Pandora Pandora's Box

[DrCJBoduma]

Hi All,

Seeing as game editor is looking better and better thanks to the great work of WizardStan (link) I though it a good time to float my idea past people to see what they think/hate

I figure with game editor there will be lots of opportunities for nearly everyone to give game making a go, so rather than having lots and lots of disjointed efforts (good/bad/great/weird) what if there was some way to link these games with some kind of narrative in one big project.

So my idea is PANDORA'S BOX

The main idea is that a there is a main room or (set of rooms) with lots of different user created levels coming off them. So the player can wonder around the 'box' and go through the different doors to try and complete as many levels as they can, they then return to the main rooms.

Once complete a new set of level/s would then be swapped in.

Throw in a bit of storyline and done ;-)

The problem I have is that I'm not much of a programmer and am struggling to set up much of a framework.

Anyone fancy lending a hand ?

If it got up and running it would mean that lots more people would be able to contribute to gaming on the pandora and also could do this entirely from the pandora itself.

What do you think?

CJ

 

[Bampt]

The Levels connected to the main room, are they also in the same top view like when you are in the box?
Is this a top down shooter or more of a search for specific items in different rooms game? Or is the user able to throw in say jumpn run levels or shooter levels or small rpg levels?
Also the maximum number of doors will be limited within a preset "box", is the idea that every user makes a specific "box" with the levels attached, or is the idea to grow pandoras box a bit larger when new approved user created levels arrive?

 

[DrCJBoduma]

The Levels connected to the main room, are they also in the same top view like when you are in the box?
Is this a top down shooter or more of a search for specific items in different rooms game? Or is the user able to throw in say jumpn run levels or shooter levels or small rpg levels?
Also the maximum number of doors will be limited within a preset "box", is the idea that every user makes a specific "box" with the levels attached, or is the idea to grow pandoras box a bit larger when new approved user created levels arrive?

Hi Bampt,

The user created game rooms could be any type of game, although this would make it harder to keep the 'feel' of the game standard throughout. If there was a collection of sprites that people could share for top down shooter, jump and run, etc etc it would help (or at least the same main game borders) This is what would make the game so well suited to the pandora IMHO because it could be so varied from point and click games to text adventure, driving games. Once someone had made a level they could release the gamemaker file and it could be used as a template for other people to make similar but hopefully different levels also.

For the rooms I'd imagined that you could select the total basic game size on loading (depending on sd card size) either 4 rooms or 12 (as in the main room would have 4 doors each leading to another slightly different room with 4 doors) 36, 108 etc Once a player completes a level or levels and then returns to the game room to sleep or save or whatever, then upon waking all the completed games could be replaced my a new set of levels from the pack of levels they downloaded. (I picture it like the film 'cube' if you've seen it, with a moving 3d arrangement of boxes that can shift about and be replaced)

I also like the idea of there being some way from the played to rate the levels after they complete them and if possible for these scores/ratings to be pooled and then you could have little computer terminal next to each level giving info about it (time to complete, attempts success percentage, rating etc) and if you like a level you could assign it as a favourite and they will become available again as the story narrative develops.

CJ
(excuse the length)

 

[Bampt]

this would be like a multi game launcher with an archievement system,
which also includes a story that would develop itself further as you unlock more archievements...
I think you´ll need to pack those selection menues full with gameplay (like build a little aventure around it) but then
adding up new rooms has to be planned... Also if you have to complete more rooms for new story the rooms need to get harder as you advance, so all the games would need an standartized difficulty setting system (like in Pandora Panic for example).

 

[DrCJBoduma]

this would be like a multi game launcher with an archievement system,
which also includes a story that would develop itself further as you unlock more archievements...
I think you´ll need to pack those selection menues full with gameplay (like build a little aventure around it) but then
adding up new rooms has to be planned... Also if you have to complete more rooms for new story the rooms need to get harder as you advance, so all the games would need an standartized difficulty setting system (like in Pandora Panic for example).

Thanks for your feedback Bampt,

Yeah it would be like a launcher of sorts, but I think the set up still works. If it was the 12 room set up if a player completes say 4 of the easiest rooms then, next time, the game loads in 4 new levels to replace these completed rooms. The more difficult levels stick around and limit the amount of new levels in play.

For the narrative I was thinking after a certain number of rooms completed various actions take place in the main game rooms. e.g. can start to hack the computer system, open up new rooms/maintenance tunnels etc etc.

I've had a quick mess around with game editor and it seems achievable, but I fear my programming skills will quickly come unstuck, but with a little help this could really work.

CJ

 

[Bampt]

that is an interesting difficulty system you have there, with this every user gets his own personal difficulty setup.
If the ranking system would spit out the best score on first try the game would be declared as easy.

But you´ll need some amount of different small games that go with your ranking system first, the cube setting around would be the smallest problem, maybe you could set up a compo at some game editor forums to get the project rolling?

 

[DrCJBoduma]

Thanks again for your feedback
I'm away for a few days but on my killer train journey I might attempt to knock together a more complete attempt at the mail level bits.
I'm struggling to work out how I could implement the room changing idea though. Would. I assign every level made a unique code and the select that from a master list somewhere?