The Gamer's Quarter

[Harveyjames]

Here's my design document (read: one rambling email I wrote to someone once) for Animal Cakeshop, a game I want to make. Since the idea for the game came out of discussions about narrative in games and interactive fiction we have had on this very forum, I thought it would be cool if we tried to community-make it. Mainly because I can't program. Also because I'M A BUSY MAN OK. See what you think.

[xvs07]

I was totally with you and thinking the game sounded a bit like Chulip (which is beginning to seem like it will hover on the horizon forever, by the way...) until the teddy did the napalm dance. The world doesn't need another Happy Tree Friends, okay? The rest is sound, though, and a working-but-less-pretty model could probably be hacked up in no time with some sort of interactive fiction editor.

[Ketch]

Sounds cool, you might even be able to make it in a visual novel maker (although there are probably too many branching decisions).

You could put it together as a flowchart first, the way that Peter Jackson and Ian Livingstone put together their Fighting Fantasy books. To map out the obvious and hidden cause and effect trees.

[Harveyjames]

[dessgeega]

[dhex]

the dead candy squirrel is a neat shirt though. (never seen the episodes)
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[Shapermc]

[OtakupunkX]

You could probably do this game in BASIC if you really wanted to. I hate to say it because it gets dissed on quite a lot, but DarkBASIC would probably be your best bet for this kind of thing. It's really simple and would probably work very well for the game.

[Harveyjames]

I want it to be very easy for people to get this game up and running, like a standalone .exe that anyone can run, so if DarkBASIC can do that then it sounds A-OK. I'm not planning on seriously working on this game until after I'm done with this pirate thing, anyway, so we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

So as previously mentioned, the game secretly keeps score of the player's individualism, collectivism, liberalism, conservatism, compassion, generosity etc. It decides this based on your reactions to the scenarios presented. Say a soccer match occurs. If you give a kid passing a ball a cake you score collectivist points. If you give a kid who dribbles the ball around, showing off etc. a cake, you lose collectivist points. (Also, maybe this causes him to miss when he shoots for the the goal maybe.) The amount of points you get will determine the outcome, or the occurance, of later events.

I should stress that this game is not meant to be an important psychology test- the fluidity of the 'story' is the important thing and these scores are just the catalyst for that. The events that occur will be relevant to your choices and percieved personality, though. It's about making a story that organically develops to fit the player.

I wonder if the categories I listed to score the player are extensive enough, or focusing on the right attributes. I'm sure I'm missing something.

[OtakupunkX]

I think you've got all the personality categories you'd need. They pretty much cover all the bases needed to make the game an interesting, different experience for each player.

Also, DarkBASIC does allow you to export to .exe, and the .exe file contains all the external images, movies, and sound used in the game if I remember correctly, to keep file size down.

[FortNinety]

On a side note, aside from not enjoying Happy Tree Friends either, I've never seen a single "episode" of Homestar Runnner. I have some friends who are really into it (its quite the hit among indie comic dorks really), but at this point, I'm afraid to say anything, since they'll start shoving links down my throat, which I'm not soo keen on since I think I might dislike it.

[Harveyjames]

That's my experience with Homestar Runner exactly. I've been linked to the Homestar Runner site before, seen the front page and just thought 'I am going to hate this' and clicked away. Life is too short!

Looks like this game is going to happen, then, since Nana has kindly offered her programming skills. So let's plan the shit out of this now, so it will come together very easily and without headache in the new year. I was thinking I liked the way Shigesato Itoi reportedly wrote Mother 2; he asked his team to come up with scenarios, then sifted through them like a newspaper editor, cutting and pasting and forging a shape out of the raw material they gave him. Let's do that.

Characters we have so far include Bill, Sue, Tank, and Sampras the rabbit. Sampras is kind of unique since his figure isn't really anthropomorphised, he just looks like someone plonked a big rabbit in the middle of a toy set.

I'll start the ball rolling by showing you some characters I have who I think might fit in this game:




This band is called Crash 'n' The Boys unless there's already a band called Crash 'n' The Boys in which case I don't know. The drummer keeps falling asleep. I'm not sure how these guys fit in with the concept at present.

This is a blue sky session. There are no bad ideas!

[dhex]

i like kitty hitler playing the fiddle there.
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[Dracko]

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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[OtakupunkX]

Wasn't Crash 'n' The Boys the name Technos was going to use for the Americanized Nekketsu Kohua Kunio-Kun games back in the early 90's? Great stuff, I'm really liking this.

[dessgeega]

yes.

i think crash 'n the boys is the name of a band in scott pilgrim, which i havn't read yet, but i will soon, because i promised nana.
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[Ketch]

Let them eat cake!

[OtakupunkX]

There should be some kind of turtle character who's afraid of others. By befriending him with cake, the player could somehow help him overcome his fear of socialization so the turtle can lead a happy life. It would be a very interesting, possibly heartwarming experience seeing the turtle gain self-esteem through cakes and then making friends with another NPC.

[Dracko]

... But then his up-and-coming socialite lifestyle could cause trouble for the entire community!
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[Harveyjames]

[Lackey]

Re: Homestar, I recommend just watching a couple of the middle period Strong Bad emails. The emails are usually the funniest bits with the shorts being too structured and less conceptual. You could probably aquaint yourself in 10-15 minutes but the fiber of the thing is very layered. It's probably the most consistent and accomplished project of its sort on the web. Anyway there's that proverb about books and covers. Wouldn't recommend reading an entire book though. I wonder which title page you got.

I wouldn't mention it in the same sentence as Super Happy Tree Friends though. That's just wrong!
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[dessgeega]

[Harveyjames]

I dunno, I just watched some mid-period Strong Bads. If it gets any worse than that, then damn.

[OtakupunkX]

The techno music one and the fishing one were really good.

[Nana Komatsu]

[OtakupunkX]

[Harveyjames]

Alright, sweet. If you can, set aside a window in early January cause that's when this show gets on the road!!1

Nana offered to create the game as a sort of online infrastructure where new animals could be added month by month, which is probably a great idea but I think this would work better as a standalone, closed piece of work. I don't know anything about programming so I don't know. Maybe you should both program it.

I will knock up some concept screenshots when I get the chance. Maybe tonight!

[Nana Komatsu]

I can build an online framework because that's what I do at work. It doesn't have to be continuously updated, it could be a one time thing. But it wouldn't be a standalone application (a game) mostly because I haven't written one of those in years now.