The Dudeism Forum

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Well, it sounds like you have perspective and a goal. Now you just gotta make it work. Keep us updated as you get the game rolling.

I may be biased and/or unduly influenced by thisahere forum but a game loosely based on the Dude could be good. The Dude just wants to chill but random hi jinx and nihilists impose adventures, challenges, and difficulties upon him. (Spoiler Alert: You may get sued if the adaptation is too close).

Quote from: SagebrushSage on March 07, 2016, 11:08:11 PM
I need to chill out and get to work on a video game.  I just want to write video games and smoke weed, not necessarily in that order.  Society makes me choose between having income and smoking weed.  Without it, I am most undudely.  If I can become a reasonably prominent indie game developer, I won't have to make that choice anymore.

Life sucks without the herb.  It's time to pick a concept and a platform and get to work.  Everything will be fine 2-3 years after I start development.

Perhaps an organized game plan is in order?
Step one. A degree in computer science?
No offense but as a parent, when my child announces that he wants to be a video game designer I react by assuming that I'll probably need to start refurbishing the basement.
Just saying.
But sincerely, best of luck.

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Ah!
Far out man.
Far fucking out.
Minecraft more or less shows it's possible.
Make it. Sell it to microsoft.
Retire in dudeish peace.

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Quote from: SagebrushSage on March 08, 2016, 04:27:51 PM
Microsoft can kiss my ass, lol.  I'll keep my copyrights, thanks :)

I'd say gimme da money.

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If we are talking old school the simplest concept would be pacman. Think bunny running around with dude chasing while avoiding nihilists. Dude has a million bucks or clams and the nihilists deplete da money when they snip at him with giant scissors. If he runs out of money he loses his rod or Johnson. If he catches bunny he goes back to a million. New bunny appears. Occasionally a bonus rug appears and he needs to get to it before the rug pissers. Perhaps he has an abide score also like health in a lot of games. He can recharge his abide score by making it to the tub for a soak and some whale music. But if he stays too long the nihilists accost him with a marmot once again depleting his abidance score.
Lower abidance makes his slower.
That sort of thing maybe.

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Quote from: SagebrushSage on March 09, 2016, 12:14:46 AM
I'm not asking the community here to do my work for me.  I just need a sense of the sort of game this community would be interested in, and I need some random artistic inspiration, along the lines described in the thread, to break out of a long creative rut.  I feel very intimidated by this task.  Getting just the tiniest bit of help along the way for once would make me feel much better about it.

Well, here's the thing. A great game must have solid action (i.e., mechanics) and tell a worthwhile story. If you have the action but no story, you get Guitar Hero. If you have the story but no action, then you've just watched Downton Abbey. Combine the two and you get FF VII. So this is apparently my thematic take. Let's take the elements one by one.

A good story requires conflict. It just does.  Now, you don't like violence. That's fine because conflict does not necessarily equal violence. Conflict requires juxtapositions, differences, problems in need of solutions. But it doesn't take guns, knives, or fisticuffs. There is also stylized violence if you need to go there. Think of conflict as how the plot moves forward. Need inspiration on how to do this? Read The Merchant of Venice, Into the Wild, Pride and Prejudice, or Tequila Mockingbird (sic). They're all replete with conflict but absent of any overt violence that takes part during the presentation...well, at least to my recollection. Just make sure you tell a good story. The conflict is what moves it along. It will, in all likelihood, suggest itself.

Good action, in the sense of mechanics, means the player's manipulation of the controller must correlate to his/her intended manipulation of the onscreen presentation. In other words: just make shit do what it seems like it should. Early role-playing games were expert at this. Their menus and options were not complicated: "Bitch, do you want to swing your sword, throw lightning, drink some syzurp, or run away?" Hit "A" and, boom, dude does what you said. Now, later efforts added simple timing mechanisms and other bells and whistles but, hey, this was pretty much it. So, stick with it. Make it your own but don't get cute or outsmart yourself. Remember, the guy playing isn't thinking "man, that developer really challenged me" he's thinking "what the fuck, I hit the button."

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