[tcaudilllg]

Paradiso Socionica is my new game project written for Gamestar. It is a Metroidvania with optional 2-player co-op. The graphics are made by me. I intend to chronicle its development in this thread.

The Setting

In the aftermath of a major cataclysm, acrimony among the survivors led mankind to split into two factions. One emphasized nature, and exalted practices of biological discrimination and specialization. The other emphasized nurture, and toleration, forgiveness, and personal freedom. The nature society embarked on a project to create a paradise in the clouds, leaving behind the wasted surface world behind. Forty years later, the floating city Socionica flies through the sky, casting a literal and metaphorical shadow on the land below.


Protagonists

Jacob is a mercenary who is trying to escape to Socionica. He was dispatched to the surface by Socionica to investigate a secret weapons program thought to be run by Socionica's archenemy, the mad scientist Gammorah and the warlord Saetem. Jacob succeeded in his mission, penetrating Gammorah's hideout and obntainig the all-powerful Information Gems, but at great cost: he is the last survivor of his entire platoon. Socionica is officially observing a ceasefire with Saetem, and as such can offer no aid to Jacob on his journey home. The only road remaining to him is to ascend the elevation tower which once served as the hub for Socionica's construction.

Gameplay with Jacob centers on the Information Gems, which only he can use. Jacob can jump and climb walls. His weapon is an electro-pulse rifle that can be modified to discharge a variety of material effects. He is trained in martial arts and excels in hand-to-hand combat.


Maybelle is the young daughter of the elevation tower's chief operator, and is the only one on the surface who remembers the code to activate its elevator. She agrees to help Jacob operate the tower, but on the condition that she be allowed to travel with him to Socionica to visit family.

Gameplay with Maybelle is limited in comparison to Jacob. However, many enemies have sophisticated defenses that Jacob cannot handle by himself. Maybelle relies on a sub-machine gun and grenades to get her through the tough fights.

Bethany is Jacob's liason to Socionica. Bethany advises Jacob on how to use the Information Gems and keeps him abreast of Gammorah's movements.


Antagonists


Maximillian Saetem is the supreme leader of the Surface Restoration Movement. He is deeply critical of Socionica, thinking it an unnatural aberration, and intends to ground it once and for all. The loss of the Information Gems is a serious strategic setback, for which he has charged Gammorah with their recovery.

Gammorah is the primary antagonist of Paradiso Socionica. He is a techno-mage, a scientist who creates magic from nano-scale cybertronics. His alliance with Saetem was a recent development, previous to which he was the most feared warlord on the face of the earth. An unrepentant sadist who commands an army of rogues and deathbots, he has inflicted misery on millions. His apparent insanity belies his belief that only through shared misery can humans understand their need for each other.


Enemies

Gammorah commands two armies, the Surface Restoration Army and his own army of robots and assassins. Jacob and Maybelle will have to survive both as they climb the elevator tower.


Rifle Soldier

This enemy carries a rifle. On sight of the enemy, stops walking and opens fire. Duck to avoid him.


Shield Soldier

This soldier, who carries a pulse wave cannon, fires a wide, powerful beam. The only way to defeat them is to distract them with machine gun fire, and then close in to punch them in the face.

Designer's note: This is an interesting mechanic that illustrates the importance of co-op between Jacob and Maybelle. If Jacob simply tries to shoot at this enemy, he'll be blown away by its rapid fire. Any direct shots will be deflected by the shield. The way to defeat this enemy is to have Maybelle starting firing at him from a safe distance away, pinning the soldier down. While pinned down, the soldier will back away slowly, out of Maybelle's range. To keep the pressure on, Maybelle must follow after. In 1 player mode, this means giving repeated summons commands to Maybelle while Jacob closes the distance for a punch to the face. The punch stuns the soldier, but only for a moment. If Maybelle doesn't keep the pressure on, he'll pummel Jacob with the wave cannon.


Assassin

A high speed enemy who glides on roller blades, he carries a knife. Wears a special suit that resists electric pulses and deflects bullets. Can only be defeated in hand-to-hand combat.


Doomba

A floor cleaning robot re-engineered into a mine, it is one of Gammorah's most ingenious and deadly creations. It moves too fast for Jacob to target -- only Maybelle is equipped to hit it.


Shield Drone

A flying robot protected by a force field. It can only be damaged by extreme explosive force.


The Elevation Tower

The elevator tower is designed to support a metropolis of 1.5 million individuals. Its height is approximately 4 miles and its diameter is about 5,500 ft across (a circumference of about 3 miles). At the top is a massive hanger from which land jets, the components of Socionica's flying mass, can take off.

The architecture of the tower features a greenhouse area on the circumference (fenced in by reinforced plexiglass). This area produces the oxygen which inhabitants need to live. The central shaft of the tower is an elevator. which can carry up to 25,000 people at once (although its lifting capacity is much greater). This elevator was rarely used by the public; support elevators and spiral ramps were the primary method of ascending and descending.

The tower was designed in several stages over 18 years (Socionica took to the air 18 years ago). Each stage added a mile to the tower's height.

Each stage completed an area of the tower that had a specific purpose.

1st mile: basic support service area
2nd mile: defense area
3rd mile: technology development area
4th mile: land jet construction area.

The tower is mostly composited of reinforced concrete.

[tcaudilllg]

I got off to a good start. Made walking sprites for Maybelle and Jacob. Made the standing sprite for the rifle soldier. Jacob and Maybelle turned out to be surprisingly easy, where the soldier turned out to be surprisingly hard! The male model sprite's arm was difficult to animate. I'm really looking forward to the grenade throw animations... those look like a lot of hard work.

On the programming end, I'm not sure Gamestar is ready for some of the features I have in mind. Maybelle's machine gun requires an instantaneous fire mechanic that Gamestar's move engine doesn't yet allow. Or... maybe it does, given that I can make the bullets move at a high enough speed that the player won't perceive their flight.

[tcaudilllg]

Made a few map tiles... although I'm coming to understand just how difficult it is to create a realistic representation of a futuristic eco-tower.

The tower itself is inspired by modern Japanese architecture, such as Sky City 1000. However unlike Sky City 1000 it is also a hangar and military base.

It seems to me that the base of the tower must be concrete. The lower 3/4 of the tower can be built of concrete plates connected by a central shaft. Even better, it could be a concrete spiral around the shaft. That would permit the mall area to take place in the lower half of the tower, which is about where I planned it. That way the story progresses from the central elevator to a shaft area, then to the residential zone. So the shaft area is what I need to depict in the demo. For the vertical platforming segments, I can make use of scaffolding inside the elevator.

[tcaudilllg]

OK I've settled on a design decision. The theme of the game will be exploration, with multiple routes to the end. That way I don't have to think up reasons for the characters to follow a linear path through the (enormous) tower, which was taking a lot of time. I don't think it helped the game play, either.

[tcaudilllg]

Getting seriously burned out on sprites. Animating 32x32 sprites is hard! And the bigger they are, the harder they get! I lack bases over which I can layer the actual characters (chibi sprites will not do!). Although I can make the bases myself, putting them in all those poses takes me hours... my last spriting session lasted six hours, most of which was spent animating a grenade thrower base. The sheer volume of work associated with drawing all these poses is intimidating... no wonder so few games are made... the lack of bases is a major intimidator. Hell, the drawing itself is intimidating. Most hardcore designers (a la DarkDread) have the patience to do the graphics work as well as the design. I'm thoroughly burned out on spriting... decent detail requires tons of work, and low detail doesn't seem up to standards.

[tcaudilllg]

I took a break from spriting and did some tiling. I created the (repeating) corridor layout for the residential area.

One thing that's been on my mind is what to do with all the space in the tower. The more I think about it, the more it seems like Metroidvania style alone won't cut it. Instead I'm considering the following approach:

• make equipment drop only from enemies (random chance)
  
• give enemy leaders the ability to move freely between rooms/floors (where the leader goes, the troops follow).
  

For rest points, panic rooms are used. I suppose it would make sense for the panic rooms to have extra ammunition. The panic rooms would also have access to duct chutes which would make it possible to escape when cornered.

There are limited windows in which to defeat enemies. Over a course of two weeks (in-game time) units deploy into the tower for two day stretches. Each succeeding group is stronger than the last. It is important to engage the enemy or you eventually lack the equipment to survive.

The object of the game is to stage hit-and-runs on the bosses, who drop the best equipment when beaten.

The major advantage of this setup is that it permits the use of conventional environments without sacrificing immersion and excitement.

This is exciting... it allows me to develop the enemies at a whole new level.

[tcaudilllg]

Started back on spriting. The thrower base is now at ten frames, which is where I'm going to leave it. Now I want a ground slammer animation, and I think I'll do the art for the villain, as well. I can use the base for the villain for other works.

I think I'll make the defense grid offices high tech. Was thinking in terms of contemporary office for a while, but Socionica's planet is not Earth.

I also need to think of more enemy characters... I'm thinking dogs, bouncing drones, swooping mini-ships (like something out of Galaga), and maybe a big armored bear or two. A few killer robots to round things out, maybe, and a mutant or two.

[tcaudilllg]

OK, I had been facing an artistic block for several weeks over the nature of the tower's construction; specifically, I realized that I had been thinking in terms of "modern Earth" rather than "real future Earth". (although the game doesn't take place on Earth, the society is very technologically advanced and, well, Star Trek is right in that every society will naturally have its Wild West stages).

The key principle behind the tower is in part inspired by DBZ (Cell in particular): it is an artificial plant which is built of modular cell planks. While it is indeed constructed (it is not a tree), it is indeed alive. The purpose for its living nature is to allow it to repair itself automatically, using photosynthesis as an energy source. This means its tiles must, necessarily, include depictions of veins, major arteries through which metallic particles flow from its core to the exposed metal. The tower cells are intelligent enough to remove damaged particles from themselves and to deconstruct their destroyed peers, diffusing these particles back to the core. The veins are necessary because their capillaries are needed as transport for rebuilding materials (which the cells use to perform mitosis and physically restore the tower's structure according to its design plan). This allows it to resist rust and decay.

Rather than physically draw the capillaries, I will suggest them with blinking lights.

The cellular nature of the tower illuminates the nature of the hangar area, as well. The tower literally gave birth to Socionica's flying mass, segment by segment. These living ships took to the air and combined with their brethren to create the flying cities of Socionica.

I'm also reducing the tower's height: it is now only 2 miles high, instead of 4. This will make it much easier to design. Given each tile is approximately 2.5 ft, that means the tower is 4224 tiles high. If the diameter of the tower is 1800 ft (720 tiles), then it would seem that the map design of the tower would be about 3041280 tiles, or 47 256x256 maps. So each area tops out at 12 maps. I can make the hanger area a platformer-type deal (and probably get by with just 6 maps altogether for it), and the others areas would be fine in the Metroid/Judge Dredd style.

[tcaudilllg]

I made a few slimy-type tiles, with the spore cultures from Super Metroid as inspiration (though maybe a tad more like the mushroom slime in the Super Mario Bros movie). They are for the Nano Lab. I think I need a few insects in there... I suppose the walls were built by the nano-producer system... kinda like a sort of "technological marvel"-type lab which develops its own interior as required. So, I guess they look slimy, too.

[tcaudilllg]

Performance has ground to a halt. I think I just don't like action platformers that much. It's hard to see any fun in the design. The tower is so big and, well, after a while this kind of play gets boring. I remember Valkyrie Profile wasn't boring, but it just used the side-scrolling for exploration, not combat. VP2 relied more on the side-scrolling mechanic and man, did it suffer. Another issue is trying to include exploration elements (e.g. items). How do they get there? What do they mean? Probably the story would make a better novel than a game. In a game of this size, playing eventually becomes a chore. And well, a residential facility, even a sophisticated self-defending one, doesn't make for a very good game setting unless something has happened to it. But for it to serve the purpose it does in the story, it must be operational. Maybe I need a redesign...

[tcaudilllg]

I'm thinking I need to think of something completely crazy....