Prerelease:Disney's Toontown Online/2000

This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Disney's Toontown Online.

January

Design Document for On-Line Toon Town Multi-Player Game

Design Document for On-Line Toon Town Multi-Player Game was the very first design document created for development of the game, showing basic ideas.

The earliest design document for Toontown Online, dated January 7, 2000, which shows the basic ideas of the game in a very primitive state in the span of 13 pages. It can be read here.

General

• The original plot of the game was that Suits are taking over Toontown to turn it into a black-and-white metropolis of skyscrapers and businesses.
  • The CEO, VP and CFO were considered as antagonists at that point.
  • "Cartoon" villains other than Suits were planned, which were of Weasels and "Bruto type" characters.
• There was originally a "Mickey Welcome Video" planned when they start Toontown.
• The Ritz Karl Toon Hotel was planned at this point, where players originally had their own "room" that could also be accessed from the book. There were also NPCs in the hotel.
• Out of the main Disney characters that would appear, Daisy is not mentioned.
• "Town Staff" characters were planned, such as those that would appear in the "Hotel", "Factory" and "City Hall".
  • A Training Area was considered, where Toons could practice their skills.
• Goals and Objectives and Timing was not written out in the document as of that time.

Locations

• There were three different areas planned at that stage, the Safe Zone (which would be the playground), the Hazard Zone (which would be streets) and the Suit Zone (which would be Cog Headquarters).
  • The Suit Zone appears to borrow from the earliest map draft, mentioning a school and a neighborhood. "dungeons for advance game play" are also mentioned, which would likely be an early concept for Factories, Mints, D.A. Offices and Cog Golf Courses.
• It was mentioned that not all buildings can be entered; it would stay that way up to the beta stages.
• The main hub, Toontown originally had locations that would be drastically changed or removed in the final;
  • There was a Gag Factory, where no info was written there but would likely be reworked into Goofy's Gag Shop.
  • The Library was originally a more interactive place, where Toons could play "word games", like Mad Libs and Puzzle Games.
  • There was a City Hall location, where Mickey was originally the mayor before Flippy would occupy the place, and would be renamed "Toon Hall".
  • A Movie House location was where "Advance(sic) Toons" could make movies or where "events of the day" are played.
  • The semi-infamous Funny Farm location was originally a place where Toons are "carted off to" after they lose all their health in battle. They would have to battle the "guys in the white coat" while using up their resources to escape under the time limit. The difficulty would change on the Toon's skill level, and if they lose all their resources, they're booted out.
• There was also originally a hospital where Toons could get "repaired" after battling Suits, as in according to the next sentence, being flattened where they can be "pumped up" again.

Minigames

• The Trolley was not implemented at this point, so basic ideas for minigames are there.
• There were originally five times of minigames planned, Beginner Training Games, Solo Games, Mini Games, Group Games and Complex Games. The final would simply have two types of Minigames in the Trolley.
  • Beginner Training Games originally focused on interactive elements such as Pie-throwing and using Bananas, but the scrapped "re-painting" feature is also mentioned. Interactive pie-throwing would loosely be reused for the post-launch Vice President battle.
  • Solo Games had simplistic ideas like "Mad Libs", "Puzzle Games" and "Word Games".
  • Mini Games had ideas like "Cubicle Maze", "Toon Raider" and a game where the Toon runs through the bakery to grab as many pies as they can. Though Cubicle Maze would be similar to the Maze Game and the "pie-collecting" minigame would be similar to Toon Escape. It's not known how "Toon Raider" would work, but the name appears to be a pun on the Tomb Raider franchise.
  • Group Games had ideas like "Kick the can", "Capture the flag", "Trampoline Tag" and "Ink and Paint Ball", none of them that would make it to the final. There was also a "Town repairing" minigame where they could also personalize it.
  • Complex Games are likely regular gameplay elements, where Suits could take over Toon buildings and they turn black-and-white.

Customization

• Toons could originally have their eyes and nose customized, being available in two sizes for each species. They could also have their eyes customized in brown, orange and white.
• Toons could also have their head shape customized, in "round" and "elongated" shapes.
• Dog Toons could have their ears customized in short and long sizes.
• Horse Toons weren't present on the document.
• Like in a piece of concept art from around this time, Toons could originally wear Suites(sic), Dresses, Coats, Long Coat and Pants, and simply shorts. The Shorts and Shirt combo that appear in the final is also considered there.
  • Later in that section is the Sailor Suit, placed at the end of the "Large Toon Size" option. It likely further shows that the clothing concepts is dated after this document, due to that clothing being made in other sizes.
• Each clothing options were available in three color choices.
• Accessories were originally planned for the base game, where customization options were available in hats, shoes, bow ties and jewelry. They would not be available all the way until 2011, being the final major content update.
  • There were only three types of shoes; Big floppy shoes, "Minnie Mouse"-type heels and Floppy "Mickey"-type shoes.
  • Bow Ties for the head were considered at that point which would appear in the final, but bow ties for the neck would not appear.
  • All of the hats listed, except for the Goofy Hat, Pillbox and Matador would appear.
  • Jewelry was marked as "TBD" in the document, implying it did not get far.

Elements

• A money system was not implemented at that time.
• The Shticker Book, known as a "Comic Book" had features that were planned;
  • It could originally be personalized with "stamps", "collections" and "portals". Collections could refer to post-launch updates like Fishing and Gardening for example, while Portals could be an early concept for the teleportation system. The Stamp feature did not seem to make it to the final.
  • The player could originally teleport to a location whenever it is visited, but in the final it's restricted to a ToonTask unlock.
  • There was also originally had a page dedicated to the player's room where they could comically "jump" into the page and customize it. They could originally get that unlock from the Ritz Karl Toon Hotel, allowing the Toon to "teleport" to it, and getting into an elevator to the Town Square for quick access.
  • A page of completed Quests was also considered but was reduced to the Quests simply being displayed in the page, rather than a backlog.
  • There was originally a page dedicated to the Levels the Player reached, such as experience from "pie-throwing" and "banana-throwing".
  • The "Opponents Battled" page would appear as the Cog Gallery page in the final, but behaves slightly differently; the "Opponent" is filled in rather than the border changing color.
  • There was a page dedicated to items that are collected, which could originally be traded.
  • It was stated that the book would take "20 hours" to complete, but the final doesn't have any specific requirement to fully "complete" a Shticker Book.
• A "repainting" element was also considered, where according to other points in the document, Toons have to restore color to Toontown by taking back Suit Buildings which are distinguished from other buildings in black-and-white. There was also an apparent customization option where the player could design buildings.
• ToonTasks were known as Quests in this document, where they were presented with more interactive tasks like "Collecting Bananas" for Beginner Quests and "gathering ingredients to make pies" for Advanced Quests.

Battle

• Like with the Suit battle concept, the player had to use Gags to make the opponent laugh.
• Gags weren't categorized at this time, and were just general ideas. "Eye pokes", "Foot Stomps", "Tying shoelaces together", "pinch cheeks", "tweak nose", "noogies", "raspberries" and "rubber" mallets would not make it past this stage.
• Suit Attacks were mostly the same, except for the "straight jacket", "boxed in" and "stopwatch attacks" would not appear. It was also stated that there will be a "variety of penalties" on what the Suit had done to the Toon; the next sentences imply that a form of status aliments were planned, where they could apparently only be healed at the scrapped Hospital location.
  • Throwing Books would "squash" the Toon, appearing in a flattened state.
  • The Red Tape attack would tie up the toon, not allowing them to move.
  • The big eraser would "erase" a part of the Toon, where they must go to the Hospital to be "repaired".
  • The "Boxed in" attack would trap the Toon inside planks of boards, making them unable to escape. Though there is an opportunity for the Toon to be rescued.
  • The "nagging at avatar" attack would shrink them.
  • The stop watch "freezes" the avatar, though it's unknown if it behaved similarly to the red tape attack.
  • The Straight Jacket attack appeared to have been used at the end of battle after Toons lose all their health.
• Battles are turn-based, like in the final.
• Different Levels of Suits were considered at this point.
• Toons originally had an experience points system in order to get higher-level Gags and to face higher-level Suits. The experience point system would be retooled for Levelling up Gags in the final.
• Opponents originally had "counter-moves" to avoid gags.
• Suits originally floated up into the air rather than shrinking into small clowns.
• The Toon's "life-meter" was tentatively referred to as "Humor mo-jo".
• When a Toon loses all their health in battle, they would be put in a straight-jacket and taken to the Funny Farm. They would have to find a way to get out of the location but the task would depend on experience and resources.

Later Notes (circa June?)

The following notes were written in between pages 11 and 12, which appear to be slightly later from that date. The following ideas are transcribed, and the ones marked with a tick would be considered at that point.

Rewards	Activites
Collecting Wuneset Gain New Abilities Access new Territory Resources Story Reward Prestige (Scoreboard/Sticker Book) Customizaion of Avatar Larger Laff Meter	Fighting Suits ✓ Puzzles Quests ✓ Chat ✓ Minigames Training ✓ Gathering Resources Team Sports Repairing/Clean Ups Avatar Customization Interior Decoration Making Movies Music Games Funny Farm

• Toons would access new locations when progressing through the game, but those locations are available via default.
• The health system is now called "Laff Meter" at that point.

(Source: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10ekTuWPoWMipgXd0E3dHBrwxEqwit6sn/view)

Suit Encounter Demonstration Storyboards

A storyboard of how the Suit Battle would play out, with some minor differences in comparison to the final. The first six boards have been transcribed from the paper sheet containing them in the text. The health system is known as the "Laff-o-Meter" at this point.

Notably, a digital version of the seltzer bottle storyboard would appear into the Toontorial in the final game. And, Flippy and the Downsizer from the anvil storyboard would be added onto the Toontown Beta website.

You encounter a Junior Flunky on the street. Do you want to try make him laugh? YES/NO	You can SQUIRT/THROW/DROP	You can SQUIRT/THROW/DROP
Encounter a Suit on the Street - at this point, you can decide whether you want to attack or run away.	If you decide to stay, you can check your inventory of gag weapons acquired from Mini-games.	Choose your Gag Attack.
You throw a pie at a Junior Flunky!	Your pie hits Junior Flunky in the face. He is not amused.	Uh-oh, junior flunky managed to side-step your pie. Get ready for an attack!
Animation Plays.	If your weapon was effective, the Suit takes damage which registers on his bar graph.	If the Suit takes defensive action, you take damage as registered on your Laff-O-Meter, and the Suit prepares to attack.

The rest of the storyboard don't have captions underneath and were released separately.

Oh no! Junior flunky has decided to use the dreaded pen attack!
Junior Flunky gets a sudden splitting headache!	Wotta CLOWN!

Misc stuff.

		An early version of the Finger Wag attack. The symbols would be replaced with "Blah blah blah" in the final.

When Toons won the battle, they'd be "pulled out" of it via a cane for comedic effect. The third storyboard appears to show a sort of "door" where battles were likely supposed to take place in a sort of "battlefield" background rather than actually on the Streets.

Winter-Spring

Later Suit Concepts

From the beginning, they were designed in four different types; Social, Money, Legal and Corporate. A rough sketch of the enemies and the types belonging to them were first drawn up in many different shapes and body sizes;

Sketches of Suits were done in many different unique shapes. Only four body shapes would be reused in the final, with some repurposed for heads.	Rough sketches of Suit Heads, with a general idea of the designs.

Many of the ideas made it to the final, though there are some changes:

• Suits had an unequal number of types rather than each of them having eight.
• There was originally a Corporate Suit called a Blowhard, which is someone that would go on to dominate politics.
• The Mover and Shaker was originally in the Corporate type, as opposed to a Social (Sellbot).
• A Head Honcho Suit was scrapped likely due to it being too similar to The Big Cheese in terms of theming.
• The Kissup Suit was scrapped for being too similar to The Mingler.
• The Two-Face was originally called "2-Faced".

Later, the types of Suits were decided and all equalized into eight.

Some changes still remain in the height chart.

• The Social type was renamed to Sales at that point.
• There originally seemed to be a "fourth" body type, used by the highest-ranking Suits before they were replaced.
• The Cold Caller and Downsizer were originally conceptualized to be feminine, while the Micromanager was masculine.
• The outfit colors of the Sales and Corporate Suits were switched.

A much later version of the suits used for 3D modelling reference, with the finalized Corporate outfit colors has some interesting changes:

Sketches of Suits were done in many different unique shapes.	Renders of Suits, lacking the bolts from their outfits.

• The Money Suit is likely an early version of the Number Cruncher, because it shares the same head shape. It had no numbers around the mouth and had a different and bigger body type.
• The Legal Suit matches up to that of the Bigwig, except without the wig. The face resembles that of the Sellbot Headquarters Factory entrance.
• The Cold Caller originally had no blue hair.
• The Micromanager originally had a Sales (Sellbot) suit, which would be replaced in the final.

Toon Customization Concepts

Examples of customizable Toon Heads, using the dog species as a reference. Interestingly, this one shows the scrapped concept of eye and nose sizes.

3D Mockups for Toon Heads and body shapes/sizes, along with colors. All colors made it to the final but they have small RGB variations in comparison to the final.

When it came to conceptualizing clothing for Toons, they discussed what kinds would be liked by the players. They were all designed with the clothes, keeping in mind that will be worn by different Toon Species. Below are some basic clothing concepts for Toons;

Some of the ideas (that aren't marked with a tick) would not make it to the final, likely due to the limitation of having to work in more clothing meshes. According to the Spotify leak, it seemed that coats were originally considered for customization but only textures remain of it.

Second Map Concept

A slightly later map draft of Toontown, this time with basic surrounding Streets and Safe Zone ideas, the latter of which would evolve into neighborhoods. It was conceptualized after the first design document.

The following Safe Zones on the left;

• Toon Hall
• Skating Ring
• Shrinky Dink Center
• The Inflatorium
• Swelled Head Park
• Tag Territory
• Dumbo's Flight School
• Topsy Turvy Terrace
• Swimming Hole
• Cannonball Express
• Alice's Hedge Maze
• Wandering Wheel
• Mirror Monument
• Jumping Junction
• Mt. Gushmore
• Pesky Pigeon Plaza

Though the top-right part of the header legend is cut off, those likely correlate to Suit Territories in terms of color;

• Red Brick: Industrial
• White/Pastel: Residental Apts.
•  ????: Residental Suburbs
• City Shops
• Woods
• Banking

Toontown Street Buildings Concept

One-story buildings don't appear in the final.

March

Milestones

(Source: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FiSj7TXZMSZ-traIaH-i_jurTXGzdQRD/view)

March-April

Model Renders

VERY early model renders of Toons, complete with higher-quality models for Mickey, Donald and Goofy.

Early Toontown Central Render

A VERY early render of Toontown Central was posted by Bruce Woodside as part of the Toontown Online Preservation Project. This image likely predates the Pre-Alpha image due to having a different style of Toontown Central.

• The Ritz Carltoon hotel was present.
• The Toontown Toon Central hall was taken from Toon Tag.
• There was no Trolley.
• The hi-rise buildings in the background originally had a blue color scheme in comparison to grey.

Pre-Alpha Image

A slightly later build of the screenshot, originally the oldest when Jesse Schnell posted it in 2013. Toontown Central there is depicted as a simplistic testing environment.

• The finalized buildings that would be seen on the streets are present. Toon Hall can also be seen on the left.
• It sldo had a cityscape of hi-rise buildings in the background that looked more realistic, contrasting with the colorful Toony world.
• The Laff Meter was originally represented by health and was very placeholder-y.
• Trees were originally modelled in 3D as opposed to being 2D textures.
• There was no Shticker Book or SpeedChat button the HUD.
• Comic Sans MS was the textual font being used.

Renders and Mockup Images

Clothing Customization

A list of basic textures for clothing, where many would not make it to the final.	A basic Make-A-Toon concept draft.

The Ritz Carltoon Hotel

Very early art of the Ritz Carltoon Hotel concept.	A graphical mockup.

The Pick-a-Toon selection screen was originally intended to take place within the Ritz Carltoon Hotel, an obvious play on the real life Ritz-Carlton Hotel chain. Notably this artwork features a button labeled "Exit to Blast", blast being an online Disney subscription service that would've had Toontown Online bundled with it.

April

Toontown Concepts

Written by Chuck Ballew, dated April 12, 2000.

Features

• Jellybeans were originally Simoleons, which were counted in "zillions" after playing minigames. The name was decided on around the release of The Sims in February 2000, a game that uses the same currency name.
• "Hysterical Markers" were gold plaques on buildings that would present a humorous text message and backstory to the Toon when near them. The feature may have been an early form of the building names found on streets and the Knock-knock Joke Doors.
• Cog buildings works just like the final, except that silver plaques would be present on there and it would originally give an idea of how many Suits are present rather than just showing building floors.
• There was originally a feature where Toons could send messages via interactable mailboxes on Streets, which likely was cut in favor of the Whisper feature.
• Shticker Books originally contained a Friend List feature which would be moved to a separate button.

Playgrounds

Playgrounds were originally called Safe Zones, and worked much like they do in the final game. Though, each of them planned to have a specific gimmick in the form of an unstructured activity solving.

Neighborhoods

A total of 15 neighborhoods were originally planned, each of them having a street and an important gimmick specific to them.

Toontown Central

It was originally called Downtown Toontown in development, and was planned to be separated into different districts amidst the large size. A lot of features were planned for the Playground but were cut for time or technical limitations;

• Toon Hall was originally bigger and had multiple rooms. There was originally a Toon Services place where the player can take a photo of their avatar for use in their Shticker book, and an option to retire your toon and start over. The starting over option was put into the Pick a Toon menu.
• A long, corridor called the Hall of Fame containing experienced Toons in potraits was planned, where clicking on them would show the stats of the things they have accomplished. It was reworked into the Toon Platoon system found in the Toon Headquarters.
• A scrapped Mayor's Office location would have been for Toons that have accomplished an immense task, where the player could talk with Mickey Mouse ran by a server administrator rather than a pre-defined set of phrases.
• Another removed location and feature was the Zoning Office where it included a large map of Toontown with locations of each and every one of the Suits.

A second part called North Toon Square was considered as an additional location, with some more features;

• There was originally a Toontown News location which showed newsletters of three different themes. The feature would have been reworked as Toon News...for the Amused!
• The Carltoon Ritz hotel was considered as a location for toons since the beginning of development.
• A tutorial and combat practice area called "Goofy's "How-to" Cartoon Academy" was planned, showing gameplay basics of fighting against Suits.
• Toons could originally have their look changed at Ludwig Von Drake's Spastic Surgery Center, which was scrapped entirely and wasn't brought back in the game's life.

Trolley

In the game's early development stages, there was never a Trolley and an arcade-based minigame hub was originally considered. Four different styles were originally decided before being ultimately reworked;

• • A video arcade which would either be called "Goofy's Games", "Hewey, Duey and Louie's Tooncade" and "The Mickey Mouse Club" would have contained a diverse selection of arcade machines and separate rooms with activities like chess.
  • A carnival tent called "Clarabelle's Carnival", "Mickey Midway" or "Goofy's Games" was also planned which would have contained carnival-styled games like ring toss, shooting gallery or darts.
  • A third option in the form of a Magic Portal would transport the Toon to an area drastically different from the place of Toontown they're in was also a plausible option. Pleasure Island from the animated Disney adaptation of Pinocchio was the first option where Toons would play minigames with a slightly edgier style and would potentially get donkey ears when entering the area. Another option was Sorcerer Mickey's where the entrance would be shaped like his trademark hat he wore in Fantasia, and the minigames would have a magic theme to them.
  • A casino area, optionally called "Scrooge McDuck's Lucky Duck Casino" was considered to be a satirical depiction of Las Vegas or with focus on the negative connotations on a casino. Games "of chance and skill" like Poker, Blackjack and Go Fish were also considered, but was the least respected idea due to the games' respective gambling nature. To say it was good idea to be scrapped was an understatement; the game would've received a higher age rating due to it (going against the game's target audience), or worse a ban in several regions.

It's also worth noting that a bus was part of the idea, which may have been a loose inspiration for the Trolley.

Minigames

Minigames were originally planned to be based on old Disney cartoons, nearly all of them having a unique theme. All of the minigames concepts never made it into the final game;

Gag Concepts

Appears to be from around that time, due to some of them making an appearance in the 1.0 Design Document.

May

Design Document 1.0 Pitch

Dated May 2, 2000, where a lot of new ideas have been jotted down.

• The Laff Meter was still called the Laff-o-Meter.

Map

A later map plan, which was made around that time.

Navigation GUI Concept and Features Pitch Ad

From a slightly later build, the Navigation GUI was different.

• The model of the tree has been simplified to a 2D texture at this stage.
• The screenshot uses the early textures of the Toontown Central streets.
• The "Hey" above the health bar was removed.
• The GUI originally was divided into four features with the press of a button rather than being included on the corners of the game.
  • The Shticker Book looked very different in the form a magazine-like book.
  • The Gags were moved to the Shticker Book.

Around the same build as the previous screenshot.

• Create-A-Toon was in a primitive stage, showing the backdrop of a street.
• The Race Game looked very different; it was played like a hopscotch game rather than on a board.

May-July

Gag Levels

Dated May 27-July 2000. Most of them appear in the final.

Summer

UI Mockup Image

This curious image was found in the Interface Mockup page of the 2.6 Design Document, containing a lot of differences.

• The metropolis skyline is no longer present.
• The Laff Meter had the design of a generic smiley.
• The early button graphics unused in the final can be found in this image, at the top left.
• There were no clouds in the Toontown Central sky.

Fall

Gag UI Concept

A slightly later image, which is of a mockup screen for what the Gags page would look like in the Shticker Book. This appears to have been made sometime after the early Gag icons from the Spotify source leak graphics.

• The Later Shticker Book icon is used, which appears slightly different from the Spotify leak.
• The Delete Icon was bigger, and higher in quality. Gags were originally going to be deleted, but was removed due to it being worthless.
• The Small Magnet is placed after the $1 Note, despite it being the other way around in the Gag Track documents from May-July 2000. Seeing as the Banana Peel is erroneously listed as a Throw Gag, it may have been a mistake.
• The Laff Meter had brown dog ears, which were removed in the final.
• The Banana Peel's accuracy originally said "High" instead of "Perfect", implying that Trap Gags were originally going to miss, or was changed to avoid confusion with the High Accuracy used with other Gags.
• Toon-Up was called Heal.
• Toons could carry 12 Trap Gags, but was changed to 10 (or 5 if the next level Gag wasn't unlocked).

August

Tutorial Details

A slightly later and redone Toontorial sequence was planned which is drastically different from what was seen in Beta 1, dating on August 25, 2000.

Quite a few differences can be found:

• SpeedChat was originally called "Quicktalker". A similar name, the "ToonTalker" was used in Beta 1.
• You could originally modify your toon after Mickey shows you around Toontown, rather than the other way around.
• There was originally a battle tutorial with Goofy, where it was likely reworked into the final game's ToonTorial sequence.
• Healing is listed on the tutorial elements, yet in the final it is only done via use of another Toon.

October

Specification Document

• At this point, 3-4 Neighborhoods are implemented. They're likely the four neighborhoods from the later map plan, due to The Brrrgh appearing in an incomplete state.

October/November

Reaction from Disney

The idea was negatively received by The Walt Disney Company, considering that they were executives of a corporation, and came off as a mockery of it. It was so lambasted that Roy E. Disney sent an angry letter to Jesse Schell ordering the project to not be released. The solution was resolved when Suits were changed to robotic businessmen, where Bruce Woodside noticed that giving them bolts in their design would be enough to distinguish them from the original plan.

It was at the point when Suits were renamed to "Robots". In order to not waste their work, Bruce Woodside added bolts to the original Suit designs to make them look more robotic, which turned out to be a good decision.