It's a cool idea. If you can get it to balance out it would be an awesome system. As mentioned above I'd change the name "sphericon". The name certainly doesn't do your idea justice.

[edited by - NULLPOINTEREX on February 18, 2004 11:17:30 AM]

Well, Sphericon is more of a design-time name. It's designed so that my game has an identity, I'm not even slightly interested in giving its real name. I think Sphere Seekers is a good name. But I gave it that name because if I don't, I keep referring to my project as "New Game", which is bad. I'll continue to call it Sphericon since it's so easy to type (that's why I named it that). My left-index finger is cut really bad, so I can't type with it - which is why I have so many typos.

I'm actually glad that the name isn't good enough. It means that there's a life of my idea beyond me, which means that you're understanding what I'm saying, which means that I'm not doing a crappy job conveying my thoughts.

Anyway, to flesh out the quest system: Rewards will be based on your accomplishment. There are different levels of success and failure, such as Total Success (accomplishing all goals), Partial Success (accomplishing most major goals). Each quest has a number of major goals and minor goals. The major goals must be completed to get any form of success, and the minor goals just improve your reward.

As for the rewards, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Giving out a random list of rewards opens the possibility of someone getting something too strong and another getting a meaningless item. I want all of the quest rewards to be meaningful and useful. I'm thinking that many quest rewards will be recipes for Sphere Anvils, locations of Sphere Anvils, Gold, and extra experience points, and new Spheres.

The new Spheres themselves will simply be randomized by the system to a certain RPI. Like, the first spheres you find will RPI out to around 3 - 7. Later Spheres might go all the way up to 35 - 45, and the most powerful going all the way to 50.

I'm going to run that RPI algorithm through some random testing to ensure that it generates numbers in the proper range and there are no little quirks about it that allow you to generate huge numbers. Also, I want to figure out what ranges I can have on it as far as attributes and skills go, and I want to know where the balance between attributes & skills lay. Once I get the RPI totally balanced out and I'm happy with it, balance SHOULD be just a simple function of RPI.

Further, I've figured a cool way to ensure that the game Spheres are never too static. The game will actually take Spheres you make and plug them in an RPI list ( 0 < RPI < 5 would be 1 list for example) and those Sphere recipes will become quest rewards. This way, my game actually evolves a little bit with the playrs, and it requires no effort on my own since a Recipe is simply an object (datum in byond). This way, I just add each recipe to the list, and every recipe inherits a function to create a sphere! I think this gives my quests the interest they need since there's a chance of finding new Spheres as more players use the Sphere Anvils.

[edit: for those wanting to see byond, you can visit www.byond.com to see with what I'm working]

[edited by - ShadowWolf on February 18, 2004 1:16:27 PM]

SO YOU WANT TO MAKE VIDEO GAMES?

By: Ice Code 9

So you’ve decided to put the time and effort into creating your own video games. Congratulations…it’s quite the task. However there are still some questions remaining to be answered. How much of the game do u want to create on your own? You have to consider initial design. Consider the art of your game. Consider the sound of your game. And ultimately putting all of these elements into your game via programming. So if your like me and confident/gifted in most of these areas your off to a really good start. So now you have thought of the perfect game to make and call your own. HALT!!!!! Before you go diving head first into that project take some things into consideration. Making video games is a catch-22. You see, in order to make a game that you and other people will actually enjoy, your game must be fun. In order to make a game fun it has to have the right blend of: good sound, good graphics, good control, good story etc…However I personally feel that the best games are the games that offer the all elusive “replay ability”. Sure you can spend months on end creating your game which will be fun for a while but as soon as you and your friends beat it they throw it away like yesterdays garbage. We’ve all played games like this. So you should first and foremost think of “okay my game concept is cool, but how can I make it as repayable as possible”. Okay once you have made a fun game that you can play over and over and still have a fair amount of enjoyment you will not only have greater satisfaction but also a better talent of creating video games all-together. And alllllllllllll that time and hard work will be worth it.
So you want to make a previously existing game even better? HALT!!!!!!! Ask yourself this, is your improvements to the game worth all the work? Some games are really good as-is. Are you good enough to accomplish creating the more refined game? Why is it, I always see someone making their own asteroids or tetris type game? 99% of the time it’s NEVER better (if even as good) as the original game. In all honesty they’re sad and lame. And I don’t even want to think of how much time and effort was put into making those audacities. So don’t start making a game in which 60% of the way through you realize it’s going to be garbage and must be thrown away or what-not. You also throw away all that time and effort with it, and chalk it up to a hard lesson learned. So get out of the mindset of “hey I want to make this previously made game….”. Do your own thing! Chances are hundreds of other novice programmers have already made that game. Just download one of their games. I’m not saying you should be original because lets face it everything is pretty much inspired from some other game. I’m saying create video games that have elements of other games but better. Combine what you liked in other games into a beautiful masterpiece all your own. Don’t carbon copy. Also, even if you do make an asteroids that is totally awesome. You can’t sell the game because you copied an existing game. Try selling your game that you worked so hard on and you’ll land in court. However when you make your own game, guess what it is YOURS to do with what you want.
In conclusion: My advice is to think of what makes games cool to you? Do you think what is cool to you is cool to the general gaming public? If so, make your video game to encompass most of the major cool elements. However don’t try to build rome. Because many people will tell you it’s 1)impossible or 2) illogical. Making the most awesome game ever is going to take you the longest time ever, period. Look at games you enjoy that in all fairness are kinda plain when you think about it. Those my friend, are the games you want to borrow from and get inspired from. Pac man, frogger…what have you. No do not make carbon copies, just think of why those simplistic games are cool and how you can morph those same concepts into your game.

A word on joining a video game project team: I would avoid these for a number of reasons. 1)Do you absolutely believe in the cause? 2) Is it your dream or someone else’s? 3) If the finished project is successfully sold (doubtful) what percent of the cut do you get? 4) How much of a final say will you get?….





-and the weak shall inherit the earth- isaeh 9:25

This is really turning into a sophisticated idea. Don''t let it get too complex before you implement anything. I recommend that you make a small, simple version of the system to serve as a central schema, and then develop it further by assimilating new features into it.

ice_code9: Qua? Your post is not helpful. It''s long and poorly constructed, it has a fairly offensive tone, and there are so many errors in its content that I''m not going to try to address them all. And your signature is an absolute wreck.

First, it''s Isaiah. I-s-a-i-a-h. Isaiah. Second, the word "inherit" doesn''t even appear in Isaiah, at least not in the King James version, according to www.bible.com''s search feature. You''re (mis)quoting Matthew 5:5, which reads "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Also, Isaiah chapter 9 only has 21 verses.

So, in conclusion, there''s no "Isaeh", there''s no Isaiah 9:25, and the "meek" shall inherit the earth, not the "weak". You might want to update that.

That''s why this game is little more than its quest and Sphere system. I want to give the player a reason to play, but nothing more than that. I don''t intend to add much more to the game at this point. I think I''m probably going to refine features and make things more consistant, but that''s about it. I''m taking a look at the featurelist I have right now and I''m probably going to start my initial design documents today. I''m loading up my server with my RPI Algorithm tester and it''s going to run all night producing possible combinations. Hopefully, it will come up with some stuff.

ice_code9: I would appreciate your article, but I don''t see its relevance or its worth. You could take a hint from this: "listen to the public with a careful ear, because their job is to end your project."

But you see people making a Tetris/Asteroid clone because not only are they easy, but they give a lot of the same basics that a more complex game gives you. They offer easily followable rules with simple gameplay that everyone understands. Because of this, there is no need for you to worry about the "Rules" of the game. It''s very simple to implement the features and the game itself can be written in a short time.

My advice to you is to take your ''advice'' elsewhere. You can''t help someone with that, only put them on a path where they believe that their project is supreme and deserves some kind of respect.

I''m obviously in the minority, but I quite like the name "sphericon" - maybe you should keep it for the system or something?

While I''m unclear on precisely how your sphere mergeing will actually play (without knowing the entire system inside out it''s hard to judge a single aspect properly) I strongly approve of having a logical system that governs the outcome of a given merge, although I''d consider adding some sort of random power variation to the end result since you appear to be making mergeing a skill based process - I''m assuming that you intend to use some sort of random number generator to determine success/failure of skill usage rather than a purely deterministic system.

I think "Sphericon" is fine, too.

rmsgrey makes a good point. I have to ask, will there be a simple success/failure dichotomy, or will there be a continuum of effectiveness? For instance, if I take my seven-sphere recipe and my level eight Spheresmithing skill, and try to make something that''ll give me three +1''s, two +2''s and a +5 to various stats, might a better spheresmith make something that gives a +6 instead of a +5 to that last one? Just a thought.

At the moment, no. Although I think that might be a pretty decent idea, it''s also not something I''m wishing to deal with since it would require an additional level of complexity. The thing I see causing problems is that I would have to come up with some sort of reasonable system to accomplish that, which isn''t something I want to do quite yet.

It may be something I''ll do in the future, but not at the moment. So to answer your question, I will use a simple success/failure method as opposed to a levels of success method.

Okay, after reading my article, the general message you should get out of it is "invest your time and effort wisely". I actually feel your putting the cart before the horse on this much overly-hyped game. I did take a look-see at that web site and wouldn''t doubt your game will look the rest on their. That is to say not worthy of an atari system. You mentioned that you don''t care if your game gets any respect by the players who try it? ...hmmm well that''s why I doubt you will get anywhere in the indusrty. Now everyone in this thread can talk about how great your sphere system will be all they want but it means absolutely nothing until you get it made, until then it is hype...unoriginal hype at that.

-and the weak shall inherit the earth- isaeh 9:25

sorry forgot to add this...You say that people like me want you to end projects like this? No, the way I see it game projects like yours are a good thing because they make projects like mine (and others with similar talent)look that much better

-and the weak shall inherit the earth- isaeh 9:25