Comments on: The Ratio Of Sex To Story

By: Glowyrm

Glowyrm — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 18:51:23 +0000

Gotcha, so this is more of a stream of consciousness post then a request for group consensus on how to implement a specific element?

By: Ben Ruiz

Ben Ruiz — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 17:14:07 +0000

But I don’t want any dialogue in the game. Maybe I was unclear, but I’m not trying to find a way to make story/plot/dialogue better and more suited to beat ‘em ups; in fact, I was trying to say they’re completely unnecessary. And the same goes for story. Now there will be SOME dialogue as it would be hard to have a strategy game full of political events that doesn’t have some text in it, but I believe this can be done without creating any character dialogue. And also, I just don’t think dialogue as a mechanic is very fun. Haha!

By: Glowyrm

Glowyrm — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 15:04:52 +0000

In regards to your goal of turn based strategy meets action, I think of Legend of the Dragoon is a good case study (personally, I enjoyed it more in principle than actual execution).

As to story in your game I would suggest a simple Dialogue option with key enemies. There’s two ways I would suggest implementing it.

1) Players are in control of dialogue. Players have a button (something like left bumper) that causes you player to initiate dialogue, and then enemies, obviously not all of them talk about key plot points.

2) Dialogue just happens at Key points in the story

Both systems should incorporate a system for responding to a dialogue. It should work that if the enemy gives dialogue the player has two buttons to respond one would actually draw the conversation out, the other would just be some bad ass retort and end the conversation at that point maybe even having the perform a dash attack on the enemy. So the player could use the fist button to get as much info out as he wants and then when he loses interest he has the second button to resume the adrenaline with some kind of cool transition.

By: Ben Ruiz

Ben Ruiz — Sat, 12 May 2012 17:04:36 +0000

Thanks a lot! Glad you like what you see. :)

By: Sean Osman

Sean Osman — Sat, 12 May 2012 12:58:24 +0000

Stumbled on this site from Google and I’m glad I did. The new game looks boss.

By: Shane Wegner

Shane Wegner — Wed, 02 May 2012 02:57:14 +0000

I’d personally like to see a smattering of villagers, families, non-fighters in the background, maybe a few attractive female character types, as the slightest counterpoint to why all these guys are fighting/protecting. They don’t need character bios or dialog screens.

Mario wasn’t about the politics and succession of royal power between the Koopa and Mushroom Kingdoms, but Princess Toadstool WAS there in the background and I guess some of Mario’s motivation revolved around wanting to get to her. Gut feeling is Aztez could benefit similarly, plus it’s fun to gauge how strong the fighting guys are by comparing them to non-fighting characters.

I… I just want to see some hottie black ink silhouette women in sarongs and feather headdresses. Think of the Rule 34 fan art that would open the door to. And the perfect ratio is Violence + Sexiness. You’ve got half mastered already.

By: Ben Ruiz

Ben Ruiz — Tue, 01 May 2012 06:43:50 +0000

Essentially.

By: Joey

Joey — Tue, 01 May 2012 05:58:31 +0000

Does this mean it’s appropriate to masturbate to gameplay videos of Aztez?

By: Ben Ruiz

Ben Ruiz — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 20:21:03 +0000

Thanks for the thoughts! But the problem with the (cool!) ideas you just mentioned is that since it’s just two of us, producing the assets necessary to create this kind of experience is totally unrealistic. I guess I feel like any time I spend making scenes for story segments is time I could be spending making a more engaging game.

I do think that it’s legit to still include story elements of some kind, but what will make the most sense for us is to tell stories in the most minimal way possible. The way games like Weird Worlds and Sworcery do it with small but compelling blurbs that don’t consume time and require extensive production.

By: Patrick Boelens

Patrick Boelens — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 18:47:58 +0000

Hmm, interesting points (and, btw, nice analogies!) you bring up here. The easiest solution is probably to just cater to the story-lovin’ folk, as those who don’t like it can simply skip it and continue slashing and offering aztecs.
But like you mentioned, it’d be interesting to be able to really bring it together in a more coherent way.

A relatively quick thought I came up with is would be to make the story happen as you’re playing, in the background. For instance, say you’re walking right and a volcano erupts in the background. People there start running, houses are burned and you can see a very distinguishable person walk to a temple. The player can choose to stop and play disaster tourist for a bit, watching the story of a corrupt high priest unfold, or carry on playing the game unobstructed. Throw in some icons/ emoticons and you just completely eliminated the need cut-scenes; woohoo /.
Ok, that’s enough rambling from my end, just thought I’d share. =)

-Patrick