I'm making a game, guys.

What is this?
This is the thread I'll use for the discussion of my game. This game isn't finished, it's still in the conceptual stage of development. It hasn't been completely planned out, nothing is perfectly formulated, but that's okay. The game exists, It does have a plot and characters and how the game plays out is pretty much done.

But I'm not going to tell you about this game.
Unless you ask me to. Ask questions. In fact, don't post without asking a question about this game. Don't be afraid to ask the same question twice, either, because an updated answer may be 20x more detailed than the original!

So go ahead! Ask questions!

Okay then, let's start with your protagonist. Describe your protagonist. Is it a man, a woman, something else? Is it one person, or a group of people, or some kind of entity? With this be a knightly do-gooder hero, or a scrappy anti-hero, or what?
And so on. Let's see your basic hero specs.

Okay, cool. Didn't think really think anybody would ask anything until tomorrow.

For the character, I'm thinking male, white. He'd be a detective, you know. But not for crimes. Well, yeah, maybe for crimes. But in the end, not really. You know what I'm saying?

I'm not sure about his physical traits yet. Probably gonna be a pretty average build, with average features, because he wouldn't want to stand out or be obvious. Oh, no that would horrible. He wont be hired by any agency, either. His duties as a detective are purely self-proclaimed. Nobody knows how he makes money, I don't think even he knows. I'm sure there'll be plenty of explanations, though. Y'know, if you look for them.

He's not a fighter, either. Of all the fights in the game, he'll be in exactly 0 of them.

More questions. Go.

I'm getting an Agatha Christie vibe from this :P

Where will this all be set? A world, just a city; is it earth, what's the time period if so?

I like the idea of a detective but not for crimes.



Have you ever read "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" or "The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul" ? Because if not, you should. You might find them inspirational :)

Earth, in a small city in modern America. No specific date, or at least not yet. Could be later, but probably not. The city's really more of a suburban neighborhood. No skyscrapers, dense traffic, high crime rates, or anything like that.


I have not, but speaking of inspiration, here's a list of things that may have had any level of significance in the inspiration of this game:

A full moon as distorted through my window.
My window's blinds.
Street lights.
That book "It", by Stephen King.
Silent Hill (The first one)
These message boards.
4Chan.
Heavy Rain.
And a lot of other stuff that I can't remember/don't care about.

Guys I don't even know what this game is. I'm working on my character and I have a vague outline of what kind of story I'm aiming at, but the most prominent thing on my mind right now is that I want to make this game very story-oriented. Dialogue, narrative, flavor text, making the player feel things, and stretching my creative muscles will be fun.

More questions guys, these are just as revealing to me as they are to you.

Why

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Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

Even idiots can be inspirational, I guess. But personally, I love the 4Chan culture, I get kicks off a lot of it.

But don't worry, this game wont have any of those horrible internet memes, inappropriate content, internet speak, or anything like that. I'm taking this game pretty seriously.

Your details seem to be getting more incoherent and random. But you claim you're taking this project seriously. I'm really not sure what to make of this. Are you making this all up on the fly? Are you looking for advice and suggestions? Why are you giving us cryptic information, as though you've got something interesting to hide, when you've already told us that "no story, no planning has been done"?
I'm going to be honest, my curiosity for this game is very weak. I'm trying to keep myself interested with random pictures. I think it'd be worth your while to do a quick concept drawing of your game and post it here; do it in MS Paint if you must.

This sounds like it'd turn into Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4; the Misty Silent Hill, the vaguely disturbing imagery (from IT, Tim Curry as a clown still haunts me... what happened to him?!), message boards/4chan give the idea of technology being involved and Heavy Rain suggests that... quick-time events?

It actually gives the impression of a mix of dotHack and Persona 4 with message boards/the internet/MMOs being involved in a form of investigation by a person who is not necessarily a real detective, or not one that goes after criminals and at the same time isn't actually a real fighter, or involved in any of the fights that take place in the game (physically that is). While in the Persona 4 sense of a group of people, who are like-minded want to solve something that troubled them/affects them and everyone around them (similar to IT).

"The view through the blind distorted the image outside the window; that of warm orange orbs, shrouded in mist throbbed softly. The lights seemed much like a walkway, paving the way to that full moon, piercing the mist, beckoning to weary travellers..."

Or something like that, that would look kinda cool as an oil pastel drawing, or chalk on black sugar paper.

@ Neospade: Haha, loving the crazy deductions. But remember, I was inspired by that stuff, not basing my game off of it. 4Chan was more or less thrown in there to keep people interested.

@ Bacon: Maybe I'm not being clear enough here. I'm in the conceptual stage of my game, still, yes. But I do know what I'm making and what it's going to be about, and to me at least, it is interesting. Now, I don't have many specific story events planned and organized yet, and even though I have some basic information about some of the characters done, I don't have their personalities or appearance nailed yet. But I do know what I'm doing. And as for the questions formatting, I just thought this would be a more a fun way of detailing the game as I was making it, rather than just updating some thread with information. But I guess it sorta backfired because I was only asked two questions, and only gave two answers, yet you're complaining about there not being enough details. Ask me more questions! And you requested some concept art, which I did expect to happen, except I expected it more like "Can we see your hero?" or "Can we see your city?". But I will have some concept art up anyways. I'm working on the tiles for one of the game's earlier scenes right now, and when I'm finished I'll put together a rough-draft of it and give you the shots. I might also put up the concept for our main character. Whose information was, by the way, vague on purpose. That's how he's going to be portrayed in game. If you really want more details on him or the setting or anything, then I'll give them at request.

tl;dr: Keep asking questions, I know what I'm doing.

Okay, wrapped up some sloppy concept work. Yay.


This is the "protagonist". This work was done quick and sloppily, but should give you a general idea of how he's going to look, and that is: uninteresting. Of course, a lot's going to probably change from now to finished product, but this should be good enough. Might edit, shadow, and polish this up before the day's over.


This just a quick set-up of some street tiles I've done. By Monday, I should have about a whole scene here, and when I do I'll update.

nice work

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