And now that summer is beginning and this is my transition year between high school and college, I figure I should have ample time to make serious headway. My original idea was to incorporate the visual effects of Plasma Pong with the "Infinite World" level design of Bubble Tanks, and the "Rainbow Power" idea from Gemcraft.
The visuals are nearing completion at this point, and this so far, is how I've handled both the development and advertising:
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The first video has correct shading, the second has correct physics, and the third separates red, green, and blue. There is user control, which I disabled when making videos. Songs were attached to the videos as a means of advertising (that way if someone searches the song on youtube, there's a chance that they'll find these videos and be interested)
They also work as source control documentation (my plan is that every week, I run the program thus far, make a video, zip the code files, and archive so if I botch something up, I'd only lose at most a week of work)
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Now, I have a vague idea on how level design will work, but I'd like a bit of criticism on the mechanics that I plan on adding.
The game will begin with a personality test to determine personality based on the MBTI. Based on personality, the player will be given a color.
The player begins at the center triangle of the Sierpinski Fractal, and meets Reena Bowe (pun on Rainbow), who act as the mentor and tells the player, "Welcome to Sirenia ... left click to fire a steam of plasma ... move with arrows ... you first quest is to ..."
From this center triangle, there are three doors, one on each side. The player may go through these doors to enter other triangles.
A triangle may be a:
*Town
*Puzzle Room
*Wilderness
Towns have NPC that will trade (no idea what kinds of items there'll be) and give quests
Puzzle Rooms require you to solve a puzzle before the 3 side doors unlock.
Wilderness contains enemies.
Enemy dots are of some predetermined color, and to neutralize them, the player must either shoot them with particle, or dissolve them in plasma of the same color. If enemies find themselves surrounded by plasma of a complimentary color (shooting red plasma at a cyan enemy), they will become stronger due to contrast.
Higher levels allow the player to increase plasma stream velocity, have more control over plasma color, employ shields that deflect dangerous plasma that may dissolve the player, and see more doors.
Initially, at level 1, you will only be able to see the 3 doors leading out of the center triangle. Each door on the side connects to an entrance to another triangle at its corner. The 3 subtriangles will appear to have no doors.
At level 2, every triangle appears to triple in size (but in reality the player is shrinking). The center room will have 9 doors, and each subtriangle, 3. The sub-sub-triangles will appear to have none.
The player's level dictates the level to which the Sierpinski Triangle may be traversed. Higher levels allow access to smaller triangles.
That is the sum of the action/adventure mechanics.
In event that I should name each triangle though, are there any algorithms that allow the generation of a random pronounceable word (something a just a little better than "pick a random number, than pick that many random letters and concatenate)?
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Additionally, I also wish to implement procedurally designed music. This
http://www.ichingplu...usic-Files.html
gave me a few ideas to use with java's MidiSythesizer, but I'm wondering if there are any general algorithms for making "nice-sounding music" (all my searches of music theory have turned up is how to read music sheets)
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Since this covers a bunch of different topics, I decided rather than split it up into 3 different posts into 3 different forums, I'd just put it in the general game design forum.
What I'm looking for in order of importance to me:
1. Is it feasible to create this kind of game, or should I cut back on some things?
2. Are these desirable mechanics that would appeal to a number of people?
3. Is the bottom-up approach to development the best way?
4. What are the risks of not using a formal source control and instead just archiving the code after each week?
5. How does procedural music work?
6. Should there be a personality test at the beginning, or should the player be free to pick a favorite color?
7. How does procedural word generation work?
I don't expect all 7 to be answered, but any insights or pointers or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
