Game Maker's Garage Forum
Game Maker's Garage => Group Projects => Topic started by: Gan on May 14, 2010, 07:04:12 AM
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So we've created a storyline, are making maps, and have just about all the resources we need.
All we need now is to progress through the storyline step by step and figure how things are set up.
This happens here. Gnome and Silver, you guys know more of the storyline than the rest of us. Can you help us fill this?
The player makes an account, goes through a brief tutorial on controls and how things work, starts in front of the castle...
-Gan
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Me and Gnome discussed a rough idea for gameplay and story progression awhile back:
Start the game by purchasing lvl 1 regents from the blacksmith and talking to the leader/elder/instruction giver who'll instruct you to cleanse the woods of monsters to the east.
Explore the woods and defeat the boss to complete the dungeon.
Purchase lvl 2 regents from the blacksmith and report to the leader/elder/instruction giver. He'll congratulate you on a job well done and send you south to an insect infested swamp.
Explore the swamp and defeat the boss to complete the dungeon.
Purchase lvl 3 regents from the blacksmith and report once again to the leader/elder/instruction giver. This time he'll want you to investigate a graveyard west of the town.
Explore the graveyard and defeat the boss to complete the dungeon.
Purchase lvl 4 regents from the blacksmith and report your findings to the leader/elder/instruction giver. He'll applaud your courageous efforts and burden you with the final task of cleansing the caves to the north.
Explore the caves and defeat the boss to complete the dungeon.
Return to town and trigger the victory sequence.
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Regents? The inventory can only hold a weapon, armor, and trinket + potions.
By the way, what exactly are regents? Why would you need them?
-Gan
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Regents is a diminishing term for equipment, or necessary supplies. In this case the player's regents are their weapon and armor. :)
EDIT:
A roleplay example:
Florome Woodhaven (charismatic Warrior): "Rest up and restock your regents lads, for tomorrow we take back the Longdale!"
Standing Army: *cheers*
Glandeli Silverwind (typical Rogue): *sigh* "We don't get paid enough for this..."
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Oooh.
Alright. So. I'm thinking we need more variety. I see... dungeon, dungeon, dungeon, and dungeon. Maybe we could mix it up a bit?
Also WarHampster is very busy, we can't spend time on making grave tiles. Also a grave in a newly settled place would be kinda strange.
-Gan
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Yup. We were thinking of linking it to Gnome's idea of a previous town that didn't go down too well with the neighboring monster lairs, but I'd be happy with a different dungeon altogether.
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Something different sounds like a good idea, though dungeon? Couldn't we think of something more creative than just a dungeon in each part?
-Gan
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I was thinking one way to solve the problem of it seeming too linear would be you can travel to most parts of the overworld map from the start but it's not perfectly clear which areas you need to complete first. The earlier missions would make it more obvious then the later ones. One of the clues would be not to go into an area very far if the monsters turn out to be to strong.
EDIT: I have a story idea:
1. A secret group of wizards has set up a "base" in the mountains of [silly name for far-off mountain range] to experiment with magic forbidden by most other wizards. At some point they make a terrible mistake summon a bunch of monsters. Some of them run away like cowards, while some of them are trying to stop the monsters and close the portal and the rest are trying to take advantage of it and control the monsters. (these are the villains.)
The charachter would be trying to find out where the monsters came from and you would eventually have to find all the wizards who were involved.
its simple enough right? There's just a lot of charachters.
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Something different sounds like a good idea, though dungeon?
Dungeon is just an RPG term for level/stage. I was referring to the forest, swamp, graveyard etc.
Couldn't we think of something more creative than just a dungeon in each part?
What do you mean? Mini games?
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Ah! I understand. By dungeon I thought you meant an underground place for imprisoning vile things.
-Gan
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*feels ignored*..... :P
There are a lot of things we could do that would be similar to dungeons.
Perhaps in one section we can make a partly destroyed town infested with monsters which you have to navigate through.
Or you have to search for somebody in the wilderness.
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Not a bad idea though probably not for this game.
We need to move. Forget side quests until after the main is finished. We'll start in one of the 4 areas, build it, go to the next, build that then once everything's built we can wrap it all together.
What's the first area and the goal to be achieved there?
-Gan
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We need to move. Forget side quests until after the main is finished. We'll start in one of the 4 areas, build it, go to the next, build that then once everything's built we can wrap it all together.
You're right, the hands of idleness close tight around our project. We should look for inspiration whenever motivation is scarce. I always find concept art inspiring, so I here's a vantage point of Newtown from the southern hills and a rough sketch of the leader/elder/instruction giver.
(http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/3350/newtown.png)
(http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/3034/elderf.png)
What's the first area and the goal to be achieved there?
The town. We need a complete, working town before anything else. A castle or tower should be under construction in the centre and traders should have stalls/shops around it. The player needs to be able to purchase equipment from the traders and talk to the leader/elder/instruction giver (who prompts a varying dialogue relative to the dungeon the player is currently exploring).
Once we accomplish those essentials we can celebrate the completion of our first area! :D
The second area and first dungeon is the forest on the eastern hillside (provided we're all in agreement to that part of the map layout).
*feels ignored*..... :P
Sorry Connors, those are nifty ideas. :) I think we've finally settled on the Newtown story, but the destroyed town idea certainly sounds workable. You should discuss it in depth with Gnome, who has similar ideas.
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Those pieces of art are fantastic. :D You're quite an artist.
(http://cl.ly/ce1551716496ffbc9e52/content)
Outlining a few important details in our current Newtown.
Does it match what we need? Should we scrap and rebuild to fit our needs better?
More walking space would be good depending on how many towns people will be out and about. For one we'll have the Instructor. We may want more.
Should the area be more de-forested and spread out?
-Gan
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How about the town progressing over time? At the start only the bare bones of the castle are visible, the trees haven't been cleared etc. Then the stone paths start getting laid, the castle walls grow, mushroom plots spring up and so on.
Gnome did a great job on the layout, so there's no need to change it around much.
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Awesome, sounds like a plan.
Town progresses over time.
Instructor is walking out and about the whole time. Castle's foundations are shown in the middle of the town. Sign proclaiming NewTown is present.
Shops.. shops. Weapon shop, armor shop, healing+potion shop. Some of the shops could not be available for a bit until the town finishes building a few.
What other towns people should we have around?
What about having everything closed off except for one area? As you kill off all monsters in that area, the town builds more and they've also cleared a path which led to more monsters... ? This would certainly keep the player on the right track.
-Gan
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That sounds brilliant. It would also prevent people from accidentally going the wrong way and getting killed.
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Yay for pokemon style railroading! Just have someone blocking the way standing there who will tell you that you don't want to go that way.
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At the moment we have:
3 shops. Weapon, armor, and healing/potion.
1 outside person, Instructor walking.
No castle or paved paths.
Foundation of castle is visible.
Lots of forest around town which will be cleared out as time passes.
A path going east for the first part of the player's purpose.
Anything I missed?
-Gan
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I don't think so. I'll get cracking on the sprites.
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Gnome's kinda busy so if he wouldn't mind I'd like to remap the town to these specifications.
-Gan
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I still think only opening a path when you need to go somewhere gets a bit cliche, even if you're going for a relatively simple game. I say we at least open up some parts of the map before there's a mission there, and perhaps just find more unique ways to block things off. That way there could also be some puzzles about where to find the next "dungeon".
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Gnome's kinda busy so if he wouldn't mind I'd like to remap the town to these specifications.
-Gan
Thanks Gan, right in the middle of exams here :)
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How about the town progressing over time? At the start only the bare bones of the castle are visible, the trees haven't been cleared etc. Then the stone paths start getting laid, the castle walls grow, mushroom plots spring up and so on.
Gnome did a great job on the layout, so there's no need to change it around much.
Wow okay I didn't know you already had so much already thought out. Actually I like the "newtown" idea a lot. Quests could be based around the fact that the area was uninhabited until recently and there be monsters about. ;D
Also, relating to 1st, 2nd, 3rd (etc) level regents, you should set it up so better equipment is available later because the town develops and more merchants come and also local merchants become better developed/more skilled.
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Wow okay I didn't know you already had so much already thought out. Actually I like the "newtown" idea a lot. Quests could be based around the fact that the area was uninhabited until recently and there be monsters about. ;D
Also, relating to 1st, 2nd, 3rd (etc) level regents, you should set it up so better equipment is available later because the town develops and more merchants come and also local merchants become better developed/more skilled.
I actually like that, like trinket or enchantment dealers.
In other news I have a new town, I would upload a pic, but Firefox is locking up whenever I upload something lately.
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http://www.getcloudapp.com/
Download this, set it up, make it launch on startup. This is an amazing uploader, if you have a file just drop it on the cloud icon at the top and it uploads it. When finished it gives a link.
-Gan
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When can you guys be available for a storyline video conference?
I'm good any time after wednesday.
-Gan
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I might be able to do Friday evening.
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I might be able to do Friday evening.
Ditto! Last day of school!
Also, I thought I'd start posting any ideas I had for enemies.
I made a sprite for a slime monster.
(http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/144/c/3/Schluck_Monster_by_Onronc.png)
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Ditto! Last day of school!
Also, I thought I'd start posting any ideas I had for enemies.
I made a sprite for a slime monster.
(http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/144/c/3/Schluck_Monster_by_Onronc.png)
Silver beat you to that ;)
Here's the new town. Few improvements. More to story line:
(http://cl.ly/64a1a6e4174ea2864003/content)
[size=16] This is my last update. Leaving in 2 days.[/size]
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Fantastic sprite Conny! :D Oozes are among my all time favourite dungeon encounters. There's so many types of them. Some corrode your weapons... some infect you with disease... my personal favourite is the transparent gelatinous cube, which waits motionless in a corridor until an unsuspecting adventurer (like a certain rogue you all know) comes along to investigate the odd assortment of objects suspended in mid air, which are in fact lodged in the cube's mass. Then it rushes forward!
(http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM35_gallery/MM35_PG201.jpg)
For more on slimes, oozes, jellies and puddings, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ooze_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)#Ooze_descriptions
D&D is endless fun! ;D
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I was thinking, and are you guys making maps of other towns? Because I was under the impression that we were going to have one town with paths to all the areas. That would make things A LOT easier, yes?
And it would be fun to have the town change throughout the game.
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I think the idea is to have one town, as the story goes. That's a good idea about the changing town, we're doing something like that. :)
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Okay this could get a bit long...
I told a friend of mine about the GMG and what I was doing because he's been interested in video games for a long time. He's always making these really cool ideas for game plots and story lines and characters so I told him he should check out this project we were working on. He said he wants to help out so we had a brainstorm yesterday and he said he was going to make an account and post what he had but he hasn't so I thought I'd go ahead and post what we thought of anyways... :P
We came up with a few ideas for a character (mainly why they wound up in this NewTown):
- A character who has somewhat shady past (google anti hero) and came to Newtown to "start over" and build a better reputation.
- A war deserter who is hiding in Newtown
- A new recruit in the army who was sent there to help the settlers (because there might be monsters out there)
8)
EDIT: Am I still the only person here that is done with school for the summer??
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3 weeks (including exams) then I graduate and head off to university. :)
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Okay this could get a bit long...
I told a friend of mine about the GMG and what I was doing because he's been interested in video games for a long time. He's always making these really cool ideas for game plots and story lines and characters so I told him he should check out this project we were working on. He said he wants to help out so we had a brainstorm yesterday and he said he was going to make an account and post what he had but he hasn't so I thought I'd go ahead and post what we thought of anyways... :P
We came up with a few ideas for a character (mainly why they wound up in this NewTown):
- A character who has somewhat shady past (google anti hero) and came to Newtown to "start over" and build a better reputation.
- A war deserter who is hiding in Newtown
- A new recruit in the army who was sent there to help the settlers (because there might be monsters out there)
8)
EDIT: Am I still the only person here that is done with school for the summer??
connors will confirm that i am the one who came up with those ideas (he did help refine them) in a little while i will post a little more detail on my personal favorite "the military deserter"
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Cool! Great to have you on board. :) Welcome to the GMG too.
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Hey, welcome! Little ideas like those are valuable, different characters will help flesh out the game. Can we put you and Connors officially in charge of backstory? It's always nice to have a fully-realized world to draw from.
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Sounds good to me! We live close together so we can both collaborate more easily.
EDIT: Namyiik I totally thought of the third one on that list. >:(
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Something to add to our RPG world:
The main crop in Newtown is mushrooms. This is mainly because they grow incredibly well in this particular area and require very little land compared to, say, corn. In fact if the only crop the people could take with them had been corn they probably wouldn't have wanted to try to settle in this area in the first place. Certain mushrooms will even grow better if you just leave the trees there.
I thought we could use this for some of the NPC's dialogue if nothing else.
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Nice. :)
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OKAY, so since this is the topic for the group project with the fewest pages, we need to move.... I will post more detail on one of those items above.
Some new recruits in the army have been sent to the new town because there aren't many guards or watchmen(cops) in the town and they needed a few men. You are one of these soldiers and you start out with very little experience. (of course) Then there's trouble with monsters and you wind up getting sent in to check it out first because you're the newest. (lol) Then you accidentally get stuck in the cave in the woods (first dungeon) and at some point, probably at the very end, you get a magic spell or something.
I used the part about the new ability/weapon in the "dungeon" because at some point you should get better experience than the others because you become the hero.
PLEASE, post your opinion in it and any more ideas guys! even if they sound silly at first they can be refined. We can't go really far with maps, characters or dungeons until we have more story. I will try to get Namyiilk to log in and post his war deserter idea too 'cause I think it would also work well for this because the tiny Newtown would be the perfect place to hide, yes??
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They're great ideas. I think the delay in development is due to everyone being busy and absent, but it's nice to have such an enthusiastic team. :)
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Yeah, just got back from 3 weeks of vacation, Boys' State, and Wheat State Church Camp.
-Gan
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Nice! :)
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Guys, I've been thinking about the desert area and it doesn't quite follow...
After all, the game starts out in the forest and if you're going back to Newtown after quests then you aren't going TOO far away, so why are you suddenly in the desert?
There are ways around it though, the simplest being that we have a longer trip before you reach that section. However I also though about having the sand partly made of some odd mineral that's unusually common there (anyone ever been to White Sands?) that has odd magical properties, and then we could give the desert a fun name like The Sudden Desert or something (there must be a better name than that lol) since it just starts and stops so abruptly. and thats how there's a desert so close to the forest and the mountain and the swamp.
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how bout the villian's power is draining the life out of the forest makeing it a wastland
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Good idea! ;D
And after you defeat him, later on that area starts restoring itself. This might even benefit Newtown. Perhaps even have a small river appear.
In fact, now I think about it, having a river or some kind of water near the town from the start would be cool. Just a small area with a path leading to it from the town. Just brainstorming things to add.
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What villain? I wasn't aware we had a villain. :-X Like the river idea though, all towns start by a water source. :)
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Lol sry...
If theres a desert dungeon there must be a boss monster. I meant monster not neccesarily the villain. Basically the desert area is cursed by someone or something.
:P
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I say we lay out the timeline for the story in a post and update it as things are added, like so:
(This was my idea for a good start for the game, unless Namyiik or anybody has a better idea for the background) 8)
-Tutorial based around character's training in the army.
-Main character is sent to Newtown to be one of several guards. Because he's inexperienced.
-Meet the people in the town.
-One of your fellow soldiers spots monsters, you get picked to go investigate :P
-Here begins the Forest Area.