Characters and universe

[akien-mga]

As a followup on those comments in #23:

@akien-mga:

Then maybe some more characters could be useful, as the current ones are also IMO placeholders. We would need first to discuss the "personality" or looks of those characters before they are drawn.

@deliciousfudge:

Would it be too campy to do something like Super Tux Cart and use popular open source mascots? Things like Tux, Firefox, Pidgin.

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This leads to the question: what kind of characters do we want to have, and in what kind of universe?

My initial idea when starting DynaDungeons was to make a Bomberman clone with an RPG influence (and probably RPG-like singleplayer mode next to the classic battle mode), potentially reusing the universe of @OpenDungeons that I contribute to. I haven't put much thought into it though, and I'm very open to better suggestions; so far it only influenced the choice of the game's name (which could still be changed btw).

Free software mascots

Regarding using open source mascots as characters like SuperTuxKart does, I must say that I find this idea a bit overused. There was a time when practically all open source games were using such mascots (STK, SuperTux, Freedroid RPG, Wormux, TuxPuck, etc.). I have always been looking for a good libre game with an action-RPG gameplay similar to Diablo's, but could never be satisfied with Freedroid RPG due to its IMO boring setting: Tux fighting Microsoft.

I think free software is past this, and though I'm really fond of what STK manages to achieve with regards to creating an original universe with free software mascots, I think libre gamers nowadays crave for originality. Battle for Wesnoth is simply awesome both due to its gameplay and rich universe IMO.

That being said, it could be nice too to build upon the rich STK universe just like the Mario franchise, and have a Bomberban-like game using STK characters/free software mascots. Actually through the use of tilesets and UI themes, we could easily have several universes. We should probably focus on one idea right now though, and maybe implement an alternative later on.

[ghost]

Okay cool :) So perhaps for the future then we could have an option in the settings menu to change the theme as you said.

If you're going the RPG route, then we could design different player classes and start to derive their appearance from there. I found this image from Bomberman Wars that might give some inspiration.

I'm still having trouble picturing what an RPG version would be like, but I found this game, Bomberman Tournament. Is that the angle you're going for?

[ghost]

Some class ideas off the top of my head:

• White Mage type that has healing abilities/an extra life
• Ranged type that has extended explosion range
• Strength type that can break through some blocks that others can't
• Copycat type that can assume another class for a limited time period

[ObaniGemini]

@akien-mga : ' I have always been looking for a good libre game with an action-RPG gameplay similar to Diablo's, but could never be satisfied with Freedroid RPG due to its IMO boring setting: Tux fighting Microsoft. '

+1000 : I think what misses atcually in open-source game is good actions game with some kind of scenario. The problem of most of open sources games is that they can't mix good look, good action and good scenario.

When I talk about scenario, I don't think a big scenario is important but at least one like Bomberman 64 : evil ship comes to the planet, we need to destroy it. And also when I talk about scenario, I talk about something that would progress. In Bomberman 64, you progress into ships destruction, you destroy the parts one by one and hten you can go to the ship. Most games have an initial state and that's all.

For now I'm not gonna give ideas cause I'm just responding to the upper comment. But continue, you are on a good way !

[akien-mga]

First I must say I don't really have a precise idea yet, so we're brainstorming together right now :)
And as I said, I would also try to keep the "classic" gameplay available as we still lack a good libre Bomberman clone, and the classic gameplay is pretty awesome :)

If you're going the RPG route, then we could design different player classes and start to derive their appearance from there.

Player classes would definitely be an interesting addition to the typical Bomberman gameplay. Whtat we want to do with this idea depends on the game time:

• For arcade battle games (up to X players on a relatively small arena fighting one another to death, i.e. what's currently implemented), we want to keep things fast-paced. So the extent of roguelike-ish elements should stay pretty limited. Classes that give a specific advantage (and maybe a specific disadvantage) would be a way to do it. Then there could be some cool powerups that can give some rare skills or items, but probably not much more than that: XP, equipment and so on would probably be overkill for a battle game meant to be 3 minute long or so.
• For "campaign" games (that could be singleplayer and/or co-op multiplayer), we could then extend the concept much further. Based on their class, players could have various basic skills/weapons, gather items, gain XP, improve their skills or gain new ones, etc. More than a fully-fledged RPG with a very strong storyline and tons of dialogues, it would most likely be more roguelike-ish, meant to be replayed several times to try out different classes. Just when writing about it now, I'm thinking of Hammerwatch; we could maybe try to merge some of its successful design ideas with Bomberman's gameplay and see what happens :D

I'm still having trouble picturing what an RPG version would be like, but I found this game, Bomberman Tournament. Is that the angle you're going for?

I did not know about Bomberman Tournament, but it does indeed look like the kind of gameplay we could have in the campaign mode. Puzzle elements wouldn't be a bad idea either I guess :)