Release Multiventure (RPG project) - need suggestions

[SiegfriedCroes]

I have this game idea for some time, actually I have had a million game ideas for the past few years, I have tried a few times to do something with them but it never really turned out as I wanted. I always had windows in my mind as the platform but when I heard of the Pandora I thought it was more interesting to program/make a game for it. Let me explain my idea (Just to point out, I know this idea is a bit, maybe even too ambitious but... oh well ).

There is a game from Nintendo called Animal Crossing (I will refer to this as AC from now on), for the people who don't know it it AC is a simulation game where you move to a new town where you have a small house and meet with a bunch of animal neighbours. There is no real goal in the game, you have to think of one yourself. There are a lot of things to do, you can go fishing, catch insects, dig up fossils (for the museum), do tasks for your neighbours, plant (fruit)trees, earn money to buy furniture for your house, design clothes, etc. (for more info on AC (DS version) -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Cro ... Wild_World). The people that know this game also know there's also a Wii version that game out not so long ago. I was looking forward for this new one. I played it's two predecessors and they were both awesome although both were had the quality of a n64 game (as the one for Gamecube was a N64 port and well, the DS is more or less a n64 in terms of power). So with the Wii version they could do a lot more than they had done ever before! on forums I and a group of others discussed and fantasize about the features of this new version...

But then, at E3 they showed the game and it just looked almost exactly as the DS version, they just put a smooth modifier on al models to let them look less N64-like. So many good ideas I had, and none of them where actually in the game... AC for Wii is not the game that it was meant to be, and because of that I want to proof that I can do better, better in terms of delivering something new instead of releasing almost the same game, just to be played it on another, newer system.

Maybe you already know Animal Crossing, maybe you don't but already checked Wikipedia. Maybe you like it already, maybe (I'm almost sure) you think it's a stupid kiddy game, well that is what I want to do better. I would want to make a game that is much more than only a copy of AC, a game that people want to play because I gave them the chance to decide what this game looked like and what it features are. Maybe you want it to have some RPG elements, maybe a open world or places to visit like a forest/mountains/cave (opposed to only a town in AC). For so long I have thought about making games, there is no game that can do everything an that's also not the thing I want (and can do) but I want to make a game you as a gamer will like, a gamer imagined by the community for the community!

...

Okay, back to reality! What do yoyu guys think, would you want a game like this, something like AC but but with other features (and less kiddy?). Okay, I know, If you have read this far you sure are thinking that I'm crazy and naive to think that I could make such an ambitious. But what do I care! I have the motivation and I hope there are some people that keep me motivated. I would just begin with something small and expanding that.

What do you guys think, would you want a game like this, what would you add to this idea. I don't know if I will ever be able to create a game like I and you want it to be, but I do want to know what “the perfect” game would be like. Also, to make it just a bit more likely that I can make this game it will be in 2D, and not 3D (as I would actually want it to be but would make it even more impossible to make than it already is).

Animal crossing would be the main game it's based on but feel free to name other games you like.

(Oh yeah, and just to note, I am not mad, just creative)

 

[Alpha2]

Re: A game idea - are you interested?

On the subject of the game I'd say something on the level of earthbound would feel about right, not to childish but still simple enough not to be over burdened with angst a bishonen pretty men with giant swords (not that there's anything wrong with that). It'd also work well in a simple 2D visual sense. Something like SNES Zelda graphics would be easy enough to produce without being too simple and yet cool looking enough to be attractive to the eye.

But then the thought springs to mind that a game like AC has ludicrous amounts of scripting to offer as many objectives and things to "do" through out the life of the game that it'd take either a super human imagination for a single human being or several human beings with an eye towards a common goal in writing the scenerios for the game without screating some sort of problem. But assuming it's deep enough and has enough character as well as simply being fun to play I cant see it not being a good idea.

 

[lulzfish]

Re: A game idea - are you interested?

I don't like games that are too open-ended.
I use games for escapism... Life is open-ended, and I want a mystical box of text to tell me what to do.

And by 'other features' I'm thinking ... tanks? Jet fighters?

Like, most sandbox games like SimCity and AC are boring. I want a sandbox where you kill people. Maybe. I don't know what I want.
Want is a hash function, you have to make the game before I can decide whether I liked the idea.

But you should definitely at least try.

 

[Prometheus]

Re: A game idea - are you interested?

I'm just dropping in to voice my support and wish you the best of luck here. I absolutely adore Animal Crossing: Wild World for the DS (it's a superb game, and I would highly recommend it to someone looking for something a little different to pass the time with ), and I too was thoroughly disappointed in Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City/Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii.

I'd like to give just one suggestion, if I may: Please don't make one of the enormous mistakes that Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City made, by designing the game around the assumption that everybody who plays it will be using the internet-related functions. Animal Crossing: Wild World for the DS did not make this assumption, it is a much stronger game for it, and you lost nothing from the experience even if you never played it with other people over the internet.*




*For those unfamiliar with the games, Animal Crossing: Wild World had some internet play stuff as an option. You could visit the towns of friends in this way (this was always interesting, as the town which your character moves to is randomly generated when you begin to play for the first time - I have never seen two even remotely similar), your animals could move away either to the towns of friends or strangers, sometimes you would receive promotional items in the "mail" to put in your house, and if you wrote a message in a bottle and threw it out to sea, it could randomly be washed up on the beach of any other player (well, any other player who plays online) anywhere in the world (the tutorial warned players, in an in-character way, to be careful what they wrote to their neighbours or in bottle-notes for safety's sake, which was a nice touch). However, the designers clearly realised that not everybody would use or want to use the internet-related functions, and therefore the game stands on its own without these features (that is to say, they are simply a nice bonus, and their being there does not add nor take away anything from the experience). Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City is the complete opposite, and they even added dialogue (which some of your neighbours will occasionally throw at you) in which a character will comment on how nobody in town has anything to say (the instance I saw of this, which I saw a couple of times because AC:LGttC has very very little dialogue, actually outright stated that it was "boring around here"!) and how you had better start playing with people via the internet if you want things to become more interesting. It is a horrendous design flaw, and incredibly disappointing to anyone who played the fantastic DS title (which had a lot more to do, and a lot more amusing dialogue... actually, it had a lot more dialogue in general).


EDIT: Sorry, I forgot to add something! Please, please, don't worry about whether it is "kiddy" or whatever - that stuff is nonsense. In my experience, the only people who really tend to grouse about things being "kiddy", are quite often young'uns who don't yet "get" that something doesn't have to have blood and gore, or look photorealistic, to be viewed as fun (I will have to say something similar to what lulzfish says above: Life has those things, and video games are quite often about escapism. :lol: ). Also, if such a game even looked half as nice as Animal Crossing itself looks (and it does - I do really like the "country doll" style of the player characters, and a lot of the animal designs), I'd be a perfectly happy gal.

 

[Alpha2]

Re: A game idea - are you interested?

Sounds more like laziness/baddevitus to me. I mean seriously, who buys a Wii to play online? Sure the option should be there as it is for all modern systems but the whole selling point of the wii (besides the ridiculously gimicky wii-mote) is the inhouse experience with multiple people in the same room.

 

[SiegfriedCroes]

Re: A game idea - are you interested?

Thanks for the comments already!

@ Alpha2: I had something similar in mind in terms of visual style, something that looks good but is easy to create, Maybe even limited in palette colors. I'm "an artist" so don't worry (did some sprites for Pandora Panic). You are also right about the fact that there will be alot of scripting work but as I said I will start small and expand.

@ lulzfish: interesting to here that there are also people that don't like open-ended games, I myself love it. So what you actually want is some action, some fighting, although I would rather kill monsters but humans are also a possibility.

@ Prometheus: Didn't even know AC Wii was that bad, don't worry, I think online features would be the last features to be implemented, if they would be in he first place. Also just to clarafy myself, I also don't see Animal Crossing as a kiddy game, I would rather call it a (cute)japanese style. But because a lot of people call it kiddy and don't like it, I will be doing a different style.

@ Alpha2: The Wiimote is only gimmicky because of the developers, if they would just give me a chance for making something

EDIT: Here a screen of an rpg I once wanted to make, With the same idea in mind as this game, What would you think of a graphics style like this, ofcourse, the engine I used for this had a 320x200 resolution, I will have more than twice on the pandora so I can mak the characters more detailed! I could also use more colors for them as for this game the palette was limited to 16 colors.

 

[lulzfish]

Re: A game idea - are you interested?

I want to do something cool in a game like flying some sort of aircraft or killing something.
Games that are extremely open-ended tend to have no gameplay other than "you socialize with people. It's super-effective!", and they just don't hold my interest. It's too much like real life.

edit: Maybe if you had like a Shadow of the Colossus landscape, but with something other than giant monsters? Where the goal is to explore the game world instead of ... whatever the goal of Animal Crossing is. Fractal landscapes would be great for this, but they have their limits. Something like a fractal landscape with a traditional heightmap super-imposed in certain areas for artistic control might work, but I'm thinking 3D here, so:

 

[SiegfriedCroes]

Re: A game idea - are you interested?

yeah flying is cool, but only in a 3D game, I don't see it being cool in a 2D rpg style. Something that is not like real life? I'll keep that in mind.

 

[lulzfish]

Re: A game idea - are you interested?

That's the thing, a top-down 2D game like that is a bit restrictive. Have you considered something like limited a 3D background [with an isometric view, probably] with 2D sprites?

 

[Prometheus]

Re: A game idea - are you interested?

@ Prometheus: Didn't even know AC Wii was that bad

Ooh, it is. :lol: But I could ramble all day about that. I'm sure it will be much worse once the online services one day in the future, inevitably, cease to be available, too.

don't worry, I think online features would be the last features to be implemented, if they would be in he first place.

Good to know. As you can probably tell from my (awfully long) post, I don't mind online features so long as they're 1: implemented well, and 2: don't detract from a game.

Also just to clarafy myself, I also don't see Animal Crossing as a kiddy game, I would rather call it a (cute)japanese style. But because a lot of people call it kiddy and don't like it, I will be doing a different style.

*nods* Fair point. I understand that.

EDIT: Here a screen of an rpg I once wanted to make, With the same idea in mind as this game, What would you think of a graphics style like this, ofcourse, the engine I used for this had a 320x200 resolution, I will have more than twice on the pandora so I can mak the characters more detailed! I could also use more colors for them as for this game the palette was limited to 16 colors.

I like that. If you were able make the characters bigger as well as more detailed (which I'm guessing you'd be doing :lol: ), I'd say that it would be a perfect fit. (As an aside, one thing I like about the art-style in the Animal Crossing games is how easy on the eye it is, whilst still being interesting to look at. I've even managed to miss some details from time to time - it was only recently that someone pointed out to me that the type of *grass* generated in the GameCube version's towns is random too, for example. )

 

[gp2.eXe]

Re: A game idea - are you interested?

yeah flying is cool, but only in a 3D game, I don't see it being cool in a 2D rpg style.

"Oh... umm, Crono, your Epoch is not funny!"

 

[SiegfriedCroes]

Re: A game idea - are you interested?

@ lulzfish: It would be cool if I wouldd be able to do some effect like the Mode-7 3D effect in old racing games, or the overworld map in a lot of Snes rpgs like Final Fantasy 3 but not completely flat ofcourse, trees, character, ... as sprites standing out. something like this (just found it on the internet):

@ Prometheus: I'm glad you like it

@ gp2.eXe: With 2D rpg style I meant a top down view.

 

[Alpha2]

Re: A game idea - are you interested?

I agree, the Mode 7 style view is very helpful for producing an illusion of depth while still being 2D.

Open world games are a double edged sword. You have the freedom to go or do anything, but without proper incentive you get bored and progress slows to a crawl. Friends I know that were absolutely wrapped in AC were that way because a new situation always presented itself. If characters make the effort to contact you actively rather that sitting in one spot waiting for you to walk in their door, the game feels more lively and realistically compelling. But at the same time you want to give players the opportunity to explore otherwise all the interactivity you created for the open world goes untouched because of the rushed timetable your players are strapped to.

It's worth mentioning that "kiddie" doesnt always mean bad, the connotation sounds bad because of implied immaturity. Not that blood and gore are any more mature (overdoing it becomes downright silly) but gamers dont want to be talked down to. you can always make a story that family oriented or open to all ages and yet still mature enough that someone can feel they enjoyed themselves but only if you offer a sense of jeopardy, whether it's a life or death struggle or maintaining a relationship between characters.

 

[Kramy]

Re: A game idea - are you interested?

EDIT: Here a screen of an rpg I once wanted to make, With the same idea in mind as this game, What would you think of a graphics style like this, ofcourse, the engine I used for this had a 320x200 resolution, I will have more than twice on the pandora so I can mak the characters more detailed! I could also use more colors for them as for this game the palette was limited to 16 colors.

Am I the only one here that prefers this style of graphics to others?

More colours would obviously help, but I happen to like those teeny tiny cute yet undetailed FF sprites. ^_^

Edit:

If you want to do something like that, you're best off using the SGX in full 3D, then moving quads / "blobs" (always face "camera") around.

I'm not particularly attracted to that look. My eyes are immediately drawn to the tent, which doesn't look quite right. The thing is, if you make the tent match the tiles underneath, you lose detail and may have flicker/shimmer issues when moving around. (slight scaling does that)

 

[lulzfish]

Re: A game idea - are you interested?

Yeah, that could be a problem with introducing 3D. Anything that is supposed to touch the ground at multiple points such as a building or tent will also need to be 3D.

There's always orthographic isometry.

 

[Alpha2]

Re: A game idea - are you interested?

Though if you're making an RPG or something similar where spacial volume isnt that necessary then there's no reason a tent would need to be that big, or you simply draw only the front.

 

[lulzfish]

Re: A game idea - are you interested?

Yeah, that's what Golden Sun did for the overworld map. They used a large tilemap in Mode 7, then overlaid 2D sprites for the players and the towns / dungeons, which were small and clearly not intended to be realistically proportioned.

 

[Vorporeal]

Re: A game idea - are you interested?

Sounds cool. I'm with everyone on the Mode 7 style graphics - I've always been a fan.

(P.S.: The name of your topic should be changed to something more specific - what do you want me to change it to?)

 

[gp2.eXe]

Re: A game idea - are you interested?

Whoops! Posted here and forgot to write my impressions, LOL.
I quite like both of them, but i'm more leaned towards the Mode 7 style...

Yeah, that's what Golden Sun did for the overworld map. They used a large tilemap in Mode 7, then overlaid 2D sprites for the players and the towns / dungeons, which were small and clearly not intended to be realistically proportioned.

Had not seen it that way, it's a nice idea. Problem is, that works for overworld maps, but supossing he's trying to implement that look into the entire game then larger objects would become necessary, and that brings us back to the tent problem... (of course I don't know if he's gonna do it like that...)

@ gp2.eXe: With 2D rpg style I meant a top down view.

I know, I was just kidding. ^_^

 

[SiegfriedCroes]

Re: A game idea - are you interested?

I came to the conclusion that a mode 7 style would make the game more complicated than neccesary. Actually, I can't use mode 7 without using real 3D geometry. How will I ever make mountains or hills, even walls (especially walls that are not right in front of you). I don't know but I wonder if it would look any good to have sprite houses that only show their front... But we'll see, I think I would be able to create an interesting world in 2D, with the use of multiple layers for weather effects, cloud shadows,... (but I'm not going to exclude 3D right away either). Also because I'm a beginner in programming I would want it to be as simple as possible, writing a 2D game is in "no way" a problem for me but 3D would be something completely new (Although making the 3D models themself is not at all a problem, I got an A for "Low Poly modeling" at school ).

Also, thanks for the suggestions and feedback so far, with enough people interested I will stay motivated!

@ Vorporeal: I would say something like "Animal Crossing based RPG project - need suggestions", or maybe it's time the give this game a working title, would would you guys recommend?

EDIT: Just tried doing a character sprite 80x80 pixels, Looks oke but I think I will play around with the proportions some more: