Game Maker's Garage Forum
Game Maker's Garage => Group Projects => Topic started by: WarHampster on December 29, 2009, 05:19:04 PM
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Ok, final design GO
I've been thinking and I've concluded that no one plays iPhone games for the story, and that this game is centered more around gameplay than story anyway. Therefore to avoid looking pretentious and cliche we should make the story more of a "background" element that isn't really in the player's face... it should complement and wrap around the gameplay rather than stand apart from it.
So I think the best way to do this is to make the "story" more of an atmosphere and mood... something that is always present and interesting but never overbearing.
I of course want the atmosphere to be dark and creepy, I know Gan and Silver will disagree though.
So here goes: at the beginning of the game you are ordered by the king or whatever to search for some evil guy in some place. Throughout the game to visit various places that you think this guy could be hiding, and finally find and kill him in the epic ending boss battle.
I'm envisioning the evil guy hiding out in some swampy place and creating steampunk robots to come kill you while you search for him. There could be a few castles or caves in this swampy place that you think he could be hiding in, each containing a clue that leads you to the actual location.
does this make sense?
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I've been thinking and I've concluded that no one plays iPhone games for the story
Are you sure about that? When I look into the app store I look for games like I look for a good book. iDigIt is a great app that has it's gameplay and storyline interwoven. It kept my attention for an extremely long time. Now other games that aren't very dependent on the storyline such as all those tower defense games bore me to death. I feel that there is no point, why should I defend the tower? What's the point?
A prime example of a game that caught people's attention due to it's completely enthralling storyline and gameplay was Final Fantasy. What are they on now, 13? When I think of a game without such a storyline, I think of arcade games which can look nice and flashy and maybe addicting but only for a moment or two.
One thing that everyone looks for in life is purpose. Same when they look at a video game. The storyline provides that purpose. Why should the explorer kill a big bad guy when the king tells him to? For the princess's hand of course! Or perhaps he's a bandit sentenced to the guillotine who has one final quest to be pardoned! Without such a purpose the player will find it as a waste of time.
We can make amazing gameplay with unique features, talents, skills, awesome battles... but without an equally awesome storyline it's like setting a trap that'll lure the victim but not snatch them.
I believe the gameplay and storyline should be married and wrapped completely around each other.
-Gandolf
P.S. Steampunk robots?
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How about the traditional "OMG evil guy in a castle with big path leading to it!" with the occasional town of course. Think Ghosts n' Goblins, but with towns and safe areas sprinkled throughout.
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I'm not saying that stories in games are unimportant, I'm saying that the type of game we're going for is not one which should have a huge epic story line. I'm trying to come up with something with is not cliche (demon king or evil guy in castle) and not too epic and pretentious.
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So just a regular nice storyline. I'd use QOTM as an example of what we should be aiming for. Unique, addicting, roomy but not large, yet traditional. Has the familiar rpg feel to it but has it's own level of unique-ness... Man that game was addicting... How many hours did I spend on it? Too many. Really put us in character.
-Gandolf
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Unique? QOM has one of the most cliched RPG stories. Honestly the story was a huge turn-off for me, the gameplay was what saved it.
Ignoring all my rambling, what do you think of my searching-for-evil-guy idea?
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I dunno.... something's not adding up...
Wait a moment... you're calling QOTM cliche!
Isn't that a bit hypocritical? Your idea is to be sent by a king on a quest to destroy a big bad guy.
Hmmnmnmnm...
As for the story idea itself, it sounds like most games out there. It's a bit vague, though what exactly are steampunk robots?
-Gandolf
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The point is that you need to find clues at different locations to finally discover the bad guy. Like I was saying, the story needs to actually have some relevance in the gameplay.
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I had a short story I had to write once.
It was called "The Time Hermit" it was about a guy who lived on the moon just in case earth screwed everything up, and when they did he went back in time and had to figure out what caused everything and had to stop it. But I think thats too big a scale. /:
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The point is that you need to find clues at different locations to finally discover the bad guy.
But what's the motivation? The push and pull? The stuff that drives the player to keep going forward? The reason they break out in a sweat in the middle of the night and scream "I MUST FINISH THAT GAME!&#Q!@^$"?
Like I was saying, the story needs to actually have some relevance in the gameplay.
Wait a sec, define gameplay and story.
-Gandolf
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What? The gameplay is the game's mechanics, and the story is the writing, background information, plot, ect.
In many RPGs the game could work with any story. I'm trying to integrate the gameplay and story by having the player need to work out where the bad guy is hiding by reading clues that we leave.
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If we are to decide on a storyline we're going to need a bunch more details. Setting, antagonist, protagonist, background info, ect.
For anyone who posts a storyline make sure you've filled it out. Basic concepts don't give us much to work with(or vote on).
-Gandolf
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rrr. The names of the characters are unimportant! Once a concept is decided on then we can flesh it out.
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Names are unneeded at the moment but we do need setting, protangonist/antagonist backgrounds, the situation, ect. Our concept is Rpg. Now we just need to go into detail on possible storylines.
-Gandolf
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Again, my theory on this is that for this type of game going into too much detail is only annoying to the player. We're not making final fantasy, we're making a "simple" rpg... we don't need a huge background for all the characters. So here goes:
Protagonist - Kicked out of [insert class here] guild (reason is unimportant), takes up mission of finding bad dude to redeem himself.
Antagonist - Former court alchemist, did some bad stuff in the name of science and got exiled.
Setting - Antagonist is hiding out somewhere in swampy place. Swampy place is full of caves and abandoned castles and forts, one of which is the alchemist's hideout.
Situation - Find clues (maps, hints from NPCs, scrolls, ect) to find bad guy. The clues can be found in any order, they all lead to other clues, until some amount of found clues has been reached and the player is led to the showdown with the antagonist. You must battle monsters living in the swamp, bandits and mercenaries hiding in the abandoned castles, and the twisted creations of the evil alchemist that are sent to kill you. (for these I thought of steampunkish robots (you know, rickety clockwork contraptions), zombies, that kind of stuff).
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I still don't see how we can keep this "simple" without it being cliche
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You have a point Gnome.
Ah, that's better WH. Though the guy sets out on the quest only to be placed back into his original job? No gold, promotions, a women's hand, or possibly another reward of some kind?
Note to all: Keep the storyline within the game mechanics and resources. Use what sprites we have, stick to the plan: Simple, make the storyline setting fit to the visual setting(tiles/maps).
Going off of what Gnome said, let's not worry about cliche. Any rpg created can be deemed as cliche because they all contain similar pieces of each other. What we can do is make a traditional rpg and use all of your massive amounts of ingenuity to make it as unique and addicting as possible.
-Gandolf
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the clue idea is lame cause the player could potentially guess or figure out where the boss is hiding right off the bat. if anything make it already known where the boss is (giant fortress) and the player needs to level up by doing other missions and obtain an object like a key or explosive that allows him to enter the fortress
make a giant world map with caves and forests to explore and obtain items from. with ahouse or a shop here and there, like in moonfable, thats what made that game fun, the world map
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Well I was thinking that the antagonist's lair wouldn't even be reachable until the clues are found. The player would need to use the clues to find the other clues (lol) and then finally find all of them to get to the lair.
Grind levels and get a key to get into giant fortress? Oh, I'll just go play EVERY RPG EVER. Seriously, listen to yourselves:
No gold, promotions, a women's hand, or possibly another reward of some kind?
Why can't we try to make things interesting by leaving out stuff like this?
"The young whatever ventures out to level up, find key, and fight evil guy to get princess!"
Or
"Shamed by his expulsion from the whatever guild, the protagonist stumbles into the swamp after the antagonist, with no real plan or goal other than redeeming himself, bent on searching the whole area until he finds evil dude."
I was actually thinking to not have a world map at the start of the game, and make the player actually explore a bit. That would heighten the sense of searching for someone.
I still don't see how we can keep this "simple" without it being cliche
I'm trying very hard to do just that P:
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Actually WH's idea is kind of similar to my story I wrote (which was terrible but the gist of it is ok)
Protagonist: The "Time Hermit" can travel through time, but acts a bit strange because of his many years of loneliness.
Antagonist: Evil Overlord who took over the world in the present.
Setting: The present is a cesspool, and all hope is gone. The past gets less and less bleak.
Situation: Try to stop the past from turning into the present. Fight, collect items, clues, and enough info and strength to defeat the evil guy.
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I don't know a lot about this thing yet but I'm already getting ideas from what I'm reading here. I feel like I'm the only one not contributing. :P
I liked the idea of starting out without a map and filling it in later.
I think it would be fun if it wasn't really obviously linear and most of the map is open right away, so part of the game is deciding whether you're ready to enter certain areas.
EDIT: (I read some more of this thread lol) I think this fits with the ideas of searching around a lot but you wouldn't necessarily need "clues". You might have to revisit some parts of the map though.
Also,
It's a bit vague, though what exactly are steampunk robots?
-Gandolf
i'd try to explain but you should probably just google "steam punk". I think it's pretty cool but it might not be a good idea because of the "simple" part. 8)