Hello again Wai,

Go ahead and keep coding. I wouldn't do much good for you in that department either. lol, But if you want to, I will do what I can if you need comments or suggestions on your coding or during game play beta testing.

Re:

[ Short demo (Flash) ]

What should happen when the player get to the place on time?

a) Player sees Skyle, Skyle sees player
b) Skyle sees player, player does not see Skyle
c) Player does not see Skyle, but sees something else

I read through this thread and attempted to look at your demo, but it hasn't finished loading - after a huge amount of time - (even on a 5mbps connection), Its is seemingly broken, which is sad. I really like your idea, and understand your psychological goals, but fail to comprehend from what you have mentioned how the human player interacts with it, or how it will "appear" visually. The concept itself is well thought out, however it might be difficult to market however without a conventional dominate game play element. I also have this strange feeling that "Braid" was a heavy conceptual (even if not game play wise) influence. Not a bad thing though.

Regarding re-playability. It is going to be difficult to generate these kinds of questions randomly (from what it sounds like), since they are based on high level logic, etc, that would be difficult for a computer to create and present efficiently. So you would probably want to go with the classical game-board approach. Assume that each logic puzzle is a flash card. The game features 10 puzzles (or requires drawing ten cards). Therefore, if you have a deck of 100 puzzles, you will induce more then enough variance to make the first several replays very unique. Shoot this up to 500 cards, and you have even more. You could even have user created content, where the users can create their own logic puzzels, sort them into decks, and allow you to add/remove decks based on difficulty, or author.

As an added optional step, you could sort these theoretical cards into multiple types. For the sake of a simplified argument, lets say you have 3 seperate decks of cards. "easy puzzles", "normal puzzles", "hard puzzles". or into different themes such as "In the forest", "Desert mile", etc. A level could then simply be drawing cards from specific decks.

for instance, level 0 (the intro where you catch the girl) is a specific card. That card (and only that card) is attached to level 0. Level 1 has 3 cards from the easy deck, and 1 from the normal deck. Then the next 2 easy 2 normal, and so on and so on. You can even interlace special cards in there, or have tag-based classifications to make the game flow better.

Just my 2c
Richard Paul Cesar

Re: PaulCesar

Thank you for letting me know that the page didn't load, although I don't know what to do about it.

Demo

The demo itself is 5MB. I have only tried to view it from firefox and IE. But you aren't missing much even if you can't see it, there are only a few things in the demo and it only runs for a minute. This is about one-tenth of chapter 1.

What the demo has:

1) Title page: Where the player uses the [Arrow] keys and [Enter] key
2) Chapter title: When the player choose START, the chapter title fades in and out.
3) Intro text: After the Chapter title is a wall of intro text that the player hits [Enter] to continue
4) Picture attachment screen: After the text the player sees a frame that can hold a few pictures. The player drags a picture into the frame to progress.
5) Feedback message: Tells the player if the answer is wrong.

After that the game just loops back to the title page, because I haven't decided what should happen.


Interaction

For now just consider that the game is a story adventure, where instead of clicking on options, the player would drag icons into solution boxes. When all icons in boxes form a coherent set, the game advances. In this demo, the player chooses a location and a reason out of 3 locations and 3 reasons. Only one combination is correct, and the question is not replayable.

[ Screenshot of play area ]

Replayability

I also intend to have more puzzles in stock than what the player could play in one run. I think this would be easier to develop once I can see the pattern. The bottleneck is coming up with the puzzles. One of the plans to allow replayability for the location question is this:

I create locations and prompts. The answer of each prompt is a location of where Skyle went next. The question itself could be very easy, or even tells the player the answer. For example, the prompt might say, "Find me at the post office."

So the player knows that the answer is the post office. However, the player can only start with the current location. To get to the post office, the player needs to find and expand the associations of an item in the current location, and use the associations to get the icon of the post office to place into the answer box.

The challenge here is to imagine how some items are more closely associated to the post office so that the player could get to the post office within time (measured by real time or the number of associates made). If the player uses too many associations, the player would get to the location but miss Skyle.

Required Assets:
o Locations
o Items within locations and their descriptions that mentions locations

Optioal Assets:
o Riddles or logic puzzles: This is not necessary because the challenge is in traversing the associative network. I don't need to make it hard for the player to figure out what the destination is. There is still gameplay when the player knows the destination.


What to do next:

Code the mechanism where the player can explore associations to get from the current location to another location. In the story:

Once the player reaches the location, the player sees no one but finds a note that suggests Skyle is now at the post office. The scene has a few clickable items that the player can examine, in their descriptions are associations. The player selects the items that has 'post office' in its description to expand its associations. One of the new icons that pops is the post office icon. Selecting the post office teleports the player there.

Character Design

A shadow is a thought pattern that fixes a person to a behavior that drives
them unhappy. The thought pattern itself is a net of reasons based on beliefs
and experience. Shadows are the major plot elements in the story and major
puzzles in the game.

[ The one that hears secrets (png) ]

[Edited by - Wai on November 11, 2010 3:41:43 AM]

Story Text

I saw Skyle again. She was sitting on a swing in the park.
It was pretty normal, if it wasn't in the middle of the night.

The swing seats was wooden. They were similar to the ones
I played with in my childhood. Parks don't have those anymore.
Plastics seats are safer afterall.

Skyle had that expression where she was lost in thought.
I sat in a seat next to hers and we swung together in a
slow rhythm.

The slow rhythm was a comforting pace. Some believed that
people learned that as a rhythm of comfort, from their mother's
heartbeat, inside the womb.

Skyle was probably thinking about a shadow again.

I wondered:

a) What is the shadow this time?
b) Do shadows always involve unhappiness?
c) Why is she compelled to solve the shadows?
d) How long has she been in the park?
e) Where could we get food at this hour?
f) Wouldn't it be wonderful if all parks are so nice at night?

Character Design

The shadow this time belonged to a girl who stopped smiling.

This girl had been brought up by her father since she was
a baby. During a visit to the her dentist, her father learned
that her teeth weren't growing properly, but could be
prevented by a daily exercise. To save her from future pain
of braces, her father followed the advice, but it stopped
when her parents had a divorce.

When he saw her again, her teeth were growing crooked. He
was sad that he couldn't be there to do more for her.

She saw that he was sad, and believed that she made him sad.
Her mind decided that she could prevent it by keeping herself
and her smile from her father.

From that day on the girl stopped smiling, and didn't want to
meet her father.


I said:

a) She needs to know that her father was sad about the divorce.
b) She needs to know that her father would rather see her.
c) She needs to get braces.
d) She will grow out of it, don't worry.
e) It's time for Kitty again, I guess.
f) She needs to know that people like her smile.

Variations in the Story

Chapter 3 is divided into cases. Each case deals with a Shadow, which is a thought pattern that traps its possessor. A case can be divided into four narrative functions. Together with the variation of the shadow itself, there are five areas:

o Narrative Function 1: Introducing Shadow
o Narrative Function 2: Deciding on a solution
o Narrative Function 3: Solving Shadow
o Narrative Function 4: Concluding Dialog
o Story Content: The Shadow itself (the puzzle)

Variation in each part gives variation to the story, in addition to the variations in the Shadow. By listing the used and unused variations so that when I create content I could target the unused variations.

Function 1: Introducing the Shadow

The function of this part is to introduce the player to the particular shadow of the case. Variation of this part include:

Discoverer = Who discovered the shadow
Discovery = How the shadow is discovered
Emotion = Skyle's emotion after discovering the shadow
Willingness = Skyle's willingness to solve the shadow
Knowledge = Skyle's knowledge of the shadow
Solution = The status of Skyle's solution
Location = Where the player meets Skyle
Time = When the player meets Skyle
Weather = The weather during the meeting
Environment = What people are doing nearby

The Existing Patterns:

Case 1: The girl that runs away

Discoverer = Skyle
Discovery = Unknown
Emotion = Sad
Willingness = Determined
Knowledge = Partial
Solution = None
Location = Wheatfield
Time = Day
Weather = Some cloud, low wind
Environment = Open and Empty

Case 2: The girl that doesn't smile

Discoverer = Skyle
Discovery = Unknown
Emotion = Troubled
Willigness = Determined
Knowledge = Partial
Solution = None
Location = Park
Time = Midnight
Weather = Clear
Environment = Empty

Variations after brainstorm:

Discoverer:
x Skyle - The witch that can enter a person's mind
o Narrator - The character in the game that addresses himself as "I"
o Character - Another character in the story that is neither Skyle nor the Narrator
o Player - The person playing the game.

Discovery:
x Unknown - The discoverer doesn't tell how he discovered the shadow
o Experience - The discoverer is familiar with that shadow
o Invited - The discoverer is invited to see the shadow
o Accident - The discoverer finds the shadow by accident
o Sought - The discoverer specifically tried to find the particular shadow

Emotion:
x Sad - Skyle is sad and the sadness makes her unable to act properly
x Troubled - Skyle is sad, but can still think
o Angry - Skyle is angry
o Indifferent - Skyle doesn't care.
o Justified - Skyle thinks that the shadow owner deserves it
o Busy - Skyle is busy doing something.

Willingness:
o Annoyed - Skyle doesn't want to solve it.
x Determined - Skyle wants to solve it.
o Hopeless - Skyle doesn't think that it can be solved.

Knowledge:
o Speculative - Skyle only speculates that there is a shadow.
o Symptoms - Skyle only sees the symptoms of a shadow.
x Partial - Skyle knows some but not all.
o Complete - Skyle knows all there is to know about the shadow.

Solution:
x None - Skyle has no solution to try.
o Vague - Skyle has some vague ideas about the solution.
o Probable - Skyle has a solution that she sees as a probable solution
o Incomplete - Skyle knows the key of the solution, but is missing some details
o Complete - Skyle has a complete solution that see as the right solution

Location, Time, Weather, and Environment have too many variables to list.

Variations

Narrative Function 3: Solving Shadows

Once Skyle enters a mind, she must somehow get the attention of the person and influence their thought. The purpose of entry is decided in part 2. The most important variations of this part seem to be the following:

Appearance = The appearance Skyle takes to approach the person.
x Cat
x Man
x Woman

Method = The method Skyle uses to influence the thought of the person.
x Create another motivation to drive the action that solves the problem
x Show the effect of something that the person fails to imagine.
x Show the solution to a similar but simpler problem

Opportunity = How Skyle draws the attention of the person to the issue.
x Ask the person about the issue directly
o Make a comment that prompts the issue
x Wait for the issue to show up in the person's mind
x Wait for the person to talk about the issue

Story Text

Skyle told me what she saw. The mother in the girl's mind
was not an intruder like Skyle, but an mental construct
Although it was an imagination, it stood between Skyle and
the girl, and did what the girl knew her mother would do.

Inside the girl's mind, Skyle could change her own appearance.
So far she had tried as a cat, as a man, as a woman, and as
a TV. Was this ability enough?

I told Skyle to:

a) Be something that Mom would not reject
b) Talk to the girl's mother instead
c) Change the surrounding
d) Summon someone
e) Be Mom
f) Be a victim