Our first meeting went well! The idea is to build a small, bite-sized game (or rather, a student-project-type game) that we can flex our muscles on, and put together as sort of a learning project. One interesting observation, though– there’s a difference in the concept of how long a project like this will take. I’m interested to see where we actually get in the timeframe we’ve put together (we’re looking to get a unified direction going the next time we meet up to work on this, which is next week.)
From what I’ve seen, we have a good vision for things we should be looking to accomplish, like… halfway through production. One area we might need to work on, is developing a concept of how long each individual action-item is going to take. Right now, we’re still in the “tracking down tutorials” phase of learning Roblox, which means that I’m not sure how long each iteration of development is going to take. Though, to be fair, that’s why we’re doing this project– to get our hands dirty and learn the hard way.
So, here’s what we have so far: we’re looking to build out the infrastructure of file-sharing brou-ha-ha, we’re building a library of reference material for working with Roblox, and we’re developing the basic framework of the game.
We’re going to go with B&A’s idea for a post-apocalyptic world where rats and crows are the only surviving animals. I had the idea to put together, maybe, a turn-based RPG where you’re trying to get to the top of a castle. Something simple, that won’t take too much complex development outside of game mechanics (like, physics engines in any central way, stuff like that.) Putting these two together, I think it’d be really cool to develop a game where you’re trying to delve into ancient ruins to collect scrap. The scrap, in a dark-souls-esque way, tells a story of how Humanity fell, and how the rats and crows took over. Maybe–and I just thought of this now–it could be, like, a race between factions to collect these pieces of scrap– like action checkers meets x-com.
What we need, then, is a way to iterate on maps, and a strong central mechanic. It’d be cool to have something similar to Into the Breach, but that’s a little too… well done, I suppose. Something a little less refined. Because HOO boy, but that game is polished!
Regardless! I’m eager to get started on this!
IT'S THE INSTITUTE! 