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[Jimbob]

202 A monstrous derelict—found and boarded by a castaway or shipwreck survivor.

I have some ridiculously ambitious ideas for this. But I'll keep things simple to begin with and see what happens.

It's likely to be an exploratory game around a big ship (the 'derelict') with a kinda side view, possibly Duty and Beyond style (I'm thinking that submarine level) but with only one 'room' centrally visible at a time. Maybe some incidental online collaboration (like shared online editable journals found in rooms) and certain tools that allow access to different areas of the ship but maybe only one can be carried at a time (like axe, fire extinguisher etc...).

One of the kinda silly ambitious ideas was thinking that if you left the ship (at the end of the game or for 'whatever reason' ) the result of your adventure could be saved and it would effect the beginning of the next 'castaway' to find the ship (placement of items/locked doors/journal items) and in that way different areas of the ship could be isolated unless certain conditions and placements occur.

Anyhow lets crack on with it...

[george]

That sounds incredibly neat, like the next logical step after Jesse Venbrux's Deaths. 

[nayon]

Yeah that's what I was thinking too, Deaths was an awesome concept but it hadn't been utilized well...

[Problem Machine]

Following our conversation in IRC yesterday, I decided to bust out a quick nautical-themed piece to perhaps use somewhere in the game.
Wandering in Endless Wet

[Jimbob]

I'd love that to come on just as you enter the main hall or something, only with echo and reverb to make it more ghostly

More like this (apologies for fudging it )

EDIT: Okay, it'd be rude to ask you to help with both code and music, and seeing as the music is great, I feel it necessary to take on the code full on.

I've got some more idea now about the plot. Some elements of the Ancient Mariner and Groundhog Day.

You were the part of the crew of this cruiser/ferry and for some inexplicable reason (you believed the ship was going down) the captain evacuated the vessel but stayed aboard alone. Yet you awake one morning on the deck of the ship, alone and evacuated (no lifeboats, no safe passage to the water). You remember evacuating with everyone else... don't you? It comes apparent after some effort that it won't let you leave, all attempts (including at your own life) end with waking up on the deck again, and until you unravel the meaning behind it, you will remain there forever... why you in particular? Where's the captain? Well that's another part of the story...

This will allow the player to endlessly encounter dangers with only restarting as punishment, but the memory and actions will remain. The goal will be to escape the ship, somehow...

[muku]

You were the part of the crew of this cruiser/ferry and for some inexplicable reason (you believed the ship was going down) the captain evacuated the vessel but stayed aboard alone.

I think there used to be some kind of code of honor that dictated a captain to drown with his sinking ship, even if it was evacuated. Maybe you can work that into it somehow...

Very intriguing concept, anyhow.

[Jimbob]

Very quick mock.



Muku: Yeah, that's what I was thinking, if the captain stayed on board like you remember, where is he now? 

[Problem Machine]

Even if I'm primarily doing music, I'd still like to be involved in the design, code, and art to some extent as well.
BTW, my original idea for the track was that it would be something you heard as you passed by a room, and when you tried the door it was locked. Maybe later on there was a way to get into the room, but when you got in there it was empty (except for perhaps a corpse).
Seeing as one of the goals of the game is to find the captain, perhaps, the music could be emanating from the captain's cabin, and one of the first goals is to find a way in. The main hall, when you first go through, would be silent, but once you find your way into the captain's quarters the music outside the door would stop and the main hall would be filled with a more fully realized version of the same song (longer and with more instruments). If that sounds good to you then maybe I can get started working on the fuller version.

edit: Oh, I'm also wondering around when this takes place so that I don't make any really obviously anachronistic musics

[Jimbob]

Even if I'm primarily doing music, I'd still like to be involved in the design, code, and art to some extent as well.

Awesome. Definitely.

BTW, my original idea for the track was that it would be something you heard as you passed by a room, and when you tried the door it was locked. Maybe later on there was a way to get into the room, but when you got in there it was empty (except for perhaps a corpse).

Sounds interesting. Or maybe you just find a sinister hole in the wall 

Seeing as one of the goals of the game is to find the captain, perhaps, the music could be emanating from the captain's cabin, and one of the first goals is to find a way in. The main hall, when you first go through, would be silent, but once you find your way into the captain's quarters the music outside the door would stop and the main hall would be filled with a more fully realized version of the same song (longer and with more instruments). If that sounds good to you then maybe I can get started working on the fuller version.

That sounds quite amazing. I'm thinking maybe I should up the pixel art to something more to match it. Maybe have backgrounds drawn in a more realistic fashion and have pixel art for items and characters, making it easier to distinguish the interactable parts of the level. Depends if Alteisentier is up for helping with the graphics... pwetty pwease? , and also whether our art styles would match at all... hmm. I'll try and find some examples of what I'm thinking of. Any thoughts yourself with regard to the art direction?

edit: Oh, I'm also wondering around when this takes place so that I don't make any really obviously anachronistic musics

I was thinking early 20th-century, around the main boom of ocean liners (and also Lovecraft's own era).

[Jimbob]

Just an idea knocked up in a few minutes. Good? Bad?

Obviously a little more care would be taken to the shading of the pixelled objects. But it quite possibly could work.

[Problem Machine]

Any thoughts yourself with regard to the art direction?

Hm, are we thinking passenger ship? If so, then it seems like it might be worthwhile to dig up some info on what the Titanic looked like inside and base some of the art off of that. As I mentioned on IRC, I'd really prefer if the monstrous elements were more subdued and hidden. Nothing ruins horror like showing too much. I guess first we might want to figure out what the basic layout of the ship is, and then we can decide what each part should look like.

I'm not sure I'm feeling the second version of the mock-up. It feels higher-res without actually feeling more detailed. The abstraction of pixellation is fine, but I think we might need a little more texture to it if we're going to really make a mood here. If I was less lazy I'd make a mock-up now. Unfortunately, I'm not 

[Jimbob]

Just to ask, what kind of art do you prefer to work on? I do admit the second mockup was a little bland, I'll try again when I get some proper reference...


EDIT: Doing a bit more poking around, the top part of the Staff section is where the upper class dining areas are. There were also open 3rd class accommodation in the bow area. It's more or less how it was arranged though.

I made a diagram of how the Titanic was 'basically' laid out for ideas of how areas could be restricted etc... The floors are alternately coloured and the engine/boiler rooms are actually that big. Then again, we can reorganise it for our own purposes anyway as we're not actually using the Titanic. The outer rooms are where the bridge would be.

If you started where the lifting equipment is, (someone/thing brought you out of the water perhaps, but is not there when you awake?) you would have to work through a lot to get to the bridge, which is maybe what you want, as it allows the player to choose to explore elsewhere before reaching the 'initial goal' (to their benefit... or not  ).

[Problem Machine]

Okay this seems like a really good starting point. We could even just use that image and make lines showing traversible paths and use that, though we also might want to shrink it down/close areas off a little because that there would make for a LOT of rooms that would need to be made. In fact, just the way it looks right now it already reminds me a little of a Metroidvania map 
As to art stuff, I'm mostly practiced at full on concept painting stuff, so whatever I do on this will require a little bit of pixel style learning (but I'm totally up for that). Basically, whatever needs to be worked on.

[agj]

This sounds really good, guys. Good luck.

[Mush]

I definitely say the more pixelated version is better :]
But it's your choice

[nayon]

I prefer the pastel version.

But that's just me.

[Ishi]

I'd go for pixelly too. Much easier to get consistent good-looking results in the short time period with pixels.

The boat map reminded me a lot of metroidvania as well. Should be easy enough to block areas off if you want to reduce the map size a bit.

Now all it needs is an immense water physics system so you can simulate the ship breaking apart and sinking and stuff. Easy 

[Alteisentier]

Personally I liked the more pastel background.