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[michael]

Battle in the Drum of Every Heart

(all colors subject to change!)

So I want to make this game for two main reasons. Firstly, Native Americans are extra awesome, rich in badassium, and have a fascinating culture which could translate to many cool game ideas. They are also a pretty much untapped style for videogames. Secondly, I feel that there is a lack of casual multiplayer games (excluding all those cheap crappy ones), especially for mac. Most multiplayer games these days are gigabytes and require crazy computers to run. I want to make a multiplayer game thats small, creative, accessible to a wide range of computers. Lets make a simple, tight game.

Overview:
Battle in the Drum will be a tribe based multiplayer action platformer with some amount of RTS and RPG. Various tribes (indicated by different colors (of the rainbow!)) will compete to be the most superior tribe in the land for the longest amount of time. Players will have a handful of different paths (classes) to choose from, each one different from each other, and hopefully innovative in respect to most fps' and similar games. I'll go into each path later.

Goal: One of my goals for video game design is to have nonviolent options. Sure the bulk of the game is killing, but I also want to have alternative ways to excel. currently the main idea is that one tribe tries to destroy the other tribes totem pole.  but there could also be territorial or resourcial goals. I don't know yet, it will come to me in time.

prototypes and builds and other actual game stuff!
braveprototype.gmk

braveprototype.exe




Paths!

So that paths are like classes, each one is cool, and you can switch each time you reincarnate. my goal is to make each one play and feel fun and uniquely challenging. What I have so far is still very much WIP


Chief
There will only be one chief per tribe per bout. This will be the member with the highest overall score, the elder if you will. this class will be significantly better than the others.
Features: shield block, ever pointy spear, dash, self heal, area buff, warcry

Shaman
The shaman will be a combo of healer and spellcaster. i was thinking that it might be neat to have an aquaria style spell system.
Features: casts  various offensive, defensive, and useful spells: rez, area heal, fear, stoneskin, hail storm, fire, spirit blast (regular attack)

Brave
The main warrior. Not much to say about him, so we need to come up with something.
Features: throws tomahawk,  warcry, accumulates power with kills, thunderclap

Scout
The Scout is the agile path. He's not as strong, but he has greater movement and tracking skills.
Features: shoots arrows (charge upable), stalks (becomes primary background color), double jump

War Drummer
The War Drummer is a noncombat area support path. The idea is that he can create different area buffs or curses in the surrounding area by successfully playing different beats in a single note guitar hero type system. so instead of shooting and dodging, he's got to dodge attacks while keeping beat.

Buffalo Rider
I really want this class, but it may be difficult to implement. The idea is that he's got a lot of health and basically charges around ramming into enemies. he can also head butt and rear kick. Thats pretty much it, he's got a lot of offense, and no defense. I was also thinking that he'd be able to tame wild animals and have them fight for him cause he's like, good with animals.

Cultivator
I like plants, they're like my favorite thing. This guy grows various offensive, defensive, and municipal plants, kinda like an engineer, but with more badassium. Like plants that shoot shit, or ones that are spiky, or ones that ensnare people, or ones that produce healing food, or ones that are just dense walls. some are fast growing, some take time and attention. Many possibilities.

So now I'll talk about some of the abilities I mentioned:
Warcry: Woobooboobooboo! We've gotta have them! So when preparing for a battle, the braves and the chief can let out their whoop, and everyone near by them gets pumped! When you have a lot of them in the same area = really really pumped! This helps promote teamwork.

Braves power accumulation: So the Brave needs some work, something to set him apart and make him enticing to play. What aspect of this Native American warrior could be transformed into an awesome gameplay mechanic? One idea I had is that with every kill they would consume the energy of their opponents and get stronger, so the longer they last they stronger they become. What if they started to glow, or globules of energy rose off their body and arrows remained in their body, accumulating over time until they fell not as just another warrior, but a boiling spirit of energy and rage? That would be pretty powerful.

Scouts stealth: I don't know if you noticed, but there's a stealthed scout in the mockup above. He's standing to the left of the shaman. Once you see him he's pretty easy to spot, but I see a handful of places where he would be very hard to find. I like this technique of stealth because it requires skill and planning. When you're moving you much more visible than when you're standing still.

On to Spirit Animals:

Pretty much every game where you can get your own little buddy is awesome. Thats just how it is. My idea is that there are a handful of familiars that you can get (only one at a time can be used) that increase some particular stat by a noticeable but not overpowering amount. I was thinking to charge a dollar for one. so that the game could pay for servers and such. So you can only have one active at a time, but you can switch them at death like switching classes.

speed up - rabbit
health up- turtle
damage - crow
spirit up - fish
jump increase - frog
poison damage - bee

Wild Animals:

These guys are creatures that inhabit the map. Mostly they just walk around and be cool, but if you agitate them they'll attack you. They can also be tamed by buffalo riders.


So thats what I've got for now. There's still a looooooot that needs to be figured out. This idea has some pretty big challenges and it might need to be simplified or revisioned. But we'll seek the highest first. I think what we need to focus on now is the overall style of the game. I don't want it to be as jumpy and low-gravity as soldat. more like a toned down version of teeworlds meets super mario war meets ganggarrison2.  What other games are similar to this idea?

Issues: hmm, there are a lot of them, lets get to them later. this is pretty long.

also a big thanks to jwaap for having such an awesome style! hes in a way the inspiration for all of this.


SO, what kind of game should this be? a mix of teamfortress+patapon+super mario? How should the controls be? What kind of innovative game objective and overarching game elements can we create with this concept of tribes? Oh, and who wants to help and in what ways?

[The-Imp]

Oh joy!

I gotta think a bit, but I'll get something good... I hope.
It's looking good now!
 

[sereneworx]

I must say, this looks absolutely incredible. A couple of things:

The characters are a bit difficult to discern from the background.

I'd really like to see larger stages (if that is, in fact, the size of one entire stage) whereupon scrolling occurs and whatnot.

The archer should have aim, not just shoot in front of him.

I really, really, really, like all the ideas that you have for the classes.

As for the Brave, I think that making him similar to the heavy in tf2 would work well, give him lots of health; a strong, general weapon; however, rather than slow him down, give him normal speed. Perhaps even give him a more unique look, if he looks cool, people will want to play him.

How are you going to implement a naming system? Will you have the usernames over the characters, or what? Personally, I think that this would further fill up an already crowded space, however, if you had each user enter a three letter initial, it might fix the space thing.


--

I also has an idea:

What if you were in encouraged to play with the same people all of the time, so that you really felt like you had 'tribes'. The more that your tribe won, the further up the overall scoreboard thing you would move. However, the scoreboard is not a scoreboard, it's a map that shows land owned by tribes. The goal is to gain as much land as you can, and if you own all the land in the game.. something exciting happens.

Like so:


Each circle represents a major area, each square being a stage attached to that area. With each game you play, you either win or lose a stage, and therefore stand the chance of losing an area, and finally your total annihilation, whereupon you have to start from the bottom of the ladder again.

These aren't a per-game thing, each server has it's leaderboard (which is in the form of aforesaid map type thing) and each game that you play is on one of the stages of an area. You win stages > win areas > win map > pwn server > get destroyed by some other awesome tribe > go back to the bottom of the map.

I dunno, it's an idea no doubt filled with holes, but tis a suggestion nonetheless.

[michael]

the mockup would represent just a small section of a level. id like the maps to be rather large so that players are more likely to want to stick together.

i think that the scout, brave, and shaman will all have aiming. the scouts arrows shoot out level and drop over time, but the braves tomahawk goes in an arc so he can shoot around obstacles to some extent.


i really like that score idea. i really want to have an overarching aspect to the tribes and i think a territorial system like this would be realy neat.

[JasonPickering]

seem like a neat idea. two things that should help with your overall ideas look up "fat princess" and also "Swords and soilders". fat princess has a prett good class system and swords and soilders does the 2d side scroller pretty good.

[godsavant]

Loving every bit of what I've read, but having some experience w/ team games, I have a bit of issue w/ the Scout's camouflage. In games like TF2 or Halo, the point of invisibility is to make a player difficult, but not impossible, to spot. This way, skilled players are rewarded for sharp eyesight and detection, and given more satisfaction for taking out such opponents.
     It seems from your mock-up that the Scout, when cloaked, will turn the color of the background objects. The problem with this is that the scout's camouflaged color is identical to that of the upper trees, so unless you plan for some sort of faint outline, scouts would be impossible to detect, no matter how careful you are, or how closely you look. This could be a point of frustration, as players will face constant frustration of dying at the hands of enemies that the game does not allow them to see or reach (I recall somewhere that only Scouts would be able to reach the canopies).

[SpaceBrance]

This is an amazing idea, but one(well others do too, but this is the big one) with such a large project, do you plan on doing this all by yourself? I realize that in the end this game won't end up EXACTLY like the first draft as you said, but even if it's not, this seems like a fairly ambitious game.

Eitherway, the end product will most likely end up being amazing.
 

[GregWS]

I must say, this looks absolutely incredibly.

Hey seren, off topic, but do you make this typo often?  Because for whatever reason I seem to make it almost every time I type incredible now, and have to quickly backspace and fix it.

[The-Imp]

I must say, this looks absolutely incredibly.

Hey seren, off topic, but do you make this typo often?  Because for whatever reason I seem to make it almost every time I type incredible now, and have to quickly backspace and fix it.

It's nice know I wasn't the only one to notice.

[michael]

id heard of fat princess but not swords and soldiers, i'll check them out!

the scouts stealth. i really cant be sure until i see it in action, but i think that even in stealth mode he could be spotted, especially when his bobbing up and down and shooting. it will just be important to make sure that there isnt to much of that color in the accessible areas. another alternative is t make  him invisible only when his inactive

this is an incredibly ambitious project. i have no idea whether it will be made or not. fortunately i enjoy working on games almost more than playing them. so im just going to take a comfortable pace and see where it goes. and i definitely may end up simplifying it a lot.

[The-Imp]

Scout
The Scout is the agile path. He's not as strong, but he has greater movement and tracking skills.
Features: shoots arrows (charge upable), stalks (becomes primary background color), double jump

BONK!

[Jared C]

This idea is AMAZING!   This forum excites me way too much, from Cafe, to Fez, and now this!   I can't wait!   

Also, maybe the scout could become just one of the background colors, so that if you move, a skilled player would notice the pixel movement.

[Willows]

     It seems from your mock-up that the Scout, when cloaked, will turn the color of the background objects. The problem with this is that the scout's camouflaged color is identical to that of the upper trees, so unless you plan for some sort of faint outline, scouts would be impossible to detect, no matter how careful you are, or how closely you look.

I don't see too much of a problem with that, pending the speed that arrows travel. If the arrows are fast enough to guaranteed-hit someone easily, then it'd be a bit of a problem. Chances are, though, most of the action is going to be taking place on the ground levels, and as such the scouts would have to do some fancy shooting from the upper canopy to hit those below.

I'm somewhat curious how you're going to balance these, as I can picture a few problems with class pairs being able to cubbyhole themselves into an untouchable corner. At least they can in my imagination. Impossible to really say at this point.

What IS possible to say, though, is that it looks absolutely fantastic (no readability concerns here!) and I want to play it RIGHT NOW.

[MetalWarrior]

id heard of fat princess but not swords and soldiers, i'll check them out!

the scouts stealth. i really cant be sure until i see it in action, but i think that even in stealth mode he could be spotted, especially when his bobbing up and down and shooting. it will just be important to make sure that there isnt to much of that color in the accessible areas. another alternative is t make  him invisible only when his inactive

Variations on the stealth.


But looking at it animated it seems as though it would be fine as it is:

[sereneworx]

I must say, this looks absolutely incredibly.

Hey seren, off topic, but do you make this typo often?  Because for whatever reason I seem to make it almost every time I type incredible now, and have to quickly backspace and fix it.

I do not, no.

Also, more on topic, if you need any help with this, artistically, I'd be super-willing to offer my services Unless you've got it all down, however, then keep on rocking.

[Fifth]

IloveitIloveitIloveit!

Make it happen!

[Bree]

Looks pretty cool- love the minimal designs. One teensy recommendation I'd make is that it was difficult for me to recognize some of the spirit animals without looking at the names, the bee especially. The bee could be easily fixed with a white stripe or two (like how a bumblebee has stripes, yes?). Otherwise, yes, make it happen!

[KennEH!]

You get much of my love for this.

[Momo]

With the Brave, perhaps having different skillsets or attacks depending on the familiar would be pretty cool but may tie in too much with the buffalo rider and also with the stealth skill, the resting animation seems to be a bit too fast and would work better if it were slowed down? But that's just my opinion, the game looks awesome and I hope we see a demo soon.

[William Broom]

This looks great!

I have a few questions about the familiars though. How do you get them? Do you find them ingame, or choose which one you want? Will the 'spirit up' be useful to every class?