An Idea: The Player makes their own adventure

[maia]

I'm perfecting my open ended gameplay for a Maia 2K8 game. I have this idea... let me run it by everyone to see if it's a good idea or not. The game adapts and changes to conform to you the player character. Originally with Maia 2K7 you could do as you pleased with the use of 3 characters you could modify throughout the game. My new idea is having one player character and along the way you recruit and have other members join for quests.

- known there is a mother to the player
- known there is a sister to the player
- known there is a brother to the player
GAME STARTS PLAYER IS BORN
- mother has a baby
- asked what gender the newborn is
- asked what the name is
- mother is asked where the father is
--- fishing
--- drunk
--- in war
--- on a quest
- brother is asked how he feels about a new brother / sister
--- posative response the brother's like toward the player goes up 50
--- negavie response the brother's like toward the player stays at 0
- sister is asked how he feels about a new brother / sister
--- posative response the sister's like toward the player goes up 50
--- negavie response the sister's like toward the player stays at 0

PLAYER IS A TODDLER
- player can wander around the house and either get in trouble or do good things
--- like from brother, sister, mother and father go up or down.
--- the like other characters have for one another goes up or down based on the actions too.

IF player gets parents to hate the sister or brother...
- random: brother / sister runs away
- random: brother / sister kills themself
- random: brother / sister dies mysteriously

IF player gets parents to love the sister or brother...
- random: brother / sister does grand things, maybe even king or queen
- random: brother / sister ends up married with a family
- random: brother / sister uncoveres strange things

IF player gets the mother to hate the player
- random: mother physically abusive / mentally abusive toward player
- random: mother runs away
- random: mother dies mysteriously

FATHER'S JOB...
IF father's job is drinking
- random: let's not go there yet

IF father's job is fishing
- random: father gets eaten by a giant fish
- random: father is actually there and a mentor throughout the game
- random: can see relationship blossom or dwindle between the mother and father
- player's cooking of fish and fishing skills rise

IF father's job is being on quests
- random: father dies on a quest
- random: father is actually there and a mentor throughout the game
- random: can see relationship blossom or dwindle between the mother and father
- random: father comes across strange things
- random: father leaves on strange missions and player can join him

IF father's job is being at war
- random: father dies in battle
- random: father is captured
- random: can see the isolation of the mother and how she copes
- random: father is a grizzled vet
- random: father leaves on combat missions and player can join him

That's how your tasks as a toddler will affect the game.

PLAYER IS A CHILD / TEEN

Daytime Schedules!
- join classes to learn skills for a price
- get jobs to learn skills and earn money
Night time Schedules!
- do chores at home
- study up for stats!
- go on dates

PLAYER GRADUATES

All of this was just to create a story for the player. The graduation I would assume would be anywhere from 10-60 minutes of the game. By the end of the player's graduation... the player could have a story / back story like this.

- Player becomes great and swords, eh at magic, but good at being a thief
- Father died in combat
- Mother didn't take that well, killed herself
- Brother became isolated and needs help
- Brother hates the player
- Sister is supportive of the player
- Player has a girlfriend
- Player's rep went down in society from skipping too many classes.


OR something like this

- Player is an excellent mage, but clumsy at stealth and not so good with the weapons
- Father is a fisherman and mentor
- Mother is happy and good at healing
- Brother and player are unseparable (or however it's spelled)
- Sister has turned to the dark side and hates the player
- Player has a boyfriend
- Mother, brother and player join up in a fighting force with the player's boyfriend
- Sister is jealous and has vowed to kill them all!

Anyway. What does everyone think? This is just a back story that will come into play.

[:)]

holy crap, a complete your choice game would be awesome!
seems complicated, but very possible!

[maia]

The way I did it makes it seem complex. There's going to be a whole real plot, but this is a back story that adds to the character and can come to life :-)

[Kokowam]

Jeez. That's going to be killer with the conditional branches.

[maia]

The only real conditional brackets are boy yes / no and how the character feels about the player. Everything else is event based. Just an idea. I was wondering if anyone would like a game like that.

[Lominisio]

That would be a huge pain to program but if you get it working it would be a very nice (and unique) game.

[Leventhan]

It's plausible, yes.
And it's going to be good when finished, especially with custom sprites when doing  work (Father fishing, etc.)

[Kokowam]

I was thinking of doing this but I was, like, LOL NO.

[:)]

well the results will need switches correct?

choose this, does this, talks to him...and then your going to need other switches and what not to shut/turn on because of it.

good luck, I would totally play this.

[Kokowam]

Yeah, you'd need switches. Maybe one variable to simplify things later? Like, if:

Element A: OFF
Element B: OFF
Element C: OFF

Then variable = 1 and then you conditional branch that in events.

[maia]

Well. What I usually do for my quests is...

1 person... talk to the person, then there are tons of branches for whatever quest you're on. Usually 4 branches for each quest.

As for the others in the game. It's just simple variables as to how people react to you. I did the same thing with the dates in Maia 2K7. There are variables to keep track of what happened to the father, mother, sister and brother.

[maia]

Oh and I'm not doing custom sprites. I don't want to spend 2 years on a game to have people play an hour of it.

[Kokowam]

RTP ftw.

[Leventhan]

It's the easiest possible choice.

[dollmage]

ahhh @_@ that's a lot of event xD cant wait

[modern algebra]

Sounds like a lot of fun.

[Zeriab]

The typical problem with this type of game is the huge branching factor which means you have to put far more work into getting 1 hour of play time than normally. The great thing about it is the often great replayability and that players usually likes the greater degree of 'control'.

I would say that you should definitely go for it if you feel that you can finish the game

[maia]

So far everything is going awesomely. It's not all that difficult to include the varying storyline elements. It ends up being more of this quest is here, that quest is enabled sort of thing. The different instructors for the player's schooling works really well and there are 5 different skills the player can learn out of about 20. The player learns a different skill each day, based on who the player learns the skills from.