Team Project For Old Times’ Sake?

[Connors]

OK so there's a bot that made it hard to tell if there were new posts but rest assured I'm still here (the video I linked is now viewable, I think). But to summarize:

I'm fine with doing a typical RPG like things people linked. I'd also like to discuss possible twists on gameplay. I've been rather enamored with games where attacking and defending become minigames, for example. I think that type of mechanic could be fun to make.

Also game engines... I'm most comfortable with coding in Unity or GameMaker Studio. GameMaker is probably a good choice for this project since it makes it easy to set up 2D games with pixel art.

[Silverwind]

Sorry Connors, I meant to post last night but forgot. Your thoughts are great! If you're happy to take the helm programming wise, you're the best guy to call shots on the majority of game mechanics so that we're designing something you can actually create XD The battle engine is in your hands good sir!

As a matter of fact, I'm mostly excited about working on the tileset, as I'd like to release it as a free game dev resource like the old Roguesoft set. Perhaps designing the tileset could be my official contribution to the project? I'll try to create entity sprites as well, but they'll take a lot more time and effort.

I'm afraid I didn't get as much done as I hoped this week, as most of the story and gameplay ideas that I came up with emerged from—and are inextricably linked to—a game idea that I've had for a long time and am rather precious about, as I still intend to make it someday. I basically ended up defining the shape of that project unintentionally! I did improve the UI mockup I put together earlier though, ending with a screen resolution of 1024px x 640px—which quite by chance appears to be the second biggest project size in SilverCreator. I'll have to give SC a go one of these days.

I hope to work on the Tileset a bit this week, but I'm back to work now, so its a free time project once again for me. Still committed to seeing this through though

EDIT:

OK so there's a bot that made it hard to tell if there were new posts

Oh yes, that bot's on quite the rampage! If only they'd post something useful, like story ideas, or concept art...

[Gan]

https://youtu.be/4r_iZoEdYow

I'm very excited about the idea of a group project.
I have also been working on game ideas in my free time. I tend to use plain Javascript/CSS/Html for game development. My goal is to reach maximum audience, all devices and future-proof compatibility.
I definitely would like to help out. Any level of contribution is good with me. I plan on seeing this project through to the end. I can take a large or small part in the project. If we want to go Adventure of Eek style of development, Javascript/CSS/Html isn't too difficult for game development and I can clone my project setup and introduce it so everyone can help code if wanted. I also don't mind doing a majority of coding if wanted.

Demo: Adventure of Eek

[Silverwind]

Yay! Great to have you aboard Gan That's a great engine you've made for Eek, and I reckon it's about the right scale for a small project we want to finish. I'll try to make more placeholder tiles over the weekend.

[Gan]

If you fellows don’t mind using the Adventure of Eek game engine, I’ll setup a repository this weekend with the code including instructions on how to run and modify. You will be assigned contributors so you will be able to modify the project, like adding graphics/sound/code changes.

I’m assuming everyone has little to no familiarity with project repositories and contributing project work to a repository. So I’ll make videos showing how to do that.

[Gan]

Should the first post in this thread be updated with information/progress/state/decisions?

[Gan]

I created the repository and videos for getting setup for the team project.

Repository: https://github.com/MatthewFrench/Team-Project-for-Old-Times-Sake


How to Contribute
Video: Getting the tools
Video: Running the project
Video: Understanding the structure
Video: Saving graphic/sound/code changes

The above videos will guide you through getting your computer ready to run the project, running the project, understanding how the project is set up and saving any changes back to the project repository so everyone can see them.

Tools:
Github Account: https://github.com
Github Desktop: https://desktop.github.com
Webstorm EAP: https://www.jetbrains.com/webstorm/nextversion/

After you make a Github account, please post your username and email so I can add you as a contributor. As a contributor, you will be able to make changes to the project in the repository.

Please post any questions.

[Connors]

Well, I'm not as familiar with the tools Gan is using but I like the idea of writing the project for web browsers. I do appreciate the tutorials and I'll look at them when I have the chance.

My offer stands that I could write some mini-games that happen during combat. I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on how the battling mechanics should work. What does that base game use, Gan? Is it using Silverwind's percentile-based system?
My thought is that if I did work on a turn-based combat system I want to include something engaging, something that feels skill-based, or strategy-based (that is to say, if we make a simple turn-based system without the minigames, there should still be something that makes you think during battles).
Basically if I ever find myself simply clicking Attack repeatedly and hoping I'm strong enough to win, we have failed.

Also, while I'm here I wanted to bring up a cute idea I had for a game premise:
You are a courier and the game has you delivering things to a variety of characters in a fantasy realm. For whatever reason, I had imagined a quest where you deliver lunch to a skeleton and I thought, that's a nice wholesome premise for a game, and we could draw some tasty food sprites.

[Gan]

What does that base game use, Gan? Is it using Silverwind's percentile-based system?

Custom written system. I'm not sure what the system can be classified by, I don't think it is percentile-based though. Battle system is based off of strength, speed, armor count and weapon count.
Speed - Determines who attacks first and how many times the enemy was hit in that single turn. Scales relative to enemy. If enemy is 1 speed and player is 2 speed, player will hit first and hit twice. If enemy is 10 speed and player is 40 speed, player will hit first and hit 4 times.
Strength - Increases damage to enemy and increases chance to block/dodge an attack.
Armor rating - Decreases damage to self and increases block/dodge chance.
Weapon rating - Increases damage to enemy and decreases enemy's block/dodge chance.
Damage is calculated:

Code: [Select]

damage = speed * (strength * 0.25 + weaponRating - enemyArmorRating) * (Math.random() * 0.5 + 0.75) * 0.5

Speed scales damage. Strength is only 25% effective due to the 0.25 reduction in the calculation. Weapon and armor are fully effective additively. Then I give a chance for damage to fluctuate between 0.75x and 1.25x by random chance. Then I lower all damage by 0.5 because I didn't want to deal with huge health values.
Dodge is calculated by adding/subtracting self and enemy armor/weapon/strength values. Then normalizes the dodge change between the player and enemy. Then the dodge percent of the player/enemy determines if they dodge/block the attack.
Critical strike is simple, everyone just has a 5% critical strike chance. 2x damage on that turn.

My thought is that if I did work on a turn-based combat system I want to include something engaging, something that feels skill-based, or strategy-based (that is to say, if we make a simple turn-based system without the minigames, there should still be something that makes you think during battles).
Basically if I ever find myself simply clicking Attack repeatedly and hoping I'm strong enough to win, we have failed.

Agreed! A few ideas at the moment: having different on-hand weapons that could be chosen per attack or have weapons have special effects. We should definitely invest time in the design phase, really nail down the direction.

[Gan]

We can definitely change the battle system, more stats, less stats, rewrite. Just need design details.

Also I’m pretty good at coding UI but not designing. If you have a design, I can implement it. Any screens, just get me design pictures, details and decorative graphics.

[Silverwind]

Neat stuff folks! I'm dying to work on the tileset, but work is all-consuming at the moment due to reduced staff. I get two weeks off at Christmas, so I'm looking forward to playing around with the pixels then Hope I haven't killed the spiritual momentum!

Should the first post in this thread be updated with information/progress/state/decisions?

Good idea, only you guys are more up-to-date than me. Do you fancy starting a new topic now that Project Eek is officially in development?

[Gan]

Neat stuff folks! I'm dying to work on the tileset, but work is all-consuming at the moment due to reduced staff. I get two weeks off at Christmas, so I'm looking forward to playing around with the pixels then Hope I haven't killed the spiritual momentum!

No worries. I have two weeks off at Christmas as well.

Good idea, only you guys are more up-to-date than me. Do you fancy starting a new topic now that Project Eek is officially in development?

Lets hold off on making a progress tracking topic for now. We don't even know the name of our project, we also haven't made any other decisions outside of your awesome art style and music.

Idea:
Let's all individually brainstorm and write down our own ideas regarding name, story, battle system, quests, and anything else game related.
Then let's meet in an hour long live video conference*. We can decide as a team "in-person" what we want to do and write it all down in a design document(google doc) as we discuss.
How does that sound?

*I believe we all have Discord and Discord does have a video conferencing ability.

[Silverwind]

Great idea Shall we have the meeting before or during the holidays?

[Gan]

I’m good with most times from now until after the holidays.

We may want to sync on Discord. I don’t get GMG notifications.

My Discord id: MattF#9537

I’m notifying people. Post your Discord id if you want to join in.

[Connors]

Connorses#0986