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[Zanzetkuken The Great]

Had this idea over the course of a 2 hour road trip. Was thinking about programming it into a game, but I wanted to see what people thought of it.

Spoiler: Idea (click to show/hide)

Genre:
RPG

Main Character:
Apprentice Mage

Mechanics:
Spellcrafting - One of three ways to get new spells (other two being research and seeking out training (might fold those together into a two step process)).  It is composed of a three part combination of two words and a gesture to construct new or modifications to already learned spells, depending upon if the first part is the name of an existing spell learned or using two words/word parts of the 'language of magic'.
Light-Dark Meter: Modified by type of magic primarily utilized.  Affects how fellow mages view you.
Law-Chaos Meter: Modified by obeying or breaking laws of the region you are within.  Affects how people of authority view you.  Region-based.
Public Appearance Meter: Modified by quests taken.  Affects how the common people view the character.
Sidescrolling, Isometric, or Third-Person (Leaning towards the first or third)
Likely no mana pool.  Might use a max output meter instead.

[bahihs]

I have virtually non-existent exp in game making (though I'm trying to learn) but this looks like an enormous project. Very cool. But enormous.

Perhaps you should try building a simple prototype with all the spell-making mechanics and see if its something worth pursuing. I can say, however, that if a game like this existed, I'd play it in a heartbeat.

[escaped lurker]

I am quite sure that this could garner fitting interest. For all that it is worth, you at least got mine already ;3

Mechanics
Actually, you could really do without a standard mana pool - I think "Exhaustion" could do the trick. The stronger the spell, the more time until you can cast the next? Wait, no, combining it with your "max output meter", might be even better. As in, the apprentice starts with 2 mana "channeling", and if he casts a 3 mana spell, he needs to wait out overdrafting that 1 mana. Yeah, still not sure if this would be a good feature.

Food for Thought
Some games with "true" spell-crafting that came to mind. True as in, not only choosing the strength of the spell, like you could do in oblivion.
Actually, also all games that I could come up with, that had this element in them. Not sure how much you can gain by looking at them, but I guess it won't hurt either.

"Perplexicon"
One straight from these forums, made by piecewise. Not sure how much you can gleam at the mechanics by just reading it, as everything is deliciously hidden from prying eyes. Piecewise' notes on his game would surely be a goldmine... Err.. yeah. Advising you to ask for them, would be quite impudent on my part. Even mentioning it like this, already is.

"Magicka"
You just might know this one already. Chaotic clickfest of spam-what-you-can magic, with a great number of possible combinations - which also give different results depending on how they are "released". Even seems to be free to play by now.

"Tower of the Archmage"
A roguelike with spell-crafting. It is more about packing even more "Runes" into your spells, which can reach diverse effects, than the freedom you seem to envision. How magic strength is handled here, might be of interest though.

Graphics

Third Person might be the most difficult option in regards to getting graphic assets. I am not saying that you should let your choice be dictated by this, but it is an aspect worth considering.

Isometric, or especially Top-Down, would be comparatively easy, with Sidecrolling the most easy by far.

Either way, if you whip up a presentable alpha version, there might even be people on this sub-forum willing to invest into your game.
For the time being, I'd be quite pleased to "hand-you-down"-graphics as placeholders, from one of my old pixel-games... Provided that you can use them, that is.

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

Can someone tell me how many spells would result from this?  I know it is a couple hundred (so I'm going to remove the 'gesture' portion), I just want an exact number.  Note that the 'spells' can be cast standalone, and different orders result in the spells behaving slightly differently (ex. Teleport/Shockwave has a character teleport, then use a localized shockwave (similar to Area-of-Effect, but over a smaller radius and only around you, rather than being ranged) to clear out the surrounding area, but Shockwave/Teleport has the same shockwave launch before the teleport.  Very similar, but the way they would be used is very different) (Note: this is indicative only of that combination.  Combinations do not always result in the effects of the spells combining)

Spoiler: Spells (click to show/hide)

Teleport (Short range warp)
Fireball (Orb of fire that may set targets on fire for a couple seconds)
Flare (Burst of light)
Paralyze (Stun target for a time)
Ice Spike (Launches a spike of ice at target that, after impact, shatters and makes the ground below slick to those crossing it)
Shield (Reduces the effects of most spells.  Stops Death from dealing damage.)
Blind (Blinds target)
Shockwave (Outward wave of force in a single direction)
Summon (Summons different things depending on place on light-dark meter)
Detect (Detects alignment)
Feather Fall (Reduces fall damage)
Heal (Restore health)
Zombify (Turns a corpse into a zombie minion)
Void (Orb of negative energy)
Cut (Causes a target to bleed out for a short time)
Death (Long charge time, short stagger after launch.  One hit kills most 'minion' enemies, two hit kills the rest (if not heavily Dark Magic based.  Three hit kills bosses and other players (Yes, this does mean that I want to drop in a multiplayer arena mode.)(If there would be a multiplayer, this would probably mainly used for surprise attacks or forcing a spell struggle between two people using continuous spells.)

Spoiler: Modifiers (click to show/hide)

Area-of-Effect (Causes effect to happen over an area)
Extra Power (Increases effects of spells.  May add a new one in some cases (ex. Paralyze with this causes a small amount of damage in addition to stunning))
Continuous (Depends on spell.  Some have it active until effect is dealt or spell is canceled (ex. Death), others deal damage for a short time before throwing an enemy back (spell can keep continuing, enemy is just thrown out of beam) (ex. Flare), others fire off until button is let go (ex. Paralysis), and still others change effects entirely (ex. Ice Spike turns into a continuous wave of frost).  Spells of this type can collide and result in a 'spell struggle'.)
Rune (Creates a marking that activates after a second.  Next entity to pass this activates its effect.)
Homing (Spell curves towards the nearest enemy after one second.)
Rapid Fire (Fires off spells rapidly at a cost to damage/effect)

Graphics

Third Person might be the most difficult option in regards to getting graphic assets. I am not saying that you should let your choice be dictated by this, but it is an aspect worth considering.

Isometric, or especially Top-Down, would be comparatively easy, with Sidecrolling the most easy by far.

Either way, if you whip up a presentable alpha version, there might even be people on this sub-forum willing to invest into your game.
For the time being, I'd be quite pleased to "hand-you-down"-graphics as placeholders, from one of my old pixel-games... Provided that you can use them, that is.

I'm probably going to run with Sidescrolling graphics.  I thank you for the offer, but I am probably going to use blocks filled in with the fill tool.


What do people think of this control scheme:
A, D for left/right movement
S for crouch/climb down
W for climb up
Q for Inventory
E for Use/Activate/etc
Space for jump
Mouse 1 to launch active spell
Mouse 2 to launch prior active spell
Z and C for prior/next spell
1-5 to quickly select spells (These are able to be swapped in inventory).

Other things I would like opinions on:
Limiting quest log to 1 Main Quest, 2 Multi-Mission Side Quests, 4 One-Mission Side Quests.
Have equipment provide bonuses or not (I'm thinking in terms of clothing, no.  In terms of wands/staffs, yes.
Learning new spells through research or from your teacher, or having to research the spell then learn from your teacher.
Continuous world or have only the dungeons sidescrolling, with a top-down world between them.
Extent of random generation (eg. enemy stats only, enemy count only, both, constructed dungeons, partially generated dungeons, fully generated dungeons, fully generated world map, etc. (I'm leaning towards only doing it for the enemy stats with a couple specific areas being full random due to being in a realm of chaos or being heavily steeped in magic.))
Use of statistics (I'm thinking of having the player's power be based upon their spell knowledge, with some changes based on type of wand, and leaving statistics to enemies.
Online multiplayer arena mode. (More of a wishful thing, but still want opinions.)
Language of Magic. (Gibberish?  Modification of an ancient language?)

[cerapa]

Spell + Spell = 17*16 = 272 combinations

Unless you want to code 272 spells, I suggest you come up with a generalized system of spell combination.

[BlitzDungeoneer]

Colour me PTWing, this seems really interesting.

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

Spell + Spell = 17*16 = 272 combinations

Unless you want to code 272 spells, I suggest you come up with a generalized system of spell combination.

I think it is closer to 336-352.  You forgot the modifiers being able to be used in the second slot as well as another spell.

I don't think the system will be too bad.  I can see a fair amount of areas where I can copy over code.  At the very worst, some combinations will be rendered invalid.

[cerapa]

I think it is closer to 336-352.  You forgot the modifiers being able to be used in the second slot as well as another spell.

I don't think the system will be too bad.  I can see a fair amount of areas where I can copy over code.  At the very worst, some combinations will be rendered invalid.

Bad idea. Very bad idea. Doubleplusungood idea.

You are going to get bugs. An absolute shitton of bugs, and when you fix one, you will inevitably forget to fix the places where you used the same code. This would be hard enough with 20 spells, but if you want to get 336-352 spells, then I guarantee at least half of them wont work and other half will make the game crash.

[Neonivek]

I've kind of liked the spell system I made for that failed game that never went off the ground... Which is that magic came from the same basic "Words" or runes that mean different things depending on the slot. so gaining more vastly increased your spell list.

So there are 16 spells and 6 modifiers... spells can be any combination and can be singular...

Then there are the 16 spells on their with the combination of any two... 16 x 16 since "by itself" is a legitimate type so 256

But then we have to get a modifier so 1536

Plus many more if we include that the modifier can apply to each thing separately.

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

I've kind of liked the spell system I made for that failed game that never went off the ground... Which is that magic came from the same basic "Words" or runes that mean different things depending on the slot. so gaining more vastly increased your spell list.

So there are 16 spells and 6 modifiers... spells can be any combination and can be singular...

Then there are the 16 spells on their with the combination of any two... 16 x 16 since "by itself" is a legitimate type so 256

But then we have to get a modifier so 1536

Plus many more if we include that the modifier can apply to each thing separately.

It's not two spells and a modifier for a new one.  It's a spell and another spell or a modifier.

[miauw62]

I,  for one, think that SSMRPGWHSCF is a great title for a game

Also, the Perplexicon notes and full word list were made available to everyone... jeez, over a year ago.

E:
It's almost been two entire years since Perplexicon ended. Jesus.
Anyway, here are ALL THE NOTES EVER on Perplexicon:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/llsh00sgxtfes77/70dbF4LeCr