Description

A big component of games is the story, but there are games out there where the draw is not the story, the characters, the setting or the gameplay (well, not as much, anyway). It's the sidequests, and that's why we're here today - to make a game based on quests!


What is a Sidequest?
Sidequests are quests that are, quite often, optional. They tend to add more meat to a game and often require the player to do particular tasks in exchange for treasure. Different kinds of sidequests tend to have particular expectations on how to complete them.

They are as follows:

- Fetch Quests: Find items and bring them back to the quest giver. These can be as simple as buying an item from a shop, or as hard as going through a whole optional dungeon in order to find a lost item. They can be integral to the story, or not at all a part of it, but the main component is "Go here and get this for me".
- Battle/Exploration/Tutorial Quests: Usually revolve around aspects of the battle system, exploration or tutorial, which help your character learn how to use various aspects of the game. Usually these are once-and-done miniquests that aim to teach by example. "Jump over 10 logs/Create 3 potions/Use Combo-attack 5 times against an enemy" are all examples of these kinds of quests.
- Kill Quests: Kill x number of enemies for me! These are the most simple of quests, usually, though they can be annoying if the monster in question is hard to find.
- Chain Quests: A series of quests that connect to each other. "Bring this to my friend > it's the wrong item, go get me the right one > take this back to the original guy > now use this to kill an enemy for me > etc". They usually can contain various different types of quests within them.
- Escort Quests: Protect a character or thing until you reach a specific area. Some of these will require in or out of battle protection.
- Gather Quests: Like the Fetch Quests, this requires that you gather a set amount of items, whether from enemy drops or interaction with the environment. They require finding specific items, collecting an amount and bringing them back to the quest giver.
- Timed Quests: You usually have a set amount of time to do this quest in, and usually it overlaps with other kinds of quests, but the main component is that race against the clock.
- Hybrid Quests: Quests tend to overlap various quest types to create a particular quest. For example, a kill quest that also doubles as an escort mission, where you must help an NPC to kill a set amount of monsters for them to pass a test.
- Story Quests: Not usually considered sidequests, these are quests that move the story forward, but can also be used to delve deeper into the lore or characterisation of the game world or characters. They usually involve any of the above quest types but are centred around the story/lore/characters/etc of the game.

- Miniquests are sidequests in miniature. They tend to require very little of the player beyond what they've already done in the game, and rarely (if ever) ask the player to leave the immediate area/zone in order to complete them. Such quests can include aspects of any of the above, however on a much smaller scale. For example, giving someone a potion, asking you to kill rats in a room, asking you to talk to someone in the house next door.


What are we doing?
In this event the idea is to create a game that focuses on what would usually be an optional aspect of a game. The story of the game can be quite short, in and of itself, as the main aspect will be the quests themselves. In this event you can structure the game to follow only sidequests, or have a short story as an aside to the quests, but the main component of the game, the main focus, must be the quests.

You will be tasked to create a game with at least ten sidequests within it, if not more, and those required ten must make use of ten of the listed quest names below, either as direct reference to the quests themselves, or as inspiration for them.

That is: Make game with 10 or more sidequests, but 10 of them must be directly inspired from the listed quest names below. An actual over-arching story/main quest for your game is completely optional.


Rules
- Start on the 21sth of January. Remember to set your site time zone so that you can check this page for the event start and end times!
- Games must be full games. As the story isn't the main aspect, you can have something very short.
- When you have enough details about your game, CREATE A GAME PAGE, at least a few days before the end of the event (remember, game pages need to be checked over. Give time just in case it gets denied and you have to fix something! Last minute game pages will be met with face-palmage and me crossly flailing my arms around asking "Why?! Why do they do this every goddamn event?!")
- End date is midnight of February 19th. Again, please set your site timezone preferences so that you can tell when that is!
- You may team up, if you so wish.
- You may be part of multiple teams, if you so wish.
- You must include a list of the named quests you used in a Read Me file in the game folder OR someplace on the game page.

- Your game must have at least 10 of the named quests below.
- Your game can have no main quest, or something short. The main component must be the quests, though.

The Quests
Pick at least ten of the below names to base ten of your quests on. You may have more than ten quests total, or exactly ten, but a requirement of the event is to have ten quests within your game based on the quest names/titles below.

+ Blood on the Snow
+ The Ballad of the Grey Man
+ Suzy's Catastrophic Day
+ Oops! Suddenly... Cthulhu!
+ The Good, The Bad, and the Etc.
+ Where-ever I Lay My Head
+ Any Port in a Storm
+ Vape Me!
+ The Wrong Bees
+ The Case of the Empty Coffin
+ Midnight Rendezvous
+ Visions and Voices
+ The Last Dancer
+ Dark Side of the Road
+ Curses and Curls
+ The Shopping List
+ Her Sigh
+ Wendigo Mountain
+ Abigail Road
+ Luxuries of Lamplaw Lookout
+ A Twisted Beauty
+ Oops! Suddenly... Cthulhu! Part II
+ Twin Souls
+ The Mystery of the Missing Misao
+ Flowers at Fanninglow Fen
+ The Terrific Tale of One-Legged Lon
+ A Grave Remembrance
+ The Mistress and Her Cicisbeo
+ The Diamond of Gugglebug Gulch
+ Rune of the Moon
+ Ye Olde Guitar of the Blood God
+ The Toprock Narratives
+ The Downrock Diatribes
+ Power Moves and Freezes
+ Kitten Kabootle
+ Precognitive Dissonance
+ Chaos Emerald Weapon
+ Bone of Contention
+ Lord Jim: A Tale
+ Centaur for Disease Control
+ Fedora the Explorer
+ Temporal Pair of Socks
+ The Dragon, the Witch and the Wardrobe Malfunction
+ A Bridge Over Trolled Waters
+ Good Knight, Sweet Prince
+ The Littlest Megabiologist
+ The Dog Who Cried 'Woof!'
+ There's Snow Stopping Us Now!
+ On the Hills of Hervanen
+ Bandits in Bunkaloo Bush
+ All's Well That Ends Well
+ The Mourning After
+ rand(x) Time's The Charm
+ The Merchant of Riffolk
+ Of Dice and Men
+ Little Buoy, Blue
+ My Name, My Rules
+ "Normal" aka "Your Idea of Normal Hurts Me Deep, Deep Inside"
+ Help Me, Gobi One
+ The Golden Idol
+ A Stitch In Time
+ A Parade of Pandas
+ The Great Goatsby
+ Tex-Mex on the Beach
+ I Know What You Did Last Drummer
+ #blame(insertnameherebutesbyworksbestby)
+ Money Talks
+ Witch Upon a Star
+ Hello, Is It Bee You're Looking For
+ Which Hour?
+ Paint it Black-ish
+ These Ain't The Right Trousers
+ Lit Green with Envy
+ The Miracle on Ice
+ Three Crowns, One Euro
+ Dude, Where's My Griffin?!
+ Blackhawk's Down
+ The Gretzky Escape
+ Not Just Another Sidequest



Submission
To submit your game to the event, follow these directions:
- Sign up for this event.
- Create a Game Page when you have enough information about your game to do so. (Please leave enough time for it to go through the queue and to allow for uploading/fixing/etc.)
- When your Game Page has been accepted to the site, upload your game to the game page.
- When your game has finished uploading, come to this page and hit the "Submit" button in the top-right corner.
- From there pick the download of that game and submit it. It should show up next to your name on the list of entries.
- If you have any questions or issues, about this, please PM Liberty before the end date.
- Make sure to include the Read Me file with the names of the quests you were inspired by in the download (or somewhere on the game page).


FAQs
How obscure can we be?
A little obscure, yeah, but not so obscure that people can't figure out where the idea came from on the list. You can fudge the spelling on some of the words, too, as long as it remains similar to the original. For example "Morning > Mourning".

Details

  • 01/21/2017 12:00 AM
  • 02/20/2017 02:00 AM
  • 10

Achievements

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Teams Members Entry
Crazuman
Doing nothing or hardly trying
I HOPE THIS TIME I'D HAVE ENOUGH TIME FOR FINISH THIS FREAKIN' GAME
Its cold and there are frostwolves out
Murder She Worf
Team Late to the Party
Team Name
This Team has Nothing Whatsoever to do with Dragons
We screwed everything up, but we're trying to fix it now, okay?
80 Hours of Optional Content
A CAT AND HIS CHEERLEADER
A Mechanical Garden
a series of disappointing events
Always late to the party
Aw Hell,l I might as well join... I got nothing better to do.
Can't think of a name
Cute Girls do Cute Things
Emag Retniw Memories
Gam Maek
Hecka Cool Boys Studio (Punk + Hekset: Buddy Cop Duo)
HexComet
how the heck am I making a cohesive narrative out of this
https://pics.onsizzle.com/Facebook-a212ce.png
I Love Sidequests
I mak gams therefore I join
Machine Hangar
Maybe I'll find time... mabe not... have some glitter meanwhile...
maybe someday sometime
Merk-antile
Oh but it's Klold out side!
Out questing, please come back later unless you want to join me
procedural quest generator
School, exams, and game making... I am not sure I can finish in time :(
Side by Side Warrior
Side Quest for Glory
Sidequest Lord
Simple RTP Game
Sir Questalot
Studio SaGa Q
Team (oh frick i accidentally lost all my motivation)
Team Blob of Game
Team Deckiller
Team FFX-2 Clone GOGOGOGOG
Team Name
Team Name Goes Here
Team Names Suck
Team Not Gonna Submit Anything
Team Probably Not Making Anything Again
Team Rat Race
TEAM SLACKER
Team, get it in
Team-a-ding-ding
The Weather Outside is Gam Mak
The weather outside is HOT AS HELL, let's make sidequests
We Have Slain the Dragon oh look a little girl lost her cat
When it's all over, we still have to clear up
Whoops I just failed

Posts

Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15170
and here i thought karsu and i's game was going to be the only beach game, then liberty and joser had to do it too... XD

i'm reminded of the overwatch christmas event stickers where the two australian guys fistbump each other while suntanning...

kevin, is there any way to include that portal as part of the title without it looking stupid? maybe make her smaller but coming out of the final O?
To be fair, mine's a desert oasis town.
Damn Joseph you're making a commercial selling game for this contest haha.

Making an RPG based around a beach can be very tempting. I got paid 500 bucks and was gifted a steam game when I did it. :excellent:
@Kevincalanor Personally, I like Nevermore better :D It has a more mysterious connotation, which makes it more intriguing to me. But it all depends on what tone you're going for, of course! If you decide to keep Nevermore, make sure to include a raven in there somewhere. ;D

@Caz Looks absolutely gorgeous! :D The character sprite wants a bit more contrast though - I feel like it should pop a bit more against the background, so that the player can see it better. :)


Progress on my town's map, but it's taking ages. I'm trying to speed up the process by being less fussy about details (for now), but I'm really glad we have an extension for the deadline. :D




Drawing the maps screen by screen leads to some proportion mistakes - I accidentally made the Inn monstrously huge xD - but it's a nice learning experience. :) Five more screens will complete the town, and then I'll make some screens for the immediate surroundings.
There must be some mistake, Pica-Ludica. I don't see any beaches in your screenshot.
author=kentona
There must be some mistake, Pica-Ludica. I don't see any beaches in your screenshot.


There will be a lake shore near the town - that's sort of like a beach, right? :D
While you're at it, make sure you give a beach to the beach.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15170
pica, as long as walkways are perfect 1:1 i don't think the rest matters. do what looks good, not what makes sense if you canvas it together.
author=JosephSeraph
i think im gonna tinker with them a bit more but... it's gonna be an ABS and they feel too static, so i'll probably need running sprites as well. I wanted sprites that tilt their heads and bodies like on SaGa Frontier and Legend of Mana, but that's (surprisingly) 3D, so I guess I shouldn't push myself that hard... (I'm NEVER gonna achieve the same level of foreshortening and threedimensionality as actual 3D sprites rendered with a pixel finish, so there's no point)

I'm gonna aim for a bit more organicity on the running sprites, though. Then there's attack sprites, spell uses, hurt sprites, enemies, maps to draw, battle animations... lol
I am using a 3d model for mono, but the very thought of applying a pixel-finish over it, for every animation, for each frame... it already triggers my procrastination. Also... I probably would have to learn how to properly pixel-art, there's that too.

Had this imported model and some (self-made)animations from a mod, so I dusted it off and got some jury-rig going.

I feel like I'm making a newb question but what you mean by ABS? (at least I know what google will deliver me this time around.)

Anyhow, they are looking awesome already, doubt you'll have any opposition regarding best visuals x3
Good luck with all those animations o/

author=Craze
is there any way to include that portal as part of the title without it looking stupid? maybe make her smaller but coming out of the final O?
Did some tests but the sprite it's too narrow so it ends up looking silly. tried and merge with the 'O' instead, but something seems off.

I will experiment with some other fonts to see if something sticks.

author=Pica-Ludica
@Kevincalanor Personally, I like Nevermore better :D It has a more mysterious connotation, which makes it more intriguing to me. But it all depends on what tone you're going for, of course! If you decide to keep Nevermore, make sure to include a raven in there somewhere. ;D
That's part of the indecision x3
Nowhere makes more sense with the game premise and as the relic name, but it's too much of a "dictionary word" there's some serious lack of magic in it, Nevermore has lots of it, but it sounds a little too grim/dark themed to the game's ambience.
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
author=kentona
There must be some mistake, Pica-Ludica. I don't see any beaches in your screenshot.


Life itself is a beach.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15170
it's off because of the strip where the O is fading away but making the girl darker. try combining it as a single mask? i don't think it'll look like a Q, especially not with the full title below
ESBY
extreme disappointment
1238
author=Pica-Ludica
nice rtp use
Isrieri
"My father told me this would happen."
6155
I want to show off too!

Open Question: What sort of dungeon does this look like it will be?

pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32388
@Seiromem, Temple.
I'm surprising myself by being awfully productive. So far my Steam RPG Maker time count is at 45 hours, and only a handful of those are afk hours.

I was fully expecting to pull a kentona, but this old dog has gotten his second wind!

I hope everyone is as excited as I am at the prospect of being able to rearrange the furniture in a game.
@Isrieri A bank, I'd say - maybe for a bank heist? :)

@Link I' *love* rearranging furniture in a game :D (I wish it were as easy in real life - I'd be doing it all the time!)
I am with Pica Pica!

REARRANGING FURNITURE, COUNT ME IN!


Imagine the map as FFX's Sphere grid, except less fancy and you can only move certain steps.
No, I am not being lazy with mapping, why do you ask.

Seriously though, testing the Chipset, converting and learning how to map in RMMV takes quite a while to get used to. I am glad I can still keep this low res look.

I'll get rid of the caterpillar system. This was for testing.


@JosephSeraph
The sprites looks real good imo. The top left and right diagonal animation shouldn't be too hard to create (I am pretty sure no one noticed they look off sometimes).

Since you mentioned SaGa though - while I am not sure this could help - I remember there was SaGa Frontier chars made into sprites which are surprisingly well made.
I don't remember much except it probably comes from sagaoz, romancing saga 3 hack.
the sprite was shown in gamefaqs by some poster, but it has been a few years back.

I don't remember if it has that 3/4 look though, probably not.
Isrieri: Spa dungeon!