The Plan

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Mink
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Post by Mink »

After you install the Dropbox program and accept the invitation to the folder, it's actually pretty easy to access the files. During the installation, you needed to specify a directory on your hard drive to be your Dropbox folder (which is named "My Dropbox" by default). Within this folder, you'll find one named "CKCM". To add/take files, simply drop and drop or copy and paste. Once you add/delete something, the changes will be synced with the rest of our folders. Feel free to add any images/text/whatever you create to the relevant folders.
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Fleexy
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Post by Fleexy »

Thank you, I've got it. I added a TXT file under Patches with some recommendations. I hope lemm can do those. :)
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doomjedi
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Post by doomjedi »

Cool thing this DropBox....
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Deltamatic
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Post by Deltamatic »

The story is pretty much done, I would think. How's the map going? And what'll we do after the map's done?
lemm
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Post by lemm »

Here's what I think:

I agree that the general idea of the story is pretty much done, but the story needs to be absolute, in exacting detail, before we can design a map that will support it. There are still a dozen text files in that dropbox folder... we need one that is official with zero "maybes and ifs", at least for the time being. A draft storytxt.ck1 should be made asap.

Then the worldmap sketches we have need to be refined into a draft map; i.e., what you would see, tile by tile. Each tile can be represented by a word or just a coloured block, but a 16x16 pixel grid will really help the artwork come along.

If you agree that this is what should be done, then Deltamatic, since you have the best sketch so far, and the best handle on the story, I think you should take your map sketch and convert it into a very rough worldmap. The most important things would be layout, teleporter position, and how collecting different items will open up what.

As for individual levels, those will need individual tilesets, so we need to start grouping tiles into 1TIL000x.bmp's. Probably it would be good to start with the forest levels.
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CommanderSpleen
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Post by CommanderSpleen »

Yes, definitely a draft storytxt. But where shall it be kept? This looks like a job for... Keen Wiki!

I'm not so sold on the overall obstacle/solution structure is at the moment. Is this episode really going to revolve entirely around the slugs and licks?
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doomjedi
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Post by doomjedi »

CommanderSpleen wrote: I'm not so sold on the overall obstacle/solution structure is at the moment. Is this episode really going to revolve entirely around the slugs and licks?
We need to be more sophisticated. ShadowLands is full with creatures, plots and events...
Last edited by doomjedi on Thu Jan 07, 2010 5:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Deltamatic
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Post by Deltamatic »

OK. I'll make a tile-oriented map draft, and a story text draft.

The plot could be more complex, but it's a lot more complex than any of the original Keen games, and the only stuff we could add would be in text snippets from Yorp statues. There'll be a lot more lore later--I think it might take a Vorticon elder in every level to dump all the chronitite lore we've got built up in the original thread, and then there's plenty of interesting conflict to be had in episode 3.

I thought about adding some more Yorp statues in my statue list, but decided against it because it wouldn't be significant. It wouldn't affect the rest of the game, but it would be little stories scattered about that didn't do anything.
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CommanderSpleen
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Post by CommanderSpleen »

Perhaps we can extend the lifewater idea into a major plot by making the player collect drops scattered around levels, rewarding them with a full flask to deliver to the slug once a certain amount has been collected.
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doomjedi
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Post by doomjedi »

CommanderSpleen wrote:Perhaps we can extend the lifewater idea into a major plot by making the player collect drops scattered around levels, rewarding them with a full flask to deliver to the slug once a certain amount has been collected.
Cool idea :)

...I'll probably try to daw a Vorticon Elder :) Should it be fully animated?
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CommanderSpleen
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Post by CommanderSpleen »

As in statue tiles?
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Tulip
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Post by Tulip »

Yeah, an animated vorticon elder as statue replacement would be great.
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doomjedi
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Post by doomjedi »

What are elder actions? Walking? shooting?....?
lemm
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Post by lemm »

There's vorticons in this now?
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Post by levellass »

Maybe. I think they're discussing a *replacement* for the Vorticon elder.
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