I've never seen a platformer where a mount is a main feature (except maybe with Mario and Yoshi), and Samurai's were known for their riding skills, as well as archery while mounted. Perhaps magic arrows would be abilities, too? Maybe even different mounts could be accessible later in the game.
You could have it act like NES Blaster Master, only replace Jason and the Tank with a samurai and his horse.
Or maybe have the horse act like a temporary thing to use in some fights, like how Golden Axe had those riding dragons or Knights of the Round had those warhorses for items that lasted for a lil' bit.
Of course now we're getting into "complicated" territory and nobody here seems to like it much
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Has there been consideration of a 2 player mode? I always miss games like Zombies ate my neighbors, Joe and Mac, and the turtles games. I thought the tmnt games especially could have been improved with some branching paths or upgrades.
Perhaps instead of a map screen or just one massive interconnected world (metroid style) there could be a central town you explore. There could be paintings on the walls mario 64 style that transport you around. Your you could be warped around my magic portals or something. The central town would also allow you to buy upgrades or power ups.
I'll also jump in with an idea I toyed around with on a game called "samurai cat". Instead of just a sword slice attack, your attack would be more directional, possibly something like the homing attack in later sonic games. This would add a more acrobatic style to the typical swordplay game. You could also have a charge attack where you hold down a button and a cursor appears, yoshi's island style, the cursor spins around the character, and upon releasing the attack button he would thrust in the direction of the cursor. This could possibly be used in lieu of a jump. If you did this attack in the direction of a wall he could ricochet up the wall.
The best progression system in my opinion: After you beat the first level you go to the next. No complex Wario 2/ Metroidvania. And something crazy like a samurai in space is exactly what this needs to be awesome!
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Originally Posted by OldManClayton Was Tetris a platformer with a main character and enemies and a motivation for fighting them?
Point was, a game does not need any sort of story to be fun or to give the player motivation to keep playing. A great game can stand on it's own legs without any story. Starcraft has been doing that for 10 years, while Tetris and Super Mario bros have been doing it for over 20 years. Even New Super Mario Bros Wii doesn't have much more in the way of story than the original had. Donkey Kong (the original arcade game with Mario climbing platforms) didn't have anything in the way of story, and Donkey Kong Country had very little story to it (K. Rool stole your bananas). These are all classic games that are still played today because of how good the game is, not because the story is compelling. Even the best Sonic games (the first two) have very little story, and see what adding it in did for the franchise?
Simply put, platformers do not need to tell a story.
Originally Posted by OldManClayton Was Tetris a platformer with a main character and enemies and a motivation for fighting them?
Point was, a game does not need any sort of story to be fun or to give the player motivation to keep playing. A great game can stand on it's own legs without any story. Starcraft has been doing that for 10 years, while Tetris and Super Mario bros have been doing it for over 20 years. Even New Super Mario Bros Wii doesn't have much more in the way of story than the original had. Donkey Kong (the original arcade game with Mario climbing platforms) didn't have anything in the way of story, and Donkey Kong Country had very little story to it (K. Rool stole your bananas). These are all classic games that are still played today because of how good the game is, not because the story is compelling. Even the best Sonic games (the first two) have very little story, and see what adding it in did for the franchise?
Simply put, platformers do not need to tell a story.
Well Starcraft and Donkey Kong did have stories, but I see your point and I agree. Kirby didn't have much in the way of a story either.
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I'm with aphant on this, fun first! A story really has to grip me in order for me not to skip every cutscene or not read the dialogue at all. Also, considering this is a community effort and everyone involved will know everything, a story really isn't necessary, none of us will care much about it because we'll all know what happens.
Yes, Starcraft did have a story, but it hasn't remained popular for 10 years because of it. It's popular because the gameplay is pretty damn solid.
Meanwhile, Donkey Kong Country also does technically have a story: K. Rool stole all the bananas, and Donkey Kong has to get them back. Very simple, told right at the beginning, and then there is NOTHING told throughout the course of the game, not even after K. Rool is defeated. We're not given any of DK's motives to go get the bananas, or why he brought Diddy, or why there are animals in crates that are friendly to him. It's as simple as, "bananas are gone, go get them back."
This game's story can be as simple as, "there are demons, go slay them."
A platformer certainly can stand on its own without a story! Fine-tuned quality, engaging gameplay, and uniqueness will all have to be off the charts to pull it off though.
I have to disagree. If there is no story, then there is no reason to keep playing. You are right that Super Mario has no narrative and to me that is it's biggest flaw. It has some cool gameplay features but ultimately it didn't take me very long to hit a difficulty wall and with no story to make me wont to push through it I put it down.
It dosen't have to be some intricate labyrinthine plot it could even be but a silly camp story but there should be something.
There are loads of things you can use to keep a person playing. Take Altered beast as one example. That game is extremely linear and has no plot beyond 'Rise from your grave and rescue my daughter' but the hook to keep people playing was finding out what monster you would turn into on the next level.
There would be a story, it just wouldn't be told in words or cutscenes.
And yeesh, just as I thought things were getting slightly on track everything veers off course again.
The reason why simplicity is so important is because we actually want to get this project done in a reasonable amount of time. There is no need to overcomplicate things now. We don't know how well everyone will work together. We don't know the workflow of the game. It needs to start small.
The wario land 2 idea doesn't over complicate things at all because it's esentially just more levels being made. It keeps things simple yet interesting and I don't believe it's an idea that's been explored enough.
But enough talk, where's the leader already? All these clashing ideas are hurting my brain.
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