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Next MLP game -- Plan discussion and help needed


Time Shield

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Some of you may be familiar with my first MLP horror game, Twilight Escape.  People have been asking me if I'm going to make another game focusing on one of the other Mane 6, and I think I may do that.  However, if I do, I could really use some help with it, particularly in the area of graphics (particularly particularly with pony models and animations).  If anyone is good at that sort of thing, let me know.

 

In the meantime, I thought I'd go over the game idea I had in mind, so that I can start working out the details.  Right now it's just a basic idea with a few gameplay elements.  I want to keep the feel of it similar to how it was in Twilight Escape (i.e., first person perspective, similar HUD and controls), so a good portion of the player system could be considered 'done' since I can import some of it from TE.

 

 

PREMISE

 

This game will be focusing on Fluttershy.  The premise is that while going through the woods, she finds an odd, broken piece of stone with etchings on it.  Upon picking it up, she receives a terrifying vision of a dark world existing in parallel with the forest.  In some manner I've yet to determine, she becomes aware that it is part of a larger artifact, and by touching it, a curse has been placed upon her that can only be broken by assembling the rest of the artifact.  Thankfully, the artifact pieces 'call out' to each other, so she can use it almost like a radar to find the other pieces.  The way won't be easy though, as the ghosts of other ponies who had fallen under the curse begin to haunt the woods, and she has to do her best to keep her wits about her.

 

 

GAMEPLAY

 

The woods are populated with ghosts that will watch and follow Fluttershy as she makes her way through.  Seeing these spirits will slowly raise her fear level, while contact with them with cause her fear to jump drastically.  As her fear rises, the world around her will begin shifting suddenly between a light and dark version.  While the ghosts in the light world can only affect fear, ghost in the dark world are deadly.  The higher her fear is, the more often she shifts to the dark world and the longer the shifts last.  Too high, and she is stuck there until she can lower her fear again.

 

Fluttershy has a number of special abilities to help her chances of success:

  • Gallop -- She can run faster, which costs stamina (similar to TE).
  • Flight -- She may be able to escape from grounded ghosts by taking into the air for a bit, or at least as long as her stamina lasts.  Flying ghosts will still be able to pursue her.
  • Stare -- By staring directly at a ghost, she can stop it in its tracks or cause it to flee.  This also costs stamina to do, but the longer the stare, the longer its effects will last even after she stops staring.  It becomes less effective the higher her fear level is.
  • Calm -- She can shut her eyes and stand still, allowing her to compose herself and lower her fear level.  Doing this is risky though, since it leaves her helpless, and should only be done when there aren't ghosts around.
  • Artifact -- She can raise the artifact up and listen to it; it pulses faster the closer she is to the artifact piece she's trying to find.  Since she has to raise it with a hoof, she can't move while doing it, unless she's flying at the time.

 

DIFFICULTIES

 

While I think the game shouldn't be too hard for me to make (compared to some of the elements in TE), I know there are several things I still need to figure out:

  • How does Fluttershy find out what the artifact did to her and what she needs to do to lift the curse?
  • Right now, the levels would just be various forest areas, and that could lack variety.  I need to find a way to introduce story elements as well as more scenery to keep it from becoming too repetitive.
  • Animals?  Or have they all fled the area due to the ghosts?  Adding additional things like this could over complicate the project.
  • Pretty much all of the graphics needed for this are beyond my current abilities.  In particular, the ghost ponies would need animations, but help with the scenery could be good as well.
  • Finding a few artifact pieces doesn't make for a very long game unless it's really hard to do.  Too many pieces would just be repetitive.  Where's the balance point?
  • What's the name of the game?  I'm leaning towards 'Fluttershift', due to the shifting between light and dark worlds.
  • Flying in general will be tricky to code, especially when it comes to the AI of the ghosts.  The game would be so much easier to make if the character were grounded, but I honestly can't think of any better character than Fluttershy to be the main character of this.

 

Thoughts?  Offers for help?

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Oh, this sounds interesting! I actually liked Twilight Escape, so I'm pretty sure you can do something good here.

Maybe, just maybe Fluttershy happens to meet some ponies who haven't been cursed long enough to become ghosts. These ponies tell her about the artifact, the curse and everything else. But that's just an idea. :P

I'm actually interested in helping you. I would really like to do some scoring for this game. No matter if it's just hits, ambience/mood tones, an actual soundtrack, or everything of the previously mentioned things, I would like to help ya. I'm an orchestral composer, however I also know how to use synths and stuff like that. I could also help with the sound design (at least a bit). I have actually already done some scoring and sound design for a horror game once.

Unfortunately I won't be able to help you on the graphics-part that much, as I'm not really good with 3D modelling myself. However, I have been using After Effects for quite a few years now, so I could potentially create some HUD-elements, or edit a little trailer or somethin'.

 

Anyways, I wish you the best of luck with this project! ;)

 

I'm actually all set on the sound/music front, since that's my strong point.  It's also functioning as practice for me since I want to do sound professionally (well actually, I already have done it once on a commercial product, but that's another story).

 

As far as graphics are concerned, finding 3D pony models isn't hard since there are lots of them out there in the MLP community.  What's hard is animating them.  I've given it a try myself, and the results were less than satisfying.  Actually, it was quite horrifying.  But not the kind of horror I was aiming for.   :comeatus:

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Interesting project you have here. I've always wanted to make some sort of game, but I've never had the time to sit down and code for hours every day. The most I've made is Snake and a simple Minecraft mod. May I inquire as to how you're accually building it (language, engine, etc.)?

 

As to your difficulties, here are my humble suggestions:

 

 

 

 

  • How does Fluttershy find out what the artifact did to her and what she needs to do to lift the curse?

 

Perhaps you can give the artifact a 'personality' of sorts; give it some way to communicate with the player, like voice-acting of the ability to produce messages.

 

 

•    Right now, the levels would just be various forest areas, and that could lack variety.  I need to find a way to introduce story elements as well as more scenery to keep it from becoming too repetitive.

 

You could have segments where you are taken into structures, like caves or creepy shacks. A specific location that comes to my mind is a warped version of Twilight's library (if this game takes place after season 4, that could be the 'ghost' of Twilight's tree).

 

 

    •    Animals?  Or have they all fled the area due to the ghosts?  Adding additional things like this could over complicate the project.

 

Maybe possesed animals could be one type of enemy?

 

 

    •    Pretty much all of the graphics needed for this are beyond my current abilities.  In particular, the ghost ponies would need animations, but help with the scenery could be good as well.

 

I'm no help here (unless you want your ghosts to be two-dimentional lines being drawn across the screen).

 

 

    •    Finding a few artifact pieces doesn't make for a very long game unless it's really hard to do.  Too many pieces would just be repetitive.  Where's the balance point?

 

This is probably something you need to figure out on your own. How long do you expect the game to be?

 

 

    •    What's the name of the game?  I'm leaning towards 'Fluttershift', due to the shifting between light and dark worlds.

 

Sounds good to me. My naming skills are sub-par.

 

 

    •    Flying in general will be tricky to code, especially when it comes to the AI of the ghosts.  The game would be so much easier to make if the character were grounded, but I honestly can't think of any better character than Fluttershy to be the main character of this.

 

You could incorporate the fact that the artifacts suppress magical energy, thus keeping Fluttershy from flying. I am personally not a fan of the idea that Pegasus flight is more magical than biological, but that might suit you're needs.

 

 

 

 

Best of luck with development! ;)

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Some of you may be familiar with my first MLP horror game, Twilight Escape.  People have been asking me if I'm going to make another game focusing on one of the other Mane 6, and I think I may do that.  However, if I do, I could really use some help with it, particularly in the area of graphics (particularly particularly with pony models and animations).  If anyone is good at that sort of thing, let me know.

 

In the meantime, I thought I'd go over the game idea I had in mind, so that I can start working out the details.  Right now it's just a basic idea with a few gameplay elements.  I want to keep the feel of it similar to how it was in Twilight Escape (i.e., first person perspective, similar HUD and controls), so a good portion of the player system could be considered 'done' since I can import some of it from TE.

 

 

PREMISE

 

This game will be focusing on Fluttershy.  The premise is that while going through the woods, she finds an odd, broken piece of stone with etchings on it.  Upon picking it up, she receives a terrifying vision of a dark world existing in parallel with the forest.  In some manner I've yet to determine, she becomes aware that it is part of a larger artifact, and by touching it, a curse has been placed upon her that can only be broken by assembling the rest of the artifact.  Thankfully, the artifact pieces 'call out' to each other, so she can use it almost like a radar to find the other pieces.  The way won't be easy though, as the ghosts of other ponies who had fallen under the curse begin to haunt the woods, and she has to do her best to keep her wits about her.

 

 

GAMEPLAY

 

The woods are populated with ghosts that will watch and follow Fluttershy as she makes her way through.  Seeing these spirits will slowly raise her fear level, while contact with them with cause her fear to jump drastically.  As her fear rises, the world around her will begin shifting suddenly between a light and dark version.  While the ghosts in the light world can only affect fear, ghost in the dark world are deadly.  The higher her fear is, the more often she shifts to the dark world and the longer the shifts last.  Too high, and she is stuck there until she can lower her fear again.

 

Fluttershy has a number of special abilities to help her chances of success:

  • Gallop -- She can run faster, which costs stamina (similar to TE).
  • Flight -- She may be able to escape from grounded ghosts by taking into the air for a bit, or at least as long as her stamina lasts.  Flying ghosts will still be able to pursue her.
  • Stare -- By staring directly at a ghost, she can stop it in its tracks or cause it to flee.  This also costs stamina to do, but the longer the stare, the longer its effects will last even after she stops staring.  It becomes less effective the higher her fear level is.
  • Calm -- She can shut her eyes and stand still, allowing her to compose herself and lower her fear level.  Doing this is risky though, since it leaves her helpless, and should only be done when there aren't ghosts around.
  • Artifact -- She can raise the artifact up and listen to it; it pulses faster the closer she is to the artifact piece she's trying to find.  Since she has to raise it with a hoof, she can't move while doing it, unless she's flying at the time.

 

DIFFICULTIES

 

While I think the game shouldn't be too hard for me to make (compared to some of the elements in TE), I know there are several things I still need to figure out:

  • How does Fluttershy find out what the artifact did to her and what she needs to do to lift the curse?
  • Right now, the levels would just be various forest areas, and that could lack variety.  I need to find a way to introduce story elements as well as more scenery to keep it from becoming too repetitive.
  • Animals?  Or have they all fled the area due to the ghosts?  Adding additional things like this could over complicate the project.
  • Pretty much all of the graphics needed for this are beyond my current abilities.  In particular, the ghost ponies would need animations, but help with the scenery could be good as well.
  • Finding a few artifact pieces doesn't make for a very long game unless it's really hard to do.  Too many pieces would just be repetitive.  Where's the balance point?
  • What's the name of the game?  I'm leaning towards 'Fluttershift', due to the shifting between light and dark worlds.
  • Flying in general will be tricky to code, especially when it comes to the AI of the ghosts.  The game would be so much easier to make if the character were grounded, but I honestly can't think of any better character than Fluttershy to be the main character of this.

 

Thoughts?  Offers for help?

 

I'm no help here (unless you want your ghosts to be two-dimentional lines being drawn across the screen).

 

Maybe your ghosts could be these?

 

post-27192-0-40314800-1428463264.jpg

Sorry. I had to. :P

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Interesting project you have here. I've always wanted to make some sort of game, but I've never had the time to sit down and code for hours every day. The most I've made is Snake and a simple Minecraft mod. May I inquire as to how you're accually building it (language, engine, etc.)?

 

As to your difficulties, here are my humble suggestions:

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps you can give the artifact a 'personality' of sorts; give it some way to communicate with the player, like voice-acting of the ability to produce messages.

 

 

You could have segments where you are taken into structures, like caves or creepy shacks. A specific location that comes to my mind is a warped version of Twilight's library (if this game takes place after season 4, that could be the 'ghost' of Twilight's tree).

 

 

Maybe possesed animals could be one type of enemy?

 

 

I'm no help here (unless you want your ghosts to be two-dimentional lines being drawn across the screen).

 

 

This is probably something you need to figure out on your own. How long do you expect the game to be?

 

 

Sounds good to me. My naming skills are sub-par.

 

 

You could incorporate the fact that the artifacts suppress magical energy, thus keeping Fluttershy from flying. I am personally not a fan of the idea that Pegasus flight is more magical than biological, but that might suit you're needs.

 

 

 

 

Best of luck with development! ;)

 

I like the idea of the artifact itself being sentient.  That would work very well and be pretty simple to implement.  I don't think I want to take away her flying entirely though (if I were going to do that, I might as well just make Scootaloo the main character).

 

Actually, making Fluttershy fly itself isn't the problem, it's making the ghost AI fly.  If I want ghosts to avoid obstacles (go around trees and such), I can only really do that if they're grounded, or if all obstacles go from the top of the level to the bottom without any intermediate variation.  Then again, they are ghosts, so maybe I don't need to worry about them passing through obstacles?

 

As for level variation... In order to improve replayability, I'd want the artifact fragments to be placed somewhere random in the level each time you play, otherwise if you've played the game before you'd just make a beeline to the artifact each time.  So I guess as long as each level has its own layout and landmarks, it wouldn't be TOO repetitive.  But it does make it more or less impossible to have special events and story elements during the gameplay, since I can't guarantee that the player will be in any particular place at any particular time.

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Actually, making Fluttershy fly itself isn't the problem, it's making the ghost AI fly.  If I want ghosts to avoid obstacles (go around trees and such), I can only really do that if they're grounded, or if all obstacles go from the top of the level to the bottom without any intermediate variation.  Then again, they are ghosts, so maybe I don't need to worry about them passing through obstacles?

 

It probably wouldn't be very interesting if the enemies just make a bee-line towards you, making it just a matter of conserving the stare ability. I might make it a bit more involving if the ghosts would stalk you, try to attack you when you see them, then disappear for a while. That might be a bit Slender-esque, so perhaps there's a middle ground.

 

 

 

img-2194889-1-large.png

 

 

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It probably wouldn't be very interesting if the enemies just make a bee-line towards you, making it just a matter of conserving the stare ability. I might make it a bit more involving if the ghosts would stalk you, try to attack you when you see them, then disappear for a while. That might be a bit Slender-esque, so perhaps there's a middle ground.

 

 

 

img-2194889-1-large.png

 

 

 

Nothing wrong with it being Slender-esque.   :adorkable:

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Nothing wrong with it being Slender-esque.   :adorkable:

 

I suppose not, but I imagine that your primary audience is horror game enthusiasts, so they may consider the whole 'Slender' theme to be bit stale (although I'm not sure, as I don't really play video games, but I do enjoy watching them). It would probably be fine, seeing as how your enemies would be numerous and defeatable, versus having just one immortal enemy the whole game. I assume you intend to have different monster types?

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I suppose not, but I imagine that your primary audience is horror game enthusiasts, so they may consider the whole 'Slender' theme to be bit stale (although I'm not sure, as I don't really play video games, but I do enjoy watching them). It would probably be fine, seeing as how your enemies would be numerous and defeatable, versus having just one immortal enemy the whole game. I assume you intend to have different monster types?

 

The plan would be different behaviors on the ghosts.  Some might observe from a distance, some might follow you, some might charge you, etc.  Basically, you'd have to observe them to see what behavior they're going to do.  And if there's multiple ghosts around, it might become dangerous to move through the forest even if they're not directly approaching you.

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The Music is reminiscent of My Little Terror, but definitely different. It's a good mood setting song. I think it will work for outdoor horror. But I want to be sure.

 

Yep, just listened to it while playing Slender. Very Ominous. It's good as it is.

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I'm making progress on the basic game engine. So far I have movement similar to Twilight Escape set up, and I managed to get flying working as well. Finally, I've made some rudimentary ghost AI that will require a bit of tweaking before it's complete.

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I have a few points :squee:

 

- Implementing the stare is great, but wouldn't the current stare feel a little too Mario-esque? You know, with the Boos and such? Perhaps you could go with TopQuark's idea of adding animals as enemies, and the stare can be used to 'convert' them back to normal and get them to either fight for you or to complete certain tasks for you.

 

- On the map variety - does the whole game have to be set in the Everfree Forest? I mean, of course it starts there, but perhaps later on in the game (maybe when you have collected a certain number of the artifacts) you travel to a different location. Cloudsdale would be cool, although a horror setting would be difficult there if everywhere is rainbows. Maybe you go to Canterlot Castle? That would certainly provide more variety. If you want the whole place to be in the forest (or even if just part of the game is in a forest) look up some cool looking landmarks or scenery in the real world and try to implement them in the map. Also, Zecora's house? Zecora's house.
 

- On graphics, for a temporary build you could probably try to download the SFM pony models that have been going around, although I'm not exactly sure if you can just grab those and use them in the game because I don't know what file types they are or anything like that. Otherwise, you could just download software like blender or something else and look through a heap of tutorials, then look at some pony anatomy guides. Then again, I've never done anything relating to 3D modelling, so I don't really know. You could always hire somebody!

 

- I think six artifacts would be enough, maybe seven. It's like you said, around three would be waaaaay too quick and the game would be over before players could grasp what they were even doing, but you also can't do a Twilight Princess. (The zelda game not Princess Twilight)

 

- What actual horror elements will you be implementing? Remember, throwing a bunch of spooky ghosts at the player won't do anything (unless they are really, really, sensitive). Things like suspense, psychological horror, and a sense of tensity are what really make a game scary. Jumpscares are okay, but don't be Scott Cawthon and make the entire horror aspect of the game be nothing but jumpscares. The reason Slender: The Eight Pages and Slender: The Arrival were so scary back when they were first released is because they had a lovely blend of tensity and jumpscares. The whole time your heart is beating like crazy and you are stressing out. You don't completely know what you are doing, you can't really hurt the enemy, so you feel helpless. Turning corners and turning around is torture. All this tensity and stress is building up and BAM, suddenly it is all let out in one sudden jumpscare and you have fallen out of your chair.

 

- Will you be adding any sort of voice acting? I think adding actual dialogue would just end up being cringy if people were adding the dialogue seriously (which they would be because it's horror), but a kind of heavy, fast breathing after something happening would be cool. Maybe take sound clips from the show that really fit, for example some sort of scene where Fluttershy would be re-assuring herself that it's all gonna be okay could be used while you are calming yourself. However, your first game (which was awesome btw) had some pretty solid voice acting, so I dunno.

 

- FlutterShift is an amazing name. Keep that name. It's so cool. :yay:

 

- For the love of god, whatever you do, and I'm sure you won't but I'm saying it anyway - don't put Pinkamena in there. It's so, so overdone.

 

- I think at this point I'm just making new points as I go along so I'm going to stop right now before my post gets bloated and useless. :P

Edited by HailTrixie
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Well, something to keep in mind is that I'm not expecting it to be a very long game, and currently it's going to be made mostly by me.  While I'd like to have a large variety of areas, I'm trying to simplify so that I can actually complete it.  Having it all take place in the forest means a lot less work.  To that end, having animals in the woods would also create a huge amount of extra work, mostly because ghosts don't have to worry about passing through obstacles, while animals would require some kind of pathfinding system (not to mention all the extra animations and interactions).

 

I had planned a number of different ghost behaviors to keep it interesting though.  Some would only observe from a distance, while others would try to follow you.  I'm trying to set it up so that I can modify the behavior on the fly if I need to.  I'm not going for jump scares per se, just trying to make it so that you have to manage your fear and stamina throughout the level.

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Seems a lot like you are really, really constricted by graphics. I really recommend you hire someone to do the graphics for you.

Do you have any sort of budget planned, and also how much time you intend to put into this. It seems to me, and please correct me if I'm wrong because I don't want to come across as judgemental, but it seems to me that you don't really want to put in too much effort. The thing you said about animals with pathfinding systems - yeah, I get it, that's hard to code, but think about how much cooler it would be if you did implement it.

 

Picture it - the animal finds its way back to you and cuddles up to you, obviously traumatized. You return the affection, and your fear meter goes down a bit - the animal calmed you down a little. Suddenly, this cute little bunny (it's a bunny now) turns its head and jumps at you, foaming from the mouth and biting at you, making horrible sounds no pony should ever hear. Your fear meter spikes and you are forced to slap it out of the way and gallop for your life. Later, maybe you return to where you last saw the animal because you are Fluttershy and you feel bad about what you did. And all you see is a whimpering, bloodied up rabbit lying on the ground, its foot contorted at an odd angle. Tears well up in your eyes and you run away. Suddenly a strange apparition jumps from the bushes, and you scream. You turn and run the other way, deeper into the woods, not knowing where you are going, yadadadada, more stuff, you get it.

 

Or, you could not add the animals. Instead, you are wandering around the woods. You jump across pits, solve puzzles, and encounter a few ghosts.

 

All I'm saying is, yeah, it's a small game that is (I assume) being developed by just you. But there needs to be something to drive you, something to keep you going as you play the game. You said you didn't want the game to become bland as it goes on, so, and I'm going to use animals as another example, what if you find different types of animals along the way? And each different animal can help you do certain things and solve different puzzles. You could find a few owls and they could help keep ghosts at bay while you try and figure something out (just for that point in the game). You could find a squirrel, and it can crawl through a hole to retrieve something for you.

 

If I'm getting annoying, tell me and I'll stop, but I'm just saying that things might be waaaaay harder to do and way more effort, but it'll be worth it because in the end you will have an awesome game with awesome features.

 

If you want to simplify it, make a small version with just the structure that you've been talking about and release it to some people here. See what they think of it, see what you think of it, and if it needs more, add more. There's no rush. Also, once you have finished this structure (if this is what you choose to do) look at the game and try to think about what you would be thinking if you were just playing somebody elses game that you just happened to find. If you had no idea who made the game, you just found it and now you were playing it, what would you think of it? Try to remove the bias and think about how the game would seem to a random.

 

So yeah. To sum it up, I just think putting in the extra effort is totally worth it because you'll have an excellent game.

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(edited)

Putting the extra effort would be great, were it not for lack of both time and budget. I don't have any money to spend on a project that is ultimately going to be non-profit. If I'm going to put that much effort and money into a game, it will be non-pony. Which brings me to my second point: I'm already working on a few (non-pony) commercial projects. What time I have between working on them can be spent working on this one, but those projects have priority.

When I was working on Twilight Escape, it was the same situation. I had a lot more planned on it, but eventually shaved everything down to a simpler and more concise experience that I could fit into my time and budget limitations. It still turned out great. I don't have any doubt I can pull off something great with this one even under similar restraints.

Believe me, nobody understands better than I do what made Slender: The Eight Pages special. It accomplished a lot with next to nothing. That said, I'm not going to make this the same thing. I'm sure I can work with minimal resources since I have done so successfully before. But as soon as I have access to a complete game design studio with unlimited budget for a non-profit game, I'll take advantage of that. Until then, I have to be realistic.

 

- Will you be adding any sort of voice acting? I think adding actual dialogue would just end up being cringy if people were adding the dialogue seriously (which they would be because it's horror), but a kind of heavy, fast breathing after something happening would be cool. Maybe take sound clips from the show that really fit, for example some sort of scene where Fluttershy would be re-assuring herself that it's all gonna be okay could be used while you are calming yourself. However, your first game (which was awesome btw) had some pretty solid voice acting, so I dunno.

 

I forgot to address this point.  Yes, I will definitely want voice acting in this.  My personal challenge will be to find a way to make Fluttershy sound scared without it also being repetitive.  It's kind of like how in Twilight Escape I have breathing sounds for when Twilight is low on stamina, but I have different ones for when she's running or when she's standing still.  I think what I'll be doing is doing the same for Fluttershy, but having a different set for when she's scared, and I think I'd also like to have an index of special sounds I can insert at random intervals to make it sound more organic (not just the same few sounds over and over).  This is also a personal challenge that will serve as great experience for professional game sound design.

 

(Actually, I technically am a professional game sound designer.  But that's another story.)

Edited by Time Shield
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Right, okay. Never knew you had a bunch of other games you were making at the same time, and I didn't really think about the fact that this would be non-profit.

I guess I only have one more question then, and it's pretty much trivial and won't make much of a difference: Why did you choose to start making this when you already had other games going on?

 

Well, best of luck!

Edited by HailTrixie
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Right, okay. Never knew you had a bunch of other games you were making at the same time, and I didn't really think about the fact that this would be non-profit.

I guess I only have one more question then, and it's pretty much trivial and won't make much of a difference: Why did you choose to start making this when you already had other games going on?

 

Well, best of luck!

 

Because pony.  :)

 

That, and it's good practice.

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I have been searching for some time and just cannot find MLP models that are both animated and able to be imported into Unity.  Does anyone happen to know where I might be able to find them?

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For the title I would probably use the name of the amulet. (Warning: Incoming Speculation) With that you can put together a background for the story such as that Daring Do had known about the amulet and, seeking to destroy it, shattered it and moved the pieces away from each other hiding them in places in the forest. Having placed the pieces; she was going to keep the main piece with her so that it could never be complete again until she realized the glove she had been using to hold the pieces had decayed from holding the pieces and once it had come in contact with her it sent her to this other world. When Fluttershy first sees the center piece of the amulet and touches it to pick it up, when she is transported to the dark world you can show she is grabbing it from Daring's corpse. On Daring you could find letters about the amulet to flush out that background of what happened before Fluttershy found the amulet. These letters can make it seem like Daring was losing her mind in this place and chose to killed herself instead of complete the amulet for evil and could also act as a tutorial for the player telling the player what they should do and have them question if what they are doing is right.

 

Well those are my thoughts on the reasons for the amulet being there. I don't want it to seem like you have to do this, but I like the concept. (Oh, sorry. I just realized I read artifact as amulet.)

 

To get an idea of the ghosts in 3-dimensions I would suggest using an example of the game Fatal Frame

 

For the idea of flying being involved I would suggest setting up two different sets of height of where Fluttershy can be at in the game: a flying height, where she is safe from most enemies, and a ground height, where most of everything will occur at. 

Edited by IcefireInfinite
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For the title I would probably use the name of the amulet. (Warning: Incoming Speculation) With that you can put together a background for the story such as that Daring Do had known about the amulet and, seeking to destroy it, shattered it and moved the pieces away from each other hiding them in places in the forest. Having placed the pieces; she was going to keep the main piece with her so that it could never be complete again until she realized the glove she had been using to hold the pieces had decayed from holding the pieces and once it had come in contact with her it sent her to this other world. When Fluttershy first sees the center piece of the amulet and touches it to pick it up, when she is transported to the dark world you can show she is grabbing it from Daring's corpse. On Daring you could find letters about the amulet to flush out that background of what happened before Fluttershy found the amulet. These letters can make it seem like Daring was losing her mind in this place and chose to killed herself instead of complete the amulet for evil and could also act as a tutorial for the player telling the player what they should do and have them question if what they are doing is right.

 

Well those are my thoughts on the reasons for the amulet being there. I don't want it to seem like you have to do this, but I like the concept. (Oh, sorry. I just realized I read artifact as amulet.)

 

To get an idea of the ghosts in 3-dimensions I would suggest using an example of the game Fatal Frame

 

For the idea of flying being involved I would suggest setting up two different sets of height of where Fluttershy can be at in the game: a flying height, where she is safe from most enemies, and a ground height, where most of everything will occur at. 

 

Well, first, I don't want to actually kill anyone.  If I did something like that, it wouldn't be Daring Do, but some other random one-shot pony (kind of like how in Twilight Escape, I had used the names Sunny Spiral, Dusty Tome, Crescent Aurora and Silver Eclipse for other unicorn names).

 

Second, there's been some discussion since the original post, and a few decisions have already been made.  Someone made the excellent suggestion of having the artifact be sentient, so that it can give the details to the player when the first object is acquired (i.e., people who have touched the artifact pieces are cursed to remain in the forest and are drawn into the dark world, but assembling all the pieces can break the curse).  I also have an additional idea that goes in line with this, which I'll toss in a spoiler tag for those who don't want to have the later plot elements spoiled:

 

 

As it turns out, everything that happens during the game is intentionally the artifact's doing, to trick Fluttershy into assembling it.  Once it's assembled, its evil power is complete, and it can finally spread its magic beyond the forest to try and pull all of Equestria into the dark world.  Fluttershy has a chance to stop it, leading to a final confrontation (which I have yet to figure out exactly, but it'd have to be something using the skills the player has learned up to that point).

 

 

I may have to do pony animations myself.  Thankfully, I don't have to make them look perfect, since ghosts should probably have some unnaturalness to their movement anyway.

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So I've begun preliminary stuff for the shifts between the light and dark world.  Originally I was going to have it just alter the appearance of everything around you, but it turns out that's very tricky to do.  Then I thought I'd just make two separate areas and teleport the player between them.  That might work, but moving the player could potentially cause issues with the physics.  So then I came up with another solution that appears to be working: I have an extra camera in the dark world that continually repositions itself based on where you are in the light world, and when I want to switch, I just disable the main camera and enable the dark world one.  The end result is that it looks like you're in the dark world, but you're actually still moving around in the light world.  So long as the worlds are identically navigated, it works, which is what I was planning to do anyway.  The next step is to make visuals for the ghosts that parallel the ones in the light world.

 

Then I need to work on the scripting for determining when shifts occur.  I think if FS is at 80% Calm or less, she should begin having the chance to shift, with lower calm meaning longer time spent before shifting back.  If at 20% Calm or less, you remain in the dark world until you get it back above 20%.  I also need to make sure that you don't shift to the dark world if there's a ghost nearby; the reason for this is, it'd really be bad to have a ghost approaching the player at a distance that's difficult to avoid, and then it suddenly goes from being merely Calm-affecting to being instantly lethal.  That would not be fair at all.

 

After I figure all that out, my next step is to determine how to randomly hide the artifact fragment you have to find, and what the best way for implementing the 'radar' that you have for locating it.  I'm thinking that there would be several distance ranges that would cause the artifact to pulse at different rates.  I'd probably make each zone larger as they go out, so that if you're really far from it, you can't just walk a few feet, note the change and adjust, which would make it too easy to find.  Instead, you'd have to travel some distance before it becomes obvious that you're moving closer or further away.  Simplest way would be 0 to 1 meters, 1 to 2 meters, 2 to 4 meters, 4 to 8 meters, 8 to 16 meters, 16 to 32 meters, and so on.  Since you can't check the artifact while you're moving anyway, this will force the player to do some trial and error.

 

In any case, after I finish all this, I can see how it all works together.  If it seems off, I'll make adjustments.

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