WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT? (GAME DEVELOPMENT EDITION)

Posts

author=LockeZ
You do not write text under your profile. Kentona writes text under your profile, if and when he decides to.

I am trying to come up with ways to make hallways less boring. This one is going to have stains on the floor, water damage on the walls, and the door to one of the offices is going to be full of bullet holes. I should probably keep a list of this kind of stuff so I can just go to it when I'm making an area and need doodad/layout ideas.


Don't forget dead bodies! Everyone needs a few dead bodies!

I might as well do the char/chipset conversion by hand. In the meantime, i can start fleshing out the plot. For one thing, my opening cutscene stinks horribly of cliche. (Oh, no, he was kidnapped. I better rescue him.)

Atoa's Custom battle system is amazing, by the way.
author=LockeZ
I am trying to come up with ways to make hallways less boring. This one is going to have stains on the floor, water damage on the walls, and the door to one of the offices is going to be full of bullet holes. I should probably keep a list of this kind of stuff so I can just go to it when I'm making an area and need doodad/layout ideas.


What kind of hallway? You mentioned office, which makes me think of bulletin boards, passive aggressive office notes, water coolers, and the occasional plastic bit of flora. I guess a window or two and associated blinds, depending on where the hallway is at.

I spent far too much time on that cutscene contest and dicking with graphics; I refuse to look at my tablet for about...five minutes, since I actually need to get working on OTHER graphics I said I'd do. ;~; I haven't made anything for my own game in ages, which is a shame since graphics are what I need to be working on for it! But then I spend all this time working on other things and by the time I have a free moment my wrist is all achey and I am tired of drawing.

HOW ANNOYING UGH

Anyways I am thinking about how the above has made me much more willing to look at nitty gritty number details. So right now I am thinking about stuff like the damage your average attacks do in relation to boss HP, how many turns it would take to beat them with just the physical attack, how your MP holds up in extended battling, etc.! All crunchy stuff I would otherwise be complaining about but right now I openly embrace all the calculator fiddling and jotting of notes.
I'm currently thinking about slamming my head into a large, incredibly dense, and thus hopefully very painful surface. I was explaining the main story for the rebuilt version of my Star Wars game to a friend of mine, and she pretty much rained all over my parade with "Well, there is a quest in The Old Republic that is a lot like that,"

Ugh, this is what I get for not playing MMOs, even when they have a license that I really enjoy.

This is also what I get for wasting the last two years working on the old broken version of my game, with the old Fischer Price level of storytelling it had, instead of starting to implement the new one as soon as I had it written.

She did explain a little more about the questline, and there might be enough differences to make it okay, but nobody is going to believe I came up with mine independently, which is really going to tick me off.
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
Motivation, "stick-to-it-iveness" (I hate that phrase), finishing things.

Is it just me, or is starting a game pure joy and finishing one almost pure misery?
finishing a game is ecstasy. it's the tedium in the middle that is killer.
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
By finishing I meant the actual work of not like, putting on the end credits and then releasing it to praise/adulation/egging.

Also thinking about the amount of time people (myself included) spend on fucking title screens (O.o).
I spent like no time on my current title screen. It also has an error in it that I've noticed since the day I first loaded it into RPG Maker, but haven't cared enough to fix yet. It's just a title screen.
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
I just got a guy in the Creative Commons to do my title and game over screens. BLISS.

(Well, it took a couple tries. The first guy I asked seemed to have talent, but what he made for me didn't demonstrate any of it.)
author=Killer Wolf
I'm currently thinking about slamming my head into a large, incredibly dense, and thus hopefully very painful surface. I was explaining the main story for the rebuilt version of my Star Wars game to a friend of mine, and she pretty much rained all over my parade with "Well, there is a quest in The Old Republic that is a lot like that,"

Ugh, this is what I get for not playing MMOs, even when they have a license that I really enjoy.

This is also what I get for wasting the last two years working on the old broken version of my game, with the old Fischer Price level of storytelling it had, instead of starting to implement the new one as soon as I had it written.

She did explain a little more about the questline, and there might be enough differences to make it okay, but nobody is going to believe I came up with mine independently, which is really going to tick me off.
Dear lord that is like the story of my life. Ah-hahahaha, I came up with what I thought were original (enough) plotty point things for my projects...aaaaaaand then I played another game on here that did pretty much the same thing and FFFFFUUUUUU--

But then I realized my strength lies not in my ability to come up with an original plot! LOL LIKE I COULD COME UP WITH A JRPG PLOT THAT HADN'T ALREADY BEEN DONE TO DEATH~
so yes I ended up focusing on my characters more and it's turned out pretty original? There is a plot twist that I have literally never seen done before outside of bad fan-fiction, so I'm hoping that'll be interesting enough!

So yes - focus on the characters! I know Solitayre wrote a really interesting article (review?) that mentioned Tales of Symphonia's groan worthy and ripped-off plot being saved by it's characters. ;w;
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
The idea that a plot is somehow in any way worse just because it's been done once before is mind-bogglingly foreign to me. Every plot you could possibly think of has been done before. When SWTOR did it, it had already been done six hundred million times before. So what?
chana
(Socrates would certainly not contadict me!)
1584
"Creative Commons" : well, my Lord, those beggars are good for nothing, except to serve us! ("creative commons"?! or is my english all wrong there?).
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
Hahaha. Creative Corner. That is what I meant to say.

You know. The forum below Videogames.

(The word you're thinking of is "commoners")


I just decided that the main character's house being ransacked isn't over the top enough. Should I:
1) Make it be in the process of being airlifted away
2) Put a smoking crater where it used to be
3) Have the villain use a Hell House Ray on it, turning it into a vicious house monster like the ones in FF7
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
1) Making shit pretty is hard work.
2) Aesthetically pleasing games are more satisfying to work on.
author=LockeZ
1) Make it be in the process of being airlifted away
2) Put a smoking crater where it used to be
3) Have the villain use a Hell House Ray on it, turning it into a vicious house monster like the ones in FF7


1) Is there a reason for that? Is there a reason for SHOWING that? Then go ahead.
2) I guess this is a direct consequence of 3); it seems to be the simplest of the 3. It's up to you, since as Max says, making crap look not like crap is a lot of work... but nice to do.
3) I there a reason for him to do that? Is it a house that 15 turns later summons a gazebo? Otherwise, I'm not interested :P

PS: I'm a fan of Chekhov's Gun :P
author=emmych
So yes - focus on the characters! I know Solitayre wrote a really interesting article (review?) that mentioned Tales of Symphonia's groan worthy and ripped-off plot being saved by it's characters. ;w;

Good point. There are a few character things I have in mind that I've never really seen a game do before. If I'm competent enough to pull them off, I think it could turn out really well.

author=LockeZ
The idea that a plot is somehow in any way worse just because it's been done once before is mind-bogglingly foreign to me. Every plot you could possibly think of has been done before. When SWTOR did it, it had already been done six hundred million times before. So what?

I know there are only seven original stories, and everything else is just a derivation or permutation thereof, but it still bothers me to see that something I came up with in my head, and thought of as mine, already exists, independently of me.
Well it's about how it's done I guess, not to mention the constraints of the medium (what hasn't been done in an RPG or even RM game yet?). Thinking about it bores me too much though.
You know what's funny, Killer?

Our Dungeon Master gave us an awesome campaign about 7 years ago. It was a rich experience, one I will always remember.

The plot? The show Fringe.

Which didn't come out until about 4 years ago; and we live in a different country. That doesn't speak English.

Who's gonna pay him royalties :(
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
author=Killer Wolf
author=LockeZ
The idea that a plot is somehow in any way worse just because it's been done once before is mind-bogglingly foreign to me. Every plot you could possibly think of has been done before. When SWTOR did it, it had already been done six hundred million times before. So what?
I know there are only seven original stories, and everything else is just a derivation or permutation thereof, but it still bothers me to see that something I came up with in my head, and thought of as mine, already exists, independently of me.
That is a form of psychopathy, I think.


author=Large
author=LockeZ
1) Make it be in the process of being airlifted away
2) Put a smoking crater where it used to be
3) Have the villain use a Hell House Ray on it, turning it into a vicious house monster like the ones in FF7
1) Is there a reason for that? Is there a reason for SHOWING that? Then go ahead.
2) I guess this is a direct consequence of 3); it seems to be the simplest of the 3. It's up to you, since as Max says, making crap look not like crap is a lot of work... but nice to do.
3) I there a reason for him to do that? Is it a house that 15 turns later summons a gazebo? Otherwise, I'm not interested :P

PS: I'm a fan of Chekhov's Gun :P
Well, I'm a fan of making patently absurd, ridiculously over the top action sequences. The reason for enemies to be at the house is to have some battles and introduce a certain aspect of the main character; the reason for doing it in such a crazy way is just to be as awesome and hilarious as possible.

In any case, no offense, but I think I'm going to try to do exactly the opposite of what you recommend. I think I can get away with doing both 1 and 3 if I set it up correctly. (House is airlifted away, then much later in the game you arrive at the storage facility it was taken to, only to find that it's come to life and get in a battle with it.) This is reflective of my general strategy for plot design: think of a basic idea, try to think of a crazier way of doing it, come up with several ideas I can't decide between, then finally combine them and use all of them.
I remember thinking one time that all creativity came from a communal sort of shared subconscious, a vast network formed by brainwaves, and that those who appear to be ahead of the curve (the innovators) are simply more attuned to this theoretical network.

Or, it could be possible that people with a shared pool of influences and experiences, will inevitably come to the same conclusions.

That was actually the plot for a story I was writing at one point. One character suffered a brain injury which allowed him to consciously tune into the "Networked Multi-Consciousness" and so he was able to "predict" all forms of innovation, and indeed direct the hive mind toward his own goals. Naturally, best intentions aside, he used the knowledge to become a sort of despot. The protagonists of the story were writers, artists, scientists, and mathematicians, and they set out to kill the despot. An unintended consequence of his death was a feedback spike through the entire NMC which shut it down, forcing people to think for themselves as opposed to reaching an unconscious hive mind consensus. Then it flashed ahead a few decades to show that it wasn't quite as uplifting an ending as it seemed.
chana
(Socrates would certainly not contadict me!)
1584
Wow, quite an interesting philosophical plot!