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Kensei
09-10-2008, 10:07 PM
Ok, after reading Gaz's linked article to 'Bad Game Designer:No Twinkie' I had a stroke of inspiration with regards to 'idiotic NPCs'

As with all my games, this starts with a flicker of a game idea and builds on that. The nice thing about this one is it is scalable :)

Right, onto the idea -

Story
You are the almighty and powerful damsel-not-in-distress, Susan the Seemingly Harmless. Your mission is to rescue your frail and terrified Harry the Horribly not Heroic.

Genre
Puzzle/Action

Game Design ideas
This game will require you to guide your NPC to the exit. There will be obstacles and enemies to defeat.
There is a catch - Harry tends to get distracted easily, tending to rush off to examine a pretty flower or a demon that is smiling at him. If you leave him alone too long while solving the puzzles, he might start wandering off to look at a nearby lava pit.

I will likely use either a simple 'Come with me' or 'Wait' to guide Harry with Susan, but perhaps implement a timer when you tell him to wait, that, when elapsed, will make Harry wander off.

Susan will be able to pick up items to keep Harry entertained for longer, like Rubik's cubes or a book, extending the time you can spend away from Harry without him leaving.



Thoughts? Does it sound like fun?

To break the norm, I will not be using XNA, instead I will use good ol Game Maker.

Releases:
Release 0.1 (http://www.gamedev.za.net/filecloset/download.php?id=662)

XERXES
09-10-2008, 10:22 PM
You are the almighty and powerful damsel-not-in-distress, Susan the Seemingly Harmless. Your mission is to rescue your frail and terrified Harry the Horribly not Heroic.

Lol, Super Mario Brothers.

Hehe, it sounds nice, it'd be nice to play a female again, haven't done that since Trespasser.

GeometriX
09-10-2008, 10:58 PM
OMG, it's Scared Townsman (or was that Townsmen, I'm not sure), an idea Nandrew and I had at rAge like a billion years ago, just in a frilly dress. Mad coincidence, or the bending of time and space to create the ultimate game?

*Cue freaky Twilight Zone music*

Kensei
09-10-2008, 11:30 PM
Considering you two NEVER got your act together and created that game, I will say that mine has no connection whatsoever to that game.

You forget I was sitting with you two when you thought of that idea ^_^ (and no, I only thought about that idea now, when you mentioned it, not earlier when I posted the idea)

edg3
10-10-2008, 06:47 AM
It sounds fun, Im just a little worried about the frustration levels :P dont make the NPC too distractable please? ;) or rather dont have millions of flowers.

This could be quite interesting to play actually :) a few thoughts:
- you could at times need to go solo and leave your NPC in a "safe spot" to fetch an item (say a ladder for the NPC to get over a box)
- you could make a minigame that you play when your NPC stumbles upon an enemy that he for some reason has taken interest in in which you save him :P you could handle everything using a single persistent object
- try to make it clear what the player has to do, as in use a whole bunch of dialog, and just on suggestion along those lines, you could have objective pointers (like a compass) and on it arrows to your objectives.

Gazza_N
10-10-2008, 07:46 AM
You are the almighty and powerful damsel-not-in-distress, Susan the Seemingly Harmless. Your mission is to rescue your frail and terrified Harry the Horribly not Heroic.
Those names... are... AWESOME!

Nandrew
10-10-2008, 09:06 AM
OMG, it's Scared Townsman (or was that Townsmen, I'm not sure), an idea Nandrew and I had at rAge like a billion years ago, just in a frilly dress. Mad coincidence, or the bending of time and space to create the ultimate game?

*Cue freaky Twilight Zone music*

We still need to do that, dammit. Mebbe in Flash. It'll be fun.


But yeah, I hardly think that we've copyrighted the generic "escort your stupid <insert entity here> to the exit" idea. Kensei's plan sounds fun and can hopefully throw in a few original twists. :)

Kensei
10-10-2008, 04:43 PM
Those names... are... AWESOME!

Thank you :)

I will now take any suggestions for puzzles ;)

So far I have the traditional ones such as:
- flamewalls
- bottomless pits
- monsters
- spike traps

And distracting things could be:
- Flowers (to woo Susan)
- Monsters (to fight and win Susan's hand in marriage)
- pretty unicorns (to tame and woo Susan)

Kensei
14-10-2008, 07:18 PM
Presenting:
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z210/KenseiZA/Random/susanBIG.jpg

Susan the Seemingly Harmless.

And

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z210/KenseiZA/Random/harryBIG.jpg
Harry the Horribly not Heroic.

Cyberninja
14-10-2008, 07:36 PM
They look awesome Kensei. :P

Cloud_Ratha
14-10-2008, 08:09 PM
Ooh daddy like! So is this what the grass is for? \o/

Kensei
14-10-2008, 09:39 PM
There is a catch - Harry tends to get distracted easily, tending to rush off to examine a pretty flower or a demon that is smiling at him. If you leave him alone too long while solving the puzzles, he might start wandering off to look at a nearby lava pit..



And distracting things could be:
- Flowers (to woo Susan)
- Monsters (to fight and win Susan's hand in marriage)
- pretty unicorns (to tame and woo Susan)

Answer the question?

The flower patch will either act as a 'safe' zone or as a place that Harry races to, to pick flowers :D

Cloud_Ratha
15-10-2008, 01:37 AM
Was just wondering, what type of view is your game going to be. I have a feeling its an angled top view? Please ellaborate! Noodles!!

Kensei
15-10-2008, 02:15 AM
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z210/KenseiZA/temp-2.jpg

Noodles?

edg3
15-10-2008, 06:55 AM
Its looking good :) and I am sure it will only ever get better! Im looking forward to playing this.

I was just wondering, why does harry have a weapon and shield? :P

Gazza_N
15-10-2008, 09:20 AM
I was just wondering, why does harry have a weapon and shield? :P
They're made of cardboard, I'll bet. ;)

Lookin' gewd, Kensei! You see? You DO have some design left in you. :p

Kensei
15-10-2008, 09:42 AM
He has a weapon because he wants to fight the evil monsters to win Susan's hand in marriage :D


Lookin' gewd, Kensei! You see? You DO have some design left in you. :p

Yes -_-* This is partly your fault Gaz, you and your silly instilling of the belief I can make games :p

Edit: And before I get Cloud_Ratha saying 'Why the hell do you want grass when you can do avatars like that?!?' I will point out that all graphics are taken from the very kind people at Rogue-Like Tiles (http://rltiles.sourceforge.net/) (Except the stop sign, that is pure 100% Kensei artwork!)

Cloud_Ratha
15-10-2008, 01:26 PM
And before I get Cloud_Ratha saying 'Why the hell do you want grass when you can do avatars like that?!?' I will point out that all graphics are taken from the very kind people at Rogue-Like Tiles (http://rltiles.sourceforge.net/) (Except the stop sign, that is pure 100% Kensei artwork!)

Lol i wasn gonna say anything :D

Kensei
15-10-2008, 01:30 PM
Cyberninja did though :p Hence the note - credits to the artists are given when it is due

Cloud_Ratha
15-10-2008, 03:09 PM
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg120/Cloud_Ratha/Grass.png

how is this? there are 9 tiles... so you can make it edged better \o/

Kensei
15-10-2008, 03:13 PM
Ooooh :D

That is awesome, thank you Cloud_Ratha :) Is it also possible to make a similar one but with flowers on it

Cloud_Ratha
15-10-2008, 03:21 PM
Ooooh :D

That is awesome, thank you Cloud_Ratha :) Is it also possible to make a similar one but with flowers on it

Ill copy the image and put a flower in each tile... you can change the colour when its finished... obviously :P

dislekcia
15-10-2008, 03:26 PM
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg120/Cloud_Ratha/Grass.png

how is this? there are 9 tiles... so you can make it edged better \o/

Hax! Nice :)

Kensei: What about just doing an overlay with flowers?

Kensei
15-10-2008, 03:32 PM
That too could work...

Dammit, I am meant to be doing actual work now, not thinking about my game >_<

Cloud_Ratha
15-10-2008, 04:19 PM
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg120/Cloud_Ratha/Flowers.png

i got over that whole idea... you can just add in the flowers where you want them...
Hope this works... I forgot how much i like pixel art <3
Thinking about games is what i do all day :/

Kensei
16-10-2008, 10:26 AM
Right, update time

I am slowly assembling a tutorial level...
So far I have the following game mechanics in place:

- a lever that destroys all traps in a 128 pixel radius (I <3 collision_circle :D )
- Susan who moves around freely and where ever she wants (unless she hit the wall)
- a trapdoor (SQueee!!!!) that kills Susan if she accidentally steps on it
- One standard order Harry who follows Susan like a puppy dog when ordered and slowly edges to the pretty flowers when being told to stop following Susan :D

I'll get something up either tonight or tomorrow demonstrating these little things

I did want to ask, are you guys comfortable with the idea of having more than one key for each command Susan can give... ie. 'C' for come, 'S' for stop and '<Space>' for interact?

Cloud_Ratha
16-10-2008, 11:26 AM
Could you not make a mechanism that when you right click a list of options come up. or if you hold a key a list of options pop up and when released or selected it disappears? anyway thats my 2c...

Btw: i never tested all the posibilities of the sprites. So feel free to edit them.. its very easy to blend the grass! Cant wait to see it

Kensei
16-10-2008, 01:11 PM
Could you not make a mechanism that when you right click a list of options come up. or if you hold a key a list of options pop up and when released or selected it disappears? anyway thats my 2c...

I guess I could... but it might be easier to just have a single letter for each thing.

There are only a few things that Susan will need to do, namely - Interact, Attack(?), tell Harry to Come, Tell Harry to stop and that is about it.

dislekcia
16-10-2008, 01:27 PM
I guess I could... but it might be easier to just have a single letter for each thing.

There are only a few things that Susan will need to do, namely - Interact, Attack(?), tell Harry to Come, Tell Harry to stop and that is about it.

Sounds like 2 keys to me: 1 for Interact/Attack (context sensitive) and 1 for Harry commands, which are state-sensitive so that he comes when you've told him to stop and stops when you've called him over before.

Kensei
16-10-2008, 11:42 PM
Okay, first 'tech' demo is up

Arrow keys to move
Ctrl to give orders
Spacebar to interact with objects

Avoid traps and the fire, its not good for the skin :)

There is no goal at the moment, just let you play around with Harry following you and idlely wandering to the flowers when not following you

Cloud_Ratha
17-10-2008, 03:35 PM
Looks good... just it kind of irritated me when i couldn walk "through" harry. evrything else seems to be ok.

If you need more sprites... let me no :D