Final design topic (iPhone RPG)

[WarHampster]

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?

[Gan]

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?

[Gnome]

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.

[WarHampster]

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.

[Gan]

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

[WarHampster]

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?

[Gan]

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

[WarHampster]

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.

[Gnome]

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. /:

[Gan]

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

[WarHampster]

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.

[Gan]

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

[WarHampster]

rrr. The names of the characters are unimportant! Once a concept is decided on then we can flesh it out.

[Gan]

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

[WarHampster]

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).