Making a Catholic Computer game

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Hi Paul1up,

Good work on the flora and fauna 🙂

First I would like to say that overall, I think we should say call time for generation one, with the features it currently has, and now focus on content.

I think we should line up the following features for generation 2 (or later…) and with that in mind I would also like to make a reply to two posts you made a while ago (April 28 & 29) regarding features:

Back and forth dialogue - could this system be extended to alter the course of the game dependent on what (and how much) dialogue is enacted? E.g. if the player only talks to certain people, or to people in a certain order, the game will be slightly different.

Collectable items - I think we should either a) not have this aspect b) extend it c) merge it with the hearing the sayings of the desert Fathers/Mothers. E.g. a) get rid of the sandals b) have the sandals, but also other collectables that enhance the player’s abilities c) have hearing the sayings the game aspect that enhances abilities.

Other gen 2 features:

Water!
Weather (possibly)
I don’t know if this is a feature or its content - but what about stacked maps? Currently the player can move up, down, left, and right on the map from room to room, but what about forward and backward (basically up and down a stack of maps)? Basically the map would be a 3D cube, as opposed to a 2D square (or rectangle).

Okay, so content for gen 1 now:

I think we should work on the following:
Backgrounds for the rooms - possibly parallax scrolling.
Music/sounds
I would like to make *more *tiles :crying:! As I see it, we have three distinct areas. The village/desert/level, the mountains, and the caves. I would like to make each a bit more distinct.
Front Screen
Ending screen/credits
Sprites for the fauna, the father, and brother.

Content for gen 2 (or later)
Grayscale
Colour! 🙂

Let me know what you think,

God bless,

Chris.
 
Hi Chris,

Sorry it took me a while to get back on this, I’ve been busy these past few days. I agree that we can make do with the features we have for generation 1, so let’s focus on the content.
Let me know how and what you envision for each of the things that you listed. Like, for the front screen, if you want a traditional menu, a large static or animated graphic, something experimental, etc. Since this will be a primarily exploration game, the player will need something to see or do in each room, and right now, the rooms are mostly identical, empty, and un-challenging. A long expanse of desert can work to set a mood, but overdoing it will bore players. We need to add little touches here and there to break any dull spells. Even something as simple as details in the background will help, little things that add polish and character. I’m going to do a little research and brainstorming to see what we can add. But for starters, we can make each room require a little more effort for the player to proceed (adding jumping puzzles, and the like).
For music and sounds, I have no experience making those things but I’ve always wanted to try, so I’ll be experimenting with that. I think that’s all for now, and let me know if there’s something specific you want me to work on. Take care!
 
Hi Paul1up,

I have attached the current file: sites.google.com/site/chrismorganstuff/Home/eremias%200.4.7.gm81?attredirects=0&d=1

I thought you might like it back, since I have had it for a while. Also, I forgot about having a save function, so people don’t need to play the whole thing in one go. I know Game Maker has this functionality built in - would you be able to implement this? I have made some basic changes to the graphics. Mostly the tiles. But I have added a sprite for the father, and the son, and I have changes the ‘fauna’ to a sheep.

Regarding content for gen 1, this is what I’m thinking:

Backgrounds. Three different types. Mountain tops for the rooms in the mountains (rooms 0_0 to 0_4 and 0_1 to 4_1) Sand dunes for the rooms on the level (rooms 0_2 to 4_2) and Cave background for the rooms in the caves (rooms 0_3 to 4_3 and 0_4 to 4_4). I think they should be grayscale, rather than B&W to differentiate between background/foreground.

Making each area more distinct. I take your point about little touches to make each room more distinctive. I think we should focus on background features, particularly environmental and architectural features e.g. rocks, trees, statues, columns/pillars.

However I think we also need to, as you have mentioned, make the rooms more challenging. Firstly I think we need obstacles and enemies. With obstacles I am thinking of things like spikes (e.g stalactites/stalagmites in the caves), fires, that kind of thing. I think we could also have gaps in the floor of the mountain levels, so the player falls through if they miss a jump. For enemies I am thinking of desert creatures e.g. scorpions, snakes, possibly a lion or two!

For the Front Screen. I have something in mind. I would like to mock something up, and hopefully I can use the same tiles for the background of the rooms on the level.

For the end screen. Not sure. Do you have any ideas?

Regarding sound, have you tried: drpetter.se/project_sfxr.html

Let me know how the research is coming along.

God bless,

Chris.
 
Chris_Morgan said:
Hi All,

I had a few replies to a couple of posts I made in the Threads: Catholic Christian Video Game Ideas and Catholic Video Games, so I decided to start this thread on Making a Catholic Computer game - i.e. actually making one, as opposed to talking about how to make one.

To explain a bit more, I have a merged the two posts I made below:

I have always been interested in making a Catholic computer (video) game. However the various attempts to do this (or to make a Christian game in general) have often been quite boring.

I think it would be best to go in one of three ways. 1. Either make an ‘out and out’ Catholic themed game for Catholics, with no pretensions of trying to teach anybody anything they don’t already know. 2. Make a game that is Catholic by virtue of its context e.g. an historical game set in the Middle Ages in Europe would naturally have a large Catholic element, or a vampire type game (e.g. Castlevania) could (and often does) make reference to Christianity in general, and Catholicism specifically. 3. Have a game that deals with moral and spiritual themes, but does not make any pretensions to being for any one religion/religious group. In this sort of game I do think you would need to allow for the player to really choose evil, in order for the choice to be good to be meaningful.

I have an idea for a game mostly in the second category. It would be a basic platforming game based loosely on the experience/historical situation of the Desert Fathers/Mothers (if people know who they were).

I am thinking of something quite basic, and just as a fun distraction. So if people would like to contribute, get involved, know more details etc. please reply to this thread.

In Christ,

Chris Morgan
Click to expand...
As a somewhat hard core gamer, if there is anything I can do to help, let me know
 
Chris_Morgan said:
Hi Paul1up,

I have attached the current file: sites.google.com/site/chrismorganstuff/Home/eremias%200.4.7.gm81?attredirects=0&d=1

I thought you might like it back, since I have had it for a while. Also, I forgot about having a save function, so people don’t need to play the whole thing in one go. I know Game Maker has this functionality built in - would you be able to implement this? I have made some basic changes to the graphics. Mostly the tiles. But I have added a sprite for the father, and the son, and I have changes the ‘fauna’ to a sheep.

Regarding content for gen 1, this is what I’m thinking:

Backgrounds. Three different types. Mountain tops for the rooms in the mountains (rooms 0_0 to 0_4 and 0_1 to 4_1) Sand dunes for the rooms on the level (rooms 0_2 to 4_2) and Cave background for the rooms in the caves (rooms 0_3 to 4_3 and 0_4 to 4_4). I think they should be grayscale, rather than B&W to differentiate between background/foreground.

Making each area more distinct. I take your point about little touches to make each room more distinctive. I think we should focus on background features, particularly environmental and architectural features e.g. rocks, trees, statues, columns/pillars.

However I think we also need to, as you have mentioned, make the rooms more challenging. Firstly I think we need obstacles and enemies. With obstacles I am thinking of things like spikes (e.g stalactites/stalagmites in the caves), fires, that kind of thing. I think we could also have gaps in the floor of the mountain levels, so the player falls through if they miss a jump. For enemies I am thinking of desert creatures e.g. scorpions, snakes, possibly a lion or two!

For the Front Screen. I have something in mind. I would like to mock something up, and hopefully I can use the same tiles for the background of the rooms on the level.

For the end screen. Not sure. Do you have any ideas?

Regarding sound, have you tried: drpetter.se/project_sfxr.html

Let me know how the research is coming along.

God bless,

Chris.
Click to expand...
Hi Chris,
I like the new sprites! The sheep are funny, I think I need to tweak their movement code somewhat.
As for backgrounds, grayscale ought to work. If you want to start off easy you could use the two greys as found in MS Paint, and white and black for a 4-color scheme.

As for a save system, I’ll see what I can come up with. Let me know if you prefer a checkpoint system or one that lets the player save anywhere.

I can work on the spikes and enemies. But let me know if you want the player to have health, or if it’s one-life only. For now I will implement one-life only and a kind of checkpoint system like in Knytt, so that the player returns to the last visited checkpoint upon dying. This would also function as a save point. For that, I will have the player select different ‘profiles’ when they start the game. Keep in mind, this is all just to function as a placeholder until you let me know what you prefer.

I’ve thought about implementing a mini-map that displays visited areas and displays points of interest for reference. Let me know what you think. About implementing weather, I read that most of Egypt has something like 80 mm (a little over 3 inches) of rain ANNUALLY. There really isn’t much in the way of diverse weather, but then again we can bend reality a little if we wanted to.

For the ending, there are a number of things we could consider. I think the most important thing is to decide what ‘questions’ we will answer and how. What will the father say to the son? If we have the father die at the end, what becomes of the son and daughter? Are there any other unanswered questions like, where is the mother? How much explanation is necessary? etc.

I’m still working on sound and music, looking for a program with a diverse selection of instrument effects to use. I found one Japanese program that I like, and I know about sfxr, but haven’t tried it yet. I will get to it though, unless someone else wants to take a crack at it.
Jacksonpm23 said:
As a somewhat hard core gamer, if there is anything I can do to help, let me know
Click to expand...
Sure! If you’d like, download the file Chris Morgan posted, download Game Maker 8 Lite from here www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/windows when the servers come back (right now GM Studio was released and it looks like that brought the servers down?). Then, open the file with Game Maker and build and run the project to try out the game. You can see what we’ve done so far and let us know what you think. If you have experience or interest in game making, you can examine the project files, make some changes, or add some features. Right now we’re at the point where we’re passing the same files back and forth in order to preserve changes between versions, so if there’s something you’d like to add, like your own level design, let us know first so we can pass you the latest build.
 
2shared.com/file/cfUd1pd9/eremias_048.html
Here’s a little something I finished for this evening. I put in the checkpoint system, which consists of somewhat crooked crosses. When the player passes them and activates the checkpoint, they are straightened. If the player presses F3, they will load the game from the last save point. I also added hazard blocks. I think we’ll make them work the way collision blocks do now, by making them invisible and drawing either other objects or tiles on top. Since this is so, I’ve recolored the harmless collision blocks green and made the hazardous ones red.
I also forgot to ask what you would like to see with enemy behavior? Do you want them to chase after the player, just move along a predictable fixed path, or something else? Or for each creature to have its own behavior pattern, and what kind?
I’ve tried to get parallax working but I had some problems, I’ll look into it more. Considering everything else, it’s strangely unintuitive to get working.
And there was something else I meant to ask but I forgot what it was. :confused: I’ll let you know once I remember.
Tomorrow I’ll try implementing the other things I mentioned.
That’s all for now, take care!
 
I’m doing a visual novel centered on a depressed half-Chinese IT student from a fictional university in the Philippines. (in compliance with the third category stated by Chris Morgan).

It’s more in line with the Success Mode of MLB Power Pros (2007) and Persona 4. But here, the protagonist’s goals are to graduate with high honors and become a competent citizen while regaining respect with people whom he met in the past but has “discredited” him in some sort just because of misunderstandings unknown to the hero.
 
mkdl_v17 said:
I’m doing a visual novel centered on a depressed half-Chinese IT student from a fictional university in the Philippines. (in compliance with the third category stated by Chris Morgan).

It’s more in line with the Success Mode of MLB Power Pros (2007) and Persona 4. But here, the protagonist’s goals are to graduate with high honors and become a competent citizen while regaining respect with people whom he met in the past but has “discredited” him in some sort just because of misunderstandings unknown to the hero.
Click to expand...
Hey, that sounds interesting! What tools are you making the game with? And is this going to be a commercial or freeware release?
 
It’s made with RenPy.

Since I do not have a registered enterprise yet, I will do my project as freeware.

As a bonus, I may reveal to you what would the intro look like (may be subject to revision), but I beg your pardon if it veers into off-topic territory:

My character, Copernicus “Cosme” Zheng, had a nightmare inspired by Bryan Mills’ phone conversation (from the movie “Taken”), with a hideous voice telling him that if he does not admit that his constitutional reform advocacy is just a front for a Chinese invasion of the Philippines, his rivals will do anything to ensure that Cosme would be thrown to Hell. [in my case, he would be disowned by his parents and expelled from Cendrillon before his execution (where the chief executive is forced to reinstate the death penalty to prevent any sudden strikes by China) and even excommunicated by local Church elders just because the rumor about Cosme being a spy for China has become a trending topic]

But Cosme firmly believes he is not a spy for China, and he does not want a war for the Spratlys and the Scarborough to happen, lest he would blame himself for the casualties and would think that his destiny has been sealed by the Devil.

The main goal of my game is for Cosme to prove his innocence, keep his motivation and hopes high, and become a competent college student while repairing any misunderstandings between his schoolmates, family, and rivals. I beg your pardon that there will be no endorsement of religion in my game.
 
Jacksonpm23

Thanks for the offer of help. As Paul1up said, if you want the latest build let us know so we can pass you it. If you didn’t want to make changes, but you could play-test it that would be great too. Please do let us know.

Paul1up

Excellent work yet again! Feel free to fiddle with the sheep. I think their ‘funniness’ is something to do with the dimensions of the sprite/mask or something! :confused:
In terms of the backgrounds, I’m going to avoid black, as I don’t want background tiles to be confused with foreground tiles. I will use three scales of gray, and see how that works. I can also use black in the future.

I love the save system - just what I was thinking of! I take it its easy enough to place others? Such as just literally place the object in the relevant room? I ask because I think we should have a save point in every 3 rooms, to save people having to walk through rooms constantly if they get killed. Regarding health I think it would be good for the player to have an amount of health, rather than having one life only. I know the game is pretty short (at the moment), but I’m thinking it will be longer at some point.

Regarding the mini-map, I was going to say wait for version 2, but since I will need time to come up with all the new graphics, that should give you time to implement it - so yeah, why not! Could it be a simple, corner of the screen/see through one though (without too many references), as opposed to to a complicated full screen one?

Regarding the weather - I take your point. We could bend reality a bit, but I don’t want to bend it too much. Thinking about this though, what about water? For swimming and things? Could that be implemented?

Regarding the end, I like how it kind of ends currently, though I think we could put more to and fro in between the father and the son. I don’t think we need to put in too much about the mother and other stuff until a future version.

Red/Green blocks. Good idea. I think we should vary the hazards & fauna for each area. I have been thinking of the following:

Mountain: crumbling blocks, spikes/stalagmites, eagles/vultures
Level: scorpion, snake, sheep, sandstorm (possibly?)
Caves: stalagmites & stalactites, lava (maybe?), bats.

Let me know what you think. As for the movement of the fauna (inc. the ones above) I think they should have their own movements, but some at least, should be hostile to the player.

I’m going to spend some time cooking up some graphic details to make rooms look different, and try to to mock up the backgrounds, and possibly enemy and hazard sprites. I don’t think the current version for this, but could you let me know if you are currently implementing the bits you mentioned in your post ‘May 23’, because if you are, I will wait for you to finish before I put my stuff in.

Hope you are well.

mkdl_v17

Hi. Your game sounds both very interesting, and also very complicated and involved. I am familiar with RenPy, and I look forward to seeing it.
 
@ mkdl_v17: Good luck with your project, I hope you let us know when it’s done so we can try it!

@ Crescentinus: Sure, you’re free to test it! You can see the instructions in my post from May 23.

@ Chris Morgan: Sorry, I’ve been busy with work and didn’t get to work on the game much. I’ll wait for you to finish the work you’ve been doing, so feel free to take your time. Last weekend I was very busy, I hope this weekend won’t be the same.
I think you are right about what’s wrong with the sheep’s behavior, good catch, I’ll modify their code.
The save objects can be placed anywhere and don’t need any further special encoding to work. But do note that they reload the game from that point, so anything the player did since the last time they touched one would be lost if they died. In fact, I forgot to test what would happen if the player died before touching one, it may crash the game.
I’ll wait for you to finish the graphics before making the mini-map system, which I will try to make as you said, a corner of the screen semi-transparent map.
Swimming ought to be feasible as well.
That’s all for now, take care!
 
Hi all,

This is just a quick message to say that I have not been in touch as I have had about a week or so off, and have been focusing on wedding stuff (getting married in early August if I have not said that before) and have not done on work on the game in a while. However I am going to be finishing some background tiles, so if people can be patient I will post as soon as I am finished.

Paul1up,

Are you going to need it sooner, or are you okay to wait?

God bless all,

Chris.
 
Chris_Morgan said:
Hi all,

This is just a quick message to say that I have not been in touch as I have had about a week or so off, and have been focusing on wedding stuff (getting married in early August if I have not said that before) and have not done on work on the game in a while. However I am going to be finishing some background tiles, so if people can be patient I will post as soon as I am finished.

Paul1up,

Are you going to need it sooner, or are you okay to wait?

God bless all,

Chris.
Click to expand...
TBH, I’m swamped with work, I’m working 7 days a week, day and night this year. Let’s put this on hold until you come back from your honeymoon. 🙂 There’s another option I’m considering exploring regarding the engine, and it’s gonna take quite some time to implement anyway, if it works. You just focus on your wedding now, that’s what’s important! I’ll get back to you after the summer. Take care!
 
If you ever consider making the game a 3rd/1st-person game (3D), I have experience in game design, graphic design, and 3D modeling. Send me a PM if you’d like.

-Byrnwiga
 
Byrnwiga said:
If you ever consider making the game a 3rd/1st-person game (3D), I have experience in game design, graphic design, and 3D modeling. Send me a PM if you’d like.

-Byrnwiga
Click to expand...
Ooh, I’d love to work on a 3D game. I bought a book on modelling in Blender to read during the summer at work (where I don’t have a computer) and I intend to experiment with Unity and UDK after the summer. What tools do you use? And, if you don’t mind my asking, what projects have you worked on?
 
Ooh, I’d love to work on a 3D game. I bought a book on modelling in Blender to read during the summer at work (where I don’t have a computer) and I intend to experiment with Unity and UDK after the summer. What tools do you use? And, if you don’t mind my asking, what projects have you worked on?
Click to expand...
I use Blender as well, along with 3Ds Max (and SU8, which may be silly, but I do occasionally make 3D models of churches for Google Earth). I use Illustrator CS5 and Photoshop CS5 for textures, and UDK for the development environment. Other than personal projects (such as a 1st-Person video game about the 717 Siege of Constantinople), I’ve worked on 0 A.D. (wildfiregames.com/0ad/).

-Byrnwiga
 
That all sounds good. 🙂 I used to use Blender years ago to make a few models, but after a long hiatus it feels really awkward and unintuitive using it again. Gonna take some time to get back in the saddle. But I’m busiest with work during the summer, so I can’t do much on these kinds of projects till Fall. Till then, best of luck with your projects!
 
Paul1Up said:
That all sounds good. 🙂 I used to use Blender years ago to make a few models, but after a long hiatus it feels really awkward and unintuitive using it again. Gonna take some time to get back in the saddle. But I’m busiest with work during the summer, so I can’t do much on these kinds of projects till Fall. Till then, best of luck with your projects!
Click to expand...
The newest version of Blender is quite a bit different. Some of the movies and renderings people have done are really impressive (i.e. blender.org/typo3temp/pics/ca5745333d.jpg). Anyhow, feel free to send me a PM if you ever need a model or texture done. Happy trails.

-Byrnwiga
 
Hi Paul1up,

Sounds like a good idea (to have a break that is) I would quote you - but I don’t know how to work the quotey thing! :confused:

I thought it might be a good idea to post the executable so people don’t need Game maker to play it so far (see below).

Byrnwiga,

A 3D version of the game sounds very interesting…could be something for a future version.

To all, especially our game-testers:

Please have a play on the executable (I had to put it in .zip format) docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxjaHJpc21vcmdhbnN0dWZmfGd4OjE0NTQ1NmFkZjhiZDJmYmM

Feel free to let us know what you think, though please remember this is not the completed version.

Also I could not get rid of my saved game, so please choose ‘new game’ when you play.

God bless you all,

Chris.
 
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