Stencyl Game Project

[Lotus]

Hi guys, I just got permission from the team lead over at Stencyl to tell you just a little about the project. Stencyl is a game creation system that is designed to be able to replicate tile based games and build your own, at launch (probably 2008) they are planning to have it able to make Mario, Kirby, Megaman, Sidescrolling Shooters, Fire Emblem, and Secret of Mana style games. Though due to the complexity of the Mana game at least, it will probably not be fully functional, for example at launch we will not have implemented multiple characters, like Purim or Sprite. Part of the reason I got permission to talk to you guys about this is that you are a small and dedicated community, and if anyone can help make the project great, it will be communities like this one. I am currently working on designing the plot and script of a short Mana game that will be playable at launch and thought I would ask you guys here to review it for me. So without further ado, here is the plot outline, followed by the script.

Plot Outline
Character - Could be either a normal human swordsman or (my preferred idea) a Niccolo wanderer, similar to Wanderer in Children of Mana or Niccolo from Legend of Mana. The hero was a swordsman who recently moved into the town to settle from his more adventurous days. As the character levels up, you'll gain a few spells and such. I am currently calling the hero Pazu, it may be changed later, or if possible, determined by the player.

Title Screen and Options Theme

Mokey Village - A small community to the east of the Temple of Spirits. It consists of a few houses, and general store/inn, and the heroes home.
Apparently the Temple of Spirits was run over by various monsters, then shortly after that occurred they began appearing in the forest and keep approaching closer to the town. The town's Elder wishes you to go and find out why the monsters have appeared and stop the infestation before the village is overrun. You will receive the sword and bow before leaving the town.

Mokey Town Theme

Cliffside Forest - A small woodland between the village and the temple. It falls just to the south of the Molebear Highlands. The forest is crawling with Rabites, Mushbooms and Lullabuds. There is a hidden cave along the road, inside is a small cavern with some Blats and Goblins. Also inside is a boss of some sort (Mantis Ant or Du'Cate?) who is protecting the Spear. The cave will be optional as the spear will not be required to complete the game.

Cliffside Forest Theme
Cave Theme


Temple of Spirits - This temple has been around for generations, the village cropped up around the need for travelers to rest on their way to pay homage to the spirits. Being that it is not dedicated to any particular spirit it will not have a huge theme. The temple will have Blats, and some other foes (undetermined at this point) and two bosses, a miniboss after which you'll gain the whip and a final boss that will restore peace to the area. The dungeon will be pretty straightforward with a lot of enemies to slaughter and a few basic puzzles to solve. A bit of going over screens will be done after you get the whip and can travel over the screens in different ways. The miniboss will be something like the Darkshine Knight, and the big boss will be a priest who was corrupted by a Mana Surge and turned into a big monster type guy.

Temple of Spirits Theme
Boss Theme for all 3 bosses.

Well, does this outline sound good? If not what should get changed? If it does, I'll continue to flesh it out with more and more details.

Script
Mokey Village

Boy A (Ryan) (outside of house A)- "Wow, you have a really cool sword!"

Boy B(Inside with of house B)- "Dad says you are a great Swordsman Pazu, would you teach me?"
Pazu Responds - "Someday when you are older, I'll have to give you lessons."
Boy - "Thanks Pazu!"

Girl A (Kathern) (Inside of house A)- "Hi Pazu, would you like to play dolls with me?"
Pazu - "Sorry Kathern, I don't have a lot of time to play right now."
Girl - "Ah, that's ok, I know you really don't like dolls much anyways."

2x Girls and a Boy are playing tag out doors

Man A (Outside of House A)- "Greetings Pazu, you know that since you have come to call this village home 2 years ago, this little place has been at ease. We have always known you would help us if in need, and you always have."
Pazu - "Well, this is my home too you know, and I am happy to help."

Man B (Inside of house B)- "Pazu, have you seen Ako lately, he hasn't been home in a few days now, do you think you could go to the temple and see if he is there. A lot of monsters have been sighted and I am fearful for his well being."
Pazu - "I certainly will, he has been a great help to this village we don't want anything to happen to him."
Man - "Oh, before I forget, Elder want to speak with you, he said it is really important."
Pazu - "Thanks, I'll be sure to go see him."


Man C (Outside near kids playing Tag) - "Aren't my kids the cutest you have ever seen?" *Pulls out a photo of his 3 kids, 2 girls and a boy*
Pazu - "They certainly are."
Woman A (Inside of house A) - "Pazu, you should come over for dinner some time and share some stories with the kids, little Ryan always loves hearing your tales."
Pazu - "Tomorrow night it is then!"
Woman - "That sounds wonderful."

Woman B (Near the stream) - "I just love listening to the stream this time of the day, the water makes such a pleasant sound."

Woman C - "Roy is certainly obsessed with our kids, I wonder how many times he has shown you that picture."
Pazu - "Just once." or "A few times." or "More than I care to think about."
Woman - If First - "You always were a bad liar Pazu." or If Second - "Well at least he hasn't gone overboard." or If Third - "Yeah, I know what you mean."

Elderly Woman (In House C)- "I have been traveling to the temple for years, and my children settles here in Mokey, I knew I had to join them, but sometimes it is hard to get my medicine. Pazu, do you think you could run to the store and get a Puipui Grass for me?"
Pazu - "Sure" or "Sorry, I don't have the time right now."
Elderly Woman - If First "Thank you Pazu, just bring it back and I'll pay you back and give you some of my special soup." or If Second "Well that's too bad. If you do get the time, please stop back."
If Pazu goes to the store and buys some Puipui grass and returns it, then Elderly Woman "Thank you very much Pazu, here let me pay you back" Gives X Lucre "And here is some of my Honey Soup, if you get tired on the road simply drink this and you'll feel much better" Give Pazu Honey Soup (Honey Drink) "If you ever need more, let me know."
Pazu - "Thanks."
If Pazu returns for more soup, then check inventory
If no soup is present then Elderly Woman gives Pazu more soup "Pazu have some more soup, you need it."
Pazu - "Thanks."
If soup is present, he recieves none. "Sorry Pazu, it looks like you haven't eaten my last batch."

That's all I have for the town script right now, I need to add maybe a couple more people, the Village Elder, and then the store/inn keeper.

Anyways, I can take questions about Stencyl and about the Mana game portion. I am afraid development is under pretty tight wraps as it speeds up communication. And the lead thinks it is best to keep it under tight controls, but if you want to see the basic premise of what they want to do, just see the website, it doesn't have a lot of information right now, but you can get a pretty good idea of what is going on.
http://www.stencyl.com

Later,
Lotus

[Kyatto]

woooooow..... Who are you, Lotus?
It seems you are some kind of very important person with lots of power in this world....

this...is... goooooooood stuff!

[Lotus]

Not really, I'm just a guy with some kids, and a wife, and who goes to school. I just happen to have a lot of pet projects. I just recently joined up at Stencyl. The Zelda Classic thing could have been done by anybody.
And like everyone else, I just want to do something fun that feels important to me and makes other people happy.

How's that for an answer?

Oh and by the way, when this is released, look for those damn totem poles to actually do something.

[Danny]

Really, you made the totem poles do something! Great project idea. It may only need a few changes in the plot and characters such as alies's names and other things like that. Either then that, I think that it's a really good idea you have there. Good luck!

[Lotus]

I can make the Totem Poles do something. As the Mana series is rather complex, this game is going to be one of the last developed. We first plan on making my demo game, but as the engine develops we plan on making more complex and detailed games. Anywasy feel free to make suggestions for character names and stuff like that, this is all just being toyed with right now, I figure I probably have at least 3-6 months before Stencyl will have the Mana section ready to use. We are currently focusing on the Mario section, then if I am not mistaken it will travel to the Shooter, then to Kirby and Megaman, leaving Fire Emblem and Mana last. We are simply building from most complex to least complex.

Though my Zelda Classic project will allow the totems to do stuff too, you just have to set it up so they do

[The J Person]

This is interesting... especially the bit about FE and Mana. I found some old FE ROMs recently and they weren't translated, so I was horribly buggered about the idea of playing them, but I was pretty interested in the ones for the Super Famicom, so it was kind of a letdown.

I've heard a bit about people who do this kind of work, and frankly I'd like to become one of them someday, if nothing else as just a hobbyist-kinda-dealy. I know no programming, but from what you've described of late, it sounds like you don't have to, specifically, so that's encouraging.

I... think I had more to say, but I'm sort of distracted. I'm sure I'll be back to start talkinating s'more later, though. Keep up the good work!

Oh, and no, I didn't look for translation patches. The ROMs came as they were, semi-edited.

[Lotus]

I know little about Fire Emblem, so can't help you there. Did you try looking for translation patches?

[Danny]

If you're looking for rom patches, go to www.snakeyesneversaydie.com. They have patches for almost any game. Or you can also try www.zoperdomain.com. They also have a lot of good and free patches for almost all roms. I have the orignal Fire Emblem as well as Fire Emblem the sacred stones on my gameboy advance. You guys can ask me anything about them. I finished all the tales in them both. I think that the original version is better though.

[Lotus]

You do know that neither of those links work

Anyways, I think we are getting a little sidetracked.

Later,
Lotus

[rrfish]

Lotus...your not really Lodis are you? Because I am noting some similarities between my Lodis and you. ::suspicious::

[Lotus]

Uhm, nope. I am Lotus, I used to go by Lotus_Eater, but it was way too much typing. Which means I am also a guy, and not a girl as is often believed.

[rrfish]

Well so is Lodis, and by "my Lodis" I meant the Lodis I know from another realm of interest that other users here would not recognize. But thank you for clearing up that you are not Lodis...I was really starting to wonder. I was tempted to throw out the name Nekoda to see if it would have grabbed your attention.

P.S. I figured you were a guy.

[Lotus]

I had assumed that you meant you knew him from elsewhere.

Anyways, any pertinent comments?

[Lotus]

Hey guys, this is kinda important so listen up. I am the Lead Designer for the Mana aspect of Stencyl, but I need some slaves . . . . . ahem, assistants who are very knowledgeable of the whole series, are willing to do large amounts of typing and testing, and who are actually going to stick with me and be helpful. If you feel that you are capable, please email me. I will be picking those who have shown some large amount of capability first, and those who are personable, because, I don't want to work with someone who is a pain to work with. So all you old timers, here's your chance to get to really work on a Mana project. Also, you'll need to be willing to spend time ripping and organizing sprites, now you may not have to do all this, if I can get one person for this and one for that, that is fine as well. Also you'll need to be able to meet deadlines, and be organized, way more organized than me.

Later,
Lotus

[Kassidy]

Well I've got several projects going at the moment, so I'm reluctant to make any commitments, even though I am sorely tempted to do so, I must say. I've taken part in development projects of this kind before (about 7 years ago now, I think), but it's hard to organize. Hoping this one will go better.

I'd be interested in what sort of job distribution we're talking about here. It seems to be easier to have roles assigned.

By the way, I have a smeg load of sound effects for you almost ready. Gimme about an hour and I'll have them uploaded. I hope OGG format is alright for you, 'cause that's what I'm doing them in... thing with so many of these sounds is that they are chip noise, so any quality loss from MP3 can come through quite easily. I was going to use FLAC but the files were turning out a bit too big for my liking, but OGG seems to be doing a rather good job of providing good compression with little quality loss.

Anyway, I'll go into more detail about that in the other thread when I'm done.