More Sex Violence and Drugs

Well I ended the last post in mid sentence and now I can't remember what I was saying in it. We discussed our project further today. And so far we have ...

Get mugged.
•Church
Ext. -Preist "Do you wish to come in to my inner sanctum?" Hurhur.
Yes moral bad. Yes moral good. No.
Int.
You can pray
You can shout abuse at the people in the church.
There is a door that makes noises. - Need key from woman. Once have key, door exposes cut-scene Priest & Prossie.
Money Box to steal
Candlestick to Steal
Stamp to steal

•Bingo Hall
- Woman. "Oh no, me ink 'as run out."
Can give woman stamp to fix problem, she wins bingo gives you wadge of cash.

•Youth Club

•Fast Food Place

•Club

Finish.


O.K there is loads of huge gaps and stuff. Need a reason for the Bingo Hall to suddenly become available after exposing the priest.
I like the idea of a police road block.
I must go away and do much thinking.
Oooh! We are also going to have a drug dealer at the youth club that can get you different drugs depending on your cash/morality etc.

Meeting

Had a meeting this morning. So what did I learn.
Quite a few things were established as far as I'm aware, some good progression type things.
We'll most likely go with this basic story:- "Kid goes to Boscome; gets mugged has to get back home or somewhere."
I'm not familiar with Boscome but here it is serving as a rough area and the butt of one big rough area type joke.
Already I'm seeing problems with one of the ideas that we had.
The idea was to present people with these resources [Money / Health / etc.] this should fill them with joy and excitement at the possibilities [

Another Director tester

Clubbing
O.K. This one does some more complicated stuff.
The morality bars themselves were the most complicated things to do. They needed to expand when something happened. Also they need to not expand past a certain point but still keep adding morality points. Also the opposite bar needed to contract when the other side went up, but not to do that if it is already fully collapsed (it did start going back the other way).

I know you're eager to see it so here is the code.

FOR A MORALY BAD ACTION

global gMoralCompass
on mouseUp me
gMoralCompass = gMoralCompass - 1
put gMoralCompass


if sprite(7).width < 120 and gMoralCompass < -0.1 then
sprite(7).width = sprite(7).width + 30
sprite(7).left =sprite(7).left - 30
put "lengthen bad bar"
end if
if sprite(6).width > 1 and gMoralCompass < 4 then
sprite(6).width = sprite(6).width - 30
end if
end



FOR A MORALY GOOD ACTION

global gMoralCompass
on mouseUp me
gMoralCompass = gMoralCompass + 1
put gMoralCompass

if sprite(6).width < 120 and gMoralCompass > 0.1 then
sprite(6).width = sprite(6).width + 30
put "lengthen good bar"
end if
if sprite(7).width > 1 and gMoralCompass > -4 then
sprite(7).width = sprite(7).width - 30
sprite(7).left =sprite(7).left + 30

end if
end


-- The sprite(6) is the bar showing good alignment.
-- The sprite(7) is the bar showing bad alignment.

As well as that we've got the money thing, and testing both at the same time if you have enough money and what you moral alignment is to return different outcomes.

Learning Coding

So I went away and practised using my new found coding skills. This is what I produced : - Point and click test thing.
That there contains a Projector to view the piece and the actual file too, so you can look at what you like.
If anyone does grab it, make changes etc. Let me know, I am interested.

Another file Help Using Numbers
I asked today if you could set numerical values instead of true and false and Martin kindly showed me how you can do that.
I's my plan tonight to build on that information, to try and work out some elements of gameplay I can design with it and try and produce one of them to learn how to.

So I made that. In that piece I managed to form the bases of a point and click structure, and also force things to not happen until certain requirements have been met, from my experience the basic structure of a point and click adventure game.

In the group meeting we had today, I put forward the idea of this point and click structure and it was well accepted (I think this was possible because nobody else had any other solid ideas).

Anyway the plan with this structure is that the journey is embedded in the narrative of the game. Basically to constitute the 'journey' part of the brief all I think we meet is some sort of travelling. So if in this game if the overall premise is that player is ultimately trying to get from point A to point B.

I see the movement being simply 2D side scrolling, only I'm too afraid to try and work in scrolling, so I'd rather just have sections at either side of the screen that take you to the next area.

I thought to simplify things the different areas could be constructed as different movies. This however brings two main problems straight to me, there is the issue of global variables, I've read somewhere that global variables can apply to multiple movies but I don't know how. The other problem is that I thought you could use a slide transition to move from place to place, that would work well I thought (genius I found a good use for those crap transitions) but, alas, if there was static constant interface that would look damn stupid if it the supposedly static interface slid along with the rest of the screen.

Anyway, back to this simple point and click style structure. We're going between point A and B and in between there is stuff. The only other main requirement of the brief is the use of video. I don't really like this video doodah (means I have to get away from a computer as some point of time, forces elements of realism onto the project, I'd prefer to do a short film if I was going to have to mess around with cameras, but I suppose we need to learn to be able to do these things. Myst made it look good I guess.) Urgh.. where was I? Um.. yeah .. using video, so video can come into it at either key points of the narrative of just eventful things that happen in the game that are easy to film.

The idea was, that I should have stated a while ago, THAT... The basic structure can be laid down, and then as we get more and more ideas, they can be added as we wish, the content can become richer and richer. A beautiful vision I know, I hope it's not only a vision.

So what I really need to do now to push this thing forward is come up with first of all some ideas for the overall narrative. Once that is settled on, designs can begin on the visuals. Also then providing the main narrative is flexible enough any general ideas that could go in as content.

Also from my coding point of view I want to get to know what systems can be used, I want to think up systems that would be enjoyable in the game and also that I know I can do, something mildly ambitious.

Another thing I felt was quite important to mention is, well, I suppose some 'quality assurance' took place today, I'n just showing the thing I made to my group. Although I thought everything on the screen was self evident, it turns out is was not. Some users may not be predisposed to the point and click adventure style, an instructions option at the begging would be a marvellous idea. This also lead me to the idea of having another entrance point into the game, another 'mode' if you will that allows certain things that for gameplay reasons may remain hidden in the game to the user (this goes along with my thinking of rating their morality in the background) to be seen, a kind of 'behind the scenes' version of the game.

Early reading.

Some things to read.
Before, At, and Beyond Good and Evil • Ken Bayer -- Source
Video Game Internal Turfs and Turfs of Play • Laurie Taylor -- Source

So I read them: -

'Before, At, and Beyond Good and Evil' was the most interesting. I didn't learn a great deal from it, but what I did get was that morality can be used in games in different ways. And in the examples of Fable, Knights of the Old Republic and Deus Ex: Invisible War Bayer showed three different ways it has been used.

Fable - The advertised consequences are mostly visual and morality is a gameplay tool. The decisions don't have major consequences.

KOTOR - Effects the story and gameplay. The story is all about good and evil. You are rewarded for being either one or the other, the important thing it to choose.

Deus Ex - Makes moral decisions harder. It removes the importance of usual things that would tip you to one side or the other such as money or experience points, leaving you uncertain which choice to make. It deals with the grey areas and forces you to make decisions based on your own morality.

Through all of these the article emphasises the integration between moral choices and gamplay and how this also links to the narrative.