Re:Here's a mad idea...
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Hey boys and girls!
It's Skippy The Dreadnought, everyone's favourite bone-grinding mechanized killing machine. Since joining this community five days ago I've had my head fried with memories of long-lost Knightmare characters, obstacles and deaths. And yes, I have dreamt about it. I've even joined the Knightmare Roleplay board, marking the first time I've indulged in any kind of freeform RPG in a decade. Cool stuff.
I'm a graphic and web designer in my spare time, and I'm currently teaching myself Macromedia Flash MX. It was during one of my coding sessions that I had a mad idea. And it's this:
What would you say to a playable, completely Web-based, singleplayer Knightmare adventure?
You wouldn't need to download the game, you could just play it in the Web browser (hopefully). It would take the traditional TV show route, where you have to guide a lone dungeoneer (classic Helm Of Justice only, of course) through a perilous series of hazards and levels to complete the quest.
Gimme you views on the following:
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Is it a good idea?
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Would you play it?
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How should the dungeoneer be controlled?
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What kind of hazards would you like to see included?
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Locations, characters, objects, puzzles, etc.
I'm prepared to invest a fair bit of time on this (between my other design projects, which unfortunately must take precedence in this case). Post up here with ANY ideas or opinions you might have.
Anyone interested?
Skip
Go for it.
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Hey guys, it's your new favourite Dungeon Master.
I was indeed toying with the Spyglass sequence ideas, Lord Fear. I'm going to work this one in a fairly stark, almost comic-book graphical style - and before you all soil your pants in horror, I'm talking less Beano and more Akira. The harsh lighting and shadow and expressive characters would, I reckon, translate very well to a colourful, cel-shaded look. Imagine Lord Fear himself, eyes glowering and cloak billowing, in full Manga-esque glory.
With that said, the SpyGlass sequences - and, indeed, character interaction in general - will take place via speech bubbles, which the player will be able to navigate through with a mere click of their mouse. I've also had some pretty wild ideas for shillouetted death sequences. Picture, if you will, a player failing to give the password to The Dreadnought (for example). Then picture a blood-red background, upon which is superimposed the jet-black shillouette of The Dreadnought tearing the dungeoneer's limbs off, in freeze-frame. Then the bells toll, the Life Force Skull appears and crumbles away, eyes rolling.... Game Over.
If that doesn't get you excited, you must be dead.
Skip
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Now hang on just a moment!
We'll have no talk of year-long episodes, *KM-RPG * or anything like that. This will, when its finished, stand as a real-time, single-player adventure game delivered via Flash Player. The reason I want to do it is because there has already been a couple of Knightmare games - one on the good old Commodore64, and one on the Amiga - and neither of them came anywhere near to capturing the spirit and style of the TV show. This is what I want to address.
There will be no multiplayer mode, no organic storylines, no free-roaming gameplay, and definitely no swordplay. This is a self-contained adventure game, simple as that.
Having said that, one idea I have had is of developing a Level Editor and Level Player that could be distributed for free. That way, all you guys could create your own dungeons, complete with traps, objects and characters, and distribute them for others to try and defeat! We could have a separate forum going where all the level files get distributed, and people could post up their opinion about a level, how they defeated certain traps, ideas for improvement, and completion times.
Of course, this is mere speculation at the moment. I've tentatively pencilled in an end-of-July completion time for the initial adventure. Once that's been taken care of, we can worry about the rest.
Keep those ideas coming, there's a lot of support so far, but not a lot in the way of practical ideas. Get going!
Skip
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Now hang on just a moment!
We'll have no talk of year-long episodes, *KM-RPG * or anything like that. This will, when its finished, stand as a real-time, single-player adventure game delivered via Flash Player. The reason I want to do it is because there has already been a couple of Knightmare games - one on the good old Commodore64, and one on the Amiga - and neither of them came anywhere near to capturing the spirit and style of the TV show. This is what I want to address.
There will be no multiplayer mode, no organic storylines, no free-roaming gameplay, and definitely no swordplay. This is a self-contained adventure game, simple as that.
Having said that, one idea I have had is of developing a Level Editor and Level Player that could be distributed for free. That way, all you guys could create your own dungeons, complete with traps, objects and characters, and distribute them for others to try and defeat! We could have a separate forum going where all the level files get distributed, and people could post up their opinion about a level, how they defeated certain traps, ideas for improvement, and completion times.
Of course, this is mere speculation at the moment. I've tentatively pencilled in an end-of-July completion time for the initial adventure. Once that's been taken care of, we can worry about the rest.
Keep those ideas coming, there's a lot of support so far, but not a lot in the way of practical ideas. Get going!
Skip
What I meant was - The game can be picked up and played at any time, wheras the Online RPG cannot be. I didn't mean that it would be constantly updated throughout that year, not at all.
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Got it, sorry for the mix-up. To be honest, I've never heard of the online RPG, or how it operates, so forgive my ignorance.
What I reckon would be cool is if everybody had the opportunity to develop their own dungeons for others to play. This would necessitate some kind of standardisation - but since the 'real' Knightmare TV dungeons were all grid-based anyway, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
I'll get some graphics treatments up this week, if anyone can provide me with some decent-quality Series 1-4 shots I'd be extremely grateful.
Skip
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Hey folks,
If anyone's interested, I've uploaded a rough animation test of the siege mortar bomb from Series 1-2. Check it out if you like:
http://www.skiponline.4t.com/km/test1.html
Let me know what you think.
Skip
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Sorry, I'm not familiar with his work. What's that all about?
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http://catacombite.genesis.mine.nu/DarkT/Kmare2start.htm
and
http://members.lycos.co.uk/catacombite/Kmarestart.html
are your links. They are very good, but more like text adventures with non-animated illustrations. You don't have any direct control, for example, in the corridor of blades. If you have the right objects, you continue. If you don't, you're dead.
They are also rather hard and unforgiving.
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Ah yes, I have come across these after all. Pretty impressive stuff, just synchronizing the HTML frames must have been a nightmare, let alone actually writing the thing and rendering the graphics.
No, my adventure will be nothing like that in terms of presentation or gameplay. My adventure is going to be a real-time adventure game in which you physically control/issue directions to the Dungeoneer on-screen in order to traverse the various hazards and traps in the game. So whereas the Corridor Of Blades in the aforementioned adventures had you dead if you hadn't the correct items, in my game you will have to make the dungeoneer leap, sidestep and duck around as the blades come whizzing towards him. Of course, if you're not quick enough, or if you need a SPEED spell or suchlike, you'll be cut in half - and you'll see it happeining too!
So whereas the current turn-based adventures are like an enhanced version of the books, my game will (when it's finished) be more like participating in the TV show.
At least, that's the idea.
Skip
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Cheers Skarky, me old matey.
If it's gore you're after, you'll like my next trick, which should be up around this time next week - it'll be a Corridor Of Blades animation. And just for you, I reckon I could throw in a Helmethead getting his noggin lopped off, just for effect - ahahHAHAHA!
Or, as you would put it..... "LAAAVLEY."
Skip
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It is looking quite good, and I'm looking forward to the corridor of blades.
Try not to make it too messy, though. Some of us are squeamish!
(Well, not me, I'm fine with seeing blood spurt around, but I'm terrified of needles. That's why FrightKnight wears a suit of armour. )
PS. More than 400 posts? Good heavens...
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I thought i'd register my interests in this project Skip, it's a wonderful idea and if you do make level editors and such I see no reason the rest of the community couldn't be involved with a new forum for levels and such. I'd like to offer more help but I think that my support will hopefully do
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