Hello, I could do with a bit more help with my upcoming game.

Hello, everyone!

In my last post I said that I was working on a Dizzy game and it was 25% complete. Well, since then I have decided to completely rethink the game, because I had what I felt was a serious plot hole (I am a perfectionist). I’m going to reuse as many of the puzzles I came up with as possible, but I’m going to formulate an entirely new storyline.

What I’d like is some advice on planning and making a game. I don’t have any problems with programming - I have been playing around with Dizzyage for years - but it's about time I got down to it and made a proper game, so...

Do you have any tips for someone making their first game? {yolkfolk}:puzzled:
What’s a good starting point? {yolkfolk}:scratch:
What might help me get past my writer's block and come up with a new plot? :wall:

Even if you haven’t made a game of your own you can still help.

What have you really enjoyed about other games? :tup:
What do you like to see in a Dizzy game? {yolkfolk}:joy:
What do you not like to see? {dizzy}:mad:

Any reply will greatly appreciated!*
Thanks in advance! :tup:
Sorry for being a pain, it's the curse of being a perfectionist, it took me ages just to decide on the wording in this post! {yolkfolk}:redfaced:

*Assuming the reply is not malicious in any way.

Hi.

I'm a bit of a perfectionist myself, a feeling I know well!

Do you have any tips for someone making their first game? {yolkfolk}:puzzled:

My suggestion would be to stick to what you know.
If you're well familiar with DizzyAGE that's ideal, I've never been able to make a fan game as a perfect traditional Dizzy adventure myself.

However, sometimes if you come up with ideas that your not keen on personally, there's a likely chance that somebody else will enjoy it, It's certainly been the case with my "Dizzy and Seymour" fan titles.

What’s a good starting point? {yolkfolk}:scratch:

Most games often start in the Yolkfolk treehouse village or any other woodland location.
But, if there's any part on your game map that's easier to explore at first, I'd say try there.

What might help me get past my writer's block and come up with a new plot? :wall:  

That's a question we all want an answer too! :lol:

I think if you try looking at other fan games for inspiration, that could sometimes trigger something.
Don't be afraid to try out ideas that already exist in other games.

What have you really enjoyed about other games? :tup:

- To explore other areas
- Sceneic locations with good detailing
- Music that fits well with the places you're visiting

What do you like to see in a Dizzy game? {yolkfolk}:joy:

A good story line and perhaps scrolls giving you a description of the location you're in.

What do you not like to see? {dizzy}:mad:

Object puzzles that can be too cryptic to solve mainly.
But its quite rare that things like that crop up in fan games.

I hope this helps in any way and I wish you all the best with your game. :smile:

Hi Andrey,

When I started with DizzyAGE I learnt the basics by making a map where I tried out ideas for different puzzles. The more I learnt, the more ideas I got. One idea was that when Dizzy picks up a set of snow shoes, the snow on the map changes from MAT_CLOUD to MAT_BLOCK and back again when he drops them. That idea eventually became my first game, Snow Queen.

That's how I always worked - the games grew organically as I learnt how to do new things. At the start of making Snow Queen, I had the beginning sequence worked out, with the ranger and rescuing Theo, and I had the final puzzle in the ice palace in mind, but the rest was kind of made up as I went along.

It was the same story with Don't Panic Dizzy. That started with me working out character switching - it happened that I had the characters talking through radios on my demo map. That made me think of doing a game on a space ship, which made me think Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy, depressed robots, mad computers and the idea of being able to switch the robots' personalities.

Again, I started that game with a beginning, an end (I knew what the end sequence would be before I started) and a couple of strong ideas for puzzles and the game grew as I went along.

The only other thing, come to think of it, was I always had a rough idea of the map. So I knew in Snow Queen there would be a mountain on the left, forest in the middle, castle on the right and ice palace somewhere beyond that. But that was all I had when I began.

I don't know if this will be of any help to you, but that was roughly my creative process. I never tried to plan out a game from start to finish - I think I would have gotten bored while making it. The inspiration always came from learning a new coding trick, or solving a new problem which would give me an idea for a new puzzle or bit of gameplay, which gave me new problems to solve and so on.


As for other people's games, my favourite is probably Tycoon Dizzy - it's quirky and full of ideas. Also, AndyG didn't make the mistake I always do of making it too difficult to play!

Приветствую, Андрей!
Я делал свою первую игру, она в этом же разделе в соседней теме. :wink:
Что касается сценария, лучше заказывать у профессионального сценариста, результат реально отличался от того, что выдал я.

Hi Andrey

In terms of game making, I'm more like Noggin in that I mostly make it up as I go along and if I get an idea for a puzzle that means re-arranging certain parts of the map I've already made and coded ...then I happily change it; after all, it's my game, so I can do what I like.

But why start again? OK, you've found a big plot hole - think creatively as to how you can fix the plot hole ...perhaps there's an earthquake and a big monster jumps out of the ground, or how about aliens landing and you helping them with their problem and get an amazing gift that allows you to circumvent the plot hole or even Mrs God showing up and giving you a hand {yolkfolk}:cheers:

The whole point of a game is consistency. You can be as creative as you like and include whatever oddities you see fit as long as it makes sense to the overall plot - I think AdzM's comment about object puzzles being too cryptic is probably about one fan game that uses a bottle of ink to get rid of Rockwart instead of the usual bribery or Pogie methods {dizzy}:mad:

PS - I loved 'Don't Panic Dizzy' - it's up there in my personal top ten favourites :tup:

Fast response times, everyone, I’m impressed. {yolkfolk}:clap:

I’ll take your advice on board.
My suggestion would be to stick to what you know.

I'm thinking of taking a leaf from the Oliver twins book and using literature for inspiration (there's a particular Russian classic I have in mind!).
- To explore other areas
- Sceneic locations with good detailing
- Music that fits well with the places you're visiting

Don’t worry adz.m, I am planning to the put plenty of detail into my locations and I'll certainly try to find fitting music.
At the start of making Snow Queen, I had the beginning sequence worked out, with the ranger and rescuing Theo, and I had the final puzzle in the ice palace in mind, but the rest was kind of made up as I went along.

Thank you, Noggin. Having the beginning and end in mind and making the rest up as you go sounds like a good idea, I’ll try to do just that. I must say that I agree with Grandad, I loved Don’t Panic Dizzy – it is my favourite Dizzy fangame of all. Brilliant location, with fitting music, a great plot and plenty of suspense – all leading up to chicken! Even if some of the puzzles were obscure and challenging, such as the Martian one (which I solved by accident!), the solution was always a satisfying one. :tup:
Что касается сценария, лучше заказывать у профессионального сценариста, результат реально отличался от того, что выдал я.

Интересно было бы узнать, какой у вас был сценарий.
The whole point of a game is consistency.
You're right, Grandad, as long as the game's consistent, I can make it as wacky as I like! If the worst comes to the worst I can employ the cliche of Dizzy waking up at the end of the game and realising it was all a dream! {yolkfolk}:scratch: I still think I'll rewrite my story, though.

Thanks all! Спасибо большое!

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I must say that I agree with Grandad, I loved Don’t Panic Dizzy – it is my favourite Dizzy fangame of all. Brilliant location, with fitting music, a great plot and plenty of suspense – all leading up to chicken! Even if some of the puzzles were obscure and challenging, such as the Martian one (which I solved by accident!), the solution was always a satisfying one. :tup:

[/quote]

Thank you! That's great to hear.