Station to Station

Station to Station(working title)

ORIGINAL POST
General:
Station to Station is an adventure game that I hope to complete by this August. It takes place in an absurd futuristic fantasy world including masked humanoids, riddle telling trolls, evil overlords, greedy barkeeps, incompetent postmen, wicked corporate soldiers, and humble slug ranchers. The hero character is none other than poor miserable you, and you must travel across a diverse landscape, converse with strange and sinister characters, and make sense of an alien and frightening world.

Story:
You find yourself in a desolate train station with an odd masked man, the mysterious Mr. White. He asks you to board the train, cross the wasteland, and deliver a letter to a certain Ms. Willow in the lands beyond. Puzzled as to where you are, who you are, and why Mr. White doesn't just use the US Postal Service, you decide to deliver the letter. The bloke's paying you $200, after all. What seemed like a simple errand, however, quickly grows into a much larger conflict.

UPDATE 8/21 Progress is slow. The game is as buggy as a wasp's nest, and I overestimated the size of the project. I've posted a pair of new screenshots, but I'm debating whether or not to continue it. Its difficult enough trying to fix each bug as it appears (lightning is a pain in the ass especially), but it is just as daunting just thinking of all the character art that I have to create to finish the game. Still, if enough people are interested in the project, I may find the motivation to finish it. I haven't successfully finished a project in two years, and this game in particular has a story that I really wanted to tell.

Screenshots:

NEW 8/21

Cliff Town:


A Slothling's House:


OLD
Bridge, OLD:


What is a bridge without a troll?:


A cave:


Incompetent goon from Burnside Corporation:


The cave is dark:


What is that silly man doing there?


The wasteland:


The silly man needs help!


Poor silly man...


Exit from the wasteland:


The red cliffs:


The first station:


I swear, those masks are getting popular. I guess.


The train:

The style is really inspired. I can tell playing this will be a good experience. If you need help, I could make an intense UI for you.

Thanks! The environments were inspired by Shadow of the Colossus and Digimon World (great world, terrible game). If I need any help I'll let you know.

Just added some screenshots, see the original post.

In order for the game to have the narrative depth that I want, I'd either have to rework the entire ending or create a very long game, and I really don't have the energy to do either, especially not with college coming up. I may finish the project later, but I desperately need to take a break from it and work on something else.

I want to create a short to medium length story-driven game with some sort of gameplay element to it, but I'm not sure what to do. Every once and a while I'll play a game like Bioshock or Metal Gear Solid or Iji that is fun and evokes and emotional response, and although its really inspiring, it also makes me feel that my work is insubstantial. In this case, it was Bastion that made me feel that my current project was shallow, and if I'm going to attempt a big game, it has to be something that I'm proud of.

What I really should do is try to make games in a 24-48 hr period, or even participate in Ludum Dare if I have the time. Once I'm really happy with one of those games, then I think I'll have the skills to work on something larger. The key really is to be making a project that I'm enthused about throughout the entire development process, and I haven't gotten to the point where I can make a game good enough to really get excited about.

In order for the game to have the narrative depth that I want, I'd either have to rework the entire ending or create a very long game, and I really don't have the energy to do either, especially not with college coming up. I may finish the project later, but I desperately need to take a break from it and work on something else.

I want to create a short to medium length story-driven game with some sort of gameplay element to it, but I'm not sure what to do. Every once and a while I'll play a game like Bioshock or Metal Gear Solid or Iji that is fun and evokes and emotional response, and although its really inspiring, it also makes me feel that my work is insubstantial. In this case, it was Bastion that made me feel that my current project was shallow, and if I'm going to attempt a big game, it has to be something that I'm proud of.

There's lots of meaningful games out there that aren't nearly as big as any of those games. Emotional responses aren't as hard to make as people think. With the atmosphere your game has, you've already engaged the player. All you have to do is make the work in the game seem meaningful, productive, exciting or rewarding. That doesn't give it deeper meaning, but it does open up plenty of opportunity for you to work towards creating deeper meaning, most typically through the unfolding events of a storyline that develops while you play the game. Your project feels shallow, but this is perfectly reversible especially with the sandbox you have right now. Just work with the story you have right now, or make a new, more interesting one. So what I'm saying is that you should rework the entire ending if you think it'll achieve the narrative depth you're looking for.

What I really should do is try to make games in a 24-48 hr period, or even participate in Ludum Dare if I have the time. Once I'm really happy with one of those games, then I think I'll have the skills to work on something larger.

You have the skill, just not the energy and now time because of college. Working on a game all by yourself is hard. I think a game of your quality will easily get people to play, you have a style of game design that's unique and interesting. You could keep this as a long-term side project, there's nothing wrong with that. You should consider though that the amount of time you put in small games will result in more games, true, but you could have put that time towards a bigger and more impressive project.

The key really is to be making a project that I'm enthused about throughout the entire development process, and I haven't gotten to the point where I can make a game good enough to really get excited about.

If it wasn't for Vertigo Games, I'd agree with you 100%. He wrote a blog post forever ago about the correlation between how much fun he had making the game and how popular it got. The games that made him well-known he admitted weren't at all fun to make. The games that kind of flopped he said he had a lot of fun making. Making games is work. If you're having fun during the development process, the benefit's that you're more inclined to work on it and you're more creative. There's bound to be times in the development process that you get writer's block or you have to do things that aren't so much fun (like messing with APIs). I don't think it's probable that many great flash games were fun to make from the start to the end. The point I'm trying to make here is that any big project is going to have a point where it's no longer interesting to work on. That doesn't mean the game's going nowhere and that the project is failing. You're experiencing why so many game designers don't make big games, it's hard to get over the block. It's like what Rocky said about achieving life goals, it's not about how hard you can hit it's about how much you can get hit and keep moving forward. That's why I like running so much, it teaches me patience and endurance, two things that really help with game design.