Hello all,
I've got an idea for a game, and I've been bouncing it around in my head for a while. Since ideas are a dime a dozen, I'm going to need to do some actual work on it before I can start recruiting for any help here, but I find it difficult to come up with a linear idea of how to do the project, so basically what I'm asking for here is advice on how to design the basic elements of the game.
The game idea is tentatively entitled "What I Did at My High School Prom." It's not a pure adventure game by any stretch of the imagination - it has elements of RPG and strategy, but I want to keep an adventure core. Essentially, it's a "genre pastiche" of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - the premise is that the player is the high school principal who must organize a team of teenage superheros to clear the town of Riverside of the undead menace. The central game control would be a map of the town (which I have already begun to work on) with the high school, naturally, at the center. Missions would be presented by some sort of email-style interface, and control would be turn-based. When a mission becomes available, the player clicks on the region of the town in which it takes place and then is given control either of the principal or a teen he's sending on a mission. Combat would be handled Quest for Glory style - going to a combat screen when a monster "catches" you.
Basically I am wondering where I should start with this. Since I suck at art I will eventually need to recruit an artist somewhere, and I'll be checking into that to see if I can feasibly find a free artist online once I have something to show, or whether I should pay. I think I can do the scripting with the help of the forums here; I've written a 3D space combat sim and overall I understand the logic behind how to do most of what I need to do. But what I am having trouble with is coming up with an organized idea of how to map out the basic game functions... should I start with scripting the main map screen, or what?
I again want to emphasize that this is NOT a recruitment thread. I've been here on and off since the late 1990s and I've had a lot of failed projects where I got a great idea and tried to find a team, then realized I needed more than an idea. So basically what I'm asking for is advice on how to get started so I can have something to show for this...
I've got an idea for a game, and I've been bouncing it around in my head for a while. Since ideas are a dime a dozen, I'm going to need to do some actual work on it before I can start recruiting for any help here, but I find it difficult to come up with a linear idea of how to do the project, so basically what I'm asking for here is advice on how to design the basic elements of the game.
The game idea is tentatively entitled "What I Did at My High School Prom." It's not a pure adventure game by any stretch of the imagination - it has elements of RPG and strategy, but I want to keep an adventure core. Essentially, it's a "genre pastiche" of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - the premise is that the player is the high school principal who must organize a team of teenage superheros to clear the town of Riverside of the undead menace. The central game control would be a map of the town (which I have already begun to work on) with the high school, naturally, at the center. Missions would be presented by some sort of email-style interface, and control would be turn-based. When a mission becomes available, the player clicks on the region of the town in which it takes place and then is given control either of the principal or a teen he's sending on a mission. Combat would be handled Quest for Glory style - going to a combat screen when a monster "catches" you.
Basically I am wondering where I should start with this. Since I suck at art I will eventually need to recruit an artist somewhere, and I'll be checking into that to see if I can feasibly find a free artist online once I have something to show, or whether I should pay. I think I can do the scripting with the help of the forums here; I've written a 3D space combat sim and overall I understand the logic behind how to do most of what I need to do. But what I am having trouble with is coming up with an organized idea of how to map out the basic game functions... should I start with scripting the main map screen, or what?
I again want to emphasize that this is NOT a recruitment thread. I've been here on and off since the late 1990s and I've had a lot of failed projects where I got a great idea and tried to find a team, then realized I needed more than an idea. So basically what I'm asking for is advice on how to get started so I can have something to show for this...