5punky RPG

[fabyak]

What kind of story to go for? Suggestions pls! Do we want a romance, bromance, fantasy, kill epic monster, get special item kind of thing? Maybe take a leaf out of George R R Martin's book and kill off the main protagonist at some point?

How about extending that last idea further and having the protagonist die and change at regular points. Make it the theme of the game. Maybe the protagonist is really possessing the characters, or they're passing the mantle of whatever responsibility they have on, or it's simply an ongoing apocalyptic story which changes perspective when each character inevitably dies.

I like this idea, I might stretch to getting a copy.

EDIT: We could get a 4-pack for under a tenner each if a few of us fancy it.

That is a fine idea!

[fabyak]

We could have separate stories all attempting to achieve the same final goal and the protagonist being offed at crucial times

[fabyak]

Also: stealth cocks

[shot2bits]

i went ahead and grabbed a copy of rpg maker while it was still cheap as ill be at work all day tomorrow

[Dog Pants]

Bort also. Here's a list of resource links I found on the Steam forums: http://steamcommunity.com/app/220700/di ... 4396937501

[shot2bits]

handy, some good stuff in there pants.

should we set up a dropbox folder for sharing stuffs?

[fabyak]

Sounds good! It might also be worth using a program like this
http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter5.html

Basically it lets you keep track of details of what has happened to things/people characteristics etc and when it's happened.

Not used this particular thing but have used one like it

[FatherJack]

I already have the software and voted on writing and ideas as I can do those. I should mention that Jock and myself already had a drunken (obviously) plan to do something similar and it kind of never happened because we were both crap. A proper project manager might be required.

[Dog Pants]

That looks handy. Just had a download and a look at it. What was that thing Jock used as a brainstorming tool for an old 5punky game idea? That might be handy for high level design. Wasn't it some Google thing?

[fabyak]

By project manager do you mean more cats?

[FatherJack]

That looks handy. Just had a download and a look at it. What was that thing Jock used as a brainstorming tool for an old 5punky game idea? That might be handy for high level design. Wasn't it some Google thing?

I think Google abandoned it, and http://www.5punky5tuff.com/dev/ is also now dead.

[Dog Pants]

I think a 5punky PM would need to drive cats rather than herd them. Anybody got a cattle prod?

[fabyak]

When Berk and I made a glass maze in Minecraft a while back we found Google Sheets did the job pretty well, it could work for planning levels etc as it's all top down and we can all do stuff simultaneously without fear of breaking stuff. I'll set up a post in the Waugh in a sec

[Dog Pants]

Crikey, I've just had a hum dinger of an idea. Probably really difficult to implement, but it would make an interesting way of solving mysteries. Instead of working backwards to identify a killer from clues, you use magic or science (maybe something like the Minority Report) to set key characters' motivations and actions at key points and let the story play out as a simulation until it reaches the conclusion. The objective being to set the variables so that the conclusion is the same as the known end result. It feels kind of like writing a program and seeing if it compiles in my head. Scattering in a few known fixed points within the story as pointers to show whether you're on the right track or not would reduce the guesswork to an extent, but it wouldn't matter if you got it wrong because you're just replaying a simulation anyway. If only I had an ounce of programming talent to make that happen.

[FatherJack]

Crikey, I've just had a hum dinger of an idea. Probably really difficult to implement, but it would make an interesting way of solving mysteries. Instead of working backwards to identify a killer from clues, you use magic or science (maybe something like the Minority Report) to set key characters' motivations and actions at key points and let the story play out as a simulation until it reaches the conclusion. The objective being to set the variables so that the conclusion is the same as the known end result. It feels kind of like writing a program and seeing if it compiles in my head. Scattering in a few known fixed points within the story as pointers to show whether you're on the right track or not would reduce the guesswork to an extent, but it wouldn't matter if you got it wrong because you're just replaying a simulation anyway. If only I had an ounce of programming talent to make that happen.

It sounds sort of like one of the reasons computers were invented - to solve the insoluble. Not just by simply trying every possible combination until it works but finding the algorithm or (mathematical) reason for something, then extrapolating that into the unknown: e.g. like they do to predict weather or whether an asteroid will hit us.

There are some unusual programming languages which cater to this and are used in AI programming. One of the more odd is I think Prolog, where you don't define objects, but relationships and rules and let the computer figure out the rest - good for discovering something you can't actually define yourself.

I think your concept would make a really great way of telling a story - it'd be very engaging for the reader to experience exactly how it played out as the detective on a journey of discovery, only for a key fact to negate what they'd just seen and make them have to start over and see how it'd all changed in the light of new information.

I think there's definitely the germ of a story in there which I'll be tucking away for later use, something about how a computer might come to a (totally logical, but to us ridiculous) conclusion which then turned out to be correct - which is kind of the story of Minority Report - but I want to play with the logic of it a little and see how it can be stretched.

[Dog Pants]

something about how a computer might come to a (totally logical, but to us ridiculous) conclusion which then turned out to be correct

That reminds me of the old DI article on evolutionary design.

[fabyak]

That sounds interesting!

Could even show the ending (or snippets of) at the start and then any choices they make can affect the ending and they might see flashes of how their choice has changed it during the game

[fabyak]

Orrrr have a flash of something before so you know the choice could affect the outcome but you don't find out how until later

[buzzmong]

Crikey, I've just had a hum dinger of an idea. Probably really difficult to implement, but it would make an interesting way of solving mysteries. Instead of working backwards to identify a killer from clues, you use magic or science (maybe something like the Minority Report) to set key characters' motivations and actions at key points and let the story play out as a simulation until it reaches the conclusion. The objective being to set the variables so that the conclusion is the same as the known end result. It feels kind of like writing a program and seeing if it compiles in my head. Scattering in a few known fixed points within the story as pointers to show whether you're on the right track or not would reduce the guesswork to an extent, but it wouldn't matter if you got it wrong because you're just replaying a simulation anyway. If only I had an ounce of programming talent to make that happen.

So, sort of a bit like Frozen Synapse but with more cues?

[Dog Pants]

Well sort of, but you know the end result and you're trying to set the right sequence of events to replicate it.