Hey guys, I'm new on these boards but I just love the community! I've been reading through threads learning little bits here and there which I'm sure I'm going to implement in my game. For the past three weeks a friend and I have been designing a game, a 2d top view adventure/puzzle game (think Zelda: A link to the Past). Basically the game's play style will consist of having the hero go to dungeons, solve puzzles to finally achieve the end of the dungeon. However I'm having difficulty finding a reason for the character to actually GO to the dungeon. I want to avoid Zelda's overused template. Where x amount of items need to be collected to open a seal, or what not. Obviously for this genre of game the story isn't *as* important as say an RPG but I would like to implement a solid, well thought of, and light hearted story to keep the player interested without having him read through the story thinking he *has* to read this and just not give a crap. Anyways I'm drifting from the point. So far the main character is a monk-like character who, as of yet, will travel the land in search for people to help (along those lines). I'm wondering what should I avoid while coming up with the concept of why he has to solve all these dungeons and obtain WHAT exactly? I just want ideas to build off of that don't involved obtaining the 3 ords, the 6 crystals, the 5 pendants... :P Thanks for any ideas..

Well, first you need to get the 5 sacred sto...oh, hmm...

Can you tell us some more of the character's background and the history of the area?

Normally I'd suggest having the character be some sort of treasure hunter, but I guess a monk wouldn't do that. Unless he's looking for holy relics.

If you are going to be following the Zelda gameplay template, it will in essence boil down to collecting the 7 sacred stones, I'm afraid. However you can disguise it a bit better than what Zelda usually does.

For example, to use a Zelda-esque fantasy world as a setting, you could have it that the princess is dying of a mysterious disease, and the only know cure involves the collection of 7 rare ingredients, which end up being in dungeons all around the world. Same mechanic in essense, but at least it's a bit different.

Or instead of collecting things, you can be finding people, like in KoTOR 2. The 7 sages have hidden themselves from the big bad guy around the world and you have to find them.

Or mix it up, and have a collection of people, things or monsters that you need to meet/collect/defeat in the dungeons.

Would this be a buddhist monk or a christian monk? I think an itinerant buddhist monk searching for enlightenment and collecting koans along the way could be really funny. And koans would be an interesting thing to collect because they don't do anything. ;)

It seems like you are asking what your main character's motivation (for going in dungeons) is. Well, what does he want out of life? Is he trying to fulfill a vow, investigate a clue, obtain a tool/key object to fix the problem of an NPC he met earlier? A monk seems unlikely to be a hedonist driven by fleshly desires or a criminal trying to escape punishment, but then again if you wanted to spoof religion that might be just the thing - have him searching for wine to replace the sacramental wine he drank all of before the abbot finds out it's missing, and that sort of thing. Anyway it's your character. Be creative! What does he want so bad that he's willing to wade through a dungeon to get it?

dictionary:[spy][mighty][illiterate]

In the ancient time, monks are the only ones among the civilian that are literate. Therefore, you can have it such that the monk is simply following other adventurers to collect stories. As a story collector, the monk is used to meeting new people and parting them. The encounters are never long. But maybe a couple groups caught the monk's attention.

This favors an rpg with groups. But if you want to do solo, you can have the monk go into dungeons to investigate what happened to those adventurer groups that never returned. Did they all get killed? Did someone betrayed the group? Did a group that had returned did what they claim to have done?

Wow guys those are some interesting ideas. The treasure hunter has hit me real hard in the face because that one makes a lot of sense and is a great idea! However, since I'm going for a stereotypical, humble, good guy I'll stick to the monk.

I won't give a specific religion to this monk because I want this to be a completly different world. Having him collect koans like you mentioned is also an interesting idea seeing how it would just be him seeking enlightment, but then seeking enlightment... but if you ask me if this was his goal why would he carry a sword? His words should do the trick ;-) (hit "A" rapidly to bombard your enemy with a sermon... doesn't have that nice ring to it =P)

I was thinking of making him an amnesiac (due to supernaturnal events) to then maybe have a bit of his memory restored when he explores these shrines. Or would that seem too cliche? I'd like to work with this and try to be original with the concept, like maybe he's trying to remember what he was looking for and all along he was looking for his cattle that had run off in the woods before he lost his memory... hehehe.

I was thinking (on my way back home) that maybe that each shrine would make him remember an old technique that would help him solve the rest of the puzzles in the dungeon and he could use this technique to fight the boss of that particular dungeon.

I'd like to post a screenshot of our little character but it doesn't seem like these boards support posting a picture on a thread and we don't have a website yet.

@Estok you just posted before me but: I like your idea of meeting groups. Perhaps he could always have 2 reasons to go in the shrines. After finding a part of his memory if he didn't have to go further why would he? Well if a group of adventurers are missing that would be a valable reason. I like it :)

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Original post by sanch3x I was thinking of making him an amnesiac (due to supernaturnal events) to then maybe have a bit of his memory restored when he explores these shrines. Or would that seem too cliche? I'd like to work with this and try to be original with the concept, like maybe he's trying to remember what he was looking for and all along he was looking for his cattle that had run off in the woods before he lost his memory... hehehe.

It's a bit cliche, although it is a good way to make a character suddenly remember moves. You could make the entire quest about restoring the hero's memory, and the reason why he enters the dungeons is he has a vague feeling about being there before. Maybe you could throw in a twist at the end when he finishes the second-to-last dungeon that he was actually a bad guy, but in the process of his evil scheme he lost his memory (also a bit cliche too, but I'm sure you can think of something better).

Yeah I'm trying to work with something where the ending is different then what you anticipated without being something overused. Like at the end having him remember that he's a retired warrior and that he just wants to return to his quiet life working in the gardens of the monestary he lived in...

Like you said, the only positive side about the amnesiac is that he can remember his techniques... I don't really want him to have tools to solve puzzles I think that would be too much of a rip from LoZ, I want this to be a bit fresh but still have that dungeon/puzzle feel.