Entries Tagged 'Game Features' ↓

I’m generally an optimist. I try to see the good side of bad things. Sometimes, bad things turn out to not be bad things after all.

Something bad: we’re waiting for Lila Dreams to get back into production. The good thing: I get a lot of time to think more deeply about the game design while I’m working on smaller projects.

Right now I am working on a game design which isn’t Lila Dreams, but it is actually revealing a lot about some fundamentals that I hadn’t considered enough. Eventually, I would have, but with constant financial pressure bearing down on you when working on a game someone else is paying for, things just get skimmed and even skipped. It’s actually really nice to just think about the game and not have that constant nagging in my head to “hurry, hurry up!”

So this other game design has as its core mechanics a competitive combat system (which I hope to make into a multiplayer Flash game). In the course of studying other games and reading articles and all that, I am improving my process for developing a combat system. I don’t think that I would have seen some of the dimensions of the design that I see now without the “leisure” afforded by putting Lila Dreams on hold which has allowed me to marinate the ideas in my subconscious for a while.

This will undoubtedly lead to some changes in my ideas for classes and combat in general for Lila Dreams–especially if the combat is not in the context of side-scrolling control mechanics.

The more I think about it, the less I want combat to be restricted to the twitchy, 2d-plane of a side-scrolling game. It would not only open up some possibilities otherwise absent, making encounters a lot more tactical, it would also reduce technical hurdles. Action gameplay (even the more plodding sort I have planned) is a lot more demanding in terms of technical design as well as from physical resources, that is, the servers. (If combat isn’t from a side view, that change cascades to a bunch of others, but I won’t be talking about that for a while.)

The real thing I’m wrestling with at the moment is how my new insights will affect the nature of classes and skills in Lila Dreams. The old debate arises: classes or skills? There will be some of both, as I’ve always planned. There are a lot of ways to make those two play nicely together, and by exploring various approaches in some smaller projects, that will lead to a stronger design for Lila Dreams.

I am actually pretty interested in playing Free Realms. It’s maybe the first honest attempt by a big studio to create a solid F2P game. That’s both encouraging (hey, there must be viable income there) and discouraging (big studios drown out us little guys).

But it’s got some good ideas, and it diverges from the hardcore conventions quite a bit in some ways. For example, you can explore without having to fight unless you want to. I definitely find that sort of choice appealing.

So I was watching this video of the game, and noticed that you can change “jobs” at any time. Sound familiar? And they level up independently. Well, I hadn’t really mentioned that part about Roles, but there are skills for each one that you can improve independently.

I guess I shouldn’t feel disappointed, but I do. Well, at least now I know that the idea is solid, and I’m on the right track. There’s a positive spin.

Meanwhile, I’m continually working on refining my game engine technologies, coming up with new concepts to launch that are small enough to finish quickly and will inch me closer and closer to getting Lila Dreams back in production.

Here we have a conceptual scene of a group of three memekins in the hills near Jalopy: a Naturalist (bottom, left), a Trapper (middle), and a Painkeeper (right). I won’t say much about the details since none of this is final yet, but one key fact is that you are what you wear.

First, a disclaimer: The things listed here represent my ideal implementation. What the actual implementation and form of classes turns out to be may differ from what you read here.

In other words, we’re going to try and implement all of this stuff, but we might not be able to or we might find some changes that are more fun during the process. Don’t be surprised if the game is a little different from this plan.

1. There are classes in Lila Dreams?

I haven’t really spoken much about specifics, but I thought I would reveal that there will be character classes in Lila Dreams. [Edit: After this post was published, I changed the term "class" to "role" in the game design, so what you might think of as "classes" in many MMOs would be called "roles" in Lila Dreams. Henceforth, the confusion shall be minimal! (I hope. *gulp*)]

These are maybe not what you’re used to, though. We’re not talking about monolithic, long-term classes that require months of dedication like in World of Warcraft or many other MMOs like it.

Which leads to thing number two that you didn’t know…

2. Classes are dynamic

Your character will be able to play any class that you are in the mood to use. This has some neat effects:

• You will never be unable to play with your friends because they “don’t need another healer in the group.” You can switch to any class very easily.
• Specialization is possible, but not required. If you get bored playing one class, there’s not a lot of investment necessary to try another class for a while.

But there is some investment necessary…

3. Classes must be unlocked

Each class must be unlocked by performing a set of tasks for a teacher. This is to:

• Limit player information overload by not giving access to everything all at once.
• Give new players high-reward, immediate goals to work toward.
• Each class “quest” (I hesitate to use that loaded term) serves as a tutorial about the class.
• You get a taste of the kinds of activities the class will perform to judge if you will find the class fun to play.

Once you’ve unlocked a class, you need to know that…

4. Classes come with baggage

In this case, “baggage” refers to the abilities, stat modifiers, and Perks/Quirks associated with a class. When your character plays a specific class, these various effects will apply.

You might gain some abilities, be restricted in the use of others, get bonuses with some equipment, penalties with others, and so on. There are a lot of factors that a class can apply to your character.

And all those factors lead to the realization that…

5. Classes are contextually constrained

The idea behind this is that class capabilities are determined, to some degree, by the current environment and things nearby the character.

This is to introduce unpredictability into the strategies used while playing a class, so that it doesn’t become a matter of simply min/maxing the best gear and abilities. You will also have to consider constraints or benefits of your surroundings during play, which I hope will bring in a fun layer of unforeseen conundrums to wrangle!

So, that’s a brief summary of my plans for the class system. There is, of course, a lot more to it, but I can’t let all the cats out yet.

Tell me something I don’t know

Got cool ideas for classes you think fit into Lila’s world? Let’s hear it!

Ok, so I didn’t post anything last week. I’ve flogged myself for six hours and twenty-nine minutes for that. But, really, I didn’t want those wonderful memory stories to stop coming! Go back and post one if you didn’t already.

With the titillating title of this post, I have to deliver something. And I’m absolutely dying to share what we’re doing behind these tightly closed doors, so I’m going to allow myself a smidgen of satisfaction and show off some of the pre-Alpha art Greg has done.

First, though, what the heck is “pre-Alpha?” Am I some kind of space cadet geek or something? Actually, the game production schedule is broken into some big pieces, and we just call those ridiculously ambiguous names: pre-production, prototype, alpha, and beta. Lila Dreams is in prototype now, where we’re building the main parts of the game that will support all that fun stuff we have planned. Next comes Alpha, which means we have all the major features done (but they’re probably not very fun and definitely not refined). So, “pre-Alpha” means somewhere before Alpha.

Lesson aside, here’s what you came for. (Disclaimer: this art represents one tiny slice of the game world. Don’t go thinking it’s all about monsters and combat and stuff–that’s only one focus of several. You probably already know that if you read this blog regularly, but someone just coming here for the art might get a different impression.)

The first of our test creatures is called a Barnockle. It’s a little multi-eyed thing that sits on pretty much any surface (sticky butt, you see) and shoots out little poisonous spores at anyone who comes near. (It’s on the left, there.)

Then we have a Shakroo. This is a boney-insectoid creature that has to hop to stay alive, so it hops a lot. Just don’t let it hop on you or those pointy feet will be stabbing you in the face. In.. the.. face! That’s gotta hurt.

And then is the conflicted Wocky. Except, it’s us that is conflicted, because it seems like a gigantic, cute, furry-tailed thing. In reality, it’s nasty and mean, and tends to stun with its sonic attack. Don’t get any ideas about petting one without special preparations which are classified right now.

There you have it, some Lila Dreams art that may or may not end up in the actual release.

While the above pics are static mock-ups, they were made with the in-game art. So what you see there is how the game actually looks right now (minus the glorious multi-layer scrolling). These are not official “screenshots,” just to be clear, but they’re a really good approximation.

Well, Joseph asked, and since I’ve mostly spilled the beans on as much gameplay talk as I am comfortable with, I thought maybe I could discuss some of the technology we’re building for Lila Dreams.

Some graphics snobs will scoff at a 2d game. The client is what? Flash? The server is what? Java?! Ha-ha-ha-ha! “Your game is so low-tech players have to pedal to keep it running.” (Ok I just made that up–it’s bad, I know.) But, seriously, there’s a lot to love about 2d art. Especially when you’re on a budget!

One central technology for the game is the “2d bones” animation system. That’s just fancy-talk for little bits of art attached together like a paper doll puppet that has joints. Only digital. This has a ton of great benefits over traditional animation techniques.

Avatar Customization

Since player avatars are made up of various pieces, it’s really simple to mix and match. So, instantly you get a huge range of customization options. And because the system uses hierarchical rotations, we can do cool things like attach items to your avatar’s hand and the item will move with the hand. It’s gonna rock.

On-demand Animations

Because the art is in pieces, and there are no “cel” frames, we can create animations separate from the art, then mix and match animations. For instance, maybe there are several styles of walking animations (one of which is a limping walk, just for Chris Pasley). Since the animation consists only of motion data, and not artwork, that animation can be used by any avatar.

But wait! There’s more. This opens up a particularly large amount of options for emotes! You could have hundreds of emotes. I could design a dancing mini-game around that fact. (Wait, did I just type that out loud?)

This just goes on and on.

Creature Comforts

Well, maybe not comfort, but body parts! Interchangeable ones. So the game can randomize body parts for creatures and the issue of a room full of clones goes away. So maybe for each creature there are several head, torso, and limb variations, and each creature would have some random configuration of them so that each one appears a little different from the others. How cool is that?

Animation for Everyman–sorry, Everyperson

One more nice thing about this system is that to create an animation, you don’t have to be able to draw. You just drag joints around and set keyframes. So even if we can’t all be an artistic god like Greg, we can maybe make some really cool animations. This has the benefit of allowing us to spread that workload around the team, or maybe even to talented community members! That way we can generate mountains of animations without killing a single starving artist.

So, there’s a little taste of the kinds of things we’re doing in terms of technology. We’re doing a lot of other stuff, too, but we have to parcel this out across weeks so there’s something to talk about! It’s for your own good, so don’t complain.

And now, we present concept art of a snail mail courier.

To be RPG, or not to be RPG

Using the label “MMO” (massively multiplayer online game, in case you didn’t already know) tends to give a lot of people preconceived expectations about Lila Dreams. Some of them are accurate: you will be online with a bunch of other fine folks, exploring, battling, and socializing in a persistent game world. But is Lila Dreams much of a role-playing game?

“RPG” (role-playing game) is another label that has a lot of expectations attached to it, and many people seem to have different ideas about what it actually means. I have never called the game an MMORPG, because to me it’s not exactly a role-playing game. There’s no linear, deep storyline for players to follow (there is some story, however). There are not gobs of stats to twiddle (there are a few, though). And there aren’t hundreds of quests to perform (but there will be plenty to do).

Maybe I’m splitting hairs, but let’s take a look at one area of the game that is kind of RPG-ish: the items.

You are what you equip

Without a level grind as a means to measure your character’s progress, I still want a way to give characters unique distinctions and different amounts of power and some sense of progression. One vehicle for that is equipment. There are a ton of properties that an item can increase, reduce, add, remove or apply conditionally. And all these various options are what will make the gameplay really deep.

If you are like me, you enjoy making tough decisions between two or more really great choices. It’s really compelling! I played this game called Iron Dukes, and in it you can outfit your ship’s crew with various items that give them various stat boosts. It turns out that this is really fun. In Lila Dreams, your options will be much more numerous and have many more possible effects. I still aim to keep simplicity in mind, but this is really the heart of character evolution, and it needs to be fairly rich. (Plus, I really enjoy complexity–my game designer Achilles Heel, perhaps?)

Each character will have some basic attributes (there are six). But once you determine them, they will not often change. Although, they can be modified by items, so they won’t often change permanently, but they can temporarily change from equipment modifiers.

These attributes and items will be applicable to all aspects of the game, not just combat. For instance, your attributes and equipment will affect gardening. I hope to spread the fun of the RPG elements across all the various activities in which a player can take part.

Now, this description of the game could lead into a very long discourse on the various equipment and options, which would segue into the combat mechanics and then veer back around to gardening mechanics where it would end with a heartfelt apology–but it’s still a bit premature for that. Therefore, I’ll leave you with some concept art and a song instead.

In case you missed it, I recently did an interview with Wired magazine’s game blog. They also scored a couple of exclusive concept art images, so go read the darn thing!

My first attempt at conceptualizing the world of Lila Dreams in terms of its geography was to sit down, and create a map. “Ok, this here, that next to it, and maybe over here this other place with this area in between.” It was fun–like when I was a kid and drew all those D&D maps!

But, that didn’t feel right. It felt too expected.

We’ve all played games where the geography is like real life, and you walk from point to point in a seamless transition from place to place. It’s pretty cool, but in a world where reality isn’t always solid ground, it didn’t seem like the most interesting choice. (And sometimes it’s boring to walk across 24 miles of empty landscape to reach a town.)

So, thought I, why stick with convention? Why can’t places be connected by doors that lead to points between areas that aren’t geographically logical? For instance, you might step through a door in a warm tropical forest and find yourself in an underground maze or on top of a giant beetle or in the picture of an advertisement in a magazine laying on someone’s living-room floor.

It gives us a good bit of flexibility to take players to exotic places without all the fuss necessary with that fancy “logic” stuff. The connections will persist; there will be a navigable and memorable geography, but it just won’t be like the kind of geography we’re used to. It’ll be more interesting and more fun. We can skip the boring parts!

There are four kinds of doors in the game.

1. Bedroom door. This is the primary kind of door, and it generally leads you to “normal” places like cities and landmarks.
2. Garden gate. There’s only one place this leads to, and that’s to your personal garden.
3. Schoolhouse door. Only the brave should venture through this door. It leads to the dangerous labyrinths, of which there are many types.
4. Asylum door. These only exist in a particularly wretched place called Dementra, and unspeakable horrors shamble therein.

Doors are not the only means of travel. But they are the most basic.

First, a big “Thank you!” to everyone who has stopped by, and especially to everyone who has subscribed to the blog. We really appreciate your support, and we desperately need it to get the word out there about the game.

Here’s a bit of concept art that leads into what I will talk about now.

That is part of Lila’s Tableau. (Remember, Lila is the 11-year old girl who’s mind will be inhabited by you, the players.) The Tableau is a kind of communication device. It’s pretty big, about the size of a two-level house. There’s one in every major town, and it’s connected to that mysterious tower you might have seen in the concept art gallery.

In this game, emotions are a really central aspect. Because we’re frolicking around inside this girl’s psyche–and you know how emotional pre-teen children can be!–we’re going to run into emotions. Therefore, emotions will touch almost everything in the game. Your character will have an emotional “alignment,” abilities and items will have attributes that are affected by emotion, and the environment itself will change depending on Lila’s mood.

A very cool feature (to which we owe credit to Chris Pasley from Kongregate for spawning the idea) is that players can actually affect Lila’s mood. I won’t get into any details, because I want to save that all for later when the design is more stable, but I can say that the Tableau is one key part of the process of how players change Lila’s mood. The rewards are many, so if your character is aligned emotionally with Lila’s mood, good things happen.

This is one of the central activities in the game: a kind of tug-of-war to influence Lila’s mood to match with your character’s alignment so you can reap the benefits. It isn’t a direct PvP type thing, but more of an indirect process of mass cooperation among the members of each emotional “faction.”

I really want to say more, but I have to wait and let those cats out of their bags later. Stay tuned for more exciting adventures!