Finding Adina DS

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IRC Discussions

• <Sam_Washburn> i couldn't sleep well last night so i thought and prayed about Finding Adina
• <Sam_Washburn> the Lord gave me some fresh ideas on how to expand it with out having to make it an epic
• <RobinH> neat :)
• <Sam_Washburn> keeping it small (in scale) yet intricate
• <RobinH> (btw, especially on the DS, not everyone expects every game to be epic)
• <RobinH> PS3 on the other hand...
• <Sam_Washburn> hehe, that's good ;)
• <Sam_Washburn> i'm going to shoot for this level of graphics..
• <Sam_Washburn> http://www.gamespot.com/ds/strategy/finalfantasytacticsa2fuuketsunogrimoire/images.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gsimage&tag=images;img; 2
• <Sam_Washburn> cozy like that.
• <RobinH> neat :) still sidescroller though, right? don't scare me with talk of isometric 3d...
• <Sam_Washburn> oh yeah, still a classic platformer
• <RobinH> (though of course, depending on how you do isometric, it's not necessarily hard)
• <Sam_Washburn> have you played any kirby games?
• <RobinH> cool :)
• <RobinH> the first Game Boy one
• <Sam_Washburn> kind of that play feel.
• <Sam_Washburn> lots of stuff you can do
• <Sam_Washburn> throw baddies around and stuff
• <RobinH> cool :)
• <Sam_Washburn> blow out bricks, go in caves
• <Sam_Washburn> find shortcuts
• <RobinH> swallow enemies, spit them out
• <Sam_Washburn> hehe, probably not that far ;)
• <RobinH> :)
• <Sam_Washburn> thinking about having signposts along the path where you can switch levels
• <Sam_Washburn> and follow an overhead map on the top screen
• <RobinH> one thing I really like in games is a "home" area, a safe place
• <RobinH> cool
• <Sam_Washburn> yeah! :) I was thinking there would be a center hub
• <RobinH> yes... most of my favourite games have had that lately
• <Sam_Washburn> your home area, i guess and you branch out from there to the different realms to explore
• <RobinH> I think it was Final Fantasy 4 where your ship served as both your transport *and* your home base which I found exceedingly cool
• <Sam_Washburn> also, having adina in different places depending upon who you talk to and how the story unfolds
• <Sam_Washburn> so, multiple endings
• <Sam_Washburn> and was thinking about having it all happen in one day.
• <Sam_Washburn> with the daylight slowly fading as the game progresses, not as time progresses
• <RobinH> cool :) I'm liking it!
• <Sam_Washburn> the nds is palette based, right?
• <RobinH> yes
• <Sam_Washburn> sweet :)
• <RobinH> so those effects can be done very nicely with planning of course
• <Sam_Washburn> various weapons, numerous animals to beat up
• <Sam_Washburn> the final weapon i'm thinking will be Ronan's own sling.. like ol' bessie
• <Sam_Washburn> the final level could be returning to the fold and finding wolves and Kish is shivering in fear
• <Sam_Washburn> yeah, we'll get the effects right :)
• <Sam_Washburn> i'm pretty good with palette planning
• <Sam_Washburn> also, the levels get more difficult as the evening progresses
• <Sam_Washburn> so, you can play any direction to start with
• <Sam_Washburn> (off the hub)
• <Sam_Washburn> i'm thinking maybe 16 levels of the day, gradiated enough that you really don't notice it until later.
• <Sam_Washburn> Is there a standard way of using the DS screens, Robin? Like the top is menus and the bottom is play?
• <RobinH> pretty much whatever suits... main thing is that only the bottom screen is touch-sensitive, so usually the game is laid out around that
• <Sam_Washburn> ah, i see :)
• <RobinH> if you want the touch screen for menu-type stuff, then the action is on the top
• <RobinH> if you want the action to be touch-able... :)
• <Sam_Washburn> how do you feel about that?
• <Sam_Washburn> i guess you did touch screen stuff with the crayola project, right?
• <RobinH> I'd rather leave the touch stuff as optional UI-only
• <RobinH> yeah, and I'm doing loads of it for the UI in this game
• <Sam_Washburn> is the main play area the top in the game you're currently doing?
• <RobinH> yeah, the 3d racing is on the top screen
• <RobinH> bottom screen is the radar map (touch to change zoom levels) and pause menu when paused
• <Sam_Washburn> gotcha
• <RobinH> and in the menu system which is what I'm mostly responsible for, everything's on the bottom screen so you can tap on the icon etc.
• <Sam_Washburn> that's cool
• <RobinH> top screen has pretty car pictures and overflow text when it won't nicely fit on the bottom
• <Sam_Washburn> yeah, we'll probably do something like that then..
• <RobinH> top screen can have the action, bottom screen the map and inventory/status
• <RobinH> some games toggle between map and status
• <RobinH> keep the action running on the top the whole time
• <Sam_Washburn> ok
• <Sam_Washburn> right
• <RobinH> 2 screens seemed like a gimick before, but it's really practical
• <Sam_Washburn> do some games use have you using your fingers on the touchscreen instead of a stylus?
• <Sam_Washburn> or maybe people are just used to keeping the stylus handy