Palette Quest IIId: Somewhere Over The Rainbow

[monkey0506]

[And now for something completely different...an idea for a legitimate game...with storyline, plot, and everything!]

Your name is Roy G. Bellevue. You lived a simple life until...the incident. Every day you would go to work at the fruit market. Your true passion was always star-gazing though you couldn't afford a proper telescope. It's been a week since the incident though, and nothing has been the same.

When you first awoke you noticed it immediately. It was hard not to. You couldn't see a thing. At first you couldn't remember why you had suddenly gone blind. As your vision returns though, so too does your memory.

As you embark on your quest to restore your vision you will encounter many great and terrible things. You must be wary of those things which would further impare your vision, for these will be many. Along the way you will find that what happened to you was no mere accident. You are but one of many who have been affected, though only as your trail unfolds shall the true culprit be revealed!

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Open to any suggestions!

monkey

[Kweepa]

Your name is Roy G. Bellevue.

My suggestion is to change the name to Roy G. Bivouac.

[monkey0506]

No!! NO!

Lol. Bellevue was the first thing that came to mind (Biv isn't really a name ). And "beautiful view" seemed a fitting last name.

I shall discuss this with the Jedi Council and inform the infidels when the deliberations have completed.

[EDIT:]

One of my many ideas for this project is that solving certain puzzles throughout the game will help to clear up Roy's vision, while others will further impair it. Color distortion is a must!

I'd actually like to make a medium-full length game out of this if possible. Thanks for any ideas or suggestions. Also artistry and music offers are welcome!

Also, regarding the title...It's called Palette Quest IIId (3d) because 1) it's the third in the Palette Quest series, 2) I'm a firm believer that all third-episode games should profess to be 3D (three-dimensional) whether this claim is actually true or not, 3) it's also a play on version information, i.e. as in v3.0a and v3.0b, this is v3.0d. The subtitle "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" isn't really a reference to The Wizard of Oz or to the song, I just thought it would make a nice addition that would 1) present a familiar allusion to something that the game really has nothing to do with and 2) make reference to color. What's more colorful than the rainbow?

[lo_res_man]

What will the player see it at first though? a black screen? no offence, but that would be hyper annoying

[monkey0506]

Hyper annoying?

I was actually considering a fully black screen with very vague descriptions of what things were!!!

Actually the opening cutscene would probably initialize his visibility. Something with lots of color distortion but not so much as to make it impossible to tell what things are.

Right now I'm working on the next version of my QueuedSpeech module (while I gather ideas for this project ). That should hopefully be released soon and I'll begin some initial work on this.

[lo_res_man]

"hyper" as in ultra, as in mega, and really, really.
sorrry for any confusion.

[TerranRich]

I think this is a novel idea for a game. Blind at first, slowly regaining eyesight at the game progresses. I just can't wait to see it implemented.

[monkey0506]

The majority of the vision loss is going to be achieved via color distortion. At least that's the current idea. Sticking with the Palette Quest theme.

I'll make sure not to implement any playable scenes where you can't see anything.

There's still a lot up in the air about this project, I just thought that perhaps making a legitimate game might be a keen idea (seeing as the way things are going now my Monkey Island project won't be released until 2010 or later (and no, you can't quote me as saying that...it's not an official release date)).

The exact terms under which visibility-limitations will be determined...haven't yet been determined. But I will try to make sure that the user gets the idea that Roy can't see clearly.

[Janik]

I'll make sure not to implement any playable scenes where you can't see anything.

Well, if you were blind you would feel around to know where you're going, and use sound too, right? Try an experiment where you close your eyes and walk around carefully. By touching objects, you build up a mental picture of what is where. So... how about it working like this, you move the mouse around, and somehow using the mouse cursor you try to convey the feeling of touch. As you move around edges, you start to "see" objects. Say you are touching a bowl of fruit... at first it would be represented visually as, say, first a vague fuzzy round shape, eventually gaining detail so that you find out that it's a bowl of fruit.

Hmm and then since you forget what was where eventually, when the player moves away from the bowl of fruit and starts to focus on something else, the bowl of fruit starts to fade away and become less clear.

Anyway I think that's a really neat idea and I'm curious to see how you go with it. My mother is legally blind (she is still ambulatory though) so I've often wondered what it would be like to be blind...

[Vince Twelve]

Exactly what you're describing was done in "Into the Light"

EDIT: Here

[Janik]

Thanks Vince, I just finished it. My idea wasn't totally original  :'(

It was a very interesting experience, and some good puzzles too!

[lo_res_man]

not to mention the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy text adventure