A representation of my emotions going through the thinking process
Carrying on from last weeks post about some game idea brainstorms, this week I have whittled the ideas down to just one that I will work on for the coming weeks. This took a lot of thought, research and consistently annoying friends and family over the past week, trying to get them to read my ideas and get some feedback, or figure out which one they like best.
I've decided to go with the game idea called Tomb Town. This idea was the most popular;lar when it came to asking friends and family, many people loved the idea of traveling around the tow and forest as well as all the collectable items. Honestly I'm not too sure if this idea was also popular because everyone is in a spooky mood due to halloween being literally around the corner. Either way, I'm happy with my choice ( wether I will be able to say that in a couple of weeks, is something we will have to wait and see)
This week, I was trying to come up with different game mechanics and three ways that the game could work.
Basic RPG
The first idea that I came up with was a basic RPG structure. This is the structure I suggested in my brainstorming post, and also what is scribbled about in my design notebook... it's everywhere!
For this idea, the players character would travel throughout the town, collecting items that they can trade for coins or use in future quests. There would be tasks that NPCs can give the character, in order to move through the town or area. Some NPCs would be more difficult to find then others.
Throughout the town there are houses, shops and other buildings you can explore, learning the lore of the town and about the final skeleton wizard.
A tutorial by jimmy vegas that I think would be useful!
Level based
This would be similar enough to the RPG, with collectable coins and items, there would be certain tasks that have to be able to move on to the next playable level. Certain tasks would also lead to side quest levels, levels that aren't essentially but do increase your knowledge or are just for fun!
Achievement based
For this idea, there would be a set amount of tasks that have to be completed before the player can move on. Each task would add more to a fillable task bar, which when full, adds an extra area on the map.
With this, there would also be a set amount of items that have to be collected and also if a task is not completed correctly, the player would have to repeat the task.
Out of all of these ideas, I think I would be able to flesh out the RPG idea more then the rest, including elements of the level and achievement based game.
signing off
-AK
Image:
found on boredart.com
Hey Alex,
ReplyDeleteI just read your log on game ideas/research and I gotta say I love the whole idea of an RPG based in a a spooky town/forest setting , as the first thing that comes to mind is a world straight out of a Tim Burton style of movie. I also love the idea of collecting/ unlocking collectibles aspect ,as it would give me or the player incentive to play on and try to unlock other items and progress through the levels/story.
Keep up the good work and looking forward to seeing more in the future.
-Dillon
Well a good day to you Alex!!!
ReplyDeleteI must say that I do very much think that your idea of the RPG set in a very Spooky town and setting is a really good and interesting idea that you have created here. There are a lot that I like about this already from it's spooky setting, the sense of nostalgia that I am getting from this and just how simple yet great that this will be.
The one thing that I have to ask is that will be a serious tone or comedic tone to the reason why your main antagonist of the skeleton wizard is evil because that would be interesting to know.
And I were to give a suggestion it would be a unique concept to maybe as a little easter egg that you add a version of yourself into the game to help your main character on their quest to stop the wizard who has a "bone" to pick with the land the character is from (I apologise for the bad pun).
But all in all I do think that this is a really good game concept that you have going here and I am excited to see how it will all turn out in the end because it will be great no matter what.
Cheerio!!!
-Sam
Hi Alex,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your three different game ideas. I really liked the idea of the RPG game but also the spooky vibes from your game (I'm a very big Halloween enthusiast so I'm all for spooky themed games!). I think your idea for the Achievement based game is quite interesting. How would you go about making incorrect tasks? Or what would you consider an incorrect task to be? I think the game idea is really intriguing and sounds amazing to play, however it sounds like it will take a lot of work to make! Have you considered the time to make this? If not, maybe a simpler RPG game with the same ideas could also work!
I wish you all the best with your game and I can't wait to see the final result!
-Ingrida.
"popular;lar" - Is this a Wicked reference? I'm sorry, I needed to get that out of the way.
ReplyDeleteHey Alex,
Maybe it's because I am a fan of RPG's, but that is the stand out option for me. I think it would be really fun to explore the town and become immersed in the lore of Tomb Town. If you haven't already, check out the Unity Store's free assets. There are a lot of useful skins and templates you can work from, and a lot of them are a low res poly design style which I think would work really well with the theme of your game.
Can't wait to see more!
- Ultan
Hi Alex,
ReplyDeleteI really love your idea of giving the game some spooky vibes. Now that the game will be made some time before the summer, the Halloween approach probably won't work that well.
If you want to keep the spooky vibe, my idea is to give the towns and villages a very happy and vibrant look to juxtapose with the design of the NPC who are all your everyday monsters like skeletons, zombies, ghosts, etc. This theme can be very fitting based on the season of which the game will be released and the current theme you came up with during the Spooky month.
I would love to see more of this game in the future.
Have a nice day!
-Zhen
Hey Alex,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading about your idea I really like the idea about the character in the game is able to collect items and trade money and that they can use it in future requests I also like the idea that throughout the town there are house shops and buildings that you can explore into and that you learn the lore of the town. I also like that there is a skeleton wizard I also like that the tasks in the game would lead to quest levels that aren't essentially but do increase your knowledge or for fun which I think is really good. I really like the overall idea of your game I really like that it will also be a spooky game because I like spooky games maybe you could add some more obstacles for the character to complete to gain more coins anyway I hope to read more about your game soon.
-Jennifer
Hi Alex,
ReplyDeleteI think it is a great idea to have collectible items in your game. This gives players an adventure type task which can be fun. I think incorporating some obstacles for certain collectibles could be a good thing to implement so that you can’t just pick up all the collectibles straight away. This might involve doing a task for someone and in return you are rewarded with the collectible.
I think having to do tasks in order to advance to certain areas of the world is another good feature. Although this might limit complete exploration freedom, this will stop players maybe jumping ahead of the main quest and will structure the players journey more. This is important so the player doesn’t get lost in different parts of the storyline which could become confusing for them.
I think having side quests in your game is also another great decision. This will give the player a rest from the main quest and might be an opportunity to have a solely fun based quest or like you said to increase the player’s knowledge of the game.
I think by having the fillable task bar is also another great feature to have in your game. This will allow players to see their individual progression so they know how far away they are from getting to go to a new part of the map. This will motivate players to continue playing as they will be excited at the prospect of viewing a new part of the map. I think having a checklist feature would also be a good feature to have. This might mean when a player completes a task, the task comes up with a box ticked with a sound notification. The new task will then be added to the checklist with no tick as it hasn’t be completed yet.
Overall I think your idea is good and I hope you have fun making your game.
I look forward to reading your future blog posts about your project.
-Ciaran