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God School Lessons: #4

Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2013 3:03 pm
by Arles
Lesson Four: Creating a freestyle adventure (part 2)
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"Hey guys! Welcome back again to The Freeheart Fantasy Guide! My name is Hastur I'm here to get started on the second part of the frestyle adventuring lesson."

"This time we will be addressing some new topics, so I hope you are ready for this new ride."

3.4 Add side-characters to the mix
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"First let's talk about side characters. No adventure, that dares to call itself that, can live without friends and foes. Both have a major role in storytelling, and they should be taken into account every time we plan a game of this type."

"Planning and presenting helping characters and enemies in an efficient and imaginative way will no doubt enhance the player experience and raise the overall level of the game."

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"The main thing to consider is DIFFERENCES. Fat and slim. Tall and short. Wide and Long. Big and Small. Difference will bring contrast, and contrast will not only add flavor to our game, but also help the players understand and quickly recognice the function of each character in the story."

"This is a fun thing to do too, and it will prevent your game from looking rather flat."

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"Just imagine the possibilities!!!"

"Your goblins character could have a full cast of foes waiting for him to find them! And how about a huge final boss that more than doubles him in size? That certainly would make the players go nuts."
"But you can use this to give the player a sense of power and companionship too. From big to small: surrounding your player with allies and NPCs will make him feel he's accomplishing something, and that he's not alone in his quest."

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"Difference is key. Think about it like this: Look at the first line of squares and then at the last line of faces. Which one is more compelling?"

"Of course, you don't have to vary them that much either. Differences in shape could be enough. Or differences in color could do the job too. The main goal is to create an interesting setting, and this is one way of doing it. Don't underestimate it!"

3.5 Dealing with replies
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"This is one of the most important parts of your job: your relationship with the players."

"You never know what's gonna happen in this type of games. As you don't know who or what the directions will be. So I think it's good to be mentally prepared for it."

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"I'm almost sure that 90% of the time you will get awesome replies and orders to do. They will blow your mind and make you laugh your arse off more than once."

"This is what we are looking for and what we should listen too. But everything within certain boundaries: If you want to run a serious game, with drama an suspense, you are better off ignoring the funny jokes. You could use them once in a while and give them a grim twist too, just to let the players know how things are going to be."

"Have fun with them and don't be afraid of the unexpected!"

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"And then you will get the annoying ones. The ones that don't intend on building anything: some people just want to see the world burn."

"Don't be upset by these. Just ignore them and go on with the game. Even if some troll says something rude to you or about your game. In this type of game you will (with luck) get responses from many, many different people. Maybe even from users that tag along on turn 73. So don't be surprised nor alarmed. Go with the directions that are useful to the characters and the story, and you'll be just fine."

3.6 Taking the passenger seat
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"And here we are, in the final part of this lesson. And this just might be the most important statement. We've been covering the whats and the hows and the whys of adventure crafting in forum games. But another important thing is to just relax and have a good time."

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"You might drive yourself crazy about the next deadline, about that combat in which you miscalculated the damage, or about that pose you just can't get right."

"You may feel bad because the players are talking your game in a direction you didn't plan out, or maybe you just think your not good enough to do this and you shouldn't have started a game in the first place."

"It happens. It's normal:"

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"But don't be so hard on yourself. Allow yourself to take the passenger seat. Let the story write itself and burst in laughter if you main character ends up doing something silly because the players said so."

"You are supposed to be doing this for fun. So do just that: let yourself and the game go, give yourself a break if you need it and then come back strong once again. Have a good time. That's the hole point of this game mastering thing."

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"Maybe you thought about ten different paths for the story to go. And maybe you have no idea where you are going. Or maybe you've been planing a trap or an encounter for a whole day and the players just miss it. Or solve it in a whimp."

"No biggie. Freestyle Adventures are about that, in the end. If you just impose your will and give the illusion of choice to the players, the masquerade won't last long and the game might just fail. Don't go down that road."



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"Instead, do your best, have fun, draw to your heart's content, and make the most awesome adventure ever. You can do it."


► Show Spoiler

Re: God School Lessons: #3

Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2013 5:49 pm
by SeeAMoose
► Show Spoiler

Re: God School Lessons: #3

Posted: Sat Jun 08, 2013 2:11 am
by Ratha
Arles wrote: (also, my gf said your Knight Bear's version looks extremely cute)
And somehow, it's that compliment that makes my day. :)

Re: God School Lessons: #4

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 4:07 am
by LAYF
Arles? Any news on the asignment?

No stress, just wondering...

Re: God School Lessons: #3

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 5:41 am
by Nerre
SeeAMoose wrote:Would you like me to split this up into separate threads for you?
Yes, would be nice. Each thread with the lesson as the first post(s).

Re: God School Lessons: #3

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 5:49 am
by thinkslogically
Nerre wrote:
SeeAMoose wrote:Would you like me to split this up into separate threads for you?
Yes, would be nice. Each thread with the lesson as the first post(s).
Sorry Moose, I totally missed this post! Yes, now we've got a new sub-forum and won't be spamming the main games area, separate threads would be great thanks :) I'll make a new thread for each lesson after this.

Re: God School Lessons: #4

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 6:21 am
by Arles
LooksAtYouFunny wrote:Arles? Any news on the asignment?

No stress, just wondering...
Yeah, sorry for the delay. Blame it on "life"...

I'll be uploading the assignment this afternoon.

Re: God School Lessons: #4

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 7:32 am
by Nerre
Don't worry, I was late too. ;)
Anybody wants to comment on my work for this lesson? Was hoping somebody would post a comment, but nothing yet.

Re: God School Lessons: #4

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 12:03 pm
by LooksAndSmiles
Nerre wrote:Don't worry, I was late too. ;)
Anybody wants to comment on my work for this lesson? Was hoping somebody would post a comment, but nothing yet.
I can comment it, if you wish :)

The overall idea is good and fun, and the delivery is pretty sweet! Good work!

I have made a detailed, thus a bit too long comment, spoilered so it doesn't hog that much of a space. :)

- The short version is: Size. Sounds. Expressions. Timing.
- The long version:
► Show Spoiler
I encourage the other players to read the long version too - even if they did/will not commit the same mistakes, Nerre's entry has a lot of good highlights and practical cases that can be learned from.

I hope it has been helpful, else please ignore my ramblings. :)

Re: God School Lessons: #4

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 12:26 pm
by LAYF
Nerre wrote:Don't worry, I was late too. ;)
Anybody wants to comment on my work for this lesson? Was hoping somebody would post a comment, but nothing yet.

WEll... I do have comments... for all of the works... but i perfer to let the teacher do the commenting first... THEN I'll strike ;)

Re: God School Lessons: #4

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 11:32 pm
by Nerre
I wish I had a drawing board. I am much better with a pen than with the mouse. :/

Re: God School Lessons: #4

Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 6:34 am
by M0rtimer
Heh. Just want to say that this assignment fits perfectly with what I had already planned to do once exams are over and I can start spending some time on this. :)

Re: God School Lessons: #4

Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 1:09 pm
by madmartin26
I've been busy with exams and graduation the past few days, but now that summers actually here, i should have plenty of time to finish both lessons. I do have a question though...I installed the most recent form of Gimp in a spree of updating things, and while almost everything is familiar, for some reason i can't find out how to change the brush size. I found all the brush templates and fiddled around for about twenty minutes, but i couldn't find a small brush or scale the other brushes at all. :?

Re: God School Lessons: #4

Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 1:33 pm
by BeanDip
Nerre, I loved your work. I do agree that some sound effects "POOF!" for the transformation and "FWOOSH" for the fire would have improved it but I thought it was funny and creative and clearly readable.

Ratha, I loved that! I wish I would have told you sooner but you know, life and such. I might keep on of those little bots in my lair, if you don't mind.

Re: God School Lessons: #4

Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 2:46 pm
by LooksAndSmiles
madmartin26 wrote:I've been busy with exams and graduation the past few days, but now that summers actually here, i should have plenty of time to finish both lessons. I do have a question though...I installed the most recent form of Gimp in a spree of updating things, and while almost everything is familiar, for some reason i can't find out how to change the brush size. I found all the brush templates and fiddled around for about twenty minutes, but i couldn't find a small brush or scale the other brushes at all. :?
Hi Martin!

Basically there is one field where your change the size, I marked it red:
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You have 4 ways to edit it. Each of them is a bit uncomfortable at first, but each one has some appeal. Personally I use the 2nd and 4th mostly.

1) Click on the up/down for small change per click.
2) Click into the number, and edit it by typing to the desired value
3) Click into the blue/white part and drag left and right for smooth size change
4) Click near to the top of the box when you see the mouse changing to a direct arrow showing upwards. This will make the size jump to the exact amount the arrow points at.

Re: God School Lessons: #4

Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 12:05 pm
by madmartin26
Thanks for the help Looks, but i'm pretty sure we have different versions of gimp. I have gimp 2.8 and the bottom of the toolbox looks like this:

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And i can't find a size scroller anywhere. I tried changing the spacing, but that doesn't affect the size.

Re: God School Lessons: #4

Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 12:15 pm
by M0rtimer
Let me google that for you

:P

Seriously though, it seems that 2.8 has added the option to customize your toolboxes, but doing so has removed brush size from the default settings. This should help:

In GIMP click Windows > Dockable Dialogs > Tool Options. Click and drag it and drop it under your toolbox where it says "you can drop dockable dialogs here".

Re: God School Lessons: #4

Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 2:28 pm
by madmartin26
Ah...Yeah in retrospect i probably should have done that first, but thanks for the help Mort.