Quest Game development. (Updated w/screenshots)

And it's not the previously mentioned project, either. It's an educational game that I'm designing for my school's elementary kids. (We have an hour long block to do "creative" or "fun" things, and under my teacher we design educational games)

If you've played it, you can see it's nothing special. It's focus will be on reading-comprehension, because that can be so easily incorporated into an RPG. Any advice on how to improve the educational value of the game or make it more enjoyable to a younger audience will be appreciated.

i downloaded it and opened it up with CUSTOM. what grade are these kids in? trying to gauge their education level here for appropriate content.

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Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy... So here's some lunchmeat... Sandwich, maybe?

The kids'll be in 5th-6th grade.

Reading comprehension'll be incorporated under the basic rule of "if you don't read, you wont be able to advance." Text directs the player here or there, tells them about this or that, and if the player just mashes enter, they wont do so well. So in short, the educational aspect is pretty well covered.

The "fun" thing, though.... not so much.

word problems!!! you could use custom menus in lew of the default choice boxes, which allow for only two choices. you could also use the "input string" command to have the player answer questions without multiple choice. for example, say you want the player to exit the dungeon through a certain door. however, the door won't open unless the player can answer the riddle. the answer to the riddle is hidden in several parts of the dungeon, but also in the form of a riddle! i'll explain:

door question: how many dreams i have had?

answer riddle 1: 33+66=?

answer riddle 2: primary color, apples, little hood

answer riddle 3: floating rubber sky orbs!

obviously, i don't think a 5th-6th grader would get this, but you could probably figure it out. the player would have to type in "99 red balloons" at the door to escape.

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Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy... So here's some lunchmeat... Sandwich, maybe?

Have you ever played Midnight Rescue!?

That game was awesome for my reading comprehension when I was younger.

Anyway, you could try to be less explicit than that game was about the fact that it's about reading (After all, you actually read articles) but still use some of the same ideas, eg to complete the game you need to find clues, which are understandable only if you're actually reading.

I'm not going to be asking the player questions that relate to serious educational topics. Riddles, maybe, but they'll be quick and easy. I want the game to be fun and easy, and not feel at all like an educational game, because educational games are horrible.

In other words; this game is no more "educational" than final fantasy may be, it's just going to encourage and force the player to read.

I'm also using this game as an excuse to experiment with different graphics styles; namely "quick-and-lazy". Btu I do really, really like how some things turned out, and I'll definitely be sticking to some of the methods I've picked up.

The first milestone of this game, V.1, marks the final groundwork and continual style of the game. It will be playable for about two minutes, in and most of the graphics are crude at best. I'll be touching up and re-doing them as I go or see fit, but for now they primarily serve as placeholders.

Screenshots: (Too lazy to save as PNG. :P )


First scene, with sister


The gateway out of town. Ugghhh, huge placeholder here.


The castle. Definitely doesn't look majestic, or imposing yet.

Awww! I love the textures! It's so cute and pastel-like! I can't wait to try this one out! XD I think the town gate looks fine ... ♥

also, I think Zoidberg is cool!

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Arien and Fran HD Sprites

Because I'm no good at battle graphics, I'll be using standard NPC sprites for battle. Anybody have a problem with this? It's a little lazy, but besides that, larger detailed sprites just don't fit well in this game's universe.

On another note, music's gonna be a pretty big problem. Until I'm at least halfway through, I'll just use the OHR bundled music. But at some point, I'll want better sounding stuff. If there's some hidden library of retro-RPG music (That's not ripped; I don't want FF or Earthbound music) that I don't now about, I'd love to hear about it.

And as for portraits, I'll probably, again, take the lazy route of using standard NPC sprites. Maaaaybe blow them up a bit and smooth them out, but not much more than that.

Nope. Apophenia did it with all of its battle graphics - hero and enemy alike - and it turned out fine.

The closest thing I can think of is ripping the soundtrack from one of the older RPG Maker series games. It has a variety of high quality tunes (for the MIDI format, these are some of the best I've heard) that are explicitly named for what situation/mood they were made for, making them ridiculously easy to use and royalty-free. MAYBE. I have no idea about that last part.

I have the soundtrack, but not the actual RPG Maker (I lost it at some point), so if you're interested I'll just bundle it into a rar and send it to you.

Go here. I did and downloaded several good tracks, one of which I used in Weegee.

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Remeber: God made you special and he loves you very much. Bye!

That would be pretty awesome, thanks.

That site seems pretty cool, too. Haven't checked out the actual music yet, but when I get the headphones I'll be sure to give it a go.