I have this really old game making software called "Game Maker" but it's not the same as the GameMaker you are all thinking of ... anyway ... even though it was soooo incredibly limited and incapable of producing much more than point and click adventures (except you can't even point and click, you have to use the keyboard) .. even though it was like that, there was something I really loved about it:
It had this level path and entrance/exit editor ... it was like an ever-expanding family tree that you could link back to the main path at any time. It's just too bad that ClickTeams' toolsets don't have anything like that. It would make designing a choose your path sorta game so simple.
Maybe sort of a web of levels, a set of placeholders, should be made, just telling where the path will lead to next in a pre-determined route, then add the levels in. This should be made in conjuction with the storyline, btw it might be a good idea to talk about that and leave most the coding ideas up to the main coder.
Also, It might be best to come up with a few Engines with easily altered values (to change jump height and other factors easily based upon the costume or weapon the character has) ... then once a few of those are built, vote on which one is best, and go from there.
There really needs to be a good foundation to build on for a group project, or it will just fade away and die.
Found that out the hard way with Abstract Soup. Everyone had tons of ideas, but nothing ever got worked on as an entire group. So while all these ideas are golden, they won't be of any use if there's nothing to add them to. "If you build it, they will come" In this case meaning, once there's a good engine to work off of, all the ideas will fall into place.
Blood of the Ancient One, Seen only as Shadow, Faster than Lightning, Fierce as the Greatest Dragon, Nearly Invisible, Floating in a Dream, Entered through the Demon Door, Destroyer of Evil in a Realm with a Red Sky Scarred, Who could I be ?
Neuro, I like your idea of water pressure-powered abilities, since this is steampunk after all. I also like how Sketchy brought back the lava idea, which would make it lavapunk: What would that look like though? What would it be made of? I also agree with the idea of multiple characters, but not so much about them have the same jump height and running ability, at least not in the beginning. There needs to be some exclusivity with these things, so that there will be incentive to use the other characters. Because of the fact that it may cause regret, however, it could also be done that the characters all are in a party, so you can use each one whenever. You would unlock them as you meet them in the story, and they would have hot-swapping. To prevent it from making the game too easy, though (by changing right before you die), it could be that they share percentages of health. The story could also force you to use a certain character at different parts in the game, and have everyone level up together (as they do in Chrono Trigger) so that you aren't totally screwed when this happens.
It might be too complicated, but it could be done that you either:
a) Pick worlds one by one, and go through each in the order you choose, but the difficulty ramps up as you beat a world. If you were to go to the jungle world (to bring back old examples) first, it would be relatively simple. However, if you were to go there as the second or last world, it would be harder. In this way, you could choose what order the worlds go in without ending up in a hard world first by accident. This would require greater amounts of code and more programmed level transitions.
b)Go to any world at any time, and simply have the enemies and certain parts of the levels be more difficult. This would be easier, but not nearly as inviting, nor fun.
I actually had a different idea for b, but I was watching Cash Cab, so I forgot.
The maximum amount of stats, in my opinion, would be HP, MP (or water), Atk, and Def. The minimum would be HP and MP or Atk. Defense would be unnecessary because increased HP would make it easier to survive (as defense would). Attack would be unnecessary because MP or water could be used to charge and strengthen attacks (for example, holding the button on a water gun could give longer-lasting or bigger blasts, make bigger water bombs, or cause more concussive blunt weapon attacks).
Abilities (and weapons) could be minimized by simply upgrading older weapons or abilities (as I believe Sketchy suggested) and subsequently the range of abilities could be increased by charging these weapons or abilities (as I alluded to earlier in this post).
Each character could come from a different area in the hub, and depending on which you pick, that would define what areas you initially have access to, then by completing one of those, you gain access to other areas of the hub, which leads to more areas.
The story could have certain substories for each area, that connect into a larger story as the game progresses. For example, one may go to the mountain world to find that it is actually a dormant volcano a villian wishes to reactivate. This would be a substory in which you attempt to stop this from happening. An example of how this would tie into a larger story could be that after completing the mountain world, a part of the larger story progresses where the villian reports that they have failed to a larger entity, who moves on to another part of the plot, and after 3 general areas (any 3 areas) another part of the larger story is revealed where the people of the hub world are attacked by the larger entity, which sidetracks the story to a point where you have to go back and help your native area, which could be where the party splits up.
Lots of writing! The story part will go in the story section of the forums, all right? I'll start those soon.
Both steam and lava would work pretty well together. Steam being the more common and cheap power source, and lava being expensive, used for advanced machinery. The materials used to contain lava would have to be pretty interesting too, and used elsewhere as protection from lava (armored enemies) or deadly weapons. Oh no, Hyper-Arkanium War Axes!
I think the minimal stats would be best. Health, MP (or pressure, steam, water, lava), and Attack are all that is needed. Maybe a 'Special' stat for each character's special ability. I agree with Adam that they be equal in platform ability, and varying only in stats and their special ability. Switching between characters I'm not really sure. Being able to instantly change seems kind of magical, maybe set locations (pressure tube transport system! ). Then again, instant change could give some kind of strategy - even if they had separate health. It would be like a party, if you die, the next one comes in - so it'd pretty much be the game's lives system. When everyone dies, you go back to a save point, or the hub or something. Or, we could have a mix. You activate the 'pressure tube' (or whatever) points, and these would pretty much be checkpoints. If you die, you go back to the checkpoint with the next character, or if you're fighting a boss, the next character simply jumps in (the next character could be set in a party order, or simply chosen from a little menu when you die). Then there would be major save points, where you can revive and heal party members.
What is everyone thinking for attacks? Melee? Ranged? Different (changeable) weapons? Character-specific weapons? Upgradeable and special weapons? I haven't given it any thought. I think the different characters having a signature weapon would be cool, though, and this would determine their attack style, speed, damage, range etc. Adds to their personality, too.
I'm thinking four weapon-specific characters- one fists, one guns, one longswords, and one staves. As for the character switching function, I think maybe to have a steam-powered teleporter that either self-charges or is charged from enemy drops. that way it can't be spammed so it has a limit but the strategy mechanic is still in place- ex only the hand one can open keypad doors, only the gun one can hit bullseyes, the sword guy can push heavy objects, and the staff guy can polevault. To make it more interesting, the players could reach bonus areas by spending a LOT of points to upgrade these skills, like a longer pole vault, a grappling hook, a signal jammer, etc. The open-world mechanic will be more easily enforced by allowing the players to go back and unlock a buncha secrets with their hard-earned points like hp/steam maximum increases or damage boosts. Maybe new character skins or minigames would be a good idea. The minigames would make it even easier for ppl not interested in side-scroller level design to contribute to the final product.
Vegeta? What does your mother say about my power level?
I've thought about features, so here's a list. I list engine and gameplay features separately. Engine features describe what the intended effect is, while gameplay features describes how the player would percieve/use them.
Engine features:
Moving platforms - Both horizontal and vertical. Pretty self-explanatory.
Thin platforms - You can jump through the bottom of them. Holding down + jump would let you fall through them.
Variable height jumps - Longer you hold jump, the higher you jump. Tapping jump results in a low jump. There should be a limit to how low you can jump, as well as how high.
Double jumps - Self-explanatory. Would be affected by VHJ.
Slopes - Jumping to climb over an anthill is soooo NES style.
Rope Swinging - Probably easier to do if it was a single fixed distance/rope length instead of having it be dynamic.
Swimming - There's likely going to be water, and lots of it. Doesn't have to be complicated, could be very simple. See gameplay note.
Variable water height - This could be very easy to do or quite difficuly, depending on how the swimming is setup.
Bouyancy - Some way of finding out how deep the character is in water. If their waist is below the water line, then their movement speed could be hampered. If their chest falls below the water line, then they would be swimming. If their head dips below the water line, then they are underwater. Combined with VWH, this would make for a more dynamic feeling swimming, and would allow for some interesting level design.
Gameplay features:
Pressure pack - Your character can find and be equipped with a pressure pack. This pack is lightweight enough not to affect their movement abilities, but heavy duty enough to contain quite a bit of pressure. What's inside? Steam! (or whatever the story element is). At first, the pack requires external pumps to be recharged/refilled. Later, an upgrade would allow the pack to recharge on it's own when you're on the ground. Another subsequent upgrade could allow it to recharge faster on the ground and enable a slow recharge while in the air (subject to level design/balancing).
Double jumping - Pressing jump while in the air releases a burst of pressure and propel you upwards, while holding jump would constantly release pressure to allow you to go further.
Swimming - While underwater, pressing jump makes you kick your feet to swim upwards, while holding jump would release pressure to allow you to move even faster.
Pressure devices - Throughout the game you may find devices that require you to pump some of your pressure into the device in order to activate it. They could be simple switches, requiring just a burst of pressure, or they could be valves where you have to make pump a lot of pressure in to make something move.
Abilities - Your character's special abilities are not fueled by their pressure pack, but may be augmented by it. This allows for the abilities to be used early in the game, and then be powered up when they get the pressure pack.
I'm curious as to how much of this game is RPG and how much is action. Some are thinking (looks like) that the rpg elements are only in the form of hp boosts while others like myself are thinking ability upgrades as well, etc. Well anyways, This is what I was thinking for stats:
HP: obvious
SPEED: fast attack damage
STRENGTH: slow attack damage
RESIST: chance to avoid effects like stun, poison, etc.
DEFENSE: each point reduces damage by 1%, max 25%
Notice that I didn't include STEAM since that isn't a character skill, that depends on their equipment. Anyway, My thought is that each level the player gets 2 points to spend on each char and they all gain exp as long as they're alive no matter which one you're using. That way if a character leaves temporarily for story reasons then the player isn't screwed. For gun chars just switch SPD and STR with SHOT and CHARGED SHOT.
Vegeta? What does your mother say about my power level?
For swimming, it would probably be easier to basically have unlimited double jump while under water. Thin platforms might be better served as darker platforms (Castlevania does this). Same concept, just a different graphical representation.
Pressure devices sound nice, but it the end, it's just a switch. Why have someone sacrifice their power to move a lowly switch?
There could be devices that are physically switched on/off with a simple lever. The lack of a pressure pack would restrict access to areas that require pressure to power them. Once you do have the pack, getting to those switches could end up being sort of a puzzle assuming the pack doesn't passively regenerate (without a later upgrade); How little power can you use between the recharge station and the switch?
Of course, these pressure switches would become mostly obsolete with a passive regen. Later pressure puzzles could become things of a timed nature, where putting more pressure into the system gives you more time to get to the end objective.
It could also be a pacing mechanic. There could be a door that requires pressure, but there are enemies on the other side. Do you open the door and fight the enemies with less power, or do you take the long way around and use no power?
oh, and shab? Cool idea, but i would suggest halving the momentum of those underwater jumps. That way it would feel a bit more like they're actually feeling the pull of the water instead of like theyre floating in space or something. same with all momentum, movement (including descent) should be slower while underwater.
Vegeta? What does your mother say about my power level?
I have drawn up diagrams for what the pressure packs and steamglobes should do, and how they should work.
Regardless of the fact that it says the date over each post, when he posted that, it said "Today", so he was making sure people knew that day.
But seriously, Great collection of Ideas there. You should do one of those for everything and place them in a special thread so anyone can join at any time more easily.
Anyone ever notice how my first sentence in a post is never capitalized? I've started noticing that recently. I wonder why that is...
Vegeta? What does your mother say about my power level?
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Jon Lambert
). Then again, instant change could give some kind of strategy - even if they had separate health. It would be like a party, if you die, the next one comes in - so it'd pretty much be the game's lives system. When everyone dies, you go back to a save point, or the hub or something. Or, we could have a mix. You activate the 'pressure tube' (or whatever) points, and these would pretty much be checkpoints. If you die, you go back to the checkpoint with the next character, or if you're fighting a boss, the next character simply jumps in (the next character could be set in a party order, or simply chosen from a little menu when you die). Then there would be major save points, where you can revive and heal party members.
