Ideas for story, Post, discuss, debate on plot lines Options

[X-M-O]

They would probably look like their avatars (example: XMO would be rendered as constantly changing anime boys/a funny little magenta ball).

Yeah, my favourite anime boy characters are in my ever-changing avatar, but I'd much prefer being a "funny little magenta ball". XD

[MEands]

Wait I don't want to be psycho Shion.

[bulmabriefs144]

It's too late MEands, you've been typecasted. Also, I'm apparently female (and bluehaired).

The idea sounds okay until you mention 20-60 characters. That's a bit insane. Chrono Cross had about as many characters, but they each ended up getting like three plot scenes, and it kinda turned into a "collect 'em all." That many characters spread out over installments is only a few per game if spaced out over about 5-6 chapters. And you'd actually have time to develop them. Otherwise, no.

This post has been edited by bulmabriefs144: Mar 31 2012, 07:41 PM

[MEands]

It's too late MEands, you've been typecasted. Also, I'm apparently female (and bluehaired).

The idea sounds okay until you mention 20-60 characters. That's a bit insane. Chrono Cross had about as many characters, but they each ended up getting like three plot scenes, and it kinda turned into a "collect 'em all." That many characters spread out over installments is only a few per game if spaced out over about 5-6 chapters. And you'd actually have time to develop them. Otherwise, no.

At least I'm a good anime.

Here, I don't know if this is a weird idea, or if it's already been said, but like:
Not really chapters, but like, character scenes.
Lets say the game starts with one member, he/she is just going on with their day, when the main plot appears. idk what happens, the main villain stole his cat or something, he goes after him. So after he does some quest or defeats a final boss, then it transitions to a new member's scene.
You now play as this other member, possibly being affected by the main villain, but maybe not. Eventually this member runs into the member from scene 1, and they end up fighting. After their fight, they decide to join forces (maybe).
The joining forces might make it easier to have each character in the game. Instead of a different story for each character, we could group them up and have stories about their party.

just a thought

[shinyjiggly]

Well, not everybody needs to be a potential party member. They can be present somewhere, but probably not all party members. The question is, how do we pick out which members will become party members?

[MEands]

Well, not everybody needs to be a potential party member. They can be present somewhere, but probably not all party members. The question is, how do we pick out which members will become party members?

We could do it the easy way and make a thread of what each member would like to be in the game.
They won't necessarily get what they want, but it would make each character's background a little easier to write.
Like, a characters page.

[bulmabriefs144]

(I dunno the actual source anime for my avvie. I used it instead in my game)

That would be interesting, have instead of layers various section on different perspectives. The villain managed to wrong ALL these people, and they eventually band together against him/her. Heck we could have various people choose sides (the main villain's or the hero's) and sorta have their story on how they joined one another before there's some kinda bloodbath (each villain character is a boss, and could submit their strategy of strengths and weaknesses, as well as a few heroic sacrifices for lesser heroes).

I still think we should have installments, and possibly experiment with multiple engines, but this could work.

As previously mentioned, I can't do much contribution to XP since it's not really my engine. So yea, you might as well expy Ambrosia from Oracle of Tao, but this time she's a villain (easy, she's bitter and crazy cause her bf Nevras left her for another girl). She's a glass cannon btw (nearly killer magic and attack, but extremely weak in defense and hp, and at least one of her spells should have delay, as well as the others drawing from hp rather than mp. Not how her powers normally work, but they're sorta twisted from insanity). More or less a cameo boss though.

Well, that or an equally bitter and crazy bartender/shopkeep.

-----

Before we make a new thread, is this more or less okay with everyone? Don't wanna keep changing plots. Although each character's plot can still be discussed here if people like this idea.

This post has been edited by bulmabriefs144: Mar 31 2012, 10:47 PM

[MEands]

Installments could still work.
We'd need to make sure people don't make their character's backstory, "Was the strongest person ever and is awesome"

lol, we don't even know the motive of the main villain. If this is a humor game the villain could be a really bad game designer who distorts worlds because he doesn't know how to program. I've kinda been really interested in making a cool villain, if someone could give me a chance, I could probably make a pretty cool bad guy.
(Also, if people decide to make the choose your character's bio thing, could I start the thread? I want to be important )

[Kaust]

Well, not everybody needs to be a potential party member. They can be present somewhere, but probably not all party members. The question is, how do we pick out which members will become party members?

I'm pretty adamant that the most any contributor gets is a cameo. I just think having some who are heroes will diminish those who are npcs. And who wants to be that clumsy villain that trips over his own shoelaces. No-one wants to be Baku. Much.

Bulma's right; we can't keep this thread going forever. I'm a little confused with how this new plot is going, would someone mind putting it all together in some coherent fashion (something should definitely be renamed Rev Points Shiny ). Possibly this could be combined with the metagame idea. Idk if any of you played any of the .HACK games (or saw the anime) but it was starting to take a real good turn in that direction.

[bulmabriefs144]

Or an incoherent fashion. Let's see, Sparrowhawk wants a multilayer universe, MEands wants sorta character perspective, Amerk said something about noobs taking over a treehouse. And Vvalking said something about happiness and the fight against boredom. Put em together and what do ya got? (Bibidi Babidi Buu) A coherent plot, sorta.

The setting starts as some group of kids, whose main purpose is "to seek adventure and defeat boredom" get knocked out of their treehouse by some thugs (noobs). They try to fight to get it back (but this is one of those battles where the party loses horribly no matter what they do). They realize that they need to go on an EPIC QUEST to get their treehouse back (it's kinda tongue in cheek, but it might get more serious later), picking up some impressive sword or something. On the way, by accident, one of them fulls down a hole and finds something else, a box named Pandora that he accidentally frees from its chains. It runs off, or rather hops off (this later becomes a semi-recurring boss, and the final boss, until the true final boss, if you did everything right for the best ending, the programmer). Meanwhile, the story sets up a very much false final boss, which you actually end up killing in the first game. There are 10 short chapters: Chapter 1 is the main party's story, eight more chapters of individuals in single or pair and how the fake final boss slighted them (these become the reserve teams and extra members, and we could look into having a double or triple party, which can solve puzzles). In Chapter 10, they all get together, and fight the final boss. Right after that, we have a sort of moment where a group of teenagers/college kids are in an arcade talking about their victory. That ends the first installment (whew... though it lasts only about 3 hours). The second, would be showing these kids in chapters of their own as they go to school. At some point, one of the finds a strange box, and after opening it, decides to toss it into the trash. This story revolves heavily around gamers involved in some sort of event in the "real world". Let's go with sort of an Earthbound theme, of violent humans and animals becoming wild. They figure out the cause of this menace, and stop it. Which switches scenes yet again to a bunch of programmers talking about their latest realistic RPG. That ends the second installment (this should be shorter than the first). Over the course of this next installment you find out about the various programmers, and that what you thought was real life teenagers was in fact the very RPG they just mentioned. This should first mention the programmer who is to be a final boss. Also, during this chapter, and exploring the town that these programmers live in, there's echoes of previous chapters, teenagers getting eaten by wild dogs, and some kids finally manage to reclaim their treehouse with a "sacred" baseball bat (yes, I've watched Paranoia Agent). There should also once again be a brief appearance of this strange package, but here it should be minor, like a background even happening while the main characters are all talking about their next big game. There should at this point, be some pretty heavy hints that this world isn't really real, through surreal imagery. At the end of this installment, a character wakes up from a dream (doesn't get shown officially until the next one, for reasons you'll see). This is the player, who unlike the others is chosen by name and sprite and this chapter is entirely about him rather than switching perspective. It ends with him ordering an urn from Amazon, which attacks him, and reveals that it is the container of evil, Pandora. The box talks about switching dimensions, and we see the background change a few times during the battle. It also says something about how the world YOU (yea you there, watching this game) think is real could also be an illusion (you then have to fight the screen itself). After this battle, we meet the evil programmer, who made all this, by flunking computer science. And then whatever ending we can decide on.

If this is okay with everyone, I'd say start a character design page.

This post has been edited by bulmabriefs144: Apr 1 2012, 08:38 AM

[MEands]

That's such a trippy story, I love it.
We should end the final installment with an image of all the characters looking towards the player (looking out the screen).

[MisterToonz]

Brilliant! Shall we use that exact post as the structure and close this? Open a new one and start working on Characters, ect?

This post has been edited by MisterToonz: Apr 1 2012, 02:32 PM

[Sparrowsmith]

My only caveat with a FORUM game and a 'nothing is real' game is that there is no room for character development.
Well maybe some, but certainly nothing emotionally stunning. Like A completes his quest, hooray, but it was all a game made by these guys. I can imagine, by the third layer or so, the process becoming kind of tacky. Trippy, yes, but also kind of tacky. Conflict between characters is also a lot harder to muster up, not impossible, just kind of staged.

I mean, if this is what everyone wants to go with, then I'll still be on board, but I think there's more room for character developments if what happens actually amounts to progress throughout the layers, rather then recursion. Less focus on the gimmick of the layer, more focus on the story that we tell THROUGH the layers.
This is why I really liked the idea that the programmers actually talked to the characters within their game (more of an immersive reality, like sims). It meant that the characters became 'real' again, even if they are digital, and could influence events on the next layer up. The programmers also have to develop emotionally from knowing they've created intelligent beings and have personal dilemmas over whether its all real.
IE: The program has faulted and threatens the programmers in some way (placeholder: A rogue program is seeking to escape from the game and pretty much destroy everything digital in the real world). The programmers COULD just turn off the game, but that would mean rebooting the whole thing, effectively killing all of these characters who are just as real. They are faced with a very real dilemma, with real observable consequences. It makes it 'real' again, even if their worlds aren't real.
We have to keep the audience believing that this means something, even if it's not real. That's a tricky thing to do, but it'll be that much more impressive if we can handle it.

[Show/Hide] Some random stuff I came up with which, while rough and probably awful, I would like to put on the table. Warning, it's long. Stupidly long. Insanely long.

Layer 1: Your standard (possibly online) fantasy game. Our main focus is on two or three characters. Their behavior is very self-aware. They make jokes as if they know they're in a game. After we play through a few quests which contain symbolism for later, the audience is made aware that this is a game the characters from Layer 2 have been playing. They eventually quit the game because it is having an update.

Layer 2: The characters are the same as those playing in layer 1, they have been the whole time, but now we get to see what they look like (rather than what they type/say while playing the game). They still joke about gaming abstractions (inventories etc) but aren't aware that they are in a game or of what the 'real' world would even look like.
During this time they deal with problems you'd expect from young people (those problems can be outlined easier once they have a set age.) but we are mostly in control of one character, who is much more aware of what the world around him is, he just doesn't know it for sure. Eventually, as he walks down the street, he hears people talking from within an abandoned factory. He goes to investigate and, unbeknownst to him, sees the programmers discussing an 'entrance' for people playing the game. One of them mentions the morality of allowing death in the game, but is told by another to save it until they get out. When one of the programmers spots our protagonist, they're amazed. To the protagonist it just seems like usual shadey stuff "You're not supposed to be in here." but the programmers literally mean he shouldn't even be aware that the place exists. At this point the programmers leave, and the protagonist is unable to follow.
We then cut to layer 3 (but we're still not told layer 2 is a game) and see the programmers discussing the game. We end with them initiating a 'test run'.
Back in layer 2, our protagonists, confused by the programmers, but not bothered too much, continue to try and play the game (layer 1) but see a message that a tests are still being run. Then, the screen changes, and the game becomes playable again.

Layer 1: The game looks radically different. The map is quite literally torn apart, revealing that it is a game. The protagonists are confused, but proceed towards the only character on the map. It is a man that one of the protagonists recognizes from layer 2 (though they think layer 2 is the real world) the man claims that "The game is mine." before attacking the players with an attack that was 'removed from the game for being too powerful' and killing them all. To their surprise, they're unable to respawn or reset the game. The man speaks again, his words appearing as text on the gameover screen "I told you, the game is mine."

Layer 3: We cut back to the programmers as they run their tests. They are speaking to one of their own who is currently plugged into the game. The one in the game is reluctant to do whatever is being asked of him, but eventually he does it. The programmers then:
"Give him privileges."
but "The program isn't terminating!"
and then finally, we see the programmers huddled around a screen as words spread across it:
"The game is mine."
We see the programmers try to get their programmer to leave the game, but he is unable. He says that he can see the program. The programmers then see something, hidden from the audience, and remark on how it is impossible. They ask how the program is doing it, and it responds:
"I told you, the game is mine."

Layer 2: We travel back a little bit, and we are now playing as the programmer just before whatever just happened happened. He is standing by a perfectly ordinary man, the one we saw in layer 1. Upon being told to do so by his bosses, the programmer takes out a gun and shoots the man. The man initially falls to the ground, but then the world around him begins acting differently, and suddenly the body just disappears. The programmers panic and tell him to get out of the game. He heads to the warehouse, which acts as an in/out point to the game, but finds the program already waiting for him. The programmer goes to shoot him again, but the man disappears. In his place, several monsters from Layer 1 appear and attack the programmer. We are not shown whether or not he lives, or what affect this would have on the next layer. It is heavily implied, but not stated, that layer 2 is a game as well.

Layer 3: The programmers manage to get their colleague out of the game by hacking it before the monsters can kill him. He is in shock but physically seems ok. One of the programmers notices how, since they hacked the game, the rogue program can control the entrance/exit system, and has barred the programmers from entering. They realise this means the program learns every trick they try and uses them itself. This leaves them defenseless. They know that rebooting the system will get rid of the program, but it will also set them back years of work, so they try to find another solution. Meanwhile, the programmer who just got out walks over to his station and attempts to talk to the characters. The other programmers don't think it will work, but to their surprise, one of them answers.

Layer 2: We switch back to the main protagonist, who is questioning the strange day he's been having when suddenly someone starts speaking to him. He is neither hearing nor reading what they say, but is simply 'aware' of it. At first he thinks it may be a god or a prank, but plays along when told that he is actually in a game. At first he believes this to be 'matrix-style', and the programmers choose not to tell him that he is actually just a program, and not plugged into the game. He is still skeptical of what they're saying until monsters begin attacking his home. The programmers give the protagonist his weapon from Layer 1 so that he can fight off the attackers. The rogue program already has mastery over layer 1, so this doesn't give him any more powers. The rogue program does, however, show up to inspect the protagonist. Oddly, he does not attack, but disappears after concluding that the protagonist is not a threat. The programmers explain that if the program can be killed, everything will be returned to normal. We then get some exposition:
Layer 1 is a side project of the programmers in Layer 3. A mini-game that they run to let off steam. Layer 2 is their real project, an immersive reality with programs that can simulate human behavior perfectly. It is essentially sims, only YOU can actually enter the world you create, or create programs to live there. The programmers are nearing beta testing and were designing entry points for players when the protagonist caught them. They have also been battling with whether or not to put death in the game. The problem being that they want NPCs to be able to kill each other, and die naturally, so that it seems real, but they don't want the players to go on killing sprees. So they design a new aspect to the code of the AI. Simply put, if a player kills an NPC, the NPC briefly checks itself against the game to see if the death was a result of the game (allowed) or the result of a player (not allowed -> respawn) the code then terminates. When they tried to test this new system by killing a random program (the man) with the code, they hadn't accounted for the AI being so aware. This is why the programmer didn't want to shoot, because, after meeting the protagonist earlier, he couldn't help but feel this man really thought he was a person. When he shot the man, it was not enough to kill him, but they had already turned on the code. The man became aware that he was a program and attempted to avoid his own rebooting. He escaped into layer 1 (which was being 'updated'. It was actually just postponed while they ran tests in Layer 2 so that they had more focus on their actual project.) The rogue program spreads its influence throughout Layer 1, causing it all to become aware that it is a game (layer 1) and enter the 'real world' (layer 2) this is where the monsters come from. The rogue program rides this glitch back into layer 2, and can now glitch itself around layer 2. However, the rogue program knows that layer 2 is also a game, and is trying to reach layer 3. The program knows that if it is killed, the code will activate, and it will be rebooted without its new powers.
It is now a race against time for our protagonist and his friends to find and defeat the rogue program before it can find a way to escape into layer 3. If it reaches layer 3 it could, potentially, spread itself through every data network on the planet, causing irrevocable damage and ending lives.

From here I have much less of the story worked out.

In Layer 3, the programmers, while trying to help the protagonists, initiate a lockdown to try and restrict where the rogue program can go if it manages to escape. Soon after they do this, it does escape, and takes control of the security system. However, this is as far as it is able to go. It then begins attacking the programmers using the very machines supposed to protect the programmers.

Meanwhile in Layer 2: Our heroes are accessing parts of the game that are unfinished, and fighting powerful 'glitched' monsters that are literally feeding off of the game. Eventually our heroes escape into the code, and follow the rogue program into the security system.

Eventually, through teamwork on both layer 2 and layer 3, the rogue program is defeated, but not before raising the questions on what is and isn't real.

Optional stuff:
The rogue program manages to either enter or create and then enter a robotic body for itself. This leads to a final showdown between the programmers and the program.

Optional Optional: The main protagonist is actually based on the 'brain-dead' son of the lead programmer. Who's body is kept alive via life support. Somehow, when the protagonists escape into the security system of layer 3, the main hero finds his way 'back to his body' so to speak. This raises more questions of what is real, and allows the main hero to take part in the final battle with the robo-program.

The end could possibly contain some inspiring messages about how reality is what you make of it, and we are all just machines in some sense of the word.
Or there's the gag ending. Where it fades to black and we see a room full of people from RRR. One of them will be by a computer and say,
"and we're finally done with the game"
then the obligatory
"Or are we?" as everyone turns to face the screen.

Character Developments:
Taking responsibility. The programmers have to come to terms with the fact that, while they didn't intend to create such a powerful and potentially deadly program, they have, and now it is there responsibility to stop it, or try their best to.
Perseverance: Our protagonists have to be brave in the face of a danger which is neither their fault nor their responsibility, but they are the best candidates to actually defeat this problem. Even as the world they grew up in shatters around them, and they have to come to terms with their own existence, they begin to see a grander perspective. It's not that nothing they did ever mattered, it's that it will only matter if they can preserve it by stopping the bad guy.

Faith: Only one of the protagonists, to begin with, can actually communicate with the programmers, but they all go on the quest to defeat the rogue program together. We can see some internal conflicts as they question if the programmers really did make them, or if they're being fooled by some higher power.

Mortality: By the end, all of the characters (even the rogue program) are just scared of one thing: Their own mortality. No one wants to lose their identity, their experiences, their life. The program wants to escape its own inevitable rebirth back into an ordinary program. The protagonists want to preserve their world, and who they are. The programmers, who made that world, don't want to lose the project they have spent so long on. The project has a life of its own now that came from them. It has essentially become their life and, as much as it could be considered the right thing to do, they cannot reboot it. They instead put themselves in harms way (locking down the facility, letting the rogue program take control of the security) to protect others, but mostly, to protect what they themselves created. They were willing to die for something 'less real' than they were.


Long post is long.
Love it or hate it (or any variation in between) I've said my piece on a story, and leave it to the vote on what happens next.

I'm kind of glad I already had most of that typed out. It would have been a pain in the neck to write in one sitting.

[MEands]

Sparrowsmith, that's really clever what you've written, although the "technology turns against you" cliche is very overused.
You did add some originality to it though.

Here, this is just my take, kinda a combination of what I've picked out so far.

[Show/Hide] Read my ideas!

Okay, so we've decided on 3 arcs or layers right? Okay, I'm just gonna divide this up and make it simple.

Layer 1: For those of you who are more into fantasy style RPG's and such, you can create your characters in this way. This will be a starting adventure, with this evil villain. (Someone said something about the main villain being a hermit crab, I'm not against it )
So this should be a couple members going on a journey, and a couple members being villains and stuff. Once the final boss is "defeated" or in sparrowsmith's version, the game is updated, layer 1 stops.

Layer 2: A more realistic world. Some friends stop playing this game, they then go off to school or whatever to do stuff. Not sure how interesting the gameplay would be for this. So there would be some weird stuff to show that it's actually a game as well. Stuff like in crowds of NPC's at a store one of them will be the sprite of a character from Layer 1.
Maybe at one point like Sparrowsmith said, a "mysterious person" comes and shoots the main hero of layer 2, but he respawns. He believes this to be him waking up from a dream since his respawn location is his bedroom.

Layer 3: Since the players don't know layer 2 is a game yet, the meeting of the programmers will look to them like a bunch of villains. "Did you get him" "Yeah, I shot right in the heart" "Okay, how is he" "He's fine, back in his bedroom"

Then it goes back to layer 2 and maybe back into layer 1.

At some point, layer 2 begins to merge with layer 1, or something of the sort.

That's just my take on your story though. I'm not saying I don't like it, it's just not where my imagination has taken me with this project.
I'm still going for the idea of each player/group of players having their own chapter. I like the layer idea, but it makes chapters confusing. I also really like the Pandora idea.
I don't think doing it with chapters would in any way mess up character development.

These are just my ideas, don't judge.

(augh I have this whole idea in my head but I can't figure out how to write it)

This post has been edited by MEands: Apr 1 2012, 04:11 PM

[bulmabriefs144]

Hmmm, I dunno that this is so. Characters can show up as cameo parts of someone else's reality. For instance, the people reclaiming the treehouse in layer 3 as a quirky background event. Or when the "player" wakes up in layer 4, possibly some of the random people on the streets remind them of the characters from their dream ("and you were there, and you were there..." like in Wizard of Oz). The thing is, it's up to our best writers to keep individual stories developing even though it seems like they are out of the picture.

I think that's good. Also, the names may change and the clothes may change, but basic personalities should remind us who we're dealing with (that would also allow old characters to develop more, simply change the context in which they appear). That said, new characters should pop up with each layer, until there are hordes of them. Some of them may no longer be playable characters, and some, due to circumstances might actually turn to villains, or vice versa.

On layer 1, they should be aware that they're playing a game, but true to roleplaying, they probably should keep up that it's real (as good roleplayers do), aside from the occasional person passing by asking for the currency type. That reminds me, the game currency and the 2nd layer (and beyond) currency should be different, game money versus "real money." I'm good with minor alterations, but we should tighten it, and work toward incorporating it with previous ideas. I'm not sure about the bug infecting the second layer, until pretty late. The characters (as should anyone playing the game) should for awhile think that the gamers are simply helping programmers in another part of the country (since they communicate by letters or email), it shouldn't be until you're almost ready to fully switch over to layer 3 that it gets revealed that in fact there is a game that they're playing too. Then by layer 4, there should be real life equivalents of the characters. The "fifth layer" is more or less the the ending below.

The end could possibly contain some inspiring messages about how reality is what you make of it, and we are all just machines in some sense of the word.
Or there's the gag ending. Where it fades to black and we see a room full of people from RRR. One of them will be by a computer and say,
"and we're finally done with the game"
then the obligatory "Or are we?" as everyone turns to face the screen.

I like the latter, but the former is more inspirational.

Oh gosh MEands am I gonna need to read everyone's variant? Let's leave the basic plot, and tighten it when we start with the actual game. Yea, I think the version MEands has is alright too (we might not need a layer 2 virus to put across the point that things aren't real). We should have a few pictures that are like "Error: variable referenced that does not exist." And maybe a fake battle screen picture we can put this error on, in a key place in layer 1. And some pictures that look like emails. The HackSign feel is good, but there should also be some focus on the lands around the characters, and possibly some common elements. And I'd really like a fighting the screen boss.

This post has been edited by bulmabriefs144: Apr 1 2012, 04:44 PM

[Sparrowsmith]

Sparrowsmith, that's really clever what you've written, although the "technology turns against you" cliche is very overused.
You did add some originality to it though.

Here, this is just my take, kinda a combination of what I've picked out so far.

[Show/Hide] Read my ideas!

Okay, so we've decided on 3 arcs or layers right? Okay, I'm just gonna divide this up and make it simple.

Layer 1: For those of you who are more into fantasy style RPG's and such, you can create your characters in this way. This will be a starting adventure, with this evil villain. (Someone said something about the main villain being a hermit crab, I'm not against it )
So this should be a couple members going on a journey, and a couple members being villains and stuff. Once the final boss is "defeated" or in sparrowsmith's version, the game is updated, layer 1 stops.

Layer 2: A more realistic world. Some friends stop playing this game, they then go off to school or whatever to do stuff. Not sure how interesting the gameplay would be for this. So there would be some weird stuff to show that it's actually a game as well. Stuff like in crowds of NPC's at a store one of them will be the sprite of a character from Layer 1.
Maybe at one point like Sparrowsmith said, a "mysterious person" comes and shoots the main hero of layer 2, but he respawns. He believes this to be him waking up from a dream since his respawn location is his bedroom.

Layer 3: Since the players don't know layer 2 is a game yet, the meeting of the programmers will look to them like a bunch of villains. "Did you get him" "Yeah, I shot right in the heart" "Okay, how is he" "He's fine, back in his bedroom"

Then it goes back to layer 2 and maybe back into layer 1.

At some point, layer 2 begins to merge with layer 1, or something of the sort.

That's just my take on your story though. I'm not saying I don't like it, it's just not where my imagination has taken me with this project.
I'm still going for the idea of each player/group of players having their own chapter. I like the layer idea, but it makes chapters confusing. I also really like the Pandora idea.
I don't think doing it with chapters would in any way mess up character development.

These are just my ideas, don't judge.

(augh I have this whole idea in my head but I can't figure out how to write it)

Well actually in what I wrote out the program that got shot was just some random program in layer 2 that they used for testing, then he became the bad guy once he was self aware.
I'm not sure if you misunderstood or changed that on purpose

I'd personally prefer, whatever story we come out with, that there be communication between at least two layers.
That way we get to see the game literally 'come to life' which is a nice allegory to really making a game. Having the layers as an abstract concept is meta, but it's not the same unless it is aware that it's meta... If that makes sense.


You're right about technology turning against us being overused, but I'd have to argue that the rogue program is really just an intelligence they've accidentally created and made self-aware. It's simply trying to avoid its own death, and will kill if necessary to do that.
Hell, we could even make killing it a bad thing in the end. Like, it allows its own death in layer 2 because it found a way to escape to layer 3 (as a robot). Now it just wants to live out its life happily. It wants to be free. The programmers know it's too powerful though, and have to kill it anyway.
It's not good vs evil. It's just about survival. Kind of a grey moral area when the bad guy just wants to leave in peace, but the good guys hunt it down and destroy it once and for all.

[bulmabriefs144]

If the game (i.e. layer one) crashes, there should be some sort of a crash screen to transition that it is in fact a game, and that these are gamers playing.

Tell me which of these look the best.







And here's a fake one I made with an error code generator.



This post has been edited by bulmabriefs144: Apr 2 2012, 05:43 PM

[Kaust]

What'd be good is if the game closed on the error message. Everyone's all "aww what?!" and then after clicking ok a video ending opened or a website (this forum) or something. Well not necessarily the ending but maybe one of the chapter ends. I think it'd be cool to take this 'beyond' an RM game, in terms of form, 'cause its always cool when form reflects plot.
To that (layering) end I still advocate we make layers engine specific. That way each layer is visually distinct and will really emphasise visually a layer 2 sprite entering layer 3.

Edit: Plot-wise, possibly the error message could contain a thank you from the now liberated rogue program.

[Sparrowsmith]

Edit: Plot-wise, possibly the error message could contain a thank you from the now liberated rogue program.

By liberated do you mean when it escapes to layer 3?
If that's the case, then it could escape right in front of our layer 2 hero's eyes. The game 'crashes' but saves. You then reboot the game, and the scene continues, the players are now confused as to where the program has disappeared to.
Que message from layer 3: "[name], we have a problem up here..."

We then play that scene from the layer 3 perspective. During the scene the monitor crashes and has to be reconnected to the game, when they look back in, the program has disappeared. Then the security systems turn on the layer 3 programmers, and they see where the program has escaped to (the security system).

[bulmabriefs144]

I'm liking the name Pandora as an enemy. Not only could it be a strange recurring chest/crate/urn you find but (like a trojan) when messed with releases the virus. Plus it gives the whole metaphor of worlds as endlessly larger "boxes" that open out into each other. Plus there are virus names that are similar to this (heck, I'm looking here, and there's even one named Peach).

Let's decide once and for all what we want each layer to be, engine-wise.

Layer 1: Probably XP since we'll work on it first. But let's use VX sprites for the heck of it, since it is a video game.
Layer 2: Maybe 2k3, since you can do custom sprites (charas project is a huge resource), and have a ton of real world coding. Also, you can have tall characters in 2k3 (using Chara EX). This means you can probably have VX copied sprites for if they go back to the game (as an added bonus unlike XP before, 2k3 from VX is just a matter of resizing and respacing, no extra frames need be made), so you don't have to really jump back in engines if it isn't needed.
Layer 3: XP, but with XP sprites (rather than before as VX). This is also helpful, since the programmers are working on the game (same engine means that too can switch without having to do as much engine tweaking)
Layer 4/End: VX Ace, with XP sprites. It should look similar to what we have on the previous layer, but program wise, have a whole different feel. And the TP system is a good way to end, as it means the characters so far can have special attacks (sorta making it like they've finally mastered their powers, now that they know who they really are, supposedly). Plus, by the time we get to Layers 4 (and the ending layer), hopefully either the price of Ace will lower a bit, or the richer among us will have saved up some.

That okay, or any other ideas? Also, who here actually knows how to script for battles? I can do in theory at least three different 2k3 battle modes (standard side-scroller, faceset only including statuses, and probably vertical-scrolling), but I'm kinda hopeless when it comes to scripts. The few scripts I've tried didn't work at all, despite the fact that they should've.

This post has been edited by bulmabriefs144: Apr 3 2012, 12:12 PM