Tags: | homeless man | game maker | concept art |
2007-07-18 22:48
Homeless Man Details
I've been meaning to give a bit more detail about our game-maker project, Homeless Man, for those of you who are curious. Steve asked me, "Do you know any homeless folks that inspired this? Is this going to be a game how to get out of homelessness, show people what it is like, or let's go shoot us a homeless guy?" As I mentioned before, this will be a role-playing game for the PC. I don't know any homeless folks that I am using as inspiration, but I have always felt that there is great potential in exploring the unknown world of homelessness, even in a ficticious game. This certainly won't be a shoot-em-up type game, but there will be a battle system and strategic fighting will be key for much of the game. An inspiration for much of the gameplay mechanics will likely be the Fallout series of PC games, but we will certainly be customizing the game with our own unique ideas, and of course, our unique plot and setting. The game will follow our hero Homeless Man, and those that join his party, on their quest to fight off the evil that is plaguing the homeless community. Police corruption, disappearing friends, and evil cults will challenge our hero and his will to survive.
I have been focusing on becoming as comfortable as possible working with Game Maker, and working on the movement system and the inherently difficult problem of pathfinding. Andy has been working steadily on some great art. If anyone has any more specific questions about the game feel free to ask, I gladly welcome comments as well. For your enjoyment, here is a bit of concept art and some models for characters in the game:
- Kevin
Kevin (at) Upcsite (dot) Net
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Related Entries:
- Improvement to Comment Code (2007-09-06)
- Homeless Man Update (2007-06-28)
- Homeless Man (2007-06-25)
Comments:
What?? An RPG that isn't fantasy or sci-fi? Madness! Seriously, it sounds like fun. I love the "disappearing friends" idea, since it sounds like something that real homeless people face. I would be interested to know more about your experience using Game Maker. How much coding is involved? How restricting is it on what you can accomplish?
Posted by: Neil | 2007-07-18 24:26:14
Game Maker is basically just a framework for running a game - it is obviously made for a certain type of game, but pretty much everything is changeable and customizable. It has lots of built in drag and drop options for creating simple games, but we are going for something more complex, and we will likely be coding quite a bit with the game maker language (GML), luckily it's quite a bit like C++. Looking at other games that have been made using Game Maker, I am confident that it won't be restricting, once I know what I'm doing. I'm glad that you like the sound of the game, and thanks for the encouragement; keep checking back for status updates.
Posted by: Kevin | 2007-07-23 12:57:03
Kevin, I like the approach you are taking. People have all sorts of opinions about the homeless, but few really know much about it. I've done some volunteer work with an organization that helps homeless kids. Most of them were the victims of abuse at home and finally couldn't take it anymore. What you are doing could be a really good educational tool as well as a fun game. I'd strongly, strongly suggest you talk to some people who work with the homeless - people at shelters, kitchens that feed the homeless, social workers - who can give you a lot of realistic twists for your game. There are lots of women who are homeless as well as children. Many are mentally ill. Some are 'normal' people who had health problems and/or lost a job and couldn't manage to pay the rent. (Maybe even people who got into credit card debt going to Hawaii with their girlfriends.:). Adding the realism will make the game more compelling and you'd be doing a service to the homeless. Good luck.
Posted by: Steve | 2007-07-25 14:33:21
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