gkkiller on 24/6/2015 at 04:41
The Photoshop filter is a bit too heavy, but it looks great!
henke on 24/6/2015 at 05:36
Holy shit that's nice, Koobs. :D
Renault on 24/6/2015 at 15:19
This is actually under the category of "What Do You Want To Be Making?" but I've been mulling the possibility of making a top-down stealth game. I've watched some tutorials on GameMaker, and it seems like a (relatively) easy way to get started on something like this. It appears most of the things I want to do seem possible (even as a beginner), and the GML language seems easy to learn (I have some minimal programming experience, just a couple of classes but I understand the logic, basically).
There are tons of top-down games out there, and even a few stealth ones, but I want to differentiate this game just a bit. One thing that drives me a little crazy on top down games is that the player can see too much (i.e. some AI patrolling 2-3 hallways away), and that seems counter to what a stealth game should be about. I'm hoping to devise something where the player has a vision cone (or something similar) where you wouldn't be able to see any more of an environment than if you were playing a first person game. If you're looking down a hallway/corridor, you'd have a fairly large sight line, but you wouldn't be able to see anyone behind a door or around the corner. I'm playing Hitman 2 now, and it's seems silly that on the map you can see exactly how an AI is moving on the other side of the level. You could argue "well just don't use the map!" but if it's there, the player will eventually check it.
I also want sound to play a large role in the stealth picture - hearing approaching footsteps, player running is louder than walking, different sounds for different surfaces, etc. Yeah, it sounds like top-down Thief, but I love Thief's stealth mechanics like most people here. The story and environment and mood could be completely different, but I like the depth of Thief's stealth system. I do like the idea of doing something truly steampunk, where you have some gadgets/security systems/traps that aren't in a modern setting, and that are somewhat unreliable and unpredictable. I'd also lean more towards exotic locations, outdoors/underground, remote locations instead of just standard indoor buildings and corridor type layouts.
The main area where I'm completely clueless is the visual side - creating art, making sprites, etc. I'd basically be learning from scratch, and I'd probably be forced to just come up with something minimalist.
Why am I telling you guys this? Dunno. Just typing out some of my thoughts out loud, maybe someone has some suggestions or ideas to add. Btw, I'm under no illusions that this process will be easy or straightforward.
demagogue on 24/6/2015 at 15:37
The android game Pixel Dungeon (or its branch Shattered Pixel Dungeon) is a bit like that, where the player can only see AI within its vision line (it's not a cone, but a line of sight 360 degrees around the player), so hallways get lit up as soon as a door opens & they're in view, but not around corners or behind closed doors, which stay darkened. It's a good way to do it.
The map starts off with most areas blackened (fog of war), and areas get drawn when you first see them. Then areas in your line of sight are lit up & AI and objects appear, and areas outside your line of sight (but seen previously) are still drawn but dimmed, and without AI or objects appearing.
And then it has a mechanic where at night, only the areas immediately within a radius around the player get lit up, not down a whole hallway as usual. (If they're holding a torch, the radius is much bigger.)
It sounds a little like your description, so I recommend you look at videos of it or even play it if you have an android device, since it's a free game. It's not really a stealth game, so it wouldn't be like just stealing the game if you took some of its vision mechanics.
henke on 24/6/2015 at 16:14
Do it Brethren, do it! :D Download GameMaker tonight and start doing tutorials. Dedicate 1 hour to it a few times a week. No excuses! :grr:
The idea sounds like a reasonable, doable idea. The sound propogation would probably be the hardest part, getting audio to be muffled by walls and whatnot, but seeing as you want to set it outdoors that shouldn't even be much of an issue. Don't worry about having crappy graphics. If you cobble together a prototype where the gameplay works and it's fun to play you might just find some talented artist eager to help you out.
Oh, and don't talk too much about your ideas. Do them instead. You talk too much about it and you're not gonna end up doing it. That's my experience anyway.
Renault on 24/6/2015 at 16:36
Yeah, I was hoping by posting my idea here in front of my TTLG homies that it would put some added pressure on me to actually do the thing. We'll see if that works.
@dema - tried out a bit of Pixel Dungeon, that's a little of what I'm looking for. Obviously its a bit different because it's turn-based and the sight radius still allows the player to see behind themselves, but I like the sight cloud idea instead of a vision cone.
Pyrian on 24/6/2015 at 22:31
I wanna try! I wanna try!
I would caution you against putting too much stock in a single playtest. It's common for one person to completely miss something that's obvious to almost everybody else.
That being said... Not providing feedback about choices is kind of weird? Most games go the opposite route, where your choices mean very little but are trumpeted to the high heavens by everyone you meet (exaggerating a bit). Like Deus Ex 1, where your choices have virtually no impact on the plot but are frequently commented on in the first act. Or Fallout 3 or Mass Effect where many of your decisions end up literally in the news. Heck, the whole system of Achievements. People almost universally like to be acknowledged for what they do.
Yakoob on 25/6/2015 at 00:20
Oh yea, gonna see how the rest of the testing pans out but it was an interesting thing I noticed since it's so central to what this game is about. Just felt like writing about it :p
And you do get feedback at points but the whole problem was the player didn't realize it was due to her involvement. As an example, she found a big clue about the person she suspected. She confronted them about it and chose to trust them which led to a certain explanation. In the end, she absolved them and blamed someone else.
She believed she made the right choice by trusting them, that she "guessed" it right, and that's what the "real" story is. But in reality, she actually made her guess the correct one by choosing it; if she went down the different path she would have gotten a very different explanation and still suspected that character.
As I said, it's very nuanced, and less about changing the chain of events than your interpretation of it.
PigLick on 25/6/2015 at 00:45
I would definitely be up for testing if you need more people!
