A brief history of Reality on the Norm

[Layabout]

And please. No more games with Davy Jones as the main character. He can be so pathetic angsty emo like.

Angsty emo-like?  I've never found the character to exhibit those traits.  Of course, given the unlimited freedom, someone could make a game where Griff runs around in a giant bear costume and ends up sitting on shelves in New York.

Umm... Well I guess that's more the way I see him.

Anyway, he should have stayed dead and has gotten far more attention than he really should have. And his girlfriend certainly has him under the thumb. Seriously alot of other good characters to utilise out there. The Baron for instance? He needs to be showcased in a game in his full evilness. Thakbor would also be a great player character. Perhaps a Thakbor/Thakbor's Mum Quest where you can control both of them.

Due to the open-ness of the whole Universe, there are a lot of very weak characters as well, along with games. There are alot of RON games out there, with only a few that I'd personally recommend.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Well, nothing's stopping you from making a game about Thakbor except you, really!

I also agree that Davy Jones is rather annoying, and in my as-yet unmade game I planned to kill him yet again, as well as many of the more ridiculous RoN characters.

[DeviantGent]

Thakbor's the main protagonist in my current RON project. I'm keeping schtum, but here's a background that may provide a clue as to what it involves.

[Renegade Implementor]

I think one of the problems RoN suffers is a case of "tv main cast" syndrome.  I've seen far too many game proposals that are variants on themes from the first few games that centre around the same small group of characters.

With regards to character design/development in general, I've never understood the desire to stomp/trash/kill a fictional character.  If you identify a character as problematic, I think it's much better to identify what the problem is and then, as a writer, address the problem and fix it.

As for the huge amount of characters & games, once the holiday season is over, I'm planning on holding a discussion on the series and possible ways to move forward in the new year.

[Layabout]

Well, nothing's stopping you from making a game about Thakbor except you, really!

I also agree that Davy Jones is rather annoying, and in my as-yet unmade game I planned to kill him yet again, as well as many of the more ridiculous RoN characters.

Well I do agree with you there somewhat. I'm working on a game and I'm not allowed to work on anything but since I'll get distracted and put it 'on hold'... indefinitly.

And DC is already making one, so hooray. I hope it features Guido.

Speaking of which, if Jesus RON ever gets released, it will heavily feature Guido and his nude beach. Hooray.

Oh, and to RI, Davy's death was a great thing. It did go against the ground rules of RON in a way (although I'm pretty sure Yahtzee gave his consent to Davy's death), it made it more like a soap opera (sort of, his death (the Mostly version) was a bit outrageous), which was the original intent of Gravity when he proposed the idea (which was somewhat taken off track by Yahtzee et al).

On a direction forward for RON, I like the idea of the updated sprites and backgrounds. What I've seen by Krysis and RI and others is a vast improvement, but as to updating the older RON games, I don't really see much point, apart from to maybe make them compatible with XP, Vista and the forthcoming 7. As for 'deluxe' versions with extended content, I'm not really sure it is worth the effort (although I suppose if you are completly rescripting a game, there would be no problem adding extra content.)

Perhaps what is needed is a RON reboot. There have been several attempts in the past to create a RON 2.0, one I know of was several high-profile AGSers collaborating to create a space station type RON. That's not the kind of thing I am thinking of though. Perhaps a re-working of major locations, nicer graphics (though still relatively simple so not to turn-off those creators who's asset creation ability is not amazing. Something like the 'Krysis' style. Locations such as the Town square should be redesigned, as I've always found it strange that the Jones' house in in the bloody town square. That doesn't really make much sense, as apart from the apartments, it should be a commercial area (as it would be in any town square, the only houses would be above shops, which would make them flats. The core locations were created in the space of maybe 5 days.

I'd like to see a RON committee formed, to set the rules for the reboot, create new character profiles, give some characters a bit more of a backstory. I know it's an open project, but simple things make it alot better for everyone. And before any RON game is released, the committee should be part of the beta test, and it should be 'approved'. If some details are incorrect, they would be noted by the committee. If a character acts 'out of character', it should be noted by the testing committee and fixed, or explained in the game why this character did this through dialog or something. It's late and I'm rambling, but I've though quite a bit about this in the last few days.

It would be a nice thing to see RON return bigger and better than ever. And I think by setting a few new rules, give it a bit of a reboot, keep the old games naturally, but have them in a different section of the website.

Things that would also be useful, a detailed streetmap of RON, and something like a 'guidebook' entry of RON, detailing the history, backstory, sights, places to stay, make it seem authentic (I did both of these with the series a long time ago on paper, it was a mess due to the sort of inconsistancies, but unfortunatly do not have it anymore). Something like this would be very useful to new authors, as they can choose an 'unused' location on the streetmap and create new rooms, not just put them anywhere. It would definatly be a big collaborative effort to create such a thing, but it can be done.

Anyway, that's my ideas and input for now. Aww, I feel all nostalgic now, this reminds me of the thread that created RON.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

If you identify a character as problematic, I think it's much better to identify what the problem is and then, as a writer, address the problem and fix it.

And one of the ways problematic characters are 'fixed' in films and television (and novels) is to kill them off.  If you notice, they'll usually sacrifice less popular characters in tv series for cliffhanger type endings to boost ratings.  It happens all the time.

Also, the game Grundislav and I have been bouncing around features Guido heavily.

Proof:

[MrColossal]

FIXED

[jetxl]

...

Due to the open-ness of the whole Universe, there are a lot of very weak characters as well, along with games. There are alot of RON games out there, with only a few that I'd personally recommend.

Could you list those?

[Radiant]

Perhaps what is needed is a RON reboot.

Isn't that essentially what Maniac Mansion Mania does? That, too, is basically a set of characters and locations with a semi-ongoing plot that everybody can use and add to...

[Layabout]

Perhaps what is needed is a RON reboot.

Isn't that essentially what Maniac Mansion Mania does? That, too, is basically a set of characters and locations with a semi-ongoing plot that everybody can use and add to...

How is MMM a reboot Radiant? Its just a continuation of the Maniac Mansion games created by Germans. This is about Reality on the Norm.

I agree with Progz about the way to deal with problematic characters. And I know all about the Grundislav Chef game.

[Radiant]

How is MMM a reboot Radiant? Its just a continuation of the Maniac Mansion games created by Germans. This is about Reality on the Norm.

I'm aware. My point is that MMM is, essentially, the competition. Sure, it's a different universe, but both are collaborative design settings, with strongly overlapping target audiences.

[Layabout]

Yeah, but only German's make games for MMM. That's not competition in my eyes.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

And I know all about the Grundislav Chef game.

The Grundislav Chef game!?  BLUSTER!  The idea for it was mine! 

Though he did suggest making it a musical, which is a grand idea.


Eric- His penis isn't NEARLY as big as it was in that one game everyone knows about, and that's practically canon.  I demand you fix this immediately.

[DeviantGent]

Heh, I remember making an attempt to explain the Jones house and the oddness of its location in my (not quite yet abandoned) short story Back to Reality. I see it as a throwback to the time when Sigsimund Jones was the town's main protector and thus was billited in the Town Centre.

Right, now follows some random ideas of mine.

I think it would help to have newer games set in the 2004/5 onwards timeframe, to act as a clear distinction from the older ones in the series. Failing that, to split the current games so far into a couple of clearly defined 'seasons'.

There's a few administrative tweaks that can be done to properly facilitate new folks into getting their bearings. Seperating the character bios would be a good idea, because right now it's 8 pages in the order they were introduced with nothing to denote their importance. Maybe something like 'player characters', 'major secondary characters' (10+ game appearences), 'minor secondary characters' (5+ game appearences), 'one off characters' (1-2 game appearences). There were also talks a while back of properly pimping out the games section to award more prominence to the better games of the series.

Also, something the oldies can really help with - the RON wiki. This has the potential to be an extremly valuable resource that would really help out those who right now feel they don't know enough about the series to make a game. Plot summaries, ongoing stories, a definitive list of the Bum's indentities... I think this should be a big project for next year. Maybe people taking a few games or characters worth of entries each? Would be a good excuse to replay the series...

Finally, there are talks of doing that proposed remake of Lunchtime of the Damned, but with Big Brother's backgrounds and Mr Frisby's sprites, along with adding more to the story. If people were to play that as their first ever RON game, I think good times will be pretty much guarenteed from then on.

[m0ds]

Great video, thorough & interesting presentation Dave, nice to see RoN get promoted like that. It's still funny that the character I was going to use was mentioned on even the newest website, even though I never made it. I think that's when RoN first happened, someone said "Everyone make up a character whether you use them or not"... Anyway good stuff! Interested to know if anyone still uses my midi in their intro screen still or whether it's been replaced. Saying that I'm always happy to make more tunes for anyone's RoN game. Take for example Apocolypse Meow. Well done tho Dave, nice stuff!

[DeviantGent]

That tune has survived the entire series, Mods. Be very proud.

[MrColossal]

I demand you fix this immediately.

I'm sure it comes as no surprise to find that I made this very shortly after making the first image.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Much better.  Spaghetti with meatballs!

[DeviantGent]

...

MY MIND.

[jetxl]

Ah, penis jokes, they never get old.

So how about that list?