Brainstorming for Cow Girl Flash Game

[TickTock]

Thanks guys for the continual input of ideas. I'll be putting up another blog post in a bit explaining what I've been up to but I've also been pretty busy with some other things.

I'd love for the community to get involved for arts in this project but I'd like to tread very lightly in this area. I know there are some people with particular egos and those that will overstate their contributes before even doing them, so I'm looking to hold of off until I have specific needs for art.

Right now is just programmer art, interfaces, and text.

I'll be able to comment on the other ideas for items and such once I get to implementing some basic items in game.

Thanks again guys.

[Ryu_Knight]

just a question about this game, how is this game gonna look like?

is it gonna be a sprite base for the over world and user interface, with artest renditions for character images, or is it gonna be something else?

because I think a sprite base game would be ideal for this type of game as it would be easier to sprite one type of version for the cowgirls and just alter them to fit what ever needs the player may want

[Memo Pad]

An artist for money, eh? I'm interested. Specifically $815 by January (Yeah, I'm blunt.)

Also, check this out; here're some concept/story ideas (They all work together and are pretty simple.):

1. (The point of the game.)
The cowgirls are employing YOU to manage them. They're YOUR boss. If you fail, you get fired.

2. (The back story/prologue)
The cowgirls are a unique race and are of a tribal culture; they tell you how you need to manage them, dictated by their culture. They can only have offspring by using a human (a male, I guess.) However, there is a selection process; a smart, well-rounded, human=healthy offspring (Enter the management gig.) Also, only one generation of offspring can be made per human. The tribe can't get pregnant with the same human twice, even for the offspring (They're heavily dependent on humans for that reason and that's why there's a revolving selection process for a mate.) Something in the past made the tribe that way; maybe they're an ancient artificial race. But that doesn't really need to be elaborated.

3. (The cowgirls' relevance and motive.)
The tribe's milk cures cancer...Yes, cancer... And all other diseases. That's why the tribe has good money. They can manage the work on their own, but you are a necessary/expendable accessory... And a means of entertainment.

4. (The reason linking your character to the cowgirls.)
This is also a reality T.V. show, that is sponsored by the tribe. It's their primary means of finding mates (And an extra source of income that they use for charity...Towards theme parks...And championship fights.) You have been selected to be on the show after applying for it.

5. (The flow of the game; a lot like a typical hentai dating sim.)
You are competing against (npc) unnamed contestants (You choose their difficulty level at game start and they have very rare appearances, if at all.) When you succeed at goals given by the tribe (managing their various tasks and...developments), you earn cash which allows you to date a cowgirl of your choosing. If you focus on one girl, you eventually get an ending involving a monogamous relationship with her. If you focus on many/all, you eventually get a contract to manage one of the many branches of the tribe and become fuckin' rich...You also get your own theme park...maybe...probably not.

6. (When and how the H-scenes take place.)
The H-scenes and process will be "off camera" except to the player. On game start, you choose the personality type of each "class/job" for the cowgirls. This mixes up their base appearance, how you succeed in tasks/mini games, and how you achieve branches in ...development (Adds to replay value.) The number of cowgirls the player deals with is equal to the number of jobs the tribe needs.

7. (Added replay value and depth while keeping the development load low.)
Modifications to the cowgirls are reversible (except for personality, which can only be modified in a new game/save) so you can see multiple branches in one go.


The premise is a little tongue-in-cheek, but c'mon, we're talkin' about B.E. themed cowgirls here.
I'm pretty sure other mechanics or ideas can be worked off from these ideas, so I'll leave it at

[Enji]

@ Memo Pad

1. I absolutely LOVE this idea
2. Seems kinda hokey. And it seems to add a level of fake difficulty.
3. Again, seems hokey.
4. With the game having you run the milk farm, manage relationships, and everything adding a game sjow on top of it would be overburdening the player imo.
5. Same as 4,
6. Halfway defeats the purpose of the game.
7. Excellent suggestion. Thumbs up for this.

I already threw my 2 cents, thought I'd throw in 2 more.

[Lurking Guy]

Not to be rude, Memo Pad, but that seems way overcomplicated.

A simple system of interaction, maintenance, and jobs seems complicated enough.

[TickTock]

Ideas are ideas, I'm not going to tell people not to share them because they differ from what I'm planning. Not like I've fully described what I'm planning to begin with! Not that I even have it all together, but it is getting close. Although It's true that I most likely wont implement these sorts of things, it helps open the mind a bit. Plenty of the stuff shared here has been stuff I would never have thought of, and have been a big influence on what I've done so far.
There are always scenarios and ideas that can be implemented after much of the base stuff is done. A major goal of this game is to try and make it easy for others to implement their own events and share them too, so you never know what may end up in the game.
At the very least this thread is for sharing ideas about cow girls and making a game, whether they land in the game I'm making is not important. If they inspire others, then that's awesome.

TL;DR Give more crazy ideas please.

[Memo Pad]

Originally Posted by Enji

@ Memo Pad

1. I absolutely LOVE this idea
(Cool.)

2. Seems kinda hokey. And it seems to add a level of fake difficulty.
(This is the back story; it's not part of the gameplay.)

3. Again, seems hokey.
(C'mon, I just can't see this game sticking close to realism. It's purely focused on entertainment.)

4. With the game having you run the milk farm, manage relationships, and everything adding a game sjow on top of it would be overburdening the player imo.
(The game show is just part of the story, not part of the gameplay. Little else is being changed; if anything, it's a bit more streamlined 'cause the each cowgirl class is limited to the number of duties in the game. When you switch to a different cowgirl "in game", her "instance" solely involves the duty(s) linked to her class. It's just like a regular text based H-game, with possible real-time mini-games included. Let's say just limiting the number of classes to eight will be just like an H-game with eight girls to switch around with.)

5. Same as 4,
(The other contestants are just part of the story; not involved in gameplay other than a justification to have difficulty levels to choose from. Higher difficulties might mean fewer mistakes are allowed or there's "more milk to collect" because the "other contestants have collected a lot"; it's just an excuse used for having difficulty settings. Maybe a higher difficulty setting unlocks "special" H-scenes.)

6. Halfway defeats the purpose of the game.
(I don't understand what you mean here. I'll try to clarify. At the beginning of the game, you can select the personality type for each class; let's say, the Milker, Cook, Farmer, Dancer, Bookkeeper, ect... all have their individual appearances, ie., hair color, hair style, outfit, etc... You can choose a personality type of ie., rough, calm, mature, hyper, tomboy, ect... for every class; the personality you choose, be it the same for all, or mixed, changes their appearance a little ie., hairstyle/length, facial expressions, ect... This will also change the H-scenes for each character as well as how you get the scenes. To a limited degree, it diversifies the flow of the story; it gives more story paths for that character. Hence, giving it pretty bad-ass replay value, caters to the kinds of personalities the player likes, and allows the player to give the character(s) they like, the personality they like. As for the "off camera" thing, that's just story. It means that the player and the character are doing "things" away from the camera crew. You, the player, will be doing and seeing these "things" in game though.)


7. Excellent suggestion. Thumbs up for this.
(Cool, I'd figure this works well for gameplay and story. For gameplay, it streamlines and adds replay value. For story, the tribe can reverse their modifications in case they want to go on vacation or something. Waterbeds can be undone so the character can "walk" to where they need/want to go.)

I already threw my 2 cents, thought I'd throw in 2 more.

Sorry, I've gotta clear some things up a little. Read the stuff in the parentheses above.

The programming's not that tough for this, just a little redundant ; I can do this in html (Well, that's the only programming language I know :s Granted, I'm pretty sure ActionScript will be much more efficient.) It's a lot of work for the artist; but the gameplay's pretty simple.

Oh, and for saving the game, I hear Python is a programming language that can do that and it's supposed to be simpler that C++ and other languages that can save to hard disc.

[Enji]

Originally Posted by Memo Pad

Sorry, I've gotta clear some things up a little. Read the stuff in the parentheses above.

The programming's not that tough for this, just a little redundant ; I can do this in html (Well, that's the only programming language I know :s Granted, I'm pretty sure ActionScript will be much more efficient.) It's a lot of work for the artist; but the gameplay's pretty simple.

Oh, and for saving the game, I hear Python is a programming language that can do that and it's supposed to be simpler that C++ and other languages that can save to hard disc.

Ah thought with those things you were talking about ingame which would have made it suck imo. Backstory is alright and everything, but truth be told, no backstory at all would be the way to go. That way you can let your imagination go anywhere it wants to.

[TickTock]

Saving data isn't so bad with Flash as there's a class called "Shared Resource" that essentially saves data into a relative directory somewhere in the user's appdata folder. My fear is just making saves unreasonably big since there's a ton of info being saved in huge arrays. It shouldn't mean bigger than a few megs, but that's huge in terms of flash file data.
Performance issues may also crop up since this is sort of uncharted territory for me, but it shouldn't be too bad.

[Memo Pad]

Originally Posted by Enji

Ah thought with those things you were talking about ingame which would have made it suck imo. Backstory is alright and everything, but truth be told, no backstory at all would be the way to go. That way you can let your imagination go anywhere it wants to.

Coo', I feel ya man.

Originally Posted by Shinigamis Past

Saving data isn't so bad with Flash as there's a class called "Shared Resource" that essentially saves data into a relative directory somewhere in the user's appdata folder. My fear is just making saves unreasonably big since there's a ton of info being saved in huge arrays. It shouldn't mean bigger than a few megs, but that's huge in terms of flash file data.
Performance issues may also crop up since this is sort of uncharted territory for me, but it shouldn't be too bad.

I'm still REALLY new to actionScript/flash and hearing that there's a way to do some sort of saving is very cool. I'm pretty sure you'll find a way to tune up the arrays. I think I'll ask a friend of mine who's familiar with many programming languages about this; maybe I can get some hints.

[SoylentOrange]

I never figured you for a cowgirl kindda guy, Memo. Or is it just the "game" aspect you're liking?

[Bestarred]

Originally Posted by Memo Pad

An artist for money, eh? I'm interested. Specifically $815 by January (Yeah, I'm blunt.)

Someone get a Kickstarter page going or something. This would be the best possible of all answers.