New Video Game Idea

[Dragonsoulj]

So I have been tossing around an idea for several years of making a monster/pet raising game and have come to the point to where I want to start making it. (Note: I'm not sure if this truly would fit adoptables or not.) I can program, make games, even do graphics and some sound. The thing is, though, I thought it would be cool to actually have a game that functions a bit like the Dragon Cave, although it would be more along the lines of, say, a Tamagotchi, where you can take care of the dragon more than just getting it views. I'm still not sure how well it would work, but I wanted the communities thoughts.

[Spritydove]

That sounds like a pretty good idea. If you do follow through with it, be sure to let us know!

[Dragonsoulj]

Ever played with the Chao from Sonic?

[anika_perry]

That sounds cool! I'm addicted to Tamagochi as a child!

[auroshen]

o3o I have like, 4 tamagotchi and I think this idea is AWESOME... I can helpp.... perhaps...

[Dragonsoulj]

Hey Cheese, since you "attempt spriting" as your sig says, do you have any dragon ones?

[Seregir]

This sounds like a great idea, I always wanted a tamagotchi when I was little, but never got one, however, I was completely addicted to the Chao Garden in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. really hope this idea gets off the ground, maybe somehow link it to dragcave so you can import the dragons you hatch, that'd be pretty cool.

[Dragonsoulj]

I was definitely addicted to the garden as well. Even used the DX one and the Game Boy for the metallic eggs. It's been on the back burner for a while, with me trying to get everything in order. I think for starters, I will just do a simple 2D one that can work like the Game Boy Chao Garden. Linking to DC wouldn't be too hard if I could find the API I heard TJ mention.

 

As an afterthought, having an option to where each time you "pet" your dragon or something, it could count as a view, with an option to turn off the feature should you start to get too many views.

Edited April 6, 2012 by Dragonsoulj

[Seregir]

Oh, how about a feature where you can battle other dragcave users, your dragons won't die or anything like that, it'd just be a little mini game thing or something.

[Dragonsoulj]

For the battling idea, I would definitely agree and say just doing something like skirmishes. Something like sparring or karate matches. DC doesn't lend well to the idea of dragons dying due to a battle, plus, who wants to lose a dragon?

 

If I set it up a bit like the Chao, they did have karate and racing. Dragons can battle and race. lol.

[Seregir]

In Chao Garden, depending on what you gave your Chao would increase certain stats, for your concept however, the races could have many features like swimming section, climbing, gliding, etc like in Chao races. Depending on the dragon you use, there could be strong points and weak points.

 

In SA2B, chao with good swimming would out run other chao on water sections of courses, but would lose its place when having to glide across a chasm, in dragcave terms for example, a Water Walker would completely dominate a Greenwing when it came to swimming, but lose it's advantage to the Greenwing when it reaches a chasm to cross.

[Aislein]

hmm... this sounds like fun let me know when it's up and running

[Dragonsoulj]

Heh, boy do I know the stats and how they affect everything. I've even seen the random chance of a Chao climbing the "mountain" wall in the garden. As for the stats apply based on race, that could work out well. For an age idea (I mean, come on, dragons live forever), we could use the actual day (each link gives a date bred/stolen) and for a way to increase stats we could use something that incorporates views/unique views/clicks. It would add encouragement to help dragons out, definitely.

 

@Aislein Will do. I may try to put this further up on my list of things to do. It may not be as fancy as I like at the start, but having something developed gets it closer to the way I would want it.

[Seregir]

This little idea is starting to sound really great, wish I could do more than rant about ideas and such.

[Dragonsoulj]

Well, we could definitely do with some organization. One of the things that does concern me is getting a user's data (which I can do with or without the API, but that is a different story). Another is the artwork. We would have to ask each artist about using their sprites, and trying to come up with working images for moving.

 

As for just some plain organization for us to build on:

 

World: The world itself should be based at least loosely on the Dragon Cave site: we would need to have each environment so we can place the dragons where they fit best (or perhaps where we feel they should be). This could be like a quick overworld map like the actual site has.

 

Dragons: To start with, just have 1 dragon type to test the waters with would be smart. We could figure out what we would need to get the sprites to work and how the dragon can be interacted with and how the dragon acts on his or her own in the world. -- As a side note, another option is playing around AS the dragon.

 

Stats: Each dragon is at home in certain areas (some dragons are prefer the sea, others the skies, etc) so give each dragon stats based on the areas they are strongest or weakest in. For the stats themselves, we will need to figure out what we want to use. Swimming and flying sound good. We have horse dragons I believe, so running? Some are built stronger than others, so maybe a strength?

 

Age: Dragons already have a "born" date of sorts, if we use the stolen/bred date, so we can use this for an age to give some flavorful information.

 

Views/Clicks: Since we have views, unique views, and clicks, why not use them? We should figure out a way to use this as experience to affect stats. From what I have seen, these just keep building, so a simple math function that makes use of them would work.

 

In Game Views: It could be possible to do in game views, but as this would have some issues if you played too much, make sure to either limit these to a certain amount per minute/hour/day, etc. or have a way to turn them off if it starts to make a dragon sick.

 

Mini-games: Racing seems to be a decent choice for a mini-game. From what I have seen from suggestions, one could have battles or scavenger hunts. The scavenger hunts I think would be better suited to an AI that is only as intelligent as the dragon would be, but battles could be interesting to have, even from an RP perspective, where players could do turns or something to act out the scene. Maybe give options like dodge, fly up, breathe fire, etc.

 

So as not to detract from the actual DC game, I don't think being able to FIND the actual eggs would be a good idea, but being able to grab current scroll dragons would be cool.

Edited April 6, 2012 by Dragonsoulj

[auroshen]

*sucks breath in through teeth* I can do hi-def sprites but pixeling isn't really my piece of cake.

[Dragonsoulj]

Pixeling? As in just placing the pixels? I just wanted to see some of your work. If you mentioned pixeling because of the game, we haven't decided on a style for it yet, but 2D movement is what it will have to be. We could fake 3D and try for isometric (2.5D), but, still it wouldn't matter. Think of Pokemon, they have lo-def, more pixeling style sprites for the early games, and from either Ruby/Sapphire or FireRed/LeafGreen they started pulling hi-def sprites, with some smoothing.

[Seregir]

Pokemon Black and White, and presumably the two games they're working on, have animated hi-def sprites, but that may be a little too exesive.

[Dragonsoulj]

Considering what we have for our dragons, if this was to make a game, that detail would be almost perfect.

[Seregir]

Pixeling? As in just placing the pixels? I just wanted to see some of your work.

Agreed, let's see some examples of your work. I'm pretty sure it's quite good.

[Dragonsoulj]

I honestly just admire artwork. Of course, if cheese wants to help...

[DarkEternity]

animated hi-def sprites, but that may be a little too exesive.

If you wanna know how Pokemon Black and White did it:

They sprited each part individually, and the game's own engine sews the sprites together + animates them. It's not a collection of frames. Suddenly I respect the creators a whole load more...

Edited April 8, 2012 by DarkEternity

[Dragonsoulj]

Huh. Definitely an interesting fact to know. I should probably look at a video of Black or White. I haven't played those yet.

[Seregir]

Here's an example, Zekrom.

 

Edit: Sorry, don't know how to post pics on this site.

Edited April 9, 2012 by Seregir

[Dragonsoulj]

[img=URL of Image]

 

For your image issue. Just put the url in the middle.