Overview
'Lonely is a Robot' (working title, might stay, might not) is an adventure-platformer about a sad robot and his travels through an unknown dimension.
Story
Lonely is a depressed, misunderstood robot that was abandoned at birth after being deemed inadequate to fulfill the duties of a robot. He was born out of shape both mentally and physically and became victim of an annual ceremony--the 'Celebration of the Misfits'. At this event any robots that have been abandoned at birth in the last year are retrieved and launched out into space in small capsules. These capsules are thick, multi-colored orbs made of a hard plastic substance. The capsule is believed to prevent its contents from inter-dimensional travel once they leave the atmosphere of their home planet, [unnamed]. However, Lonely, being the lonesome and often ignored robot he is, failed to be put in this orb and was launched into space unprotected. Shortly after entering space Lonely is caught in an interdimensional doorway of sorts and ends up confused in a surreal, fantastic environment. His first impression of the place is that it's a very peaceful world with no inhabitants, and he decides to stay. Upon further investigation he finds that the world was once inhabited by a race of small animals called the [unnamed], until a robot similar to lonely ended up there and decided to take out his anger on these cute little animals by becoming the all-powerful ruler. Now Lonely must make his way through this dimension to the fortress of [unnamed] and save the [unnamed]!
Environment
The environment of LIAR is very simple and cartoony, similar to the old Banjo Kazooie games but with (hopefully
) improved graphics.
Here's a simple scene made I made to demonstrate what I plan on the graphics looking like:
Ya, I know not very impressive
but I want them to be very simple and colorful.
Game Mechanics
Objective:
The game consists of several levels and your objective is to simply beat each level. Beating a level involves completing a certain number of missions within that level.
Player:
-Lonely can move forward, backward, and can strafe to the left and right.
-He can also jump and under some circumstances fly.
-He has three skills/attributes which affect his behavior, all of which can be improved through missions and items: Movement, Jumping, and Flying. Movement affects his move speed, Jumping affects his jump height, and Flying affects whether or not he can fly, and if so, how long he can fly, how high he can fly, and how fast he can move while flying.
-Lonely also has certain moves he can use in combat. He starts out with no real combat moves and must jump on enemies to kill them, though throughout the game he can buy new moves at shops and earn them.
Levels:
-Levels consist of:
-The level file.
-The map.
-Anywhere from 5 to 10 missions.
-Several items which can be collected and earned.
-Several tokens which give you money.
-Sometimes a shop at which you can spend money you've earned on stat points, new moves, and items.
Level Files:
Level files are text files containing the filenames of the objects within the map and entity data, such as spawnpoints and items.
Missions:
-Missions are stored in text files containing the type of missions, any constraints, and the reward.
-Missions can be one of a few types:
a) They can require that you collect a certain number of items or certain specific items.
b) They can require that you reach a certain area of the level.
c) They can require you to defeat a certain number of enemies or one specific enemy, such as a boss.
-Missions can have constraints, such as time limits and requirements that you don't lose any health.
-Missions reward you with money, stat points, or items, but NOT combat moves; these must be purchased.
Items:
-Items are added to your inventory when received.
-They typically do one of two things:
a) They can fill your health partially or fully.
b) They can temporarily or permanently increase a stat.
-Items can be earned through missions, they can be found in levels, and they can be bought at shops.
Tokens:
-Tokens can ONLY be found in levels, they can't be earned or bought.
-They are typically very well-hidden and are very hard to find.
-They give you very large amounts of money when found, and are useful if you're trying to get money for a certain move.
Money:
-Money can be earned through missions or collected through tokens.
-Money is spent on items, new moves, and stat points at shops.
Combat Moves:
-Combat Moves can be bought at shops and earned, though not through missions. Rather when you reach certain points in the game you'll automatically be given certain moves.
-They are used when fighting and are much more powerful than Lonely's standard 'Jump' move.
Development
I'm planning on LIAR being developed in DBP. If you think you can help with the dev of LIAR post here and tell me what you would like to work on out of the following main components:
-Player Movement/Jumping and Collision
-Level Loading
-Combat System
-Mission System
-Shop/Market System
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I guess that about covers the game. I can't gaurantee that all of these features will make it into the final product, in fact I have no idea if even half of them will. However I thought that I might as well plan out everything I could possibly want in the game beforehand, that way I don't have to spend any time thinking of ideas during dev.
Any C&C on the story or mechanics is welcome, and I'll update this thread with new ideas as I come up with them.
Here's a render of the untextured Lonely:
And here's the game model:
I know texture quality isn't great, I don't know what I was thinking when I made it 512x512.
