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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsMonster Prom [AVAILABLE!] <3
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BeautifulGlitch
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« Reply #80 on: December 06, 2015, 09:50:28 AM »

Quote
TONE, STYLE AND REFERENCES

The game has a witty, funny and sometimes even absurd tone.

It mocks both monster and highschool tropes. It exaggerates and parodies them without doing an active commentary on them. It is not about making a point, but just about going to common places of pop culture in order to make the player laugh.

When reading the dialogues it needs to feel smart. We go to these common places and then we need to do an unexpected twist. The goal with this is being funny while surprising the player. But by doing this we let the player identify the trope, which makes him/her feel clever. It’s one of parody’s biggest strength, to get the player to think “hehe, I get this one!”.

The game has no shame on laughing about everything. It’d be cool if sometimes it just feels wrong. We can go for more controverted issues such as sex, drugs, porn, murder, etc. Let’s celebrate post-modernism!

Another feeling that empowers the perception is seeing the game as wildly modern. Let’s think on how love, flirting and sex have changed. It’s not about how all this is different now from last century, but about how all this is different now from 2-5 years ago. When a TV show or a movie (or any pop culture product) references the latest social/tech trend, social network, app or cultural craze it definitely feels really cool.
Make being edgy one of our goals!

And other super important goal is that the game NEVER takes itself seriously. It has to be aware of its own parodic nature and it has to be able of laughing at itself.



REFERENCES:

Night in the Woods” and “ChickenSword” seem to have clever, well-written and funny dialogues.
Saturday Night Live” manage to be edgy, funny, absurd and clever.
Master of None” and “Man seeking Woman” both talk about love, flirting and sex in our modern days. They also explore all this through absurdity (at different degrees)
Archer” and “Rick&Morty” are as funny as wrong. They’re pretty bold.
South Park” has some really excellent episodes that manage to comment on current issues in an absolute funny, wrong and absurd way.
AHS”, “Glee” and SPECIALLY “Scream Queens” excel at being self-aware, avoiding taking themselves seriously and laughing at themselves. Ryan Murphy is a genius, damn.









MAN SEEKING WOMAN: Spiral Eyes

MAN SEEKING WOMAN: what to text her

MAN SEEKING WOMAN: Trailer

MASTER OF NONE: Social media

MASTER OF NONE: Trailer

SNL: Almost Pizza

LOUIS CK: Dating

LOUIS CK: Perversion

LOUIS CK: Never rape anyone unless you have a reason








Quote
NARRATIVE DESIGN - HELP!
Hi, guys! We're starting to build the events. We're starting with the bigger ones, known as BIG PLOTLINES. They're complex multi-events that unlock a secret ending. There are 2 per Love Interest.
Can you think on engaging, hilarious and cool plotlines?

Here you have the Love Interest list

  • BAD BOY (DEMON) - male
  • JOCK (WEREWOLF) - male
  • HIPSTER (VAMPIRE) - male
  • MEAN GIRL (GORGON) - female
  • PARTY GIRL (GHOST) - female
  • ROYAL GIRL (SIREN or QUEEN BEE) - female

And here you have an example:

PARTY GIRL – GHOST
She always sees the sunny side to everything. Life (or afterlife) is a heck of a ride full of pleasures of all kinds. Some people say that death reminds us that we have to celebrate life, so she’s all about that: experiencing (after)life to its fullest. It’s not a common happy-go-lucky/naïve type, but a “who needs to waste time being a bummer?” type. She’s the kind of girl who will propose crazy stuff to do just to get some fun. And when you ask her “why?”, she’ll always answer “why not?”
Reference: Misato, from Neon Genesis Evangelion


PLOTLINE 1: unfinished business // Reverse Romanian Wilkinson
The party girl reveal you that she’s a ghost because she has some unfinished business: doing a “Reverse Romanian Wilkinson”. You can ask her what that is (which will cancel the storyline) or flirtatiously tell her that you might be her man for that. If you do so, she will be delightfully surprised and tell you that if you get all the necessary stuff, she will ensure the prom will be a night to remember. Then the storyline starts! You need to figure out what do you need to perform this obscure and weird sex act that you even not know anything about!
See where am I going? It’s more spicy and wild! It even includes new tropes, like the “Old King Clancy” thing from HIMYM and the classic trope of a char pretending to know something he has no idea what it is. It’s intriguing and ridiculous! 
Result: sexy secret ending. Weird wild sex with the party girl!


PLOTLINE 2: Ectoplasmic Ecstasy
The party girl wants to get the night of her life during the prom. First of all she offers you “Monster Cocaine”. You smartly point out that she can’t enjoy it since she has no corporeal form. She admits that she just can’t party that hard since she’s a ghost. You decide to surprise her by getting a drug she can actually take. You learn about ectoplasmic ecstasy and do your best to get some.
Result: unique secret ending. The wildest and craziest night of your lives!
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Rafa
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« Reply #81 on: December 07, 2015, 11:18:06 AM »

Those references are pretty cool. Love Archer. And Louie CK is pure genius. Good luck on nailing a similar style! It'll be harsh to create such an hilarious game. I hope you do that! I'd love to play if it as funny as watching an Archer episode!
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« Reply #82 on: December 08, 2015, 03:30:45 AM »

Thanks, Rafa!
We love all those TV shows, for sure. And yeah, we know that aiming for that kind of humor will be a real challenge. But we're willing to accept it! As soon as we have more dialogues, we will share it here. We hope we can count on your feedback!
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BeautifulGlitch
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« Reply #83 on: December 08, 2015, 09:16:12 AM »

Some proposals based on feedback we've receied


BLUE: adding some face stitches so it's clearer she's a monster



GREEN: playin' with stuff missing and now also debris



RED: different effects for the hair



What do you think?
« Last Edit: December 08, 2015, 04:23:39 PM by BeautifulGlitch » Logged



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BeautifulGlitch
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« Reply #84 on: December 08, 2015, 04:25:57 PM »

ART UPDATE: first rough illustrations of an event, displayed for every playable character. The location is the classroom. We're not very fond of them and we're already making big changes on a lot of stuff.

Biggest problem right now, aside some low-quality in some of the details (is a rough first approach to see how we will work this), is the characters: they lack some personality!









What do you think?
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« Reply #85 on: December 09, 2015, 06:52:19 AM »

Red. *fans self*

Anyway, I dig where it is going! Going out on a limb here, but if I had to guess the personality of each character based off of these portraits, I would get...

1. Blue

Perfect, quaint, eager to please.

2. Green

Jock, doesn't care about school.

3. Red

Not sure, really. Nothing sticks out about her.

4. Black

He's the only one with a pencil writing, so I'd say the more studious of the bunch. He cares about school.

I think you spoke of their personalities earlier on in this devlog, though I'm not sure (I'm also about to start working so I don't have time to snoop). Did I come close to nailing, or at least naming one aspect of each character's traits? I just now realize how difficult it is to evoke an emotion or personality trait through body movement and positioning. I have a new(er) found respect for artists!
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BeautifulGlitch
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« Reply #86 on: December 09, 2015, 01:23:57 PM »

M4UESVIECR: but keep in mind that, as said, they have technically no personality. They will be controlled by players and the game is based on taking choices in different situations. So the zombie can potentially be a smartass, a flirty guy or a cocky dude. It's up to the player.

We went for some distinctive traits to infuse them with some soul. But it's important to point out that you won't never meet them. You will be them. You will meet the NPCs and they will be the ones clearly characterized.

Truth is I'm a bit worried. We've make the playable chars so you can deduce a personality because of your feedback. I agree that makes them and the game more appealing. But I'm worried about people complaining because technically you can go with the cute girl and then act in a total different way that can feel like breaking character. Not sure.

What do you think?

Also keep in mind that these "event illustrations" has changed a lot. I will soon post the 2nd iteration. And we still haven't finished!


About your description:

BLUE: yeah, kind of. She's more like a clumsy, cute and funny girl. In the new design she's kinda bored, but it seems like sorry for being bored, so the "eager to please" is still valid

GREEN: yeah, he's like someone who doesn't care about anything, school neither. But not a jock. More of that classic high school protagonist that just doesn't care about fitting, so it is difficult to label him.

RED: she's more confident, cocky, hot-headed.

YELLOW: a calmed intelligent guy who is just a good guy.

But still I must insist: we use these descriptions to depict them on the illustrations. Later, players can be them and act as they prefer.
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« Reply #87 on: December 09, 2015, 01:54:11 PM »

Oh! I get it now. So I'm basically looking at myself!

I understand what you mean about breaking character, but that's all up to the player. In truth, that's like actually dating. You think girl/guy is hot. You figure out what he/she likes and you can either:

1. Be yourself and approach the relationship truthfully

or

2. Act like someone else (or act like the person you believe they would want to date)

in hopes of snagging them.

The way I see it (with it also being a virtual novel), most people ARE going to break character to see what other outcomes and endings are possible.

The only other way I could see possibly avoiding that is creating multiple avenues that could work, in terms of winning over the character. Rather than the player having to connect the dots in an A fashion to win Greens heart, there could be an A, B, and C way. Therefore, rather than the player "getting out of character" it just becomes multiple ways to win a character over.

Just rambling, but yeah!
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gimymblert
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« Reply #88 on: December 09, 2015, 06:33:40 PM »

- Do dialog options/answer depend on player character?
- Do npc reaction depend on player character?
- Do gender matter?
- Do race matter (for example do npc react if the main is a black person )?
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BeautifulGlitch
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« Reply #89 on: December 09, 2015, 07:34:47 PM »

JIMYM GIMBERT: nope, nope, nope and nope. So there's my point: absolute NO characterization on terms on how the game will be played. This is exactly the same as The Yawhg, basically. Playable characters are mere "avatars" with a practic function: to embody players' choices. There's absolute no weight on them, aside what you correctly pointed out about setting a theme and tone, of course. I took note on that! (:

M4UESVIECR: Yup, I can see what you say. I also think that this don't need to be a problem, since people will retain freedom to do as they want. But I can't help but feel that the slight characterization we're puttin' into them will unavoidably affect how players' will play.

Yeah, sure, correct thing to do is to experiment and have fun and play the game as you prefer. I'm OK with that. I would prefer, maybe, that doesn't mean break character. Meaning that the ideal thing would be the playable characters being truly neutral without being bland. I think The Yawhg managed to do this perfectly. Its 4 playable characters are unique and beautiful yet not highly polarized.

But I'm not sure if I have expressed myself clearly. Nobody will win GREEN, YELLOW, RED or BLUE hearts. They will be controlled by players. Players will have to conquer NPC's hearts, which are 6 chars (3 male and 3 female) that appeared on the first sketches we shared in here. There's still nothing digital on them because they are further in the production timeline!

Aside that, your idea is cool and we're making something similar to that. Each NPC will be related to some specific stats.
There are 5+1 stats on the game (still need to be tested):
INTELLIGENCE
FUN
CONFIDENCE (maybe BEAUTY or POPULARITY)
BOLDNESS
CHARM
MONEY
There will be a "rejection" ending and a "success" ending. To get the "success" ending the requirements will be to have 2 specific high stats (depending on the NPC) + a good relationship with them (successful encounters with an NPC raises an invisible "relationship meter").
But additionally, there will be 2 secret endings per NPC, related to specific events and plotlines. So technically there will be different ways of conquering an NPC's heart!


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gimymblert
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« Reply #90 on: December 09, 2015, 08:01:16 PM »

Of course it will affect how they play, that's why they would choose them! It's enabling not prescriptive.
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BeautifulGlitch
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« Reply #91 on: December 10, 2015, 03:50:26 AM »

JIMYM GIMBERT: Suuuuure, but you get my point. Believe me that in The Yawhg is really DIFFICULT to pin some traits on each character. You say "I want to use the RED one" because you find her cooler. And sure that to some degree you can describe them. But the differences are not that apparent. In each "event illustration" the feelings apparent are pretty similar. If you choose "attend the ball", all 4 characters seem basically the same, even if you can identify some subtleties (since obviously they are differently illustrated). But here the differences are not subtle at all: if you choose "go to class" you see YELLOW being clearly more engaged that GREEN, for instance.
Obviously our game is NOT The Yawhg. It's heavily influenced by it and we can say that they are part of a same genre probably. We chose with more polarized playable characters because of the more light and funny theme (high school movies' parody). But I'm still worried that this polarization might have negative consequences, such as conditioning the player on his/her choices. And yeaaaaah, I know that ALWAYS EVERYTHING will condition the player. But I mean that he/she will be more conditioned than if we used clearly more neutral playable chars.





Sure that we can infer different traits. But the tells are a lot more subtle. subtlely is the key that define the difference here. So what I'm asking is: do you think it's OK that we illustrate the playable chars that clearly different or it would be better being more subtle so players would be less conditioned when playeing?
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gimymblert
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« Reply #92 on: December 10, 2015, 10:41:50 AM »

well make a prototype and playtest player reaction, make a table of choice per character and compare! Always measure uncertainties!

It's just you don't seem to make up your mind, they are neutral but they are not, they have some personality but they really don't have ... Tongue
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BeautifulGlitch
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« Reply #93 on: December 10, 2015, 12:55:12 PM »

Here we have a second iteration on the "event illustrations" based on the classroom.
Some of the guidelines towards a third iteration include:
>Let's make the background seems more like a classroom and less like a courtroom
>RED is not OK. We need to completely re-do her
>BLUE will need to include the new face stitches







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« Reply #94 on: December 10, 2015, 06:05:14 PM »

concept art has a lot of character! Excited to see things continue to take shape!
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« Reply #95 on: December 10, 2015, 06:44:21 PM »

Oh, man! I LOVE the new concepts! I personally felt that the first background setting looked perfectly fine (since the new setting makes me think of a college lecture classroom), but I'll let that alone.

@Jimmy - I don't think it's the fact that they aren't "making up their minds". The problem seems to be in making the characters... open enough personality-wise, but not neutral to the point of banality.

When I think about that, though, I expect there to be a TON of arcs per romance-able character. In a way, the NPC would shape its personality based on the actions/statements that the player chooses (which is what it sounds like).

Will the main character the player chooses effect the dialogue choices? Will it change how a NPC reacts to your advances (i.e. one NPC seems to like more slim, studious types, which would mean you would have to work harder to win them over)?

In other words, I need to play YAWHG, haha.
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« Reply #96 on: December 10, 2015, 06:52:07 PM »

@M4uesviecr
I should had thought about themed emote as a concept, lol, you are right
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« Reply #97 on: December 11, 2015, 02:29:35 AM »

Omg, I love the second iteration of the event illustrations (that rhymes yay). They really make me laugh and the lines are really nice and make them spring to life.
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« Reply #98 on: December 11, 2015, 03:27:01 AM »

GDD: PLAYABLE CHARS

There are 4 playable characters. They are neutral monsters. Neutral in the sense they will have little to no characterization, since they will be characterized by the player’s choices.

Preferably, they will be related to different colors, just as in The Yawhg.
2 male + 2 female.

When you see the playable chars?
  • They have their own distinctive little icons
  • They appear in the location-related illustrations (8x4 or 12x4)
  • They appear when choosing the character
  • They appear in the ending illustrations

Playable characters:
  • BLUE CHAR: Frankenstein’s monster’s wife (female)
  • GREEN CHAR: Zombie (male)
  • RED CHAR: Efreet (female)
  • YELLOW CHAR: Darkness (male)

OPTIONAL: if this gets big enough, we can think of adding PLAYER 5 and 6 (orange and violet).

IDEAS: mummy, swamp monster, witch, death, pumpkin, yeti, gargoyle, skeleton...


THIIIIIIIIIIRD ITERATION

Changes:
> SLIGHTLY more like a classroom. Basically: chairs. But backgrounds are super secondary, so we didn't break an arm doing this. And we keep in mind revisiting backgrounds later, with a clearer mind, to see if we can do any significative updates
> Complete reword on RED












WHAT'S NEXT? THERE'S A LOT OF STUFF COMING UP!

  • We're also working on the 2nd event illustration. The location is... THE GYM
  • We already have some sketches from event illustrations 3 and 4. Locations are... AUDITORIUM + BATHROOMS
  • We're closing the playable chars models. GREEN is still tricky. We applied the different ideas, like the debris; but still not satisfied. There's the chance we keep the simple "not so zombie" version. Once is done, we will post the final models
  • We're working on the MORNING/AFTERNOON map with the 6 locations
  • I will share the GDD chapters about the stats, locations and endings
  • I'm working on structure and content for a landing page to showcase the game. Same for a website for the studio
  • I'm working on the biz document
  • I'm working on the BIG PLOTLINES of each NPC
  • I will share with you the NPC descriptions
  • I will update the first message to act as an index, linking it to the most relevant message with significative info about the game
  • I will answer to your last comments!


There's something you specially want to see? (:
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« Reply #99 on: December 11, 2015, 06:27:07 AM »

Like the way this is going - whatever details you end up deciding, the art style is very cool. This could be a fun game - though the dialogue needs to really be engaging, and not too cliche.
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