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[Wafflehouse1117]

I've been thinking of a game to make as I learn how to code the next few years. I would like to keep the same base of the game yet make it a little bit more original without making something that not too many people will play.

The idea-
In this game you are the main protagonist living in a post apocalyptic world where most technology has been preserved. The new town of stonefall is ruled by a very wealthy monarch who keeps all of his wealth to himself while his people starve. You and your family are very close to this king yet you get to decide which team to join, against or for your king.

More story-
You and your friend fought in the war that caused this terrible restart in which your friend was killed by the monarch himself and he decided to spare you after he incinerated your face. You wear a blank mask with nothing but two holes for your eyes to cover up your shameful scars. The air is combustible so using a gun is a bad idea so you mostly use swords and other mideval type weapons.

Gameplay concepts-
Uses a unique weapon making forge in which you bang and stretch materials to make all sorts of weapons. Third person, mixture of rts and rpg in which you may build houses, barracks, and many other buildings to your advantage.

That's pretty much it I would love some suggestions!

[Graham-]

There's a lot of things you can do. Characters can be anybody. The best ones are derived from experiences in your own life that made you feel very strongly.

Post-apocalypse, war, brutality, an evil king: these things are familiar to an audience. So, you'll have to dig deep into the things that you love to find ways to make them resonate.

Try giving your character a very particular reason for existing. Try choosing just a single thing. It can be anything, like to save the life of a loved one (concrete), or to prove his worth in a world where heavy-thinkers aren't conventionally valued (abstract). Be as specific as possible about what this goal is, why it's important to him, and what he has to do to get to it. The more specific the better. There's no down side to having as many ideas as you can. Think about things that you value, or things that other people value - that you've known, read about, or imagined. And be so specific you feel like your eyes are going to bleed. It's always easy to generalize later.

Then do the same thing for finding a single personal flaw that prevents your character from reaching his goal. It's okay to think about things in the world that prevent him from getting there too, but it's even better if they act as a barrier because of his flaw. When you're coming up with examples really elaborate on why his flaw is there, why it's given him so trouble, and how it's affected his life up until that point. The more you elaborate with specific examples pulled from any place you can imagine the more real his struggle will appear. When you write up a summary of who he is you'll see how much more compelling he has become as a result.

If you can get the mechanics to reflect both of these things, then the character's struggle and the player's struggle will line up, and the player will live through your character's turmoil. Very few games do this well. It would be amazing if yours did.

Post follow up if you make progress. I like the idea.

The gameplay concepts seem divided. You have a forge, an rts, and an rpg. That sounds like a lot. The forge sounds more rpg-ish and it sounds like your most original idea. Maybe you want to forget the rts. You may even want to forget the rpg and just try to make combat + the forge. It's easy to add the other elements in later and it won't disrupt your narrative.

[monocledsardine]

Great, great advice from toast_trip. I think the real challenge here would be trying to create a single main character rather than multiple ones - having a storyline built around two very different player-based decisions (ie. working for or against the king) makes it really hard to design the protagonist.

[Graham-]

That depends. I'm thinking about a talk by Jordan Mechner, the creator of Prince of Persia, I saw recently. He was talking about dealing with memory constraints of the Apple II. He had a heavily animated main character (the Prince) but he wanted an enemy. He didn't have enough RAM to have two people, so he inversed the colors of the Prince and that became the Prince's "shadow." Apparently it was a pivotal character - I didn't get into the series until the PS2 titles.

Anyway, somehow this idea is related. What if one guy's strengths were literally the opposite of the other guy's. Err, if he's loyal but has trouble resolving conflict between duties to his family and duties to the crown, the other guy could be a consistently successful double-crosser but completely loyal to the "evil" crown (the head bad guy, or an abstract concept like power) even to his detriment. You just build one guy then reverse him exactly. It would make the good evil choice more interesting and replay would be more enticing. I think you'd be able to re-use a lot of assets this way.

Fable's good/evil was kind of cliche. You could sort of tell what one was like just by playing the other.

Or you could just build two completely different characters. Or make the protagonist general and make a central NPC that you put all the development into that both characters interact with equally.

[Graham-]

(ty, btw)

[Lynx]

Main thing to keep in mind is that there are very few original ideas -- what counts is how you follow through.

Air being combustible... so how does the forge work?  Or cooking?  I'd suggest finding a different explanation.  For instance, maybe some kind of universal change has occurred, like the replacement of advanced technology with magic in Steve Boyett's Ariel.  That dramatic change could be the 'apocalypse' of which your setting is 'post'.  You might find some inspirations for what-makes-story-different in exploring the change and either what caused it, or what ramifications it created.

There are a lot of different ways you could handle it.  Maybe a viral AI went rampant and decided human technology must be destroyed to preserve Earth and spread nanotech devices that inhibit guns and other advanced weapons...  The King might be a servant of the AI, or might have his own designs to take control of the AI.

Or, maybe the Earth is passing through a magic-rich field and magic causes increased 'quantum instability'-- gunpowder still works but now it's a lot more dangerous and prone to blowing up in one's hands.  That might awaken inhuman wizards, whose race was forgotten during the last Ice Age.  Now they're out to reclaim the Earth and enslave the humans...  Or restore it to beauty and enlighten humans, depending on who you believe.

Once you have a likely scenario, explore it a bit, and try to figure out what each major character or faction wants.  Don't just give characters quirks like 'uses a guitar for a weapon' or 'speaks weird way in', give them goals and abilities and weaknesses.  Maybe the King genuinely wants what's good for his people, but gets misunderstood, or maybe the rebels are the actual bad guys.  Or maybe he sees Junktown as a thriving business and wants to keep it running productively, at the cost of human freedoms, and the rebels might come across as scattered protesteres at first, and it's up to the player to unite them if he joins them.

One other quibble I have to toss in: why a King?  Having a Queen of Junktown might be interesting.

[Wafflehouse1117]

Thank you for all the great suggestions I will consider them positively!

[Graham-]

I'll give you a tip. If you come back to the forums with a bunch of specific stuff, and organized into a way that's easy to digest, everyone here will jump all over it with even more stuff, even if you tell them not to.