Creating a fembot related text adventure (RPG/romance game)

General chat about fembots, technosexual culture or any other ASFR related topics that do not fit into the other categories below.
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Creating a fembot related text adventure (RPG/romance game)

Post by darkbutflashy » Tue Nov 23, 2010 6:15 am

Since the open discussion in that thread diverges in either creating a MUD or a single-player text adventure (RPG/romance game, with graphic elements), I've started this new thread for specific discussion of the latter.

Anyone is invited to participate. This thread is for open discussion of such a game. The discussion should lead to participation in developing the actual game. I am happy if you are deciding to work with me.

The game will be written using the Inform7 interactive fiction system (see http://inform7.com/), which is available for MS-Windows, Linux, MacOS X. The game itself is made for a game interpreter (zcode or glulx) available for many platforms, including MS-Windows, Linux, MacOS X and some smartphones, there are even interpreters written in Javascript to allow playing within a web browser.

If you want to participate, I suggest you to download the Inform7 IDE for your system (see http://inform7.com/download/) and play a little with it. The IDE has an editor, a debugger and a game interpreter in it. You can load the current game sourcecode, play it up to one point, change a little bit of text or code in the source, and let it automatically replay the game up to the place where it was before, then test your changes. The Inform7 language itself is made to be near as possible to plain english. You can read it as plain english to get a feeling for what a code piece does. Writing some game logic is a little more complicated but I will help. And there's a built-in hypertext help inside the IDE, too.

To get you the picture what the game creation looks like, I give you a small, already playable, code piece:

Code: Select all

"Fun House" by "dark"

The Hall is a room. "The mansion's hall is wide and painted in bright white. There doesn't seem to be illumination, the bright of day floods the room through some lightwells at the ceiling. Various pedestals populate the floor, on each of them another seemingly random thing."


Pedestal-1 is a supporter in the hall. The description is "A sleek pedestal made from white marble, with a top in the size of a hand.". The printed name of Pedestal-1 is "a sleek pedestal".
Pedestal-1 is fixed in place.

The watch is a thing on pedestal-1. The description is "It seems to be a digital watch from the early ages of the technology, but there is no time display. Maybe it is broken?"


Pedestal-2 is a supporter in the hall. The description is "A very large, short pedestal made from stainless steel". The printed name of Pedestal-2 is "a short pedestal". Pedestal-2 is fixed in place.

The Pachinko machine is a supporter on pedestal-2. The description is "A one-armed bandit, asian style".
Instead of taking the pachinko machine:
[tab]say "That damn thing is far too heavy to lift".
Please replace the [tab] by a real tab keypress.
Once you started the simulation, the PC can look, look at various things, take the watch, drop it, put in onto the machine and try various things which are not explictely implemented and will generate a "nah" from within the Inform7 standard library responses.

I hope this encourages you to join the team.

dark
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Post by NukuNookee » Tue Nov 23, 2010 10:03 am

I'd recommend you plan to use glulx, as the additional features will be necessary for the graphics / game size you're looking at. Z-code really does restrict the size and capabilities of Inform 7.

Also, you may be interested in the glimmr extensions by Erik Temple. They supply a framework for interface development, including graphic automapping, sprite-based rooms / movement, and some really flexible graphics / windowing support.

It's probably best to include glimmr from the start, so you don't end up having to re-engineer things for compatibility.

The quip based conversion system extensions seem to be the best I've seen for handling conversation with NPCs in a consistent manner.

Also, Emily Short has some good extensions for various mundane activities... working in-game computers, kitchens and bathrooms, etc.

Check out the available extensions on the Inform 7 site here: http://inform7.com/write/extensions/
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Post by gynoneko » Tue Nov 23, 2010 10:08 am

Sounds exciting!
What we need to do then, since this is to be a single player game, and not the MUD, is brainstorm the story.
Maybe we should split between technical and story, so those who need to set up the technical side of it can get started making decisions now, and others can start coming up with story and character ideas.
Story is the most important part a single player game of this genre, especially if it is text based.
(Will graphics even be possible?)

So to make things clear, this is going to be an adult themed romance game? Or an adult themed romance/adventure game?
Or do you want to opt out of the adult theme and keep it tame?
Will it have a vast world to explore?
Is it story-based, or exploration based?
Will this be a choose your own adventure style game, or a follow-the-path game?
Will the user be able to choose a race or gender as the character they play, or is this determined by us?

Sorry for the third degree, I just want to get a better idea of exactly what this game will be about. I am excited to work on such ideas like this, and I am always coming up with ideas for stories and the like.

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Post by NukuNookee » Tue Nov 23, 2010 10:45 am

gynoneko wrote: (Will graphics even be possible?)

So to make things clear, this is going to be an adult themed romance game? Or an adult themed romance/adventure game?
Or do you want to opt out of the adult theme and keep it tame?
Will it have a vast world to explore?
Is it story-based, or exploration based?
Will this be a choose your own adventure style game, or a follow-the-path game?
Will the user be able to choose a race or gender as the character they play, or is this determined by us?

Sorry for the third degree, I just want to get a better idea of exactly what this game will be about. I am excited to work on such ideas like this, and I am always coming up with ideas for stories and the like.
Graphics are definitely supported in Inform using glulx, Gynoid Conversion uses them for the body status display, and has graphics for some of the Gynoids (thanks to Zor's artwork), and a few of the objects (boots / gloves, and the photographs). I'm still tweaking the user interface on Gynoid Conversion, but the rev 35 beta release linked to in my signature uses the glimmr graphic automap, along with the flexible window system to have a body status graphic in the lower right corner, a text body status in the middle right, the upper right is a window for showing graphics of things you look at, and the status line in the main window also shows a lot of useful (text) information.

I did write Gynoid Conversion so that it's possible to turn off the graphics and work with it completely text based, and then even turn off the text based map, leaving you with a mostly traditional looking Infocom-style text adventure game.

The body status graphic contains of a base .png file with a solid white background, and transparent overlay graphics for each changed body part. I used black / white since there are so many color combinations with how the game is written, but I may be reworking the body status graphic so that the game draws it using drawing commands instead of pre-rendered graphics files, at which point adding the correct color is pretty trivial.

As for the game style, a romance/adventure game would be fun, something with some tension to add spice to the plot, but with some more psychological interactions between the player and the fembots.

The game will likely be more of an Infocom-style explorable world than a CYOA or follow-the-path type, if it holds to form for most Inform style works. However, you can implement CYOA, follow the path, sprite-based RPGs (like the game boy version of Legend of Zelda), or any number of interfaces / game styles in Inform. The are extensions available that handle a CYOA style game, and extensions to handle the menu-based RPG style conversation with NPCs. Glimmr has support for the sprite-based rooms / movement.

Infocom-style games include the Zork series, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Leather Goddesses of Phobos, etc.

Game world size can be pretty much unlimited with Inform 7 using glulx, it's all a matter of what you wish to create.

It might be interesting to develop a central framework for the game / game world, and then make it possible for others to write extensions that implement their "region" of choice. I've done that successfully in Gynoid Conversion, though I do need to go back and rewrite the core game engine to handle region optional rules a bit better.
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Post by darkbutflashy » Tue Nov 23, 2010 12:29 pm

NukuNookee wrote:I'd recommend you plan to use glulx, as the additional features will be necessary for the graphics / game size you're looking at. Z-code really does restrict the size and capabilities of Inform 7.
Perfectly right. The only thing I found wrong in your post is you wrote "you". Say "we" and I'd be happy to have you as a contributor.
Also, you may be interested in the glimmr extensions by Erik Temple. They supply a framework for interface development, including graphic automapping, sprite-based rooms / movement, and some really flexible graphics / windowing support.
Yes, that's right. If Thurosis (or other) provide graphics for the game, we'll need that.

Check out the available extensions on the Inform 7 site here: http://inform7.com/write/extensions/
Sure, I played with some of them before. They make things easier most of the times. (Then, sometimes, they are not flexible enough. But then you can always make a derivation of them.)

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Post by darkbutflashy » Tue Nov 23, 2010 1:22 pm

gynoneko wrote:Maybe we should split between technical and story, so those who need to set up the technical side of it can get started making decisions now, and others can start coming up with story and character ideas.
That's what I suggested *not to do*. It's easier if any of us (well, pure graphics contributors needn't) at least can try things immediately. That means anyone in the team at least should be able to download the work-in-progress, put it into his IDE and *change it immediately* to "Let's see what happens if I fiddle with this or that".

If we don't do it this way, it means even the smallest changes have to be propagated to some programmer and in result, fiddling and randomly trying things out would be impossible. I'm very sure that's imposing a real restriction to creativity. I have my best ideas when trying something completely random.

Story is the most important part a single player game of this genre, especially if it is text based.
(Will graphics even be possible?)
Yes, they are possible, but should be mere decoration in my view. Inform7 gives the player a somewhat good text parser and the programmer a context based text creation engine with a lot of implicit actions and intelligence. We should use these possibilities.

So to make things clear, this is going to be an adult themed romance game? Or an adult themed romance/adventure game?
It should be an adventure where the player can move and combine things and have to solve puzzles, not just a visual novel where the player only has to do nice talk to get into the girl's pants (although that may be a puzzle). It shouldn't be a pure stats-based game like "Princess Maker".

Do you know the "Sakura Taisen" games? It's a mixture of RPG hack'n'slay and romance novel. Mix it with some adventure parts and you have the game I'm thinking of -- now that I think of it, my mind must be stirred up when I came up with that.

Or do you want to opt out of the adult theme and keep it tame?
Heavens, no. Noo00OOOOOO. Nah. I'm totally *for* having an adult part in the game. But the gameplay shouldn't be a lame excuse to show up pr0n pics at the end. Given the amount of pr0n available without having to solve puzzles first, that would be utterly stupid.

So if the player is going to score on some of the NPCs, that should be part of the game and, if we're nasty, part of a new puzzle.

Then again, we have to respect the ones which do the graphics. I'm wondering if e.g. Thurosis would object his beloved Miaka is ridden by Anonymous F. Player in the game. He may say yes now but when we need the pictures, maybe he's just unable to draw them. Then I'll need to drive to Wiesbaden, make him drunk and tie him up to his computer until he feels able to do it. In a pure text based game, we hadn't to think about this, but then graphical sex scenes would be kind of ... pointless.

So it's best to make a plan without any graphical sex scenes. If we are blessed to get the pictures, we could add them anytime.
Will it have a vast world to explore?
Is it story-based, or exploration based?
The game should be a vast world exploration (for a "vast world" which has to be determined), the story is driven by events, especially by conversations with NPCs.

Will this be a choose your own adventure style game, or a follow-the-path game?
No. By any means, no. If development somehow follows that doomed path, I will implement random malfunctions in all fembot NPCs to kill anyone in the game by chance.

Will the user be able to choose a race or gender as the character they play, or is this determined by us?
There are two possibilities to implement such a game: the first is to have a number of possible start characters which storylines *converge* at some time in the game. This is reasonable, but hard work. The other one is to have a pure stats-based game, which has no big storyline but only events. Putting an exciting storyline into such a game is near to impossible.

I vote for doing a single character first, then adding other views and storypaths. A stats-based happening of events could be added anytime and anywhere, too, but I'm not so happy with making it the main gameplay. Maybe for reaching side-quests otherwise unavailable to the player.

Sorry for the third degree, I just want to get a better idea of exactly what this game will be about. I am excited to work on such ideas like this, and I am always coming up with ideas for stories and the like.
No, it's really good to ask these questions now instead of leaving the team later because of misunderstandings.

I'm really open for ideas. The ones above are my wishes and any single one of them is debateable (except the CYOA part). We first have to find a common base of wishes to work on.

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Post by T-elos/Thurosis » Tue Nov 23, 2010 2:08 pm

hi dark and everybody,

I'm sorry for my late replys but this is mostly caused by the time difference between Germany and US/Asia =_="

thanks you for inviting me and I'm glad if i can help with some graphic stuff.
Since drawing is the only thing what i'm good at XD.

just tell me what i should do.

you can contact me:

E-mail: thurosis@web.de
here via PM
or the fastest way with skype: Yuk-Luen
I'm wondering if e.g. Thurosis would object his beloved Miaka is ridden by Anonymous F. Player in the game. He may say yes now but when we need the pictures, maybe he's just unable to draw them. Then I'll need to drive to Wiesbaden, make him drunk and tie him up to his computer until he feels able to do it. In a pure text based game, we hadn't to think about this, but then graphical sex scenes would be kind of ... pointless.
So true, since I'm a chinese you just need two beers and i'll get totaly drunk :P
but alternatve to give away my Miaka, I can also make some new designs, i mean new character(s)
Since i have my own typical style of drawing, I'm in the opinion that some more or less people will recognize my style ^^;

currently I'm drawing a Sci-Fi story which is going to be published, after i finished that story, i will have more than of time which i can spend for this project. ^^

Up until now i haven't draw any hentai stuff before, only some ecchi stuff but if it is really necessary i will try my best.
~Everything is learnable! It only depends on the efforts that you give yourself!~

~ take a look at my at my Gallery :D http://www.thurosis.deviantart.com ~

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Post by gynoneko » Tue Nov 23, 2010 2:33 pm

T-elos/Thurosis wrote:hi dark and everybody,

I'm sorry for my late replys but this is mostly caused by the time difference between Germany and US/Asia =_="

thanks you for inviting me and I'm glad if i can help with some graphic stuff.
Since drawing is the only thing what i'm good at XD.

just tell me what i should do.

you can contact me:

E-mail: thurosis@web.de
here via PM
or the fastest way with skype: Yuk-Luen
I'm wondering if e.g. Thurosis would object his beloved Miaka is ridden by Anonymous F. Player in the game. He may say yes now but when we need the pictures, maybe he's just unable to draw them. Then I'll need to drive to Wiesbaden, make him drunk and tie him up to his computer until he feels able to do it. In a pure text based game, we hadn't to think about this, but then graphical sex scenes would be kind of ... pointless.
So true, since I'm a chinese you just need two beers and i'll get totaly drunk :P
but alternatve to give away my Miaka, I can also make some new designs, i mean new character(s)
Since i have my own typical style of drawing, I'm in the opinion that some more or less people will recognize my style ^^;

currently I'm drawing a Sci-Fi story which is going to be published, after i finished that story, i will have more than of time which i can spend for this project. ^^

Up until now i haven't draw any hentai stuff before, only some ecchi stuff but if it is really necessary i will try my best.
As was stated earlier, I think graphics in a game like this are fine to be decorative only. So we don't need to worry about having them right off, unless they can't be added later. I think the real exciting and descriptive parts should be told in words, and left up to the user's imagination.

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Post by gynoneko » Tue Nov 23, 2010 2:39 pm

darkbutflashy wrote:
Or do you want to opt out of the adult theme and keep it tame?
Heavens, no. Noo00OOOOOO. Nah. I'm totally *for* having an adult part in the game. But the gameplay shouldn't be a lame excuse to show up pr0n pics at the end. Given the amount of pr0n available without having to solve puzzles first, that would be utterly stupid.
That is just what I want to hear. I think it is a good idea to have all the graphic stuff we want, but not make this just a pr0n. It gets boring, and people will only play something like that to get those scenes and nothing else.

One idea I have that might work for the story is to make it a lost/broken gynoid that the protagonist finds and it gets him involved in serious trouble, like with a crime boss or something. She could be stolen technology in the first place, but the protagonist finds and fixes her (puzzle opportunity there), and now they want her back.
We could have fights and such as well.

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Post by darkbutflashy » Tue Nov 23, 2010 3:09 pm

T-elos/Thurosis wrote:I'm sorry for my late replys but this is mostly caused by the time difference between Germany and US/Asia =_="
At least we two are in the same time zone.
just tell me what i should do.
Please discuss with us first. Making the game should be something which fascinates all of us. I'm sure you played a lot of adventure/RPG/romance games, too. What do you think where the emphasis of our game should be?
dark wrote: I'm wondering if e.g. Thurosis would object his beloved Miaka is ridden by Anonymous F. Player in the game. He may say yes now but when we need the pictures, maybe he's just unable to draw them. Then I'll need to drive to Wiesbaden, make him drunk and tie him up to his computer until he feels able to do it. In a pure text based game, we hadn't to think about this, but then graphical sex scenes would be kind of ... pointless.
So true, since I'm a chinese you just need two beers and i'll get totaly drunk :P
but alternatve to give away my Miaka, I can also make some new designs, i mean new character(s)
Since i have my own typical style of drawing, I'm in the opinion that some more or less people will recognize my style ^^;
Miaka could have a cameo in the game: maybe she's on the opponent's side and defeated(?) during the game. Or maybe she's the mastermind of all good and the PCs party are the evil ones and they have their final meeting only at the games' armageddon?

What about your other fembots? Are they handicapped the same way? I ask it because doing one new design may be ok, but doing 3 or four new designs would be a lot of work. Especially if you don't want any of them resemble any of the former ones (think of various giant robo animes: the designs look all similar even to the experienced viewer...)


Important question: What about copyrights on the pictures? I'd vote to make them copyleft (e.g. cc-by-sa license) like the game (which gets cc-by-sa or GPL, I have to check). The reason behind this is allow to spread the characters and allow derivations of the game *with* the graphics.
An important note on this: The license is given for each single picture, not for the design itself. So even if we depict e.g. Miaka in some scenes, you retain the copyright on any other picture of her you have drawn or will draw.

The decision on the license for your artwork is alone yours (and anyone's who provides artwork to the game) but I strongly recommend to make it copyleft and to stick to one license for all artwork. Things get overcomplicated and maybe impractical if we mix licenses.

currently I'm drawing a Sci-Fi story which is going to be published, after i finished that story, i will have more than of time which i can spend for this project. ^^

Up until now i haven't draw any hentai stuff before, only some ecchi stuff but if it is really necessary i will try my best.
That's okay to me. There are too many games out there where the girl gets it into mouth, pussy, from behind and so on. These games are similar to UT in consistenly sticking to the ego-fucker view.

I'd thought of giving the PC a face, too, like in RPGs. That gives substancially more possible depictions of sex. The two characters could be sitting holding and gently touching each other (naked, of course), still giving some erotic feeling to the player. And even if the two have the dirtiest sex plays we could think of, we can always choose a viewer's perspective which leaves something to imagination.

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Post by darkbutflashy » Tue Nov 23, 2010 3:35 pm

gynoneko wrote: As was stated earlier, I think graphics in a game like this are fine to be decorative only. So we don't need to worry about having them right off, unless they can't be added later. I think the real exciting and descriptive parts should be told in words, and left up to the user's imagination.
To state clear: what I mean with "decoration" is just that. Graphics won't be an integral part of the game engine. *No* point&click. The integral part of the game engine is the command line and the parser.

Graphics should be an integral part of the game's atmosphere. The graphics is the sugar which keeps the player entering commands when he's stuck. It should provide a warm, cozy (or cool, powerful) feeling to the player. And any other feeling we like to impose onto the player.
gynoneko wrote: One idea I have that might work for the story is to make it a lost/broken gynoid that the protagonist finds and it gets him involved in serious trouble, like with a crime boss or something. She could be stolen technology in the first place, but the protagonist finds and fixes her (puzzle opportunity there), and now they want her back.
We could have fights and such as well.
Sounds like a good start.

What are your feelings about romance game elements? Do you object to it or is it ok to you? Most important for such a game is to have a number of girls (4..8 ) and *each of them* needs a story of her life before the game. And of course, all of these stories must converge into the main plot. Highschool as the main plot for a fembot-themed game would be implausible. So we have to come up with something equally compulsory but fembot-related.

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Post by darkbutflashy » Tue Nov 23, 2010 4:20 pm

I'm currently thinking about the game graphics, because it determines if we are making split-screen or single-screen. Having a background image for each location would be great, but a lot of work.

Thurosis, could you provide one background picture for any room in the game? There may be really a lot. And we'll need close-ups of details within the room -- these are used as items in the inventory, too. Then, we'll need cels of the characters in the game we could place on those backgrounds. For the stats screen, we'll need pictures of the party members' heads.

Hmm, I think we should make a prologue chapter to find out if this works out. Something small, elaborated, introducing one character of the main game. I think of a maximum of ten rooms and 30 items for it. We could use it as a teaser afterwards.

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Post by NukuNookee » Tue Nov 23, 2010 4:39 pm

I've used the creative commons - non commercial - attribution required - share and share alike license for my projects so far.

That's my recommendation as to what we should use.

I'm not worried that someone may take what we create and use it elsewhere, just as long as they give us credit.

As for whether the creative commons license can be used for software, what we set out to create is a work of interactive fiction, with illustrations. These are both definitely copyrightable under creative commons, so there shouldn't be a licensing issue.

Here's the license blurb that appears with my works on deviantART: Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

As for cheating / game modifications, I think it's best to allow people to read the code... they may get ideas which will lead to more games being created. :)
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Post by darkbutflashy » Tue Nov 23, 2010 5:08 pm

NukuNookee wrote:I've used the creative commons - non commercial - attribution required - share and share alike license for my projects so far. That's my recommendation as to what we should use.
Perfectly ok to me, for the text parts I'm going to write.

(For the graphics: At least one picture should be cc-by-sa, so it can be used as a logo in software catalogues or other places that don't allow the non-commercial restriction on the content they mirror.)

I'm not worried that someone may take what we create and use it elsewhere, just as long as they give us credit.
It would be a honor to me if it spreads like wild.

As for whether the creative commons license can be used for software, what we set out to create is a work of interactive fiction, with illustrations. These are both definitely copyrightable under creative commons, so there shouldn't be a licensing issue.
I'm not entirely sure about this. I have to read the whole legalese to completely understand what the cc-nc-by-sa license does to software. Better read first than sorry later.

As for cheating / game modifications, I think it's best to allow people to read the code... they may get ideas which will lead to more games being created. :)
Those who cheat have their reasons to do so. But they won't get happy with it.

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Post by gynoneko » Wed Nov 24, 2010 6:26 am

darkbutflashy wrote:
gynoneko wrote: One idea I have that might work for the story is to make it a lost/broken gynoid that the protagonist finds and it gets him involved in serious trouble, like with a crime boss or something. She could be stolen technology in the first place, but the protagonist finds and fixes her (puzzle opportunity there), and now they want her back.
We could have fights and such as well.
Sounds like a good start.

What are your feelings about romance game elements? Do you object to it or is it ok to you? Most important for such a game is to have a number of girls (4..8 ) and *each of them* needs a story of her life before the game. And of course, all of these stories must converge into the main plot. Highschool as the main plot for a fembot-themed game would be implausible. So we have to come up with something equally compulsory but fembot-related.

dark
But of course! I am all for romance with adventure. I only mentioned the adventure aspect cause it is more interesting for a plot of the story, or at least something that will drive the plot. I am all for romance (not just sex). Perhaps we can even let the player chose which character to get the most romantic with.

I can come up with several characters no problem. Perhaps at one point you have to fight one of the enemy gynoids, and if you win, you get to fix her up too and keep her as well. Then there can be the girl that always liked the protagonist and never said anything, and now that there is competition, wants his attention too.

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Post by gynoneko » Wed Nov 24, 2010 6:33 am

I think I can also help with some of the graphics. I am a professional Imaging Specialist, and know my way around Photoshop. I also work on webcomics.
I might be a bit busy, but I think I can fit in some drawings of characters and backgrounds, but the art style WILL be different from thurosis's.

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Post by darkbutflashy » Wed Nov 24, 2010 12:48 pm

In that case, maybe one of you does the characters and items and the other the backgrounds? It would be very odd if the drawing style of the characters does not match, but for the other graphics it won't disturb much.

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Post by T-elos/Thurosis » Wed Nov 24, 2010 12:56 pm

darkbutflashy wrote: Thurosis, could you provide one background picture for any room in the game? There may be really a lot. And we'll need close-ups of details within the room -- these are used as items in the inventory, too.
Room designs no problem at all, for this task i will use Google sketch up and going to built a room.
But first i need a description of that room you need.
Is it a lab?, is it a normal sleeping room, etc...

Some guide lines would be great ;)
darkbutflashy wrote: Then, we'll need cels of the characters in the game we could place on those backgrounds. For the stats screen, we'll need pictures of the party members' heads.
Also no problem at all, after i got a description of how they should look like, because if the character only look "apealing to me" sounds egoistic to me. So some guide lines would be great here too ;)
Or is it really total up to myself?
gynoneko wrote: As was stated earlier, I think graphics in a game like this are fine to be decorative only. So we don't need to worry about having them right off, unless they can't be added later. I think the real exciting and descriptive parts should be told in words, and left up to the user's imagination.
Hey, i really want to help! After i read this, it looks like that you don't me in the team? I really hope that i missunderstood that otherwise i will really get mad ...
darkbutflashy wrote: (For the graphics: At least one picture should be cc-by-sa, so it can be used as a logo in software catalogues or other places that don't allow the non-commercial restriction on the content they mirror.)
I'm not used to all copy right stuff. So can someone explain it to me in a more simple way? I'm not worried about the designs which i'm going to make for this funny project, but maybe i can learn something for other future up coming project XD

I'm not worried that someone may take what we create and use it elsewhere, just as long as they give us credit.
It would be a honor to me if it spreads like wild.
I agree, it would be awesome and honor to be a member of a group, who created/started/spreaded something great XD
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Post by gynoneko » Wed Nov 24, 2010 1:14 pm

T-elos/Thurosis wrote:
gynoneko wrote: As was stated earlier, I think graphics in a game like this are fine to be decorative only. So we don't need to worry about having them right off, unless they can't be added later. I think the real exciting and descriptive parts should be told in words, and left up to the user's imagination.
Hey, i really want to help! After i read this, it looks like that you don't me in the team? I really hope that i missunderstood that otherwise i will really get mad ...
Sorry, I think you misunderstood what I meant. I don't mean to exclude you or anyone else from the project at all! I welcome all who want to help, as I am only a part of the team of interested people anyways.

What I meant was, as an artist, I understand that art takes a while to make, and sometimes it can be the longest part of a processes. So if the writing and programming part gets done first, we can stick it up so it can be edited and refined while the art gets finished. Then we can add the art as it is finished. That way we can also avoid drawing scenes that might not even appear in the final game if we decide to cut them out.

I was also originally under the impression that this would be a text-based game with few-to-no graphics. However, darkbutflashy has cleared that up for me, so while I still think the text is important and will be the drive behind the story, I understand that the art will also have to play a major role.

We should also decide who will be in charge of the art direction. We will need to decide who will draw what parts (characters/ backgrounds, etc). I am capable with Photoshop, and am willing to do anything from characters to backgrounds to compositing scenes and adding special effects and refining things. I am even willing to do some color work on line drawings if that is what is needed.

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Post by T-elos/Thurosis » Wed Nov 24, 2010 2:19 pm

gynoneko wrote:
Sorry, I think you misunderstood what I meant. I don't mean to exclude you or anyone else from the project at all! I welcome all who want to help, as I am only a part of the team of interested people anyways.
I'm glad that i just missunderstood it. phew... ^^;
gynoneko wrote: That way we can also avoid drawing scenes that might not even appear in the final game if we decide to cut them out.
I'm used to it, that stuff getting cut out =P
It is somehow a part of my work at my workplace in a local newspaper publisher in Wiesbaden...
So don't worry.
gynoneko wrote: We should also decide who will be in charge of the art direction.
None of us is in charge, since I'm in the impression that dark is our group leader. He decides/devide the our part of work. Not?
gynoneko wrote: We will need to decide who will draw what parts (characters/ backgrounds, etc). I am capable with Photoshop, and am willing to do anything from characters to backgrounds to compositing scenes and adding special effects and refining things. I am even willing to do some color work on line drawings if that is what is needed.
great =) Currently i have a coloring blockade, something like an art block, but only for colors... so if it is okay for you can you take the part of coloring?
And if you want to discuss this topic now, what do you want to do?
I mean what's your fav part?
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Post by darkbutflashy » Wed Nov 24, 2010 2:49 pm

T-elos/Thurosis wrote:
darkbutflashy wrote: Thurosis, could you provide one background picture for any room in the game? There may be really a lot. And we'll need close-ups of details within the room -- these are used as items in the inventory, too.
Room designs no problem at all, for this task i will use Google sketch up and going to built a room.
But first i need a description of that room you need.
Is it a lab?, is it a normal sleeping room, etc...
I think it is settled that we do a romance game, heavily based on conversation, with some item based puzzles. So basically, we need a lot of different locations where the party members could meet and fight. Some locations are needed with different properties, e.g. day/night, populated/deserted, operational/desolate etc etc.

As this should *not* be a happy-flower-tree-lake-spring plot but a fembot one, the locations should be technical. From your drawing of Wiesbaden station front, I got the idea we could make this game's locations like "Gotham" from the Batman movies. I can think of some other places an things looking completely Gotham e.g. Wuppertal Schwebebahn (See a pic of the "Kaiserwagen" here: http://static.rp-online.de/layout/showb ... pertal.jpg)

That's only a thought of me. Please don't mistake me putting things into the steampunk genre. I just think fembots would fit quite good into such an atmosphere.
Or is it really total up to myself?
Well, the main story writer (gynoneko?) should suggest things.

Hey, i really want to help! After i read this, it looks like that you don't me in the team? I really hope that i missunderstood that otherwise i will really get mad ...
No, no. It's just like I wrote. This *won't* be a point&click adventure. There will be no "Where's Waldo" puzzles in the game. No moving of player sprites on the graphics screen. That's just something Inform7 is not made for. It's possible to use it that way, but it would be a real waste (and slooooooow).

There should be background images to show up the general atmosphere of the single location the party currently is and NPC cels put onto it. The NPC will react with mimics, waving hands, release the built-in-rocket from her arm and so on when the player is talking to her, giving or taking things or similar.

In addition, we could make a RPG like fight screen where the party fights against oppenents. But that would be phase two.

darkbutflashy wrote: I'm not used to all copy right stuff. So can someone explain it to me in a more simple way? I'm not worried about the designs which i'm going to make for this funny project, but maybe i can learn something for other future up coming project
Basically, you have the copyright on all the pictures you draw. Noone is allowed to copy them without asking for permission. But we want to give away the game for free, and we want to allow later teams to change and re-release the game like they want. That's the reason why NukuNookee and me proposed to use the cc-nc-by-sa (or cc-by-sa) license on the pictures. That way anyone is allowed to change the pictures and release them freely with the same premissions we gave them. The rights we give are:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

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Post by darkbutflashy » Wed Nov 24, 2010 3:05 pm

T-elos/Thurosis wrote: None of us is in charge, since I'm in the impression that dark is our group leader. He decides/devide the our part of work. Not?
No. I won't decide the direction. I'm willing to mediate the discussion, find a compromise if needed. I'm all dependent on you others.

My profession and art is to make all the other things technically possible. Plain engineering. I will come up with ideas and texts for the other things, too, but you don't have to follow them. It's your decision. I would just be nice if some of my ideas were in the final game.

I think NukuNookee can do the technical side, too, but I don't know if he wants to. It's sure nice to have a counsel when things get complicated.

gynoneko wrote: I was also originally under the impression that this would be a text-based game with few-to-no graphics. However, darkbutflashy has cleared that up for me, so while I still think the text is important and will be the drive behind the story, I understand that the art will also have to play a major role.
We should do this with "most effect from least effort". A pure text based game would be okay to me, too, but if we have the chance to get some real good graphics for the fembot theme, we should take that chance by any means. That way the game wouldn't just be "nice", it would be "great". And with graphics, it gets a far wider audience.

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Post by darkbutflashy » Wed Nov 24, 2010 3:19 pm

Gynoneko, were you able to try the code piece I posted at the start of the thread? I will do the main coding but it would be really really good if you can immediately try out whether the code I wrote from your storyline does what you've intended. (Later: +suggest changes)

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Post by gynoneko » Wed Nov 24, 2010 3:27 pm

OK!

So here is what I suggest. I will write up some ideas and post them. Not everyone here will be celebrating Thanksgiving, but here in the USA, I will be busy for the next few days celebrating (my brother and his wife are in town, and they brought a cat they want me to take). I will try to work on getting some outline and some characters and such written up so I can have something ready by next week.

Right now, I have an idea of a where to start with this, and we can brainstorm some more on the story and come up with something we all will like.

As for the art, right now, I will work on some character designs, but later on I'm not sure. If you want to see one page that is finished of my upcoming webcomic to see the basic style of my drawings (it isn't really that good, but I am working on improving it), click here. The style is specific here for fantasy, and the color was a quick color job.
Maybe for now we can both come up with carious character designs and sketches and see what everyone likes. It might take a while for me to get started on the art though.

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Post by T-elos/Thurosis » Wed Nov 24, 2010 4:10 pm

darkbutflashy wrote: Well, the main story writer (gynoneko?) should suggest things.
Oh! I'm sorry for being wrong...

okay, since gynoeko, is going to design some characters, then i will going to design parts of a city (like discribed above), at least a small part of it like diffenet kinds of streets, which is maybe useable as backgrounds. (Since i have a color blockade) it won't be in color , so there is no difference between day and night... ^^;
darkbutflashy wrote:
Basically, you have the copyright on all the pictures you draw. Noone is allowed to copy them without asking for permission. But we want to give away the game for free, and we want to allow later teams to change and re-release the game like they want. That's the reason why NukuNookee and me proposed to use the cc-nc-by-sa (or cc-by-sa) license on the pictures. That way anyone is allowed to change the pictures and release them freely with the same premissions we gave them. The rights we give are:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

dark
thanks a lot =)
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