Ideas for AB game
 

NB self: ultim.conpt 4 AB b4 conc. review, walk, etc.sol

Apart from the small flash games, I was thinking of using the TADS engine or one similar to Legend (Eric the Unready, Spellcasting series) to make an Abandonia based text-based adventure.

I was going to use high-def ascii art, but there could be any form.
Some of the art in the art thread will make some excellent flash-games! But that's not what I want to do right now - that requires more planning and I don't plan on doing much planning. I don't like plans that stay as just plans and consume all the other planning that could be happening where it buds.
Even still, the art could be used to depict certain situations, but these sorts of projects don't seem to make it out of discussion...

Anyway.

Does anyone have any ideas for puzzles and stuff?

Story is - all games go missing, you must rescue them from someone who is hoarding them all and not letting anyone download them.
Bog standard.

You can do it AD&D way, Deduction method (whodunnit) or, my favourite, cyberpunk (or steampunk) and have to use lots of text-adventure computers to break codes and solve problems and stuff.
I already have a tesseract maze for the forum - I can't draw it in Excel like other maps, but have to use a 3d line graph.

If you have any ideas for problems and puzzles that could represent other parts of the site, please voice your suggestions.

It would be good if the game also helped people know more about Abandonia and all the other stuff that's here apart from just a few old games and make them feel more involved in the site.

There'd be no need for bots then, but a good chat-bot would be a nice addition to the game.
Having to out-wit a chat-bot. Like the swordfight in Monkey Island.


I'm not asking for help making it - just a few thoughts, that's all. No real work for anyone who doesn't want to do any.
I don't want to put effort into something if it's not going to happen, so please don't digress from what can actually be done.
Thanks.
Pete

The chatbox could be a place where there are random phrases thrown around, with some useful information hidden somewhere. You could even take funny quotes from the archive, even the naked act you performed :tongue:. Now that was funny.

In my opinion, the enemy should be ESA related :P

Also, there could be puzzles related to known and old bugs of the site, including the infamous "missing country" bug.

And there should be a puzzle that teaches people that they should try old games with DOSBox :)


Well, this is a little brainstorm. Maybe later I could develop them in a more useful way...

Naked act..? hmmmm :whistles:

Nice one El Quia - I like the idea of the insidious ESA nemesis!
The CB would be a good place to pick up a few ideas for dialogue and story. Thanks!
I did want to have a cybersection in it where you could to play old games (like Maniac Mansion in Day of the Tentacle) and had to solve a few in order to progress.

I need a hacking system that could be used too, but that is something to think of later in details.
I don't know about the site bug aspect - that makes it more accessible to site users specifically. If you didn't know about it, it wouldn't mean much.
But it could be used in a different context. That'd be good.
Bug solving.

Trying to get people to know about cool old games and how they developed, that sort of thing would be good too.
Even if it was just suggesting a few games in descriptions of places and stuff.

Having to throw the sword down the pit so the Prince of Persia could find it and finish his quest.

Maybe the player is directly involved in several events in computer games - they have to discard the vacuum shell for the robot's chip to be inserted into in Beneath a Steel Sky or invent the recipe for the Spit Grog in Monkey Island 2...

That'd be quite a fun game to write.

What do you think the character you play should be like?
Their demeanour and type of reaction?

The characters from my work are usually cyber/steampunk time detective / Sherlock Homes and his mate types...
The whole series is on the characters, but I've several others that are from short stories. Some Cephalopoda and a few other races that need a long description. Most human or similar.

I always need ideas for character - its my weakest point.

Oh - and comics that have never been published (Nb - remember Kugerfang)... they may be helpful too, somehow.

Are you up for collaborating on writing this game, El Quia?
No time-scale, perhaps having to learn TADS - but writing Interactive Fiction.

(Then - we can port it to Iphone and take advantage of the growing Ibook trend :D
But that would need a more complex interface.)

ESA?

I had an idea to make a mod for Fallout 2 about Abandonia.

We'd be a small town filled with computers, robots and other gizmos. The town would be filled with members, from newbies to Admins. Quests would include stuff like : Recover the lost games, ransack Lucasarts' headquaters, etc :hihihi:

there were already a loooot of attempts at abandonia games =)

anyways, i'd definitely played this one if saccade managed to do it

what if it was a first person shooter?

there actually is abandonia first person shooter already, made by punch

I don't think there's any doubt that I will be able to make a TADS game, russ - I can't make any other games (except basic flash).

So long as I can get a story, it will be done.
Just don't know how long it will take... :)
I have a Lot of reviews and walkthrus to do first, but this would be an excellent side project.

I've already started on the first chapter.

What I think I'll do is post a link to one of my personal blogs - I don't think people would be happy if I gave out links to access Ebooks for free!
And I've several stories and novels that I am working on that are totally secret (preciouses hobittses stealings pete's's workssss!).

That way, people can comment on the progress and suggest storyline arcs and puzzles and stuff.

The plot and stuff is easy for me to write.
The characters are okay, but not my strongest point.

The puzzles, however, that I come up with have been fiendishly difficult so far - It'd be really helpful to get some ideas with these and how they'd fit in with the plot.
Usually I devise the answer and then say "how do they do it?" rather than the other way around...


oh yeah - ESA = the guys who stop us from being able to put up any game we want because of copy-protection laws, etc...
Have a look at Wikipaedia.

also - why has this been moved..?

I don't think that ideas for puzzles is programming...
But - I have no idea where it should be posted.

ne'er mind.

Because this is not a "playable" forum game.

Quote:

Programming

Okay - but I don't think programming is going to help very much.

Can you suggest a better place, Chosen, or shall I just leave it here and hope that someone finds it. I know that this sub-forum's description is about AB games, but it's pretty dead...

It will most likely turn out that I have to write it myself anyway, but people's ideas are always helpful.

what's it made in?

I cannot commit myself to this: I am already into a lot of projects, and even though I'd love to, I know I could not be able to add a lot to it. What I can do is throw around ideas and such, but that is not terrible useful, isn't it? Besides, I am already learning AGS ;)

But I will see, maybe I can come up with something I can help?

In regards to what you were saying about character/s, I reckon the cast should be where the strong characterization happens. If the user player character is "blank" (for want of a better word) then the user projects their own personality onto it, an example of this working well is Gordon Freeman.


Also, stick a bald monkey in there somewhere for me would you please? :D

El Quia: No probs - but if you ever have any ideas, will you bounce them for me? I value your input on this sort of thing.

Lulu: Bald Monkey - can do!

I was more thinking about the player/char's persona in what their responses would be to certain things.
I'll figure something out.

That would be creepy, methinks.


But I agree with lulu. Not about the monkey, of course, but about the player character: it should be left as personality free as possible, but not by making him the silent character where all the others characters speak for him, as is usual in some games. Give him dialog options, but a varied dialog tree, so the player can asks things in whichever way s/he wants.

As for the NPCs... well, you have the personality of all the people here ;)

As far as a puzzle for this game:

Maybe at one point you need to convince an army of Lemmings to retrieve the Abandonia logo for you?

Oh, no more lemmings! :tongue:

Maybe traverse through different games? Or getting help from a character from one game in another? Caleb Going through The Last Half of Darkness might be interesting.

i don't think this belongs to programming neither, saccade knows how to program it. he is just gathering information and ideas, this has absolutely nothing to do with programming

How about 3xBlah, then?

This game could definately do well with a few smacks at the ESA ;)

I've almost finished the first chapter!

cool can't wait to try it.

:clap: Cool, sacade! :clap:

I wanna try it!

I am totally stumped for puzzles, guys...

I am thinking that I will use the novella and short stories I am currently writing as a loose storyline base, but it will be cyberpunk and sci-fi and Stephen King horror.
That's all I really write about except herbal medicine, entheobotany, wortcraft, encylcopaedias and now games...

Maybe I should play more games. I really need to finish timequest.
There is a space/time travel element to my a lot of my stories.
Expect that too...

Can you guys suggest any ideas for puzzles or games to play to get puzzle ideas? If I am to put games into it (and I want to!) th

Wait - I just realised that my idea for the story and plot is very, very similar to Boppin's...
:hmmmm...

How about after some interrogating, you find that there is a great game that would now be abandonware, except for the fact that all documentation for it has disappeared! You must now go back in time, and track it down!

Have the player goto a game to free a character, and if they do they should get an easier puzzle at the end of the game. (have The Last Half of Darkness be a harder puzzle.) A suggestion about the character make him L-Block from Tetris.

LOL - that's what we're trying to do for Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego atm!
'Cept we don't have time-machines of chrono-skimmers.

We use Quantum Tesseract Computing Crystal devices.... Means there's a "no-space/time place" to explore.

Interrogation is a good idea - I need more dialogue. Maybe combine both your ideas and *IF you persuade the character to join you or help you or whatever, then end puzzles are easier or you can ask them for help.

(which'll mean me writing even more... But I like it.)

Tetris block as character doesn't work as well - no genetic alteration of the type - BUT - they could genetically alter into a tetris block!

And the idea of the optional objective making it easier at the end (like Arena storyline in Oblivion) is an excellent idea I would never have thought of.

Thanks!

Keep them ideas coming guys!

You could have puzzles at the end where there's a huge garrison, but if you get Caleb to join you you only have to open the door, one where there's an engineer you have to trick into opening the door, but if the girls from The Last Half of Darkness join you, you have to figure out the code yourself, and one where there's a ultra tough guard, but if you get Freddy Kruger to join you, just have to open the door.

So, multiple solutions to the same puzzle...
Depending on how you played the game so far..?

That sounds good.

It could lead to several different endings. Even at any stage in the game. (eg. you could just decide to go home to bed with Carmen Sandiego when you catch her to get her Chronoskimmer)

dammit - just gave that answer away...

BUT: If you had all the characters from the games you'd saved (Prince of Persia, Guybrush, Max Remmington, Carmen, Caleb, etc...) you could totally kick some major arse and get the highest score possible in the game.

hmmmm - this is getting complicated.
I think this is going to take me quite a while to finish writing even just the descriptions and dialogue.
Even longer to put it into Text Adventure Development System...

At least I have made a start and am doing a little each day (I am writing one major scene description, at least, each day).
But I must still write my three pages of my own work a day - that takes priority.
And, in the evenings, I make notes for games reviews and write stubs to elaborate upon.

I think I am doing more writing now, that I am not a contracted writer (just commissioned), than I ever have done...

Abandonia is good for you!
Cheers guys - Keep 'em coming!!! :D

I made it in 2004 using Game Maker 6.0 I was crazy inexperienced in it (Not to mention 12 years old) But yeah it's here on the forum somewhere. Just need to go fishing.

Wooo, im here, im excited!

(your naked act was the whole bollocks and frolicing nonsense, it's in my siggy)

Woo this'll be neat though, but in good abandonian fashion, i suppose you'll

a. Be putting in popular communist members, such as the usual Chat Box group

b. Putting in some scenes that will be sort of taken from old games (e.g mayhap you did a puzzle and got sucked into a game? I'd love to be thrown in like, Fallout, regardless of the factthat you can't download it)

EDIT: Nevermind, i just read Saccades latest post, i should really read before i post, shouldn't i?

c. Putting in catchy, and sometimes annoying music, like most old games have!

Have when the player is in a game they can control the character from that game and at the end, and if you're trapping forum members in games trap me in X-Com 3.

You could have forum members trapped in the various games by members of the ESA. (Have me be trapped in Lemmings, please!) :)

And maybe at the end of the game, your goal could be to rescue Kosta, who has been kidnapped by the head of the ESA!

I don't think this game will have anything to do with Kosta Krauth, Lemming...

But it will now involve Lemmings in some form or other! As characters or puzzle pieces (or both, perhaps, idk..?).
I'm trying to keep Forum people out of the script as much as possible as, even though it is an AB based game, I don't want it to be limited by how well you know someone.
There may well be some forum puzzles in there, though!

At some point you will have to visit the AB forum to finish a puzzle.
You'll may also have to download a few of the games in order to know what to do next.

eg - how will you know where to put the sword for Prince of Persia's to find unless you have played the first level of the very first PoP?
It's in a certain position and near certain things. You also don't leave PoP until you have not only left the Sword for Him to find, but also a "secret" area that you'd only know if you'd explored the first level - that's how you get in, and out, of that part of the game.

I've started looking at actually programming this into TADS and have made a start on the first chapter, so that I can post it; so people can tell me what they think.
I think that the TADS side of it is going to take quite a while longer than the actual writing of the game.

There's not going to be an estimated finish date on this project for quite some time...
But I hope to have an estimate on when the first chapter (which will be a complete game, just with a hanging ending and stuff) soon, though.

I'm going to work on it when I can't sleep when I'm on holiday in a few weeks. If my foot is still fubar'd that I can't go trekking and climbing, I will probably be programming the TADS bit during the days too.

I just got a new router and I think that it has solved my FTP errors, so I'm going to concentrate on uploading my backlog of stuff until then.

Still gonna need ideas and suggestions for the rest of it though! Idk how long to make it, as its a Text Adventure.
Seven is a lucky number and Eight is magic. But seven is also a prime number and there are a few (fairly easy) maths problems in there - especially to do with the mapping. Since one of them involves Prime Numbers, I think that Seven is a good number of Chapters / Ranks / Missions for the game to have.

This is turning out to be a much larger project than I first anticipated, but I will finish it and post it around.
Not only will it be (what I think is) a fun piece of Interactive Fiction, it'll also be some Viral advertising for Abandonia! If people play it, they will have to visit here (so long as they read the FAQ or don't get the hint from the title of the game...).

I forgot about Lemmings - that's a good one, thanks.

Being "sucked" into the game you are playing is a good one, Fubb - it has given me the opener and starting descriptions that I needed - so thanks Fubb.

It may not be X-Com III, esgmaster, but I am planning on using a few of the forum people as NPC's - I'll make sure that you hold the key to solving a puzzle to do with UFO or something similar that can be downloaded from Abandonia!

Nice one guys - please keep them coming!

If anyone wants to take this project over from me - I'll give you all I have done so far (and TADS isn't that difficult to figure out if I can do it!).

I've just had a major drop in enthusiasm that feels as if it won't recover.

lol Welcome to the real world. Don't post about your genius projects until you've actually done a lot with it. It's screwed a lot of people and made them look like idiots, Me,chickenman (If anyone remembers he made about 10 games on abandonia he never finished) and various other people.

Make the badguy be the ESA Logo! LOL, ESA are kinda hogging some of the great games that SHOULD be UNPROTECTED! :(

ESA is one of the best things that happened to gaming. Get a grip.

? For newer titles, but for the old games, that i wish to play again, as i probley lost the CDs, or got them broken etc. It makes it x10 as harder just to replay them again!

lol, It's easy to find any game you want.

Yeah but to get the Game Legally, like a ISO or something, i would have to get warez, and i don't wanna get busted for trying to recover a Virtual Disc just to play the game etc.

QFT


If this game is ever put into production, I would be happy if one of the things you do involves pushing a wardrobe over a window, and pushing a chest over a trapdoor ;)

Kids, Abandonware is illegal too.

:dunno:
? Ok. . .

Wow! I just commited 201 offenses for downloading 201 Abandonware titles!!! Omg! Shock Horror! :hihihi:

And? I don't give a shit. The point is it is illegal.

Busted by who?for downloading old iso's?the ESA lol
I guess i'm in huge trouble then...I'm waiting now for that knock on my door(is very,very scared):I'll let u know if they show up
Oh wait i live in Canada,can't get in trouble

:P Ain't my fault i broke serveral laws! :tongue: Luckly theres no cyberjail you can throw me into! Whew!:spy:

LOL that made me laugh so much
Is there room in that cyber jail?Cause it's gonna be pretty packed i would think

There is no Cyberjail i think... Well in videogames there might but still...
My P2P downloading is no-body's business!:perv: :whistling:

cyber jail sounds like some online imaginary sex chat room

btw punch- what are you talking about esa makes no sense. also, making posts that are long 2 words, one of which is "lol" is not very cool neither so you can stop trying

Cyberjail? Online imaginary sex chatroom!?!? Hmm... Government conspiracy!!!:spy:

ESA invented the rating system. Which was a huge help for the industry in the mid and early nineties when there was a crackdown on video game violence. ESA protects copyrights for companies and inforces laws so the companies can spend their time and money on Games and not enforcement. And ESA also runs E3 one of the most important video game events of the year.


Don't bitch about the ESA being an evil company. Abandonware is just as illegal whether the ESA holds the right to beat the shit out of you or not.

copyright protection= useless and also unfunny. do not understand and abuse the concept of the intelectual property
rating system= useless and mormons would have invented it too
E3= ok that one is good

esa is evil company, it's one of the big bullies along with sony bmg and other holywood MAFIAA

Yes but ESA's system is done responsibly and it very professional. It's better then the government doing it. Also ESA has been very very important in fighting against anti-videogaming law.

Hence the "Professional" there, as you know they sue anyone just about! Copyright protection and blahblahblah useless, Pirates are always one step ahead! :bleh:

http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=17611 Topic for my game

Sounds like a good idea

What about companies which don't exist anymore? Who'd get my money if I had to pay for the game? Probably a company which didn't even work on it...

I've writen quite a bit of story for this now - thanks for the suggestions!
Claire is going to make some Flash to embed in places (I think I've figured out a way to do it... I've not done this before, though) which means that I'm at the stage where I need some graphic stuff.

My drawing's okay. I can't draw with a mouse and I don't have a graphics tablet. Scanning stuff seems to be the way to go if it's just me. Claire's quite good with stencils and graffitti, so having her on-board helps, too.

I'm not sure whether to rip screenshots / small movies from original games. Like being in the SCUMM bar on Melee island...
It might be better to have original artwork for bits like that. Dunno what the copyright's like (I'm not sure they'd give permission, either) and I reckon it'd make the game look disjointed and bitty.

Anyone have any ideas..? (still need some for the story too...)
If you think this game is going to be like the one, "made"/"not-made" by Punch, that looks like a map for Doom II, then you're going to be disappointed.
I may talk a lot, but when I'm not talking I'm doing.

This game will be a lot like that.
Hopefully.

If it gets any further than this.
Without fanning the embers of flame-wars, with any luck... I don't get why people who needlessly provoke such things are always so tight to point out that such an event was never their intended purpose...
:mhh:

Do you know why I said what I did..?

Old hands never die - they just rejoin fleet at the bottom of the drink.

What kind of drawings do you need though?

Nice one Total - I'll make up a list of locations and stuff.

The first place, I reckon, should be the dungeon from Prince of Persia. The part where the sword is laying next to the crumbled skeleton.
A lot of them are just places from another game. The reason why I was thinking screenshots... But that'd be really inconsistent and idk about the copyright of the images.
(or if that even matters)

My copy skills are worse than I thought. I tried to copy a screen from Prince of Persia. Here's the original file:

http://www.abandonia.com/files/games...20Persia_6.png

The raw drawing made by me. I could've worked some more on it, but I'm losing too much time:

http://ahoq2q.blu.livefilestore.com/...15wlx/Pop2.png

The same drawing only resized (a good method to hide some mistakes and ugly parts :D) :

http://ahoq2q.blu.livefilestore.com/...P_krf/Pop3.png

That's Awesome Total!
We could even animate it in Flash - make some stuff up for Newgrounds again... That'd be fun.

I had imagined something almost entirely different when you said about this earlier.
I was expecting (for some reason) an ascii rendering of a scene. This is miles better!

I'll draw up a list of images and pictures. That would be useful...
Maybe we could start working on some short animated sketches..?

Dunno, animations are not my strongest point.

I can use the images, like the one above for PoP, Total.

Where the bits and pieces are well-defined, I can cut them and insert motion Tweens or something. That way, they'll be simple moves/transforms.
Just having the base image, or a load of frames made from other images, should be enough to work with.

Nice on matey!
I'll see if Claire wants to have a go at animating the PoP image.
She should be finishing off the AB Invaders flash, though.
And we're moving house, so I'm not sure how much work we'll be getting done over the next few weeks.

Maybe we can do it during the time we're not going to have any internet..? :mhh:

you could involve BBS into the game?

Chris, please don't ressurect old threads, this post is about a year old and you are replying to somebody no longer active on the forums.