Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Neonivek]

So I am thinking of starting a point and click Adventure game, note I haven’t declared one yet hence why this topic is here and not the projects page, and at first I thought of making one of Dwarf Fortress in order to garter possible community aid for my first endeavours. Yet I want a better idea of what people’s idea of Dwarf Fortress is with respect to a story focused game.

Though as I kept thinking more and more I realised that there is almost no solidified vision of what Dwarf Fortress really is. Threetoe’s stories tends to be some odd mix between dry and fantastic story telling. Boatmurdered is very crass and outrageous, and most stories I’ve read were about how crazy or insane Dwarf Fortress is.

I am aware what gameplay is like, but what do you imagine the story? What are the key elements?

[Rentorian]

Given that there's no real consistent plot you'd be better off just choosing a standard goal of the game.  This could be something serious like your character is a dwarf and you have the parts for the screw pump so you can get past the aquifer.  Or it could be something silly like that you have to get the sock from the battlefield.  The obstacles would be things like having to please a noble, or distract a forgotten beast.

[DisgruntledPeasant]

So long as its got obscene violence,  horribly corrupt morality and oodles of insanity you will be fine.

Absolutely any dwarf in a position of power and especiallly the nobility has an extra double dose of crazy in the mix,  with a dash of meglomania.   Cats are the scourge of dwarfkind except the dwarfves themselves are too soft to kill them without divine guidence.
There is a clear consensus on the topic of elves,  they are vile hypocritical hippies who must be destroyed with magma.

The plot could be a dwarfs attempts to keep a noble happy with his increasingly obsurd mandates (including sending a dwarf into a raging battlefield, the caverns and possibly even the circus itself)  all coming to a head when the dwarf is given a divine order from the player to arrange the troublesome nobles death.

[Neonivek]

From what I can see the more crazy elements of Dwarf Fortress cannot be divorsed from the story even for the sake of more serious storytelling.

[EveryZig]

Another story you could do:
After a massive cave in crushes the forge and the other miners, a single off-duty miner must go on an elaborate quest (involving nobles, caverns, and magma) to recover the last pickaxe in the fortress.
Of course, once he finally succeeds, a several migrant miners arrive with their own pickaxes.

[Neonivek]

Another story you could do:
After a massive cave in crushes the forge and the other miners, a single off-duty miner must go on an elaborate quest (involving nobles, caverns, and magma) to recover the last pickaxe in the fortress.
Of course, once he finally succeeds, a several migrant miners arrive with their own pickaxes.

One of the major reasons I feel many Point and Click Adventure games fall flat is they forget that they are ultimately telling a story (to the extent that I consider the closest genre of games to Point and Click Adventure games to be Visual Novels and interactive fiction, instead of Puzzle games like most people suggest.) and attempt to simply make a character go through hoops without any real context except beating the game. For the most part puzzles in Adventure games arn't THAT good in it of themselves and it is how the puzzles interact with the story and feeling of the game that really makes them shine.
-The other reason they fall flat, outside of just being lousy, is where they forget that their game is supposed to ultimately be an interactive story and thus while they have story, often good story, they end up putting the puzzles on the side where they can't hurt the story. As well Puzzles in most Point and Click adventures also highlight the main character's strengths and weaknesses as it shows their own intelligence and creativity (or just flat out insanity and sociopathy) and "whatever" puzzles don't feel like they apply to the main character and thus leads to weaker characterisation.

Which is the major problem with one bit stories is that it ultimately just leads right back to this and also why I think Point and Clicks are very hard to pull off.

Your idea isn't bad, don't get me wrong, I just wanted to explain my views on how stories function within a point and click setting. Heck one of my original ideas was where you were a Human Ambasidor (you being human for sequel reasons) as a fortress is attacked by a goblin (or if I went the comedy route... Goblins, Humans, Elves, and Kobolds at once) army and the fortress has to close itself off. Unfortunately things start to fall appart as the fortress starts going mad and you need to find a way out. I thought this setting would work excellently in what should essentially be a death prone game as well as giving a good excuse for exposition to be placed on the main character.

Thus the Three Pillars of Point and Clicks are: Plot, Setting, and Character.

Though from what I understand the desire for a Dwarf protagonist is strong. I guess I could do what Kings Quest did.