The VG Resource

Help. I have this really amibitious project idea in my head and I can’t do any of it, except
write it out for everyone to see
(HEY UBISOFT, READ MY POST)
I can dream, OK What have I got to lose?
Think of this post as "I have this really friggin' neat idea for a game I wanna make, so I'll make this post with a 'I'll make it sometime, no rush' vibe." I just wanna...get it out there. :V
Also I wrote this post at like 9AM when I went to sleep at like 3 the previous night. So it's somewhat half-baked and tangented all over. :/



Plot

Overview
JESUS that plot was long. Read it if you want. But basically it’s another “Shredder takes over the city, turtles gotta save the city from Shredder”. But it’s MORE SERIOUS! And the Turtles are IN CHARACTER!! So I’m maintaining CHARACTER DEPTH in a game that doesn’t NEED ONE!!

But YES the topic title is exactly what it says. It’s a TMNT game based on those TMNT games you loved the hell out of as a kid. Except with a buttload of things that builds upon the games you loved as a kid [simple but solid gameplay] and more like a game you’d play now [nostalgia + more game depth]. The result is a game with a freaking amazing concept and feel that you’ll be able to play with friends near and far.
Now, I’m shooting for a totally different atmosphere with this game that you’re used to with something say, Turtles in Time and the original 1989 arcade game. This also takes elements from the 2003 GBA game based on the movie…and even some River City Ransom thrown in there, too but there’s also a good dose of originality. Also expect some nice elements from the TMNT fighters too, lol
Okay, I'm being too vague. I’m going for a unique atmosphere that evokes mostly the turtles you remembered as a kid crossed with some of the badassedness you wanted to know the Turtles for in the B/W comics of 1988. In other words: Bright colors, bright atmosphere, the Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady, and the Foot Clan.

And a level where you fight dinosaurs.

I'm not sure where to go with the overall style of the game...it's weird. I want to use sprites from Hyperstone Heist but rather than use the awesome Konami-style music from the TMNT games I want like...aggressive rock chiptune to suit the atmosphere. ;
But I've gotta make a game first before I worry about the music ingame lol.

Most places you’ll visit ingame will have resemblances to real places in New York However, the ways you deal with the sea of Foot Clan soldiers will be MUCH DIFFERENT from what you remember.

Gameplay/New Elements
Well, it’s pretty much standard coin-op Ninja Turtle fare, with a twist. But I’ll start by saying it’s classic TMNT. Go through levels, fight the Foot, pick up pizzas and fight the boss at the end of the level. You have four main buttons: Jump, attack, and two new buttons for the new gameplay elements I’ll get to later. I’m hoping for shortcut buttons but…psh that’s easy.
Now, that’s simple enough. Cool, but there’s a ton of new elements that give the game considerably more replayability and also more fun to have co-op play.

-Leveling system
Not a whole lot of levels, but their main purpose isn’t giving you MORE HP or MORE POWER, it’s for learning new attacks! You start with the basic TMNT ones, then as you level up you’ll be able to utilize more commands that are more appropriate for a modern beat’em up.
They aren’t required to beat the game; they just help. These include blocking, multiple dash attacks, headstomps, and multiple specials [hi Tournament Fighters]

-A story???
Between levels, there will be cutscenes. And there are some levels that can only be played with a certain character. i.e. the first level upon its first playthrough (story mode) can only be played as Donatello. Revisiting the level allows the other Turtles to be used (the ones you have in your group at the time)

-More environment interactions.
Yeah, you probably remember the old-school game letting you pop open fire hydrants (cool off, sucker) and knock sewer covers back at the foot. Yeah, I wouldn’t want that to change, but you know what ELSE would be cool? Using parts of your environment. Surrounded by a mob of Foot in the streets of Manhattan? Rip a mailbox out of the ground and beat them with it! Stuck in the museum with nowhere to run and Foot gaining on you? Pick up a dinosaur fossil and bludgeon ‘em with it!

-Items!!
Pretty straightforward; more food drops, battering items and…some collectible items that will garner you some rewards

-Two fighting styles for each character
YES YOU READ THAT RIGHT. OH MY GOD
Each playable character will have two different gameplay styles: Weapons drawn and unarmed fighting.
When weapons are out, it’s the typical Ninja Turtle gameplay. However, hit that button and your Turtle puts their weapons away and puts their fists up. :0
Each turtle has a unique fighting style when their weapons are away, and their stats also change as well. For example, Raphael is a rather speedy character with very limited reach and isn’t very powerful (due to his sai). But put the sai away and he becomes a grappler, suplexing his enemies, elbowing them in the face, and using the Foot as weapons!
So you’re really getting two characters for the price of one!

Characters
Seriously?
Leonardo
Leads. Dual-wields katanas and is an all-around character. Put away the swords and you’ve got a karate master with decent range kicks, with awesome specials including projecticles. Good for beginners.

Donatello
Builds machines. Self-reserved and very knowledgable on many subjects. A bit more of a pacifist compared to his brothers. Carries a bo staff – but has a bad habit of nightly binge eating with Michelangelo and not working out, which results in rather subpar foot speed but excellent reach with his staff. Put away the bo and Donatello is a very powerful aikido user, luring enemies in, parrying and countering them, often using their own strength against them.

Raphael
Cool but rude. Has an attitude problem. The fastest of the group, however those sai have horrible reach. But that’s okay – put the sai away and he becomes just as fierce as his personality, wrestling and grabbing his enemies. Extremely ruthless – he’s not afraid to elbow someone in the face, suplex them or even toss them into the wall by their heads.

Michelangelo
Is a party dude. Very relaxed and often binge eats but is so damn hyper that he usually just runs it off. Has some of the most powerful attacks of the group. However, the other turtles can’t disagree that Mike is a little slow…he’s not as fast as Leonardo and has probably the slowest attack speed of the bunch. Things change when Michelangelo puts away the nunchuks though, because he’s completely unpredictable! Michelangelo’s hand-to-hand combat mixes dancing with combat, using a mix of kicks and breakdancing to take out foes. He also has the best hand-to-hand combat reach out of all his brothers.

There’s also a fifth unlockable character but…uh, I’ll just say it depends on the items which you collect ingame. B)

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So if you wanna slam some dinosaurs to the floor by the face as a pissed off Ninja Turtle, this is the game for you! =D

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In the meantime though I’m gonna look into this OpenBOR thing – it looks like the thing I should probably use if I end up making it myself.
Everything’s up in the air at this point; there’s tons of discussion to be had, like graphic style, music stuff, extra mechanics - if you’d like to help out…go ahead, jump on the project bandwagon. Or post.

Oh gooood.

Quick question though, would the character designs be based on the cartoon, or would they be revamped to be grittier? I'm trying to imagine how to badassify Krang's robot.. maybe he'd start out all chumpy like he usually is, but maybe his skin could melt off and he could go all Terminator. That'd be rad.

(12-12-2010, 12:39 AM)TomGuycott Wrote: [ -> ]Oh gooood.

Quick question though, would the character designs be based on the cartoon, or would they be revamped to be grittier? I'm trying to imagine how to badassify Krang's robot.. maybe he'd start out all chumpy like he usually is, but maybe his skin could melt off and he could go all Terminator. That'd be rad.

I'd really like to have a unique style for the game, but if I'm working with others, especially a team it's gonna take a friggin' long time to sprite everything in an original style.
Ideally, if it were in an original style I'd like the cartoon crossed with grit - imagine the 2007 CG Turtles if they weren't rendered in 3D.

Good at looking serious but still pretty damn goofy.
I could probably whip up a few concept sprites - just not at 1 in the morning.

However, if a lot of people show interest and I end up with a literal team, I don't mind slapping the Hyperstone Heist turtles ingame with a few minor edits

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Also oh my god Terminator Krang would be amazing. I was thinking of just having obscure enemies in the game i.e. Triceraton show up in the museum level, but if I went with dystopian enemies...yes. Yes. Or even if I just went with multistage bosses that have destructible armor that'd still be pretty dope
but...oh, if I were to do that development for this game would take like ten years ;A;

i support this idea

HD sprites please

You know what might be cool? Having multiple phases for most bosses. I mean, in reality lots of the other games already had stuff like that, but I mean making it a mechanic throughout the game where the boss enters a tougher mode of attack by either getting faster or stronger from what happens to them.

Also, are there going to be stages, or is it going to be like River City Ransom and have you kind of wander around the city?

just woke up so half of this doesn't make sense

(12-12-2010, 01:21 AM)TomGuycott Wrote: [ -> ]You know what might be cool? Having multiple phases for most bosses. I mean, in reality lots of the other games already had stuff like that, but I mean making it a mechanic throughout the game where the boss enters a tougher mode of attack by either getting faster or stronger from what happens to them.

Yeah - usually you beat up a boss and they'll gain an attack or get faster. Are you suggesting like, depending on how you attack them (weapons or bareknuckle) changes the next stage of their difficulty?
i.e. use weapons and the boss gets faster and gets a kick move?
or fight unarmed instead and they get stronger, also gaining a charge/throw move?
because that actually sounds cool.

(12-12-2010, 01:21 AM)TomGuycott Wrote: [ -> ]Also, are there going to be stages, or is it going to be like River City Ransom and have you kind of wander around the city?

x number of stages. I was thinking of making them longer though and having save points - what I mean is like, one stage takes ten minutes to complete rather than the three it takes you nowadays. But then again that's something we'll address once we start designing levels.

(12-12-2010, 01:12 AM)Vipershark Wrote: [ -> ]i support this idea

HD sprites please

you say this as if i know how to do this, lol
I'd be down for this if I had the paitence - this means I'd be upscaling the sprites, adding some little details, then use the game to scale them down to preserve cartooniness right?

I was even thinking of doing a goofy 8bit style though ):

you know what would be a way better story that would have totally kickass levels?


Turtles Forever: the Game


but yeah i like this idea a lot

Ooh a Turtles project. I've always been a great turtles fan or at least the retro version.

(12-12-2010, 09:12 AM)Kosheh Wrote: [ -> ]

(12-12-2010, 01:12 AM)Vipershark Wrote: [ -> ]i support this idea

HD sprites please

you say this as if i know how to do this, lol
I'd be down for this if I had the paitence - this means I'd be upscaling the sprites, adding some little details, then use the game to scale them down to preserve cartooniness right?

I was even thinking of doing a goofy 8bit style though ):

i
i actually meant the entire game in HD >.>

Slight revival of this thread because I think it's an excellent idea, and although I don't have much to contribute into the contributions of actually making the game (yet?), I have a plethora of suggestions for enemy behavior relating to the two styles of fighting mechanics. Now I know that this is a LOT, but these are just concepts to be picked at. Only the best should be included in a final product, but I need to say EVERYTHING on my mind or else my brain will explode. Also, since I don't know the story or level layout intended by Kosheh, some or most of these would be null and void. Most of these bosses have different patterns or forms depending on HOW you beat them (with weapons or with fists)

Rocksteady:
In the stage that features Rocksteady, there needs to be segments where an enemy in an armored jeep with a mounted machine gun or gatling gun (far more badass) drives by and tries to shoot up the turtles. This is important for later.

Stage 1 - Rocksteady is dropped off in the armored jeep and fights using a rifle. He can also charge, but does so relatively sparingly.
Stage 2A (Damaged by Weapons) - Rocksteady leaps onto the jeep and pulls the mounted gun off. He now fires a lot faster and a lot more frequently in large spreads, forcing the player to dodge appropriately.
Stage 2B (Damaged by Bare Hands) - Rocksteady loses/abandons his rifle and gets mad, resorting to hard charging attacks. The jeep rolls in to provide occasional ranged support for him.

Bebop:
Whereas Rocksteady features a reliance on ranged attacks, Bebop starts out with a heavy focus on melee.

Stage 1 - Bebop starts out fighting with a large crowbar. He also lifts up heavy objects (rocks, trash cans, manhole covers) and hurls them from long range.
Stage 2A (Damaged by Weapons) - Bebop arms himself with a heavy ball on a chain for more damaging attacks. Whether he holds it or he spins it on his head like in TMNT III on the NES, I don't know.
Stage 2B (Damaged by Bare Hands) - Bebop keeps the crowbar, but gets the ability to throw grenades which have a large damage radius.

Bebop and Rocksteady Battle:
Either at the end of the stage where they appear as above as minibosses, or in a stage AFTER the stages they appear as bosses, they would feature a tag-team battle. They'd either fight in their standard forms, or they'd retain the form they ended with when you beat them, OR they'd use the form they DIDN'T use when you beat them.. god, this is complex.

Slash:
Slash battles in two ways: with his sword, or with his fist-mounted claws. If you attack him with a weapon when he has his sword out or attack him with your fists when he has his fists out, he will block and counter you. However, if you use the opposite of what he uses, you can land some hits in, albeit between his aggressive attacks. A few seconds after you land some damage, he will switch to the other phase, and sometimes he'll just switch on a whim.

Tokka and Rahzar:
Unlike Bebop and Rocksteady, Tokka and Rahzar only appear as a tag team battle. Tokka is weak against weapon attacks, and Rahzar is weak against unarmed attacks. Other than that, I haven't thought up any decent ideas for attack patterns.

Baxter Stockman:
In terms of character design, I don't know whether to make Baxter the snively white guy from the 80's cartoon or the black guy from the comics and more modern cartoons, but regardless he'd be a multiple-stage boss.

Stage 1 - Appears first in either a robot (big mouser?) or some kind of big machine. Makes sense for him to deploy Mousers. If you defeat him with a weapon, the blow is fatal, and he explodes in his machine. If you defeat him with bare hand style, he'll eject from his machine. This stage would either be a mini-boss fight, or the end of one stage while the next would be the miniboss or end of a future stage.
Stage 2A (Defeated by Weapons) - The remains of Baxter appear at the end of the stage in a powerful robot body that is resistant to weapon attacks, but the bare hand fighting can knock him back and make him be damaged by the environment (exposed electric things, etc).
Stage 2B (Defeated by Bare Hands) - Baxter is confronted again, but an (accidental?) burst of radiation or ooze or SOMETHING mutates him into his fly form from the 80's cartoon. Attacks he uses could include an electrified fly swatter or some energy based guns. What would be really cool is if he tore off the upper body of a laser-spitting Mouser and made it into an arm cannon. 8D

More ideas to come tomorrow, particularly Krang, Giant Krang, Karai and Shredder, among any others I can think up.

This makes me wish I actually had the ambition to sprite all this. These are awesome mister guycott. B)


Now that I think about it, did I mention something about having a summonable assist? I read "Bebop and Rocksteady tag-team battle", considering having a tag-team system for the player in a beat 'em up, and my mind exploded at how awesome the thought was. :W

More ideas! These are PRETTY MUCH all I can think of based on the stuff I know about Turtles stuff, although I did want to make boss ideas for Wingnut, Armmagon, Splinter and a Triceraton (I don't know any Triceraton by name). I just don't have incredible ideas for them yet. As you'll notice, I made these bosses very gimmicky in regard to the dual style fighting mechanics.

Leatherhead
Leatherhead is a relatively cut and dry boss, his desperation move determined by the way the player is fighting him. His main attacks consist of tail swipes, biting, and throwing knives. If the player attacks mostly with weapons, he'll get a desperation move where he throws dynamite. If they attack mostly with fists, he'll occasionally pull out a shotgun for a damaging attack.

Rat King
The Rat King would first appear as a stage miniboss in his regular form, and later in the stage his future self would emerge from a time warp to fight the turtles again. The Rat King is weaker against weapon attacks, while the rats are prone to unarmed attacks.

Stage 1 - He first appears to do battle with the turtles RELATIVELY hand to hand,
Stage 2 - A time warp opens revealing the Rat King of the distant future, the immensely muscular guy you fight as a midboss in the SNES Tournament Fighters game. This form walks slower, but his attacks have relatively wide range and hit much harder as a result. Also he summons much larger rats which can be repelled with attacks.

Dirtbag and Groundchuck
Dirtbag and Groundchuck appear as minibosses at first riding a large drill machine armed with weapons. The way the drill is defeated determines which of them you fight later as the stage boss.

Groundchuck (Drill defeated by Weapons) - Groundchuck fights using the detached drill bit from the tank, charging at the turtles with it. Attacking him with weapons can break the drill bit and force him to fight hand to hand, making the fight slightly easier.
Dirtbag Drill defeated by Bare Hands) - Dirtbag fights using a wave-shooting laser detached from the tank. Fighting him bare handed can disarm him and force him to rely on his mining pick, making the fight slightly easier.

Super Krang
Similar to the Technodrome, Krang is a giant boss, but you only fight against his upper body.

Stage 1 - The giant android fights with his fists, laser eyes, shooting missiles out of his chest and breathing fire from his mouth. The goal is to damage the upper body enough for it to stumble backward, where you have to damage Krang himself for the brief amount of time you can.
Stage 2 - After being swallowed and forced through a subsection where the player has to fight "white blood cell" android copies, the player eventually fights Giant Krang, who is defending the core that keeps his body giant. Krang attacks with his tentacles as several guns around the room fire on the turtles, more minature android copies filing in every now and then.

Traag and Granitor
Traag and Granitor enter battle riding a tank, which has a variety of cannons on it while the two of them fire rockets and throw grenades at the turtles. After the tank phase is defeated, both of the generals eject and fight the turtles.

Traag - Fights using a rifle equipped with a grenade launcher. He is weak against weapon attacks, but if weakened that way he abandons the rifle halfway through in favor of a bazooka which does heavy splash damage.
Granitor - Fights using a rifle equiped with a flamethrower. He is weak against fist attacks, but if weakened that way he abandons the rifle halfway through in favor of a laser which does heavy piercing damage.

Technodrome
The Technodrome is not actually a boss, but rather an ongoing miniboss. Instead of going straight into the Technodrome stage, the Turtles have to fight the entire outside of the Technodrome, being forced to fight small miniboss fights against various pieces of the outside until they finally reach the eyeball at the top.

Chrome Dome and Metal Head
Within the Technodrome Chrome Dome and Metal Head will be visible in a machine waiting to be activated. The player will be able to attack the deactivated robots, but will be relentlessly attacked by the enemies around to prevent them from being destroyed. You can destroy one, both, or neither of them. Chrome Dome is weak against weapons, Metal Head weak against fists. Both fight in similar styles, (stretching arms and legs), but Chrome Dome is faster, Metal Head takes more damage

Chrome Dome - Weak against weapons, Chrome Dome will eventually lose his head if you attack him enough with weapons. His head begins to fly around and shook lasers around the room and his body can fire missles from the hole in his neck where his head was removed from.
Metal Head Weak against fists, the turtles will eventually rip off Metal Head's chest plate, revealing a laser like in Turtles in Time. He'll also gain the ability to shock the turtles at close range.

Karai
Karai starts out impersonating the Shredder. however, after knocking off her helmet and revealing her identity, she starts to fight a lot faster and a lot more aggressively. She'd likely be a miniboss or boss in a subsection of one of the final levels, and all her phases are fought in succession.

Stage 1 - She starts out dressed as the Shredder, wielding a nagita and attacking with a large amount of speed and range. There isn't much special about this form other than the fact it makes you think you're fighting the Shredder for a brief amount of time.
Stage 2 - After losing her Shredder armor, Karai loses her nagita and instead fights using high speed punches and kicks. She also attacks with projectile kunai, shuriken, and later blasts of ki as a desperation move. She also will use a much more powerful desperation move if you attack her too much with one fighting style. If the player does not switch styles enough and attacks too many times in a row with one style, she'll scream at the sky as a giant beam of energy shoots out of her mouth (similar to her bizarre super move from SNES Tournament Fighters). Numerous beams will then rain down on the players and at random to make it difficult to dodge.

Krang
Krang is later forced to fight in his normal sized Exosuit, but he's just as difficult to battle against.

Stage 1 - The Exosuit has a wide arsenal of attacks. He can fire his fists as rockets, tempoarily detach his lower half to rush across the screen and kick the turtles, fire lasers from his eyes and shocks the player when they stay too close too long.
Stage 2A (Defeated by Weapons) - Eventually the Exoskeleton's skin will melt off and resemble the Terminator. He becomes much faster, adds a grab attack where he hugs the turtles and shocks them hard, and can perform a wide electrifying attack.
Stage 2B (Defeated by Fists) - The Exoskeleton sprouts wings (like in Turtles in Time). He mostly flies high on the screen and stays out of range of all but air attacks, though he does fly down lower to charge the turtles (making attacking him when he's low a bit riskier). He uses laser attacks more frequently and can sweep the screen, flying by while firing a laser.
Stage 3 - After losing the suit, Krang flies into a floating bubble-like vehicle that has two gigantic hands. The hands mostly punch, but can also fire missles and defend Krang by cupping themselves over the bubble.

Shredder
Shredder serves as the final boss of the game. He begins the battle fighting without his sword, and then partway through attacks with it. In both forms he can devolve the turtles with a fireball attack. Eventually the Shredder loses his sword, which is stabbed into the core of the Technodrome. As the Shredder grabs his sword, the Technodrome starts to collapse. Shredder's next and final form is determined by how the player defeats the Shredder's first form.

Super Shredder - When the Shredder grabs his sword, he is blasted with a massive amount of radiation before the Technodrome collapses. When the turtles try to escape the wreckage, he emerges as the giant, hulking Super Shredder. Despite his size, he is surprisingly fast. He attacks in standard ways, but has several energy attacks. He can pound the ground to make a massive explosion, he can hurl explosive fireballs across the screen, he can make massive slices across the screen with his claws, and he can jump high up off screen and rain down energy blasts. He also has a move where he shoots lightning into the sky and has it cut across the screen (like in TMNT3), but this time it cuts past several times, and this serves as he devolution attack. He can also teleport, and when weaker his teleporting leaves behinds harmful trails of fire.

Cyber Shredder - When the Shredder grabs his sword, he becomes partially magnetized and the debris starts to collide with him. When the turtles try to escape the wreckage, he emerges as the sleek, swift Cyber Shredder. Instead of being incredibly powerful like Super Shredder, he splits into five copies, only one of which is real. In this form he attacks using variations of the turtles' weapons (sword, sai, bo and nunchucks), as well as one unarmed copy. The copies can be destroyed, but as soon as the real Shredder is knocked down, he sucks up the copies and splits again, keeping the player guessing. Each form has a different special attack: The sword copy can send curved electric waves across the screen with his sword, the bo copy can make a massive eruption of earth under him by smashing the bo into the ground, the sai copy torpedoes across the screen in a gust of ice that freezes the turtles, the nunchuck copy creates a whirlwind around him that sucks up the turtles and damages them or distracts them enough to be damaged by other copies, and the unarmed copy frequently shoots devolving fireballs.

Sounds cool. Hope it gets developed