Chain game ideas and discussion 2022-20??

[Prpl_Mage]

The only issue I see with the 'everyone has the same start but each does a version' is the joy of doing the chain game is (unless you're the last person) knowing the others will play your bit, and really grow to understand it in order to do their own bit. If we all make little games we could certainly promise each other we'd play all the versions but it doesn't really have the same feel.

True words

[Fisherson]

The main problem is we've always made a linear storyline. Even as crazy and back and forth as the fist one, Lost and Found, was it had some storyflow and very much 'cart on the rails' style of locked in play. It allowed us to stop a certain chapter and stick some content in then send the little cart down the track. It's a good system but Juno and Heart of Gold have made us want more open ended stuff both being quite semi-open ended themselves. If we change the flow up it's gonna cause snags. This is why my "Advent Calendar" for a holiday Chain never took off. Oh sure it seemed fine: make a calendar map, the player stands outside of it and opens the day in sequential order as version 1. But the one I wanted was a true Advent Calendar feel like I used to do with my old Lego ones: skip days, open certain days at certain points in the story to reveal secrets and ect. It sounds wonderful but then think about what it would have meant for all of you! XD Everyone would have to divide the whole of the month of December up amongst us. Now back in the days when we had 5-7 or more we could have possibly done that with only a little cleanup. Nowadays with just 4 of us super active? -.-; It would be impossible.

All this said I think Purp's idea has merit in allowing the player to change things at the start to increase replay value. I know it's something I've tried to tackle before in Sping Valley and Juno and I think we did it quite well with using the concept of multiple endings so gentlemen perhaps it's time to reverse that: many beginnings! It would mean the project would be non-linear and more mercurial but I don't think it would bog us down towards impossible levels to complete. It also would encourage us to use the skills we've developed and shown we have great expertise in from the past: inserting random *** stuff and loose interconnectivity.

...Oh no. I just had a horrid and wonderful idea that would support this and get me my bucket list of a sequel Chain Game. XD What if simply to begin we had a roster of all our old Chain Game characters as the starting members/classes BUT the Heroes themselves. It would lead to some Kingdom Hearts level oddness but you gotta admit the one awesome thing is our playable side charcters. We only have two to four actual "Hero"
 sprites for the player but they are silent protags or mouth pieces like in Pokemon or Dragon Quest.

[Prpl_Mage]

I kinda felt like Juno and Heart of Gold had a good balance on the linearity. Most chapters were isolated in themselves, but once resolved they would tie back to the world in whole. Some chapters were more open and could be revisited, others blew up. However, the openness can also lead to other issues as we can see when I made the final chapter for both Wrath of Gaia and Spring Valley. When I see space - I want to fill it, and that can ruin the mood  and pacing of the game or add unnecessary complex content. Did the last chapter of Wrath of Gaia need an entire section dedicated to each party member? Nope, did it need a weird Lightning Returns city? Not at all, the game would probably have been better off without half of those things. Not to mention that I somehow thought it was a good idea to add a final ice dungeon, followed by a final volcano dungeon, followed by a final double dimension dark castle dungeon... I mean, it's easy to ruin the balance.

Those starting choices don't need to have an awful lot of impact from the get go. I'm thinking like Dark Souls has this thing where you can pick the Master Key, some Firebombs, a Mysterious Amulet, some other stuff as a starting "bonus".
Other games like Guild Wars 2 and Dragon Age, lets you choose some story related prompts that are mentioned in some locations or may make some NPCs react to you differently. But it's not that the entire game is different, just that some parts play out different or may add / remove some challenge. So adding a variable to be on the first page of the variable list is all we need right now, fleshing it out later can be done when needed.

Also having previous characters as party members could be an idea to work with if we want something super trippy, otherwise it sounds like a great idea for a future game.

BTW, Wrath of Gaia was made 10 years ago lads.

[Moosetroop11]

BTW, Wrath of Gaia was made 10 years ago lads.

Time has no meaning to me nowadays lol, I've been in the software job I'm in for 10 years too : p Back when I started it 10 years sounded like a lifelong career

[Momeka]

Sorry, I just had a lot of stuff going on lately. Haven't had time to start on anything yet.

[Prpl_Mage]

Hey no problem,

We'll start something fresh later in autumn if we still haven't kicked this one off by then. Something with less planning and big dreams, just kick off a story and see where it takes us like we used to do.

[Moosetroop11]

Sounds good : ) I'd better sit back and take a middle slot this time. Maybe we could just do high fantasy, we haven't done that in a while : )

[Momeka]

Is it time?

[Prpl_Mage]

Is it time?

I think it's time.

[Moosetroop11]

You sunnavabitch, I'm in.

[Momeka]

I'll get started on a pretty standard high fantasy one

[Prpl_Mage]

I'll get started on a pretty standard high fantasy one

Sweet

Let us know if we can help out with anything.

[Moosetroop11]

Glorious, thanks. I think just having a game which you receive and can feel free to do whatever you like is probably the way to go, low pressure

[Momeka]

Was messing around with some art for the game. Trying to keep it simple and go for a more old school jrpg look for it. Are you down for that?



(ignore the character it's temp and in the wrong perspective)

[Prpl_Mage]

I like trying a new style and always digged the sort of Link to The Past vibe you got going on here.