Broken Dawn: Thermopylae - Game Development Thread

[mikey]

Rori is a non-romancable character, who will more or less be your commanding officer for the game.

Do you realize that's *exactly* who I usually fall in love with in such games?

Age: 24
Something of a legend in the Spartan forces, Captain Starr is an acknowledged military genius...

Of course. Because anything above that age is right about the time for most anime characters to retire and become mothers, being completely uninteresting to anyone. I demand a change of script! At least let the player have the option of being the one she goes into retirement with... You know, the elderly 25-year old couple that feeds pigeons in the park...

Oh man, stereotypes... But hey, your game, your rules ^_^, don't worry about my minirant

[monele]

Do you realize that's *exactly* who I usually fall in love with in such games?

It's a true problem. I also demand secret endings with at least all female characters, as insignificant as they are ;p

Oh, and obviously the option to edit characters' ages :3 (now that wouldn't even be too hard to do ô_o......... *plots*)

[Nafai]

musical74: Thanks for the compliment! Well if you take Cordelia's path, then you get the chance to melt away her ire. Of course you have to deal with that ire at much closer range than if you don't take her path...

mikey: *laughs* I'm the same way Thought I'd play with stereo-types with the first game, since these are the types that I tend to like Well it would be rather.. difficult, story-wise to make Rori romanceable in this game. Maybe if it Broken Dawn is popular enough to warrant a sequel But that's getting way ahead of myself... Maybe I'll just put some bonus Rori CGs instead ^_^

The real problem with a rori romance is that she's a friend of your older sister's... and thus knows all your dirty little secrets

monele: I think if we had the 4 girls in one place, they'd kill each other. Quite literally. Unless you took Cordelia's route first to calm her down, then proceeded to go harem colecting... at which point Del would revert, and kill you again. Wash, repeat, rinse.

As for ages, for at least one character, what's listed is only "apparent age".... *cue mysterious music*

[monele]

Eheh, this is getting more and more interesting :3

[RedSlash]

Do you realize that's *exactly* who I usually fall in love with in such games?

Haha, that can be soo true. I always find the non-main characters usually more interesting. I don't know why.

The real problem with a rori romance is that she's a friend of your older sister's... and thus knows all your dirty little secrets

I think that creates the drama and you can totally make something out of that.

[Nafai]

Hehe I could but it does put you at an even greater disadvantage than Del since Rori won't really be taking you seriously. I'd need a game covering a longer span of time to do it right... Especially with Rori's pecuilar circumstances. Still it's definately something to consider for next time...
...
Guess I'm not killing her off this game

[Nafai]

== VERY ROUGH DEMO ==

Well, I'm going to be a bit... er, quite a bit busy for the next two months, so I don't know if I'll be able to spit and polish the demo enough for me to be comfortable 'releasing' it before October... But since sno-dove requested it I do happen to have a rough demo on hand right now.

The story/dialogue of this part is complete... its just that there's no music or sound effects, and everyone (except, ironically, for the throw away character) has only one expression, and I'm still using placeholder backgrounds - but if people are primarilly interested in the story, and don't mind the lack of polish, then pm me or reply in this thread. (Its really just the game folder cleaned up and archived.. but I'm assuming everyone here has ren'py already anyhow )

Again, if you want the bells and whistles, polished demo - I'll release that in October. But if you're ok with this Very Rough demo - then just let me know and I'll send it via email (or uplaod it somewhere... I don't want to do that here just yet sinc the placeholder backgrounds are from another game, and I know that we have to be careful about that...)

[monele]

Well if there's already some graphical stuff in there, it's all good ^^ I'm curious about this . Unless you upload it somewhere, I'll send my e-mail through pm ^^

[mikey]

Release the demo publicly. You'll get much more feedback this way.

[Nafai]

Erm - that's the thing. Honestly I feel it's still embarrassingly rough... and there's the fact that it's using commercial CGs. Hence the 'limited' release

But... Well I suppose this would save time. Those who want to wait until October can just wait a bit, and if the CG backgrounds are a problem, I'll just remove the link. [Still I won't directly attach it here until I'm sure]

So here goes nothing: http://rapidshare.de/files/28734533/Bro ... o.rar.html

Those with an aversion to rapidshare can get in touch with me and I'll email it to them.

Please read the readme for disclaimers. ^_^

[monele]

Booya~. I like it ^.^

I still need to restart a game and see the possible differences (I love these so I hope there is at least some significant flavor text ^^). I'll also pm you with a list of the little quirks I noted and other comments ^^

[Watercolorheart]

I want to see this completed ...

[Nafai]

Jake: Sent you the demo. ^_^ Thanks! (Anyone else with rapidshare probs, let me know 'k?)

BCS: You mean the demo? October definately. As for the game itself... Eheh, no idea. Its the art/effects that'll take time though - I could finish the entire story in a week.

monele: Yay! ^_^ Glad it you liked it fellow sci-fi ren'ai maker And much much thankings for your in-depth blow by blow - will PM you my reply, but a few things:

* Yes no matter how many times you choose Rori, she'll just laugh you off and repeat the question. But y'know, maybe I'll need to put in something for Rori fans, even if she's not 'romanceable' Maybe like Lemma's secret ending?

[Rori trots out her nerve disruptor and takes aim]

Erm, maybe not

* As to the format - the game will have three branches, with a 'good' ending for each branch, and 'bad' [or 'death'] endings along the way. The last choice you make in the Demo - the one where you can't choose Rori - is what sets you on each of these main paths... Once you've chosen, it's like a separate story altogether, although each will show clues as to the underlying plot. So, really, you can play it at least three times and get an almost completely different story. Of course I'm a fan of less-important choices, especially with dialogue (so that the player feels he is participating) so there will be a lot of those in each branch, and a lot of different 'flavor texts' as you put it, for unique dialogue responses. *Yes, even with Iria. I can assure you she won't just say "..." all the time )

I'm uncertain yet about whether or not I'll have the points system there as well - you'd need a certain number of 'love points' to be able to access certain choices, and perhaps the best ending. If its not too complicated I hope to do so ^_^

Again thanks for the help monele. Your comments were very on point and will help me make this a better game ^_^

[ciel]

WOot i really like it~ I'm hoping you'll color the characters and add some different facial expressions though (and some music of course) but the story by itself is really nice XD and funny

[Nafai]

The facial expressions definately will change in the actual game (even in the cleaned up demo really). As for the coloring... well, that's under negotiation ^_^

Music, I'll have to learn how to do/find...

I'm really glad you liked the story ciel ^_^ Which of the girls did you pick, first run through? (Out of curiosity...)

I wonder if you were like Monele and kept trying for Rori