Resident Evil Zero

 

Originally a GameCube release, it later came out on the Wii with an added title of 'Resident Evil Archives'.

I looked into this game solely for the puzzles featured in it; the older Resident Evil instalments featured a lot of puzzles, which seems to have slowly faded away within the more recent games. I literally just picked one of the games from the series that I owned and played through to get an idea of the puzzles; I'm quite glad that I picked out 'Zero' as it utilized similar assets to a puzzle that are already present in RPG Maker, which are chess pieces. I won't be copying it exactly but it gave me a good idea as to the variety that I can potentially work with puzzle wise.

The chess piece puzzle involves having to push the piece around that fit with the smaller chess boards alignment, a basic idea but really effective when applied to a well thought out setting for it.

Another puzzle that really stuck out for me was the Animal statues.

 

"Six souls, imprisoned within the chains of death. Rekindle the

flames of life from the spirits of the weak!"

So the player must light the flames before the statues in order of their strength; each of the statues each have a riddle of sorts written on them.

The basic premise to this is triggering the switches in the correct order but with a riddle making it a bit more of a challenge.

 

These two puzzles in particular I'd like to try and integrate something like this into the technical report- demo on RPG maker, to see if it works well.

Selecting a character

13th November 2012

 

Our group met up in town to discuss our character creation process, once BA7 is submitted we want to know who was doing what. Particularly since over Christmas holidays it wouldn't be guaranteed that we'd be able to contact one another as easily as over term time.

We had already agreed that if each of us pick as character that we would like to design then it would cut down on the amount of different ideas that most of us would have; having each of us focused onto one character gives us a much better time frame to really refine that person. This did raise the issue that we were aware of to begin with; there are four main characters, but only three of us. We efficiently agreed that whoever was left would by default be a 'free for all' All of us would come up with ideas for the remaining one and swap ideas with one another.

 

We didn't encounter any issues with picking our characters; all of us were content with any of them.  I chose to work on the prince character- Aeron; Kyle picked Coste, the female detective and Jade chose Astra- the princes guard. This left us with Eli - the male detective as the 'free for all'. This also worked out nicely as all of us were happy to contribute to this particular character.

 

So now since I have an assigned character, my research for character orientated inspiration will be narrowed down considerably.

Supernatural

Supernatural

 

One of the subjects we probably drew the most inspiration from with the themes of supernatural detectives is the series 'Supernatural'. The series follows the Winchester brothers, who are supernatural hunters- following in the footsteps of their father; the catalyst for the story is the elder brother, Dean appears out of the blue to younger sibling, Sam (Who had separated himself from the 'family business' to live a normal life), informing him that their father had gone missing on a hunting trip.  The two spend most of the first series looking for their father; meanwhile travelling around solving various cases on their way.

 

 

http://www.geekpeeks.com/2011/04/23/supernatural-6-17-my-heart-will-go-on-review/

 The setting is in present day America; so the concept of ghosts or demons to the 'normal' people is extremely sceptical. The two face a lot of difficulties when explaining themselves; most of the time they rely on pretending to be officials for information retrieval. Or in the occasion of murder cases, to actually gain access to the information - obviously since it would be restricted from public. This is something that we have thought to apply to our 2 main characters; with them pretending to be part of the organisation (a bonus being that the male 'Eli' was once a part of it.).  Unlike with our two characters; the Winchester brothers are so close as they are essentially the only family they have, most of the people they encounter either meet unfortunate ends which re-enforces their relationship over the course of the story.

With the sources of supernatural activities and mythology; it has a wide expanse of different origins- from modern ghost stories to ancient Hindu and Buddhist mythologies- the example being Rakshasa -known as 'man-eaters'. It is impressive how they've integrated in such a variety of different myths and legends into the storyline; while still pulling off a modern twist. As the series has progressed the most dominant source of supernatural beings in the storyline is biblical, eg: Lilith, Lucifer; even angels such as Uriel. For the most part in the story as a whole it remains central to Demons in particular; so it hasn't strayed far from its common theme despite how long the series is.

Relationships and conflicts

The relationships and conflicts between races

As my focus for my research report will be revolving around internal and external conflicts I really wanted to cover this in our teams fabrication of our world; it wasn't big stretch for us as we are all dedicated to focus on the creation of our game.

 

Leo and Capricorn: They are the main conflict that we have thought up. There has been a long standing power struggle of sorts between them. Capricorn's element being Earth and Leo's fire; they are both the strong elements, which worked well for their conflict- at least for the deep rooted reason. Leo's kingdom is essentially the Capitol of our world; they are at the heart of the industry. Capricorn's kingdom is a bit less inclined for the push forward with development; Unlike Leo they also have reigning Monarchs.

The power of strength and prosperity over royalty.

 

Gemini:  The most secluded race, they have very little to do with others. Hence this there is next to no conflict between them and anyone else. The most contact they have had between different communities is Pisceans and Aquarius; not often.

 

Aquarius and Pisces: There is a long running history between these two races, due to Aquarius fishing around the Pisceans waters there were some disputes; nothing to cause a major conflict however.  They have made the agreement that the Aquarius had designated fishing spots away from their home,  and the two can work together to provide for the sea faring economy.

 

Aquarius: They provided a strong resource to the economy and prefer to avoid conflict where possible, mainly as it would interfere with the work.

 

Pisces:  Some do consider themselves a more advanced race, other races also see them as interesting prizes to acquire. This is not a major issue to the community much anymore as kidnapping and keeping Pisceans have been outlawed. They are peaceful and rarely see the concern for conflict towards them.

 

Scorpio: Desert folk, very few other races can manage to stay in such living conditions and because of this they don't have much to do with others. They are wary of visitors but they do no judge off the bat. Scorpios live in tribes across the desert, most conflicts with them have been between the tribes, so contained within their race. Some Scorpios make a living of acting as travel guides through the deserts as no one knows them better than they do.  

 

Aeries: Most of them are very airy fairy, some of them are more down to earth which keeps their community well grounded. No one daren't threaten Aeries not only because they are possibly the friendliest of all races, but they are the foremost of medical advancements. They have perfected the art of curing ailments and healing injuries; as a race they are relied on the most.

 

Libra: Similar to Aeries, they have not par taken in any form of disputes; but unlike them however, there is a general dislike for them in the bigger civilizations. Possibly due to their 'tree hugging' lifestyle and their attitude towards the other races lifestyle. Some do not recognise their ability of attuning to the world; Sagittarius do, but since the two prefer forested areas they have to deal with them a margin more. It is like a love hate relationship, they both irk one another, but they both have the forests well being in mind.

 

Taurus: Muscular, horned race; the Taurus were called on as help during the war as their strong build made them ideal for the front line. They are seen as one of the physically strongest race and for that is sometimes misread as being like savages. Taurus are not ill mannered unless provoked. They honed the idea of using trees for building and became well respected carpenters and builders across the land, it is also wrongly assumed that Taurus alone are the suppliers of wood; Sagittarius as also one to be noticed for their work.

 

Sagittarius: Centaur folk, they tend to stick close to the forested areas. They don't often see much other races; not actively, Sagittarius simply likes to stick to familiar land. Them and Taurus have a mutual agreement over their land; to ensure the forest is well kept and not cut down too much. They are noticed as somewhat of 'protectors' of the forest, due to their appearance particularly. In terms of any larger conflicts, the race has not experienced anything to a war-like degree despite being protective of their home. Sagittarius only shares their land with Librans, with the knowledge that they too have the lands best interests at heart; however it's only on a tolerable level, they aren't massively fond of them.

 

Cancer:  They are extremely secluded from other races, select few do live outside of their swamp land; this is all due to other races in the past using them to the point of slave labour courtesy of their multiple limbs it made them a very desirable dogs body. This eventually became apparent that they were being taken advantage of; so they revolted and instead of causing a conflict, most of the Cancer simply left with the refusal to be treated like this. Their home then later being the swamp lands. They are very stringent with visitors and generally don't display much fondness of them either.

 

Virgo:  Due to such a large population of this race, there have been a multitude on conflicts over history. They are dotted over, mixed with other races communities and even on their own; despite such a large degree of Virgo, other races are not really threatened by this in fact some believe them to be better than them.

 

After the war between Leo and Capricorn, to retain peace and good communication between the different races the council was formed. This is comprised of chosen authorities from their areas; despite that, there is very few members of the council.

The council.

-1 Leo

-2/3 Virgo, as there is so many of them they are so widespread, hence more than one on the board.

-1 Capricorn, not a royal

-1 Taurus

-1 Representative for the Sagittarius

-1 representative for Pisces and Aquarius

-1 Aries

Transmedia storytelling

Transmedia storytelling

 

Also called multiplatform storytelling; I will be looking at what exactly this is. This is a method of telling a story over differing platforms, while still engaging with the audience. As in writing for a book would not be the same as it would be for a film; the pacing would be too slow for a viewing audience as opposed to a reading one. The aim is to immerse the audience to the point where their minds do no wander off; which can also be applied to a gaming lifestyle, particularly RPGs, the entire basis of an RPG game is to immerse oneself into the storyline.

Basically you have your storyline, but expand it to something much less simple than that alone; multiple narratives with their stories, adding much more complexity to the mix. This is shown over differing medias, mostly it seems to be assumed that video games are the first to jump to with this, but it does spread to television and books etc.

As an example there is the lord of the rings trilogy, they have utilized the books over to film, which then bled over to games. All of which are still telling the same story but in a different media. The audience is immersed into the experience, similar to children pretending to be their favorite characters; this I suppose could also bring in fanart and fanfiction into this subject. The audience responds to their enjoyment of the story and characters that this is utilized in making stories and art with these existing devices.

Another example of transmedia storytelling would be the 'Star Wars' franchise. "...Captured that imaginations of millions of would-be jedi knights first through an approachable and classically structured story, and then through books, comics, animated films, games and toys intended to only to maximize profits. These extensions however, helped encourage fan immersion and involvement."  1. It is interesting that Lucasfilm was merely trying to make money on the franchise, but in so the immersion of this world became so much greater.  

Another interesting one is in Japanese modern culture you have the birth of 'cosplay' the person dressing up at said character and pretending to be them. 'Otome' and 'dating SIM' games, where the player is given choices over their love interests and so forth; to 'Drama CDs', this is not commonly seen over in western countries as such, it would be better known as a dramatic reading, it is voice actors of their characters of said story acting it out as opposed to just one person reading it.

In short this method of storytelling is heavily reliant of the immersion that the audience experiences.

Taking a look at Golden sun

Golden Sun

 

I have chosen to look at this particular Gameboy Advance game as it ticks a lot of the boxes that we are looking at in our game. The mechanics and graphics are pretty much the on the dot for what we are looking for in particular; I'll also be analyzing the character 'Alex' as he in particular I feel will give me a better idea into the inner workings of such a character; due to him being similar to our character The prince.  'Alex' is somewhat of the main antagonist, but unlike the traditional, he plays as a 'companion' to the party through the game.

Upon his first appearance in the game he is evidently sided with the antagonists who the party are hell bent on stopping  throughout the first instalment of the game. The main antagonists are two 'fire adepts' from the same home town, Saturos and Menardi, they are the most often seen and are clearly against you. They hold 'hostage' two of the protagonists companions, Jenna and Kraden. The final member is Jenna's Brother Felix, who was believed to be dead, but is now following the antagonists for reasons that are not mentioned until much later. Swinging back to Alex, it does seem like an odd group, why and how did he become part of this group? How is never clearly mentioned, but Saturos and Menardi trust him enough to be a part of the group.

Unlike them, he is a very cool, level headed character, with a bit of a silver tongue. In terms of combat, it is literally never seen from him save for one occasion at the start of the second game; which gives the example to the player that Alex is by no means weak, but simply, as stated by him "I do not wish to inflict unnecessary bloodshed.". This is further backed up by one of the protagonists that join that party, Mia; who is from the same clan and was taught the same abilities (Both are what is known as 'Water adepts'); she is baffled by Alex's ability to teleport at will- the most frequent example of his abilities. So even with the extent of knowledge that I have on this character there is literally so many unanswered questions about him; which I found quite interesting and actually quite logical- what is there to gain by telling people your secrets? He tactfully dodges questions that reach such subjects.

This does ripple over to the player over time, questioning whether they can truly trust him or not.

In the second game, you play as Felix and are this time working to the same end as Alex- which would imply that he would join the group. He ironically says that he works better alone but makes appearances over the course of the game; also seemingly switching sides yet again as the party is being 'too slow' and joins yet another group.

And this is all to meet his own ends of gaining the ultimate power and immortality. A pretty common motive for an antagonist; but his methods to go about it are what I love so much about this character. Our prince is along a similar strand of how he covers his true motives and plays to the fellow protagonists;  unlike Alex our Princes motives are childish and have a lot less grandeur to it; he also has plays a completely different facade to conceal his motives.

 

The mechanics and gameplay of Golden Sun is very similar to what we are capable of doing on RPG Maker, unlike usual RPGs with a side view battle screen -which is our aim for our demo; Golden sun has a more cinematic style of switching perspectives, from slightly angled behind the party to behind the enemies. Unfortunately with the amount of time we have, we aren't being that excessive with the battle system. Our main focus is the integration of elements of detective and puzzle work.

The Demo scenario and the general flow of the game

This is a basic flow chart of how the demo for our game will pan out. This will later be much more fleshed out and scripted. We just needed to know some integral parts that we hadn't initally considered, like the demos scenario for instance. In this we have fully planned out every game mechanic tutorial and also how the party joins together.

 

Flow chart

 

Starts with a scene of the latest abduction of children, which then skips to the pair of detectives reaching 'Braithemount', upon hearing rumours of children disappearances, and will o' wisps being the casue

|

(Male)Eli tells (Female) Coste about the lead and to go see the missing child's parents

|

She comes across some of the few children that are still okay, this will introduce the player into the bluffing system for them to find a lead on the case.

|

When done correctly, the player will get a lead of the children seeing their friends going off to the graveyard late at night.

|

Lead. Seek out the graveyard, only to find that the gates are locked.

|

Coste doesn't see that as much of an issue and decides to scale the gate to go over it.

|

She is stopped by the priest who catches her in the act.

|

Talk to the priest, who mentions that the grave keeper keeps the gates locked a lot of the time. -(This is a red herring, but the player will not know this. The implication towards the grave keeper, however brings him in as a suspect.)

|

Skips to the pub, the location of Eli (Male), he is talking to the pub owner and the others at the bar, one being the grave keeper. A fight breaks out over him correcting a double negative comment made by a thug who is egging on the prince(Eli obviously does not know who he is at this point)

|

Queue tutorial fight. Prince flees just before the fight.

|

Coste (female) comes in afterwards, who brushes off the scene as if it were normal. She informs him of what she had learned. The grave keeper being suspect

|

Eli disproves the red herring as he points towards a pile of beaten men, said grave keeper being one of them. This brings them back a step and decides to give the graveyard a firsthand sweep along with the church itself as it is right next to it.

|

As the two leave they spot the princes guard, Astra, who seems to be in a panic rushing through the village.

|

They reach the church, it too is locked up.

|

They give it a rest and decide to carry on tomorrow, the party go to the inn.

|

During the night another child is missing, possibly one of the ones that they were talking to the day before.

|

The duo talks about asking around over the priest, this is where the players information gathering comes into play, simply asking around the villagers over last night's events. A lot of mention over the church and graveyard.

|

The prince overhears the conversation, as in intentionally. He zooms off to the scene with the intention of help, followed by the guard- who is trying to stop the prince from such 'tomfoolery' .

|

Detectives now see this as a race, to stop civilians from butting into their work.

|

Player races over to the church.

|

The detectives reach the location a little later than the prince, but the main door is locked and neither of the two would consider breaking in.

|

They, however are fine with this. The player works around the prince and guard, while avoiding getting to close to them; find another way in.

|

Find a smaller side door, Coste boots down the door. The player is given a small opportunity to look around the room before the other two find their way in.

|

The two pairs meet and reluctantly on nearly everyone's but the princes end, they team up.

|

More examination of the room. The player will come across the door to the priests room.

|

The door is locked in a peculiar fashion, Introduction to the puzzle tutorial.

|

Upon achieving the puzzle the door unlocks, the player must find clues about the priest. - this will lead to an explanation and flashback of the priests motives. The detectives next clue leading them to the graveyard, that the children are being kept somewhere in there.

|

Reaching the graveyard, the detectives warn the party of the hostiles about. -Basically that random battles will occur in this location.

|

Examine the area, no one appears to be there. Checking the crypt, the player will find that it leads somewhere.

|

This triggers a confrontation- in the form of a mid-boss, blocking their way.

|

After defeating the boss, the player will come across a small dungeon to go through. Random battles will still be in effect here.

|

The characters discover the children, the detectives block the prince and guard from leaping to their aid before quietly motioning to them. The children appear to be possessed. Detectives reach the conclusion that if the children spot them, that couldn't possibly work in their favour.

|

Avoid the children while traversing the crypt.

|

Reaching the end, they meet the priest, who is actually possessed by a malignant spirit with the control over will o' wisps. The spirit took a hold of the priest after the death of his daughter, using his grief to make him believe that the spirits ability was a gift.

|

BOSS FIGHT

|

The party resolves the case, bringing the children back, without mention of the culprit.

|

The detectives make their leave, stopped by the prince who wishes to tag along. Astra (The guard) Steps them aside and asks them to help her take the prince back home. By doing so they will be rewarded.

|

And since the two wouldn't turn down the opportunity for easy money they accept the offer. They officially become a party of four.

|

End demo.

Guest character ideas

Potential Guests in the party

 

Throughout the plot the party would occasionally be split from one another due to certain circumstances in the story; which is where guest characters would be integrated into the party to take the place of who is missing.

We have planned out a few potential idea for the guests, we most likely won't be able to use any of these in the demo. But this is all part of fleshing out our world, it was actually to start with just coming up with a replacement for when the prince leaves the party after his betrayal. Also bouncing around the idea of showing off the different races by adding them in as guest characters would give the player a better insight of them and their homes. It wouldn't be too hard to allow them as temporary team members either as they detective pair would probably require help from someone who knew the area better/ potential witness.

 

The first planned guest was Gus, right at the start of the game when all detectives are split up. He flees the party not too long into it so he isn't even technically a party member.

The integral guest, who later becomes a permanent member of the party is the Gemini mage 'Toffee' (We haven't chosen a proper name for him just yet.), he will take over the princes role, who was also the mage of the party- possibly a stronger version on him. Toffee joins due to his sister being taken, possibly by the prince - meaning that his and the parties goals with have the same destination. The prince takes the sister as she has prophetic visions thanks to her being a seer; he sees her as a big wrench in the works so removes her from the party's access. Fearing that she could see what his plans were and then tell the heroes before he would have the chance to act.

 

A Sagittarius, Scorpio, Aeries and Cancer were potential ideas for guests. We mentioned that it would be difficult to have, for example a Pisces in the party; however I brought up a possible situation that would bring them to such an event and we actually flesh out a very interesting quest. As magic is producing more disturbing strains of monsters, something new was 'born' in the water- which brings them to this case. A few Aquarius fishermen had gone missing on the way out at sea and have not returned; save for one, a female fisherman. She claimed to have heard singing and one of the fellow boats she was fishing with heading straight for it, as if in a trance. "It sounded like he was being eaten... and I saw the figure. It was a Piscean!"

The claim riles up a dispute between them and the Pisces, the party goes to investigate, however the male- Eli bows out due to his fear and focuses of the Aquarians. They find a Piscean who had been locked up under suspicion. She explains how they do not eat people nor do they have the ability to entrance people with their voices, especially just men.

The investigate further and find the source, and new strain of monster, looking shockingly similar to Pisces women- A siren. They defeat her, and settle the situation, but now the two races are fearful of the waters.

Horoscopes

-Horoscopes-

 

With the creation of our world we have added new races, as mentioned in a previous post we came up with the idea of races being based off of horoscopes, pisces, aries etc.

Which means that there would be 12 races overall- we won't be focusing on all the races all that heavily; the idea of basing them off of horoscopes came from the random comment about the prince character being a goat in our first meeting. We liked the idea of a goat inspired race; this progressed further to using a concept that is widely recognised - the horoscopes. This bled over to the guard character and using the leo sign for her and virgo for the main detectives; virgo being the equivalent.

Most of the races aren't massively different in appearance from what we have planned, mainly due to our focus being the main 4 characters.

 

I took a trip to the library in hopes of finding some books on the history of the horoscopes and the story behind them. Unfortunately I didn't actually find that many; I'll take a few more trips out to the other libraries and bookshops for more information if required for the design process. I picked up a book that revolves around the traits of said star signs; purely out of interest and I may even be able to draw a few ideas from the concept of reading a person from their star sign.

 

Information taken from Jamie Stokes, 2004, 'Zodiac types', Collins

 

So starting with the main detectives, they were chosen to be the 'Virgo' race. Virgo representing the virgin, it is a very simplistic symbol; and is just a woman.

 

Virgo symbol

"It is associated with the female and was linked to the holy grail of legend." The basic description of what virgo represents in the book.

"key words: Altruism and honesty; self improvement; health and hygiene; efficiency and reliability; service and modesty; logic and decisiveness." Already I can see the main two touching on some of these key words.

Particularly the description of the personality traits of male and female virgos; a large poriton actually fits them; whether or not that's a good thing I don't know. It has helped envisioning the two characters a lot easier; as I have had difficulty getting a good image of them in mind.

 

I'll only quote the key signs of the Prince and the Guard; since we have a pretty good idea of what we want.

 

Prince- Capricorn

"Realism and practicality; planning and persistence; status and quality; authority and discipline; wealth and investment; loyalty and wisdom; love and marriage"

 

Guard- leo

"Pleasure and playfulness; creativity and recognition; performance and appreciation; generosity and loyalty; risk and luck; entertainment and hospitality; romance and sex appeal."

 

The history behind horoscopes

their alignments with the planets and astrology.

Refining our concept

Refining our characters

The backstory of the main two detectives

We had already worked out that out two main characters would have a long standing past with one another; 10 years prior to the start of the game, so the female would have been 14 and the male 18 at the time. The duos lives become entwined with one another when they witness the 'birth of magic'.

The man's back story: He worked for the organisation (Which are hunting the two down during the course of the game due to the birth of magic event), he was 'fast tracked' of sorts into it, we wanted to avoid the word 'prodigy' as that sounded like a far to cliché character type to use. The male is visiting the town of which the female character is from on business- not concerning the event. The 'leader' who takes him there soon develops to be the main man who chases after them. He aspired to be a part of the organisation; who are essentially the law in our world. However the man's 'image' of them is ruined after the discovery that they don't want him or the girl alive.

The female's back story: Just before the near enough cataclysmic event of her hometown; she was supposed to be in school, however she pretty much skives off and finds her way nearer to the outskirts of the town, up a tree. She loses her family in the event, she tries to run back for them as the man saves her- but he stops her from going back.

 

Coming up with the characters wasn't as difficult as planning the event that set all this in motion. We knew it was going to be enough to wipe out all witnesses but the main 2 and the 'leader' who brings the man there. The seal on magic is breaking; the seal being located underground, resulting in frequent earthquakes. These earthquakes aren't thought of much with the town due to how frequent they are, it becomes more so recently. During the man's visit, he is massively freaked out by it- we decided he would have a fear of natural disasters; but he doesn't think much of it as the rest of the townsfolk don't react overly so to the quakes. There is an initial few quakes; sort of acting like a calm before the storm. The man catches on that something really isn't right and makes a break for the edge of town, possibly to get a better view of the area; just as he veers closer to the females location the earth cracks; poisonous miasma comes pouring out, near enough obliterating those living.  As the man makes his escape, he spots the miasma bursting forth, forcing him to quicken his pace. He spots the girl in the tree mid escape and drags her along, he wouldn't leave someone for dead given the opportunity to help; it all happens so quickly she doesn't know what's going on, but she wants to go back- considering so random guy had just whisked her off.

 

The two evacuate the town relatively safely; not without a degree of exposure to the substance. The miasma pretty much wipes out the central citizens; people located further outward of its source, we came up with that the poison possibly mutates them into monsters. The main characters exposure is not to such a harsh extent, the female develops an ability to wield magic; the male is almost like the opposite, his body almost rejects it- this mutates to become a natural resistance to magic; both harmful and beneficial.

That night, the man advises that the two of them get rest before anything else. The girl leaves the camp, heading back to the site; she finds people at the outskirts surveying the area. Before she even has the chance to get any closer, the man spots her and hooks her back.

He reasons with her that there is nothing they can do- this leads to the man pretty much taking the girl under his wing, since she is still only a child technically.

 

After the event, the girl initially resorts to petty thievery to get by; whereas the male jumps straight into doing detective work, using knowledge he'd gained from his time working for the organisation. The girl is unaware of the man's for around 3 years; she then catches on to what he is doing and demands to be a part of it- her drive is to find out what exactly killed her family and this could help her to that. The man shows her the ropes and the two of them prosper with their wayward detective lifestyles.

Over the 10 years the female hones her magical abilities- not secretly.

The two get annoyed with one another occasionally, but they know when their on the same page.  

-Other traits

The female possibly had slight kleptomaniac tendencies; like a knee jerk reaction as she sees it as survival, not simply stealing.

BOTH of the detectives cannot cook at all; the male however buys food from restaurants and passes it off as his own- has done so for the past 10 years and still going. He comes up with terrible, elaborate lies about how he made them, or an old family recipe.

The girl had found out about this about 1-2 years in, but has never called him out on it.

 

The guard's back story

She was one of the refugees saved and brought to the Capricorn's kingdom after the war between them and Leo's kingdom. The King- prince back at the time; being the one to take in the refugees, he later became king and brought peace amongst the two.

She becomes the princes guard when he reaches the age of 5, making her 18- she had been with him since.

 

-The guard is gullible, but very aware of laws and so forth

-very protective of the prince and doesn't like 'commoners' getting too close to him.

 

The prince's back story

 'Facade' Prince

-sheltered

-strong moral sense to help people

-likes to help

-timid

He will flee if in danger; but if someone else is in trouble the prince finds some courage.

-over curious

-gets kidnapped at some point in the plot; this turns to an endearing trait as it twists to him saving the party.

 

"douche" prince

-indifferent

-scheming

-uses people; they are basically expendable to him.

-His motives for the keeping magic free and disrupted is purely down to boredom.

 

He uses the kings advisor- who was the spearhead for the war; his alliances still remain with the previous king-the prince acquires information about the incident with magic; and its history. The advisor believes himself to be the 'big cheese' that the prince it working to meet his ends; whereas it is the prince.

 

The Libran locked in the dungeon is the one to tip him off about magic; and by 'tip' him off, we decided that it would be in the form or insane ramblings, hence why they were locked away. The prince visits the dungeon at one point and the ramblings perk the princes interest.

 

The different races

This has been mentioned earlier in our project that we have fabricated 12 different races- obviously we will not be going into great depth with all of them; but we bounced around ideas to get a good grasp on the relationship between these races and also to get to know the workings of our world better. Surprisingly we managed to get through the races and even their relationships in the same afternoon.

Pisces- They are essentially the equivalent to mermaids; the majority of them living underwater. Some of them live on the ocean; habitats built on the water- when their bodies are dry their lower halves turn to legs. As they are capable of reaching such depths in the water; they are suppliers of fine jewellery and treasures; also more difficult to acquire food. Pisceans are a peaceful race, there are those, however who feel that their adaptability makes them better than other races. Not many people see these fish-like people often; very revered as a tourist spot as their home is quite beautiful.

Aquarius- Sea faring folk; they are the main pillar of support for fish stock and shipwrights. Sticking close to the sea is where they consider their home; mostly cliff side towns or docks. Physically, they are more resilient to the elements and very attuned to meteorology-judging the state of the atmosphere.

Aries- Medics; they refined the creation of medications and are naturally talented doctors. Their homes are mostly situated on the moors; quite airy fairy, Aries are a very friendly race. A common physical trait they all have is very fluffy, think hair; keeping the warmth in with their life in a generally foggy place.

Taurus- Well built, stocky race; men often grow horns. They are situated nearby wooded areas. thanks to their sheer strength, Taurus make most of their living from carpentry and lumber mills; along with that they are usually a forefront for combat. They make superb warriors, the equivalent to a tank. They aren't a fierce race, but creation of weaponry is also a specialty of them.

Capricorn- One of the most powerful and prosperous races; with a reigning royal family. More to be confirmed

Cancer- Six armed people, situated in boggy, swamp areas; they are quite a reclusive race and self conscious. They haven't had a great past with other races so they prefer to stick to themselves. They don't play a big impact of the economy much anymore; they used to make good all round workers thanks to their multitude of limbs and strong endurance.

Scorpio- Desert dwellers; they are dotted around in small tribes; similar to Cancer, they too are seldom seen outside their own encampments. They have developed toughened skin due to their living conditions; alongside this they are more resistant to poisons. Scorpio are honed as skilled assassins, or most stealth orientated abilities. Mostly quite self sufficient and don't feel the need to rely on the other races.

Libra- The most spiritually attuned of races, they are slender and have developed pointed ears, stories say that it is what helps them hear the land. (Sort of like elves). They are very nomadic; enjoying their lives around nature so it is uncommon to see them in larger cities, particularly those more industrially advanced. They're peaceful, but their lifestyle makes them somewhat difficult or annoying to deal with.

Virgo- The most common and most populated race is the Virgo; these are adaptable in most areas, they are basically humans. Very versatile beings, they prosper greatly with learning new things. Due to their plentiful population Virgo are often seen within communities of other races. Their bodies haven't adapted to their habitats but they are a versatile race and not one to be looked down upon.

Sagittarius- Residing mostly in the woodland, the Sagittarius are also somewhat reclusive; the most contact they are known for is with the Taurus race over the cutting down of their home. They have sharp eyes and have perfected the art of sharpshooting; making natural archers. What sets them apart greatly from most of the other races is their appearance is the most different; with the upper half of their body being that of a humans, their lower halves are of a horse, this proves to give them fantastic endurance and makes them one of the fastest races on land. Sagittarius also developed a postal system, thanks to their great speed; also pulling along larger objects. Never ride on the back of a Sagittarius, they are a proud race and it is a great offense to do so.

Leo- Highly respected race and currently their home is the capitol; they are the most prosperous for the upcoming industrial movements. They are very proud and all share similar golden, thick mane-like hair. Leo are infamous for their knights, adorned with their lion armour. Despite such infamy and pride; they are an open minded race, they are very dedicated and strong willed.

Gemeni- Possibly the most secluded and least known race, the Gemini reside on an island away from everyone. They are one of the oldest and most magically attuned of the 12; they hold the knowledge of the true history of the world and the secrets behind the seal on magic. Gemini also hold the most unusual appearance in the fact that the undergo a physical change when exposed to the moon; during the day they all have pale skin and dark hair, during the night it inverts: their skin darkens and hair becomes white. Visitors who so much as veer close to their island seldom see the natives; go so far as cloaking themselves to avoid being seen. The transformation they go through has a single night a month, on a new moon, Gemini remains unchanged. This is a very spiritual time for them; it is a night where their seers experience visions and are at their most connected with magic; this is also when they choose their seers. When chosen the Seers appearance makes a permanent change of their hair staying stark white along with their skin.

Looking at puzzle mechanics

Puzzle mechanics

Silent Hill 3

 

I played through 'Silent Hill 3' for research into their puzzle system; although this research will slightly bleed over to the other games in the series as the puzzle mechanics are essentially the same.

 

Selecting new game lets you pick the overall difficulty of the game but also has a riddle difficulty setting- the modes being easy, normal and hard. For the research and also to blitz through quickly, I chose normal riddle difficulty; however I will mention the differences between the difficulties.

The first puzzle in the game is the 'Shakespeare puzzle', the door to the back of the book shop is locked and the player needs to input a number combination to progress. Depending on the riddle mode this either involves just good observation of the books (There are numbers written along the spines of the books and you simply have to put them into order.) Or a good grasp on a variety of Shakespeare's works.

Easy-Normal mode;  'Fair is foul and foul is fair, put these books out of order.'; the riddle is the same for both difficulties.

Hard: The number code is always the same; it is NOT written on the spine like the others. The player is given a far longer riddle and needs to know a degree about what each book is about. Heather- the character you control can give her two cents if you examine it further- however only her knowledge extends so far; as in she doesn't even know what 2-3 of the books are about. This is also one of the easier puzzles for hard mode.

 

The general gist of the system is that there is a block in your path or progression and requires the player to solve the riddle to open the path again. Sometimes this also involves the retrieval of necessary items- then working out the riddle; an example of this would be the final puzzle of 'Silent Hill 3'; you must retrieve 5 tarot cards, there is also a book which describes the cards- to help people not familiar with tarot, basically describing what they are. After this you go back to the block where Heather must put the cards into the correct locations on the door; with a riddle to give her a hint. Sometimes the puzzle does not block the progression but withholds a necessary item from you. Very rarely there are optional riddles.Heather memos down all of the riddles she reads.

For the puzzle itself it is usually displayed as a still pre-rendered image; the interaction with it is commonly shown through an arrow in screen or will skip the image to the puzzle being solved.

 

Comparing to for example 'Phoenix Wright', if the players guess is incorrect; in 'PW' you get penalized; if you repeatedly get things wrong you will end up with a game over; 'SH' more often than not, there is not punishment for getting it wrong- it is just, you're still stuck.

I really like how Silent Hill lets you pick how difficult you want the puzzles to be; it isn't something that I see very often in puzzle orientated games. Whether or not this is an idea for our demo, it seemed quite unlikely. The puzzle style and method, however is what I was focusing on and is something to consider.

Coming up with character names and a title for our game

 

Before be started on this; Kyle put down a few more ideas on the whole reason behind the magic being unsealed.

-It is someTHING

-It was corrupted at some point in the past leading to it being sealed.

-It is an millennial thing, the seal breaks every cycle and must be re-sealed.

^ This also leads to a later pair of characters that join the party after the princes betrayal, a brother and a sister. They are both Gemini; the sister chosen as a Seer. The player has a choice whether to leave the broken seal and let it run it's course or seal it away at the expense of sacrificing the sister. This will be elaborated as this feeds in really well with my research report; hence we did alter the whole 'seal' situation to this.

 

Not long after fleshing out our world and characters we'd forgotten a small issue with the fact our characters didn't have names, nor did we have a proper title since 'sinner sandwich' was only a working one and we really didn't want to leave the title till the last minute.

We started with the characters; the prince, we looked primarily at names of gods or any that bared relevance to his deceptive or timid nature. I had done prior research for possible names for the prince, but most were aimed at his race leaning towards a goat.

Our few that we had picked out as a group were:

-Daedalus (Clever worker), possibly an alteration of that name

-Aeron (Form of Agrona, a masculine deity), a contradiction of the princes physique

-Cael (Slender), pointing at the princes physique yet again.

 

Once we finished the search, it was pretty unanimous that we wanted the prince to be called Aeron. It was a more appealing name and the meaning make it stick out for us.

 

Picking out the guards name was possibly the longest one of the bunch, for some reason we really struggled with possible names for her. They varied from old English names, lion related to flower like names. We managed to settle on the name Astra; although there were still some questions over it.

 

Thankfully the two detectives did not take nearly as long; Kyle had prior looked into names for the characters, of which Jade and I looked over and we all liked:

 for the male- Eli

and the female- Costé (Estoc backwards-a type of rapier)

 

The title

Now this had us tearing our hair out. We had looked at Normal and Latin names of things to do with the Zodiac or a large change/ break. We wanted it to tie in with the theme of the game. Words with 'Zodiac' or 'Deliverance' in the title were our main focus; it moved to words that were along the same lines as 'break'; as the breaking of the seal of magic in our game. Our group typed up the meaning of Zodiac in Latin and found the term 'Orbis signifier'; we didn't want that as out title but the word orbis really stuck out for us. Orbis, meaning circle, rotation; fitting the whole zodiac idea and the magic's seal concept. Picking out Orbis made the rest of the title a little easier to find ideas, which was only two really.

Orbis Break and Orbis Shift; Break was something we were bouncing around with initially so we decided on 'Orbis Break'.

 

I also suggested that while were we at it that we go over possible names for the area featured in our demo. From what the general appearance and inspiration we were looking at for that location we looked at old English style village names. The village/ small town would be inspired from old medieval buildings, featuring a graveyard; the point of which they visit it is raining and had a dank, unwelcoming feel to it.

A few names that caught our eye

Foxfork

Cottersgreave

Umberlore

Fluddgrove

Highby

Fleetway

Braithemount

 

Much to our convenience was all really liked the last name and picked that to be the official name of the town without much deliberation at all. The detectives find themselves in the murky town of Braithemount at the start of the game.

Paranormal CSI

Supernatural detectives

 

I managed to stumble across a surprisingly relevant book at the library when looking for more books on astronomy/ horoscopes; Valerie Hope, Maurice Townsend, 1999,'The paranormal investigator's handbook' , Collins & Brown Limited. I'll be looking through it and see if perhaps it could help with the methods of their work and possibly link to the detective element we are coming up with.

With our detectives, we are integrating in the conventional detective elements; solving a murder case, or missing persons- but obviously it would have supernatural element running along with it. Similar to the 'Supernatural' series; which I will also be looking into. '...how a paranormal investigator would go about collecting and analyzing information on anomalous of paranormal phenomena.'; hopefully from that statement, researching information for the detectives and their methods will be very helpful.

Just from the introduction, the book mentions a widespread of different kinds of paranormal activity worth mentioning; one section of which I won't bother reading up on is the UFO activity. Our game is a fantasy, not a sci-fi.

There is a portion of the book that solely covers the investigation process if the paranormal phenomenon. It mentions a lot of checking out the normal explanations for said paranormal event; so for instance finding a more logical explanation for it before stepping into the supernatural reason.

Before starting the investigation, it points out the general decorum one needs to consider when doing so. It is mostly being that the person must always respect the witness and locations confidentiality; also treating them with a degree of professionalism- don't push the witness and remain impartial. 'Never enter the premises without first getting permission'; personally I can imagine that our pair of wayward detectives would completely ignore this point, also with the RPG elements they would encounter combat along with the investigation.

Background research into the specific supernatural activity would be essential; our two characters would most likely have and extensive knowledge over most of their field.  How they acquire the information of potential cases is something our group will need to work out.

 

The stages of the process go over; how to interview the witness; the time of said event; reviewing the incident; using reconstructions; background research; watching for hoaxes; how to record and anomaly. A few of these need not be applied either due to the setting of our world or it wouldn't integrate well into the gameplay of our demo.

The interview process is a section we are certain that we will have for the demo of the game; it is an integral part of any detective work and it isn't difficult to apply into the game itself. For example if the player has some relevant evidence towards the case, they can possibly present it to the witness and there by unlocking more or different questions.

 

time of the event

One of the characters would probably mention the time of which it occurred or is documented somewhere in the game; not a feature that would require much looking into for the demo.

 

reviewing the incident

This is basically going to the 'scene of the crime' so to speak, and getting a first-hand view of the area of interest. 'Draw a plan, ideally to scale.' - The character could possibly jot it down in a memo for reference and then use it in questioning. It goes on to describe what would usually be done at a crime scene; checking suspicious areas, taking photos; any physical evidence. Visualising what occurred at the scene; as we are creating the scenario, we can come up with various methods that the characters will work this out.

 

using reconstructions

This may not be ideal for the gameplay and probably wouldn't fit the characters natures in doing so. The man is overly laid back and the woman is too impatient. Also they are wayward detectives, there is a slim chance that they would have access to that kind of equipment.

 

background research

This could possibly be integrated into the gameplay as they will visit new areas and need to learn of the history of the location or what is relevant to it.

 

watch for hoaxes

Obviously not everyone is superstitious or perhaps just mucking about with the investigator; in our game we have yet to fully flesh out our world so I'm not sure how such a subject would be viewed upon in its culture. However, either way that could be an interesting part in the plot; someone tricking the team to an area where something supernatural may have happened but turns out to be a trap; possibly.

 

how to record and anomaly

Not really applicable; the pair knows supernatural things exist.

Picking a program

RPG maker

Our group had decided to use rpg maker for our demo very early on; we wanted to pin down the program we would be using as quickly as possible so we could get the practice in to get to grips with it. Checking RPG makers website we were announced with yet another decision between VX or XP.

Initially we wanted to go with XP because it was cheaper; but discovered the VX version.

Both were user friendly. XP featured easier customisation, whereas VX had easier event creations; database of differing character archetypes. As impressive as the archetypes system is; we only have 4 characters so it's a bit much for what we really require. As we wanted to focus on the appearance and create our characters XP proved to still be the preferred program. The sprites were also taller, making more detail easier to fit on.

Character Developing

-Trying to flesh out the main characters a bit more.

Within the first week back, our group met up to talk over our main characters for the project, this was so we could provide some visual imagery for the design document and presentation; also as our aim for this project is to be a narrative driven RPG storyline we knew it was vital that our character were an integral piece to the project. We need to know them inside out. Out group did cover the main 4 (Though the main characters are the 2 detectives) earlier but we decided to each draw up ten silhouettes of each of the 4 characters; which is where an issue presented itself; one of the detectives: we had no idea what we wanted from her.

So after bouncing ideas around, we drew up some ideas. Sticking solely to just ideas, nothing set in stone as this is only BA7, but to properly fleshing out the storyline we have come up with, some visual representations would benefit us in this area as well.

We deduced that from the 2 detectives we wanted:

Female: light weaponry= manoeuvrable clothing

daggers or rapier

choppy, short hair.

trench coat/jacket?

 

Male: Tie, trench coat- general suit based clothes

scruffy hair

guns

 

The guard:  Armour- not bogged down with it as she is female, would take away the advantage of dexterity.

Broad sword

Thick hair 'a mane of it', due to us picking her race as a 'leo'

 

The Prince: 'slight' physique

short stature

nice clothing

 

-silhouettes.

-will be uploaded later, blogger wasn't able to upload the image.