Introduction
The game is unofficially being called “Shiny Coins” as of right now, the possibility of being renamed as we get further into production is a definite possibility. “Shiny coins” will take place in a fantasy setting, after a serious of cliché events where our main character finds himself falling from the grips of the local bully into the depths of an ancient wishing well. (See story introduction for more information)
At the point where the young man (the main character) would have found himself squished like a bug on a windshield, he passes through what appears to be some sort of portal. This portal leads him into this strange fantasy land where the adventure and the actual game begin.
The fantasy world (unnamed as of yet) will be a host to a variety of interesting creatures. The creatures may reflect things that the human eyes have not seen before, as well as objects that where inanimate in the world before being alive. Although, all the creatures in the world will share one common feature, they will all have a semblance of neutrality. Even so, there will be the unavoidable clash of good vs. bad, it will not be apparent by looking at the visual features of the creatures.
This world in which our main character finds himself will be in great peril and strife. The lands will be under siege from a tyrannous villain – another human that arrived years before our hero, that would claim the lives, souls, and lands of all the peaceful creatures. With the use of artifacts that give this creature the power to control some of the world’s natural states he’s waged a war that can only be stopped by the one from the prophecies.
The prophecies for-tell of a creature that would come from another world and bring life back into the dormant coins. This creature would hold the secret to control the coins within them and would quest to retrieve and restore the artifacts of the land to their rightful place.
The coins play the most important role in this game and are truly the basis of the game. The game will truly focus on what the player can do with the coins. There will be two basic kinds of coins with each type of coin having a long sub-list of coins. The first type will be coins that the player can pick up and carry with them; the second will be coins that can only be interacted with in real-time when found in the game. (For more on coins visit the ‘coins’ section.)
Genre
The genre for “Shiny Coins” is a mutation of a 3d platform/puzzle game. The levels will be played out like an old action “platformer” in the sense that there will be constant progression, with level cues to move the player forward. Though, most of the intricate game play will be focused around a thinking puzzle game.
As we progress more and more into the game we would like to up the difficulty of the puzzles that the player will encounter. Most of the puzzles will involve the environment and the use of “coins” that the player will have in their inventory or that they will have the ability to interact with in the game world.
Development Platform
The game itself will be developed for the PC; at this point we have no plans to develop the game any further then for a release on the PC.
The game will be developed using the C4 game engine as well as integrating Havok’s physic engine into C4’s game engine. We have no plans on releasing the game in the “commercial” sense, only for entrance into the 2010 IGF. ( This was the plan – Unfortunately time and life made it so we where not able to have it ready for IGF for 2010… Oh well!)
Game Summary
The player will be challenge through nine distinctively different levels. In the 2nd through 5th level, the player will be looking to find one of the artifacts that are being used by the main antagonist to control nature’s wrath. During the 6th through the 9th the player will be returning the artifacts to their rightful place and restoring the land to a natural balance once again.
The first level will be the “introduction” level, where the player will land on active volcano, where from the top he will notice a ‘city’. The only cue for the player to move to this city will be that they’re on top of an active volcano and the city will be shown to them. We’re hoping that instinct will prevail and knowing that being on top of an active volcano is bad, the player will want to move to civilization; as well as wanting to figure out “where they are.”
One of the most important aspects of the game is that there is no death, this being a fantasy world anything is really possible; therefore certain things that pertain to the living don’t apply here such as, breathing, eating, drinking, being decapitated by a flying monkey with a chainsaw. Even taking this into consideration one still doesn’t want to find themselves in situations where painful non-deaths may happen. So rather than a most unpleasant death when you fall into hot molten rivers, you’ll simply flop back down a spawn point.
The game progression will become increasingly puzzle like as the player maneuvers through the levels. One unique features of the game is that you can actually ruin the puzzle and make progression impossible. In order to circumvent situation where a player would have to restart from the beginning of the level, they will have a coin they can pick up that will teleport them back in time to certain points. (See coins for more information). The ability to pick up coins and carry them along in your inventory opens up several possibilities when it comes to completing certain puzzles, the use of some of the coins might create shortcuts or a work around.
There will be opportunities to complete “mini events” in the game; these events have the chance of adding a positive or negative effect on the user. As the user progresses through the levels they may notice certain creatures in traps; the will have the ability to set these creatures free if they wish. Doing so could result in several different outcomes. The player will have no way of really knowing if the creature they’re setting free is good or bad, the outcome could be very prosperous or disastrous!
Target Audience
Our game is going to be targeted at the puzzle/action/platformer crowd; in theory we’ll have a very large crowd in which we can target the game towards. The game will be rated “E” for everyone, as we’ll be avoiding any mature content. There will also be no “death” or any sort of “bloody violence” which is a bit off the beaten path of the trend of today’s market. We hope to refresh the idea that games are fun, and violence and blood is not the only marketable quality of a fast paced game.
Introduction Story
The seventh grade is an awkward time for any youngster and for Frankie is was no different. He was a little more extravagant than his classmates. He did not have many friends, and the ones he did have were not amongst the socially accepted. Frankie was teased to a great extent, but it bothered him very little, however that did not mean he didn’t day dream for a life where he was the center of attention. Little did he know his dreams were about to become his reality.
One day Frankie was leaving Morrison Junior High, about to head home and play CounterTerroristActionShooterGame with his friends, excited for the tournament they were to play in next weekend, when a group of bullies happened to find him. They teased him, pushed him around, and knocked his books from his hands, all the things a cliché bully might do. They chased him to a nearby park, where and old well was the centerpiece of the landscape. The well had been there for quite a long time, and no one was sure when it was built, just that it “had always been around.”
The alpha bully, Jake, was a kid of natural cruelty, probably resulting from a bad relationship with his mother (Love your mother kids, or you might be a jerk like Jake!). Jake decided that him and his friends should dangle Frankie over the well, and scare the bejeezus out of him, and so they did. They dipped him up and down the opening of the well, and while doing so, Frankie didn’t make a peep, just closed his eyes really hard and hoped to wake up someplace better. Suddenly, a police siren flashed its noisemaker and startled the bullies, and on reaction, dropped poor Frankie down the well. The boys quickly ran off, leaving no one to help our falling Frankie.
After falling for what seemed like an unusually long time, Frankie opened his eyes to watch his own demise. Surprisingly, he could see some sort of faint glowing much farther down. He didn’t believe this could be true, he assumed he must have been looking up toward the opening. Frankie noticed that the glow was becoming more vibrant suddenly, and larger, he was indeed getting closer!
Closer and closer he came, and just when he thought he was going to make quite the nasty impact with this object, he found himself floating through clouds. The sky was blue; he could see a city below him full of life and color. He figured he had to have hit and this was his heaven, it just wasn’t possible to go from the bottom of a well to the top of the sky, but oh, in this case, possible it is. Frankie floated down, and his speed was slowing, slowing, slowing until he came to rest on his feet, in the center of a city like no other.
Buildings all around him were both magnificent and strange, out of place for reality, but perfectly in place for where he was now. He rubbed his eyes and looked around again, and began taking in some more detail. He noticed creatures he had never seen walking about as though they were people. Tall and short, furry and hairless, two arms, ten arms, four legs, tails, horns, scales and more adorned these beings. He smacked his face to try to wake himself up, but quickly he realized this isn’t a dream, but what is it?
The ground looked like concrete, but had some kind of rubberized coating, making the ground feel as comfortable has his shoes. He noticed he was standing on some sort of circular seal, which looked like an exceptionally large quarter, except with a face that resembled something more akin to what was around him now. Looking around more, he noticed more of these circular designs, only smaller, perhaps no larger than a DVD. He moved toward one and as he did, something unexpected happened.
The design lit up, and jumped up from the ground spun on a central axis right in front of him. He moved to the left and it followed in front, to the right had the same result. He attempted to move backward, and it seemed to be following him. Frankie backed up enough to come close to another, which hopped up from the ground in the same fashion, and spun near him. It was at this point Frankie realized something very strange was going on, and something even stranger was going on beyond him… all the creature in this place were now staring at him intently. Some whispered, some pointed, all looked at him with awe.
Coins
Coins will play a huge role in the game; there will be two different kinds of coins for the user to employ to take care of “business”. The first set of coins will be ones that the user can pick up and place in their inventory to use at a later time; the other kind will be coins that can be used in the environment, in certain ways.
World Coins
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Coin Type
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Attribute once activated
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| Reverse gravity coin. |
This coin goes up vf = g * t |
| Gravity Coin |
This coin goes down vf = g * t |
| Pathing Coin |
This coin follows a given path at a given speed |
| Spinning coin |
This coin Rotates on its X-axis at a very fast speed |
| Clone Coin |
Creates a clone of you for later use (checkpoint) |
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Coin Type
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Attributes
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| Exploding Coin |
Explodes after thrown (and hitting a target)
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| Time Phase Coin |
Takes you back in time to a certain moment
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| Hover Coin |
A Coin that behaves as a hover board
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| Catapult coin |
Shoots you in a certain direction
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| Black Hole Coin |
Sucks everything in certain vicinity into it.
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). So after helping them get some things started up and setting up some web software for them I’ve moved on to work on something of my own.
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