Personal Projects

[Torvus]

I plan to also add the stereotypical skill stats you find in most RPG (i.e. Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, etc.), but I also want to come up with a twist like adding some other stat that has to do with the 'Dream World'. If anyone has any ideas on it don't be afraid to say anything.

Suggested stat/ability: Lucidity. By acknowledging that you are in the dream world, you can alter it to some extent beyond what your stats/abilities would otherwise allow. If you come across, say, a giant rock in the dream world, you could try to move it out of your way with your strength. If that fails, you can say to yourself "this is a dream" and either increase your strength or just cause the obstacle to disappear. Use it to summon weapons, banish some enemies, etc. The drawback is that by divorcing yourself from the dream world, you can wake yourself up and thus lose the ability to progress any further into the dream world that night.

[Mazarus]

Suggested stat/ability: Lucidity. By acknowledging that you are in the dream world, you can alter it to some extent beyond what your stats/abilities would otherwise allow.

That actually is a great idea that fits well with the theme. I definitely will be using this, Thank you Torvus.

[Torvus]

Suggested stat/ability: Lucidity. By acknowledging that you are in the dream world, you can alter it to some extent beyond what your stats/abilities would otherwise allow.

That actually is a great idea that fits well with the theme. I definitely will be using this, Thank you Torvus.

You're most welcome. Happy to help.

[Anachronic]

Lucidity is a brilliant RPG stat suggestion. And I second that call for a shot of your RPG map when it's ready. Sounds really cool.

I'm prototyping a few new things right now. Working with some of the Orxy ultimate fantasy sprites to put together a fantasy strategy card game. Might be a long-term project though compared to my other games. Also have a funny prototype based on Toobin' but not sure what do with it yet.

[Administrator]

This is the github repository I have set up for it : https://github.com/cryce/how-bout-those-dreams
This is the link to Cloud9 IDE, where I do most of my coding : https://ide.c9.io/cryce/lets_work

Cool, dude, this is a neat way to share code and collaborate!

Out of curiosity, what is the Cloud9 IDE? I've never seen this thing before.

Torvus, that Lucidity idea is rad, man! Torvus is a source of some really solid ideas. Just tread lightly, and don't follow him too deep into his deranged realm of madness. I do like how this is turning into a collaborative design thread here.

Working with some of the Orxy ultimate fantasy sprites to put together a fantasy strategy card game. Might be a long-term project though compared to my other games. Also have a funny prototype based on Toobin' but not sure what do with it yet.

What are those Oryx ultimate fantasy sprites, man? I've seen you post some of them on Twitter, and they look awesome!! Sometimes long term projects can be really rewarding! I'd definitely be intrigued to see the direction you take it. Have you ever played any other fantasy card games, like Magic: The Gathering?

[Mazarus]

Out of curiosity, what is the Cloud9 IDE

Well, Cloud9 is a site that has an online IDE that also doubles as a place to store files. You can open, edit, and run different files. There's also a way to have code being run on a designated URL address but I haven't looked into it.

The reason I use it is due to how easy it is to use, the fact that the teacher running computer science uses it, and the fact I can share complete workspaces with people by sharing just a URL.

I've tried other with little to no success so I'm happily settled with this one. I still use the basic IDEl that comes with the initial download of Python, but I use this on a Chromebook due to its inability to download Python.

[Anachronic]

What are those Oryx ultimate fantasy sprites, man? I've seen you post some of them on Twitter, and they look awesome!! Sometimes long term projects can be really rewarding! I'd definitely be intrigued to see the direction you take it. Have you ever played any other fantasy card games, like Magic: The Gathering?

Here's the link to the sprites. They come with a commercial license for games but it's a bit limited. I don't think you can use them in an open source project. http://oryxdesignlab.com/product-sprites/
I got the Ultimate Fantasy Tileset. The 16-bit Fantasy pack was in a few cool games. The Hi-Fi Gothic one is awesome too; would love to use that in a game. The problem is I keep thinking up ideas for these tilesets but then as a refine the design a bit I realize that there just aren't enough animations or poses to do justice to the gameplay. A lot of the ideas would only ever feel like prototype... They seem to work best with roguelikes, which I guess they were designed for. I'd love to make a roguelike but always just get drawn a little more towards the action side of things. My best idea is a roguelike metagame with a bunch of mini arcade games for dungeons, caves, castles, towers, ruins, etc... but it's one of those 'all-encompassing take over your life for a decade' types of projects that I've tried to steer clear of so far.

I've tried other with little to no success so I'm happily settled with this one. I still use the basic IDEl that comes with the initial download of Python, but I use this on a Chromebook due to its inability to download Python.

That's rad that you're allowing collaboration on your project. I'll have to check out Python and Cloud9 sounds cool. How do you find the Chromebook? Do you use it for game development? I've been thinking about replacing my old slow hand-me-down Macbook with a Chromebook... mostly just for email and word processing but would be interesting to hear a game dev's perspective on it.

[Administrator]

The reason I use it is due to how easy it is to use, the fact that the teacher running computer science uses it, and the fact I can share complete workspaces with people by sharing just a URL.

I took a look into Cloud9, and this thing is as cool as sin. The ability to share a workspace with a URL is righteous! For many, many projects, this sort of setup would be really useful. Nice choice!

Here's the link to the sprites.

Wow, these guys have made some exquisite pixel art. I feel like I could just look at their website all day. As you can probably tell, I've got a really soft spot for sprite sheets and pixel art.

The problem is I keep thinking up ideas for these tilesets but then as a refine the design a bit I realize that there just aren't enough animations or poses to do justice to the gameplay.

In my book, there's nothing at all wrong with starting out using something like this and then expanding the pixel art at a later point. In fact, using sprites like these as a starting set would make for an amazing prototype! You should've seen the earlier version of Outer Colony. Let me see if I can find the first build...

Here's a hilarious screenshot from version 0.0.02. As you can see, I was using some awesome place holder graphics (although the illustrations were worked in quite nicely! They were helping the worlds feel right even back then):

I'd love to make a roguelike but always just get drawn a little more towards the action side of things. My best idea is a roguelike metagame with a bunch of mini arcade games for dungeons, caves, castles, towers, ruins, etc...

Oh man, these kinds of ideas excite me to no end. The prospect of genre fusion like this has always seemed like a natural progression for games to me. Like, synthesizing the FPS and RTS genres, or the MMORPG and FPS genres seemed like natural steps that just haven't been taken. To me, the idea of combining those sorts of dungeon crawling mechanics that facilitate amazing world building with fun, useful action sequences...that could be something really new and groundbreaking, right there.

I know it'd take quite a bit of time and effort to create, but just think about how cool the end result could be!

Although, if you're looking to avoid decade-long, life-destroying projects, I'm probably not the best guy to talk to.

[Torvus]

Another dream world stat/ability suggestion:

Ego: you'll have your actual physical stats in the real world that might be rather difficult to change or which change relatively slowly based on leveling up or in game events. In the dream world, your stats would be based on these actual stats. A guy who is strong but slow in the real world would not just become an agile speedster who doesn't hit so hard in the dream world (unless he uses lucidity), because his self image is based on his actual self.

This is where ego comes in. The dream world stats are based on what the character conceives himself to be based on his interactions with the waking world. You could have an ego score for each stat, or a general ego score for everything at once depending on how you want to design it.

For example let's say the protagonist has a strength score of 10 and a corresponding ego score of 100%. This means he has a very accurate understanding of who he is and what he is capable of. If he had an ego of 50%, it would represent a low opinion of himself or at least of his strength and this view if himself would carry over into the dream world where his strength would only be 5 instead of 10. If he were over confident and had an ego score of 120%, he would have a strength of 12 in the dream world.

The upside to this stat would be that you could make your character much more malleable in the dream world and you could have another way to add weight to your actions in the waking world. For example, let's say Protagonist has a low ego score in strength. He could beat up and bully some weak guys in the real world. This could result in a boost to his ego as he has now proved to himself that he is strong by picking on these guys. However, along with whatever real world consequences you'd want to include in the game for role playing as an awful person, you might also run into nightmare monsters wearing your face in the dream world. There could be other ways to improve your ego score without being a bully of course, and failing in the waking world could drop your score.

[Mazarus]

How do you find the Chromebook? Do you use it for game development?

Well, I actually got my chromebook on loan about two years ago from my school. We are partnered with Google so thats why the entire school is able to use Chromebooks. Now, The chromebook I have can not run code, nor does it have an IDE you can use. It is essentially just the google chrome web browser. At first it was running really well, but as of turning 2 years old, it's performance has deteriorated. Now this might've been fixed in a newer version.

I do most development on Cloud9, an online IDE which allows me to go to any computer and just log in to continue work.

It is pretty good with Email and Word processing as that's one of the things google offers.

Another dream world stat/ability suggestion: Ego

Now I like the idea, but I wont necessarily use it like that. After reading this I have the idea of using base stats for everyone, and as they level up they can add points to their skills and that will be them thinking of themselves better. The reason they get better is because they succeed. Now that that's a thing I thought just now, what if everytime they lost they lost experience points. And if they go down then they will lose a set amount of points that the game can randomly determine.

Basically you go up to a monster and your stats are as follows:

Level 12
Strength : 23
Dexterity : 21
Constitution : 18
Wisdom : 19
Intelligence : 27
Charisma : 12

In the begining of the adventure they would probably be around 10's. When you go up against the monster, you try your best but you lose. You are given a message that you black out and lose experience, and/or went down a level. When you go back into the dream world, you'll open your stats and find something like this.

Level 11
Strength : 22
Dexterity : 19
Constitution : 16
Wisdom : 19
Intelligence : 27
Charisma : 12

The game selects 5 of the stats at random and docks them by one each time. in this instance Strength has been docked 1, Dexterity has been docked 2, and constitution docked by 2. Since your character is still shaky about losing they'll have less confidence.

That's just how I thought I could use it.