MFOR Considerations and Inspirations

Posted by oddbob on October 11, 2007 · Lovingly Filed Under Development Log 
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To date, the idea’s and concepts behind MFOR have been, shall we say, a little on the nebulous side. When your starting point for the game is little more than “it has to be something a little different”, then whilst on one hand the world is your oyster with where you can head - on the other hand, where exactly do you head?

Over a few long discussions this past week, Gary and myself have been trying to nail the concept down to something a little more specific - and we’ve settled on something thats a little left field, a little bit different and very us. We already had the idea that it would be influenced by a mix of the mundane and the fantastical. We wanted a world where dragons and kettles wouldn’t look out of place together. A world where you wouldn’t blink an eye if you were confronted by a giant fish one minute and an alien the next. This is how we arrived at “Monty Pythons Vertical Parodius” as the starting point for development.

Ok, we’ve had a slight change of plan here. The most important and Mr Staypuft pleasing of these is that we’re ditching the top down vertical viewpoint and going for a horizontal shooter. One of the most important things we want to ensure is that MFOR is filled with its own character and after much contemplation, a straight vertical shooter wouldn’t be the ideal method for us to get the mood and feel of the game across. We’d either have to go with a quasi-3d viewpoint to retain top down elements, which in my opinion is less than ideal from both a coding and playability point of view or bite the bullet and make the shift to horizontal.

The clincher being that Gary believes he could do infinitely better work with a horizontal viewpoint, and I’m inclined to agree. Thus, it’s settled. MFOR will be a horizontally scrolling shooter. When I return to the land of development soon enough, I’m going to have a little bit of engine rewriting to do. Joy is me.

Here’s where things start getting a bit hairy and shmup fans start running for the hills screaming. MFOR will have a story.

I’m sure we’ve all been burnt by arcade games with storylines in the past - some are superfluous and tagged on (see most euroshmups, comic book cut scenes etc…), some are so generic that they may as well not be told and some are more obsessed with dialogue at the cost of gameplay. Obviously, we don’t want MFOR to fall into that trap. We do want MFOR to have a conclusive start and finishing point, we also want you, the player to be a part of the story.

Look away now if you’re already twitching, because you’ll probably really hate the next bit.

The main inspiration behind where we’re taking MFOR isn’t generic science fiction, it isn’t “aliens trying to overthrow the world” - in fact, it’s not science fiction at all really. Inspiration for MFOR is coming from kids picture books. The only place where you can have a legitimate mix of the mundane and the fantasical. The only real medium where everyday things can take on bizarre properties. We want MFOR to feel like you’re playing a shmup inside a picture book. We’re not going for deep and meaningful, or science fiction epic, or cute target marketed to 30 something housewives. To tell the truth, despite the world that MFOR will be set in, it’s not going to be a kids game. Hopefully, we’ll be putting together a game that anyone can play that just happens to be set inside a world viewed through the eyes of a child.

I don’t doubt there’s people now holding their head in their hands thinking I’ve finally lost it. Well, I never actually had it to begin with so I wouldn’t worry. I’m also sure that at this point we’ve probably just put off a proportion of people who may actually be looking to the game with some interest. But that’s OK, because we’re not writing this for you anyway. If you want to blame anyone, blame Oliver Jeffers for writing fucking brilliant kids picture books, alright? Yes, blame him. I am.

So, we’ve nailed down what we’re doing for definite. We’ve got the outline of how the story is going to work, it’s decided that you’ll have library tickets instead of lives. There’s definitely a train, Gary has started work on that already. Things are falling into place. Slowly, admittedly, but this was never going to be a quick project (more so with my enforced sabbatical). It’s going to be fun putting this together and I just hope we can do the concept justice.

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Speak your brains

9 Responses to “MFOR Considerations and Inspirations”

  1. Sokurah on October 11th, 2007 9:50 pm

    Hmm, interresting. Crazy perhaps…but very much in character. :)
    It sounds good - I’m psyched and looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

    See…the concept is different from what most people were expecting, but referring to a recent thread on the RR forums, “some people understand good game mechanics and some don’t” - well, I believe you’re the former type and I’m sure it’ll turn out good…possibly even better than I had expected. It sounds very un-generic - which is a good thing…and hey, who wouldn’t be looking forward to a game with kettles. :-)

  2. oddbob on October 12th, 2007 2:59 am

    Ta Soks, I must confess I’m not sure how well I’ll cope with writing a horizontal shooter.

    My much logged preference is towards vertical shmups, always has been (if you exclude the tube shooter fetish) so this is venturing into fairly new territory for me.

    I have a good idea of what I don’t like - see Jets N Guns, Absolute Blue or similar, but it’s going to be fun playing through lots of the buggers to find the sweet spots. So, I’m open to suggestions of games I can have a look over if anyone has any. (I don’t have a PS2 though chaps, so no suggestions from there!) - both good and bad are more than welcome for research purposes.

    When I’m back on the PC, I’ll do a trawl of Bills site and Shoot The Core anyway, but y’know pointers are always good.

    But mainly, I want the game to be fun, both in the story and the gameplay. I’ve someone in mind to write the story parts, I’m just hoping they’ll agree - if not, I’ll have to do it myself :o

  3. Richard Phipps on October 12th, 2007 9:18 pm

    *holds head*
    ;)

    I remember Banshee pulled off the Chaos Engine style view quite well, though I agree that a horizontal shooter can help depict less mechanical enemies in a more interesting way.

    I’ve also had some ideas lately for a more surreal shooter (in a different direction to you). But it’s finding the time that’s the real bugger.

  4. the2bears on October 14th, 2007 7:49 am

    “Monty Pythons Vertical Parodius”

    I think I’m in love :) I’ll re-read this in the morning and try to think of some games for you to look at. Which reminds me, I’ve been meaning to tag my site for awhile now, to make searching easier.

    Bill

  5. Richard Phipps on October 14th, 2007 10:05 am

    Wasn’t monty python on the ST and Amiga a horizontal shooter? ;)

  6. Richard Phipps on October 29th, 2007 10:13 pm

    After Vector Infector’s unfortunate change of gfx style (then reversal), are you sure this will work as a game first?

    You are not going to do a Spore on us are you? ;)

  7. oddbob on October 31st, 2007 6:08 pm

    It’s not a game, Rich - it’s a way of life ;)

    To be honest, till I get back on the PC - I have absolutely no idea mate.

    It may yet go tits.

  8. Richard Phipps on October 31st, 2007 10:40 pm

    Hmm.. tits, dragons and kettles.. It might work!

  9. Mr_Staypuft on November 5th, 2007 6:58 am

    Geez,

    I’m sorry I haven’t been to this site for a while, especially as I got namechecked in this article. ;)
    (hint: Bob - if you’re going to write interesting stuff here, give us an occasional headsup on RR!)

    New plan sounds interesting.

    Reminds me a little of “Nemo” by Capcom.
    [http://www.solvalou.com/subpage/arcade_reviews/102/237/nemo_review.html]

    Good luck guys :)

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