Need Game Story And Design Ideas

[Senoska]

if you made the rpg & tied it to the actual bg forums (would obv need admin permission) and it was a legit game, you could get a huge boost of life to the forums again+financial traffic+possible for future expansion of the game.

things to consider for the story:
-make it expandable, leave some of the beginning a mystery so that you have room to expand the game.
-if you enjoy the fuck out of the story, other people will too. if you make a common generic story, you will get common generic players.
-make gaming quality of life high as possible while also making specific challenges (bosses, specific dungeons, special items, etc) that are very difficult until practiced or without an effective strategy. This means allowing players to rez in a comfortable place after a boss fight but for the reason that they're probably going to need it.
-make a LOT of items/specs and different ways to deal damage. people get mad bored when there's a damage cap and all of their specs do the exact same thing once they've reached the cap. oh, press button and die? ok, lets see how stupid i am and continue playing this until i realize im bored.

Things to remember about characters -
-people like characters with wings. why? who fucking knows, angels or some shit. make a badass dude with wings and people will be like THIS GUY IS FUCKING DOPE.
-big swords.
-lotta people go the traditional route of female characters showing like 75%+ cleavage right off the bat...gotta give em the shape+face too. all boob all the time isn't dynamic. their tits dont always need to be out to get people to play your game.
-Villians need to do fucked up shit. seriously. who wants to kill a pussy cowardly villian? having some pussycowardvillains is a good thing but most of them need to be the real deal.
-towns with unique music. everybody remembers how badass selbina music was, and that was a small ass little town.

more later

The intention is to have it as a text based game at the moment. I have several puzzles I have sketched out, including a line of quests that are based on riddles, which get harder as time goes on, but with increasing rewards. Several gather and slay quests, etc.

I was originally thinking of going with the nations at war perspective, and figured I could throw in some philosophy and social commentary that would be good.

[Tonko]

Did anyone make a pedo joke yet?

Pedophilia.

Yup.

[Moss]

Whatever the plot is title should be "Kuya and Elvis go to Israel."

So survival/horror?

[hey]

What do you think about the text based system? Would you prefer 'borrowed' sprite sheets, more limited gear and item choices, longer development, but much cooler looking with some of that old school video game feel or a simpler screen with less boundaries, faster development time, but a simple text box with the story?

Would vastly prefer a game with shit graphics over no graphics, myself.

[ronin sparthos]

Oregon Trail tier graphics pls.

[Senoska]

Alrighty. I'll look into doing some sprites. What story elements do you guys like? How would you want the story to start. Like I said, I'd like this to be in a similar time as say, final fantasy games, so follow that basic archetype for a setting.

[Cantih]

Well, if you want a doom plot hook to run things off of, there could always be an imminent apRoclypse.

[Tonko]

Why didn't you lock the thread then?

Because it's a legitimate thread?

[kuronosan]

There always has to be a save the world angle with some overhead plot ongoing with each of the characters as they develop. Eventually these developments help them kill the big bad.

For me, I always like games with head trips. Not M Night twists, just symbolism and clues that give you something sudden and unexpected in an ending or a part of the story (like learning Tidus wasn't real in FFX was a head trip).

There also has to be the obligatory "mighty or awesome city" that gets destroyed or attacked at some point in the middle of the story to give the characters some sort of humility.

I would kill to compose some music if this was a balls-out GFX game.

There just has to be some good balance between character development and how they are developed. Otherwise you end up with an empty game where it isn't telling a story, it's just a clusterfuck of cutscenes and pretty numbers with animations.

[Senoska]

I'm looking into what its going to take to make this into a gfx game. I havent done much XNA work, and graphics are always a pain in the ass to handle, things like pathing also come into play, and it generally just makes the programming aspect much harder. As I said, I'm not artistic -AT ALL- so the UI is going to be shit as will likely the actual layout of maps since thats not what I do. But if you guys want graphics, I will work on it.

[Kaylia]

FFVII??? lol

FFVII would be one element of that large set.

[Acturus]

Alrighty. I'll look into doing some sprites. What story elements do you guys like? How would you want the story to start. Like I said, I'd like this to be in a similar time as say, final fantasy games, so follow that basic archetype for a setting.

If it's in the BG-style, then I guess Steampunk meets My Little Bronies?

[Not Kuno]

Ok to be serious, if you make a game, no random encounters. For the love of god, please.

[Deejay]

yea

NO LOVE FOR RABAO?

[avelle]

I'm looking into what its going to take to make this into a gfx game. I havent done much XNA work, and graphics are always a pain in the ass to handle, things like pathing also come into play, and it generally just makes the programming aspect much harder. As I said, I'm not artistic -AT ALL- so the UI is going to be shit as will likely the actual layout of maps since thats not what I do. But if you guys want graphics, I will work on it.

I've been working with XNA for a bit in my spare time, trying to get away from this dull ass programming job at Kodak. There are a ton of free sprite resources out there for use if necessary. Custom character sprites would probably be pretty nice though if you're basing the game on BG posters. There's gotta be someone on BG that can help with this.

[arus2001]

If you're sticking to text-based, do you have any familiarity with the MU* formats? Would imagine the BG servers could technically host a game or two, and MUDs have basically been the grandfather of MMOs. That said, you could technically have people making multiple games on a single world if they're willing and able to learn the code and how things work.

[kuronosan]

My least favorite quest types are "Go here, get this thing, bring it back, then go get something else, and I will give you shit for your trouble".

If you're going to do quests, please make them rewarding.

I never really got into MUDs, so I'm not sure how they work... but the nostalgia factor alone could make it popular.

[Gulkeeva]

I'm looking into what its going to take to make this into a gfx game. I havent done much XNA work, and graphics are always a pain in the ass to handle, things like pathing also come into play, and it generally just makes the programming aspect much harder. As I said, I'm not artistic -AT ALL- so the UI is going to be shit as will likely the actual layout of maps since thats not what I do. But if you guys want graphics, I will work on it.

Can use something like RPGMaker
It has basic player/monster sprites, town/world/dungeon tile sets, from what I heard its mostly knowing programming to make stuff move around/interact/do stuff. Can also add your own stuff/custom UI if you don't like whats included .

[Brutala]

I've never seen an RPG battle system I thought was done better than the one in Jagged Alliance 2. 1.13 is very moddable too, but it'd need way too much work for maps and sprites if you insisted on keeping the fantasy setting. Also, bonus points if the strongest weapon in the game is called Neo Armstrong Cyclone Jet Armstrong Cannon.

[Indalecia]

Xenogears meets Valkyrie Profile

(don't make me a druid)