Let's get this idea back up.
Last time we were discussing if we should do a magic school-themed rougelike. As the voting doesn't seem to give any conclusive results, I'd say: Just do it! It doesn't matter that much if it isn't the greatest setting, because Dungeon Crawl doesn't even have a functional backstory...
Since it's always best to lead by example, I've made a small list of what needs to be done, in no particular order except that of my twisted mind:
Just the basics: walking around, going up and down stairs. Perhaps it's best to reserve space for other kinds of movement as well
When that's in we can start worrying about pathfinding and adding in things like movement speed et cetera
I assume we're going to do proceduraly generated levels. But if we're working on a school, we can't just throw in a random set of rooms like one would do with a dungeon.
Instead I think it'd be best if we'd divide the school up in floors, make a system that can generate all the corridors needed and then add the classrooms, house rooms, mess halls, sleeping chambers et cetera. Idealy, the school should also house all kinds of secrets that can only be reached with advanced spells that you'll only learn later on in the game.
A magic school also needs gardens and other pieces of countryside to stroll around and gather herbs, so we'll need a way to generate those as well, idealy with a bit of a plan behind them as well.
We need to decide upon a system for casting spells as well as a way to represent it within the game. Since I expect this to be an important part of the game, this must be fun and not cumbersome.
This is the part I've got the most trouble deciding on: Should the lessons themselves be an important part of the game, in the form of quests and mini-games, or are they breaks in between the real game, in which you somehow aquire more knowledge? or should they be a combination of both?
Anyway, we'll need a way to set up rosters, which also includes time restrictions for exams and practical work. Idealy there should be a system that scramble the rosters, so you don't get all the lessons in the same order, but things like Alchemy 101 should always come before Paraphysical Cristalurgy, so we also need to decide an order for the lessons (and the lessons themselves as well)
It might also be an idea to situate a multitude of organisations in the school. Maybe something similar to the Houses of Harry Potter would be interesting, since that'll give plenty of inter-house feuds and drama for the game to work with.
Besides that, there should be plenty extra-scolar activities to attend, possibly organised by the organisations situated on the school; sports, research projects, fairs, excursions et cetera.
Another important point is the interaction with others. We'll need to simulate a lot of students you can bump into and idealy each of them should have something interesting. Developing feuds and love interests can give rise to a lot of drama and interesting situations (I saw Cral and Mia kiss while Mia dates Pete. But if I tell, they'll know I was invisible and I'm forbidden from being invisible outside of Refractomagy 101)
Any good rougelike has a lot of ways to fail, but a school can't go about killing half of it's students (or perhaps this school can, just because we say so). so we have to think of ways in which something can go wrong and the player gets into trouble. Plenty of lose conditions are needed and also a lot of things that makes stuff harder. I'm at the very least thinking of penalties for bad behaviour (if they found out... Nobody will know that you and Anne have been sneaking around the greenhouses at night if nobody saw you), penalties for failing tests and exams, and even severe wounds stemming from incorrect magic usage or lack of attention in difficult classes
A last point I'd like to talk about is how the game develops. Is it just that you get further and further as a mage, or should we simulate sme darker forces at work (like in Harry Potter). Or do we choose quite a different route altogheter?
Another part to think about is character development. Does the character just get better at magic as time goes by? Does he or she develop in other ways as well? How do we handle equipment? How do we get the "Just one more step"-feeling that good games have?
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8 (40%)
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Topic: Simple Game Project. (STAGE: on hold. Learning OpenGl) (Read 11398 times)