Show posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

Topics - QuentinWhite

1
New Projects / Sinathir: Welcome to the colony
April 13, 2018, 02:11:07 pm


Short overview:
This game can be summarized as a combination of things I liked the most about other games. The biggest inspiration was the Princess Maker series.
In theses games, your goal is to take care of your daughter and raise her as best as you can. You can send her to do jobs and raise her stats.
She gets older over time and after eight in-game years the game ends and you get a ending depending on your stats and decisions you did.
This is the basic premise of Sinathir. But instead of playing as the father figure, you play as the girl directly.
Other games I took inspiration from are: Harvest moon, Gothic I/II, Runescape, Deus Ex, Fallout, Shadowrun and other games I don't remember right now.

Basic story:
Game takes place in near future in alternate history. Third world war happened and USA conquered the entire planet.
Ten years later, all countries revolted at the same time and managed to defeat the USA, Russia decided to use this opportunity to get as much power as possible.
At the beginning of the game, Most of our planed is controlled by them. Our planet is in a really bad shape.
Lack of resources, large portions of land destroyed by recent war, presence of human-animal hybrids and general unhappiness are not the only problems.
You play as a ten years old girl born in Russia. Your parents stole some money from a powerful corporation and were sentenced to exile.
Lucky criminals get sent to work camps, the unlucky ones get exiled to an island called Sinathir. Island full of criminals and of the most dangerous places on the planet.
Sadly, your parents died in a riot that happened on the ship that was carrying you to said island.
You  arrive at the island as the only surviving prisoner and this is when the game starts.

Gameplay:
The goal is to make this a raising sim/RPG in a small, handcrafted open world. You will explore the island, meet other people, befriend them and work for them.
You raise your stats by working, fighting, training or using items you find. No leveling from xp.
There are multiple trades you can train. By raising these stats, you unlock new skills and recipes.
Farming skill will allow you to plant more kinds of plants, cooking will let you cook more complex food, surviving skill will let you skin animals, fish, scavenge etc.

Game has light survival elements. Your character has to eat and keep herself in a good mood.
However, there are no hunger meters. Instead, food works as a kind of currency.

Training, working or resting are the only means of advancing time. You can explore or do whatever you want as long as you'd like.
After you are done, you can talk to certain NPCs and start working for them.
This will give you some money, raise your stats and advance time by seven days You need food if you want to advance time.
You can still work if you run out of food, but you will receive heavy mood penalty.

Mood gets affected by many things. Chatting with NPCs, eating good quality food directly, completing quests,... All of these raise your mood.
However, things like starvation, hurting or killing others or exploring scary places decrease you mood. If mood goes below -100, the game ends.
Planning things accordingly is the key to success here.

And that is basically the main gameplay loop. Wake up, talk to your friends, explore, get some food, decide what kind of work you want to do for the next seven days and repeat.

Notable features:
Bear in mind that these are already implemented in the game in one state or another.
Most of them still need a lot of tuning or straight up redoing, but these are in and I will improve upon these as time goes on:


  • Your character ages
    The physical appearance of your character changes as you play. Every in-game year, your character will get new sprite and look more mature.
    This also changes the way certain NPCs interact with you.


  • "Three solutions" system
    I don't know if there is a proper name for this but this is how I call it.
    Basically, 90% of all quests and situations will have at least three solutions.
    For example, locked chest. You can pick the lock, break the lock or find the proper key.
    Every locked door has the right key.


  • Quests can be failed
    You can only accept and complete one quest per week. If you don't finish the in given time, the quest will fail and the NPC will comment on it. Not only that but...


  • Changing world
    World changes slightly depending on your actions. Failing or completing quests will have consequences.
    Refusal to deal with field pest will raise the prices of fruits and vegetables.
    Ignore the rotting bridge long enough and it will fall apart, forcing you to walk around. Simple things like that.


  • Non-monetary quest rewards
    90% of all quests will give you some kind of non monetary reward (because these are boring).
    Help farmer pick potatoes and he will allow you to take some for free every week.
    Bring something tasty to the bridge guard and he will let you cross for free from that moment on.
    Bring some ore to the blacksmith and he will allow you to use his forge.
    To me, this seems much more interesting than just getting money and forgetting about the quest.


  • Wound / scar system
    Getting hurt is not a good idea. If your HP gets too low, your character will have visible wound on her body.
    These will turn into permanent scars if you end up getting hurt too often. Which leads me to...


  • NPCs react
    NPCs will react to the player. Commenting on your choice of clothing, your previous achievements or your physical appearance.
    Some NPCs will give more involved reactions to some of your decisions.


  • Visible equipment
    All equipment will appear on your character "dialogue sprite".
    Your in-game sprite will also change depending on the choice of your clothing (not weapons)


  • Customize your characters appearance
    Your equipment is visible, your wounds are visible, but that's not all.
    You can change your hairstyle, buy a hair dye, contact lenses or get some mutagen injections and transform your body into animal hybrid.
    Or you can just install some cybernetic augmentations if you are into that.


  • Upgrade your hideout
    You start with a tent and you can end up with a manor. Raise your stats, get some materials and friends and upgrade your house for more space for your crafting stations and other benefits.


  • Purposeful companions
    Every major NPC can be hired as a companion. Every companion has a specific skill that is useful for different situations.
    Farmer is weak, but can identify every wild plant so you can collect them safely.
    Hunter will skin and gut every animal you can kill, Priest will persuade people to do what you want etc.
    As you can see, none of these skills are combat related.
    Want to gather some plants for food or alchemy? Take the farmer with you. Want to get some meat for your cooking needs? Take the hunter with you.
    Or you can just learn these skills your self if your stats are high enough.


These are the main points.

And here are some screenshots
Spoiler: ShowHide

WIP kobold NPC. Needs more detail


Status screen. Here you can see all stats you can raise


Some untextured weapon models


Equipment screen. It shows you how your character looks and allows you to switch active weapons.


This is the improved message box. It supports four text lines and fits the text into the enlarged box better.


Dialogue screen. Shows you the topics you can talk about, NPC sprite and how much they like you.


Different hair color and hairstyle. 3D model view.


Different hair colors. Notice the map sprite changing chair color too.


This is old screenshot, but this shows you the "ammo" window that appears when you have ranged weapon equiped. Also shows you item rarity colors.


Victory screen. Modified to show aditional information.


Another 3D model view. Also shows you alternate eye color.


Enlarged ingame sprite. This is the upgrade route for weapon storage.


This is the modified item menu. Allows you to filter your items thanks to those tabs.


Characters can change their face expresions.



And here are some WEBMs
Spoiler: ShowHide

This will show you the character animation while talking. They move their mouth, blink and change expresions.
https://webmshare.com/q5Beb

This shows you the old blinking system with less frames. But it shows you the sprite movement and text handling in action.
https://webmshare.com/6jdQG

This shows you the old equipment system. New one allows you to equip two weapons. Here you can see that every small weapon has individual sprite for every piece of clothing.
https://webmshare.com/WB7wd


As it stands, the game is still under heavy development. Most of the in-game graphics are placeholders (I want the sprites to be 100% original) and many things will surely change and evolve over time.

If you want to see more, you can go at: https://pmhmproject.wordpress.com/

I post progress every week (unless something goes horribly wrong). The game will be completely free once finished.
If you have any questions or ideas, don't be afraid to ask! The game is still early in development so I am really open to new ideas and sugestions.