I am currently working on an 2D adventure game based in Equestria. It needs a plot and some art such as background and buildings. if you have any ideas for game mechanics as well I am willing to listen. If you think you could help me out I would greatly appreciate it.

4606303 Have you considered basing a game on a story that already exists?

4606303 I can certainly help with the story. I'll just need some general outlines on the game like:
Complexity (Length of Game)
Rating (Y E E10+ T M Ao)
Characters
Set Mechanics
Bosses (if any)
Environments/Settings
And will the game have more focus on story, gameplay, or is fairly balanced?

Coming from a programmer background, I have some questions.

What is your target device/operating system is this game aimed at?
PCs/macs have more memory than smartphones and tablets.
That will influence how much you can put in your game.

Then there is the issue of Hasbro and how they control their IP.
How do we avoid a cease and desist order?

4606696
I'm looking to make it E 10+ or Teen. Its should be fairly balanced between story and gameplay. I want to include the Main 6 with a few other and the player will be an OC made by the player. Each race will have traits that contribute to stats. All characters will have a HP and Stamina bar. Unicorns will have a MP bar as well while that will be replaced with a Flight time bar for pegasi. Earth ponies get extra HP and stamina. I am hoping to rescue NPCs and gain abilities from them that will help with bosses

4606763
I don't really have a target operating system or platform. Also I think we can avoid a cease and desist by not selling copies or distributing through app stores. If they do stop us, certain changes will have to be made so that the project can continue.

I'm looking for something where enemies take over Equestria and capture ponies but yours breaks free and begins a rescue mission. There will be a base camp where everypony goes after being saved. You will find spells along the way that either twilight or rarity can teach you provided you are a unicorn and have the proper stats. AJ and Pinkie will teach you movement techniques, such as wall jump, and attacks as the story progresses. It will be a platformer, hopefully with a playstyle similar to castlevania but with a rpg leveling system.

4607076 Any thing specific to the story you want to add? Maybe enemy types, genres, themes, time? I want to make sure I get everything you want before writing up an outline and adding details to it.

4607167 I would like an intro that lets the player know what has happened. I'll let you decide on who the enemy force belongs to. The enemy types should include jumpers, flyers, magic users, and your basic "stand here like a moron" eneimes. When captured, characters have their legs and wings bound, and a magic impairing device on their horn. Upon rescue only their legs can be freed. You can find the keys to unbind everything else as you explore. As for the theme, I see a world where everyone is either captured or in hiding and everything is in disrepair.

4607203 Here's the initial outline. Hope you like it.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_TBqM4W6MW3S03JHVq50lk3mZ2u-TkY3NQ2HJRxrTVo/edit?usp=sharing

4607411 I like it. So the soldiers are ponies? Different versions of Vox are the bosses?

4607423 The soldiers (and any non-species stated enemies) can be ponies, depends on you really. And yes, different versions of Nox are the bosses, there can be more if you want.

4607428 Sounds good. Maybe some generals for other bosses and mini bosses. It may take me a while. I still need an artist. Its hard to make it all work right now without sprites and environment.

4607089
"Also I think we can avoid a cease and desist by not selling copies or distributing through app stores. If they do stop us, certain changes will have to be made so that the project can continue."
Cool.

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You need to consider hardware because it ultimately controls
how much you can do in your game. It also can control how you do things too in your game.
Memory is finite on all hardware, but in some devices you will run out of it faster.

Also your choice of hardware will effect the choice of development environment and coders for your project.
Do not leave this decision for last because you will be surprised.
Not in a good way.

I would also suggest checking out how to write a Game Design doc if you do not know how to write one.

Apologies if I am being a pain.

4607509 Okay, thanks. Say, would you like to contact me or me contact you in another, more seemingly effective manner in the future when I update the outline time from time? (Just updated it to 1.0.2)

Side note: What do you mean by "Maybe some generals for other bosses and mini bosses.". Do you mean add more bosses or list some minibosses?

4608250 I have a kik with the same name for better comunication. If the enemies are soldiers than that must mean there is a ranking system in their army. Stronger enemies would have a higher rank.
4607984 No its fine. What do you mean by hardware? Also I would love some help with how to write a Game Design doc

4606303

How to write a game design doc
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131632/creating_a_great_design_document.php
http://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/how-and-why-to-write-a-great-game-design-document--cms-23545
http://www.develop-online.net/opinions/how-to-write-a-useful-game-design-document/0196644

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Unless you are doing a board game or something like a D&D/Warhammer game in which
live people play through your game on a table top, you will be putting your game on a machine.

The physical device that will run your game is what I mean about "hardware".
Since I have been a programmer for many years, I tend to think a lot about the machines that run my stuff.

Here is one example about how hardware/machine can effect your work.
Lets say you want to select a character on the screen to do something with him/her.
Depending on the hardware, you will need to do different things.
On a PC/Mac you can just click on your char and thats it.

There is no mouse cursor for smartphones, so you need to know how to handle touches.

How would you handle the char's inventory without a mouse?
----
Your choice of hardware is a major decision because it controls a lot of things:
File format of your artwork.
How much memory-> how much of your game can you fit, though there are tricks.
How does your GUI work.
How much speed you have to use.
How much memory for sound effects

That is just off the top of my head, there are probably more things.

For smart phone games then you have to think about if you want to go native or use a third party dev kit.
A dev kit or Development Kit is just a collection of tools for the programmers to code up your game.

Unity is a third party dev kit that can do android development as well as IOS, PC and Mac.
http://unity3d.com/5?gclid=Cj0KEQjw9JuuBRC2xPG59dbzkpIBEiQAzv4-G_b_bz3i-jrmv_O0oSU5nSoeOSBn0h_MyzkTSYRGi9caAo148P8HAQ

You need to do research on where you want to put your game on and what is needed to make it run.

Check out Extra Credits, they have some good tips on doing games.
https://www.youtube.com/user/ExtraCreditz
Also their tips are good for writing too.

How To Start Your Game Narrative
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22HoViH4vOU

More than exposition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEERJ1a2rsU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j1PXhkXJ2A

4617816 Regarding the story, I have put in great effort in the outline so that it is both flexible and doesn't require much exposition if a few cutscenes are included to provide a visual explanation.

4617396 From what I see, I'm not sure my computer is fit for Kik. Perhaps another means of communication or I could simply create a group here for the development for this game.

4617843 Kik is a phone app. Also yeah I think a group would speed things along.
4617816 For now it just runs on my Toshiba until I finish saving up to get a better computer. I have controls mapped to use the same keys on every computer and even a Xbox/Playstation controller to have the exact same controls. Its not very big right now but Im hoping to see it get to a good size. Its a 2D sidescrolling RPG.

4619832 Boom: http://www.fimfiction.net/group/208510/rise-of-nox-game-team