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TIGSource ForumsJobsCollaborationsWork for an experimental top down game with open ended puzzles
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Shine Klevit
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« on: April 05, 2016, 09:59:52 AM »

It's been a pretty decent year for me as a games designer/programmer. After experimenting for awhile to no avail, and having real life issues get in the way, I had to put the hobby down for quite some time. That is, until December of 2015 where inspiration struck, and I began gaining some steam with a project that really caught my attention. Ever since, every step of the process has been going surprisingly smoothly. The problem? Due to the complexity of the project I had stuck myself with an inevitably long production schedule (believe me, though, I'm in it for the long haul). So, I decided, while I was developing that, I would start a secondary project that could be conceivably be finished within a shorter amount of time or around a year or longer(hopefully). Just so I can gnaw my teeth on a few concepts that would come up later, and so I could get something out earlier to showcase.

So, for the past couple of months, I've been working on a basic engine for it. Centered around a top-down 2d game with a 3d environment(something I've experimented with before, and had some success), I tried to create a project that would do a lot of things that were out of the scope of my main project. Now, this isn't just a secondary, though, these are ideas I'm seriously interested in investing time in. Even if it's in it's early stages, this project has my full confidence.

Anyway, here's what I want to get for sure out of this project:

* Puzzles with multiple solutions. This feels like a ridiculously underutilized idea especially in a world where games are majorly favoring action and story over puzzles as time goes on. If there's one thing I truly want to accomplish it's this.

* Ceaselessly accessible. Easy controls, can be picked up and put down at any time, played at the players pace, and meditative. This is the exact opposite of my main project which I hope to express progressively complex strategical scenarios. I don't mind putting in some semi-difficult puzzles, but still focused on allowing the player to complete at their discretion.

* Tries to keep the player entertained for as long as possible, but does not force the player into a completionist mode. One thing that bothers me majorly about modern games is their obsessions with trophy hunting, inconsequential sidequests, and general bloat. I want the player to feel rewarded for their actions, not cursed with the obligation of having to complete every task.

* Storytelling entirely through visual allegory not through words. My main project is practically becoming a novel at the moment, and I feel I'm not flexing my subtly muscles here. This may be the hardest for me personally, because I'm not a particularly good artist(which is why I would really like to work with one for this). Perhaps even storytelling isn't the best way to put it. Perhaps, I just want a general ambiance that's unique, and memorable.

* A world that is interactive, and visually stimulating. I am setting it up so the world rotates around the player's perspective, objects overhead can appear semi-translucent, objects in the distance slowly darkened and potentially blurred, and objects scaling according to distance. A lot of simple visual effects that give the feeling of space, and motion. I also want to create an environment with objects that are pushable, breakable, burnable, etc. Which could play a large part in the puzzle solving.

* Implicit decision making. By this, I mean, the player should be able to make decisions without being forced into them. They should be organic, and even though they ideally should effect the gameplay, the player should be put in a mindset where there's no regret making them.

* An abstract aesthetic. I haven't decided exactly how abstract I want it to be, but I need an outlet for something that isn't particularly concrete. I want something that creates an immediate feeling that people can understand at a visceral non-cerebral level. Even if it doesn't make conventional sense. I don't even think of it on a weird/non-weird plane, so I won't aim for something intentionally weird for the sake of it, but don't really care if it comes off weird for the sake of it, either.

* A focus on motion over decision. Even with puzzles, I want there to be an element of movement.

* I want the player and environment to transform over time. Maybe the player can change height, size, appearance, speed, gain new tools to solve puzzles, etc. The environment can experience slight color shifts. Objects appear differently. Gradual progression that remains somewhat unspoken.

Ideas that I'm toying with, but might not actual put in:

* Action - I'm honestly undecided on whether or not I actually want to put some kind of action in. If I do, I want it to not be the dominating factor in the game. I'm not completely sure what kind of action, either. Of course, I'm probably going to be deciding on this soon enough. But, at this stage, it's not priority 1.

* Randomly generated content and infinite gameplay - It's another concept that I'm thinking of. However, I don't know if it's really possible to create effective puzzles without meticulously assembling them. It's probably unlikely I'll reconcile the two ideas, but I'm not giving up on it yet.

That's pretty much the whole of it at the moment. I know, it's pretty vague right now. However, that's exactly why I'm offering at this stage. I want this project to be a vehicle for working with creative people. It's not a necessity, of course, the project will go on regardless. However, I feel it's a complete wasted opportunity if I don't at least let it out there.

What is important to me:

* The most important thing for me for collaborators is that they get what I'm trying to do. I can ramble a bit, admittedly, but I'm hoping my concepts make sense. If you're personally intrigued, and have some ideas of your own to contribute, then you're just the kind of person who I would want to work with. I'm more than happy to hear any ideas regarding a potential direction.

* Realistic and patient. I don't want somebody who is really into this one week but then grows stir crazy then loses attention. I don't require people who invest all of their time but can communicate on a regular basis, and fully recognize the reality of games being an enduring process. However, this project is ideal for somebody who wants to casually contribute, but only casually to the extent where he or she can be beneficial(which can be discussed).

* Can let go of an idea. I'm not a Nazi about things, I'm well willing to listen to people's ideas with an open mind. However, this is my project, in the end, and I would like to get final say. With that said, I am open to discuss anything. Interacting with creative people is more important to me than anything with this, and I want people who have a vision they take pride in.

Now, I realize that people have a varied skillset. So, I'm not going to turn down anybody by specialty if somebody is able and willing to contribute something to the project. There are some skills I could benefit more from than others.

* Artists. I very highly value artists over anything because I'm not a particularly visually skilled person, and they can compensate for my biggest weakness. They also will be crucial to a project like this due to my wish to work on more visual storytelling. I could probably make do without a good artist or artists. However, it'd probably be a lot harder, take longer, and have less satisfying results.

* Designers. I also don't mind people who want to try their hands at a more "designer" role. However, you have to give me an indication that you kind of have a good grasp on what you're doing. Experience is not necessary. I'm willing to take in anybody who can sufficiently convince me they can make the ideas stated above work, and expand on that further.

* Writers. Well, if you can work on a dialog-free project, and still sufficiently supply "ideas" of events that could take place to tell a story then you might be a writer enough. I don't expect to get a lot of people with an offer like that, but it might be an interesting challenge.

* Programmers. I actually don't need programmers that much. I'm not the best programmer in the world(and I'm showed you my code, you'd probably agree), but I think I'm competent enough to pull this off. I do have quite a bit of experience with C++ which is what this is entirely coded in. I am working with a framework of my own design that I'm using for all projects that I'm improving while I go, and it kind of has a specific way of working. So, you'll probably have to be willing to learn to do things my way, more or less, to participate.

* Composers. Composers might be the hardest sell for me. I like composing, a lot, and probably want to do the duties for this project. I also have designed a sound system that focuses on songs that can change on the fly in reaction to the events in the game. This might not be the easiest composing environment unless somebody is really as interested in aleatoric music as I am.

* Anything else. If you have some kind of specialized skill that you think can contribute that hasn't been listed, I'm willing to hear about it.

I'm also very keen on the concept of contributing back to projects if somebody find themselves working with me, and has a project that I could somehow benefit. Ill also listen if somebody simply reads this, and is interested in having me work on their project(but that isn't a promise). The main areas I like working in are composing, writing, and design. I can program, of course, but I'm a little more reluctant to do that for other projects for various reasons. Graphics I'm somewhat useless on, though.

Sent me an e-mail if interested:

[email protected]
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Shine Klevit
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« Reply #1 on: April 05, 2016, 10:07:33 AM »

Arg... I could have swore I posted this in the "collaborations" board. My bad. Can somebody move it?
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The Translocator
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« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2016, 05:22:58 PM »

If you're looking for other ideas too- instead of/in addition to a 3D environment- I had an idea that I would be interested in seeing.

Basically, what if the goal of a game was to make puzzles UNSOLVABLE? If the player were to get new abilities over the course of the game, it would give them new ways to *break* the puzzles, but also new ways to *fix* them, and they would have to figure out how to account for that. For example, in simple block-pushing puzzles this could be as easy as pushing blocks into corners- but even that becomes drastically more complicated if you have a way to pull them as well. I have no idea how feasible it would be check whether a puzzle is unsolvable, or whether it would be possible to teach a player to think about puzzles backwards, but it's an idea I would really like to see at least attempted.
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Shine Klevit
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« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2016, 05:46:43 PM »

If you're looking for other ideas too- instead of/in addition to a 3D environment- I had an idea that I would be interested in seeing.

Basically, what if the goal of a game was to make puzzles UNSOLVABLE? If the player were to get new abilities over the course of the game, it would give them new ways to *break* the puzzles, but also new ways to *fix* them, and they would have to figure out how to account for that. For example, in simple block-pushing puzzles this could be as easy as pushing blocks into corners- but even that becomes drastically more complicated if you have a way to pull them as well. I have no idea how feasible it would be check whether a puzzle is unsolvable, or whether it would be possible to teach a player to think about puzzles backwards, but it's an idea I would really like to see at least attempted.

Hmmm... Never even thought of that. I suppose that's much in the line of the philosophy of emergent gameplay. It's actually very much the kind of thing that I'm going for. The idea, more or less, that there's puzzles that cannot be solved immediately, or can be solved by completely open ended means, so the player can go back to seems somewhat intriguing. As I think of it more, I think I want to do sort of a thing where the player is just dropped into the world given some basic mechanics with instructions, and kind of has to interpret the world for him or herself. Discovery at one's own discretion.

As for the graphics, it's probably the one thing I actually know what I'm going to do(at least, from a technical point of view. Certain aesthetic details will, of course, be hammered out later). I'm still in the early stages of coding the basic engine, but I have a good idea of how it'll work. It's really just a handful of deceptively simple 2d tricks that I don't think have been fully implemented quite the way I have put them together(Albeit, it will use a lot of scaling tricks to give the illusion of depth). It'll be 3d gameplay, though, in the sense that it will acknowledge all 3 dimensions. So, I guess it's technically going to be 2.5D but not in the way that Doom is, or anything.
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