Hi ho all of you people out there in internet land. Things have been fairly quiet on the game development front lately, so I thought would toss up a post letting you all know what is going on with Unearthed.
Basically, I’ve finished 99% of the map editing for Unearthed. All that remains to do is some final editing to make areas fit together properly, and some basic troubleshooting stuff. It’s probably only a few hours of work total, but I need to hold off on it until I complete a daunting task: the full game outline.
The full game outline is something I’ve been working on for a few weeks now, and is composed of three basic parts (two of which are already complete). The first part is a listing of every single area in the game. The second section breaks down all the major plot events that happen in each area. The third (and most expansive) part is piece-by-piece breakdown of the contents of each area. It’s kinda hard to explain, so I’ll just post the template I’m using below:
Area #0 [Area Title]
Brief summary, describing basic aesthetics and area “feel”.
Main Gameplay Points
- Major plot point #1
- Major plot point #2
Optional Gameplay Points
- Sidequest #1
- Sidequest #2
World Changes
- World changes that occur after major plot point #1
- World changes that occur after major plot point #2
NPC List
| Name | Description | Dialogue Outline | Placement | New Resources? |
| Name of character | Description of appearance and movement | A) Dialogue Outline 1 B) Dialogue Outline 2 After major plot point #1… |
Location in the area | Sprites or other resources needed |
Enemy List
| Name | Description | Combat Actions | Placement | New Resources? |
| Name of enemy | Appearance and behaviour of enemy | Move #1 Move #2 Move #3 Drops: Item title |
Where enemy spawns | Sprites or other resources needed |
Item List
| Name | Type | Description | Placement | Shop Price |
| Item title | Weapon/Consumable/etc… | What the item does, and it’s flavour text | Where the item is found | The buy/sell price |
So, as you can see, there is still a lot of work to be done! I’m aiming to have the outline complete by the end of January. At that point I’ll pass it off to Radiostorm to write some proper dialogue (he’s an English major after all), and I’ll figure out the best way to approach the rest of the game development work.
In the meantime I will still be updating the blog with random odds and ends; general video game articles, Pathfinder stuff, etc… I hope it is enough to tide everyone over until the serious game development for Unearthed continues.
