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Prisonscape Alpha - thread

PekkaK

Heaviest Matter
Developer
Joined
Sep 2, 2013
Messages
255
Yeah, you could do a lot of background skill checks/rolls and then visualize that with a few short lines of dialogue. Then that space can be utilized to showcase character growth and development as well. Starting as a weak nobody, responses and your reactions reflect that, but as you grow reputation or gain affiliation, they would change along the way.

If you are going to have a lot of combat, it doesn't even need to take a long time. Just roll the dialogue automatically and perform the checks, hidden or visible.

Perfect way to avoid trash combat but still get gratification. Random mobs act subservient to you, gifting you with XP and free gifts, without having to go through the combat itself. Lol.

I started on working on this pre-combat screen, and this crude mock-up provides some idea about how it will look. Your skills, reputation and abilities affect the outcome (duh!).

SFPo7xu.png


To the right section, I want to create some cool, slightly animated pixel art depicting the different situations. We'll draw inspiration from old text games, like this example from Scapeghost:

a6YTFFY.png
 

PekkaK

Heaviest Matter
Developer
Joined
Sep 2, 2013
Messages
255
RPG professionals, I've been playing around with the idea of resistances/immunities, and came up with this crude plan:

Resistances and immunities

Resistance lowers the damage of an attack by 50%, immunity lowers it to 0. Vulnerability increases the damage by 25%.

The game has four attack types that deal damage:
  • Punches
  • Kicks
  • Body combat
  • Weapon
In addition, there are two types of mental attacks where the defense is based on Intelligence:
  • Observe
  • Taunt
Drunk enemies (like Batracio) are immune to these type of attacks.

There are 4 main enemy combatant categories (enemy can have multiple of these):

  • Brawler - resistant to weapons, vulnerable to punches; other attacks deal normal damage
  • Pugilist - resistant to body combat, vulnerable to weapons; other attacks deal normal damage
  • Kickboxer - resistant to punches, vulnerable to body combat; other attacks deal normal damage
  • Weaponmaster - resistant to kicks, vulnerable to kicks; other attacks deal normal damage
Some basic enemies have no role assigned for them, and therefore take normal damage from all types of attacks.

There are some special enemy combatant categories that provide immunity for specific attack types:

  • Drunk - Immune to all Taunt and Observe attacks
  • TBD

So it has the basic rock-paper-scissors elements that so many games use, but since the game has no magic or spells, I thought I would use these combat categories instead.
 

Abu Antar

Turn-based Poster
Patron
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
Messages
13,514
Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Drunks could be more resistant to damage in general, but have lower accuracy.

Brawler - resistant to punches, vulnerable to kicks
Pugilist - resistant to body combat, vulnerable to weapons
Kickboxer - resistant to kicks, vulnerable to body combat
Weaponmaster - resistant to weapons, vulnerable to punches
 

PekkaK

Heaviest Matter
Developer
Joined
Sep 2, 2013
Messages
255
Drunks could be more resistant to damage in general, but have lower accuracy.

Brawler - resistant to punches, vulnerable to kicks
Pugilist - resistant to body combat, vulnerable to weapons
Kickboxer - resistant to kicks, vulnerable to body combat
Weaponmaster - resistant to weapons, vulnerable to punches

Your list is much more coherent, thanks! This one was my favorite from the original list:

Weaponmaster - resistant to kicks, vulnerable to kicks; other attacks deal normal damage
 

PekkaK

Heaviest Matter
Developer
Joined
Sep 2, 2013
Messages
255
We finally decided to change the cover, we just couldn't make the old one work. The style is now a bit more cartoonish, which should suit the pixel art style better.

cover-new.jpg

In other news, I took a week and half long vacation and am now working on the game full-time again. We also got some assistance for writing and design.
 

PekkaK

Heaviest Matter
Developer
Joined
Sep 2, 2013
Messages
255
It's a male Marilith? Or baby Hecatoncheire?
5c698709.jpg

It was inspired by a Hindu goddess of war, Durga. But now that you mentioned male Marilith, we can go with that. Never met those while playing AD&D.

Also reminds me of Goro from Mortal Kombat.
 

KeighnMcDeath

RPG Codex Boomer
Joined
Nov 23, 2016
Messages
12,871
I'm always forgetting about hindu gods. Oh yeah GORO!

SHEEVA..... Shiva?


Shiva: Hindu God of Destruction
4328354705_386e0684b0_z.jpg

Shiva is one of the most widely known and revered Hindu gods. Shiva is often worshipped as one member of the Holy Trinity of Hinduism, with the gods Brahma (the Creator) and Vishnu (the Protector) being the other deities.

Durga: Hindu Goddess of Strength
goddess-durga1-710x532@2x.jpg

Goddess of strength Durga was created to combat the evil demon Mahishasura. The trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva came together to create a powerful female form with ten arms. When Durga emerged from the waters of the holy Ganga as a spirit, she was given a physical form by all the gods put together.
 

PekkaK

Heaviest Matter
Developer
Joined
Sep 2, 2013
Messages
255
what's with the moonrunes?

get rid of the bullet point part and it's pretty good

It's in reference to this, one of my all time favorite covers:

unnamed.jpg

The Kanji just means "Prison Escape". I wanted to do a shitty translation, since the Japanese do those, too. The bullet points stay.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
what's with the moonrunes?

get rid of the bullet point part and it's pretty good

It's in reference to this, one of my all time favorite covers:

View attachment 20278

The Kanji just means "Prison Escape". I wanted to do a shitty translation, since the Japanese do those, too. The bullet points stay.
didn't know you were purposely making it in the style of an existing game cover
looks fine then
 

warcrimes666

Educated
Patron
Joined
Aug 8, 2017
Messages
93
Hello PekkaK,

The gameplay video was looking really good and I was impressed with the coherence of the dialogue. There could be some tweaks there as far as the use of slang to get the points across. The dialogue is great and choices were good but for instance a black cellie named 'wiggly' generally wouldn't speak in such a proper way. Would be more like 'yo fish, heard you got clocked and you a lifer now. Listen clear bro, you seem alright so I'll check you on the block. The kitchen up past 4D but you get lost that way and the chicanos might take your ass, so you better suit up quick and keep your piece hooped, son. Shit is real around here. You want a different job and I'll put a word in but you best be bringin some extra shit back or we got problems...' and so on.

Another area would be in insults or instigating fights and this is just a general info and not related to the video specifically but the worst thing you can be called is a 'goof'. Someone calls you a goof and that's a go. If you don't fuck buddy up that instant or within a day or two then you're gonna be marked as a punk and probably get box thieved on the regular or bounced pretty quick. Another one is 'hound', someone calls you a hound and they're implying you're in on a skin beef and if you're in on a skin beef trying to be on general pop you're going to get fucked up and probably stabbed the shit out of at yard the day anyone finds out. Thats why whenever you touch a new block, the callers always want to 'check your papers' so they can see your charges. So if someone calls you a hound, and you're not, you're gonna have to smash buddy immediately or have a real hard time later on. Things like that, also whistling. Codexer's, don't ever go to jail and try and whistle a tune, just trust me on that one.

That kind of realism can only add to the game and wouldn't require any structural rewrite because your dialogue is already on point, it just needs that flavour.

There might be other tweaks that I could share as well that you could likely implement without too much input, such as always having the option to fight immediately for the bottom bunk and getting a slight bonus on rest as a result (its usually a few inches wider and you dont have to climb up and down to take a piss, etc). Thats the first thing you do when you get a new cell unless you like the guy. I personally prefer top bunk but I always smash someone who tries to pull a heavy on it anyway on principle. So for instance, even though Wiggly is your celly and he's helping you out, if he's on the bottom bunk and you want it when you walk in, there is only one way that can happen and you would still be cool after because he's not a punk, and of course he can just give it to you if you offer violence and so on. In my opinion you're going to want as much of that kind of thing as possible as the first prison rpg needs to be over and above.

I started a private conversation a while back on here when you mentioned interest in having us guys speak on the game so please look for that and check my credentials. You won't be disappointed and I'd like to volunteer some valuable time to do some of the tweaks I've mentioned or otherwise share more scenarios you can use, anecdotes, character studies of top criminals, things like that. Im 3 months in europe right now relaxing so I would appreciate if you will come to a decision sooner than later as I was planning on helping you out from when I first sent the pm but overall things are starting to get busy again and for the time being at least for now I can put some time on helping you out.

Haba, i know this fantasy is out there but so you know some lifers and long timers do take bitches or otherwise try it out once or twice but always behind close doors. Any kind of flagrant gayness outside of jokes is going to get you bounced from the block at best and horribly disfigured or killed at worst. Generally, you'd probably get whats called around my way a 'buck-6-5" whereby you get your cheek sliced out like the joker with a tuna can lid while you're sleeping or really while you're awake and standing in line for grub, depends how big you are. Thats a scarlet letter you dont want. Thats why you hear the homies calling it being on the 'down low' because anyone at the top finds out and you get fucked right up and might never make it home. Also, please use spoiler tag, thank you.

So Pekkak, definitely have some scenarios in there where you have to fight for your life one way or another in that way but please avoid overt faggotry wherever possible. It just doesn't fly like that in general pop.

Forgive me, I wrote five times more than I intended but overall looking very good as is and looking forward to hear from you soon, all the best.
 

Haba

Harbinger of Decline
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Messages
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Codex 2012 MCA Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2
Haba, i know this fantasy is out there but so you know some lifers and long timers do take bitches or otherwise try it out once or twice but always behind close doors. Any kind of flagrant gayness outside of jokes is going to get you bounced from the block at best and horribly disfigured or killed at worst. Generally, you'd probably get whats called around my way a 'buck-6-5" whereby you get your cheek sliced out like the joker with a tuna can lid while you're sleeping or really while you're awake and standing in line for grub, depends how big you are. Thats a scarlet letter you dont want. Thats why you hear the homies calling it being on the 'down low' because anyone at the top finds out and you get fucked right up and might never make it home. Also, please use spoiler tag, thank you.

Heh, I was just trying to imply that the lower body of the guy on the cover was way imbalanced compared to the upper body. Like it has wrong scale.
 

PekkaK

Heaviest Matter
Developer
Joined
Sep 2, 2013
Messages
255
Prisonscape Alpha 15 released:

https://www.prisonscape.com/blog/?p=849

NOTE: Release notes might contain spoilers!

Features

Implement random encounter areas
Implement dialogue in cutscenes

Tasks

Improve combat configuration
Add “End Turn” function
Update inventory UI

Bugs

Fix missing portrait and icons in combat UI
Lots of bug fixes

Editor

No changes.

We also created a Steam page:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1682370/Prisonscape/

The biggest problem with the game right now is that nobody gives a shit. We just can't create enough buzz at the moment. We'll create a new trailer in the near future, and we're also trying to come up with new and creative ways of marketing the game.

Oh, and we'll also publish all tools for modding the game at release.
 

PekkaK

Heaviest Matter
Developer
Joined
Sep 2, 2013
Messages
255
If you're interested in beta testing the game, let us know. We're looking for some high quality feedback!
 

Skdursh

Savant
Joined
Nov 27, 2018
Messages
734
Location
Slavlandia
I wanna play your game and I'll give feedback but "high quality" is a very subjective expectation, especially when it comes to the Codex.
 

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