Summon cow!
*Farmer Brown raise pitchfork*
"Ooooaaarr!"
*cow falls on opponent*
[/FF parody]

*Farmer Brown straps a fertizlizer bomb to a sheep, sets the timer*
*sheeps runs foward (trying to get away from the ticking noise) and to the opponent hoping to get the get the bomb difused*
*sheep explodes on opponent*
"Oooaar!"
[/bomberman parody]

Never since Harvest Moon has there been a farming game with so much potential...

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aud.vze.com - The Audacious Engine <-- It''s not much, yet. But it''s mine... my own... my preciousssss...
MSN: nmaster42@hotmail.com, AIM: LockePick42, ICQ: 74128155

This is absolutely the greatest game plot I''ve ever seen! Genious! I''ll help in any way I can, but I can''t code. I am good at making puzzles for those types of games.

COOLNESS!

How about teaching shepard dogs to guide sheeps so that the dogs will be able to guard them/lead a stampede in one area, while the farmer is busy in another?

Maybe the aliens treasure these farms animals, so if you throw chicken eggs at them, they''ll be more interested in catching and preventing the eggs from breaking, than going after you.

Lots of possibilities with dairy products too!

This is a fabulously funny idea :-)

Right, thanks everyone!

I think I''ve got it worked out with 7 animals:

• Cows: The objects of your affection. Prodding them causes to take a couple of steps, moo, and give you a funny look. You can prod them to walk over the edge of a cliff - they''ll land unharmed, but they''ll squash anything below them.


• Sheep: aforementioned stampede, when prodded. A stampede will only happen when you''ve gathered a load together - prodding one or two will just cause them to run away a bit. Stampedes will only be stopped by cliffs (because sheep live on mountains, they''re good at not falling off cliffs) or pigs (because pigs are so big and fat). You can use them to knock down aliens, or walls (up to a point).


• Goats: You find them tethered. You can grab them by the horns and untether them, then lead them around and point them at things. When you''ve got them where you want them, they charge straight forward. Stopped by thick walls only.


• Bulls: Like goats, only you can''t lead them around (you have to use them where they''re placed) and they can go through thicker stuff.


• Chickens: You can pick them up and throw them at the aliens, who they peck. They also lay eggs, which you can pick up and throw at computer systems to make zappy and beepy.


• Pigs: you prod them, they squeal and move to the next of a series of predefined waypoints. They can block stampedes - other than that, they''re kind of useless.


• Horses: you can ride on them to jump across large gaps.

How''s that? Those are the only farm animals I could find interesting uses for... I''ve got other ideas about things in general, like for example: I think it''s going to be cell-shaded, and there''s going to be lots of predefined waypoint/paths and scripted sequences.
Controls will be simple - I think we get away with 6 keys (4 to move, one to toggle pitchfork up/out, one to use/pickup/throw).
AP: maybe there should be a type of alien that''s responsible for the wellbeing of the eggs, he''ll catch them if you throw them. Hmm.. sit him in front of some computer terminal, and it sounds like a puzzle...

aram: I''ll bear that in mind. I''m looking into the Crystal Space engine, which can use Worldcraft as a map editor.

Thanks again for all the feedback, everyone.

Superpig
- saving pigs from untimely fates
- sleeps in a ham-mock at www.thebinaryrefinery.cjb.net

Cool idea. I''d enjoy seeing a good new (tile based?) puzzle game, I enjoy all the conventional puzzle games where you have a variety of objects which have ''simple'' properties (ie. Sokoban. you can push blocks one step at a time unless there is something blocking the way), but when several of them are near each other they interact to make things more complex, ie. if you might have to think ahead and move some other blocks somewhere else, before you can move the block that you need to move).

Will it be based around levels? ie. each area of the ship is a single puzzle that has to be completed before you can go to the next puzzle. This approach is a standard puzzle game way of building a gentle learning curve, where it teaches you the basics, but then on the next level the layout of the puzzle makes you have to think a bit more before you act (but the basic rules still apply).

quote:

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Original post by Ketchaval
Cool idea. I''d enjoy seeing a good new (tile based?) puzzle game, I enjoy all the conventional puzzle games where you have a variety of objects which have ''simple'' properties (ie. Sokoban. you can push blocks one step at a time unless there is something blocking the way), but when several of them are near each other they interact to make things more complex, ie. if you might have to think ahead and move some other blocks somewhere else, before you can move the block that you need to move).

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It''s not going to be tile-based, it''ll be full 3D (although extensive use of waypoints and paths will probably happen). But yeah, sokoban is probably in the closest genre (anyone played ''Blobbo?''). The major difference is that a block is a block is a block, whereas animals are a little more unpredicatable - in that the solution to a problem might be a group of animals interacting in a certain way which the player hadn''t previously considered would happen. Each individual interaction works and is expected, but the overall effect is something new and surprising.

quote:

---

Will it be based around levels? ie. each area of the ship is a single puzzle that has to be completed before you can go to the next puzzle. This approach is a standard puzzle game way of building a gentle learning curve, where it teaches you the basics, but then on the next level the layout of the puzzle makes you have to think a bit more before you act (but the basic rules still apply).

---

It will be level-based, but not so obviously. Aside from the simple technical consideration that I need to break things down into individual maps, the game will run somewhat continuously (no ending a level in one place, starting the next somewhere else).
However, it''s going to have a sectioned feel to it. A single sector will consist of a ''major puzzle,'' which is in turn broken down into ''minor puzzles.'' The major puzzle might be ''how to get past the alien blocking this doorway,'' while a minor puzzle might be ''how to get 20,000 sheep and a pig from here to there.'' Upon completing a major puzzle, players are rewarded with a piece of machinima - maybe something as simple as the sight of an alien being trampled to death by 20,000 sheep (and a pig), or maybe as complex as a part of the storyline (the never-ending Quest for Daisy™). When the player gets to a ''cutscene,'' there''ll be a very definite feeling of ''I''ve done it. So, what''s next?''
The puzzles will be structured in such a way that the earliest puzzles will allow you to ''get to know'' the animals - what they do, how they behave, and so on - before they get involved in major puzzles later on. So, yeah, a fairly gentle learning curve.

(Blender kicks ass; does anyone know what *all* the buttons do? )

Superpig
- saving pigs from untimely fates
- sleeps in a ham-mock at www.thebinaryrefinery.cjb.net

Any plans for machines? (or aliens)

These could provide different gameplay / puzzle factors. For example if there are machines which will destroy any animal that wanders into it. Or other machines that will change any animal that enters into it, into a certain type of animal (ie. turns all animals into sheep.)

Thus puzzles could be set up that require the player to use one animal several times, ie. use the sheep to flick the switch. Then turn the sheep into a horse to ride across a gap into a different part of the ship, and turn it into a cow to stampede an alien that is protecting an important computer console.

quote:

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Original post by Ketchaval
Any plans for machines? (or aliens)

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Yep...

quote:

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These could provide different gameplay / puzzle factors. For example if there are machines which will destroy any animal that wanders into it. Or other machines that will change any animal that enters into it, into a certain type of animal (ie. turns all animals into sheep.)

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Aww! How could I do that to the poor little sheepy?! Heh heh... Hmm, it''s worth thinking about. I don''t want to destroy animals - it''s going to be a somewhat forgiving game. I don''t want people to be hitting ''quickload'' again and again, just because some daft sheep has "wandered into that bloody vapouriser again!"
Turning animals into other animals: eek! Could be, uh, interesting... but it would make things a lot harder. When presented with a pair of sheep and a machine to turn them into pigs, you''d have to decide whether you want 2 sheep, 2 pigs, or a sheep and a pig...

quote:

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Thus puzzles could be set up that require the player to use one animal several times, ie. use the sheep to flick the switch. Then turn the sheep into a horse to ride across a gap into a different part of the ship, and turn it into a cow to stampede an alien that is protecting an important computer console.

---

Animal ''re-use'' is certainly something I think can be done, although not necessarily in this way. It''ll be more a question of a sheep flicking a switch which traps it in the room, then another switch being pressed somewhere which lets it out the other side. As such, you could travel through a couple of puzzles with the same sheep by your side...
I guess I''ll have to put in the ability to name the animals (so that the name appears above their heads, or something). It wouldn''t change anything, gameplay-wise, but you''d be able to say ''as I flicked the switch, Bob the sheep chewed through the master computer panelling.''

I''m certainly planning machines for things like doors, switches, teleporters, and so on. The majority of things will be operated by poking consoles with the pitchfork, though.


Superpig
- saving pigs from untimely fates
- sleeps in a ham-mock at www.thebinaryrefinery.cjb.net

Love it!
Reminds me of the game Ship, Dog n'' Wolf, only better! Maybe you can check it out for some ideas.

There could be a couple of puzzles involving a killing machine; you might just need to block the entrance by moving a lazy cow there