Hey, I'm working on something. Haven't started coding, but I'm seriously starting to design it now. Hopefully by the month's end, I'll have most of this thing designed and a concrete idea of how I want it to look.
I'm starting an entire series of games, and at the very least, this one will be done in orx. I am planning this game, which is to be a top-down shooter, an RPG, and a fighting game. They are all to take place in the same universe, so I have given them the project name "Sweet Dreams Project." I'm looking for other game genres I can see myself making with some degree of success, and seeing if I can work them into the universe for my series.
In this series, peoples' dreams are physical worlds that can be traveled between. These worlds exist in a separate plane that is accessed by sleeping. In this world, imagination, among other things, is power.
Foul beasts inhabit this plane, though, created by the negative emotions and vain thoughts of humanity. These monsters feed off of the same evil energy that births them, so they seek to invade dreams and turn them into nightmares.
There are people who employ these beasts to do their bidding, and people who fight them practically for a living. The battle between people who darken the world and illuminate it with light rages daily... or rather, nightly.
The dream plane is just as real as reality; you can die (albeit, there are conditions to dying in this world), become fatigued, and suffer injury. And you can even be trapped in this world, unable to awaken, if you succumb to the power of the nightmares.
In this game, players take control of a girl who has allowed herself to sink into a dark depression, attracting and strengthening the nightmares. But she awakens to the power of light, and decides to fight to awaken herself.
Dream worlds are created by and connected to the heart and soul of the dreamer. Which means that a person's world disappears when they die. But should a world be destroyed, the person's heart and soul will be erased from the world as well...
Fight for your survival, and awaken to your potential!
Projected features: Top-down shooter with RPG elements. Mix and match main weapons, sub-weapons, and skills, each with branching upgrade trees, to suit your play style.
Arcade mode, without the RPG elements and with minimal interruptions or story, for regulated scoring runs. Set the highest score and share it online (if possible)!
Battle through 6 intense stages, with an unlockable extra stage for skilled players.
4 difficulties, one of which will push you beyond your limits...
Steam achievements. If I get greenlit.
Engaging story and characters, which is uncharacteristic for top-down shooters.
This is my dream. Well, from my dream, to yours, maybe I'll be able to make it happen!
Comments
That's an impressive blue print!
I'd like to share my experience here. I don't know how to tell it because I certainly don't want you to settle down.
I'm using orx for 2-3 years now, and I think I'getting a good grasp on it. I know what it's capable of, and what it's not really fitted for. And in doubt there is always iarwain
But if there is one thing I learned, is to be realistic on what I can achieve before I get bored on a project and let it rot on my bitbucket.
I'm speaking for my experience (and I don't know how many you are working on this project).
The work for a game can be roughly split in 2 part.
The code, and the assets.
Orx is not the problem here, the problem would be the tools to create your assets.
I'm speaking of the level/world design, you really need very good tools for this task. I've began 2 games with level design involved, and ... never released theses games. Everything else is done and ironed, but lacking a good level designer tool, I got fed up with this task. With long tasks like this, you risk to loose your motivation (again, my experience).
The other option is to create an algorithm for procedural content generated, but that's also a big task.
That's why I joined the OneGameAMonth challenge, it forces me to think small, and to avoid manually created game content.
I also keeps me motivated, as I move quickly from one game to another. And nothing prevents me to return to a game or to make a sequel.
Now as I said, I don't want to settle you down, having high goals is a good thing, but it's very frustrating if you can't reach them.
You can check this article which is very intersting
http://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/1gam-how-to-succeed-at-making-one-game-a-month--gamedev-3695
That was my two cent, take it or drop it.
I really hope you'll be successful with this project.
Oh, and thank you for that insight. If I ever make anything more complicated, I'll make a level designer.
Regarding the level design part, the choice of a top-down shooter sounds wise, indeed.
That being said, being a level designer requires a specific set of skills and mind along with a good measure of dedication/abnegation, no matter which tools are used.
One example, the level editor coming with UbiArt Framework, which is the internal tool used at Ubisoft to make the last 2 Rayman games as well as Child of Light and a few other games to come, isn't much more evolved than what is already in ScrollEd.
The three most obvious features that it has and ScrollEd hasn't are:
- Undo/Redo
- Multiple selection
- Drag&Drop support for loading maps
Beside that, the actual edition is done in a very similar to ScrollEd, which is also not that far either from what they had at Bit Blot when they made Aquaria.
I plan to improve on ScrollEd in the future and make it a bit more than just a level editor, so if you have any suggestions please send them to me.
After a scene is done you can export it (it does export, but there is no interface to select the name yet).
You can load it on orx with a very simple code (30 lines top).
Here is a video sample (You can add simple collision info, I forgot to put on video):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0UdeUM9pB-nbW93cDVWYmtMeU0/edit?usp=sharing
I coded it using an interface framework called Kivy (it uses python), I believe this is probably not good for an end to end editor, that should probably be created using ORX itself.
I especially like the bottom pane approach. There were a few attemps to create editors for orx by community members, and most of them are hosted on orx's main bitbucket page: https://bitbucket.org/orx
I can give you access to it if you'd like to setup a repo for your editor there. No obligation/pressure, of course.