NH's FIRST COLLAB!

BluMess wrote:So, we have:
-Kaolin (code/graphics)
-Vartagh (gameplay)
-MagicalZorse (unsure)
-AutoTank (artist)
-BluMess (auido/level design)

I can code, and do some animating

Vartagh wrote:5 devs are a lot anyway :D

Agreed.

The only way I'd get a "plays well with others" were if it were a badge on Kongregate. ;) Ok, not entirely, but definitely easier in a small group. :)

Fair enough.

I'm a bit confused - so Ella will be the main character?
What about if she hires an assassin to kill Al and his mob? Maybe that would be more interesting

BluMess wrote:
I like your sniping / assassin idea, sounds pretty good. We could vary the stages between sniping and assassination, maybe, but I think the sniping levels should just be platformers where you click to shoot - it would make the game more interesting. Like, you could be walking up to a creepy house and someone falls out the window - it wouldn't be as limited as not being able to move like in most sniping games

Hah, second vote for platformer!

Though I'm kind of skeptical a platformer could really get the feel of sniping unless we added some 3d stuffs, and I don't want to get into that with this.

But brainstorm some more. Umm. What sorts of things could we do that are more interesting than a traditional sniping game? Or how would a platformer make a good sniping and/or assassination game? :) (I like the simplicity of a sniping game where you're stuck in one spot, so that's my lean--but I'm open to being excited by something else :) )

About actionscript: I barely know any for 2.0 or 3.0 - I've tried learning 3.0 but I couldn't get how to change variables which weren't on the stage, so I gave up.

A good code structure should make that more obvious. I don't know what a good code structure is in AS3, but my _next_ attempt is going to be to make all the game vars static on a Main class... or at least modifiable with static functions on a Main class. That's kind of like using the stage, only more protected from interference by other things. :)

BluMess wrote:Fair enough.

I'm a bit confused - so Ella will be the main character?
What about if she hires an assassin to kill Al and his mob? Maybe that would be more interesting

The dead army dude/ghost is the main character :)

kaolin wrote:

BluMess wrote:Fair enough.

I'm a bit confused - so Ella will be the main character?
What about if she hires an assassin to kill Al and his mob? Maybe that would be more interesting

The dead army dude/ghost is the main character

That clears it up.
Nice touch, relates to NocturnalHaunt

and if I'm quite honest what you said before went right over my head.
If you don't mind I'll leave that to you D:

I just think we need to do something more interesting than pointing and clicking at stuff, and I always love a good adventure game I'd be happy to make scenery for it.

Oooh storyline twist:

How about the ghost has to kill all the mob to get to Al and finally kill him. But when they find out there is a ghost with an aim to kill them, they all get some crazy anti-ghost weapons.
No?

Well, whatever you're comfortable with coding. That would be pretty complex =/

Something a little like that.
Excuse the awesome quality of drawing.



EDIT: Weird, the image is really faint in these forums.
Click the picture to see it

http://www.mrsunstudios.com/2008/08/tutorial-create-a-platform-game-in-as3-part-7/ <-- great tutorial on making a platformer. We could even make a level editor, that could make it more popular

re: your twist -- I was kind of thinking that, too:

With the option to take out "innocents" as well--and doing that means paranormal investigators will come for you and make life more difficult (but give you a higher score because you have to take them out, too?)

Or we could go really crazy sci-fi and start having _everyone_ come back as ghosts. So the more people you kill, the more enemies you have...

re: your picture... it's because you saved it as a png with transparency instead of with an actual white background. ;)

But okay, that could be plausible--so you can move forwards and backwards only? or are you thinking double-dragon side-view, so all directions but limited?

Though with that perspective it's less a sniping sort of thing and more a "rush in and kill", even if you do have to place your shots.

Ah.
That would be why.

When you kill someone, we could have a neat little effect where their ghost just flies off into heaven - it doesn't have to be too complicated.

I mean like there are platforms, you can jump, probably only move forward, and even float for a short time. You can use these to get past obstacles and traps which have been set.

Also, the ghost could be able to scare things by accident - i.e. runs up to a guard and scares them, so they blow a *EDIT* whistle which summons more enemies.

ooh--how about... through the game you have the option of becoming more or less corporeal, through the actions you take--and then that changes how you play through the levels.

The less you kill, say, the more ethereal you are--you can float more easily, pass through walls, that sort of thing. Take less damage, etc. But then you can do less damage, too... you're limited to energy attacks, gusts of wind to distract people, that sort of thing. large gust of wind to push someone off a roof to their death...

But when you work on controlling your form so you can pick up a knife or a gun, then that means you're more physical and it slowly becomes a more traditional game (with always the option to go back the other way, slowly--kind of like alignment in an rpg).

That's a pretty good idea - kinda like good and evil in Fable

If we can include that, it would be awesome - but would you be able to script that without too much trouble?

Oh and back to the platformer tutorial - since it's all in arrays we could make a level editor, meaning we can release player packs and things like that

I don't think it would be too much trouble--just build it into the physics, basically. Where it might be more difficult is in designing the levels so that a ghost can't just walk all the way to the end and complete it without having to interact _somehow_. Maybe you can only walk through things when you're more "skilled", not because you're not ethereal but because of the psychological issue. Or maybe you take some small damage for walking through things--yeah, I like that. That's definitely a balance. And maybe even some small damage for floating/flying. Hell, at that rate we could make switching back and forth between ethereal and physical just be an energy cost as well, and not worry about "percentage ethereal"--or maybe have like five levels that you can shift between--where you start out at the middle level and have to gain experience to be able to shift to more physical or more powerfully ethereal forms...

Your mind is like a stream of ideas. Loving it

I like the idea of switching between the different characteristics - what about you choose at the beginning of each level? The gradual build up is still a good idea tho

And I think the ghost should only be able to pass through certain substances, so we can hide hidden items and make it harder. And we could have energy costs like you said for floating and passing through walls

This is sounding good ^.^

Yeah, I don't know crap about any Action Script but I'll gladly develop visual elements if we decide to do a game collab.

yay you're here
It doesn't matter if you don't know any aaction script, but what do you think of the idea so far?

Glad to hear you want to help