Good evening, I am designing a game, and soon I will need to begin seeking out a coder or programmer (maybe several) to bring it to life.
I am very new to all of this, so what I am asking is- what would a programmer need to know in order to give a reasonable estimate of time and money they would charge to complete it (U.S dollars). Please allow me to give an outline, and let me know what more information is required.
Most of the headers contain links to my website, which have mock-ups of the game screens, for a better idea of the game format.
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Pack for Coders
Necromancer, The Fight For Life is a 2D RPG to be programmed in C++, C#, Unity or whatever
software is most appropriate, using sprites for animation and simple graphics. The game can be played
with mouse and keyboard and compatible with Microsoft Windows. In terms of mechanics and complexity
it is almost identical to Gameboy Pokemon games, the main feature of which is monster capturing and battling.
Screens-
Fade in and out company logo, fade in title screen with 4 options.
New- Starts a slideshow of 5 still slides with music and
voiceover, then the game begins.
Load- Restores a previously saved game state.
Options- Change music volume, sfx volume.
Website- Opens a separate window that shows the company website.
Character sprite can move up, down, left and right on a
tiled surface (using basic walking sprite animation). When the sprite
encounters a tile with a town on it, the game screen changes to a town, there
is also a “random chance” while moving of entering a battle with NPCs. On the
World Map screen at any time the player can enter the options screen with a
button press.
Character sprite can move up, down, left and right. When
standing next to an NPC sprite, a button press can initiate text on the screen
(the NPC speaking), occasionally there will be dialogue options (the equivalent
of Yes and No options) that will affect future dialogue options, story elements,
and also affect the game conclusion. There is a point in each town where the
player can Save the game state and also heal all of their minions to full
health points.
There will be approximately 50 towns, all using the same
structure, just different art. Through dialogue options the player can accept
and complete quests, progressing the story and unlocking new areas on the World
Map.
The battle screen will have 1 – 3 minion sprites controlled
by the player, and 1 – 3 sprites controlled by AI. The player can choose to Run
(having 50% chance of returning to the World Map), Info (which will cause
anything the Pointer is on to display explanatory text) and Action, which will
cause battle actions.
The battles are turn based (order determined by the minion’s
Speed value), each minion has the option of 4 attacks with the option of 3
targets (some high level attacks will affect all targets, and some attacks can
target allies). When an attack and a target is selected, a battle animation
will play (normally comprised of 4 sprites) and the next minion will be able to
act.
Some attacks cause a minion to lose health points, some
cause a minion to increase or decrease in stats (referred to as buffs and
debuffs, see below for stat details). When a minion reaches zero health points,
it can no longer act in battle. When all the minions on one side have zero
health points the battle is over, if the player lost, they are transported to
the last town they visited, if the player was victorious they are returned to
their location on the World Map.
NPC minions in battle can be controlled by simple AI or
simple random number generators (with 4 attacks to choose from, and 3 targets
to choose from, there is a total of 12 possible actions, so maybe random battle
actions would be just as effective, I have yet to learn enough about this).
Minion health points can be recovered by the act of walking
on the World Map. Something like 5 health points per step, or totally recovered
by resting in a town (talking to a certain NPC sprite like an innkeeper).
The minion management screen displays a simple list of all the minions
which the player has captured and currently owns. Each minion can be individually selected and the
player can use the following options.
Info- Displays a new screen with detailed minion stats.
Switch- a second minion must be selected, and then those two
minions switch spots in the list. The first three minions in the list are the
ones which will be used in battle.
Fuse- a second minion must be selected, and then both
minions are deleted and a new minion is created. Only specific combinations of
minions can be successfully fused, if non-compatible minions are selected then
a simple “not compatible” message is displayed.
Remove- Minion is permanently deleted from the list.
There are 150 different minions, and the player can own
multiple copies of the same minion.
Minions have 10 Stats (of numerical value from 0 – 1000)
Health Points- are the amount of points a minion can lose before being defeated.
Strength- determines physical damage output.
Constitution- lessens the amount of physical damage taken.
Dexterity- increases the chance an attack will connect with its target.
Finesse- increases the chance an incoming attack will miss.
Speed- determines how soon the minion can act in battle.
Willpower- determines magical damage output.
Resistance- lessens the amount of magical damage taken.
Luck- increases the potency of actions which effect the stats of minions (buffs and debuffs).
Fate- decreases the potency of incoming actions which effect the stats of minions.
After each successful battle, minions will gain experience
points. As experience points increase, minions' values increase, making them
more powerful in battles. After certain amounts of experience points, minions
gain new attacks and can eventually evolve into new more powerful forms.
There are 240 different attacks, each using a different calculation of stats,
for example-
Slice = Attacker’s Strength minus Target’s Constitution
Lightning = Attacker’s Willpower minus Target’s Resistance
With some involving more complicated calculations (nothing
more than basic algebra) such as...
Vines = Attacker’s Willpower plus Attacker’s Speed divided
by 2 minus Target’s Resistance with a chance to reduce the Target’s Speed by an
amount determined by a different calculation e.t.c...
I have not yet settled on the exact method of acquiring new minions,
I expect it will be similar to Pokemon games (reduce target to a low
health, then attempt to capture).
Pocket Necronomicon
A simple screen containing a virtual book, pages can be
turned and pages will show text information about minions (added as new minions
are encountered) similarly with people and places.
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Thank you for reading.
