The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

I've never been big into mobile games. The only ones I have installed now (2048 and Nonograms Katana) are thinking games that I can play for a minute or two while waiting for the bus. They can be paused and resumed at any time. I never spent more than 10 minutes playing a mobile game, I think. Besides these two, I also played early Pokemon games using an emulator app.

One of these days you'll have to make a topic on how to get all that free money/credit/gift cards. Yeah, I know, you won the gift cards.

If you enjoyed old RPGs, the game Dragon Quest 8 for the PS2 has been put on Android and IOS. Here are the basic changes from the original version:

-Slower framerate
-Portrait orientation only
-No voice acting
-Japanese version of the soundtrack, meaning no orchestra
-Split-second delay before player can move after talking to some NPCs

Also concerning your proposition

Monument Valley

It's short, but fun. I don't want to spoil it, but it's good.

....i'm still using an old Nokia

so.... Snake II?

Thanks for the game suggestions. lilk also recommended Knights of the Old Republic, which earned the JoeyFogey seal of approval.

Aurel, that was an elaborate game description. Teleport to the outhouse for an assassination? LOL We should talk more. I want to better understand what you have in mind.

To you guys with the strong ideas about stealth game design: What would you think about boiling stealth down to a 2D game? It could either be an overhead or a side view.

It's very possible to boil Stealth down to a 2D experience!
Mark of the Ninja, Gunpoint, Monaco and the Marvelous Miss Take (which, while 3D essentially works on a 2D plane) all do a fantastic job of it.

Stealth Inc. has a quite different way of doing turn-based stealth. They did a talk about it on GDC, quite interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8ZkIKPIDdY

For a top-down stealth game, maybe you can draw inspirations from Hotline Miami.

I forgot to mention envisioning it as a side scroller. Also now that I think about it, if you could only run around above enemies and just had the option to kill it would be bland, so you'll have a main objective of collecting jewels, utilizing the same teleport ability (and hopefully that ability will make the "running around on rafters" not so restricting).

Haven't thought much about the storyline, but you'll be a magical warrior/thief/assassin/whatever else in training, which is what the levels are all about. Because it's going to be a fantasy game, the enemies will use magic to shoot at you. I imagine your weapon being a strap on blade that curves around the back of her hand (yes, a female character )

Now about those context sensitive kills, I'm a little worried about the game being too violent for kids, which could make up a large part of the buyers. Then again I don't know if smartphone games have the same ESRB ratings. Or they could be takedowns instead of kills. With takedowns there isn't any need for blood and they can be toned down to look comical. Like flipping the outhouse upside down or snatching the chair from under them and smashing it over their head.

To make it more in depth, put a timer on the levels or make a point system, unless that's not what you're aiming for. Leaderboards make games competitive, but they're not for every game.

Also, do you want the game discussions on here or in messages?

You've really put a lot of thought into this game, Aurel. Thanks for sharing it with us. I recall that you actually prototyped a Friday the 13th game.

Here is fine. I'd like to understand more about the teleport ability. Would the player just point and click where they wanted to teleport? It seems like the game would be too easy if there were no limitations on teleporting.

Point and Click? lol. it's a mobile game... it'd just be a tap, drag or double tap...

LMAO Cheese. I'm sure Stab knows 'at; point and click's just a catch-all term for any such action.
It's just that... the mouse is your finger. [looks at his own finger] Technology's insane.

Oh, that. Yes, that little RPGMaker demo was my original idea for a stealth based game featuring situation kills. Which is why I hope those kills/takedowns will get implemented so if I were to pitch ideas to a gaming company I could use that as an example. Not that I expect any gaming company to let a nobody like me help construct a game based off copyrighted characters (on a side note, the indie game Last Year faced a lawsuit because one of its villains wore a hockey mask). Guess I'll have better luck making a knockoff game called "Horny Teenagers Getting Slaughtered in the Woods".

You can't teleport from too far a distance away, and maybe the power has to recharge. I was thinking of an indicator like crosshairs or some other lock on symbol to show you are able to perform the kill/takedwon. I forgot about point and click, but that sounds like the best way to do it. Even if there weren't any limitations, enemies will still own you with their ranged magic attacks.

Well here's a rough draft of my idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlFOF1g-cvA

whatever game you make, Aurel can do the graphics!

Why thanks, Mcstab. I had to go all the way with the latest Unreal rendering engine and the usual 1080p 60fps.

At first I though the game should be focused on killing characters, but now I'm going for collecting gems on each level. So you have the option of either waiting for enemies to turn their backs to collect the gems or using takedowns to get through levels faster.

Here's how I visualize progression in the tele-kill skill. When you first get your weapon, the trainer guy shows you how to use it on regular standing enemies. As you go through levels, your character learns how to perform kills on enemies in different stances; sitting, laying, swimming, outhouse, you name it. There will even be a high level of enemy that cannot be killed with your weapon because of his armor, so you'll learn to grab his weapon from his sheath and kill him with it.

This latest rendition of the game caught my attention, Aurel. The emphasis on collecting gems, with Killing a means to an end - not necessarily one that must be used. The special enemies that need to be killed with their own weapon are also intriguing.

^ You hear that, Stabby? DAZ loves the idea, so now it has to be done.

How's this for a plot? "After an attack from forum trolls, Stabguy travels to the land of Calvar, where the all knowing Aurel sends him on a quest. Armed with the Mcstab cheese blade and PHI powers, he collects the gems of JoeyFogey while assassinating spambots along the way. Once he has acquired enough gems, he can read the scroll of Fed981, reawakening the fabled IanXO4 knight in the Gerund tower. "

But it turns out that "Sorry. Your LisaMurphy is in another Tower." Try the ROB_88 tower instead.

Consumables > Healing Items > "Dark Alphabet Zoup"
"This strange broth fills you with doubt. Will it actually heal you...?"

GIMME BACK MAH GEMS!!

Did anyone download and play this?

Thanks for reminding me. I just bought Monument Valley. Downloading now...

I like the gameplay. It's like solving puzzles in a world built by MC Escher.

I just wish it were longer than an afternoon to play through it.

I read a review in the newspaper once. Supposedly a very good, beautiful, artistic, creative puzzle game. Haven't played it myself though.

I wish I had more experience in my major to help work on this. I'm just in the baby stages of Game Development.

The Dark Mod is always looking for talent, JoeyFogey. Technical work is mostly coding and animation, but level designers are very appreciated too!

Well I'm going to a game engine tutorial in a couple hours (I believe it's the "Unity" engine), so that'll be my first step into the process!

Unity is the game engine I'm using also. Some things I like about it:

• Cross-platform targets include mobile (both Android and iOS), console, and PC.
• Can develop in C#. C++ would be even better!
• Free until your games business starts grossing $100,000 per year.

For those of you that don't want to fork over $5.98 for a game that can be played in an afternoon ($2.99 game, $2.99 expansion), today Amazon has Monument Valley as an Actually Free App through their Amazon Underground (previously Amazon Appstore).

What? I paid $3.99 for the base game. At first stabgal was like "Why did you buy another game?" Then I put it on her tablet and she was hooked! Now my whole family has played it. We got a good value for my $3.99.

I limited myself to one level per day and prolonged my gaming pleasure for 9 days. Yes, a very nicely designed little game. That's just the type I hope to develop.

What's the catch?

I had the old Amazon Appstore before because they used to give away premium games for free one per day. (Apps in general in different categories, not just games). I think that was to get people to use the Amazon Appstore in lieu of the native Android Play or whatever it's called now. Not sure what their model is these days, but these are my thoughts on "the catch:"

As far as I can tell...
1 - You have to download Amazon's app, which may or may not send alerts to your phone/email about other apps.
2 - There may be some ads seen from Amazon when opening the game.

I did it through the Amazon store because I had not downloaded the further expansions and this way it was free.

Maybe it was 3.99 game + 1.99 expansion, I dunno...

Good.

I love the atmosphere this game conveys. It's not quite the port-a-potty slasher Aurel's looking for, but looks like something that was as fun to design as it is to play.

If you get to any point where you need alpha/beta testers, you know where to find me.

Did you play the "Forgotten Shores" levels? I think they add a lot of interesting things to the game architecturally and gameplay wise. (If you can call it gameplay). If nothing else, I think those 8 levels are longer than the original 9, and just as beautiful/interesting. I think Forgotten Shores level 3 is my favorite of the whole game.

To make the game as nonviolent as possible, how about you don't use a weapon. Already listed some examples:

For the outhouse, I'm thinking you pull some emergency levers, which causes the toilet to regurgitate and eject the enemy through the roof in a fountain of, well, you know. There should be a few animations for a regular standing kill. One animation I got in mind is you teleport right above and behind them and do a dropkick, and while you're knocking them down, slam with your fists for a knockout.

For the "use their weapon against them", the weapon you pickpocket is the magical ranged weapon they would use if they saw you, which has the power to turn you to stone. For realism, half the time they'll catch you right after the pickpocket, but as they swing their melee weapon towards you, you already use it so that they are completely petrified right before you can get hit.

Hey, I was here first!

On the last stabby chat, somebody said "Fallout Shelter was fun for awhile" and someone else replied "Until the Deathclaws." Since then I've been playing Fallout Shelter. I don't really recommend it because the gameplay is essentially collecting for the sake of collecting. Collect enough stuff and you'll be able to collect faster in the future.

Anyway, I figured out how to defeat Deathclaws with no casualties and no stimpacks. The Deathclaws never make it past the top floor. Here's my shelter during an attack:

The top floor consists of double-wide vault door, elevator, triple-wide storage (the killing room), single living quarters, and single fitness room. All are unoccupied except for the killing room which contains 6 "explorers". These guys are all level 50, have endurance 10, wear wasteland gear for extra endurance, and have my best available weapons (currently in the 15-20 range). I actually have 8 explorers. The two who aren't currently in the killing room are out exploring the wasteland. My vault has two elevator shafts but note how the east elevator doesn't reach the top floor.

This is what happens during a Deathclaw attack: The Deathclaws run through the vault door and pause in the killing room to fight. The explorers have superior numbers and usually kill one of them on the spot. The other two proceed to the right, come to a dead end, and backtrack into the killing room again. This time the explorers finish off the other two.

It doesn't really matter what type of rooms you use. I chose a Storage Room because it improves vault happiness (dwellers with high endurance like storage rooms). Once I reach 100 dwellers, I'll probably replace it with a Nuka-Cola plant.

To maximize an explorer's health points, build his endurance to 10 while he's still level 1. Then give him a high endurance outfit (minimum E+3, preferably E+7) and level him up to 50 in the Wasteland. Each level-up gives bonus health points for high endurance. There's no way to retroactively get that bonus with a leveled-up dweller.

Final tip: Deathclaws don't appear until you have 61 dwellers. Pause vault growth at 59 or 60 dwellers until you can build suitable Deathclaw defenses.

Thanks for sharing your ideas for new smartphone games. I got as far as designing my own game before deciding that another one of my product ideas has more potential. It's a software tool for e-commerce. Not as much fun as writing a game but I think there's a real need for it and not much competition. It could turn out to be a home run.

Good News Everyone!

Monument Valley for PC on Humble Bundle now. I haven't played or thought about this game in years, so I'll be picking it up to experience once again on a new platform.

https://www.humblebundle.com/games/unparalleled-puzzlers

Had no clue this thread existed, reminds me of a time long gone. Riptide GP 2 and Renegade are amazing games to try out. You're willing to buy games so no further comment from me.