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Hello xda. Dblfstr here with a New Year's resolution. I have been toying with android for quite a few years now and I think I am ready to actually develop something on my own. This thread will be dedicated to the ongoing status of my game "Launch Meat"
To begin, I know I am going to make a side-scrolling platformer (Think Super Mario Bros., Contra, Mega Man, etc). However, since The new year has just begun, I am only in the idea phase. Still thinking about story, characters, bad guys, plot, all the things I need to decide before I actually start coding.
I am working now with my wife and my children to come up with ideas. My son has a very, very, wild imagination, and my daughter is becoming an excellent artist. That with my wife's ability to predict the future (can all women do that?), we should be able to come up with something fun and entertaining.
What I ask of you, and it is not mandatory, is for input on all of the topics above. What makes a good game? What would poeple like me and you like to play. What do you think the next hit game will be?
Now I am not looking to make millions or even tens of dollars. I just want to make a fully functional game. Think of it a test, a first step into creating something really worthwhile. That does not mean I do not have expectation for my game, but I am realistic.
Of course, since this is the beginning, I do not expect a lot of traffic here, nor do I expect someone to provide me with the next million dollar idea. I made this post now as a place holder and possibly an idea pool.
That is all I have for now, but here is to a new year!
-Dblfstr
Concept Art
Initial Sketch of Protagonist
Initial rendering of Antagonist 1
Story Line/Concept/Ideas
Developing story:
Back-story: There is a planet [unnamed] that hosts a race of Turkeys. These are not turkeys that we know and love (to eat), but a rave of un-featherd turkeys with no heads. (Cooked Turkeys). Many years ago, before civilzation, the turkey race transplanted some pioneers onto earth. There they would colonize earth and spread the species. However, the humans evolved faster and rose to the top of the food chain. The turkeys slowly (devolved) grew feathers, and heads and became the turkeys we know today. (Still needs some detail)
Our hero is on a mission to earth to reconnect with his turkey brethren, and see what kind of advancements they have made on earth. Of course [something - possibly a breach in the hull, causing his supplies to be scattered over various planets and celestial objects] goes wrong and our hero is left stranded on earth and must collect fuel and parts for his journey home.
He searches to not only reconnect with his long lost turkey race that had been placed on earth centuries ago, but to seek help from them in fixing his ship for his eventual journey home. He finds some of his turkey race on a farm a quickly realizes that things had not gone according to plan; that the race of turkeys on earth have devolved into the turkeys we know and love (to eat). This devolved race have not worn their suits and helmets for so long that they have grow feathers to survive the earth climate (No longer cooked turkey race, but regular earth turkeys). Our hero realizes what has happened, and that they cannot help him, so he decides he must rescue (a few) turkeys and bring them back home with him, to let his people know what has become of the earth settlers.
(I am thinking they are born raw, and naturally mature to cooked, or the cooking process helps with space travel... idk)
Throughout his journey he must collect items: fuel, food, coins, ammunition, a survivor, to complete each level.
more to come...
Old:
Some creature/character has to do something during each level. Each level has a common goal. Is there someone to save, someone to defeat? Broken up into 16 levels? With 4 (to begin with) sections.
Not a puzzle game.
Adventure?
Collecting items?
-Ideas "Launch Meat" (play on lunch meat)
Character is a fully cooked turkey with an astronauts helmet.
Our character - [name] Has to complete each level to get to his space ship.
Timed levels.
Obstacles in the form of bad guys (different for each world) Aliens, farmers, debris etc.
16 levels per world:
4 Worlds
Earth
Moon
Planet
Planet
(eventually home planet of cooked turkey people.)
Launch meat:
Enemies:
Farmer
Eyeball Guy
Aliens
Random Obstacles
Items:
Fuel
Food
Health
Coins
Power-Ups
Speed
Jump
Invincibility
Weapons
Spork
Butter
Gravy
User Submitted Ideas/Comments
Due to my not-so-great computer graphics skillz. Render my my drawings directly as the graphics for the game.
Keep it simple - overcomplicated games can easily turn players off, and/or loose their intent.
Controls - Maintain fluid motion and responsiveness. All in all with realistic feel.
Physical controls - Too many buttons = bad. Not enough buttons = bad. Intuitive, responsive buttons = good.
Story Line - Again, keep it simple. Over convoluted games will loose players. (And become very hard to incorporate).
Purpose - Leave it up to the player to what percent that want to complete the game. Give the player choices as to what they want to accomplish yet have one visible goal for everyone.
Art - Art must match the game, players, scenery, controls, music. Any of these not following a common thing will make the game look incomplete or unfinished.
Performance - This is a hard pone. Their are a wide variety of android phones, all sizes and shapes, all with different processing power.
Developing for the majority of devices will be difficult, but necessary for a good user experience. Keep this in mind while controlling graphics and motion.
Cooked turkeys are actually "born" (produced in mass, maybe? they're an advanced species that gave up normal ways of birth centuries ago and use a cloning method now, etc) as raw turkeys and must undergo a process to mature and become alive: being cooked.
The evil guys, turkeys that are born cooked, are the less advanced species. They were lazy and didn't bother to follow up with science, and now they seek to steal the technology of the advanced turkeys. However, they have no clue and are trying multiple methods (all of which will fail! oh no!) to try and understand how to cook turkeys... In order to so, they are kidnapping advanced (raw and inert) turkeys and trying to cook them using different methods: on solar power, using gas, with ketchup, without ketchup, with tomatoes, etc.
Our hero must save the raw turkeys, because as advanced as his species might be, these raw turkeys are not easily produced, and resources are becoming scarce lately (which could be why such an advanced species only sent one guy to do this mission... lol).
Collectibles: he can find some rare resources that might help him get upgrades; also, some of the raw turkeys he saves might actually be cooked turkeys that were mistakenly abducted, and could help him (by offering him resources/items/upgrades, or by actually helping him if you're willing to develop an AI for them too).
Include a sabotaging mechanism (e.g. produce steam to cloud the sun for solar power cooking, breaking the roof while it's raining outside and turning off the fire, etc) without it being a puzzle (just a few jumps while having to avoid attacks and what not; something like Mario where you have to fight Bowser and rescue Peach: you have to avoid his flames while trying to get to the button to open the bridge and get rid of him).
High replayability level (e.g. Death Worm, Canabalt HD), are games to play to waste a few minutes (e.g. Doodle Jump), or puzzle/strategy games.
Include achievements/unlockables.
Endless level mode would be nice. It would allow the player to play anytime even if he finished the story (or not), and without having to worry about time.
Tell the story in a graphic novel, just like Max Payne, it makes the player give more attention to it.
customizable character, which would put more "player style" on the game.
Power ups are also great ideas
Icon.. and presentation. How it looks at first glance. Doesn't have to be something with high end graphics but something that looks clean. (icon, screenshots, etc).
Thanks,
GermainZ
KidCarter93
polobunny
XxLordxX
Blastz729
Progress
1/24/2013 - All screens are done (expect each level). I reworked the screenBase so that each screen does less work. I was starting to create the 'world' and ran into too many possibilities of how to approach the world and the characters, etc. so for the time being, I am going to create some very small games from tutorials just to get a better idea of how to approach this.
1/22/2013 - Added helpful links
1/17/2013 - Added some more user input, uploaded an initial render of the protagonist. Also added a header image for "Launch Meat".
1/16/2013 - Added some story line with back-story.
1/15/2012 - Added initial sketch of Protagonist, yet to be named.
1/14/2013 - Even though I have done all the android tutorials (Hello World!, etc), I have redone them all just as a refresher. Also made a couple of Minecraft mods to refresh my Java (not great at Java, yet). Plan to follow along with Android game Development Tutorial. Looks there there is a lot of information there.
1/11/2013 - Created the thread. Put up brief intro and some general idea of what I want to do.
Helpful Links:
Eclipse IDE Duh
Libgdx Open source game engine for android/desktop/html all in one.
Box2D Open source physics engine for many platforms (Libgdx has Box2D implementation)
Tutorials:
Tutorials on Game Logic and Architecture (Libgdx and android)
Box2D Tutorials
Box2D Polygon Editor
Libgdx, Box2D and more tutorials
Tutorial using Libgdx
Android game Development Tutorial
What makes a good game is a hard question to answer. It's a lot about opinions, but there's some general rules you can go by.
A simple method of controlling: More buttons isn't necessarily better. On mobile this is key, because there's no tactile feedback like a game controller. You will see most of platformers have a directional pad/analog stick like direction and 2 main action buttons plus a menu button to pause, restart, exit and so on. Very important that the controls are responsive. This touches 2 things, the controls themselves and the way the character moves around (animations and physics). I've tried some indie games and uninstalled them in a split second just because the character felt like it was gliding on the ground.
Storyline and goals: The story doesn't need to be extremely convoluted, the first Mario games are a good example. Same for Megaman and alike. Same for the level goals and the game goal(s). Don't make it a point to collect everything or explore every centimeter of the level. Leave some choice to the user, whether they want to zoom through the game or collect everything. Bonify the completionist, but don't penalize the speedy gonazales. Once again, platform classics are a good example. In Mario you can take the pipe to go quickly around the level, or the panoramic koopa view. In Megaman you can find every powerup, energy tank and such or simply kill the bad guys.
Art: Bad art can kill a game. It's not really about what it looks like rather than the consitency of the style. This goes for the colors, the shapes and also the music. A bad music loop that doesn't seem to blend properly with the graphics or the action will not be enjoyable.
Processing, fluidity and physics: It's important to take into consideration that most mobiles are somewhat underpowered. While you might want to recreate the next Skyrim, chances are you will have to settle for a bit less. The game must be smooth on a majority of currently available and used devices and the loading not too attrociously long. A lot of people will play mobile games in their breaks, while waiting for something or in public transport. If you have to wait a full minute for the game to load, it's a deal breaker. It's not necessary as a starting developper to create a very graphically heavy and intensive game. You can shorten your programming time by using an already programmed game engine, which will make your life easier by not having to worry too much about merging graphics, sound and physics together.
Touching again with the physics, consistency is important. If your character jumps too quickly, falls too quickly, runs too quickly it will make your game hard to play. If it's too slow it will feel boring.
All in all, good luck!
polobunny said:
What makes a good game is a hard question to answer. It's a lot about opinions, but there's some general rules you can go by.
A simple method of controlling: More buttons isn't necessarily better. On mobile this is key, because there's no tactile feedback like a game controller. You will see most of platformers have a directional pad/analog stick like direction and 2 main action buttons plus a menu button to pause, restart, exit and so on. Very important that the controls are responsive. This touches 2 things, the controls themselves and the way the character moves around (animations and physics). I've tried some indie games and uninstalled them in a split second just because the character felt like it was gliding on the ground.
Storyline and goals: The story doesn't need to be extremely convoluted, the first Mario games are a good example. Same for Megaman and alike. Same for the level goals and the game goal(s). Don't make it a point to collect everything or explore every centimeter of the level. Leave some choice to the user, whether they want to zoom through the game or collect everything. Bonify the completionist, but don't penalize the speedy gonazales. Once again, platform classics are a good example. In Mario you can take the pipe to go quickly around the level, or the panoramic koopa view. In Megaman you can find every powerup, energy tank and such or simply kill the bad guys.
Art: Bad art can kill a game. It's not really about what it looks like rather than the consistency of the style. This goes for the colors, the shapes and also the music. A bad music loop that doesn't seem to blend properly with the graphics or the action will not be enjoyable.
Processing, fluidity and physics: It's important to take into consideration that most mobiles are somewhat underpowered. While you might want to recreate the next Skyrim, chances are you will have to settle for a bit less. The game must be smooth on a majority of currently available and used devices and the loading not too atrociously long. A lot of people will play mobile games in their breaks, while waiting for something or in public transport. If you have to wait a full minute for the game to load, it's a deal breaker. It's not necessary as a starting developper to create a very graphically heavy and intensive game. You can shorten your programming time by using an already programmed game engine, which will make your life easier by not having to worry too much about merging graphics, sound and physics together.
Touching again with the physics, consistency is important. If your character jumps too quickly, falls too quickly, runs too quickly it will make your game hard to play. If it's too slow it will feel boring.
All in all, good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your input. You are correct in these deal breakers with indie games. I feel your pain with lag and unresponsiveness. Myself being an avid gamer, yet a Game Developing N00b, ( I will developing this all by myself) I do need to understand the majority input on game basics, what is needed vs. what is superfluous.
For art, I consider my self a pretty good artist. However, computer graphics and pencil drawings are two separate things. I will struggle to complete full sets of game graphics alone, but I have a plan to assist in this matter.
Physics and game engine. I have been looking into open source physics engines for a while and I think I have settled on Box2D. This will hopefully help in keeping the physics and game play smooth and a maintain a nice user experience.
Storyline. Since this is my first game (first app) that I will be developing. I do not want to burden myself with completely immersible stories and character development. I am shooting for a simple and fun side-scroller with a seemingly obvious objective; complete the level. Goals, however, are yer to be determined.
Controls so far are left right jump and one or two action buttons, depending on what the character can do or needs to do. Obviously this will develop over time.
Thanks again for contributing your input.
-Dblfstr
Considering you're pretty confident with drawing on paper, why not make your game's universe that paper? I can't remember any names, but some fun games I've played in the past had a paper for the background and (rather impressive) doodles for the renders.
I think it would be a good theme, especially if you put some effort into it. For example, everything could be animated: the sky and clouds scrolling and slightly changing colors to imitate actual doodles (you know how doodles aren't fully colored), and so on.
GermainZ said:
Considering you're pretty confident with drawing on paper, why not make your game's universe that paper? I can't remember any names, but some fun games I've played in the past had a paper for the background and (rather impressive) doodles for the renders.
I think it would be a good theme, especially if you put some effort into it. For example, everything could be animated: the sky and clouds scrolling and slightly changing colors to imitate actual doodles (you know how doodles aren't fully colored), and so on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent point. And when I said I have a plan for that (graphics) that was the possibility I was eluding to. I had also thought (still just a thought), to have the graphics in total designed by my children. We were creating some concept drawings last night and I have to say some of the creatures my kids created were rather impressive. I would need to help mold these creatures to fit the theme of the game. But still it is an option. I cannot think of any game yet that is completely designed by children, (graphically speaking). That is one option. The other is as you suggested, turn my drawings into the characters and have the scenery match the style in the same way.
Still throwing ideas around. But I knew making this thread would be helpful.
Thanks for your input!
-Dblfstr
Ballerburg (3D) old school Game with multiplayer would be a great game for Android
I don't know why but most off the c=64 games witch had no good graphics fascinating me much more than all that new game sh!t
Sent from my HTC One X
TylerDurben said:
Ballerburg (3D) old school Game with multiplayer would be a great game for Android
Sent from my HTC One X
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"What makes a good game?" != "What would be a good game?"
First off, I'd like to say that I'll be following this thread closely throughout because of 2 reasons really.
1) I'm a really avid gamer and have always had a big interest in games. Whether it be seeing how a game progresses through it's development, playing the final product or getting to know how the logistics of game development works, I'm a huge fan.
And 2) Ever since I was back in primary school, I've always wanted to be a game developer. Obviously at that point I had no idea as to how much work has to go into creating it but it still always fascinated me.
I've never got around to learning much about this kinda thing but hopefully from following this thread and giving ideas/suggestions to you along the way, it will actually help me learn more about it all aswell
Now, onto the ideas section...
To be honest, I totally agree with everything that polobunny said and had I got here first, my response would've been along those lines. So forgive me if I reiterate some of those points that he made.
Keep It Simple
As already mentioned, it's a lot about opinions but one of the main things which a lot of games have in common is the fact that they aren't over-complicated.
Let's take some popular titles as examples : Angry Birds, Temple Run, Mario, Sonic, Pokémon, Cut The Rope etc.
While some of that list are more complex than others, they still all retain the one basic feature - A simple idea.
With Angry Birds you simply flick birds at pigs, Temple Run/Sonic you run around collecting coins/rings, Pokémon you beat other monsters to make your own stronger...
They all have simple ideas and they've all had great success.
While some games are a lot more complicated but still had success, they've came from a company with lots of people all working on the game.
Art
While art doesn't seem like it would be a major factor in the game, it's one of the first thing the player will notice and will continue to notice. If the art complements the game well, you won't have a problem. Bad art, however, is a big problem. You'd literally be better off having one generic coloured background throughout with no change, than have badly designed background art.
The idea GermainZ had about having the games universe as your drawing paper is a great idea. One great example of that being used in a popular game is Little Big Planet. All of the background, and a lot of the game itself, are simply drawings on cardboard cut-outs which are then placed into the game.
It's the perfect workaround for those who are good at drawing but couldn't reproduce it on a computer.
The Next Step
The fact you know that you want to make a platform is a good start because at least it can give you the basis for everything else.
All that really needs to happen now, for this project to take a major step in the right direction, is to think what kind of game it will be. SK whether it will be more of a collecting items game, or defeating bosses and getting stronger or anything else in between.
Once you've got to that point, ideas of what the game can actually include will become much easier to think about and discuss.
Anyway, I wish you the best of luck with this project mate
EDIT - I don't know if this will be useful to you or not, but I just came across this thread - Android Game Development Tutorial! - and figured it may help.
"Never hit a man with glasses. Use a rock, it'll hurt more."
KidCarter93 said:
First off, I'd like to say that I'll be following this thread closely throughout because of 2 reasons really.
1) I'm a really avid gamer and have always had a big interest in games. Whether it be seeing how a game progresses through it's development, playing the final product or getting to know how the logistics of game development works, I'm a huge fan.
And 2) Ever since I was back in primary school, I've always wanted to be a game developer. Obviously at that point I had no idea as to how much work has to go into creating it but it still always fascinated me.
I've never got around to learning much about this kinda thing but hopefully from following this thread and giving ideas/suggestions to you along the way, it will actually help me learn more about it all aswell
Now, onto the ideas section...
To be honest, I totally agree with everything that polobunny said and had I got here first, my response would've been along those lines. So forgive me if I reiterate some of those points that he made.
Keep It Simple
As already mentioned, it's a lot about opinions but one of the main things which a lot of games have in common is the fact that they aren't over-complicated.
Let's take some popular titles as examples : Angry Birds, Temple Run, Mario, Sonic, Pokémon, Cut The Rope etc.
While some of that list are more complex than others, they still all retain the one basic feature - A simple idea.
With Angry Birds you simply flick birds at pigs, Temple Run/Sonic you run around collecting coins/rings, Pokémon you beat other monsters to make your own stronger...
They all have simple ideas and they've all had great success.
While some games are a lot more complicated but still had success, they've came from a company with lots of people all working on the game.
Art
While art doesn't seem like it would be a major factor in the game, it's one of the first thing the player will notice and will continue to notice. If the art complements the game well, you won't have a problem. Bad art, however, is a big problem. You'd literally be better off having one generic coloured background throughout with no change, than have badly designed background art.
The idea GermainZ had about having the games universe as your drawing paper is a great idea. One great example of that being used in a popular game is Little Big Planet. All of the background, and a lot of the game itself, are simply drawings on cardboard cut-outs which are then placed into the game.
It's the perfect workaround for those who are good at drawing but couldn't reproduce it on a computer.
The Next Step
The fact you know that you want to make a platform is a good start because at least it can give you the basis for everything else.
All that really needs to happen now, for this project to take a major step in the right direction, is to think what kind of game it will be. SK whether it will be more of a collecting items game, or defeating bosses and getting stronger or anything else in between.
Once you've got to that point, ideas of what the game can actually include will become much easier to think about and discuss.
Anyway, I wish you the best of luck with this project mate
EDIT - I don't know if this will be useful to you or not, but I just came across this thread - Android Game Development Tutorial! - and figured it may help.
"Never hit a man with glasses. Use a rock, it'll hurt more."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey KidCarter,
Nice to see you in here. Again, all good points and things that I am trying to keep in mind. Projects like this have a way of forming a mind of their own and growing out of control. I hope I can contain it to keep the complexity down, however I would like it start gaining its own momentum.
The thread you linked, I have seen it before. I did not realize that they were so far along. I think I will follow that tutorial to get some ideas on how to control the world. I looked at parts of it (controlling character and background), I do not know if I will be able to do it that way though, as I will be trying the Box2D engine for things like that. Either way, it looks like a good place to learn some things, and I think it will be fun to follow along.
Thanks again!
-Dblfstr
It is not a good sign of things to come when one cannot setup Libgdx correctly. (Game Engine I chose).
It supposedly works well with Eclipse. However, upon setting up my initial package, I get an error.
Error: Could not create Libdgx_[temp]
cleaning...
Thinking my Hard-drive is a bit fill. 5GB left of 1TB
I will get it sorted out, my friend is bringing me an external 500GB HD.
On to the next.
Added initial sketch of Protagonist, yet to be named.
balintmaci said:
i have never heard of libgdx but i know that my classmate who is not in any ways a good developer made pretty decent stuff in unity (just the basics like controls and a basic map) so if you're a complete noob i could recommend that. also have you considered making it open source? since As you said you're not planning on making millions and it's hard to find anything decent open source for android...
Sent from my MB860 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually Libgdx is an open source game engine for android/desktop/Web applications. It provides the framework needed to create android games. There are others but my research led me to use Libgdx. Also I will be using Box2D for the physics Engine, again an open source project that will control the physics of the players and environment.
The game itself will not be open source, but the link provided by KidCarter has the complete source code for a game and a tutorial from start to finish. If you would like to tinker with it.
I would not consider myself a complete n00b per se, but a complete game developer n00b, yes.
That being said, I have not looked into Unity. I will though, just to see what it offers over Libgdx.
Thanks
Edit: Unity is not free. There is a free license, but a $400.00 fee to add the android toolkit.
balintmaci said:
i suppose he [legally obtained a copy through handwork and saving his money] then
Sent from my MB860 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol
I bet it has some pretty slick methods though. I checked out their site and it seems rather impressive. May be something to look into in the future, You know, for "Launch Meat 2: Revenge of the Turkey".
Love the protagonist's sketch! It made me laugh really hard, and I wonder how good the animations will be
If you could combine it with some neat animations (e.g. jump), the game could be pretty humorous. That's a good thing, even if you it's an action/adventure game (actually, that might make it even better).
For the story, here are a few (quick) ideas.
How about a plot where the cooked turkeys are actually "born" (produced in mass, maybe? they're an advanced species that gave up normal ways of birth centuries ago and use a cloning method now, etc) as raw turkeys and must undergo a process to mature and become alive: being cooked.
However, the cooking process must be done in a very precise manner.
The evil guys, turkeys that are born cooked, are the less advanced species. They were lazy and didn't bother to follow up with science, and now they seek to steal the technology of the advanced turkeys. However, they have no clue and are trying multiple methods (all of which will fail! oh no!) to try and understand how to cook turkeys... In order to so, they are kidnapping advanced (raw and inert) turkeys and trying to cook them using different methods: on solar power, using gas, with ketchup, without ketchup, with tomatoes, etc.
Our hero must save the raw turkeys, because as advanced as his species might be, these raw turkeys are not easily produced, and resources are becoming scarce lately (which could be why such an advanced species only sent one guy to do this mission... lol).
For the collectibles, he can find some rare resources that might help him get upgrades; also, some of the raw turkeys he saves might actually be cooked turkeys that were mistakenly abducted, and could help him (by offering him resources/items/upgrades, or by actually helping him if you're willing to develop an AI for them too).
Say what?
EDIT1: Also, to save the raw turkeys, you could include a sabotaging mechanism (e.g. produce steam to cloud the sun for solar power cooking, breaking the roof while it's raining outside and turning off the fire, etc) without it being a puzzle (just a few jumps while having to avoid attacks and what not; something like Mario where you have to fight Bowser and rescue Peach: you have to avoid his flames while trying to get to the button to open the bridge and get rid of him).
GermainZ said:
Love the protagonist's sketch! It made me laugh really hard, and I wonder how good the animations will be
If you could combine it with some neat animations (e.g. jump), the game could be pretty humorous. That's a good thing, even if you it's an action/adventure game (actually, that might make it even better).
For the story, here are a few (quick) ideas.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GermainZ, you do have a wild imagination. Although, I have not posted it yet, I do have a story developing. So, let me respond to your ideas.
*How about a plot where the cooked turkeys are actually "born" (produced in mass, maybe? they're an advanced species that gave up normal ways of birth centuries ago and use a cloning method now, etc) as raw turkeys and must undergo a process to mature and become alive: being cooked. - Our protagonist, and his race are indeed born as cooked turkeys. (I do like the idea of being raw and maturing in the way you described).
*The evil guys, turkeys that are born cooked, are the less advanced species. They were lazy and didn't bother to follow up with science, and now they seek to steal the technology of the advanced turkeys. However, they have no clue and are trying multiple methods (all of which will fail! oh no!) to try and understand how to cook turkeys... In order to so, they are kidnapping advanced (raw and inert) turkeys and trying to cook them using different methods: on solar power, using gas, with ketchup, without ketchup, with tomatoes, etc.
- Great ideas, I had imagined the bad guys being different species of each planet. Bad Turkeys might make a great addition!
*Our hero must save the raw turkeys, because as advanced as his species might be, these raw turkeys are not easily produced, and resources are becoming scarce lately (which could be why such an advanced species only sent one guy to do this mission... lol).
- Here, my intent was simply for the turkey to make it back home to let his race know what has happened to his devolved brothers and sisters on earth. (i.e, they have evolved to fully feathered turkeys and no longer retain the knowledge of their origins. Simply put, they are food).
*For the collectibles, he can find some rare resources that might help him get upgrades; also, some of the raw turkeys he saves might actually be cooked turkeys that were mistakenly abducted, and could help him (by offering him resources/items/upgrades, or by actually helping him if you're willing to develop an AI for them too).
- Collectables are currently fuel, food, parts for his ship and (coins), maybe for in-app purchases. I do think maybe he should be saving someone though. Perhaps some of the devolved turkeys that are to be eaten. However, this part will not work on other planets.... or could it?
EDIT1: Also, to save the raw turkeys, you could include a sabotaging mechanism (e.g. produce steam to cloud the sun for solar power cooking, breaking the roof while it's raining outside and turning off the fire, etc) without it being a puzzle (just a few jumps while having to avoid attacks and what not; something like Mario where you have to fight Bowser and rescue Peach: you have to avoid his flames while trying to get to the button to open the bridge and get rid of him).
-This I need to give some thought, my wife wants me to add a puzzle aspect, but I do not know if that will fit with the game, or make it overly complicated and distract from the main game sequence. Maybe bonus levels!
Developing story:
He is on a mission to earth to reconnect with his turkey brethren, and see what king of advancements they have made on earth. Of course [something - possibly a breach in the hull, causing his supplies to be scattered over various planets and celestial objects] goes wrong and our hero is left stranded on earth and must collect fuel and parts for his journey home.
He arrives at a farm to not only reconnect with his long lost turkey race that had been placed on earth years ago, but to seek help from them in fixing his ship for his eventual journey home. He quickly realizes that the race of turkeys on earth have devolved into the turkeys we know and love (to eat). [removed] This devolved race have not worn their suits for so long that they have grow feathers to survive the earth climate (No longer cooked turkey race, but regular earth turkeys). Our hero realizes what has happened, and that they cannot help him, so he decides he must rescue (a few) turkeys and bring them back home with him, to let his people know what has become of the earth settlers.
(I am thinking they are born raw, and naturally mature to cooked, or the cooking process helps with space travel... idk)
Still in the early stages.
Great input and these ideas could possibly change, mold the story to help it come to fruition.
Dblfstr said:
EDIT1: Also, to save the raw turkeys, you could include a sabotaging mechanism (e.g. produce steam to cloud the sun for solar power cooking, breaking the roof while it's raining outside and turning off the fire, etc) without it being a puzzle (just a few jumps while having to avoid attacks and what not; something like Mario where you have to fight Bowser and rescue Peach: you have to avoid his flames while trying to get to the button to open the bridge and get rid of him).
-This I need to give some thought, my wife wants me to add a puzzle aspect, but I do not know if that will fit with the game, or make it overly complicated and distract from the main game sequence. Maybe bonus levels!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why not make it optional? You would have multiple ways to complete a level; the puzzle is one way to do so, and will grant you some bonus.
Also, throwing some more ideas here:
Bonus/collectable: Alternate chicken suits for the protagonist;
Collectable: Short books recovered from the space ship that cover some of the history of his species;
Ways of death (cut scene; the characters dies normally, then a cut scene is displayed for some special deaths): Being eaten by humans
:laugh:
Introducing Myskazka, an educational fairy tale service for preschool children. The service contains educational, educational, and therapeutic fairy tales with personal variables. These are stories available to the user both in text form and in the format of audio tales. The mission of the project is to make life easier for parents and make their children happier.
According to experts, more than 90% of psychological problems come from childhood, which is why it is so important to address them as they arise. However, most parents simply don't have the time or moral strength to pay enough attention to them because of their daily routines and busy schedules at work. Often children simply "go headfirst" into gadgets, which the child wastes time on. At the same time, all parents are looking for a service that would simultaneously educate, help the child solve their problems, and allow them to spend their leisure time in a meaningful way. All of this is combined in the service MySkazka, in which you can spend time with a gadget really useful, reading or listening to stories. Psychologists have proven that reading a personalized fairy tale to a child increases the ability to adapt to the adult world and helps quickly resolve difficult situations, as well as foster the child's correct attitude towards life. Thanks to fairy tales, tolerance for others and acceptance of oneself are fostered, and a feeling of comfort and safety is created.
In this article, we want to talk about the service, as well as about the technology we used in our work. Here is what the service's founder Ivan Glushkov says about creating MySkazka: "The idea actually lay on the surface, since almost all small children ask their parents to tell them a story about themselves. I myself remember being told a fairy tale about Vanya as a child.Perhaps these fond memories gave me the idea of creating just such a service.”
When we thought about a problem, we asked ourselves: Who are we going to make the app for? What problem will we solve? And we realized that our target audience is moms and dads who want the best for their children, but don't always know how to explain something to a child or help him. That's where we come in handy, storytellers. Children can't stand lectures and moralizing, but they listen to fairy tales with pleasure.
Of course, fairy tale therapy has special conditions when working with children: the child has to clearly distinguish a fairy tale from reality. As a rule, this skill is formed in a child by the age of 3-4, which is why our fairy tales are aimed at children from the age of 3. In each case, it is important to take into account the individual features of the child's mental development, but one thing is certain: if you work through a problem in childhood with the help of story therapy, there is a good chance that he or she will not encounter a similar situation later on in adulthood.
Next, we began to study the market and competitors - this niche turned out to be quite spacious, the competitors could be counted on the fingers. Most of the competitors:
uses 1-2 variables in stories;
No animation;
No voiceover.
And no wonder: can you imagine how to voice a story with about 6 variables? And how about "favorite toy," "favorite food," and "the present the child wants"? So we thought about this, coming to the conclusion that our fairy tales will be voiced not by a professional speaker, but by a neural network. We chose a company that uses complex neural network models for continuous generation of speech audio signal, deep syntactic and lexical analysis of the text, modeling of intonation and breathing - all this allows to achieve smoothness and expressiveness of artificial speech.
In addition, we added personalization and animation to the voiceover of each tale, and we ended up with unique tales for kids with lots of variables.
We have sorted out the technology and the implementation, the main thing that remains is the content, on which our whole startup will be built. Since the main motive of our app is storytelling, we turned to professional playwrights with a psychological background, whom we managed to find and get interested in the plot of the tales.
Then we started looking for illustrators, because how can a fairy tale exist without colorful pictures? When the project started, we looked at over 500 illustrators-all of them cool in their own way-but it turned out that drawing for children is a special skill. It was imperative that children, and not just adults, like the pictures. In the end, half of them made it to the test assignment, from which it was possible to form a team of 10 illustrators.
What else? We're making a fairy tale in web format, so why not bring it to life? After all, it's easy: we take the layout, prepare it in layers, and animate it. Bingo: the colorful cartoon is ready!
As a result, we ended up with a colorful service that allows us to get rid of children's basic fears and solve some of their problems: fear of the dark and unwillingness to sleep in their crib, difficulties in communicating with their peers and many others. The characters in fairy tales are usually already familiar to children from other fairy tales and cartoons, so they elicit a positive reaction. Most importantly, it really works, because the most important "testers" of our product are the children of our team members! Yes, we make the product for their children as well. )
We already have our own loyal audience, an application in the Appstore, Google Play, and Huawey AppGallery.
MySkazka is proud to partner with charitable foundations and actively participates in the social life of society. By the way, one of the tales on the service is devoted to the problem of tolerance and acceptance by society of children with special developmental needs. It is called "Zebra without stripes," and we highly recommend that every child read it, because it helps us understand that each of us is special and not like the other.
Now MySkazka is the first service that plays audio tales by synthesizing speech based on neural networks. There are many audio tales on the market, but among them MySkazka is the first project that creates personal audio tales, not audio tales voiced in advance by the narrator without reference to a particular child. The solution implemented in the service allows for the real-time voicing of a fairy tale with personal variables specified by the user. In addition, each tale is animated, so it is perceived by the child as a colorful cartoon. All this increases the effect of the fairy tale and adds emotion to the reading!
And this is far from the limit! MySkazka has enormous potential: we want to make hundreds, thousands of useful fairy tales that will help parents solve certain children's problems. Our plans include cooperation with Disney and Greenpeace, as well as with many others whose mission is to help the world and the child. Together, let's raise a spiritually stable and harmonious generation of children!
We will be waiting for your feedback about the service! Feedback, suggestions for cooperation and recommendations you can send to the mail: [email protected]
Link app https://taplink.cc/my___skazka