Halloween Game Jam

I’ll pretend I didn’t see that.

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We always can do a Nanowrimo supporting group too. Posting snippets and helping each other. Even working together in a collection of short stories. I mean I love to create those type of stuff. If I never did it here in this forum is because I thought that People didn’t want to do anything with me.

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I have actually entertained the idea of making a big, sprawling RPG game, where people can submit their own content for, like NPCs and sidequests and stuff.

Mainly as a way to practice being a project-manager (game director!), and editor, and coding interesting things I wouldn’t have come up with myself. it would also give writers who are new, or have trouble coding, or committing to making a full game, a way to practice with smaller scenes that would still be useful.

But it would be so, so much work, even if I could collect a main team, to work on it consistently.

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That’s the first cause of it being so much work. :laughing:

But, which engine are you thinking of for this RPG? Purely text-based?

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I would love to see it :slight_smile:

Sounds wonderfull. The problem is that it can branch in a crazy way. XD Anyway, if it’s just to write NPCs, maybe I can write something short. Emphasis on the short part. XD

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That was the plan. Unless I have time to learn to javascript or another programming language.

There’s a lot of options.

The best would of course be to make a proper full 3D game, but ahahahahahaha… :sweat_smile:

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The main problem is the consistency of choices from one quest to others. and the synergy between the options karma and skills…

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There’s this big collaboration:


Didn’t play it myself, so not sure how the consistency/synergy is handled, or not.
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Yeah definitely! (Just look at Bethesda’s games :wink:)

That’s why there’d need to be a main editor, or a team, to make sure it’s all homogenized, that the writing style and difficulty don’t change too much.

@brushmen Cool! I haven’t seen that one before.
The idea was mainly inspired by games like CoC I and 2, TiTS and Lilith’s Throne, and wishing there was more semi-openworld text based adventure/RPG’s out there, but without the over-the-top fetishy content. :sweat_smile:

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Wow 84 authors

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My suggestion is that if you really want to go that route, it needs to have someone calling the shoots and managing the project.

From my perspective, it sound too much like my work. XD

But someone who coordinate everything, assign task, and set some common parameters is important. Also, document what is done. It is quite boring, but common documents help others to work together. I mean, if you said “we would use dungeons and dragons system and setting”, people know what is allowed in that world and which rules apply. It is an example, but helps to achieve coherence.

So Maybe a topic to see who is interested, first start to discuss which kind of ambientation is going to be. Futuristic? fantasy? Is there magic? It is a world like ours but with supernatural beings? It is “realistic”? All this things need to be agreed on to start imagining things that doesn’t feel off when all put together.

Any way, this is just a suggestion. And since I’m not going to do it, feel free to ignore. hahahaha

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I would like to help but as always, I can not because I am not native and I am not a good writer so as even If I would love to make a story in groups, I will be a burden and I doubt that anyone would want to work with someone like me.

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Don’t understimate yourself. Sometimes ideas and brainstorm help. My english is also rubbish. Yet others can help with spelling and grammar. Worst case scenario, we have the option to use grammarly or other program that does that for you.

But ideas are priceless. And encouraging. Even testing is a very important and serious work. Hell, testers are one of those understimated people in projects but that are really priceless. So if you don’t feel like writing, you can still help by testing and giving feedback.

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As probably one of the few people here who have ever coordinated a group project, (or at least tried to) I’m going to very quickly run in the opposite direction. It’s a logistical nightmare. And that was with (in the end) only four people.

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Oh, I have too many projects, and way too little energy, to do anything about it, at least at this point.

I would need to design and code a RPG system, and either plan a setting and main plot myself, or together with a group who are willing to commit to being the core writing team.

@poison_mara there are a lot of things involved in game design, that doesn’t require the participants to be perfect english speakers. I recall the two of us once brainstorming a scenario where the PC had to infiltrate a closed club, and you kept pushing for more options, more inclusivity, where I would have just settled for less. That’s valuable.

@Cecilia_Rosewood Yeah, that’s why there needs to be a designated leader/manager/lead writer, just like if it was a commercial project.

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It can work, but I’d say part luck, part skill for co-authoring.

For starters, both authors/creators have to have the same story in mind when they create the game. Usually that’s not the case I imagine and so you can either have a unique project with good stories or a project that obviously has two differing plot lines it can’t sort out.

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My advice is that you start by breaking down the project in smaller task. For example, start by deciding on the setting. Once you know if you want to have an steampunk world, space pirates or underground mutants, you can decide on the system.

The system should help to convey the setting. For example, in a superhero setting where you want the player to feel powerful and do heroics or at least take risk, you want to make dying very difficult and put rewards (like XP) for doing heroics and/or taking risk. While a setting where you want the player to be afraid and careful, works better if you make dying easy and, even better, add rules for maiming and other bad stuff that teach the player that taking stupid risk is a very bad idea.

Once you have those two things, you can start creating the main plot. The main plot usually start with a big “conflict” for the story. And that “conflict” usually is reinforced by the subplots or short stories.

As I said, it is a lot of work. But if people in the team has a clear idea of all that, then it is easier to make it work.

When I was at university, we did things like that. Sadly, I don’t have as much time anymore. But I would love to see the results of your work :wink:

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Thanks for the interest and advice, everyone, but I’d like to get away from that tangent.

My anxiety is already making me regret saying anything. :sweat_smile:

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You’ve been exceptionally supportive of everyone – treat yourself the same way you treat others! :slight_smile:

When I was in high school, 2000 words felt like a monumental task. Now it’s an evening of writing. Pour myself a glass of wine, and voila.

What I’ve stopped doing is checking wordcount. I’ve started setting more direct goals like “write x and y scenes”. Focus on making myself happy, and don’t worry about Zero, Goddess of Numbers.

It gets easier! Keep at it!

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