Scary Monsters

[Ryne]

An idea I had would be to make the world randomly generated on a small tile grid for placing trees and plants and buildings. Then use the LuAstar class to make sure all the important areas are accessible from all the other ones. (So it doesn't generate a world that is unplayable) At least that's how I'll make my game if I ever sit down and actually code something.. I CAN'T DECIDE WHAT TO MAKE!!!!! I should make a poll thread and then just go with the choice everyone chooses.

Anyway, back to your idea. I really can't wait to see what you do make. Even if it's a starting prototype with a world to walk around in. I want to see your artwork in action!

Haha, thanks. I'm going to start working on a few enemies. I sort of have this idea that the world is rather primitive, though the character can find crazy shit. Kind of like the apocalypse happens, everyone dies, the world plunges into an ice age, all the cities go to shit, the world reset's itself and THEN our primitive player somehow comes into being.

That way the world is mostly trees and small settlements, but the player could be walking through some desert and find an oven sticking out of the ground and be curious of what it is.

[SoggyWaffles]

This is definitely a project i can get behind. I love the artwork, the minimal settings and bold colors.

Questions:

1. What would you guys like to see in this game? (creature/structures?) I assume some of you are looking at these shots and imagining things, so let me hear it!

2. Would you like to see a set storyline, or rather be dropped into the world to simply explore with minimal explanation?

I've always wanted to see a game that had elements like the old Tamagotchi games. Where creatures start off as blobs and slowly form into something neat. I could see a creature that follows the player around but always stays back, out of reach. It would add to the element of "what the?" that I think this game might be heading toward. So as the character progresses along the creature following "grows" based on events in the game. It would be nothing more than a representation of the players experience. As far as coding that... get Taehl to do it, seems to be up their alley

Also, I like the shadows the elements cast. I think a large unseen creature that flies and casts a large shadow would be cool and kinda ominous and the other ground creatures run from the shadow.

As for story line, I agree with what others say, no real story line. As the player progresses they *could* find clues about their surroundings, but they won't be obvious or necessarily meaningful. I'm looking forward to an demo or maybe even just a video. I also wish I knew more, so I could be of some help, OH WELL!

[Taehl]

1. What would you guys like to see in this game? (creature/structures?) I assume some of you are looking at these shots and imagining things, so let me hear it!

Gameplay, then a demo.

2. Would you like to see a set storyline, or rather be dropped into the world to simply explore with minimal explanation?

I'd prefer the minimal thing, especially in a procedural world. But what would be /amazing/ is a procedurally-generated story.

I've had a few ideas about changing the seasons as you play, so that 2 weeks would equal a year. [...] So if you don't play for a week, you come back to a different world.

Code: Select all

-- determine in-game season from real-life date, with realtime 2 weeks equalling 1 in-game year
-- returns two numbers: an integer 1-4 (the season) and a decimal between 0 and 1 (exactly how far into that season we are)
function getSeason()
	return math.modf(((os.time() / 302400)-1) % 4 + 1)
end

-- example of using those numbers
function natureGenerator()
	local season, day = getSeason()
	
	-- assuming you want month 1 to be the start of winter
	if season < 1 then
		-- it's winter, make snow
		if day > .7 then
			-- start making the snow melt
		end
	elseif season < 2 then
		-- it's spring, make green stuff
		if day < .2 then
			-- it's still chilly, so use some colder greens and shadows
		elseif day < .5 then
			-- higher chance of rain
		elseif day > .8 then
			-- everything should be about done blooming by now
		end
	elseif season < 3 then
		-- it's summer, use warm colors
		if day > .4 and day < .6 then
			-- if you've ever been to Florida, you'll agree this is the most wretched part of the year
		end
	else
		-- it's fall, time for naked trees
		if day > .8 then
			-- make a first little snowstorm or something
		end
	end
end

[Ryne]

Haha, thanks for the example. I'll be looking back to this post when the time comes. I think I'll do up some screens of different seasons to show you guys.

Thanks for the replies!

[felix24]

the artwork is lookin' great! i agree with the others in that an open world without main story missions would work well. i think it would be cool to hide snippets of the world's history to random locations that the player can find and piece together as they play the game. these might be old books, paintings, newspapers etc. maybe when they find them all they reveal a secret location that contains some mega items or something. also i like the idea of having the seasons in the world change based on real time.
keep up the good work

[Larsii30]

the way you let the player show on the world looks really cool.
Also the strong colours are great.

I think it should be an open, random generated world. For my opinion there are two ways you could now design your gameplay I think.

First: You could let the player be the player What I mean(with some fantasy): The player look through the eyes of the higher world guard, who looks over the land and interact by mouse input.
Second: The player is part of the little world (as a sprite) and run through it with key input.

This with some cool puzzles and some bad guys whould be reaally awesome

[Ryne]

all that stuff

How did I scroll past your post earlier without seeing it. Anyway, awesome suggestions. It's really funny that you brought up tomagatchi because I was actually working on another project that was like a super-advanced tomagatchi.

It was kind of like a social experiment, where the game would be run from SD card's and the only way to progress was to give your SD card to a friend and allow your creature to "live" on another persons system.

What I'm trying to say is, I've definitely got (and always had) tomagatchi in mind.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Will post back with more updates. Refuse to give up on this one.

[Ryne]

Just some updates.

Ideas:

- Player can gain a shovel (from the NPC "Grave Keeper") which can be used to dig single tiles across the entire map.
- Player can gain an axe (from the NPC "Lumberjack") to cut down trees which can be used to access normally inaccessible areas.
- Player can be rewarded with clothing, and the above items for helping certain npc's in game.
- Player can gain the ability to "push objects" later in the game, once they age and become "stronger".
- NPC's can spawn at "random" with multiple agenda's, like needing help finding something, or doing a quick task. There won't be a lot of NPC's, but the ones that are in the game can be found anywhere.

Oh yeah, green trees.



I'm still working hard on colours. I really want to start programming but I can't bring myself to do it unless the art is right. Let me know what you guys think.

[Larsii30]

simple and nice I think.

What is this ring on the left and the right ?

[Ryne]

simple and nice I think.

What is this ring on the left and the right ?

Just random structures. They do nothing at this point in time.