Castle Paradox

shonjuku · Joined: 13 Apr 2006 Posts: 26 Location: Idaho, USA

I was just wondering how I might go about making a game with multiple characters to choose from, all with different storylines...
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Joe Man · Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 6:48 pm Post subject:

I haven't played many story driven games and I don't know, bt i'm sure it's been done, especially with Star Wars games since Star Wars is shown in that manner. I know Crossbeam Studios' project Orb will feature multiple storylines, but that's the only game I know of.
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Last edited by Joe Man on Fri Dec 13, 1957 1:21 am; edited 2,892 time in total

Jack · **the fool** Joined: 30 Jul 2004 Posts: 773

JSH357 · Joined: 02 Feb 2003 Posts: 1705

Yeah, a character selection screen is the way to go. There's a couple of ways to go about it that I can think of right off the top of my head:

1) Start on a black screen or something with some NPCs for all the characters and have the player talk to the one he wants to play as.
2) Use a backdrop image with pictures of the characters sorted by number and have the player press the desired key.
3) Introduce all of the characters in some kind of story scene and have the player choose afterward.

All of these require a wee bit of advanced plotscripting unless you want to get really creative about it. I would recommend learning some if you haven't.

AdrianX · Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 2:24 am Post subject:

..Wild Arms 1 and 2 features character selection at game start(i dunno about 3 or 4, i don't have a PS2),although the characters will meet up sooner or later anyway.

Setu_Firestorm · Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 5:03 am Post subject:

Squaresoft tried it with SaGa Frontier, but the games horribly sucked. Honestly, though, I believe it CAN be done; you'll just be walking a fine line by taking it on.
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Nintendork · Joined: 09 May 2004 Posts: 64

I'm doing something a lot like that, note my avatar. Except in mine, the players all do the same storyline and warp to the same place, but it shouldn't be much harder doing yours.

LeRoy_Leo · Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 7:50 am Post subject:

This is a late response, I know... But maybe do something like what I am planning to do... You start out with one default character, introduce them, then after playing some sort of practice mission, swap to another story. Make the forshadowing that the two (or three or more)have something to do with each other. Or do like what Donkey kong country does sort of. Swap characters when ever you feel like it. The stories can start and stop as you swap.
I like the being able to swap characters when ever you feel like it. I'd get stuck on one, then swap and come back to him later. Of course, there would be a point where you couldn't play further with some because they are destined to meet at that time. In that case, I think there should be an AI which controls the other character even while you're away. Now I'm getting ahead of myself...
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shonjuku · Joined: 13 Apr 2006 Posts: 26 Location: Idaho, USA

Well, the main idea is that there are 3 characters to choose from... The storylines will intermingle.
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Dr. Baconman · Joined: 05 Mar 2006 Posts: 27 Location: The Base, TN

This might only be effective if it's a short game, but here's an idea I came up with:
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Use tags when you're determining which character to choose, and then you'll start out on the first map.
The only thing is, you need to make one "first map" for each character.
Same applies to the "second map," "third map," "final map" and so on.
It'll take a lot of space, but seeing as how you can make duplicates of maps and edit them and considering OHRRPGCE's no-longer-having-a-limit-of-100-maps, this shouldn't be too much of a hassle.

Onlyoneinall · **Bug finder** Joined: 16 Jul 2005 Posts: 746

Woah, wait, what? OHR doesn't have a 100 map limit anymore??

I was planning on making a game with multiple storylines, but I decided not to go with it for fear of my tendency to lose motivation. So I'm sticking with something simpler that I'm sure I can do without losing motivation except maybe from time to time.
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LeRoy_Leo · Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 10:25 am Post subject: