Dreaming Man Update 7

I've come up with a new flowchart and decided that I'll add as I write more. I've also come up with a bunch of key turning points where the player has options that affect the outcome of the story (standard VN dialogue options).

This is written pretty bare-bones for simplicity, as Matt and I will be the ones mainly using it. It's going to be added to as more is written and decided.

One of the options:

Protag Dialogue Choice
Asuka?	Good morning.
??? – Asuka… Who’s that? Were you dreaming about someone, or are you still asleep? You must mean your wife, Amelia. [put her name in bold]	How’s breakfast coming along? .... Amelia – Almost done! Amelia – Breakfast is almost done!

To do: Actually rite moar

Dreaming Man Update 6

Not much to post about this week. I'm currently just in the process of writing dialogue.

I believe Matt is looking into the aforementioned functions from the last post.

Dreaming Man Update 5

This week I wrote out outlines of what is happening in the first two dreams of the game, as well as some dialogue for the first dream.

I also came up with some concepts to shoot through Matt regarding the system of the game. I was thinking of an elementary inventory system, as well as some stuff regarding the implementation of the dialogue that I write up.

Inventory

The idea on the table is of a basic inventory system that modifies the chance of failure with options later in the game. This way this system would work is more similar to old RPGs or Point-and-Clicks, in that there are descriptions of each item (assuming no illustration), and they can only really be used situationally, either saving the player with an easy-out, or modifying percentage chances. This would just be a Boolean value associated with certain dialogues. E.g. Player can choose: Option 1, Option 2, and (if "Tent" is True) Option 3.

Dialogue 

Legend:
Thoughts	Either brackets, or italics (italics preferred)
Speaking	Person speaking’s name + colour
Narration	No name + plain uncoloured text
Sound Effects	Goes between asterisks *bang*

Assuming text is colour coded by character, in my opinion it would be nice to add a property to each ‘character’ which holds the colour of their text for purposes of easily distinguishable dialogue. And if this were the case, I feel it would be a nice touch to allow the player to pick the colour of the protagonist’s text, as well as his name.

Things to do: Dialogue for dream 1 and 2.

The Dreaming Man: Neo-Hwarangs, Protagonist, Scene One

Source image taken from Naver for artist of men
dressed as Hwarangs. (Jake dropped out, so we
no longer have an artist)

Neo-Hwarangs

A large focus and inspiration behind this was the idea of a technologically advanced, "neo" version of the old Korean high caste the Hwarangs. Ergo, they are a large part of The Dreaming Man.

In the game's story, the people in South Korea who had enough money to be able to hole away and survive the nuclear apocalypse eventually emerged, and had the supplies to carry on their generation. In the modern timeline of the game, 200 years after the end of the world, the descendents of these people have taken residence in the former "Jinju Castle", in the very southern part former Korea on the coast of the Sea of Japan.

In their time, they have travelled across the pacific to discover technology in the US that wasn't present before the war, and they have taken it back to create fusion-cell motorcycles for quick travel through the many concrete ruins of former Korea. The residents of Jinju Castle have dubbed the people with money and social power who ride these bikes, "Neo-Hwarangs".

Source image for potential
design of spears wielded
by the Neo-Hwarangs.

Traditional swords. This is a source image taken from Naver
for the swords wielded by the Neo-Hwarang faction.

The design for these characters includes an iconic pistol and sword combination, with spears as a cavalry weapon on their motorcycles. They wear tight-fitting versions of the outfits in the source image provided, with the symbol "花" on them.

Scene One

At the beginning of the game the player meets two of such people: Kang, and Kim Junsu. To summarize, they are scouting the region around where the protagonist lives, and they see his home and decide to check in. Kang likes the protagonist's wife, and decides to take her with him. This is to mirror the fact that the protagonist's girlfriend leaves him in the very first scene, and is intended to show that his premonitions are not random.

Kim Junsu – Kim is young and ambitious, and he has been travelling with Kang for a while now. Kang is tall and big, while Kim is tall and lean. He hopes to learn a thing or two from travelling with Kang, and is wary to object to something Kang says.

Kang – Kang is the leader of the group, and earned the position through his skill, strength and size. He is leading a scouting mission past this farm, and lacking just enough morals, he decides to take the pretty wife that he finds in the dreaming man’s farmstead.

Protagonist

The protagonist of the game is a fairly average white male living in Japan. Source images are myself and Matt, who are average white males (kek). At the beginning of the game his girlfriend breaks up with him, and henceforth an analogue of her exists in his nightly dreams.

ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ
Things in the immediate scope:
- Write up more dialogue for the actual scene itself to give to Matt to put in the game.

Dreaming Man Update: 2015-01-19

We were planning on getting a lot of the writing and drawings done this weekend, but a friend of mine from Peterborough drove over here to run a Pathfinder campaign which absorbed most of the weekend.

Regarding the progress we did make, Jake currently has reference photos for the protagonist as well as a description to create the sprite for him. Matt figured out how to use text with different options, backgrounds, and sprites in Unity, and I laid out the general shell for each scene to make it easier for Matt and Jake to read what's happening with dialogue.

I intend on writing some scenarios and possibly creating a Morrow Project ongoing to inspire some ideas.


The work we intend to get done in coming days is thus:
- Write dialogue and determine backgrounds for the beginning scene.
- Determine a (narrowed-down) set cast for Jake to draw.
- Determine a (narrowed-down) list of backgrounds for Jake to draw.
- Create some dialogue and organization of backgrounds, sprites, and scenes for Matt to import into Unity.

The overall goal at this point is to have a simplistic working prototype. ^ㅈ^

Dev Update: (Working Title) 'The Dreaming Man'

 A general outline for the introduction is written.

 A rough storyboard is in place to match the introduction.

 The general outline for the stages is in place, however more detail is to be written on the setting.

Protagonist

The protagonist ('The Dreaming Man') is decided to be a white male programmer in Japan. He works for Sony as a programmer (details of such are to be decided, such as how we can't use "Sony"). The reason for this is for the protagonist to be relatable, and for the intrigue of the adversity of being a white person in Japan.

Rough Storyboard for the Introduction.

Introduction Stage

The game begins with opening logo "Blue House Games". It gives an option to start the game, which will then begin an animation of zooming in and entering the "blue house" in the logo.

The introduction will be frame by frame, of different drawings. This is illustrated in the story board (right); in each individual frame it is merely the protagonist being drawn in a different position on the same background.

The beginning introduction shows the Protagonist entering a crowded subway station after leaving work.

He checks the time just as it hits 5:30 and he boards the train home.

He walks in the front door and puts on the kettle to make some tea.

As he's relaxing with his tea, he receives a text.

   >anon, I'm not happy with the way things are going

   >I don't think I want to be with you anymore

   >It's not that I don't love you...

   >I just don't feel the same way as I used to.

   >Please don't reply...

Anon puts down his phone and rests his head on his hands.

The next scene is anon going to sleep.

End of intro; fade in game Title.

Begin Dream 1 stage.

Dream 1 Stage

This takes place a reasonable amount of time after the end of the world. Enough so that most people have forgotten about the world before. The location of this dream takes place in the prairies of Saskatchewan on a farm with a barn for cows and pigs, and fields upon fields of grain.

Cast: Father; Mother; Son; Daughter

Players’ viewpoint is from The Father. The Father wakes up and looks over at his wife. She is exaggeratedly loving so to represent the Dreaming Man's sad loss. They go through a pleasant morning until The Father goes outside to work. At this point the home is attacked, and the wife is inevitably taken away, completely beyond the Father's control.

At this point, Dreaming Man wakes, and begins his day yet again. This is to be written.

Neo-Hwarang wielding a Geom (검).

Dream 2 Stage

This is currently unwritten, however the setting itself is written. This will take place in a neo-Korea, approximately 250 years after the end of the world. The dream's cast will consist of a group of neo-Hwarangs, riding motorcycles, and using pistols with sword sidearm. This is a setting heavily influenced by the Three Kingdoms Era in Korea ('삼국시대'). Three countries have emerged in former Pyeongyang, Jinju, and Pohang.

Things to be Drawn (as of now)

Full Screen Images/Backgrounds:

- Stylized "Blue House" opening logo. House has door and window(s). This allows for the zoom into the door upon starting the game.

- "Dreaming Man" waking up in his bed from an intense dream. A "nightmare" per se.

Dream 1:

- The inside of a relaxed one-bedroom farm house during sunrise. The house has a double bed for the father and mother, and two single beds for the children, as well as basic necessities. It is the equivalent of an 1800's farmhouse without power, and with animals and hand tools for crops.

- Exterior of said house. Containing a barn for the animals (pigs, cows) and tools. Surrounded by differing crops for as far as the eye can see.

(Working Title) The Dreaming Man

Pitch:
Man dreams of the future apocalypse and watches it unfold through his dreams and his daily life.

The game is meant to feel grim, but with hope for the future. Although it centers around the world ending and the apocalypse, it also should show hope for the future and a chance to restart. Hence the problems with the dreaming man's life, and not all of his dreams should be terrible or frightening.

Overall Arc:
A man experiences dreams that take have similar themes to what happens in his life. The main thing that connects these dreams however, is that they all take place in a post-apocalyptic future, and they all chronicle the lives and hardships of those living there.

The role the players would take is in the characters in these dreams. They would slowly learn what the end of the world is like through the man's dreams, and they would learn how it came to happen through the man's life.

As the game goes on, signs of approaching war become more apparent in the news. Conflict between the world's major powers starts slowly escalating until eventually the dreaming man sees the world's demise through his own eyes, and he is torn apart.

He experiences a flashback in the moments before his death where he sees the characters of his dreams. And at that moment, the scene cuts from him to the people he saw in his dream, who are deep underground scrambling to get into their cryotubes.

After an unknown amount of time, they awaken to a changed world. The same one seen through the dreams.


Flow:
The game takes place in two main streams: One is through the life of a main character, "the dreaming man"; one is through the characters chronicled throughout his dreams.

This allows for many tales to be expanded on, because although he is dreaming, these are actual events that happen, and the way the players deal with the different "stages" affects what the world in the aftermath is like.


Function as a VN:
For this to function as a VN, but still have invigorating combat, it would be a good idea to break gameplay into two sections: Normal mode (functioning like a normal VN), and Combat mode (over the top turn-based strategy). This could likely be implemented in 2D with Unity (this is expanded on in Mechanics).

Mechanics:
The original system I intended to be used with this idea is a percentile based system with detailed hit locations for combat, and degrees of success and failure based on how close the rolled number is to the target number (between 1 and 100).

Changing this to work as a VN switches the focus moreso to the story and the actual choices made, rather than action. Because of this, an overhead-view combat mode could be implemented to keep the game exciting. It could use a computerized version of the system originally intended.

To summarize, the system uses initiative and actions for turns. Players have between two and four actions, and their turns are organized by what they roll for initiative. Their actions are merely a counter of how many things they can do in a turn, and they can spend these actions at any point on their turn, or on people's turns below theirs (holding actions). They can reserve actions to use in retaliation to other people, such as dodging out of the way, or parrying a blow, or throwing back a grenade.

Attacking uses only the attackers skill and outside factors, and damage is determined by specific locations (ie right ankle, neck, left shoulder etc.).

The system originally intended for this game is immensely detailed, and I (Reilly) can demo this at one of the meets if anyone is interested in how it works. Either a meeting for this specifically, or a club meeting. This wouldn't be a true demo with story, but rather a utilitarian demo of only the system and how it works.