Ob Iter

Recap on current situation
In my previous blog post, I mentioned that the foundation had been completed. A couple thousand hours of exhaustive work on creating the database for my game. Countless hours were also completed around character designs, story progression, graphics, and music. In all, I was ready to start actually making the game. In doing so, I realized that drawing the graphics of each single map took me an average of 10 hours, and that's not counting the game play overlay work. It would take 10,000 hours to make Ob Iter as I originally envisioned. So I became disheartened and shelved the project once again.

I still don't know if the game will ever see completion, but I think that the only way to give it a chance is to scrap the original concept. It is, after all, a 20 year old concept at this point. While it has evolved over the years, the core story progression may actually be a hindrance after all these years anyway. I need to blow up the concept and start fresh from a point where I can actually tackle the project.

So how do I do this?

Well, As I stated, the maps would take me 10 hours each to complete. This is in large part because of collision mapping, since I'm using per pixel movement. Interiors are much, MUCH easier. Walls are generally set on the box, so the only real collision mapping work is detail related, rather than every little corner of a wide open area. The new game design needs to be predominantly indoors.

This way I can spend less time on the actual mapping, and more time filling each map with content.

What about the concept?
Much of the database work can be retained. I can feature the same character designs I have already made. The same music and graphic assets still work. In fact, I can still tell the story I set out to tell if I wanted to. It's just the core A to B to C progression that needs to be scrapped. The world map and the designed route that the character takes through it needs to die.

A critical element to my original story is the the 'Dream World'. A closest comparable might honestly be the 'Ribbon' from Star Trek: Generations. What if I simply place the protagonist in a room. He has arrived in the 'Dream World' or 'Ribbon' with no memory of who he is or how he got there. No one else seems to remember either. They just know that they arrived one day and have each gone about dealing with it in their own ways.

What does become apparent is that they are living at the top of a 'Deep Dungeon'. The answers surely rest below, but most would rather settle into a comfortable new life on the first floor than risk life or limb to investigate the dangers of the lower levels.

Buried in the dungeon are memories of the forgotten world from which you came. Interacting with objects and people in every area will present choices that will affect the world around you.

I can then utilize the memories to tell the original story, or some adaptation of it, from the setting of 'Deep Dungeon'. I can focus cleanly on the battle system I worked so hard to tune over the years. It should take less time do do more because the big open world is gone. On the flip side, the world itself would be gone and replaced with a dungeon. That's not necessarily worse, being that big spaces can often be empty. There's focus in a situation where every screen has content.

At least, this is the best I have for ideas right now. ... And really, 'Dungeon Levels' also lend themselves very well to episodic release / added content / continuing story etc. I still wouldn't expect anything soon, as I have other projects on the go as well that are not game related. Still, I think it would be plausible to tackle the game this way.

So, eventually, ... probably soon, I will take a few days and really SEE how long it will take to build the game this way and then I'll have a better idea of if it stands a chance.