Cursed Potion of Resist Ice CPORI =TODO NEXT= * Try this nonsense as an OHRRPGCE game =SETTING/CHARACTERS= The Sahelain Warrior-Princess is on a quest in the northlands to slay the Winter Dragon. Being unaccustom to the cold, she purchases a Level III Potion of Resist Cold from a discount item shop, but when she uses it, it turns out to be cursed. The Resist Cold Curse makes her overheat if she wears anything more than her chainmail bikini. Even then she melts the snow at her feet. She attacks with a sword at a range of 1 or 2 tiles, and can make quick work of single monsters, but if surrounded by a pack she doesn't have the defense to withstand their attack while unclad. She can don armor at any time as a free action, but as soon as she wears armor, her tempature rapidly rises. While wearing armor she has good defense to match her good offense, but when her body temperature maxes out, the armor explodes into flames. She is undamaged by this conflagration, but enemies in surrounding tiles can be destroyed. The armor is lost when this happens, but fortunately she can carry a large wardrobe of armor in her inventory. If armor is removed quickly enough, the explosion is averted, and the armor is not lost. The Sahelian soon finds the Cimmerian, frozen in a block of ice. The Cimmerian Barbarian is a mightly musclebound barbarian warrior. He also had been on a quest in the northlands to slay the Winter Dragon. Due to his dedicated devotion to the barbarian loincloth dress code, he quickly froze solid until the Sahelian found him. The Sahelian's Resist Cold curse thaws the Cimmerian. Whenever he is standing adjacent to her, his body temperature warms. When she is not near, his body temperature falls and when it bottoms out he freezes solid until she is close again. His special attacks encourage him to move into the thick of battle, but he needs to move close to her frequently to normalize his temperature. He refuses to equip armor. =ENGINE= Hex grid map All mouse/touch movement. Keyboard shortcuts are okay, but touch is the priority. A* pathfinding will be important. http://www.policyalmanac.org/games/aStarTutorial.htm has helped me a lot. I can't believe I have been a programmer for almost 20 years without having ever implemented real pathfinding until now! Battle will be chesslike. You don't have HP, you are either alive or dead, but there are things (armor) that can absorb hits. Battle and Exploration are not separate modes. Only the Sahelian will be directly controlled. The Cimmerian will be an ally with simple AI Keep combat and maps simple =MAP STRUCTURE= The map will be divided into chunks. Each chunk will be modest enough in size that we can A-star search it reasonably. Chunks will be connected at the edges. At each chunk could be thought of as a puzzle-room. Having already completed a room should allow the option to quick-travel past it, so you don't have to keep beating the same enemies over and over if you don't want to in a back-tracking situation. This also gives a reward for clearing a room as opposed to just running away. =OUTLINE= Start with a cutscene of the Sahelian buying and using the cursed potion. After a short walk into the snow, she decides she has to remove her armor. First battles should be tutorial battles introducing first attack/move combat, and then armor equipping and explosions. The first time she dons her armor (regardless of which battle it happens in) will provoke a monolog event. After the first armor explosion, there will be more monolog about the armor explosion mechanic. The first time an enemy is damaged by an armor explosion, she will notice how useful that fact could be. (might be part of the above monolog) Extra armor should be abundant, laying in the snow, left over from other unlucky adventures, or dropped from defeated enemies. Providing just the right amount of armor will be a gameplay balance challenge. It should be scarce enough to be a treasured resource, but not so rare as to make it easy for the player to get themselves stuck in a situation where they have no armor and no way to get any. I might want to set a max on the number of armors you can carry Perhaps the first time the Sahelian is completely without spare armor after the first few tutorial battles she should comment that she needs to avoid fights and search for armor. Beating enemies without taking damage should be the core of the gameplay Lead the Sahelian to the place where the Cimmerian is frozen. Cutscene where she thaws him (by accident? to loot his equipment?). Normally these two fierce and independant barbarians would not agree to work together, but they need each others help. Over the course of the game, they can banter, tease, and argue. The Cimmerian will have simple predictable AI and will be resistant to many types of attacks. As the Sahelian moves, he freezes, so the Sahelian has to step near him to keep him active. The focus of the exploration will be to find clues about where the Lair of the Winter Dragon is-- the original directions of "Atop the Mountain" turn out to be too vague. Also to solve simple map-obstruction puzzles in the style of an adventure game (but nothing too difficult) The focus of the battles will be to learn teamwork strategies and to clear enemies. There should be a good mechanic for running away from battles that you are not ready for. Enemy formations denying access to map areas could be a big part of the map-obstruction puzzles. =MENU STRUCTURE= ==Save & Quit== Saving will be automatic, rogue-style. Auto-save should happen relatively frequently, Save and Quit will just force an auto-save now and then exit to the main menu. There is no way to save in a different save-slot from the one you started with. =ANIMATION PRIORITIES= 1) Simple iconic sprites for map and combat. I want to be able to draw tons of enemy sprites without burning myself out. 2) Simple alternating 2-frame breathing sprites would be nice. different directions can just be flipped sprites. =IMPLEMENTATION/TOOLS PLAN= Try this in OHRRPGCE because I am insane. =ENEMIES= * 1 tile advance * 1-2 tile straight line * shoot projectile, no close range attack =DISTRIBUTION PLAN= * Slimesalad first * Android next * Then Steam Greenlight * Then try to get in some bundles =TEAM MEMBERS= James - Code, Sprites Nigel - Music (if he still has time). Credited as John Sebastian Willow, payed 10% of the first $1000 and 2.5% of anything above that. Mahlena - Looking over my shoulder and teasing me on finding excuses to draw chainmail bikini babes =POTENTIAL TEAM MEMBERS= Bringing an artist into the team might be valuable, but also means another $ split Fenrir - Expressed enthusiasm for doing enemy graphics, but needs to find an opening in his schedule. (Need to ask again, since this was ages ago)