So, since i have a bit of time and feel like coding I'd like to start work on something that's been running through my mind. I'm a big fan of story-driven games so i thought up something i'll probably never finish. Not gonna go into details yet, i have a tendency to get carried off on tangents so my ideas always get too big too fast... here's the basic idea tho:
I want to start building a story-driven platformer, the main focus being dialogue with npcs, not combat. The visual style i'm aiming for is something like this (I love this game) or this (love that one too) -- pixel art, scifi/noir setting. Starting off i'd like to spend as little time on graphics as possible and work more on the other aspects (building quests and dialogue). I have an idea for a combat system as well, but that's not high priority either. I'm already coding a prototype in python using pygame, but honestly i'm not really sure if that's a good idea... I'll ask some questions further down the post, i'm playing with the idea of switching to C or C++ (would prefer C for some reason. don't ask me why).
My goals for this month are pretty trivial and straightforward --- basic character control (keyboard only), loading levels and conversations from a file (JSON, XML, whatever really). Long-term goals are mainly concerning the way the story plays out.... I don't want linear story development, maybe i don't even want a singular goal for the player to achieve. I'm a big fan of RPG's and classic point and click adventures, and it is this spirit that i would like to create in the game. I want the conversations the player has with npc to significantly impact the options the player has and the way the story plays out. The problem is i really have no idea yet how to achieve this... One more thing i'd like to achieve is NPC's having a life, not just standing around the map forever. That also sounds like a lot of work...
So, even though I've done some programming in the past and am somewhat comfortable with python and pygame i'm pretty sure i'm fairly blind to the problems a game like this presents.
How worried should I be about the hardware requirements? I was really surprised to see how processor intensive Dwarf Fortress gets... it seems kinda silly for a pixel art platformer to require a supercomputer (and i guess it probably doesn't), but I wouldn't like to spend months coding the graphics, GUI, dialogue and the like, only to discover i have to restart everything because the computer can't process all the AI directives i want the NPCs to have... Python good enough, or should i just go C all the way?
Can anyone point me to open-source projects that might give me insights into coding structure? I'm doing some searching myself, but there's a sea of open-source projects out there, it's easy to miss things... Any links that you found interesting for any reason whatsoever are much appreciated.
I'd like to spend this month putting together a working prototype, and if i end up with something i like i'll be happy to post it on the web with a more detailed explanation of what the game is about, hoping for people to contribute obviously
Thanks in advance for any replies, criticism, anecdotes, jokes... If i can actually coerce someone to have a conversation with me about this i would be exstatic :P