Advice for a Neewbie
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Ok, so I have little experience in story telling and making games, hence why I'm asking for any advice. I'm drafting the story for an space adventure game. I know there have been more and more space related games coming out on Choice of Games lately, but it's easily my favorite genre and I feel I have the best grasp out of the type of game for what I want. Another reason is because I had this super awesome dream which I'm basing the game off of, but as is the case for a lot of my dreams it's only half remembered.
Anyway, I literally only started this project yesterday, so I don't even have a title for the game yet, so any ideas on that would be appreciated. Even though I'm learning as I go, I'm hoping to distinguish my game from others by making it really fleshed out and longer. I'm wanting to make the experience as close as possible to a tabletop game with a DM that makes major decisions. As for the length, while I enjoy many of the games on Choice of Games, they're usually too short for my preference and can be gotten through in under an hour. My game will (hopefully) be much longer, like at least six or seven hours at least, maybe more. Now, obviously I'll have to break this up into episode and chapters, but if people can enjoy themselves by making a day of playing the game, then I'll consider my job accomplished.
As for game itself, since I only started this yesterday I don't have enough of the plot worked out yet to post yet, but what I have so far is this: it takes place in an distant future where humankind has spanned the galaxy and settled on countless worlds, although there are still pockets of hazardous areas that are undiscovered. You start the game as a commander in the fleet and are about to get your first ship to command. In this future, most ships are a blend of traditional metal alloys and organic parts, but you will be given the first fully organic ship. Needless to say, this is a huge honor and the eyes of the galaxy will be on you. As you progress through the episodes, you will gain in reputation and rank, and as you gain in rank your ship, which is telepathically linked with you, will gain more abilities, size, and power.
More about the ship, since it's a central character in the game (yes, it's a character), being fully organic it has an actual brain and is fully self aware and sentient and as such when you start the game it will still be an egg or embryo about the size of a beach ball awaiting you so it can imprint on you. Imprinting in this case requires a blood sample from you to be injected into the embryo and them making physical contact. Once imprinted, it will be taken to a special facility to be "hatched" and grown, a process that with special feeding techniques only takes a couple of days. Once fully grown it'll only be about 100 meters long due to being basically a "child", and this youth will be reflected in the ships personality. As you progress through the game, the ship will mature and grow, and by the last episode will be the largest and most powerful shis in the fleet, measuring in about ten kilometers long and being able take on most fleets by itself (which will happen).
As for the crew, you won't have a normal crew in the normal sense. The "crew" will be humanoid clones that the ship grew to man essential functions, and they look a bit like you in fact. When you and the ship first start off, you'll only have about 20 of these clones manning the ship, but you will naturally get more as the ship gets bigger, where you will eventually have an entire army of clones. These clones can perform any task needed, from manning controls on the ship to being infantry. Like the ship itself, as the ship gets more advanced, so to will the clones. Starting off with, you'll only have one type of clone, kind of scrawny and a bit fragile. As you advance, the clones will become more diverse, both in size and ability, including a powerfully armored and armed tank of a clone three meters tall specifically for battle or lifting really heavy things (think of the Hunters in Halo).
Another aspect I was thinking of adding, although I'm not sure yet how I'm going to make it work, is adding the option at the beginning of the game when you imprint with the ship, letting the player decide on a type of career, which would determine the type of ship it becomes.
The careers I'm thinking about are as follows:
Command: would result in the ship having generally more powerful armaments but fewer fighters.
Support: would have longer range weapons but fairly weak short range weapons and would rely on other ships for protection, but would have the ability repair other vessels.
Carrier: has decent weapons coverage for short range combat, mainly for self defense, but has extra mass to accommodate the thousands of fighters within it.
Stealth: will be much smaller than the other ones, especially later in the game, has the ability to shield itself from sensors, although to start with the stealth will be relatively weak and can be disrupted, and you have to unstealth to fire, but later you can fire while stealthed and even deploy weapons satellites so the enemy can't pinpoint your location. Will have few but powerful short range weapons for disabling hit and run attacks.
I'm also thinking of adding in the option later on to become a pirate, but I'm not sure.
Well, what do you guys think? I jotted down everything I could think of and welcome criticism and ideas. -
Well, it certainly sounds different! I really like the idea of the ship maturing as the game progresses. I must admit that I've found the space genre options offered by COG/Hosted games so far as fairly dry. Then again, one of my all time favourite games is the Mass Effect trilogy so it's not a genre I actually dislike.
If you're just starting out though, I'd advise setting yourself some achievable targets. There's a few places I'd recommend you look for some tips including the COG blog here: http://www.choiceofgames.com/category/blog/game-design/
They've got some nice articles on game design that are helpful. I'd suggest you map out at least a few chapters. How you do this is up to you - I wrote my initial outline for my project and jotted down ideas for 5 different chapters including the types of choice the player would face. I've also used some online software to map out the structure for these chapters so that I can track variable changes (really essential if you're planning a long game as if you're using stats you'll want to have an idea of what a player could have for each stat at certain points if they're going to impact the game). The software can be found here:
http://www.lovelycharts.com/web
And here's an example of my startup chapter mapped out: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11379019/COG/WIP/Heal/web/mygame/Maps/Startup.png
Then, I'd definitely recommend you check out the wiki here: http://choicescriptdev.wikia.com/wiki/Index
The wiki is a great resource for finding out how to actually code things. It also has instructions on how to host your game/demo (I'd really recommend dropbox). -
@fantom Lots of good advice there by @bawpie so I'll restrict my own comments to the concept itself.
I like the whole idea, a lot, especially the vaguely Farscape feel to it. You may have to come up with a good, sound reason as to why a first-time, probably fairly inexperienced commander would be granted such a cutting-edge-tech vessel, to avoid it coming across as too contrived, but I'm sure with your imagination you'll be able to pull it off.
The ship imprinting / "career" options would make for great replay value, but be prepared for the extra work this would entail to do it properly--i.e. at least some missions unique to each role. The space pirate role has potential (and, let's face it, would probably also be extremely popular) but if you do add it I would very much like to see it become a constant source of . . . conflict--if that's the right word--between the ship and yourself. It would make it far more interesting, IMO, and really help to put across the point that your craft is a sentient being, not just another vessel.
I would also recommend some sort of "explorer" career, perhaps resulting in the ship having more in the way of advanced labs and other scientific facilities, at the cost of less (whatever). As cliched as it may be, exploration of "the great unknown" will always be a crowd-pleaser with many sci-fi fans.
Looking forward to seeing what you can make of this whole idea. -
Third
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I agree, third. "I turn around" just sounds too weird for me.
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Second person (you) would probably be the best to use, but it would also interesting to see what you could do with first or third person. I don't think anyone in this community has used them before.
Of the three second would probably be the easiest to write because it creates a sense of immersion and unity with the character (at least in my experience playing choice games). -
I agree with @Trywm, 2nd is best, but because you didnt give that choice third
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I'm also having a dilemma of what to call my game. Originally I was going to call it whatever I ended up calling the ship, but then I started to think that since the ship gets imprinted on the player, they should decide what the ship is called. Unfortunately this leaves me without a title once again.
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@Nocturnal_Stillness I really like your idea of using a "given" name and a "true" name. I'll probably use a different true name depending on the career chosen. I'm thinking the true name can be a combination of Latin words, like they choose the command career the name can be gnus-bell, which comes from magnus bellator or great warrior , and if they pick stealth, the name can be triborem, which comes from tribulationis factorem or trouble maker.
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Ok, here's a coding question: as I mentioned above, the ship in the game will get bigger and more powerful as the game progresses, and there's going to be rather large difference in the stats from beginning to end. As an example, the total damage that the ship can deal at the beginning of the game would be something like 100, and toward the end of the game it'd be more 10,000. What would be good way to display this difference through the game?
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@fantom A simple percentile bar would do the trick nicely, IMO. To use your own example, a starting ship would be 1% of the likely maximum, clearly indicating both just how weak it really is and the terrific damage potential of what it may one day be capable of.
To apply damage in the game you could simply multiply that stored stat value by 100 (and perhaps apply a random damage range using that value as the current average, say). -
Ideas of names of the game coming up!
The ship
Bio-fleet
Dark nebula
Galaxy of horizons
Herald of doom
The final frontier
Plasmic galaxy
I personally think that the ship should have an 'official' name, chosen by the game, and a 'real' name chosen by the player.
Choice of different character backgrounds and ship type would allow for great customisation and stats, as long as those stats were frequently used!
Ideas for the story (basic ones):
The ship could possibly rebel, or make it's own decisions?
Alien species with a similar technology
Different 'factions'
Prologue to help define your character background
I personally think a lot of inspiration can be taken from all the other space games, such as 'The Fleet' or 'Choice of the Star Captain', maybe try looking there?
Sounds like a great game idea, I'd love to test it :) -
Ok, here's a choice script question: is there a way to have the game randomly choose a number between a set range? I want to recreate the slightly random lucky from rolling a die that you get from a tabletop RPG. Example use would be if your ship is attacking another ship, you would have a base minimum damage dealt depending on your stats and the modifier being whatever the "dice" rolled. And if that is possible, is there a way to influence that "randomness", that is, your character tends to be luckier and tends to "roll" toward the higher end of the number range.
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@Fantom use *rand (check out the wikia article http://choicescriptdev.wikia.com/wiki/Rand)
As for having it higher depending on skills, I think you have to specify the range, so I don't think you could influence *rand. That said, you could add the stat to it, like:
*rand die 0 10
*set die +skill -
@fantom Depending how important this is to you / how big a part you want it to play in your game, you could also use extra scripting to allow you to weight / fine-tune the output of *rand accordingly (e.g. based on the protagonist's skill levels) but wrap it all up in one or more subroutines to limit how much extra coding you will need within your actual story scripting.
For example, if you use percentile (0-100) values for your various main character Stats (we'll use the example here of a skill called "Command", for battle tactics) you would begin by defining two new numeric variables in mygame.js, e.g.
,rand_skill: 0
,dieroll: 0
You would then create a subroutine somewhere near the bottom of your scene .txt file, referenced by its own unique label, and also copy this to the bottom of any other scene .txt file in which you wish to make use of it. It might look something like this:
*label rand_sub1
*if rand_skill > 80
*rand dieroll 6 10
*return
*elseif rand_skill > 60
*rand dieroll 5 10
*return
*elseif rand_skill > 40
*rand dieroll 4 10
*return
*elseif rand_skill > 20
*rand dieroll 3 10
*return
*else
*rand dieroll 2 10
*return
This would allow you to weight / fine-tune the actual random number generation according to the current value of the variable "rand_skill". The random value is stored as the new value of the variable "dieroll".
Naming this subroutine "rand_sub1" allows you to also use additional subroutines (rand_sub2, rand_sub3, etc.), each weighted differently, so you can for instance have one heavily influenced by current skill level, one only moderately influenced, and one perhaps slightly influenced or only by a very high skill level, etc.
Wherever you wish to make use of this subroutine within your actual story scripting, you would then simply insert the following lines of code:
*set rand_skill command
*gosub rand_sub1
*if (or whatever - using the new value of "dieroll" as required)
With this, we are setting the value of "rand_skill" to equal the current value of the player's "Command" stat. We could just as easily set it to equal the value of his Leadership skill, his Navigation ability, or his WC-cleaning prowess . . . or whatever other numeric character stat you wish to use in this particular case to influence the returned value of a random "dieroll".
When ChoiceScipt hits that *gosub line, it will immediately 'jump' to the *label referenced there ("randsub1" in this case) and then run that code until it hits a *return command. At that point it will return to the originating *gosub line number (now having determined a new value for "dieroll", but weighted by the appropriate current skill stat) and will then move on to the *if line immediately below, where you now make use of the new value of "dieroll" within your story scripting as required.
Note that you could also determine which subroutine to use based on something else specific to this particular character, e.g.
*set rand_skill command
*if (born_lucky)
*gosub rand_sub1
*if not (born_lucky)
*gosub rand_sub2
*if (or whatever - using the new value of "dieroll" as required)
Or perhaps use the "born_lucky" boolean as desired within the actual subroutine itself, after it *gosubs there, so you don't have to add those extra lines each time you want to reference a subroutine in your story scripting.
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@fantom You may if you like, although it would probably be more accurate just to credit the community here as a whole--I'm only passing on what I've picked up from others along the way. ;)
Besides, it was a good opportunity to demonstrate for all relative newcomers the flexible *gosub / subroutine / *return system, as there's a great deal you can do with that, with a little thought.
I did, however, neglect to include the obligatory Wiki link . . . I'll remedy that now:
http://choicescriptdev.wikia.com/wiki/Gosub -
Next question of the day: I'm wanting to divide my game up into ten episodes, each of which will have their own story arc, with a greater arc throughout all of the episodes, and of course each episode will have chapters. My question is how do I divvy up the game into episodes? I've looked on the wiki but all I can find is the article on chapters.
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I know nobody has had a chance to answer the above question, but here's another one: I was going through the tutorials for the stat screen and noticed there's a way to display a description under a stat label, so I was wondering if there's a way to make this description a variable, like it displays a different description depending on what the current stat is.
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You create a *temp variable in the stat screen like this:
*temp description_text
And then, you add these lines:*if description = 1
*set description_text "First Description"
*if description = 2
*set description_text "Second Description"
.
.
.
and so on.
Then, in your stat chart, you do the following:*stat_chart
text Strength
${description_text}
So according to the "description" variable, the description of the "Strength" attribute changes accordingly.
Note: "description" must be declared in mygame.js. -
By adding it along with the other variables in mygame.js:
,description: 0
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My brain must not be working. I've done that, but I get an error and it won't open the game.
Here's what I have in my stat screen:
*temp name
*set Name "No name"
*temp rank
*set Rank "Ensign"
*temp Gender
*set gender "None"
*temp description_text1
*if Leadership < 20
*set description_text "People aren't likely to follow you.
*if description_text1 >30
*set description_text "People will follow you.
label display
*stat_chart
text Name
text Rank
text Gender
Leadership
&(description_text1)
opposed_pair Strength
Strength
How strong you are.
opposed_pair Will
Will
How resistant you are to outside influence.
And here's what I have in my mygame.js:
tats = {
leadership: 10
,description_text1
,strength: 10
,will: 10
}; -
*temp description_text
*if leadership < 20
*set description_text "People aren't likely to follow you."
*if leadership > 30
*set description_text "People will follow you."
label display
*stat_chart
text Name
text Rank
text Gender
percent Leadership
${description_text}
percent Strength
How strong you are.
percent Will
How resistant you are to outside influence.stats = {
leadership: 10
,description_text: ""
,strength: 10
,will: 10
,name: "No name"
,rank: "Ensign"
,gender: "None"
};
If you want to be able to change a variable during the game (not only in the stat screen) you must "declare" (create) it in mygame.js (as I did with name, rank and gender). Also, to declare a string (text) variable, you must add a quote (""), even if it's empty, as a default value.
They should work in the way I did them now.
Also, to insert code into the forums with the indentation, use the<pre> </pre>tags (put the code between the tags). -
Ok, here's something I want your guy's opinion on. As I mention above, the player's character is given command of a super advanced and thus far one of a kind ship, and as @Vendetta says I should probably give a good reason why the player is given command of this ship and not someone more experienced. The thought I'm thinking of going with is the player is an ensign, and through a series of events the ship the player serves on encounters an aliens species from the dimension next door, they greet each other etc. and afterwords I'm thinking that because they're from another, possibly higher dimension they somehow sense that humanity will soon face dire circumstances that will threaten to destroy all life in the galaxy. Humanity will need aide to face this, but the aliens cannot help directly because due to their other dimensional nature cannot linger in our dimension for very long. So instead, they give humanity a gift: an egg (although it looks more like a giant embryo) that will grow into a great ship. The catch (there always is one) is that the ship has to bond with person that is to command it, and as such cannot bond with just anyone. It must be a special kind of person. And at that moment it points it's finger (or whatever) at the player and say "you". This of course raises all sorts of objections in the others present, admirals, ambassadors, and such and how you're too inexperience ("They're just an ensign!" but the aliens insist that this is how it would have to be if they want their assistance.
That's what I got. I apologize for holes in logic or whatever, it was literally coming to me as I was typing. What do you guys think?
On another note, how long does it usually take for these games to be made? I know to expect months, at least. -
@fantom your idea is very interesting maybe the pc has to discover the mistery of what make him special, maybe the aliens not are so well intencioned like they seems or you. My character always try to gain the max profit for herself so i hope i can be a little bad at least
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Your game sounds interesting, looking forward to it. You have a great potential in the plot, so if you fully use it, you can make a very original game.
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@fantom
Instead of the player being given the ship because they are special why not have it so they get it by accident.
Something like...
The Ship Embryo is discovered in the ruins of an alien spacecraft that is only recently discovered. The rest of the ship tech has already been salvaged and it responsible for huge leaps and bounds. The only thing they can't figure out is the embryo, they study it at a safe distance but can't figure it out so it gets dumped in a warehouse.
This is where the player comes in instead of an ensign they are a college reporter trying to get a scoop. They break into the lab but are caught and get hurt. they somehow manage to escape the guards but collapse in a darkened room due to blood loss.
The PC doesn't realise they have gotten into the warehouse and collapsed right next to the embryo. The blood activates it and while you are unconcious it maps itself to your DNA repairing your injury while it does so.
When you awaken you learn that you are the only person capable of flying it and they have no other choice but to recruit you as the ship captain. -
@Nocturnal_Stillness Hmmm, interesting. I'm definitely getting some good ideas to think about.
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Work on another project, thats what I try to do.
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@fantom I find it very useful to work from a sort of 'storyboard' (minus the graphical element!), to which I constantly add more possibilities as thoughts occur or interesting ideas are suggested by early playtesters. Further to @Ajax's comment, inspiration from such as movies or books also gets added to my ongoing storyboard.
Every now & then I "redraw" the whole thing to incorporate some of the better ideas, expanding on the routes and options intended to be made available, and decide precisely how earlier decisions will consequence later events or available options.
It's probably a far more methodical approach than what most ChoiceScript authors use, but it works for me from both a "story" (what the player sees) and "game design" (what goes on behind-the-scenes) point of view. Moreover, it goes a long, long way towards getting around serious writer's block, as there's always another section already planned for me to switch to working on if (or rather, when!) I get stuck on precisely how to proceed with one particular bit.
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