Let's Design a Game Together

As writing is similar in a lot of ways to game design, I felt like this would be the best section to place this thread; even if you aren't a writer feel free to participate if you want to support the project, as it acts as a general thread for gameplay design as well story design.



Let's Design a Game


What?

Over the past few days I've been working on a game engine that will give writers and designers the ability to easily create (not limited to) text-based and 2D RPG-adventure games, similar to Trials in Tainted Space. If you are not familiar with TiTS, you probably should be, it's pretty damn good as far as text-centric erotica games goes, and is by the same developer who created Corruption of Champions. These games use variables to decide how a scene is composed through text, often small parts of it only.

The game engine runs on JavaScript while using HTML5 to display the interface and its canvas element for rendering graphics. It's proper, with the interface and graphics updating based on game logic and data that isn't tied strictly to frame-rate. The only major limitation is not being able to render 3D space.

Why?

A project like this would be agood way to get your name out there and hone your skills as writers or game designers, it would also give me the valuable input I'll need to make this engine as useful as possible. And it'll likely be a lot of fun too, so why not?

How?

There will need to be a coordinated story design & writing team put together, a game that will largely revolve around story design to make up for a lack of visual complexity won't get very far without one.

I've noticed the writing community is good at hosting events and working together in general, you guys would know better than I who would be best at organizing the story design team, doing quality control, editing, etc. Anyone is welcome to participate in game design, not just writers.

I can put together a server and website to organize everything as well as develop most requested features. I'm also an hobbyist audio engineer and producer, so the soundtrack and effects are already covered.

If you think you are interested in taking part, post in this thread, throw some ideas out there or just let me know if you'd be willing to help or think the project is cool. If we get enough support this can be more than just a concept.

To get the ball rolling, I'll list a few ideas I've already had, these mainly tie into gameplay and general design, as I really want to leave the setting and story up to the community. I haven't done any creative writing in a long ass time (writer's block for 4+ years, fuck my life).

• Semi-procedurally generated open-world and life forms using base descriptors for things like epidermal layers (skin) and body parts, with some base rules to ensure nothing too weird gets generated.

• Static characters with detailed scenes placed in a sensible fashion throughout the world that tie into the main plot to give a sense of purpose to the player.

• Multiple party member RPG combat system with real-time influence similar to Final Fantasy games.

• Morality score that changes based on player decisions and how characters react to the player.

• Multiple main plot endings based on a few major event choices and character's overall morality score.

• Annoying, mandatory fetch quests (jk)

• Simple mini-games

• Use-based skill and attribute gains rather than the standard character attributes

• Rogue-lite elements with a similar system to the legacy mechanic from Rogue Legacy

• Dynamic wars between species/factions that can be resolved by the player peacefully or destructively, but can be completely ignored and will resolve over time themselves.

• Multiple text partials that are different per text scene to curb them from being the same every time.

• "Match 3" combat system? This seems to be pretty popular these days.

This seems pretty interesting.

I'll try to pitch in if there's enough people.

Reminds me a bit of LEWD, a text-based game along similar lines that a guy was advertising for a short while ago.

https://www.fakku.net/forums/writing-and-fanfiction/game-writing-tryouts-for-my-text-adventure-game-lewd

Unfortunately it didn't garner any response. I would normally love to help out in a big way, but I'm currently enrolled in graduate-level classes that are kicking my ass and sucking away my free time.

Regardless, I support this and can at least help out in the areas of editing and proofreading as the case may be.

Damn, I really wish I could code or at least understand code without turning impotent at the sight of it. Foreign languages were never my strong suit in school, unfortunate that computer-based languages tend to be the same for me. I get some forum-code, but that's really the bottom of the barrel.

Anyway, good luck with the development.

I might be interested in helping out

I'm interested, but what would we primarily be writing? Because I don't do sexy stuff. Also, I have some questions . . .



What's this mean?



Would this be similar to Elder Scrolls?



??

I don't know what Rogue Legacy or the Match 3 combat system are either, but I imagine I could easily look those up on Google when I'm not feeling lazy.

Match 3s:


Also, Rogue Legacy is a rogue-lite game where the purpose of gameplay is that you die a lot because the beginning of the game is much harder than you're capable of triumphing over but you get to keep the things and skills you collect when you die so theoretically every time you restart, you're more powerful than the last time.

Do I think this is cool? Yes, very much so. Am I willing to be a part of it? Yes also. Will I be able to do much? Not sure about that given my writing ability and busy studies these days. However, if people can start a base storyline of what's gonna happen, I'm definitely on board to throw on some ideas.

As an example:

short, long, or medium hair with colours like red, blue, green etc.
leathery, scaly or furry skin
hands, talons or claws
...

When a new game is started, species could be generated combining descriptors like these then follow a procedure of steps (hence procedural) that has the ability to modify itself over time, causing them to settle villages, find food sources and mineral sources, then interact with other species in geopolitical relationships.

Dwarf Fortress is a good example of a game that uses this, but we don't need to go that complex. At a smaller level procedural generation can be used for simple things like quests (space sims), character appearances and items (dungeon crawlers like Diablo). The more we use it, the less labour we have to do when it comes to writing and designing. It does have major downfalls, though, giving designers much less control over player experience and making it harder to fit in an overarching plot the more complex it gets.



Yep.

I feel it's better done when the player is controlling a single character. If we want a combat system to similar to RPGs or tactics games with a party, I think it would be better to go the regular route of character classes and pre-defined level stats with items modifying them and providing effects, as it may become too micro-intensive and hard to balance otherwise.



In general, text partials are sections of written content that can be placed variably throughout a medium. Specifically to this context, it would mean that when you talk to a character about a subject, they display x amount of paragraphs. For each paragraph, we have different variations that could be swapped out, maybe based on something the character does or has, providing more variety. Not necessarily limited to things like whole paragraphs.

i can paint digital landscapes and backgrounds. id have to go get my tablet out of storage, but if you shoot me a few lines describing where each scene is, i can throw some scenery your way. also, since i am completely ignorant of what you are doing here, what image format do you want?

bitmaps or pnm/pbm if your painting application supports it.

i can export in nearly any format

i can export in nearly any format

i can export in nearly any format

i can export in nearly any format

i can export in nearly any format

i can export in nearly any format

i can export in nearly any format

In that case I would prefer scalable vector graphics (svg), it's already widely supported by browsers and doesn't lose quality when scaled down or up. But be careful, if you use raster effects and images in the project it will increase the file size dramatically.

@xenon

Thanks, editing and proofreading is already a big help.

You're not missing out on much, most 'code monkeys' have dull, soul-sucking jobs from what I've experienced. I find it rather enjoyable as a hobby but I can see why it's not for everyone. Developing a game isn't entirely about programming though, for the most part code is generated through an interface where you can string together triggers and actions, the engine does all the hard work for the designers with a minimal amount of scripting needed here and there.

It will take a while to develop, games always do if you went them to be any good, so there'll likely be plenty of time in the future to help out if you feel like contributing more.

Calm, son