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HOW DO I MAKE THE STUDENT/APPRENTICE PERIOD FUN TO PLAY?
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JoelMB12
0
JoelMB12
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CloseMost time I see it done in games it skipped or Is done in a montage. I want make it the interesting adolescent period of character life. Does any one have advice to make this fun or playable in game, at the same time showing the passing of time?
SnowOwl
5188
Why do you even need to use something as cliché as this? Try to write it out and voila, you've done everyone playing your game a great favour. It's a shitty timefiller in most games and TV-shows anyway.
JoelMB12
0
I not aim it be cliche. I want make period of learning interesting before they wonder on there own. Its not supposed to be time Filler but period of character development. I focus on little things like the first day with his master/teacher/mentor or when got his first drink or won first hand cards, maybe time was seduce by old mistress cross the street. Along with/classes/learning?
JoelMB12
0
I want to make as fun as possible considering it going to be the first quarter of the game. Maybe it can done like in game true love where manage work with play?
Avee
5794
I don't see any inherent problem here.
Just make sure most of the content and tasks are not too repetitive and are all relevant to the rest of the plot. If done right it can actually be quite interesting to know how a character grew up and what significant events contributed to shaping up their personality.
Just make sure most of the content and tasks are not too repetitive and are all relevant to the rest of the plot. If done right it can actually be quite interesting to know how a character grew up and what significant events contributed to shaping up their personality.
RyaReisender
200
If we are talking about RPGs, I must say that it incredibly frustrates me when a game doesn't start with combat right away and you have to read tons of text.
But a student / apprentice period doesn't necessarily need to be all talk and reading books. There are ways to get it interesting. Like your sensei asking you to clear out the rats in the basement.
But a student / apprentice period doesn't necessarily need to be all talk and reading books. There are ways to get it interesting. Like your sensei asking you to clear out the rats in the basement.
Shinan
4314
I think a gameplay montage isn't all that bad of an idea. You do a couple of "slices of life" during the apprenticeship. Showing important moments and relationships that happened during this time while also showing the passing of time. And you can do it in quick gameplay segments. Ranging from practicing whatever skills are being trained to doing a fetch quest for the mentor and meeting an important character while doing so.
Another way to do it is also to skip it and then show it in flashbacks as the main story progresses and when it is relevant to the story at hand. So just before meeting a character you know you are shown a flashback of meeting that character previously in the training.
Basically I'm just saying that montages aren't too bad.
Another way to do it is also to skip it and then show it in flashbacks as the main story progresses and when it is relevant to the story at hand. So just before meeting a character you know you are shown a flashback of meeting that character previously in the training.
Basically I'm just saying that montages aren't too bad.
nurvuss
958
Have you ever played SaGa Frontier 2? There's a few chapters based around the character Gustav's apprenticeship as a blacksmith. They're very brief, mostly of his master teaching him how to forge a blade. There's an action chapter in which he goes to try out his new sword fighting slimes in a cave and ends up fighting some smugglers or something. I think that's probably all you need.
If you're going to make this the first 1/4 of your game, I suggest adding more bits than just apprenticeship scenes. Show us the character's life outside of this.
I don't mean to nitpick but you're very quick to turn to the forums with multiple topics about the game you're working on. I suggest putting some hours into the game first, then sticking to one topic and posting when you really hit a stumbling block. I encourage you to try finding a solution or seeing what works on your own and then hitting up the community when you really need help or refinement tips.
If you're going to make this the first 1/4 of your game, I suggest adding more bits than just apprenticeship scenes. Show us the character's life outside of this.
I don't mean to nitpick but you're very quick to turn to the forums with multiple topics about the game you're working on. I suggest putting some hours into the game first, then sticking to one topic and posting when you really hit a stumbling block. I encourage you to try finding a solution or seeing what works on your own and then hitting up the community when you really need help or refinement tips.
author=RyaReisender
There are ways to get it interesting. Like your sensei asking you to clear out the rats in the basement.
I've once saw it done fairly well in one Czech RPG made in 2k3 (found translation online, but lost both the game and link due to a format, if someone knows the game, please let me know!).
Game character was magic apprentice. As game had day/night system completed with hours (one minute was equal to 10 seconds from what I remember), learning took place from 8 to 14 (this was Czech rpg, hence 24hour clock) and each learned "spell" (some took few in-game days to learn due to character's general silliness and misspeling the spells) was completed with nice animation (dunno if battleanim or pictures as I didn't know what RPG Maker is at the time so had no means of opening "those weird files") and then some kind of test, some very creative (there was magic that when used on map could switch any lever if it lined with character's sight, can't imagine how hard it was to code that on 2k3, the test? get through labyrinth that changes and you have pull levers, most of them unreachable, to get to the exit of each room).
After school, you could hang out in town and there were all sort of activities you could do, many of them available only once in a while, whole town was so alive!
Man, I wish I'd at least remember name of this game. Never got around to finishing it as save file got corrupted.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
If I have to clear rats out of one more basement I will burn down a forest. No lie.
I think you could make the gameplay work by having the teacher take you on a quest so you can see him inaction. Or maybe having you follow him on a quest without his permission, and he has no choice but to take you along then. Your teacher is hired to rescue a kidnapped child or something, and brings you along. Then you could play through the dungeon with two party members: the very weak main character and the much stronger teacher. This would make the battles fun. Then the teacher would leave the party eventually and the hero would be by himself.
Obviously making the player sit through years worth of studying and practicing, with no enemies, isn't going to be fun if you only have standard RPG gameplay. You could make it into a simulation game, though. It would need to be something that continued through the entire game, if you did that.
I think you could make the gameplay work by having the teacher take you on a quest so you can see him inaction. Or maybe having you follow him on a quest without his permission, and he has no choice but to take you along then. Your teacher is hired to rescue a kidnapped child or something, and brings you along. Then you could play through the dungeon with two party members: the very weak main character and the much stronger teacher. This would make the battles fun. Then the teacher would leave the party eventually and the hero would be by himself.
Obviously making the player sit through years worth of studying and practicing, with no enemies, isn't going to be fun if you only have standard RPG gameplay. You could make it into a simulation game, though. It would need to be something that continued through the entire game, if you did that.
Take this quote from Dan Harmon's Story Structure 104: The Juicy Details. You may find it really useful.
4. "Search" - THE ROAD OF TRIALS
Christopher Vogler calls this phase of a feature script "friends, enemies and allies." Hack producers call it the "training phase." I prefer to stick with Joseph Campbell's title, "The Road of Trials," because it's less specific. I've seen too many movies where our time is wasted watching a hero literally "train" in a forest clearing because someone got the idea it was a necessary ingredient. The point of this part of the circle is, our protagonist has been thrown into the water and now it's sink or swim.
In Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell actually evokes the image of a digestive tract, breaking the hero down, divesting him of neuroses, stripping him of fear and desire. There's no room for bullshit in the unconscious basement. Asthma inhalers, eyeglasses, credit cards, fratty boyfriends, promotions, toupees and cell phones can't save you here. The purpose here has become refreshingly - and frighteningly - simple.
In Romancing the Stone, Michael Douglas cuts the heels off of Kathleen Turner's expensive shoes with a machete. Then he throws her suitcase off a cliff. If she's going to continue to survive in this jungle, she literally needs to drop her excess baggage and lose the fancy pants.
In Die Hard, John McClaine is advised by a terrorist to whom he earlier showed mercy: "The next time you have a chance to kill someone, don't hesitate." John shoots him several times amd thanks his corpse for the advice. The cop has begun to fall away, piece by piece, revealing his inner cowboy.
The man in the pouring rain opens his trunk, revealing a pile of laundry and fast food garbage. He tries moving it around, but finally his frustration takes over and he begins tossing things over his shoulder, emptying the contents of his trunk on the side of the road.
We are headed for the deepest level of the unconscious mind, and we cannot reach it encumbered by all that crap we used to think was important.
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