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[Noel Berry]

I made a small-ish update. Not sure if I like it, but I think it looks better.

Currently, I am pretty happy with the Ghost, I don't think I will be changing it as of now.



I'll keep posting updates as I change things.

[AndyWiltshireBPA]

Obviously 'level of detail' helps to define what the player can interact with. So adding that second level of grass does help define it from the static backgrounds.

Excuse me for blabbing, Im just very interested in the details of design...

What type of environments does this ghost inhabit? Is this an earthly planet? Particular time period? Medieval/Fantasy? Alien? Prehistoric?

[Noel Berry]

I was planning it to be very forest-ish, with no real world set in mind (it could be Earth, but doesn't have to be).

I think the game will be slightly high tech. There will be machines (in fact, the first big enemy you encounter is a robot).

Tomorrow (or tonight, depending how late I decide to stay up! ) I'll write a page or two explaining the general overview of the game, which should answer a lot of these questions.

But, yes, a forest like place, with a few caverns and mountains. I am trying to make the game feel as if you are looking at the world from a Ghosts perspective, which, in my opinion, would be somewhat gloomy.
There are machines, but you don't really encounter that much. There won't be any cars, or spaceships, etc, but you, as I already stated, will meet a few robots, and such.

And, honestly, I really don't mind you 'babbling'. It's actually really helping me figure out more about the game. I thought I had a pretty good idea down, but apparently I don't.

[AndyWiltshireBPA]

Sounds cool. Being from a ghosts perspective I would like to see buried skeletons or bones in the foreground (under where the ghosts hovers/walks), and maybe unnatural aura's around supernatural objects etc...

[Noel Berry]

That's a good idea. Aura's around special objects could play as a pretty big game mechanic too...

Anyways, I'll be making a mini design document here, tomorrow at some point: http://drazzke.com/Ghost%20Walk/index.php

[AndyWiltshireBPA]

Ill look foward to it, was fun brainstorming!

[Noel Berry]

Ill look foward to it, was fun brainstorming!

Yeah, it was. 

I worked on the small game design document a bit. I still haven't done the story, or other characters you meet in the game, but what I do have should help clarify and put together all the ideas I originally had, plus all the things people suggested I add/change.

http://drazzke.com/Ghost%20Walk/index.php

Along with that, here's what the graphics look like right now. The tree(s) in the background will be replaced with some better ones in a little while, but I just wanted to get a feel for what it would be like to have big dead trees there.

[AndyWiltshireBPA]

Had a read thru the design doc, its a good start, and heres a couple of initial thoughts:

State 1: Still not alive, but much closer to being so.
State 2: The Normal State. Not living, but not dead.
State 3: Still not dead, but much closer to being so.

Why dont you make the states more clearly defined, but perhaps put a time limit on them. So from Ghost form, he can become fully alive or dead but only for a limited time or under certain circumstances. That way you can more clearly define what he can do while in each state.

Wall Jump
The player can wall jump when against a wall. This can be useful for getting out of tight places, or simply adding some more different kinds of movement.

My first thought is that a wall jump doesnt really suit the ghost character. Which leads me to thinking that the entire movement of the character needs to be well thought out. He could have very low friction and glide just above the ground. Jumping is more propulsion into the air with a jetpack like effect, as you mentioned with the z key holddown, being able to control his descent would be good, but basically set his jumping up like a smooth jetpack.

World Overview

I like the idea of an abandoned area of the forest with old rusting technology and supernatural feel to it, you can create some pretty unique environments, characters and story.

Summary
Bit of a blab, but basically what I see that will make your game unique is the 3 defined states (and the abiltiies/powers that go with those states) and character movement, so they should be the primary focus of development/testing.

Goodluck

[Noel Berry]

Thank you for the suggestions. I edited the document, with your changes/additions in mind.

You can still do the wall jump, but only when you are in the "living" state. When in the "Dead" or "Ghost" state, you cannot.

I already made the basic engine in Game Maker, but I'm going to be editing it a bit for it to work with all the states.

Also, what do you think about when you are in the dead state, you can go through obstacle such as enemies/spikes without much of a problem? The only down side of going through things that would normally hurt you, is that your time of being in the "Dead" state would shorten. (I'm thinking of making a bar, somewhat like a healthbar, that shows how long you can stay in a state).

[AndyWiltshireBPA]

I guess you need to think about what it is that allows you to switch states. Is it some sort of supernatural energy? Like Mana. So when you switch states it drains this energy, then you automatically switch back to ghost mode when it runs out. But perhaps you can absorb, drain or collect more Energy from other characters or objects.

The level design needs to incorporate these 3 states, so there is essentialy 3 pararallel dimensions.

The standard Ghost state suggests that you can already travel through real world solid objects, so this level requires obstacles to be made of supernatural force fields etc.

Switching to Live state perhaps allows you to activate/interact with physical objects and characters. Whereas the Dead (perhaps should be Undead) allows you to inhabit a physical form, possess another character?

Just some ideas, pretty tricky design concept...

[Noel Berry]

Yeah, I'm really going to be careful about what I plan. I'm not too keen on getting into a huge project that takes me a year to make 

Some kind of Mana power would be interesting to use. It may be what I end up doing. I really need to spend some time just thinking it over.

Moving into other objects/people when in the undead state (I like undead more ) would be very interesting, but honestly would be somewhat hard to program. I'll have to just think this over too, although I like the general idea.

The live state will allow you to better interact with people/objects, yes, although, when in  the Ghost state you will be able to do this somewhat also.


Anyways, I think over the next few days I'll think through my options, and update the design document once I get some more ideas. Everyone is welcome to throw more ideas at me too, they help!

At some point, possibly next week, if I have some more solid plans in place, I'll recode the players engine, and get a little demo up.