Quest as a graduation project
I think most programmers wanted to write their own toy. Someone wanted to realize his RPG world, someone dreamed of his shooter, but I always wanted to do my quest.
About a year ago, a friend approached me with a proposal to take part in a thesis project. I had an idea to realize my own quest a long time ago, but somehow they didn’t get around, and there were no familiar artists who were ready to help in the realization of this idea. But at this very moment, I realized that it was time to get ideas and experience in this direction and start writing my game more seriously. Actually, as a graduation project, it was proposed to implement his game.
At once I will make a reservation that the student is not a programmer and studied in the specialty “design in computer science” (or something similarly unintelligible), so one should not expect any harsh algorithms. The article illustrates the stages of creating a quest and laid out some materials on the work.
')
I will try to tell about what stages were passed on the way to success, what I had to do and how I had to realize it, and what to refuse.
I fell in love with the quest genre from my first game - Broken Sword 2 . Colorful characters, thoughtful, exciting plot, original humor - I remember the games of this genre in their golden season. Naturally, like any programmer, I have long had a desire to write my own game, but something constantly interfered with me: lack of plot, artist or desire. At the moment when a friend approached me, I decided that it was no longer possible to postpone and it’s time to get down to business!
First of all, materials on quest-making available on the Internet were studied. I already published some of the articles: How to write an adventure game? and the mechanics of puzzles in adventure games . I can add a couple of great works on game design: Fundamentals of Game Design , Advanced game design , The Art of Game Design . Of course, there was a sea of ​​revised resources and materials, but these had a couple of others (the translation of which, I hope, I will present in the near future) the greatest impact.
For samples, of course, the classics of the genre were taken: Broken Sword , Diskworld , Botanicula , Machinarium , etc. Initially, the game was planned to be much more mature, but in the end, everything came to the nursery, cartoon graphics. This choice, of course, due to the personal preferences of the artist, as well as the fact that a suitable children's work, which could rely much easier to find.
First of all, there was the task of choosing a game engine that meets a number of criteria:
The following projects became candidates:
As a result, after analyzing the existing solutions, the choice fell on the Alpaca Engine . Despite the fact that the project has not been updated for a long time, the engine (although this is not the engine in the classic sense of the term, but rather just the template for which the game is written) turned out to be quite digestible for the purposes of writing a quest. Of course, many interesting features were missing ( Parallax Layering , continuous, shiftable level), but it was decided to implement them independently, in case there is time. But, of course, there is always not enough time when writing a diploma ...
Initially, I wanted to make a tough game with a unique plot in the style of the chorus ( Sublustrum , The Black Mirror , Still life , etc), but it quickly became clear that the writers did not eat their bread for good reason and it was decided to follow the advice of Pablo Picasso . In fact, the following criteria should be present in the story for the quest: a field for mysteries, an interesting and exciting story. As a result, the work of Philip Pullman “The Golden Compass” from the trilogy of dark beginnings was chosen as the basis.
With the development of the character did not have serious problems. Some trial options:
And Lyra with a static daemon is ready:
It was originally planned to be limited to one room and not to crawl with thought on the tree:
But after the first stages of the work, it became clear that the number of items per scene increased dramatically and it was impossible to do without separation. First of all, we decomposed the existing puzzles with basic sketches:
Further, focusing on the classic British interiors, the cabinet was recreated:
In the quests there are many types of puzzles, there are even their own patterns , but due to time constraints we decided to stop on the following types of puzzles:
In general, nothing unique, a classic set of tasks from the golden era of quests. Further, the game puzzles were illustrated with comics:
After the idea, engine and style design was chosen (and it took about three months), the implementation was not long in coming. Of course, I had to face a number of problems in the existing engine and rummage in its content, but this is the job of the engineer.
It turned out, of course, not a world-class quest, but in my opinion a very decent job, especially for a non-IT specialist:
PS The girl successfully defended perfectly!
About a year ago, a friend approached me with a proposal to take part in a thesis project. I had an idea to realize my own quest a long time ago, but somehow they didn’t get around, and there were no familiar artists who were ready to help in the realization of this idea. But at this very moment, I realized that it was time to get ideas and experience in this direction and start writing my game more seriously. Actually, as a graduation project, it was proposed to implement his game.
At once I will make a reservation that the student is not a programmer and studied in the specialty “design in computer science” (or something similarly unintelligible), so one should not expect any harsh algorithms. The article illustrates the stages of creating a quest and laid out some materials on the work.
')
I will try to tell about what stages were passed on the way to success, what I had to do and how I had to realize it, and what to refuse.
Choosing a genre
I fell in love with the quest genre from my first game - Broken Sword 2 . Colorful characters, thoughtful, exciting plot, original humor - I remember the games of this genre in their golden season. Naturally, like any programmer, I have long had a desire to write my own game, but something constantly interfered with me: lack of plot, artist or desire. At the moment when a friend approached me, I decided that it was no longer possible to postpone and it’s time to get down to business!
First of all, materials on quest-making available on the Internet were studied. I already published some of the articles: How to write an adventure game? and the mechanics of puzzles in adventure games . I can add a couple of great works on game design: Fundamentals of Game Design , Advanced game design , The Art of Game Design . Of course, there was a sea of ​​revised resources and materials, but these had a couple of others (the translation of which, I hope, I will present in the near future) the greatest impact.
For samples, of course, the classics of the genre were taken: Broken Sword , Diskworld , Botanicula , Machinarium , etc. Initially, the game was planned to be much more mature, but in the end, everything came to the nursery, cartoon graphics. This choice, of course, due to the personal preferences of the artist, as well as the fact that a suitable children's work, which could rely much easier to find.
Work on the game
Engine selection
First of all, there was the task of choosing a game engine that meets a number of criteria:
- Open to modifications
- Simple and clear implementation
- Genre focus
The following projects became candidates:
As a result, after analyzing the existing solutions, the choice fell on the Alpaca Engine . Despite the fact that the project has not been updated for a long time, the engine (although this is not the engine in the classic sense of the term, but rather just the template for which the game is written) turned out to be quite digestible for the purposes of writing a quest. Of course, many interesting features were missing ( Parallax Layering , continuous, shiftable level), but it was decided to implement them independently, in case there is time. But, of course, there is always not enough time when writing a diploma ...
Plot
Initially, I wanted to make a tough game with a unique plot in the style of the chorus ( Sublustrum , The Black Mirror , Still life , etc), but it quickly became clear that the writers did not eat their bread for good reason and it was decided to follow the advice of Pablo Picasso . In fact, the following criteria should be present in the story for the quest: a field for mysteries, an interesting and exciting story. As a result, the work of Philip Pullman “The Golden Compass” from the trilogy of dark beginnings was chosen as the basis.
Character development
With the development of the character did not have serious problems. Some trial options:
And Lyra with a static daemon is ready:
Environment
It was originally planned to be limited to one room and not to crawl with thought on the tree:
But after the first stages of the work, it became clear that the number of items per scene increased dramatically and it was impossible to do without separation. First of all, we decomposed the existing puzzles with basic sketches:
Further, focusing on the classic British interiors, the cabinet was recreated:
Riddles
In the quests there are many types of puzzles, there are even their own patterns , but due to time constraints we decided to stop on the following types of puzzles:
- Banal pixel hunt
- Interaction of subjects
- Interaction with the environment
In general, nothing unique, a classic set of tasks from the golden era of quests. Further, the game puzzles were illustrated with comics:
results
After the idea, engine and style design was chosen (and it took about three months), the implementation was not long in coming. Of course, I had to face a number of problems in the existing engine and rummage in its content, but this is the job of the engineer.
It turned out, of course, not a world-class quest, but in my opinion a very decent job, especially for a non-IT specialist:
PS The girl successfully defended perfectly!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/184308/
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