Instinct Program V.030c (24/03/2013)

[alako]

Instinct Program is a Rags game set in a fictional city in the future. The setting is heavily influenced by Deus Ex Human Revolution and Resident Evil.  The story revolves around a young female detective, Adeline Shimizu, who is trying find out what happened to her missing colleague. The main storyline focus on MC theme, while optional scenes deals with other sexual themes.

 

This is my first attempt to make a game. I have thank mdqp for making Tales of the Drunken Cowboy which inspired me to make my own little Rags game. However, I have never written anything creative before and English is not my first language, so please keep that in mind when you want to bash me about grammar. =]

General Story Information: (30/01/2013)

Setting:

Around the late 21st century, human have already perfected electronic implant technology which enhanced the human body and push ourselves to the limit. Augmentation becomes a common part of the human body, and nearly everyone is enhanced in some form or fashion (a mix of Deus Ex and Ghost in the Shell). The story takes place in a small island where the city of Eisco and Tartarus are located. Eisco is built on top of Tartarus covering its sky. While Eisco is prosperous and ordered, Tartarus is poor and chaotic. The prologue will be mainly take place in Tartarus.

Story:

In a giant abandon complex, a police woman is chased by some unknown creatures. They look like dry up human corpses with their augmented body parts exposed from torn off body parts. Their augmentations seem to be still functional and are probably what keep their bodies from decaying. She is running out of ammo and could not reach anyone from her radio. Few days later, it is up Adeline, the protagonist, to find her and figure out where did these creatures came from (Yes, I know...... it is pretty much the same as resident evil, but we have city exploration and side quests!).

Game style:

For those know never play RAGS game before, it is basically a text adventure game with graphics. I want to create a story focus adventure game with RPG elements, similar to the style of ADwR. In other words, you will be playing a character with preset background and follow her adventure (which is more like one big quest.....). There will be multiple approaches in solving a quest, therefore, you can roleplay by player choice. For example, Adeline can solve the same problem by using her sexuality to her advantage or outwit your opponents with her intelligence. While she is traveling between city zoons using the metro system, she could beat up the person who try to grope her or bear the unwelcome touch of a stranger to avoid making a big scene. Keep in mind that using sex to solve a problem usually has unpleasant consequence (lowering stat, bad endings, access to future scenes which will leads to more stat penalty and bad endings ....... usually =D). That said, nearly all quest would involve fair amount of sexual content, but you should be able to avoid all of them if you know what you are doing.

Combat:

You will randomly encounter enemies in dangerous area while you travel from room to room. With limited resource such as ammo and healing items, your best bet is to solve the quest with minimum player movement, but there will be puzzle along the way that make you run around. It's a bit like the traditional turn base RPG with a bit less flexibility (....... this is my first game and I have to make the whole combat system all by myself  >__<).

Graphics:

I don't know anything about 2D or 3D graphic design, so all the images used in game are from the internet. Hopefully, it won't get me into trouble. I do have limited photoshop knowledge, so there will be some cutting and pasting and even boob reductions (it is hard for a girl to look at all these hentai drawings with H-cup beauty queens =_____="""). The characters of the game will be mainly base on video game and animation characters. For example, all the pictures of Adeline will be base on Ada Wong from Resident Evil.

ETA?

I can't be sure, since real life is keep me very busy at the moment and wave of exams are coming in around Feb. Nevertheless, it is not a long game, so I will at least post a working demo which contains the first 30% - 40% of the game some time before April. It will be mainly about Adeline investigating where did her friend went missing, so it is all about city explorations and trying to get information from unwilling citizens.

Additional Information: (01/02/2013)

Role Play Personality Range:

Adeline is actually an important supporting character in my original project. Therefore, her personality needs to be within a reasonable range. Right now, she would normally have 2-3 choices when reacting to different situations.
Possible personalities for Adeline are (one of them cannot not be canon, guess which. Keekeekeee):

1) No nonsense / independent and slightly cold
2) Anything in between
3) A bit of a whole / doesn't afraid to use her body to her advantage.

When facing unavoidable sexual situations (like being blackmailed), she could be:

1) Confident with her body and sometimes even put on a show
2) Shy and ashamed about what she have to do

I know that some people are suggesting she could enslave other people in side quests, or even raping others for her pleasure, but I am afraid I cannot cater to all demands >.<. Writing tree different personalities in most situations are already very demanding. I would also suggest player to do multiple playthroughs to try out different personalities / quest solutions (or else city exploration part of the game will be really short <!-- s:P --> <!-- s:P -->).

More about Graphics:

Due to the setting of the game, I decided to use only anime style of drawing and 3D pictures in cut scenes to keep a consistent feel of the game (not location though, where can you find a picture of old fence gate with a guard house at night time......=_=""). The main drawback of using hentai / fan art pictures is that they are either featuring the character in some pretty disgusting sexual situations or just holding a gun starting at you. There are really no middle grounds between them. So, when it comes to finding pictures for some mellow scenes (striptease / consensual sex scenes), it took me hours just to find one that can be photostoped into something useful. Therefore, it kind of forces me to write about a bit more extreme sexual situations in the game (rape / group rape / public play / light bondage), but it's not like I hate writing them =P. THANK GOD that there is no romance involve in this game! @______@ Or else Adeline can only date Jill Sandwich!

Progress of Demo:

Some people thought that I could finish the whole game before April, but I was actually talking about the demo which is about 30% of the game. I want to release a long demo because RAGS doesn't allow game save to be transferred between different versions of the same game. So, it will be no fun to force player to play the whole thing for just for 10 mins of updated content. That's why I plan to release just 4 versions of the game, 30% done / 50% done / 80% done / 100% done (City exploration with option stuff to do -> combat + puzzle solving -> City exploration with option stuff to do -> combat + puzzle solving).   

I didn't do much in the last 48 hours, mostly just remaking the whole combat system to make it more flexible. The decision of adding normal human enemy (not in demo) (robbers / slavers / criminals who were locked up by Adeline and wants payback) forces me to rethink how I handle the combat system.

More Information: (07/02/2013)

Stats in the game:

HP:
Its purpose is very obvious if you play any RPG before. The only thing to note is that getting killed by "zombies" does not have triggers a bad end. Your character will faith from losing too much health and get eaten by zombie. However, remember this only apply to "zombies"

Mental Corruption:
This measures your character's......humm.......well mental corruption. Only the attack from zombie like enemies will increase your MC. Once it reaches 100%, your character will be sent to an alternative path of the storyline. You can continue to play the game, but it is very difficult to get the true ending. This stat will be hidden in the game. Instead of showing you boring number popping out during each combat rounds, messages will be added during the battle to hint on how corrupted your character's mind is.

Mental Health:
This is the defense mechanic against mental corruption. When it is full, the "zombie" enemy will deal 100% of normal MC damage. For each 1 point drop of MH, MC damage will increase by 10%. So, if you have 5/10 MH, you will receive 150% MC damage. If you have 0/10 MH, you will receive 200% MC damage (which basically means you will get send to the alternative storyline). You lose MH by getting Ada into horrible sexual situations and you can gain some back by random events or spending credits to buy limited items.

Credit:
City exploration is a major part of the game. Credit can be used to buy resources for challenging combat situations, or help out the locals for hidden surprises. You can earn credits during random encounters and side quest. If you prefer, you can also try to earn some money from gambling, although it is pretty risky.

Other stats:
Each type of weapons has their own set of stat. Some has higher damage, some has high critical chance. I don't think I need to show all these stats though, since there are really just 3 types of weapons planned at this point.

Planned stats:
I might put a reputation system (normal and lewdness) in the game. As you progress in the game (mainly from doing side quests), you will accumulate reputations from your actions and it is reflected in random NPC's conversations. For example, if you save someone's life, a guy might come up to you and say he saw you in the news. On the other hand, if you participate in public sexual situations, you will get famous for another reason. It will not be in the demo though, there aren't enough events/consequence to make it obvious.

Progress (24/3/2013):

 

Instinct Program 0.30V Released!
Link: https://mega.co.nz/#!1BFWAaaZ!HyEigmtarO-hv98fTT03agt-8a5f97SS9YWNP1EzPCk
Walkthrough: http://alakogames.blogspot.ca/p/beta-walkthrough.html

 

General Tips:

 

You need the latest version of Rags (2.4.0.0) to run the game. You can find it here: http://www.ragsgame.com/Downloads.aspx

 

If you are new to Rags and you are stuck, remember to right click everything. Some of you might not know that you can right click the room display picture on top of the compass.

 

Since the game is in beta, save often! There are many choices in the game as well, a lot of them leads to different scenes and could totally change the path of some quest / event / encounters.

 

Mental Health at this point is not that important since there is very little combat. So, do whatever you want in the city. A few extra options will open up if you have low MH.

 

Talk to customers and pedestrians, they all have 4-5 random dialogues. Some of them give out hints about hidden scenes and solutions.

 

 

[Anon989]

Sounds cool, will it be similar to that other RAGS RPG game Tales of a Drunken Cowboy? If so I'll help test it. Really liked that one. Either way, goodluck with your project!

[alako]

Well, Tales of the Drunken Cowboy is actually the inspiration for making an adventure game. There are a few elements that I borrow from it, like the train system (+ the train scene with addition) and the general combat system. However, the setting and story are different, so there won't be any space travel or shipmates. Also, I mainly use anime and 3D pictures instead of real life model. Furthermore, I aim to focus more on role playing as well. So there are quite a lot of differences, but different doesn't always mean bad =]

 

See blog for details.

 

P.S new blog post is up.

[menatv]

Stopped by your blog yesterday.  Sounds like a great game!  Will definitely try the demo and will keep checking back from time to time to your blog for updates. 

[alako]

The main focus of the weekend is a gambling mini game which is located in a night club called "Tits and Dough" and you can probably guess what it is like in there. Be careful when trying to earn some extra credits in the club though, the owner doesn't like people owing him money.

More random encounters and areas are planned including a pretty funny one in a store. Also, you can now get Adeline drunk with random consequences. There will be a mini quest related to one of the drunken consequences as well.

Since most of the fundamental system coding is done, I am spending most of my free time writing next week. Also need to start editing some location image to fit the story better.

Planning – 70%
System coding – 95%
Story writing – 20%
Picture hunting – 90%

(Gambling testing room)

 

[alako]

Updated more info about the game (see OP).

 

Progress is faster than I expect. Hopefully, I can finish a chunky demo before March.

[alako]

Week 2 update!

 

This week, I finished the intro of the game and has been working on city exploration ever since. All sexy time shenanigans optional encounters are planned, but I really don't want to make the game only focus in sex. Therefore, I have been planning a few side quests that are a bit less......sexy. They will offer variation to the game and let player earn some extra money. The general progress is a lot faster than I thought, so I might have to setup a close beta test before Feb.

Planning – 90%
System Coding – 99%
Story writing – 45%
Picture hunting – 80%

[banshe]

Good to see things are working well on your own game.

[grumbler]

Looking good!  I am surprised you are able to code and write this quickly - this stuff takes me forever.

 

 

I look forward to the demo.

[Mailamea]

cant wait, oh goodie

[alako]

@Banshe & Mailamea

Thanks for the support! =)

 

@grumbler

Rags Designer is actually very easy to learn, although its functions are quite limited.

There are only 10K ish words in the game right now. It's not much compare to some NWN mods out there, but more are added to the game everyday. =]

[banshe]

10k words eh? I once wrote a story and I struggled to get to 11k words myself >.>.

[alako]

10k words eh? I once wrote a story and I struggled to get to 11k words myself >.>.

 

Oh well, a short story cannot have item description or random NPC dialogs. 

NWN mods like Demonhearts can hit 100K easily. So mine is really nothing compare to them. =]

[fritz_t_coyote]

This looks promising! I will definitely be following your progress!

 

[NightShade]

goodluck

[alako]

Thanks for the support! =]

 

Week 3 update!

Progress is not as fast as I hope this week, real world stuff kept getting in the way. Nevertheless, I finished a big area in the city. Also, the first bad end is in the game now. Moreover, I spent quite a lot of time putting subtle dialog changes base on a optional event. It turns out coding stuff like this is really time consuming on Rags. I think the demo is about 50% - 60% done at this point.

Planning – 90%
System Coding – 99%
Story writing – 60%
Picture hunting – 90%

[Kagarus]

Have to agree with the other commenters, this is shaping up to be pretty damn interesting!

(Although I have to admit I'm kinda biased - big fan of the Drunken Cowboy, and the dearth of AIF with female protagonist back when AIF were the only game in (english-speaking) town used to be my number one pet peeve ("Damnit, another 'solve puzzle, fuck girl, move to next girl game? I want to play a badass heroine... who then gets into NC situations if she messes up <_<"   )

 

Keep up the great work

 

 

[Silk]

Very impressed with this, can't wait to see a full game

 

[Guest Plastrader]

Pardon my ignorance. But what is a "RAGS" game?

I tried looking this up on the interwebs but the only page I found which tried to explain the whole thing was some place where the web designer decided to have a some sort of carpet as a back ground image and that made me feel ill.

 

By looking at some images I guessed it to be some sort of text based game?

[alako]

@Kagarus

 

Thanks! I also want to see more game like ToTDC as well, too bad there are only a few out there. That's probably the main reason I start working on my own game. =]

 

@Plastrader

 

Are you familiar with the traditional text based game? Rags is basically an advance version of text adventure engine which lets you add lots of image/muisc/sound effect. It also replace the "guess the verb" problem that traditional text based game has with clicking. So Ragas game is more like........the monkey island series but less interactive.

 

You can find more information at this link: http://www.ragsgame.com/

[Guest Plastrader]

Are you familiar with the traditional text based game?

Yes, I've heard tales and legends about something called "MUD" games.

Rags is basically an advance version of text adventure engine which lets you add lots of image/muisc/sound effect. It also replace the "guess the verb" problem that traditional text based game has with clicking. So Ragas game is more like........the monkey island series but less interactive.

Oh I see.

Kool thank you, I'll follow this topic.

Good luck

You can find more information at this link: http://www.ragsgame.com/

That was the page which made me feel ill hehe!

[alako]

Week 4 Update!

I added two optional scenes and the second stage of the main event in to the game. All of them have lots different choices for you to pick. The main event is especially long. Took me 3 days to finish it and it nearly burned me out. All thanks to someone for suggesting adding a sex scene in one of the branches...

Next week, I will be finishing up all the sexual encounters and hopefully finish the majority of interesting encounters around the city to make it livelier. So the demo is around 75% - 80% done right now.

Planning – 90%
System Coding – 99%
Story writing – 80%
Picture hunting – 95%

[arrow72]

Well, considering how much I loved ADWR, something we seem to share given your list on hongfire (tested all the games on that list ^^) there is absolutely no way I'll let this one out of my sight. It looks incredibly promising so far!

 

One suggestion though. Content > Pics

[alako]

Well, considering how much I loved ADWR, something we seem to share given your list on hongfire (tested all the games on that list ^^) there is absolutely no way I'll let this one out of my sight. It looks incredibly promising so far!

 

One suggestion though. Content > Pics

 

Thanks for your support.   I am new to creative writing, that's why I am making this game as practice. Maybe in the future when I learn enough, I can rely less on pictures.

[Anon989]

Looks/sounds really cool so far, I'm looking forward to trying out your demo when it's ready