Orla the Bookbinder and Tatter the scarecrow. A short chain of quests teaches moving, jumping, the basic attack, your first bolt, loot, the bag and a tonic. Hunt the Pulpwood and its neighbours: the Flax Fields, the Retting Ponds, the Coppice, the Wormways, the Millworks (with its Mill Race, Rag Room and Drying Lofts) and the Carters’ Road to the inn at Catchword. Climb the Pulpwood Canopy. At line 10, swear to a craft. There are six, each its own way to fight: the Binder: heavy melee and tank the Cutter: a quick positional finisher the Postrider: a ranged harrier the Rubricator: a sustaining fighter who marks foes the Folder: a brawler of forms the Inkwright: a caster of words