Jennifer - Modern Game Design

[RaharuAharu]

Jennifer,

I was thinking of you, and your post on The Jenniverse
http://jenniverse.com/MultiverseGame.html


Have you considered crafting a game, with todays entry level game engines like RPG maker and others.

Even something as simple as a visual Novel would be well within your reach now with modern tools!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/345370/
Check this one out for example.
TyranoBuilder Visual Novel Studio
The EASIEST and FASTEST tool to make your own multi-platform visual novels! Quickly create your own games for Windows / MacOS / iOS / Android / HTML5 / CSS3, even if you know nothing about game programming or scripting!

[Coda]

I was looking back at that yesterday, as well. Somehow I managed to miss it when it was first posted.

Multiverse the Game looks like it was meant to be a sidescroller. Those tend to be harder to hack up with preconstructed tools -- I'm not familiar with any "instant sidescroller" systems like exist for RPGs and VNs. Even FPS games are easier to come by, with the huge number of free/open-source 3D engines out there.

That said: I actually wanted to offer my own experience as a veteran software engineer in the matter!

I've been doing a LOT of procedurally-generated game development lately. In fact, one of the games I'm working on (very slowly) is itself a multiversal-exploration game, where the player travels between splays of a cosmos to try to unravel the mystery hidden within, delving towards the core of the splay-corrupting influence as the land grows darker and more dangerous.

When I read that Jennifer got the rights back from Activision instead of having them sealed away as a helpless orphan work, I got excited about the possibility of helping her make that old dream a reality -- if that's something she's interested in.



... Are you interested, Jennifer?

[RaharuAharu]

I was looking back at that yesterday, as well. Somehow I managed to miss it when it was first posted.

Multiverse the Game looks like it was meant to be a sidescroller. Those tend to be harder to hack up with preconstructed tools -- I'm not familiar with any "instant sidescroller" systems like exist for RPGs and VNs. Even FPS games are easier to come by, with the huge number of free/open-source 3D engines out there.

That said: I actually wanted to offer my own experience as a veteran software engineer in the matter!

I've been doing a LOT of procedurally-generated game development lately. In fact, one of the games I'm working on (very slowly) is itself a multiversal-exploration game, where the player travels between splays of a cosmos to try to unravel the mystery hidden within, delving towards the core of the splay-corrupting influence as the land grows darker and more dangerous.

When I read that Jennifer got the rights back from Activision instead of having them sealed away as a helpless orphan work, I got excited about the possibility of helping her make that old dream a reality -- if that's something she's interested in.

I would love to hear more about your game concept!

... Are you interested, Jennifer?

[Coda]

I would love to hear more about your game concept!

(Psst, you accidentally put your reply INSIDE the quote. ^^())

I haven't really fleshed out any of the story ideas yet. Being that I'm primarily an engineer, and creative writing is just a hobby that I don't do enough, I've been focusing on the game mechanics more than the plot.

Mechanically speaking... It's a turn-based RPG with a top-down, procedurally-generated map. I'm considering making it purely use equipment progression instead of levels, but I'm not set on that.

The key game mechanic is a multiversal portal invented by the protagonist, who doesn't know what to expect on the other side or really even how it works. Through the course of gameplay, you find rune stones that interfere with the "home" side of the portal, bending its destination into other splays. Each rune stone is connected to some conceptual signifier, making the portal point towards splays exhibiting that concept, but too many rune stones in proximity to the portal causes it to not work at all. (Mechanically, the runes influence the parameters to the world generator, which is also seeded with a unique value, so every playthrough is different.)

Instead of having the plot presented to you, it's more of an exploration game. The people you meet in the splays that you visit tell you about what's happening in their world, and as you progress to later rune stones, the stories are increasingly troubled, with a common thread of darkness and corruption and monsters from another world. Researchers you meet along the way (in some sense, parallels of the player) have theories and information about it.

Eventually you will find the set of rune stones that points the portal to the big bad's home splay where you can solve the problem at the source.