FreeGameDev

I think Me and My Shadow should have a (big) story levelpack to replace the default one. It's meant to be played after the tutorial levelpack Here are some suggestions:


• New blocks to create an interesting environment. ^ See picture above.

• An adventure with a story.

• Different ways of finishing a level. (e.g. strike a bell in a tower)

• Foreground and/or background elements.

• Use medals to unlock levels, so that one can skip a level that he or she finds too difficult to finish? (e.g. you'll need points to unlock a level. (gold = 3 pt, silver = 2 pt and bronze = 1 pt))

• target time and recordings.

• increasing difficulty.

• Weather to give levels a certain atmosphere. (e.g. slippery ice blocks in snowy parts and moss growing on blocks in rainy parts)

• A world map??? With several routes?

• Boss fight(s). Defeating them should be like solving a puzzle rather than fighting them.

Tedium {l Wrote}:I think Me and My Shadow should have a (big) story levelpack to replace the default one. It's meant to be played after the tutorial levelpack Here are some suggestions:

• New blocks to create an interesting environment. ^ See picture above.

yes, helps a lot

Tedium {l Wrote}:• Different ways of finishing a level. (e.g. strike a bell in a tower)

you can just have two doors

Tedium {l Wrote}:• Foreground and/or background elements.

defiantly(like in supertux) it make levels less boring and looks more professional

Tedium {l Wrote}:• Use medals to unlock levels, so that one can skip a level that he or she finds too difficult to finish? (e.g. you'll need points to unlock a level. (gold = 3 pt, silver = 2 pt and bronze = 1 pt))

that would be nice

Tedium {l Wrote}:• Weather to give levels a certain atmosphere. (e.g. slippery ice blocks in snowy parts and moss growing on blocks in rainy parts)

aesthetics

Tedium {l Wrote}:• A world map??? With several routes?

maybe not, it would be a good idea and look cool, but it was nice having puzzle right after puzzle

Tedium {l Wrote}:• Boss fight(s). Defeating them should be like solving a puzzle rather than fighting them.

that would be cool

Thank you for your feedback,

ctdabomb {l Wrote}:you can just have two doors

Good idea, but that's not quite what I meant. I meant finishing levels in a different way . Striking a bell in a tower instead of touching an exit.

oh.... good idea

Hello Tedium,

You got really nice ideas there but I think we aren't able to implement them right away. They need to be carefully discussed and planned. For now we are focusing on 0.3 and I think we can use your ideas in following versions.

Tedium {l Wrote}:I think Me and My Shadow should have a (big) story levelpack to replace the default one. It's meant to be played after the tutorial levelpack

I like this idea. I think we should have the tutorial, story mode and puzzle levelpacks. There could be many story levelpacks which could be completely separated and have own story. Or should there be a one big levelpack with one story? In my opinion story should be divided in many levelpacks because it would be nicer to finish one and go for the next.

Tedium {l Wrote}:• New blocks to create an interesting environment. ^ See picture above.

That looks nice and reminds me of Ancient Greece. Does it relate somehow the story you're thinking of?

Anyway new blocks would make the game much more interesting and variating. This will also make possible to create more complex stories which are told visually. However I think this game shouldn't focus so much on visual side and story because after all this is a puzzle game.

Tedium {l Wrote}:• Different ways of finishing a level. (e.g. strike a bell in a tower)

I'm thinking of adding some scripting in levels to create these kind of "complicated" actions and cutscenes. I'm not meaning that we should implement a flexible scripting language but something much more simpler.

Tedium {l Wrote}:• Use medals to unlock levels, so that one can skip a level that he or she finds too difficult to finish? (e.g. you'll need points to unlock a level. (gold = 3 pt, silver = 2 pt and bronze = 1 pt))

This can be quite nice feature because sometimes in games I just can finish some level. I know it's frustrating and should be avoided. But I also think that this system must be carefully thought because it's not fun if it too loose and lets player to skip many levels.

Tedium {l Wrote}:• Weather to give levels a certain atmosphere. (e.g. slippery ice blocks in snowy parts and moss growing on blocks in rainy parts)

This would also give some nice variation in the game and give the gameplay a twist. So nice idea!

Tedium {l Wrote}:• A world map??? With several routes?

I don't quite like this idea. If there will be possibility to skip levels (which is nicer) this wouldn't be needed.

Tedium {l Wrote}:• Boss fight(s). Defeating them should be like solving a puzzle rather than fighting them.

I liked the boss fight in Edward_Lii's Castle Rescue. More boss and mini boss fights could be fun. Do you have any ideas of the bosses?

Thank you for your feedback,

odamite {l Wrote}:That looks nice and reminds me of Ancient Greece. Does it relate somehow the story you're thinking of?

I used those Ionic columns (but with a Doric capital ), because I was thinking of sky ruins. Columns are a very old architectural element and very recognizable .

odamite {l Wrote}:This can be quite nice feature because sometimes in games I just can finish some level. I know it's frustrating and should be avoided. But I also think that this system must be carefully thought because it's not fun if it too loose and lets player to skip many levels.

The last level of a levelpack should "cost" a lot of points to prevent people from skipping too many levels .

odamite {l Wrote}:I don't quite like this idea. If there will be possibility to skip levels (which is nicer) this wouldn't be needed.

I wasn't too sure either... It's better to implement the score system.

odamite {l Wrote}:I liked the boss fight in Edward_Lii's Castle Rescue. More boss and mini boss fights could be fun.

IMHO every story levelpack should have a (mini)boss.

odamite {l Wrote}:Do you have any ideas of the bosses?

Dragons, rocs and couatls .

Hello all,

odamite {l Wrote}:You got really nice ideas there but I think we aren't able to implement them right away. They need to be carefully discussed and planned. For now we are focusing on 0.3 and I think we can use your ideas in following versions.

I agree that these ideas need to be carefully planned.

odamite {l Wrote}:Anyway new blocks would make the game much more interesting and variating. This will also make possible to create more complex stories which are told visually. However I think this game shouldn't focus so much on visual side and story because after all this is a puzzle game.

Having custom blocks/background images can really improve the telling of stories.
But the downside is that they can be "misused", spikes could be covered up as a normal block, the exit (or other) areas could be hidden, invisible blocks, etc...
What we should do is keep it for scenery and leave the core mechanism visible, spikes should stay the danger, no misleading/fake exits.

There's another problem that might be difficult to solve, the new blocks fit in the Cloudscape theme, but chances are that they don't fit in different themes.
If the custom blocks are only scenery, the users can still play the story in a different theme, leaving the gameplay/puzzles intact (but losing some visuals).

odamite {l Wrote}:I'm thinking of adding some scripting in levels to create these kind of "complicated" actions and cutscenes. I'm not meaning that we should implement a flexible scripting language but something much more simpler.

I've though of implementing some sort of scripting before.

A simple scripting system could easily be made by using the setEditorData method of the blocks. (This allows the script to change the blocks in the same way the leveleditor does).
Beside those we can implement some commands for teleporting the player, swapping him with his shadow, kill the shadow?, activate other blocks.
Buttons and triggers (and perhaps portals) will have a new behaviour, execute script, and if needed we could add scripts for events (onStepBlock, onStart).

I don't think more than that is needed.

Tedium {l Wrote}:The last level of a levelpack should "cost" a lot of points to prevent people from skipping too many levels .

I like the idea of "skipping" levels, especially in puzzle games, but I see one contradiction:
Telling a story and skipping levels.

Perhaps the story should be some sort of travel around a world. Not visiting real world places, but areas like a forest, a cave, a swamp, a mountain, sky ruins, a dessert, etc...
Each area should be made of a start level, a few (puzzle)levels, boss fight!
Parts of the story could be told in the first level or the last level of that area, the levels in between can be played in any order.

as for the story part, maybe it should be something like this magician/sorcerer separates "ME" from "MY SHADOW" and they have to get to his palace/castle in the sky/forest and the have to find a potion that fuses them back together.....?

You should talk about all this once 0.3 is released ^-^

MCMic {l Wrote}:You should talk about all this once 0.3 is released ^-^

it's out, should it be discussed sometime?

Hello ctdabomb,

ctdabomb {l Wrote}:

MCMic {l Wrote}:You should talk about all this once 0.3 is released ^-^

it's out, should it be discussed sometime?

Your right, 0.3 is released so we can start brainstorming about new features, including the story levelpack/mode.

Any suggestions?

Just do it!

I think a theme should be able to add as many new block types it needs (including background/foreground ones).
Each levelpack should be associated with a theme.

This way, we can do several story level packs in different universes.

Hello MCMic,

MCMic {l Wrote}:I think a theme should be able to add as many new block types it needs (including background/foreground ones).
Each levelpack should be associated with a theme.

This way, we can do several story level packs in different universes.

It's already possible for a level to define a theme, but that theme has to be installed.
I think it's better if a theme can be bundled with a levelpack.

This will require a lot of work, not only implementing the scenery objects but also the level editor integration.
Scenery can be placed in three layers (background, play, foreground).
Besides that the theme file should be updated (adding and removing entries) when using the level editor.

A way around this would be to let background scenery be done by the background theme element.
And create a theme element for foreground scenery.
Than we only need to create a GameObject for scenery in the play layer.