Theme/Mechanics Inspiration

[mdgunn]

!!!!MASSIVE POST WARNING!!!!

I have put together a Pinterest board of images which I think together may suggest a possible theme and feel for the game. 

EDIT: Just remembered the game Journey.  I think this is also shares much of what I mention here.

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/gunn0636/game-inspiration/

I've also posted some images to the end of this post.

My main idea is one of sci-fi fantasy along the lines of Numenera crossed with Skyward Sword.

See here if you're unfamiliar: https://www.montecookgames.com/new-to-numenera/

I DO NOT mean make the game exactly like numenera but rather than I see a theme along those lines as giving us possibilities to make the game EASIER to get done AND allow many possibilities, without it falling too hard into a generic RPG guff. Kinda the point of numenera is to make it easier to construct your own world while avoiding generic tropes while sort of using them as a reference point to build on top of.

The idea of numera - remember I'm not saying DO numenera but leverage some of these concepts - is that it a future world that has been ravaged numerous times and so there is a hidden future tech around (acting like magic) but that the world in general has something of a fantasy/medieval feel to life (a bit like star wars and Tatooine but much more mysterious).  

NOTE: I'm not saying come up with some killer back story.  Actually the opposite.  Think ICO/Shadow of the Collossus where the game is ripped back to bare minimum of story and explanation but exploration and mechanics let you feel like you are living and surviving in the world.

A 'future fantasy setting' could work well as it gives you a good excuse for a relatively empty world (in our section of the world) but which has interesting stuff in it but for reasons which don't necessarily need to make 100% sense or be part of some interlinked back story. 

Other areas of inspiration that I have considered which could inform the feel of the game and also might suggest mechanics are as follows:

## Games
- Legend of Zelda - Skyward Sword
- Journey
- Nier Automata
- The Witness
- Ico/Shadow of the Colossus/The Last Guardia
- Mario Odyssey/Galaxy

## Movies
- Laputa
- Steam Boy

## Art/Books/RPG
- Jack Vance - Dying Earth
- Monte Cook - Numenera
- Gerard Trignac
- Simon Stalenhag - Tales of the Flood/Tales of the Loop
- Ashley Wood - World War Robot
- Others (seee Pinterest link )

NOTE: Again I'm not saying make a game that has all these things in.  I'm suggesting the opposite that these series of reference may suggest a starting point to pick just 1 thing for theme or mechanic inspiration to start moving forward without getting too bogged down in back story/character because many of these references (not all) have an element of mystery but also possibility and open endedness. We can tie many different things into hopefully a coherent whole.

Initially each person might try to find something inspirational from the general feel of things presented and come up with essentially a mini-game that has 1 - just one interesting mechanic inplace.  This would be in their own map and could be just CSG based.  We then build from there.

Examples could include:

- Flying section - someone showed plane game - which could be later used to fly between islands.

- Climbing puzzle section - climbing towers or decending the floating island to reach cave entrance

- Cave/maze section - in bowels of island there may be cave/maze to explore/fight/puzzle.  You get something down there that you need to access other island via tower or something (a type of magic/tech key to tower).

- Island exploration - simple tasks possible fighting - e.g. avoid old partly immobilised robots (e.g. head section is turning turret).

I have some more ideas of how we can tie things together but this is way long already so I'll cut it here.

 

 

Edited October 13, 2018 by mdgunn
Remembered the game Journey.

[Slastraf]

I also had this direction in mind. Totally agree with the floating islands. Late game perhaps , shortly before the end boss level who destroyed the whole world

[Slastraf]

This game is going to be something if we all give 100% (uhh of our free time of course)

[mdgunn]

32 minutes ago, Slastraf said:

This game is going to be something if we all give 100% (uhh of our free time of course)

Yeah I realise all this massive dump of stuff probably makes it seem like we try to make a crazy ambitious game, but really I mention so many touch points so we can each try to find just a few things to bring to the table but ultimately keep everything as stripped back as possible and focused on a few specific things. 

Games like ICO and Journey still took ages to make, and realistically we can't expect to make something anything like any of them but by focusing on games that at least are more stripped back we have a better chance than trying to make something than with many, many mechanics that are ultimately probably unsatisfying and shallow. 

I suppose many people also hate Journey and ICO type games but hopefully they can get a feel for things from the pictures and can identify with some of the other references. Not suggesting we try to replicate Journey or ICO and I'm definitely NOT suggesting we try to put everything from all of these games into one UBER GAME (mwahahahaa!). 

Hopefully the images in PInterest and posted above have at least one or 2 things people can identify with but also have a general coherence that we could use to as the foundation for a theme which is not too generic.  

I suppose many of the images could be said to be very 'cliched' but I hope not so cliched as your typical fantasy or sci-fi. Hopefully by pulling aspects out of multiple sources the end result is less cliched than if we just try to think of some 'new cool story'.  I imagine that on later reflection the 'new cool story' may end up more full of cliches than drawing inspiration from numerous proven interesting sources....

...unless of course one or more of us have a published track record of publishing genuinely original and ground breaking literature or ideas (if there is such a thing)?  I'm old and grumpy, comes with the territory!

I welcome others to put together an inspiration board. Don't want to force my concept on others but AM very keen to try to find a way to keep things stripped back yet practical for numerous people to find something they can identify with and contribute to.

 

[aiaf]

Actually choosing a global theme is good and then work around it.I have loads of ideas too.

 

Ok islands has some tech in it and magic , im game

Then we could do beside the trees rocks grass some decayed/destroyed mechanical things on the island.

Guess some robots could be easy to model if low poly.Dont need to be humanoid all time.

 

Besides this i would really like to keep the portals , will bring a lot of mechanics to game for exploration.

[mdgunn]

Yeah sounds like you're on similar lines.   

EDIT: Many OLD/fantasy things can be similar to sci-fi things so it may appeal to people if they see the possibilities.   For example a robot and golem can be almost the same thing and you could model just a turret head as a maze hazard and it doesn't have to even look human or be a complete thing.  Creature like things (human or animal) gives something in the world that suggest life and backstory even if it doesn't even move or be a complete thing.  If they are also mechanical and not pretending to be exactly a real thing then this gives us some options to reduce work (e.g. make a sound effect for a cat like thing, or make just half of it).

Old tech may reactivate or have defensive measures protecting something of importance.  Could be just a hovering orb which would be much easier to create and have minimal animation and minimal AI but be within theme rather than having to be a dumb zombie because decent AI would likely be a major time sink and probably have flaws.  Maybe when our bad robot orb AI messes up at least part of you might imagine it's malfunctioned due to age and not just dev skill

Many sci-fi or ancient constructions (e.g. medieval or stone-age) are often traditionally gemetric and simple in construction.  You can have simple constructions like a glowing obelisk or disc-like portal gate or some simple structure for a flight machine.   Sci-fi or stone age tech often very geometric.The great thing is that they in a 'future fantasy' (not sure what the right term is really) setting OLD stuff is also the NEW STUFF. The mysterious tech stuff of hidden magical power.    

One thing to mention is that usually this magic stuff should ideally have some explainable scientific effect, for example e.g. anti-grav is the reason things levitate rather than 'cause magic says so'.  So maybe you spray a cloud of metal eating nano robots rather than you 'magically summon a metal armour devouring slime cube from some ethereal realm'.  It isn't necessary to stick to this scientific explanation approach but I think it's a nice way to have magic and power without having to basically lean HARD on tired RPG tropes. 

Not saying traditional RPG is bad but I do think there are so many games that just tread out the same old thing in some shallow world.   "OK so the wizard has a fire spell and an ice spell, check.  OK guys wizard is done. Game 50% complete."

At the same time I'll be happy if we get ANYTHING solid working but I'd like to avoid some cliches on the way if we can.

 

Edited October 13, 2018 by mdgunn
At start meant old things can be like sci-fi things

[aiaf]

Duh i just lost a wall of text by clicking a link ... whats below is a small part i still remember lol

 

I was thinking how we decide in our project.

Since we cannot vote for everything, so will decide chaotically and collaborative.

What it matters is just advancing the project.

• First come first served
• Like an idea from someone else go and help implement
• If you implement a mechanic will most likely get in the game, unless breaking parts of the game
• Activity matters
• Anyone can call for a vote at anytime
• One idea could be picked even with few votes if is important , who didnt state opinion means they agree tacitly
• Pick anothers idea if it has traction even if you might think yours is better
• Ideas get dropped only if the majority are vocal against it

 

So far i think we doing very well on how we collaborate, we could use discord more for decision making but we ok.

Choose common sense, If any comments on above fire away

Sorry for slight derail of this thread

 

Lets hear other thoughts on theme from mdgunn, im really fan of this idea with old tech and magic.

 

[mdgunn]

i was thinking that if we could split game into mini-game like I was saying (with 1 or a few key mechanics), e.g. between island flight, cave section, island exploration etc.  then we may be able to have enough sections that everyone can effectively own this section. Others can input to other peoples but each person can effectively own something and have majority say on the direction.   We may still need to be able to collectively vote or decide if we as a whole think something needs to be done a certain way.

At some future point we may have some tricky time tying different things together but I hope that if we minimise mechanics and don't duplicate this is at least more practical.  If we minimise mechanics and prototype early then we may be able to know that a different mini-game offers something we could use later while working on other things (e.g. inventory or AI). 

 

[mdgunn]

As far as sci-fi fantasy possibilities.  I would also include into this steampunk and alternate histories.   For example World War Robot, Steam Boy etc, as well as thousands of years in the future.  Far future suggest possibilities for more magic like settings approaching traditional fantasy. Numenera I think is supposed to be millions years in the future but the planet has had 9 successive civilizations with the current one having access to tech but not necessarily the means to produce all of it (essentially rare classic RPG weapons/magic).   

The main point would be that the environment could be various settings that could exhibit a mix of history, fantasy and sci-fi in whatever way we can agree on.

The Numenera type of setting means low complexity (low poly) buildings (e.g. stone/concrete/future plastic or alloy) are quite reasonable but high tech/magic items can exist but might be something you hold in your hand.  A useful benefit here is that if you can create a small sphere in 3D then you can call it whatever weapon/item you want and have it do anything. Whose to say it just cause we can't model good stuff   .... I'm sure some of us can.

Whatever the type of settings (steampunk alternate history or far-future) I saw it being somewhat post-apocalyptic but 'in a good way'.  The bad stuff has mostly passed but threats exist (tech may wake up - weapons may be active - buildings may collapse etc.).  

This means there is a backdrop of civilisation and history to create a setting but we don't have to populate it make it functional or even fully complete (half a structure might have got blown up or never finished). 

This is why I see some sort of future fantasy as giving us a lot of scope from something historical through to something approaching traditional RPG, whilst perhaps avoiding some of the cliches.

 

[gamecreator]

I'm fine with either cliche.  My only preference is that it offer us some sort of arcade challenge (whether fighting or moving with skill; preferably both).  Puzzles are fine but it's no fun playing your own game when you know the solutions.  It becomes, as Rick put it elsewhere, a walking simulator.

[mdgunn]

4 minutes ago, gamecreator said:

I'm fine with either cliche.  My only preference is that it offer us some sort of arcade challenge (whether fighting or moving with skill; preferably both).  Puzzles are fine but it's no fun playing your own game when you know the solutions.  It becomes, as Rick put it elsewhere, a walking simulator.

Yeah, good point. Would be good to be fun even if you made it. 

[gamecreator]

I was thinking about this the last few days, about how we can distance ourselves from the typical medieval fantasy mage but still keep things simple.

One possibility was to have the main character be a created guardian, someone to look after the world.  He (or she) would be woken up by a spell at both regular intervals and when the world changes enough to warrant investigation/fixing/balancing.  The initial twist (start of the game) would be that the guardian wakes up by himself to find that the spell that was supposed to wake him up is gone.  So he needs to find out

1.  How long he's been out
2.  How the world has changed
3.  What happened to the spell that was supposed to wake him

Just a thought about how we could structure the game.  It gives the mage/guardian reasons to explore the island.  And if we do a hub, it could be the place where he slumbers and wakes up.  If we decide to do something like this, we could add it during a later phase.

[aiaf]

Like we can go anywhere from there, and we dont have to say much at beginning keep it mysterious.

 

Later, shock!!! the guardian finds out about the tech substrate of magic, and some evil mastermind plan to destroy the world.

More shock,  in the end the guardian finds out he is the source of the tech magic ad decide to destroy himself to make the world free for life to grow.

Or more wild then this.

 

And we keep out of typical fantasy mage

 

[mdgunn]

The guardian is us right?  Destroying yourself.....that's a biggie.  I think if you go there there'd probably have to be something personal to attach to (loved one, kid etc.) as the world is kinda hard to attach to.  Maybe, just thinking about movies really, though they stick maybe to close to standard story lines too.

 

[mdgunn]

2 hours ago, gamecreator said:

I was thinking about this the last few days, about how we can distance ourselves from the typical medieval fantasy mage but still keep things simple.

.....

Sounded quite intriguing.  Interesting stuff.

 

[aiaf]

We go with guardian starting theme?

Im for it.

Then we need a starting place for guardian to spawn, like a monolith or a piramid.Something that slowly rise from the ground maybe.

[mdgunn]

How about starting with something like a meteor shower or something. This may help introduce a strange energy source into the game which may help bridge the sci-fi and fantasy realms a bit.   One or more of the meteors crashes into a temple/pyramid/tomb/mysterious structure you wake up but maybe it's not clear if you come from a casket/tomb/crypt/pod/experiment or if you fell with the meteor.  Maybe there also the shell of the meteor with equipment in it or it's a pod shaped crystalline vessel or something.

After that you need to get out of the crash structure. Maybe some of the other inhabitants are energised and alive from the mysterious energy of the crash so some simple enemies, could be humanoid, creature or mechanical. Could be guardian creatures/robots of the structure.  Maybe it's not just a standard crypt but something more complex...I suppose a lot like the cauldrons from Horizon Zero dawn.  Could be traps or simple climb mechanics, collapsed or collapsing walls or floors.   

Could lead into a cave like section that someone wanted to do.

Initially the interior and/or cave sections should be super short for a concept, maybe 2 or 3 brush based rooms connected with short corridors and some ramps or simple stair cases.  And few more section for the cave bit before getting out onto the surface of an island (or land if the islands split later).

I have tried before to put together brush based constructions sets before so I might put this together maybe in an early form if people think we may have some brush based sections.  Some people are probably quite quick at putting together levels just in a 3D program but I think brushes will allow more people to have a try at putting levels together along with some more useful colours in the simple library.  Might put together a library folder for colours pulled from the low poly palette so these can be dropped on brushes.

 

 

[aiaf]

Ok let's do like this,  4 people agree.

I'll add tasks for:

-Meteor shower

-Interior of monolith with brushes.

Later we could do more underground levels in the island if people wants.

 

 

[gamecreator]

Haha, it's hard to be original:

https://twitter.com/tigerandsquid/status/1047812771436527618

https://twitter.com/BeyondEyes_/status/1047812182245879808

 

[mdgunn]

and another....

https://store.steampowered.com/app/363950/Windscape/

 

[aiaf]

heh

Have plenty of insane ideas, for example we find a mechanism that allows you to move the island in the sky.So you can move island to get to resources, or ram other islands, or land the island.Then build mealtime strategy with clans using islands to battle each other.

But think thats not our point here.

We just need to have something finished and fun.