Beginnings.. Side Scroller Online

Yeez not another one of these Dream Games contest blogs.. Yes I am terribly sorry as this entry is quite a read aswell (at least took me some hours to write). I would very much like you to read through this post though as there are certain things I would like you to take notice of. Especially if you'd like to participate on the competition yourself but haven't any good ideas/ would like to have a chance of making some money/ love the idea behind the indie scene and co-operating.

Still here? Great I really appreciate it :) So here goes, my ideas: First the idea behind Side Scroller Online (SSO) followed by the idea of how I would like to make this game (the part I would love for you to read and share your opinion about in the comment section).

The project:
Side Scroller Online (Working Title)

What best describes SSO?
You can best describe the game as a co-op platform game with rpg and shooter elements taking place in an online environment.

What is the game about?
SSO takes place in a world that consists of floating islands (Yeah I know.. how could that possibly work with gravity? But hey.. it's just a game :P) in a steampunk setting (YEAH!!). These planes are inhabited by all sorts of creatures including a human race which'll be played by.. well.. the players. Being humans of course there are multiple wars raging between the human race and it's clans.
The game world will of course have its own lore that will be told to the player through playing the game and participating in events and wars between different clans for control of certain key points.
The game will for a large portion be geared towards PvP combat between parties/clans.
After the player gets hold of the game and it's controls through some tutorials the player gets to pick a clan to join and the actual game unfolds.

Controls
A key point for a good platform game are it's controls. The way SSO will handle these is much like the controls of a 3d shooter game: the "wasd" keys in combination with the mouse for aim. These controls really give the player a chance to get good, to get "l33t skillz" (pardon my French). Something I really miss when playing other online RPG games.

Class system
Like in most online RPG's there will be quite a few classes depending on the role the player wishes to fulfill. There'll of course be warrior-type classes, casters, healers, buffers and some new classes. Each of the classes will have it's own skill tree.

Leveling
SSO is an action platform game which heavily relies on RPG elements such as quests and leveling. What I'm going to avoid though is the endless grind you see in most online RPG's for I don't see how that makes for good gameplay. You should'nt be forced to play hours and hours grinding to get to level so and so, so you can wear the level so and so's armour and be unbeatable, right? Of course players can progress and get better weapons, armours and skills. But wouldn't it be much nicer if a skilled novice player using good tactics is able to take out a much higher level player using bad tactics? I hope you agree because that is the system I'm looking to implant. Leveling however will be a part of SSO:
There will be a skill tree you can climb by earning skills through missions/quests and like in most online RPG's there will be plenty for each class.

Co-op
A big part of SSO will be working together with other players. Quests will have puzzles where multiple players need to work together in order to reach the objectives (puzzles like you can find in that co-op Zelda game).

Clan Wars
Like I mentioned earlier the player gets to join one of the clans at the start of the game these will then war for certain key points in the game that gives the clan certain advantages. For example an island with a big mana pool that gives the clanmembers who have captured the island a +10 mana bonus. (This is just an example on how capturing keypoints would benefit the clan who capturing it.)

Chapters
Besides joining a clan at the start of the game groups of players can also start subclans within the clan. These subclans are like the clans and guilds you see in other online games. Chapters are to play a big role in the SSO game and gaming world but I'll explain that in a future blog.

Making the game
Reading through the game description you might've noticed that the project I'm about to work on is a rather ambitious one. (But hey.. have you read some of the other game plans? :P) I too have thought of that and that's why my wish is to make this game with the help from indies who'd like to collaborate. (Indie power! Right?)
How I want to do this?

Team Building
Well I got this idea from GarageGames themselves: When TGB was still an early adaptors release they asked people to make certain things for the TGB tutorials, like art assets, for a certain amount of money, rewarded to them once the job was completed.
I want to try an approach like that. The way I see it the 10 000 dollars are going to be invested in the game anyway: I mean if you've worked on a project for a year and you win 10k you have already invested hundreds of hours into your project. You know you've got something good on your hands, I mean your project has beaten many others. So you will want to see it thing through, right? Why not spend the 10 000 in the first year to get a good head start and have more chance of beating the competition and have a decent release in just 1 year.
It will work like this. People can make certain assets of the game for a certain amount of money wich'll be paid out IF the project beats it's competition. Of course this way there is a chance (and well hey.. lets be realistic.. it isn't the smallest of chances) that the project doesn't win and there won't be any money to pay out at the end of the year. The way I see it that's just too bad.. you see I'm not in it for the money. It's the experience that I'm looking for.
I bet there are many people who, just like me, have had the TGB desktop icon on their desktop for months and haven't really done anything worth mentioning with it.
Wouldn't it be great working on a project with many others that actually moves forward sees milestones taken every month, and learning a lot on making games in the process? Isn't that enough to work on a project for alone? And if the game, with the help of you and all those other great team members, ends up being really good, you will get a nice bonus in the form of a payment at the end of the year. Isn't that what you call a win-win situation?

Baby Steps
Starting a project as ambitious as SSO you'll need to be careful not to get lost in the process. That's why it is important to start small, to take 'baby steps'.
Instead of immediately building the game I will be taking small steps.
I will start with a single player tech demo first, adding elements on the go. Think really small. A single group of small islands with a couple of NPC's and the player model. You can then use this small island to test physics and other systems on. After the basics are laid down I'll start making the actual game: The multiplayer platformer world.
As most of you will know multiplayer isn't really available for the TGB engine at the moment. That doesn't say that it's impossible to make it available. We shouldn't be underestimating the power of co-operation (and well.. that of money too). I know that if this community would work together we could come up with great solutions. I really believe in the beauty of co-operation as you might've noticed both in the way I want the game to play as in the way I want to make the game.
I would love to give back to the cool indie community we've got going here. Making the multiplayer
code and other handy things like tools available to the community at the end of the contest.

I hope I caught your interest writing this blog entry (it took me bloody forever) and hope to see you back next Sunday for my second entry in which I will light out some other game and gameplay aspects (think jetpacks..) and hopefully I'll be able to show some of the artwork.

Instead of just making this blog to get contest points I think of it as a great tool to keep motivated. Each week I'll put up some goals I want to reach before my next blog entry. These weeks goals will be:

- Get a scanner so I can digitalize some of the artwork.
- Since the design document is due 4 weeks from now, I will try and put the ideas together in a nice and clean design doc instead of the mess of papers that have formed into this project in the past months. In order to finish the document in time I will need to have written down about 25% of the doc by next week.
- Start working on the 'top secret thing' that you will learn about in time and'll hopefully bring over the feel of the game as well as informing people about this game in a very cool way.. :o I've said to much already. More on this later. (Points for hype building right? :P)

I know that doesn't sound like a whole lot but unfortunatly I have my final exams coming up and starting May 16th. I really want to go to college to start studying philosophy next year and so the coming weeks will be a bit of a slow start. By being efficient I can still make a nice and smooth start, starting NOW.


'Till next week,
Kevin Bowey
http://ssoblog.wordpress.com