Zero Virus Video Game -preparation-

[Deleted]

Zero Virus Video Game - preparation -
So, I made a survey before on what type of game you guys would want for the game, and most of the responses were a metroidvania style platformer, but some answers got creative with the survey and gave quite some interesting ideas, but there are some issues that I can't decide alone because this is a game for you guys, this tiny community of ours.

First issue now would be, the story/theme/setting of the game.
Now, what I thought about this was perhaps something like the ZV carnival events.


Second, who would be the main(playable) character of the game?
Should it be a random generic character, perhaps a person who wants to be a new member of ZV, and have the rest of us as NPC characters or party members, where the player could choose 2 or 3 to come along, cycle between which characters to play as and the rest will be controlled via A.I. or local multiplayer.

or

Have one of you guys be the main playable character, and still have the other characters recruitable.

Third, control scheme.
Would you guys rather have each character have their own attacks/buttons(example: Character A only uses 1 button to attack, Character B has a button for melee and a button for ranged attacks, and Character C has a button for a form change, etc...) or have it uniform.

Fourth, background music/sfx.
I dunno how to make musical scores, nor do I know anyone personally who could do it.

And lastly, the easter eggs.
someone suggested in the survey that the game should have easter eggs or secrets or references to certain ZV events, whether in chat, forum, or carnival. And I need help with this because, I haven't really been around ZV that much to know everything about the forum, considering that the my first, and last ZV carnival event was on 2013, and I don't really spend a lot of time on chat.

If you guys have anymore suggestions, feel free to post it.

[Deleted]

You know guys, it's been nearly 4/5 days, saying "we're too busy," "we're not interested" is an ok response or even shooting down my ideas or this proposal, I am alright with that. the only reason I wanted to do this was because I've never contributed anything significant to this small community considering I've only been here for quite a short time compared to all of you guys, and all I keep doing around here is talking about TER.


Forget about everything, I'll do my crap elsewhere because I'm quite sure you guys are fudgeing sick of me being here and talking about "my works, my works blah blah blah, my ramblings, etc..." thank you guys for putting up with it.

[Rick]

I've been MIA for the past few weeks so, I have no I idea wut's going on....HOWEVER, I personally feel that a fighting or Platformer would be peferct for a basis of the ZV game. With that being said, getting the sprites wouldn't bee TOO much of a problem since a good portion of the character sheets are somewhat done and as for the others...... the lazyness be too strong!

[Sorrum]

Nov 8, 2014 23:48:29 GMT -5 MarcZaf said:

You know guys, it's been nearly 4/5 days, saying "we're too busy," "we're not interested" is an ok response or even shooting down my ideas or this proposal, I am alright with that. the only reason I wanted to do this was because I've never contributed anything significant to this small community considering I've only been here for quite a short time compared to all of you guys, and all I keep doing around here is talking about TER.


Forget about everything, I'll do my crap elsewhere because I'm quite sure you guys are trucking sick of me being here and talking about "my works, my works blah blah blah, my ramblings, etc..." thank you guys for putting up with it.

Don't be so hard on yourself. Your comics are great, its just that this forum isn't exactly active anymore. Sure, we're a great bunch to hang around but we don't get together and do much anymore.

A game is a cool idea, but I have no character or sprites that you could reference for myself. Unfortunately I cannot help you here. But keep pestering the fellow members here who DO have those sort of things and they should give you what you need.

The chatroom is the best way to get a hold of anyone, it seems.

[Deleted]

Hey buddy, I think it's awesome you're doing this. I'm sure if you harass some people in IRC they would love to be a part of this. As Sorrum said, the forums aren't really active anymore (but who am I to talk?). And then there's people like me who one log on like, once a month, if that..

Good luck, regardless! Your stuff looks promising and I'm sure there's some people here that would definitely be interested.

[Swim]

I can't speak for others, but I came a couple days late to this thread, and I just assumed since important discussion seems to take place in the chat and not on the forum that your project ideas had been talked about there. Especially since I saw you asking opinions on different health bars one day, I just assumed the important discussion had already taken place.

Since that is not the case I will weigh in. I think involving ZV in your thesis project would be great, assuming it won't involve too much extra work for you. I would happily donate my sprites to the project, except mine are all MMX style and I don't plan on putting in effort to convert them to MMZ/ZX any time soon. Maybe if the internet decides to finally get around to ripping sprites from Azure Striker Gunvolt, but that's a different topic for another thread.

As for the type of game, I would go with the platformer option. A fighting game variant would be cool, but I can't imagine playing a fighting game with a keyboard and mouse. And the RPG adventure game would be the most work I think, plus Ed and some guys had an RPG type thing in development at some point, I have no idea if they still work on it. But we all like Megaman style platformers, and judging by the video samples you've linked you look like you're most comfortable with that style of game. I can even help you with a basic storyline if you'd like.

As for the laziness of the others, I'm sure that 99.99% of them have no issue letting you use their sprites. As long as they're for work on a ZV related project most of us are honored to be included and happy to help, especially since you're doing the majority of the work and all they have to do is say 'okay.' So whether they respond to the thread later in the week or two months from now, I have no doubt that you'll have enough willing participants to get a good cast of playable characters/bosses. You just might have to harass people to get an answer out of them, we're super lazy. But like I said, I'm happy to help with story, and if you're okay with MMX style sprites you could use mine.

[Nightmare]

I think this is a really ambitious and objectively good idea, first of all. And secondly, nobody is sick of you Zafer, since you've come back to us you've been a valuable member of our community, and your comic has helped some of us guys who did comics way back when feel something we haven't in a long time (inspiration, anticipation, etc.) So don't beat yourself up. You shouldn't be so surprised that the forum gets very little traffic.

As for the game itself, I would personally shoot for a fighting game or platformer if I was thinking solely what would work good for a ZV Game. As for what'd be easiest though, an RPG or fighting game would be easier because of the tools and resources available, but that depends on how exactly you intend to bring the game to life.


But I will say that you probably shouldn't get your hopes up. Not because this isn't an awesome idea, but because you're far from the first person around here to bring up the idea of a ZV game and ask for the community's support in making resources, and I fear you may find just like many before you that everyone around here is some combination of pressed for time and lazy. So realistically speaking, I'd say don't get your hopes up.

But if you can show off some progress and hound people hard enough and give them time they need, you may be able to make something happen. But don't count on something like that being done in time for your project. Count on it more like a separate project or a future expansion.


It really is cool to see someone looking to do something like this, for the ZV community and trying to involve everyone. Reminds me of the old days. Thank you for thinking of us, Zafer.

[Deleted]

Hey, If you guys hate me for leaving, I completely understand.

I still do want to make a ZV game, if you guys are still interested.
However, I cannot promise you guys perfectly-made game.

If you guys are up for a fighting game, It might look something close to this.
Tell me if you guys still are interested as soon as possible, and around May, we'll start pre-production.

[Sorrum]

We don't hate you dude! You're cool as crap. This is just an old community where things move slowly. Moving things along takes time and dedication, but you'd most likely have to personally contact people and get their information from them.

[Nightmare]

Nobody hates you, Zafer. I was hoping you'd come back.

That demo is really slick. You did a good job, I think with a little more refining it'd look professional.

My concerns with getting people off their asses still stand though. But we may be able to make something work closer to when you want to start working on the game. We'll see. I'd recommend us trying to schedule something in the chat to brainstorm.

Good to have you back, Zafer.

[Deleted]

Jan 24, 2015 4:53:12 GMT -5 Nightmare said:

Nobody hates you, Zafer. I was hoping you'd come back.

That demo is really slick. You did a good job, I think with a little more refining it'd look professional.

My concerns with getting people off their asses still stand though. But we may be able to make something work closer to when you want to start working on the game. We'll see. I'd recommend us trying to schedule something in the chat to brainstorm.

Good to have you back, Zafer.

Well don't worry about the assets(sprites/graphics/etc...), I won't force you guys to work on it, all I would pretty much ask for now would be concepts/story(if ever)/characters.

It seems like most of you guys are alright with either Platformer/Fighting game and I'm okay with working on either as well.

I'll be here from time to time, but I can't work on the game yet, because as I've mentioned before I'm doing TER-0 as a school project, and now my school is rushing me to finish the game within 7 weeks(starting last week) So I'll heavily focus on that for now, I am also self studying on using Unity engine on C#(cause building an engine from scratch would take too long), so I may be able to start working on it around mid/late april.

As for brainstorming, I think it would be hard to schedule brainstorming in the chat because of the difference in timezones, at the very least just post ideas on this thread and I'll update the first post whenever.

[Deleted]

ZV game genre survay
Hey guys, so I've set up a survey for what kind of game should it be, It's just 3 clicks, so I hope to get a some responses from you guys(I might also bug those who are in the chat in case no one is responding).

[Deleted]

I guess, 15 days is enough... and I have read the results, I'll update the first post shortly after this.
I like how some of you guys went out of the box; mixed and matched choices, it did give quite a lot of ideas.
To sum the responses, most of the answers were platformer type games, and there was one fighting game. As mentioned, I'll update the first post, put all the details there of what type of platform games you guys mashed up, I'll also put up some issues and a way to fix it, and once we come to an agreement on everything, just sit back and wait. I will start working on it mid/late April, when I will finish it, I dunno, since I can only work on this on my free time, but I will get it done.

Nov 4, 2014 5:56:37 GMT -5 MarcZaf said:

Zero Virus Video Game - preparation -
So, I made a survey before on what type of game you guys would want for the game, and most of the responses were a metroidvania style platformer, but some answers got creative with the survey and gave quite some interesting ideas, but there are some issues that I can't decide alone because this is a game for you guys, this tiny community of ours.

First issue now would be, the story/theme/setting of the game.
Now, what I thought about this was perhaps something like the ZV carnival events.


Second, who would be the main(playable) character of the game?
Should it be a random generic character, perhaps a person who wants to be a new member of ZV, and have the rest of us as NPC characters or party members, where the player could choose 2 or 3 to come along, cycle between which characters to play as and the rest will be controlled via A.I. or local multiplayer.

or

Have one of you guys be the main playable character, and still have the other characters recruitable.

Third, control scheme.
Would you guys rather have each character have their own attacks/buttons(example: Character A only uses 1 button to attack, Character B has a button for melee and a button for ranged attacks, and Character C has a button for a form change, etc...) or have it uniform.

Fourth, background music/sfx.
I dunno how to make musical scores, nor do I know anyone personally who could do it.

And lastly, the easter eggs.
someone suggested in the survey that the game should have easter eggs or secrets or references to certain ZV events, whether in chat, forum, or carnival. And I need help with this because, I haven't really been around ZV that much to know everything about the forum, considering that the my first, and last ZV carnival event was on 2013, and I don't really spend a lot of time on chat.

If you guys have anymore suggestions, feel free to post it.

[Cem]

So where's this HUH?!

[Swim]

So I'm not sure if you're still working on this, but I had some free time while sitting on a bus and I came up with some ideas. Feel free to use them or not if you have story ironed out, but it seemed to me initially that you didn't know where you wanted to go with that. I'm not sure if you wanted to go with more of an RPG, platformer or fighting game in the end but I can see this story working out for each of those with a little bit of tweaking.

The game puts you in control of a New Person, kind of like the South Park Stick of Truth game, who is joining ZV for the first time. Since this person will have to be referenced canonically we'd vote and give them a gender neutral name like Jamie, Terri, Jody, Tracy, Riley, Cassidy or Brady.

As fate would have it you'd stumble upon the forum at the onset of a new ZV Carnival and your objective would be to earn points for your team. The theme would be some sort of military training and I divided the members between Team Hell's Wark and Team STFU Brigade. After choosing your name and your team Nightmare would come on and do his best Professor Oak impression, figuring out whether you were a boy or a girl,
[NMMZ: Hello and welcome to Zero Virus! We're a close knit community with a wide range of interests and personalities. ZV has been around for many years now, and in that time we've developed a number of fun traditions and customs. And you couldn't have joined us at a better time, we're just about to kick off the ZV carnival, a week long celebration filled with games, contests and fun surprises. This is also when our members are typically most active, so if you're looking to find a place here on the forum I'd recommend getting to know as many of them as you can. It might seem a little overwhelming at first, but once you get involved you'll see there's really no other forum like us. Let's get you set up. But first, are you a boy or a girl? I'm having a hard time figuring that out... (answer) Ah, good. I was on the fence for a moment, but I can see now that you are clearly a boy/girl. What is your name? (answer) Perfect, your name is _____. Why don't you tell us a little about yourself? What are you good at? What sort of games do you like to play?]
and then giving you a brief intro survey assessing how comfortable you were at different things. For example, there'd be a question about sprites and the possible answers would be (1. Recolor level, 2. Edits, 3. Scratch Master, 4. Sprite? You mean like the soda?) and your answers would be scored and factored into your base stats. How good of an artist are you? (1. Can barely make a stick figure, 2. enjoy idle drawing, 3. I like drawing boobs, 4. I do art commissions) How good of a writer are you? (1. What's this, homework? 2. I used to keep a journal, 3. Writing is my creative outlet, 4. Been working on a novel since I was 9.) Do you play Smash Bros? (1. Never played, 2. Items are fun!, 3. Best in my friend group, 4. No items, Fox only, Final Destination.) And so on if there are other contests of skill that we can measure. These are your base stats and over the course of the game you would work to improve on these so as to help your chosen team win the game.

{NMMZ: Great, now that introductions are out of the way let's get you set up with a team. This year the two main branches of the ZV military are going head to head to find out which is superior. Your choice is between Hell's Wark, a swift company of Final Fantasy nerds mounted on chocobos, or the STFU Brigade who drive a high powered tank and tunnel through time to protect the internet from idiocy. (choice) Great, let me introduce you to your team's leader, Tony/Swim.

Tony/Swim: Hey, welcome new person! We're the Hell's Wark/STFU Brigade. Nightmare tells me you're quite the (highest ranked talent), that's great. You can help us bring home the win. Let me tell you a little about our team, then we'll go over strategy. (introduce selectable party members specific to team)

Hells Wark Mission 1- Tony: Right now our biggest problem is Ztrl. He is a member of both Hells Wark and the STFU Brigade, and we need to make sure of his loyalty. And he's a trucking ninja, which means if we let our guard down for a moment he could sneak in here and take off with all the chocobo, leaving us without our mounts. We either need to get him to join our side... our force him out of the game.

STFU Brigade Mission 1- Swim: Right now our biggest problem is Ztrl. He's got a foot in both camps, and if he joins Hell's Wark that could mean trouble for us. When the Brigade's founder Shaunman left us he gave a pair of tank keys to me, and the other set to Ztrl. And he's a trucking ninja, so we're going to constantly be worried about him slipping into our base and stealing the STFU Tank. We need to persuade him to join our side... or remove him from the game.

(Victory either side) Excellent work new person. Without Ztrl to worry about we can focus on winning those contests. (2nd in command comes in) I'm afraid that will have to wait. Frozt has returned and is campaigning outside the gates demanding to be let back in. Tony/Swim: Hmm, this would be a good opportunity to teach the new guy about Ass Pirates and make sure he never becomes one. 2nd: Good point. Alright new guy, you come with me. I'll show you how we deal with Ass Pirates. (After defeating Frozt he summons a herd of llamas and merges with them like Voltron or some crap. Xero appears and tribeams the llama mech and has dialogue with the player after the fight ends.) Now that you know what APs are like I trust you'll never become one? Good kid.

The third mission will be to go and practice your craft. Once we see what you're good at and what you can't do, we can assign someone knowledgeable from our team to tutor you for a bit. (New person goes out into the world, fights generic enemies and finds a bridge at the end of the level guarded by Random. Boss fight ensues, but only after you attempt to answer a sequence of riddles which will impact Random's strength during the fight. Alternatively you can bypass the fight by paying random suitable tribute in the form of a squirrel which could be found in a chest on the previous level.)

Mission 4, Find Wiggy- Player searches the base for a secret weapon of untold power that will bring certain victory to their team. At the end of the level they open a closet and fall into a portal, landing in a dungeon where they must do battle with Majeh's couch.

Mission 5: Skirmish with the enemy team. Select two allies from your team for a 3v3 battle against the enemy team.

Mission 6: A herd of llamas has been sighted near the chocobo fields/tank factory. Repel them and any APs you come across. Boss fight with LZX and Sevi.

Mission 7: Someone has attacked the base and stolen Wiggy, pursue. Possible ride chaser level but can be done on foot as well. Boss fight Sigma and Dynamo.

Mission 8: Mayo zombies are attacking, fight through zombies, zombie APs and llamas. Defeat Fann.

Mission 9: Recruit allies - Your team has tasked you with recruiting allies to your side in order to further tip the scales in your favor. Big platforming level with lots of secrets, can find and bring back ZV veterans to boost your stats. Randomly generated characters include Smoke (+1 spriting), Vilex (+1 spriting), Reaver (+1 spriting), Sonic (+1 writing), SpEX (+1 writing), Drayconis (+1 writing), Zkat (+1 Smash), RR (+1 Smash), Netto (+1 Smash), Alter (+1 Art), Silver (+1 art), Ne0(+1 art) and Bossman (+1 all stats). Only enough time to find 2-3 allies, but this stage can be repeated to grind stat boosts.

Mission 10: The Gauntlet -
Spriting Challenge: Fight through an army of edits and recolors, a scratch miniboss and then join a battle against Xero, Majeh and Reaver.
Writing Challenge: Fight through an enemy of NPCs and join a battle against Swim, Fusion and Fann.
Art Challenge: Boss fight with Renegade, Zafer and Cem
Smash Bros: Free for all or team battle depending on who's on your team. VS Renegade, Swim and Nightmare.

Final Battle between mounted teams, chocobo cavalry and STFU Tank supporting. Full team battle, defeat the tank or the giant gold chocobo to win.

Cutscene: The 72 Cannon is fired at the winning team's base, King Stinger is unleashed on the losers.

The teams join up forming one party to defeat Stinger, then marshal their strength and march on the 72 Cannon before it can be fired again. Along the way they fight several members of IZV such as Epixhryon, Hajexm and Xelvix. Once they reach the 72 Cannon they find it is being operated by Toxyn and Marxineght. Marxineght gives Toxyn his final orders and departs with Nofxisu via portal. The party defeat Toxyn and follow IZV into a portal where they defeat Nofxisu, Marxineght, and Swixm as an optional boss, before engaging Xistar in a final battle. Xistar is defeated and the party celebrates... until one by one they all drop dead. Everyone except the New Person and Xero, and the newest member of IZV steps out of the shadows armed with the Death Note. They pull back their hood and reveal their identity and it's Maijex, Rixter, Jixod, Cratix, Lyrexi, Sydaxcis or Bydrax, depending on what you chose to name your character. The real final battle begins and once victorious Xero casts Eufchacisinism to travel back in time or mass revive or otherwise retcon that thing where everyone else is dead. Roll credits.

Bosses would include Ztrl, Frozt, Random, Majeh's Couch, 3v3 with enemy team, LZX and Sevi, Sigma and Dynamo, Fann, ZV veterans, Team Champions, STFU Tank or Golden Chocobo, King Stinger, IZV members with Xistar and player mirror.

I think this leaves you a lot of room for flexibility, as some changes will need to be made depending on what sort of game you want to make.

So here's your story! Sorry it came 10 months after you asked for it. We did warn you that we were lazy <.<

Edit: I see from your art thread that you've checked out. I hope that wasn't due to a perceived lack of interest on our end, but I understand if that is the case. I really do like your stuff, and I think a lot of us would be interested in seeing more of it. Speaking for myself however, I have a tenancy to look at and comment on art threads weeks or months after the content gets posted up, and I can see where that lack of immediate attention would be discouraging to the artist. I know if bugs me when I post stuff that doesn't get noticed, but I just have to remind myself that people are busy. So my hope is that you do come back and post your artwork and that you do continue working on this game and other projects, but only if that makes you happy. If not, well, I can say that I had fun coming up with the above story scenario and I can be content if it doesn't get used. But hopefully it helps in some small way, even if nothing else than rekindling your passion for good art. Best of luck to you Zafer.