I personally think the assassination in the observatory has a well defined goal, a couple NPCs and a good enough description to get us started. Its not too much to handle, but I think its enough to have fun with.
I'm not sure how deeply we're supposed to follow the plot here, so that's also causing me to have a fuzzy grasp of the project scope at this point.
The NPC count for the plot point #1 would probably be one of the minimum options available to us. You have Zimri, Rabisu, Ismeldara, and a patrol of guards to worry about. What constitutes a patrol will be up to us, I suppose. At this time I'm also unclear about whether or not we have to model every character or if we're using included models.
From a technical standpoint, we'd have a lot of scripting to do in order to follow this plot point faithfully. First we have the scripted camera angles and character animations up to the killing (which would include some sort of suggestion through dialog that Zimri is assuming the person behind him is Ismeldara and that's why he doesn't turn around,) camera noting the star rising over the horizon, view change for Rabisu taking the seal from the dying Zimri, the seal disappearing as she "puts" it away, and Rabisu's exit and encounter with the patrol.
What we could do for the playable portion would to give the player control right after this guard scene, so the object would be to escape the guards. However, that also puts us at generating a good deal of city streets to maneuver around.
Looking at all of the plot points, it seems really hard to force gameplay in. Being as the intent was for this to be an RPG, the fighting and events don't really mesh well with running around gunning enemies down. There's really not an easy solution here and we may have to bend the written story a bit to make this work.
I've thought the same thing, the GDD as it is now just doesn't present a lot of situations where we can utilize the strong points of Unreal 3. I also think that we will need to modify the GDD scenario that we select, adapt it to the "fun" of the gameplay that we can present the players. I was looking over the GDD and Plot Point #21 could possibly be useful for a violent altercation. The ambush and the subsequent rescue by Gasi and his henchmen could be depicted almost in some sort of controlled team deathmatch - Gasi + henchment, as well as the player, VS the watch soldiers.
Were you meaning #13? I can't find a #21 in the document…
This sounds like a good way to incorporate action, but we have to also consider what limitations we may encounter when working on AI.
21 looks good. So does 16, there is some sneaking and a minor encounter. It wouldnt be too AI heavy. But still has a good play/story balance. A lot of the scenes read more like a movie than a game.
I like both #16 and #21. For 16, I'm already seeing waves of enemy NPCs entering the room from all sides (doors and windows). Also, 16 gives us the flexibility to remain small and if space is needed, just add another story to the observatory.
The street has good possibilities because I know Unreal Ed has some nice outdoor street assets, although modern and slightly futuristic.
edit
Thinking about it more, I'm leaning more towards #16 or anything dealing with the observatory.
—JMo
Something dealing with the observatory is a good idea, it's a good start for figuring out the art style we're going to go for with the rest of the scenario(s) as well. I was thinking by the way, that we should try for a sort of "steampunk" style for the art and technology period. Many of the existing materials and static meshes that Unreal comes with would fit in to that and by doing so it would retain the sort of ancient feel of the mythical time period as well.
Hello everyone. I have read the GDD, but I am sorta confused. The only projects I have created with Unreal are run and shoot stuff games. This GDD seems more like an RPG with an actual story. I am having a hard time picking a good scenario based on the RPG vs. Shoot stuff game designs.
Another aspect I am confused about is the actual theme of how our environment will look. There are descriptions of Babylon as it is called, and the GDD mentions that there time is roughly 1500BC… however there is no mention of technology. Sure, their planet and surroundings can resemble 1500BC but are there aspects of there world that are advanced? One thing that comes to mind is Star Trek, or even Star Wars. A lot of the worlds seemed "primitive" with people living in huts or crude homes, but they flew around in crafts that could travel to other planets… or even their mode of travel from town to town in hovercrafts was advanced.
Based on this, I am thinking that we should do a scene out of the GDD that offers something visually, but not necessarily worrying about who talks to who or who fights who.
Plot point #4 seems to offer a lot visually because Zimri is traveling to the marketplace.
Plot point #21 seems to offer a little action, but also nice view of the game environment.
What do you think?
I like your ideas, but I think it is imperative we stick to the GDD for whichever level we choose as closely as possible. I definitely think we will have the liberty of filling in the design blanks and the feel of the environment. But anything laid out specifically in the GDD in gospel as far as Im concerned. I want to make sure we have as realistic an experience here as we can. I do like your Star Wars idea, the trade planet would be a great concept to work with and I think we could make it fit just right.
Honestly, from a tech point of view, I think 16 is the only viable one in the entire GDD. My reasoning is that 21 places most of the plot actions on the role of NPCs, which generates more work for us than we can likely handle given our resources. UT3 is not setup for these kinds of scenarios.
However, I could see us creating something like plot point 16. The player would have to stealthily sneak into an area and try to find an item, but would discover it's not there, then have to fight her way out, essentially. This is something we can handle, because it requires mostly interactions with non-scripted NPCs, which I'm pretty sure we can figure out a way to handle, and scripted level events, which I'm certain we can figure out relatively easily.
We can then attempt to do the cut scene at the end, which would be a non-interactive portion that I'm pretty sure we could make work.
I thought 16 would be good for the same reasons. I dont think we can handle NPC heavy scenes but we still want some playable action.
I'm adding another vote for #16, the observatory. I love idea of using a steampunk setting suggested by Jason. This is something I'm very familiar with.
If we do #16, maybe we should stick with the current layout in the GDD. Would that not be something a team would consider prior to design if it was provided in the GDD already? (not sure)
Shall we start a vote?
—JMo
Honestly, it sounds like we are all pretty ok with 16. At least those of us here already. If I dont hear otherwise I will send out an email tomorrow morning asking for final objections to doing 16.
Hello, I'm not sure if this is a proper area for me to discuss the project, I wasn't sure if it was for just the leads but anyways, just giving my input. Now the GDD I am seeing and hope I got the right one is 63 pages, is that the entire document? Secondly for plot point # 16, (Which I am cool with), there is no 2d map for it, so do you want the level designed to be winged so to speak according to the imagery by the document? And lastly I see the mentioning of a Steampunk setting which sounds cool and all, but the GDD is working with the idea of a Mesopotamian setting in their Bronze Age about 1500 BC. I am just curious via class standards if we are aloud to improvise the visual aspect of the GDD, secondly is it something we need to get permission from Tom for? Again I am cool with all of these ideas and suggestions, I just want to make sure we are not over stepping our boundries according to the GDD, trust me I'm no party pooper, atleast not that I know of, cheers.
Adam
Sorry for the grammatical flaws that make me look stupid, and the words out of context, I type faster then I think. :)
No worries, I am TERRIBLE too. We can type-oh tugeter!
Greetings,
Going to have to agree with Adam on this one, they call the GDD a "bible" for a reason, while we can get away with changing certain aspects, the entire theme is completely different.
The suggestion is Mesopotamian, not sure about the 1500BC due to the Romanesque looking guard, however the Minotaur gives me the impression that this is steeped in myth, so 1500bc sounds good.
Scene 16 is fine we can do with that what we need to to make the story believable and maintain a sense of player participation/action.
Off to re-read scene 16.
have fun y'all
I think #16 sounds excellent, now that I found the full GDD document. I'm not really sure how I ended up with a shortened version in the first place!
