Ideas Dump

A place to discuss things that aren't specific to any one creator or game.
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nekobara
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Re: Ideas Dump

#1486 Post by nekobara »

Well, this is something that I haven't thought about for a long while...my poor idea drowned in the pond of broken dreams in my forgetful mind...
Perhaps it can't be completely salvaged, but at least I'm bringing it into the light, right? :)

So here it is:

You're staying with your evil grandmother-who may or may not be able to read minds-over the weekend while your mother is away on a work trip or something of the like. Somehow, there would be a handsome goblin king involved, and his many goblin underlings. Your grandmother's cute errand boy who is the poster boy for the boy-next-door archetype would also play a part in the story. The goblin king and your grandmother's manslave would both be up for grabs in the game of romance.

However, if you wanted a good end with either of the two, or any happy ending at all, you would have to murder the wicked witch. If you don't kill the witch, you don't achieve happiness. Simple as that.

Hint: She wouldn't melt if you threw water on her. You'd have to use poison, a weapon of some sort, or any other method that could possibly be used to commit homicide and defeat the evil old bat.

Sounds fun doesn't it? You could pretend she was your mean granny or your mother-in-law. :)
*meow*

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Re: Ideas Dump

#1487 Post by gekiganwing »

The protagonist's goal is to break up a love polygon that has gone on far too long. Why is this? Maybe...

* He is a concerned parent, and wants them to have committed relationships.
* He's interested in one of the heroines, and thinks that his rival will probably select her as a love interest.
* The relationship polygon is causing problems. It's keeping the characters distracted from their main goal of fighting the villain.
nekobara wrote:...However, if you wanted a good end with either of the two, or any happy ending at all, you would have to murder the wicked witch. If you don't kill the witch, you don't achieve happiness. Simple as that.
Maybe the implication of the story is that even in a world with magic, and even in a world where the main characters have good intentions, there are no Everybody Lives endings.

What does the protagonist's mother think about the grandmother?

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Re: Ideas Dump

#1488 Post by TheJerminator15 »

Eh, I have an idea about a fantasy story where the protagonist is a girl whose mother gives her to an old "friend" after the girl's kingdom was attacked by and beaten by an army. What the girl doesn't know is that this new mentor who has grudgingly accepted to train and protect her is her mother's old fellow soldier whilst she was renowned as a hero and also her first husband, who left her after she cheated with the girl's father (who for that added drama was als a fellow hero).

Essentially a story on how they both deal with losing the same person differently, as the mentor has now lost her twice (once through love and now to death) and the girl trying to better herself whilst grieving silently. Thought it'd be a nice spin on the old mentor and student relationship.
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Re: Ideas Dump

#1489 Post by nekobara »

@gekiganwing

The protagonist's mother isn't fond of the grandmother, as Gladys White-that was going to be the witch's name-is her nasty mother-in-law who has never liked her or her daughter. However, though Gladys does whatever she can to disparage and belittle the protagonist's mother out of petty hate, the mother is dead set on being friendly to the insufferable old woman as she is one of three things: very persistent, very stupid, or a kind soul whose goodwill knows no bounds. Even though Gladys treats her like trash that belongs in the local dump, she chooses to maintain her friendly demeanor and even strives to fulfill her goal of one day getting Gladys to like her. This begs the question of whether the protagonist's mother is one of the few truly good people left in the world, a total idiot, or a selfish woman who disregards her daughter's worry, unease, and fear when it comes to her grandmother Gladys White in order to achieve her own personal goal of winning over her mother-in-law.
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Re: Ideas Dump

#1490 Post by papillon »

Something too melancholy for me to actually work on... a game on the theme of Second Chances. Sort of.

The protagonist is a woman in her mid-or-late-twenties, who married young and had a happy (though childless) marriage, but her husband died in a terrible accident about a year before the game starts. She's trying to pick up the pieces and learn to move on with her life, but that's easier said than done, especially when the cause of the accident is still somewhat mysterious. And then a mysterious spirit appears, offering her the possibility of a chance to turn back time and save her husband... but at what cost?

Main characters include:
- Her first love, whom she once promised to marry before moving away and then ending up with her husband
- Her husband's brother, who has been her emotional support since the funeral but is falling in love with her
- An employer or co-worker of her husband, who she met at cocktail parties, and who may have benefited from his death
- A charming waiter/bartender trying to encourage her to cheer up and take up new interests
- A mysterious person who MAY be a spirit or MAY be playing an elaborate trick on her or MAY be her imagination
- Her husband (in flashback... or?)

Depending on how you play the game, it can end up being a story of finding new happiness after a loss, a mystery where you seek the cause of the accident to enact revenge, or a story about what's worth sacrificing in order to fix a mistake and change the past

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Re: Ideas Dump

#1491 Post by gekiganwing »

A recent post in Player's Pavilion reminded me of Norn9. In that story, there are three female protagonists. As far as I know, each one interacts with different heroes. I like this notion because it seems to indicate that while the protagonists have multiple love interests, none of them have a large love polygon. So, where to go from there?

* A whole mess of relationships. A love dodecahedron involving not just the protagonist and their love interests, but also the alternative protags. The story might address questions such as "What happens to the heroes / heroines that the protagonist doesn't select?" Maybe some of them will end up in a relationship with one of the alternative protags.

* Incompatible orientation problems. Winter Wolves' Roommates already addresses this to a degree with its two protagonists. Another story could address questions such as "Can the two characters be just friends?" or maybe "Even if they're with enemy factions / rival groups, can they get along?"

* Different age protags, different significant others. Let's say the characters are part of the same organization, and need to get along in order to succeed. They have close relationships with people in their age bracket. The reader can choose to read the story from the point of view of a 35 year old leader, or the POV of a 19 year old recruit.

* Each person's perspective adds insight. The story makes sense when a person reads just one protagonist's point of view. However, reading the other character's POVs adds new information, asks new questions, and so on.

* Forced reading order to ensure that the story makes sense. Let's say that after reading from both of the protagonists' points of view, another one is unlocked. This third perspective (a friend? a villain? a hidden character?) adds more information. However, it only seems relevant or coherent after reading the main story. Maybe it's just an extra which adds to the story.

* Differences in perspective are emphasized. Some of the protagonists might be unreliable narrators. One character might refuse to take anything seriously, while another one is consistently morbid. Maybe there's a protag who adheres to their faction's beliefs, and a different one who only supports their group because they need money.

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Re: Ideas Dump

#1492 Post by Harick »

Okay, so this is an idea I wanted to turn into something but I can't come up with anything other than th concept, so I'll have to abandon it (for now anyway).

Terranauts, the current name, would be about meremaids or merepople who would go on a scientific mission to explore what's on land. Thats pretty much it. I have other ideas about it, like what they discover and how they react to it, but I can't come up with how it would begin, what would happen in the middle (except a few small things) or how it would end.

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Re: Ideas Dump

#1493 Post by Amecha »

Player is narrator! This idea just popped into my head and I thought it could make for a great comedy game.

The player isn't a character or even a named entity of any sort, they're simply an omnipresent narrator that through choices they make effect the story and characters. They can even be antagonistic or destructive, changing things at will and throwing in strange events or changes at random.

Like say a character is introduced and the narrator spends a few moments narrating this new character's appearance, but then the narrator suddenly decides the character is blonde instead of a brunette and the character's sprite changes to reflect that change. Or two characters have a romantic relationship, but the narrator can chose to force one of the characters to reject the other despite the character's actual desires. The character, at first almost seem to be attempting to ignore the narrator and their changes but over the course of the story become more frustrated with the narrator, breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the player. If the player chooses to be antagonistic the characters can eventually attempt to rebel and defeat the narrator, or if the narrator is more benevolent the characters will begin demanding certain things from the narrator, trying to change the story to benefit themselves the most. It could work with almost any genre, like a fantasy adventure story where the narrator continues to derail the plot or climax events immaturely, or a high school romance where the narrator acts as a twisted match maker.

I wonder if there are any games that already exist like this :?:

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Re: Ideas Dump

#1494 Post by gekiganwing »

Fun with video game concepts...

1. "Everyone has access to beneficial video game items and locations." Save spots exist in the fictional world, and every character can use them. Inns cure injuries during one night, and every person can use them. Either of these means that death is much less of a threat. How would they affect your story-based game?

2. "Difficulty settings." Maybe the player can decide if it will be easy or challenging to build their character's stats. Or maybe the concept of difficulty is tied into the story. Let's say that the easy-level playable character is good at socializing, and has an optimistic point of view, which helps them develop relationships. If that is true, then the hard-level playable character deals with depression, health problems, and introversion.

3. "Cheat codes." If you want a player to enjoy a story-based game without a challenge, then perhaps let them choose to use cheat codes to reduce its difficulty. (I saw these appear in a few of the 'sim date' browser based games which people made during the 2000s. At the time, I thought they seemed like a throwback game mechanic. It has been several years since then. Now the concept of cheat codes seems like a distant memory.)

4. "If you pause during timed choices, that's not necessarily bad." Sometimes the protagonist should not say anything. If they pause for a moment, maybe another choice will appear. (This could represent that the protag needs to wait a few seconds to think of a better choice.)

5. "Instead of making a choice, walk down a hallway." Give the player a character who they can move through the fictional world. Give them choices which affect the narrative. But instead of choosing one of several options from a menu, let them make a choice by walking to a different place / talking to a different person. (I know this has been done before. I just haven't experienced anything like this yet.)
Amecha wrote:Player is narrator! ... The player isn't a character or even a named entity of any sort, they're simply an omnipresent narrator that through choices they make effect the story and characters.
What if the narrator's powers were limited? They can change the fictional world, but only once per day. Or they have just a few ability points which they can use -- turning a character's hair blonde is two points, but breaking up a relationship requires ten points. Maybe the implication behind this is "a storyteller can only do so much," or "a matchmaker doesn't have that much influence over people's lives," or perhaps "God's hands are tied."

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Re: Ideas Dump

#1495 Post by Shinoki »

Having read The Great Gatsby in English class (very shallowly since I don't have to analyze it just yet)...

How about one in which the player character isn't actually the 'protagonist' that goes chasing love interests? Instead, he is the somewhat disapproving relative of one of the love interests but ends up getting involved with the 'protagonist.' Somehow, somewhat, the player ends up helping the 'protagonist' get a girlfriend all while improving a bromance with the 'protagonist.' (Of course, there'd probably be a BL route then...)

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Re: Ideas Dump

#1496 Post by Dark Sentinel »

I'm perfectly sure someone suggested this before, but here's what dawned on me:
We have games where we date tanks, helicopters and whatever else. Now we need a VN where we date programming languages.
Sure, a vision on each language is gonna be different as hell, but well, the dev team should be able to make smth with that.
Also I'm positively sure this idea has been suggested somewhere a thousand times.
Setting? Oh c'mon, protagoinist is transferred into the school with the girls who are suddenly PLs.
Python: generally nice, but has the pretty personality split (aka v2/v3). Also watch out for indents.
Assembler: your average grease monkey. Still doing all the dirty work. Really crafty. Everyone relies on her after all.
C, C++, C# and some other: a family of sisters each with their own quirks, but they're still sisters.
Ruby: nice and cute and everything, that's all that really matters.
Malbolge: just completely insane. Her love letters everything is encrypted or just plain unreadable. You really need help here. Think occult club leader. Maybe actually an Eldritch monstrosity the Occult club accidentally summoned.
Whitespace: blind or maybe deaf, you need alternative ways to approach her.
PHP: clumsy as hell and that is not moe.
HTML:
IT'S A TRAP! (Not actually a girl, not really a PL).
Then add some hard as nails old languages as FORTRAN and COBOL as teachers and tadah, it's done. Add more girls languages girls with DLCs, I'm sure there're those who want smart, but lazy Haskell, hardcore Ada with touch of military style, heavy and slow caffeine-addict Java, the "R and Mathematica" science club and Prolog AI girl, the alien invader var'aq and hundred others.
щ (ºДº ) щ

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Re: Ideas Dump

#1497 Post by indoneko »

Dark Sentinel wrote:I'm perfectly sure someone suggested this before, but here's what dawned on me:
We have games where we date tanks, helicopters and whatever else. Now we need a VN where we date programming languages.
Sure, a vision on each language is gonna be different as hell, but well, the dev team should be able to make smth with that.
Also I'm positively sure this idea has been suggested somewhere a thousand times.
Setting? Oh c'mon, protagoinist is transferred into the school with the girls who are suddenly PLs.
Python: generally nice, but has the pretty personality split (aka v2/v3). Also watch out for indents.
Assembler: your average grease monkey. Still doing all the dirty work. Really crafty. Everyone relies on her after all.
C, C++, C# and some other: a family of sisters each with their own quirks, but they're still sisters.
Ruby: nice and cute and everything, that's all that really matters.
Malbolge: just completely insane. Her love letters everything is encrypted or just plain unreadable. You really need help here. Think occult club leader. Maybe actually an Eldritch monstrosity the Occult club accidentally summoned.
Whitespace: blind or maybe deaf, you need alternative ways to approach her.
PHP: clumsy as hell and that is not moe.
HTML:
IT'S A TRAP! (Not actually a girl, not really a PL).
Then add some hard as nails old languages as FORTRAN and COBOL as teachers and tadah, it's done. Add more girls languages girls with DLCs, I'm sure there're those who want smart, but lazy Haskell, hardcore Ada with touch of military style, heavy and slow caffeine-addict Java, the "R and Mathematica" science club and Prolog AI girl, the alien invader var'aq and hundred others.
Interesting!
I'd like to see how Renpy get along with the yanqire Python :lol:
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Re: Ideas Dump

#1498 Post by Dark Sentinel »

indoneko wrote: I'd like to see how Renpy get along with the yanqire Python :lol:
That's "yangire", I believe. Well. Since we're in Ren'Pyverse, Python is more like goddere, omnipotent and omniscent. Also screw up indents and SNAP, the whole world with all the other girls and protag and everything is burning already.
щ (ºДº ) щ

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gas
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Re: Ideas Dump

#1499 Post by gas »

Dark Sentinel wrote:I'm perfectly sure someone suggested this before, but here's what dawned on me:
We have games where we date tanks, helicopters and whatever else. Now we need a VN where we date programming languages.
Sure, a vision on each language is gonna be different as hell, but well, the dev team should be able to make smth with that.
Also I'm positively sure this idea has been suggested somewhere a thousand times.
Setting? Oh c'mon, protagoinist is transferred into the school with the girls who are suddenly PLs.
Python: generally nice, but has the pretty personality split (aka v2/v3). Also watch out for indents.
Assembler: your average grease monkey. Still doing all the dirty work. Really crafty. Everyone relies on her after all.
C, C++, C# and some other: a family of sisters each with their own quirks, but they're still sisters.
Ruby: nice and cute and everything, that's all that really matters.
Malbolge: just completely insane. Her love letters everything is encrypted or just plain unreadable. You really need help here. Think occult club leader. Maybe actually an Eldritch monstrosity the Occult club accidentally summoned.
Whitespace: blind or maybe deaf, you need alternative ways to approach her.
PHP: clumsy as hell and that is not moe.
HTML:
IT'S A TRAP! (Not actually a girl, not really a PL).
Then add some hard as nails old languages as FORTRAN and COBOL as teachers and tadah, it's done. Add more girls languages girls with DLCs, I'm sure there're those who want smart, but lazy Haskell, hardcore Ada with touch of military style, heavy and slow caffeine-addict Java, the "R and Mathematica" science club and Prolog AI girl, the alien invader var'aq and hundred others.
Ow, that's the premise of a famous manga (Assembler 0X).
If you want to debate on a reply I gave to your posts, please QUOTE ME or i'll not be notified about. << now red so probably you'll see it.

10 ? "RENPY"
20 GOTO 10

RUN

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gas
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Re: Ideas Dump

#1500 Post by gas »

gekiganwing wrote:Fun with video game concepts...


4. "If you pause during timed choices, that's not necessarily bad." Sometimes the protagonist should not say anything. If they pause for a moment, maybe another choice will appear. (This could represent that the protag needs to wait a few seconds to think of a better choice.)
Adding choices that disappear by time (impulse choices!) and ones that change automatically by time ("Extinguish the fire">"Extinguish the blaze">"Escape from the burning city") it's a VERY interesting mechanic, like the one producers copyright. "The uncanny IMPULZE (c) system! Challenge your patience and reaction times while progress the story!" (screenshot follow of japanese beauty, "I'ts like real life!", + 5% copies sold).
If you want to debate on a reply I gave to your posts, please QUOTE ME or i'll not be notified about. << now red so probably you'll see it.

10 ? "RENPY"
20 GOTO 10

RUN

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