[Concept WIP] Tales - The Unwritten pages
Sup everyone.
Building a working prototype for this concept. Regarding story and Ideas. I just want to pitch this. See if this sparks any feedback. What I seen around here is share and grow the concept and not try to post a final product here. Get feedback early.
Imagine Nuclear Throne meets Broforce ( Or some part of it)
Story
Tales of the world has been forgotten. But there is a reason for it. They all have been captured and only a few left. When the last story characters has been captured the offering will start and the BAD ENEMY WARLORD NAME HERE will cross the tales realm to our realm to enslave all mankind.
Player enters this lost library. First he find a open book. ( Tutorial mission ). Player enters and start going thru levels like Nuclear throne. Every enemy you kill gives you some part of the missing pages in the book ( XP ) until your player Transforms into the Character of the Tale he is in ( Acting as a second live ). If the player looses a life he will transform back into a normal character. Save the Librarian who is actually a Wizzard tasked to protect the Tales. ( Or Is he )
Player is tasked to save some of the key Tales. as Follow.
Player enters Robin Hoods Book. When gaining XP he will turn into the HOOD for the second life and for a 3rd Live the player can randomly turn into any of the unlocked characters. Final boss for area ( The Sherrif ). Beat him and the HOOD is unlocked and in the Library.
Then player enters Wonderland. Enough XP and Player turn into ALICE....
Got some more level ideas. But you get the flow of things.
Each Character has some kind of unique ranged and Melee attack. Special Ability when Charged.
Each level start with 1 life and you can gain lives if you get enough "XP". You can loose lives and gain them all the way to the boss area.
Crap... hope this makes sense..... Let me have it in the comments. Would you play this?
Building a working prototype for this concept. Regarding story and Ideas. I just want to pitch this. See if this sparks any feedback. What I seen around here is share and grow the concept and not try to post a final product here. Get feedback early.
Imagine Nuclear Throne meets Broforce ( Or some part of it)
Story
Tales of the world has been forgotten. But there is a reason for it. They all have been captured and only a few left. When the last story characters has been captured the offering will start and the BAD ENEMY WARLORD NAME HERE will cross the tales realm to our realm to enslave all mankind.
Player enters this lost library. First he find a open book. ( Tutorial mission ). Player enters and start going thru levels like Nuclear throne. Every enemy you kill gives you some part of the missing pages in the book ( XP ) until your player Transforms into the Character of the Tale he is in ( Acting as a second live ). If the player looses a life he will transform back into a normal character. Save the Librarian who is actually a Wizzard tasked to protect the Tales. ( Or Is he )
Player is tasked to save some of the key Tales. as Follow.
Player enters Robin Hoods Book. When gaining XP he will turn into the HOOD for the second life and for a 3rd Live the player can randomly turn into any of the unlocked characters. Final boss for area ( The Sherrif ). Beat him and the HOOD is unlocked and in the Library.
Then player enters Wonderland. Enough XP and Player turn into ALICE....
Got some more level ideas. But you get the flow of things.
Each Character has some kind of unique ranged and Melee attack. Special Ability when Charged.
Each level start with 1 life and you can gain lives if you get enough "XP". You can loose lives and gain them all the way to the boss area.
Crap... hope this makes sense..... Let me have it in the comments. Would you play this?
Comments
With a game like this the different characters won't be equal - some will always be better to use than others (and it might be different for different players) - so if it comes to a point past the books or wherever where the player can pick a favourite character to do something (or it's randomly assigned) then the characters really need to be balanced. (Think of Broforce, for example - you get some bros and you go "Oh, no!" and you sort of slug it out with difficulty but are relieved when you die and (hopefully) get someone better but at the same time you still have to try and master them all because you may not get someone better for a while.)
(Edit: typo.)
NB: This seems to be what is preached, but I don't practice it myself! Maybe I should?
What is my reason/inspiration for making this prototype?
What genre games do I like to play and therefore want to make/imitate? Let's say: Valheim, Terraria, Rust
Decide the basic game loop (in words):
1) protect me and my stuff
2) combine/craft things to better protect me and my stuff against ever increasing threats (customise my experience, my way, so I feel clever)
3) collect things to craft better things and make exploring safer/more efficient
4) explore further, while protecting myself, to collect things to craft to better protect me and my stuff
5) Why? Don't care yet. Setting? Not important now.
That's it. Done. Now I can make a prototype with squares and circles to prove above game loop could be fun or not.
Enemies don't yet have to move, neither does the player. Exploration also could happen in later prototype.
Collect? Nah, maybe just give player all items as a choice for now.
If prototype is fun and actions are engaging/fun with only 2 minutes of gameplay/basic mechanics only, expand and add a bit more variety, then re-test basic prototype. Rinse and repeat.
If not fun, abandon prototype and retry another concept.
At this point, what should I not do? Jump ahead and make AI, pathfinding, dynamic lighting, story, animations, art, procedural generation, difficulty curves, etc etc, however technically enticing those are and impatient I am. Those could detract from finding the fun game-loop as quickly and effortlessly as possible and I would therefore, hopefully, not waste my own time.
Your thoughts?
What I realised while doing so, is that by "concept" @dark_seth did not mean an actual full blown "story" with tons of lore etc.
One cannot build an abstract prototype without a rough concept/idea in the first place, to give the player some context about the world and parameters in which the prototype happens, else it just won't make sense for why they're there and what it all means.
I am also doing a prototype on the above game-loop I mentioned. It's going really well.
Theme: Hellish, 9 levels already, bump enemies to attack for now (attack/defense stats only).
I got loot to drop from drop tables configured per level to control that better, now just need to pick it up into inventory and then be able to craft items from raw resources picked up.
I might use the spawn script you posted for enemy spawns to get to the end result quicker if that's ok? :D
Cheers,
K
Download
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kvbz3wgvd7rcpgb/Tales.rar?dl=0
Boss level is level 4.
gain 10 XP turn into Hood.
For every level the world scales in size and enemies.
Liitle sneek peak of transforming into HOOD
Let me have it :)
Enjoy Guys
I like the feel of the controls. Nice and smooth.
I damn. I see. your suppose to go back to the main screen with Hood now also in the main menu..
Worked a lot on the controls and the camera to fit it. Thanks! For me the wizard character you start with feels a bit meh ( Generic and almost the same as HOOD but slower ) Need to change the range attack on it or something.
I think it is the sides and the top of the wall that bugged me. Made some changes. But also this is just for the prototype.
LOL Does not look to bad.
Want to use the same logic to spawn nice environment items. Well that is the plan.
Yeah. I love that rapid fire too :).
Speaking about hitting the world, I looked up at the stars last might and thought an alien invasion was happening, you know those triangular shaped lights were incoming everywhere...I then realized I probably need to have my eyes tested because the invasion force seemed impossibly large, even for aliens, maybe... and there were no further reports in the news, so we're good :-P
Windy area, player pushes grass a bit.
Hope you guys like it!
@konman Please feel free to add here :)
World
Nuclear throne Level system. As current go thru loops to get to the boss.
Multiple Areas to choose from at main menu? ( Or ) After each level you have to choose from 4 random areas next.
Alternative.
Open Generated word where each section you choose to visit
Characters and Weapons
Start with one Character. Weapons can be picked up and carry 2 at most.
Unlock characters that has a perk and a disadvantage. Like
One is faster but has lower health. Better at long range shooting
One is Slower normal health but gains more ammo etc.
Or something like that.
Alternative.
Each character has static weapon set.
Story and aim of the game loop,
This can be build around the World characters and Game Loop.
Well as above. Set in fantasy world in Tales. Story books. Alice in Wonderland etc.
Else
Any other idea please post here!
Art Style
Well. Like you seeing above what I am Aiming for. And yes like always it might change slightly.
Making some additions to Unity tilemap code.
Default animation tile ( or in my case the animation part in the rule tile. ) Works on Both
I need some Help here please!
Normal
CheckBox ( Random Start )That per Tile checks frame length and picks a starting frame.
Amazing. ( This I will use for Fires and Flags! )
Inspector
Water using Random
Now to get the wave effect running over the screen what I need for the water ( Wave CheckBox )
My Idea is to do the following Let say the the following
Frame Count = 4 frames per animation. ( 0 to 3 in Code)
X position of all tiles example above
Each Flag on X axis
-2,-1,0,1,2,3
So now I have to go. Lets say always use x=0 as starting frame 0 ?
-2,-1,0,1,2,3
F2,F3,F0,F1,F2,F3
How the hell do I calculate that???
Pseudocode
totalframes = rule.m_AnimatedSprites.Length; ( example 4 ( 0 to 3 ) )
locationvar = location.x ; ( example 2 )
starttileindex = ??????? ( should be 2)
Example 2
totalframes = rule.m_AnimatedSprites.Length; ( example 4 ( 0 to 3 ) )
locationvar = location.x ; ( example 13 )
starttileindex = ??????? ( should be 1)
-2,-1,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14
F2,F3,F0,F1,F2,F3,F0,F1,F2,F3,F0,F1,F2,F3,F0,F1,F2,F3
WAVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Got it. I feel silly now. Old Classic Modulo function. C# only has remainder So I had to make my own.
int Mod(int a, int n) => (a % n + n) % n;
Results.
Will update this post when I update the Rule tile. This was just the Animated Tile as Standalone
I need to decide which way to go.
Tales Story - Like first post ...takes place in fairy tales books idea.
Wild West - Everytime you die you spawn as a new sherrif to go Safe x or get X back for the town. Old guy at the gate saying "You must be the new Sherrif ". Each Sherrif has diff perks / weakness, One can't see that good at night. One is faster but reloads slower. Permadeath but with the upgrades done to the sherrif badge is what caries over to the new run.
I would love some ideas here.
Regards
I think that sometimes some of the better ideas kind of "write themselves", so that even though you might still have to do some prototyping or experimentation, it's more of a case of having too many choices and having to choose which ones to cull, rather than having to squeeze ideas out of a rock. :P I think some developers are more inspired by fantasy and a sense of world/narrative progress, and others are more inspired by roguelike systems. While it may be good to consider the size of audience they'd be targeting, I think it matters more that you're making the game you're inspired to make.
Unrelated, but I like how snappy and juicy your fx are!
Thinks this effect will work.
Ha ha . What if a chest can give you more chests!!!!!!
Made something for Dark Areas. 2D Light is never that perfect for Unity so made this shader that caters for my Needs.