Updated Concept 11/02/09: So, after a little testing my prototype, I just gone to realize that the giant the player will be controlling has little to do other than walk back and forth in the background. Furthermore, allowing the giant to pick resources, even with some balancing of how much he can carry and give to the village at a time, sort of gives the giant more of an advantage. I could easily rack up the speed of the villagers and thus the requirements for getting better stuff, but that would make the game a bit more harder in terms of reaching your goals. In addition, the interface of controlling the giant with mouse clicking isn't something easy to get use to. So I have changed the concept a bit. Instead of a giant helping the villagers, there is a giant tree. This giant tree is a wise person who once use to have a thriving community around him, but those people left a century ago, and since then, he has been lonely there in the forest. Then one day, some people come to this spot, thinking of whether they should set up their new village here or not. The tree, happy for company once more, tells them that they should and even says he can help them build a community up. The villagers accept his help but they promise that if he doesn't help them raise a stable community by next spring, they will move away. So that sets the premise. The tree does not move, as everything now is done through mouse clicking: choosing resources, individual villagers, and panning left and right across the scrolling screen. This represents him giving out commands to them like a leader of sorts. I'm keeping the side view, so ironically enough, this game suddenly seems more like Lemmings than anything else. Except for the fact that these villagers don't die unless to threats, and they hold some intelligence. I added a stamina variable to each villager, too, having it to where different task drains stamina, that way it controls how much the player can have the villagers do in one day. Of course, having them rest will allow them to recover stamina, and having them rest at the village will recover even more stamina. --------------------------- Game Interface Mockup: http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b72/Vintrict/Sketches/giantGraphicUp.png So, I'm entering a competition that requires a game done by the beginning of Decemeber that follows a theme of "Big World." So, when I was brainstorming ideas, I came up with the picture above you. This was influenced by Black & White mechanics, a game that used both a creature and a Hand interface to either bring prosperity to your people or send them to certain doom. In Harvest moon, you act as a farmer who spends 300 days tending to his farm, growing it in the way he wants. I decided to mix these two up to create a game that combines both features. I codename it: The Giant and his Village. In this game, this giant comes upon a village that is just starting out, but who are having trouble building their community. Therefore, this giant has decided to lend them his hand every week for every month for three years. In this game, the giant will walk around in the background of the sidescrolling interface, and collect resources for the villagers. Such as timber, water, and other necessities. The villagers will contributing to this, too. At first, you will only need to meet simple milestones of resources since the village begins small. But as time goes, the village will grow, which will require more resources to be fetched. Though the giant can haul around a large amount of resources, resources in the vicinity will start to decrease (which will grow over time again), meaning he'll have to go further out to collect them. He isn't a fast walker, either. Villagers develop wagons and such to help transport these materials easier, so the giant can be a resource stock hauling resources into wagons that the villagers send back to their village. So far, this game sounds like your typical village sim. Until obstacles are thrown into the mix. Predators are a danger to the villagers, weather, and enemy villagers want to attack. While trying to help the villagers keep a stable community, they will have to fend against these outside threats, as well. The giant can assist in this, but at the same time, he cannot be carrying any resources. And if he is, he has to drop them and lose them forever. He'll also have the option to run, but only for a limited amount of time. Yet again, running drops resources. He helps them against weather by helping build flood protectors or shielding them from fierce winds. Each week progresses in the span of 10 to 20 mins, which I haven't figured out yet, meaning the sun rises and falls. When up, the villagers will work, but when it is nighttime, they will rest, meaning you have to keep watch over them while also doing more resource gathering if you wish. After the week is up, the giant leaves and will return the next month to see how much they've progressed. Usually when he comes back, depending on how well they were developed, they will be prospering or failing. The game is over when the village goes below protocol and eventually everyone dies. However, the game can be saved after every month is done to allow a player to continue where they left off. Another thing thrown into this game will be harvesting. The seasons have a great effect on the village as well, so crops will have to be met by fall for harvesting, or else the village will starve. Though they can go out and hunt animals during the winter, animals are scarcer during this time, so there's a greater danger of wasting resources and time. The winter season is usually used for for maintaing the stability of the village until spring. After a while, the village will be one large self functioning community. However, when the game reaches this point, the difficulty would have scaled up in both threats and resource requirements. But as long as the player gave the village good support, the village will be able to live off their own productions and survive to the end of the game. ------------------ So, what do you think? [Edited by - Zido_Z on November 2, 2009 8:22:29 AM]

Gosh, I don't like such a necessarily grim ending. Even Harvest Moon, at least the earlier games (I don't know about the more recent ones) ended on a high note. Why not end with prospering, like when the village gets to a point it doesn't need you anymore? How about failure just means having to start over and do more work to build up again?

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Original post by Portugal Stew Gosh, I don't like such a necessarily grim ending. Even Harvest Moon, at least the earlier games (I don't know about the more recent ones) ended on a high note. Why not end with prospering, like when the village gets to a point it doesn't need you anymore? How about failure just means having to start over and do more work to build up again?

I don't mind that. The game is suppose to be fairly light-hearted, so that option does promote the player to continue.

Might be more fun to be a benevolent dragon or something rather than a giant. Or you could be a dinosaur helping cave men; you could battle woolly mammoths and bring the meat back to the village, as well as knocking down trees for lumber, or shaking fruit trees to make the fruit fall out.

Ten-minute turns seem too short, not enough time to experiment or strategize.

One thing that I always thought would improve Harvest Moon was having more random opportunities pop up - not just disasters, but having different stuff gatherable on different days, or more things which can't be done/can only be done when it's raining. Basically, encourage the player to not do the same thing 3 or more turns in a row.

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Original post by sunandshadow Might be more fun to be a benevolent dragon or something rather than a giant. Or you could be a dinosaur helping cave men; you could battle woolly mammoths and bring the meat back to the village, as well as knocking down trees for lumber, or shaking fruit trees to make the fruit fall out. Ten-minute turns seem too short, not enough time to experiment or strategize. One thing that I always thought would improve Harvest Moon was having more random opportunities pop up - not just disasters, but having different stuff gatherable on different days, or more things which can't be done/can only be done when it's raining. Basically, encourage the player to not do the same thing 3 or more turns in a row.

The dinosaur/ cave man theme is really interesting. I'll greatly consider it. It does make it appear more with what I'm trying to go for in terms of that "need help/ helping large creature" idea.

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Original post by Zido_Z Quote: Original post by Portugal Stew Gosh, I don't like such a necessarily grim ending. Even Harvest Moon, at least the earlier games (I don't know about the more recent ones) ended on a high note. Why not end with prospering, like when the village gets to a point it doesn't need you anymore? How about failure just means having to start over and do more work to build up again? I don't mind that. The game is suppose to be fairly light-hearted, so that option does promote the player to continue.

If it is supposed to be light-hearted, what if the giant came back to find the village below the game-over threshold and they kick him out and tell him not to come back? It would still be sad for the player, because they are trying to help, but the villagers realized they would be better off without him. I can't tell for sure, but if you are going for the kind of tone that Harvest Moon had, coming back to find all the villagers dead is a bit harsh in my opinion.

EDIT: It also seems like such a small decision, but that one small detail pretty much makes an otherwise kid-friendly game not very kid-friendly.

I like the idea, it sounds fun especially the cave man version. I’d encourage you to add a few different end game conditions. Like how time limit version where you get a score at and end sequence after a set number of months for how well the village has developed and significant events that occurred.

Also an offering system would be good where you can demand the villagers have a particular offering waiting for you at the start of next month. A giant slap of meat might cost a large chunk of village food supply but give you a longer working week since you don’t have to hunt food that week. A giant bowl of beer might make walking more difficult and you occasionally bump in to building, but you ignore damage and environmental factors that week.

You might also want to think of having different upgrade paths for the village, based on the resources you gather and buildings you build. Gathering lots of wood might mean the village has lots of low cost, fast to build weak buildings. Stone would mean fewer more sturdy buildings. Clear cutting a forest could create a field that allows for farming or herding.

Basically what I was going for, Techno. They're going to be farming anyway, so I like the clear trees both for resources and for potting plants. For stone, a few villagers will have to go to a mountain to gather them, with the occasional rare jewel/ mineral to give a bonus in production effects, such as better weapons or tools. The player will be able to help villagers, which speed up their resource gathering, but sometimes, trouble will be warned on screen with a position on a map showing where the trouble is happening. The player can then choose to stay put and continue to help get resources or go help, which may be predators, enemies, or something of the sort.

@jackolantern1: Yeah, it will be a bit more fitting.

I personally like the giant idea the most. In terms of aesthetic, the one I enjoy the most would be something like a tiny Irish town in the dark ages and you play as one of the many giants from Irish lore. It would make for a very beautiful game. The dragon is kind of cool I suppose but the dinosaur one just feels goofy and Flintstonesy.

I can see the beauty of that, too, Portugal. Writing down all these ideas for consideration. I have about what, five weeks, left to do this, so I need to jump on something by this weekend. Spend a week or two prototyping, then having someone playtest, then go from there. Art should take about a week, too, leaving the last week for final touches.