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Post by Aynen on Jan 20, 2015 12:20:34 GMT
Here are a few more ideas for ingredients for story:
- Follower refuses to build plots in the indicated squares, builds a round plot instead, to the dismay of other followers.
- Follower dances in his own style during celebrations, causing a 'footloose' type scenario.
- Follower feels alterations to the landscape made by the player are unnatural and decides to try and restore the land to it's original shape with just a shovel (thus being REALLY slow).
- Followers have a contest of who is the best follower, trying to outdo each others displays of devotion.
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Post by Aynen on Jan 21, 2015 9:41:59 GMT
Another idea:
People start building shrines to god in their backyards, and pretty soon they start trying to out-do each other on creating the biggest, most elaborate, most beautiful shrine.
Rivalry turns nasty and hilarity ensues.
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Post by 13thGeneral on Jan 21, 2015 15:14:03 GMT
As much as I enjoy a fair modicum of humor - and I've certainly postulated plenty of inane features - I think maybe the suggestions have deviated from being serious peculiarities into (what amounts to) juvenile slapstick. Not that they're not interesting, and creative, but all they would do is detract from any specific game functions - succeeding only in adding innocuous, unnecessary features to a game that is seriously lacking in core function and direction.
What can be added that aids both objectives; narrative and function?
Interactions between "god" and inhabitants alone can bog down gameplay, unless that is a large part of the main scope and focus of the game - and then (if done well) it can be a fantastic and fun game [for example; games like Rollercoaster Tycoon and Reus]. Godus so far hasn't figured out how that interaction should work; though the potential is there. In my mind, and opinion, it all keeps coming back to the question, "What is Godus?".
I think we need to go back and look at the conversations about god's (lowercase, really?) influence, and inversely the populations influence as a major aspect of the core functions.
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Casinha
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Post by Casinha on Jan 21, 2015 16:07:29 GMT
How about your actions causing your followers to adopt a holy symbol that pops up every now and again? Maybe excessive planting of trees causes followers to use a tree as the centre of their holy symbol. That said, it would be more of a single instance thing that would happen relatively early into the game as holy symbols typically don't change over time. It could also serve as a nostalgic reminder of past times  After obliterating your enemies in a bloody wave of violence you look to the holy tree that your followers bear on their chests and wonder to yourself "Where did I go wrong?  " Using powers could, rather than a number of people automatically running out of their houses, cause a witness to call out to nearby followers, waving and pointing in the direction of the event. Looks more natural and less like fish gathering at the edge of a tank waiting for food. Killing a follower could cause other members of the same house to go into a period of mourning, wearing black or being morose for a while. Seeing small interactions between followers would be nice, too. For example a father walks around with his son sat on his shoulders. He meets another follower. They start a conversation. The son gets bored and fidgety so the father puts him down and the kid chases a butterfly or draws in the dirt. Not sure if that last one was off topic as it doesn't involve interaction between the player and the followers. |
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Post by Aynen on Jan 21, 2015 16:49:21 GMT
As much as I enjoy a fair modicum of humor - and I've certainly postulated plenty of inane features - I think maybe the suggestions have deviated from being serious peculiarities into (what amounts to) juvenile slapstick. Not that they're not interesting, and creative, but all they would do is detract from any specific game functions - succeeding only in adding innocuous, unnecessary features to a game that is seriously lacking in core function and direction. What can be added that aids both objectives; narrative and function? Interactions between "god" and inhabitants alone can bog down gameplay, unless that is a large part of the main scope and focus of the game - and then (if done well) it can be a fantastic and fun game [for example; games like Rollercoaster Tycoon and Reus]. Godus so far hasn't figured out how that interaction should work; though the potential is there. In my mind, and opinion, it all keeps coming back to the question, "What is Godus?". I think we need to go back and look at the conversations about god's (lowercase, really?) influence, and inversely the populations influence as a major aspect of the core functions. The usual Lionhead-like slapstick humor for story elements is not exactly my favourite approach. But I was trying to stay within the confines of Moo's instructions. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2015 21:54:12 GMT
I think it would be humorous to have an NPC named James Leach walk out of a hut and begin to narrarate at the beginning of the story, only to be squished by an errant Gem Exchange/Shop icon falling from the sky, followed by a replacement narrarator who was interrupted every 2-3 minutes by a Gem Exchange Reminder Card that the narrarator eventually has to push off screen. Unfortunately I doubt the animators (if there are any left) have time for such nonsense. Edits for clarity and autocorrect. |
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Post by Aynen on Jan 21, 2015 22:01:00 GMT
I think it would be humorous to have an NPC named James Leach walk out of a hut and begin to narrarate at the beginning of the story, only to be squished by an errant Gem Exchange/Shop icon falling from the sky, followed by a replacement narrarator who was interrupted every 2-3 minutes by a Gem Exchange Reminder Card that eventually has to be put down. Unfortunately I doubt the animations (if there are any left) have time for such nonsense. I do agree that there should be a nod to James and his previous efforts to write a story for Godus. Actually, that made me think it'd be interesting if our story is about the follower who tasked himself with writing the chronicles of his god... |
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Post by hardly on Jan 22, 2015 3:39:06 GMT
In godus there is no reflection of who or what we are. As things stand we are a faceless, nameless entity that has no image.
If we think about real life for a second if there is a god, we have no idea what God looks like. Somewhat vainly we imagine be looks like a perfect version of us. Many religions also have gods that change shapes or forms and some see God as natural phenomenon or even a planet. The Egyptians for example had very different looking gods to the Greeks.
This confusion about what god is and looks like could be useful. I'd like to see followers changing their worship based on our actions and their misinterpretation of those actions. For example excessive actions involving trees and nature could give raise to people who believe the path to worship us involves a hippy druid style. Other people might worship us as in terms of rocks and stones, whereas others might imagine us in their image. Establishing cults that have unique views of us as God could be cool and perhaps inate advantages based on their beliefs. The interactions between these groups could be amusing.
Like with the gingers in 1.3 I could try and breed different sects.
Probably not what you are looking for but I really like the idea of my people trying to follow my direction but coming to different conclusions and generally being confused about my mysterious nature would be fun. It would also break up the monotony of the world.
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Post by 13thGeneral on Feb 16, 2015 15:25:44 GMT
I think it would be humorous to have an NPC named James Leach walk out of a hut and begin to narrarate at the beginning of the story, only to be squished by an errant Gem Exchange/Shop icon falling from the sky, followed by a replacement narrarator who was interrupted every 2-3 minutes by a Gem Exchange Reminder Card that eventually has to be put down. Unfortunately I doubt the animations (if there are any left) have time for such nonsense. I do agree that there should be a nod to James and his previous efforts to write a story for Godus. Actually, that made me think it'd be interesting if our story is about the follower who tasked himself with writing the chronicles of his god... Looks like the narrative they've implemented is pretty close to this idea; a journal of a god's experiences. Though it's peculiar that it's in the 3rd person perspective, of another god, despite being a chronicle that follows closely to the actions experienced by the player. No idea where they're going with it. |
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Post by Lord Ba'al on Feb 16, 2015 16:47:34 GMT
I do agree that there should be a nod to James and his previous efforts to write a stťory for Godus. Actually, that made me think it'd be interesting if our story is about the follower who tasked himself with writing the chronicles of his god... Looks like the narrative they've implemented is pretty close to this idea; a journal of a god's experiences. Though it's peculiar that it's in the 3rd person perspective, of another god, despite being a chronicle that follows closely to the actions experienced by the player. No idea where they're going with it. I guess we'll find out. Or perhaps FuriousMoo will be able to give us more information. |
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Post by 13thGeneral on Feb 16, 2015 18:04:34 GMT
Looks like the narrative they've implemented is pretty close to this idea; a journal of a god's experiences. Though it's peculiar that it's in the 3rd person perspective, of another god, despite being a chronicle that follows closely to the actions experienced by the player. No idea where they're going with it. I guess we'll find out. Or perhaps FuriousMoo will be able to give us more information. Yeah, itd be nice to know where they're going with it or if that's it. It really is simply a "narrative" in the literal sense, being nothing more than a string of text, rather than an abstraction revealed through gameplay. |
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Post by Aynen on Feb 17, 2015 21:37:15 GMT
I think that what the story is about isn't quite as important as how it is told, and in that regard the current story can be improved without having to resort to methods that require a huge amount of content creation.
As an example of what I mean I'll use the CGI trailer for the Devision. In that trailer, we see a house in timelapse where a story takes place without being able to see any of the people in the story. We see the impact those people have on their environment, and we can hear some of what they said during the time being fast forwarded, but that's it. You, more or less, have to deduce exactly what happened from how you see them having affected their house.
Another excellent example is a short that was played ahead of Big Hero 6, in which the most basic story of boy meets girl, they have a relationship, break up, and get back together, is told through the food the dog of the boy eats. Again you have to deduce what is happening.
That process of deduction is, in essence, gameplay. And it could be done with the same text being used now (in it's absolute smallest form).
There is some deduction going on in the current itteration, but far too much is being explained and said out loud for it to have any meat to it.
Eve online takes this to the extreme, where written clues are hidden all over the game, but the connections are very difficult to make, allowing for a very long time of hundreds of people trying to solve it. It's meta gameplay, but still gameplay.
Between text, a room, and dogfood, the difference in inventiveness is rather enormous, but the general principal doesn't have to cost a great deal is all I'm saying.
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Post by 13thGeneral on Feb 17, 2015 21:56:29 GMT
I definitly agree that the method of how the story is conveyed is as, if not more, important than the story itself. The example Aynen gave about the animated short, titled Feast (an adorable piece, both beautifully written and animated), shows just how much can be conveyed with simple situational context. It's not necessary to spell everything out in clear, defined text; literal narrative. How the story is presented, currently, isn't all that interesting, or even very creative (sorry FuriousMoo or whomever wrote it - no hard feels). There's no mystery to it, no intrigue, no reason to read it until the full context has been revealed. It doesn't propel the gameplay forward, it adds nothing to how the game is played. It's just... fluff. With Godus, I don't feel they're using everything available, utilizing the current systems in place; the chests just aren't cutting it, especially given they're not well liked or received to begin with. They could easily work in the story to the gameplay - perhaps it's revealed as you uncover the monuments and temples. It's not hard to imagine something more contextual than... random blue chests. I wondered why they didn't re-purpose the old card collection book, from before they switched to the timeline. Perhaps they've thought of that, and they maybe are working on setting it up, or it would/did not work so they dropped the idea. I wish they'd let us know more instead of this silent design process, and then dropping it on us. PS: surprises are nice and all, but at this stage more info is better. We're supposedly here to help not just test, but provide feedback before it goes live. UPDATED: Not surprisingly, Extra Credits already covered the subject of Narratives… in 2011. Is there nothing they haven't done? |
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After obliterating your enemies in a bloody wave of violence you look to the holy tree that your followers bear on their chests and wonder to yourself "Where did I go wrong? 
"
