Idea Player Select

  • Thread starter GamemakerTrialUser1
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GamemakerTrialUser1

Guest
Got an ambitious project I've started on. Probably too big to get carried away with too much so before I dive into it all, how complex would a player Select system be?

Ideally I'd love to create this game in a way that you get a choice of three players before starting the game and being limited to what areas you can visit as that player, it wouldn't restrict you from the story / plot points, but would allow replay-ability because you could replay as one of the other two characters and access other areas that the first character couldn't.

All three of the characters would be in-game. The ones you can't control would go off screen when accessing an area and reappear after completing that task.

Can't think of a game similar to this to refer to as an example.

The other idea to this is to be able to select any of the characters in-game in order to complete a puzzle or maze style level using say keys '1' '2' or '3' to select the character and move them to wherever or interact with the level to complete it.

Downside to this is no reason to replay the game if all areas are explored in one playthrough.


Last idea is play the game as one character and upon completing unlock a new character to play as and add bits extra to the story for that playthrough to make it more interesting.


I'm making the game rpg style with platform levels integrated between traversing 'cities'.

What is least complex out of the three and which would be better for memory saving?

A game I can think of is WonderBoy 3 Dragons Trap. Only in that game your player character changes characters in-game in order to access new areas and progress the story. Great game too but not what I want for this game.

Suggestions welcome.
 
One of my favorite games was 'The Lost Vikings' where you controlled all 3 Vikings which all had different abilities, you could only control 1 at a time and the others would follow. This I enjoyed.

Starting a game over to try another character? I wouldn't, I rarely play a game a second time no matter what the incentive is.
 

Rob

Member
If you know what you're doing it doesn't need to be complex at all.

The better you know what systems it will affect, the better your solution will be.
 
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GamemakerTrialUser1

Guest
One of my favorite games was 'The Lost Vikings' where you controlled all 3 Vikings which all had different abilities, you could only control 1 at a time and the others would follow. This I enjoyed.

Starting a game over to try another character? I wouldn't, I rarely play a game a second time no matter what the incentive is.
Yeah I love that concept of three players you control with different abilities.

I appreciate your opinion but plenty do enjoy the new game plus incentives. Another style is the classic twisted metal 1 and 2 games where each playable character had a story that you learned about as you progressed through essentially the same levels.

If you know what you're doing it doesn't need to be complex at all.

The better you know what systems it will affect, the better your solution will be.
I don't really know, not until I get started. Currently just working on sprites and art to assist in figuring out what will be affected.

My method would be to make the game as I originally intend to and then when complete add on the character select option if the gameplay works the way I plan. Call back here in 3 years time. Should have a result by then.
 

Yal

šŸ§ *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
Character select gets a lot easier if you code it in early, so it's easy to make certain abilities exclusive for certain characters. Adding it in later can get messy, if you need to rip out old code to add in stuff you didn't plan for... it's a surefire way to introduce tons of bugs.

There's two big ways of doing it:
  • Create different objects for each character, and have a "spawner" object that picks the appropriate the player based on the selected variable.
  • Create a single player object with access to all skills, but have variables that turn them on/off (and then you've got if statements around them checking the variables).
 
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GamemakerTrialUser1

Guest
Character select gets a lot easier if you code it in early, so it's easy to make certain abilities exclusive for certain characters. Adding it in later can get messy, if you need to rip out old code to add in stuff you didn't plan for... it's a surefire way to introduce tons of bugs.

There's two big ways of doing it:
  • Create different objects for each character, and have a "spawner" object that picks the appropriate the player based on the selected variable.
  • Create a single player object with access to all skills, but have variables that turn them on/off (and then you've got if statements around them checking the variables).
Yeah the second idea sounds ideal. If statements for each state too. Cool got some great ideas now thanks!
 

curato

Member
Level design is going to be the real kicker to keep different players out of certain areas while making the levels completable and reasonably challenging. I personally am making one with more of the lost Viking type player switching but even there the hardest part is level design.
 
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