Sunday, September 23, 2012

I am in a good mood!

Game development is going well, so I feel like making an early post to report some of the stuff I have done, and talk about the game ideas I have. First, the status report!

I am doing progress in the making of the side-quest: the picture hunting should be done, I got to polish some dialogues a little and the first few scenes of  the mission are done. I have also basically finished the work on one of the new mechanics I thought for this mission: it's slightly similar to one I have done before, at a first glance, but it actually plays differently, and it's also different in the way it's coded. I think it's going to be fun, and it is also a nice throwback at something you did previously in this side quest, so it should be good to have it in (of course, I hope that, whenever the next beta is ready, my testers will agree with this, or I'll have wasted a good amount of time working on it for nothing! :p).

I have also added some dialogues you can have with your crew that reflect your current romantic involvement with this or that npc, and added a variation to a scene in order to fit better with the possible relationships you can have.


Now, to talk about the ideas I have for my future projects!

I'll name just 2 for now, the most likely to become more than just projects.

The first one, has been around for quite some time now, and I have been taking notes on the many ideas I have had for the story and the gameplay, something I never did before starting to work on a game, so I am kind of looking forward to turn this one into my next project.

It will be called "The Empress", and is going to have a fantasy setting. I will try to be really short in describing it (to avoid spoilers in case this really becomes my next game and because I could honestly write for hours about what I have already in mind, which could probably be boring to the readers), so this is what the game is about, in a nutshell: the main character is the empress of the title: she is revered as a Goddess in her country, as she is blessed in any sense: she is smart, she is beautiful, she is caring, she is an incredibly powerful magic user. Men love her and women admire her, while the other countries tremble in fear in front of her fearsome abilities in battle. She is slowly restoring her empire to its former glory, and nothing seems able to stop this.

What most people don't know, though, is that she in fact a puppet in the hands of the court magician: he is the one actually controlling the whole country through his powers over the empress. At a critical moment, though, this fragile balance is broken, and many hidden and dark powers scattered across the world will try to take the chance to turn the odds in their favour...

Sorry for being a little cryptic, but, as I said, I am trying to keep things spoiler free. Just know that many otherwordly creatures as vampires and demons will wrestle for control over the empress. It's going to have RPG-ish features, not unlike TOTDC, and a magic system as the core for battle mechanics. Another little hint for what's to come in this game, is that its story and characters will have an overarching theme centered around tarot cards... I can't really say more without going too much into full spoiler mode!


And now, for the second project. This one is a really recent idea (I think 1 or 2 weeks, at most), and would have a modern day setting (let's say in the near future), with a sprinkle of sci-fi.

It would be called "Pleasantville" (if I don't find a better name, this a temporary one), and will deal with a lovely little town, where everything looks perfect, a little, tight community... Of the worst criminals on the record. This town is the product of a recent experiment approved by the government, to give men and women sentenced to death one last chance to be re-introduced into society. If they agree to it, these convicts will give up all their rights, and take part into a process that will ultimately lead them to become completely new persons... Through mind control. All possible techniques (drugs, cyber implants, hypnosis, subliminal messages) are employed to reach this goal, and so far the success of this procedure has been astonishing. Most of them never leave Pleasantville after the end of the procedure, and stay back to help other people through the process.

You are a young woman, recently sentenced to death. You are innocent, but you were unable to prove it. You were prepared to die, and refused to take part in the Pleasantville project, unwilling to be transformed into someone else, when you did nothing wrong, and yet your signature showed up in the papers necessary for them to transfer you there... Something fishy is going on, but will you be able to prove it, if you are soon going to be erased?

This second game would most likely feature more "sexy moments" than the other one, as the community (an all female one, since this is still a prison), is really eager to show you the benefits of this new life, and those who are supposed to make sure that no abuse of powers happen, are too busy abusing their authority themselves, which, in a completely brainwashed community, translate in some steamy action, as you can assume.

The game would be a mix of a classic adventure with a time management game (as in slave maker, or the game that inspired it first, princess maker). The game will be structured in days organized in time slots, and you'll have to decide for yourself what to do most of the time (Pleasantville is a community that encourages taking part in collective activities, and, while you'll get to pick your poison, you won't be allowed to skip on your duties/training, though). Your choices might get you to escape, find out what's going on, or succumb to one of the many fates that await you in Pleasantville.

Didn't that sound just like a promo? :D Anyway, this is it for now. If you are interested in hearing about other projects, just let me know in the comments, I might add something to my next post. Of course, questions about those 2 projects are welcome, if they picked your interest and you want to know more about them (I might be forced to not answer some question, if I feel they are to spoiler-y, but I will try my best to answer as fully as possible).

2 comments:

  1. Assumendo dalla tua email che sei italiano,
    sto giocando a totdc e devo dire che è fantastico!
    Senza dubbio il miglior gioco rags tra quelli che ho provato, potrebbe perfino competere con mass effect senza la grafica.
    Nel progetto empress è prevista la gestione del tuo regno? Forse è troppo ambizioso, ma visto quello che riesci a fare...
    Ora torno a giocare a totdc, poi provo gli altri due :)
    Ancora complimenti per i giochi, sono davvero ben fatti.
    ps. ottima scelta di modelle, se ne cerchi altre la mia favorita è Crista Nicole Wagner di playboy (http://img22.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=45464_CristaNicoleHD.scrlrg_123_948lo.jpg)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sono italiano, esatto (la cosa meravigliosa è che non troppo tempo fa hanno cercato di rubarmi i dati con una di quelle e-mail truffaldine spacciandosi per quelli di tiscali... Mandandomi una mail in inglese da un indirizzo di yahoo! LOL! Adoro lo spam!).

      Grazie per i complimenti, sapere che il gioco è apprezzato è di stimolo per continuare a lavorarci su.

      In parte ci sarebbe anche la gestione del regno, si, ma principalmente dovresti gestire la diplomazia, mentre gli altri regni cercheranno di "gestire" te, se mi spiego. ;p

      La chiudo qui, sennò finisco con lo spoilerare tutta la storia (potrei andare avanti per ore... ^_^)

      TOTDC è il miglior gioco che ho realizzato finora, anche dal punto di vista della "programmazione".
      Blanked non è malaccio, ma soffre per la mia mancanza di esperienza, per l' uso della versione gratuita di RAGS e per una certa mancanza di originalità (se hai giocato a Rough Landing 2, noterai una certa somiglianza nelle meccaniche di gioco, ed in parte anche nell' ambientazione).
      Through hard earned trust è stato il primo gioco in assoluto, quindi è un casino sia per il codice che per la qualità complessiva. Magari prima o poi ne faccio un remake aggiornato! :D

      Crista Nicole è stata la modella che mi ha introdotto al mondo di Internet, quindi sfondi una porta aperta, purtroppo però come playmates non ha fatto molte gallerie in cui parte vestita, quindi i ruoli che può ricoprire sono limitati (ma almeno una comparsata dovrei fargliela fare...). Cercare le immagini può essere un inferno, con gli anni ho messo su una certa esperienza, ma trovare la modella giusta con i vestiti giusti (e possibilmente ancora addosso) resta un' impresa.

      P.s. Mi fà stranissimo rispondere sul blog in Italiano, non ci sono abituato! :D Se ti capita di scrivere altri post, magari conviene che li scrivi in inglese, sennò gli altri non capiscono una fava (non che la cosa non possa essere divertente, di tanto in tanto! :p). Se poi ti scegli anche un nick, mi renderesti un blogger felice. :)

      Delete