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VN/TEXT [TheNeophyte] Eve's Garden


TheNeophyte

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Hello, everyone!

I'm an amateur coder and I'm starting to work on small H-game for self-education and fun purposes.

The game is pure text.

There is a single female character, I named her Eve, who is living alone in a strange and alien world full of weird creatures. Her world, however, is in trouble. The Wasteland is growing and threatening to destroy all of the Garden as the ecosystem slowly decays.

Eve goes on a quest to restore balance of life and to take back lands from the Wasteland, saving her Garden from destruction.



Planned major features:

- Open World
Travel freely between multiple locations. Explore and discover points of interest or new species. Search places where your help is needed.

- Dynamic Ecosystem
Multiple species of plants, insects, animals and others coexisting for the mutual benefit. Help biomes to survive by introducing missing species or removing extraneous ones.

- Unpredictable Opponents
Stay alert, as even creatures of same species can have different traits and habits. Learn the differences and be quick to notice them to succeed in battle.

- Real-Time Combat System
Your enemies will not patiently wait as you choose your actions. You must not only be smart, but also fast. Every second counts now.


If you want references to imagine what I am aiming for - "Dune" 1992 adventure game by Cryo Interactive Entertainment gave me inspiration towards "big world with free travel" and "ecology as gameplay" ideas and text-based combat is influenced by time-limited dialogues from Walking Dead by Telltale.


Whole setting revolves around biology. Items, clothes, materials, substances - everything is taken directly from living creatures or is a living creature.

Eve's bags can be plants, clinging on her shoulder, her cloak might grow fur by itself and provide her with heat. Food, water, medicine is provided same way.

I'm not a fan of violence in porn so I want to keep it at near-zero level if possible, never going above "annoying inconvenience" level of consequences for defeated party, be it player or NPC.

So, enough with the boring talk!
Here's the fun stuff, Combat Prototype. It's a really tiny minigame, a single encounter with one of the denizens of Eve's Garden. Give it a try, play a few rounds to see how encounter changes and tell me what you did or did not like. There might be typos, so don't be afraid to go grammar nazi on me!
mega.co.nz/#!DJQTXJZJ!Ztyzx1TpH0Gtl0khhH5dZEZO6s0cHSez2CP0jfahmhc

If there is enough interest towards this project, I will set up a development blog and start working on the Open World prototype starting this Monday.

Updates
Update 30.04.2013:
New prototype, showing itty-bitty tiny world, which player can wander around in, admire nature and fool around with horny butterfly. Lots of typos expected.
mega.co.nz/#!OEogXJTC!PvLjoQjNJ_qKV3JSDTo0VgL70qkmO5zjxyStc2qco9E

Update 12.05.2013:
New World Map. 100x100 tiles. Player position fixed with moving map. Map is randomly generated every time game is started. More informative map tile icons. Lots of code improvements, but no new content.
mega.co.nz/#!2IwmFQyQ!SECwLiCT3A753LeQ1PPsDw9SkRdg54Cn6jl4GfXpvpM

Update 19.06.2013
Fully remade game logic. Combat is controlled by scripts in external XML file, readable and editable. Downloads are back online. Added sound support and some music.
mega.co.nz/#!2dgQ2TTD!C0m5qAyQAuQLLE2ciKr7tSIOoAtx1RkGD7kolNoFOMU

Update 25.06.2013
Added 2 creatures. Graphics are improved. Fixed bugs in C++ and XML.
mega.co.nz/#!rZwnVL5K!OxqXN1Ynq_GwTFW4HmyKsUwrzVUGYkqBzxTHMAF6nlg
DevBlog:
evesgardengame.blogspot.com
 
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DarkFire1004

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Re: Eve's Garden

Moved from Under Construction. Worth taking a look at, guys.
 

Sinisterpastry

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Re: Eve's Garden

This is a really interesting and solid idea you have going, and I hope you can follow through on it. The combat prototype you have is neat, I was wondering what you were going to do with text only and real time combat, but this is a nice solution. GUI isn't even that bad for a tech demo, very clear.

I also enjoy what methods for restoring the ecosystem are hinted at in the demo. I can imagine Eve deciding to help repopulate a species that she finds the last male survivor of, for instance.

How are you planning to handle exploration? Is it going to be like a MUD, with rooms mapped out, or more like CoC, with slot machine type random events after choosing an area or direction?
 

cmacleod42

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Re: Eve's Garden

The conbat system works well.

May I suggest a larger font? You have quite large buttons with fairly small text. So increate font size a bit and decrease button size a bit as well
 

mrblack

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Re: Eve's Garden

I love the battle system, and dynamic ecosystems idea. You should have Dr. Kynes tutorial notes! I'd also like to help write a few scenes and maybe more.

See my blog, spoiler/signature.

Dark Incarnate is the most recent and best. Skip to Chapter 11 for the Book 1 climax. Others worthy of note are ch3,7,9,11 and 13 if you just want to see scenes, but it's shitty without the character development and story as a whole, but cheat if you must.
"Beach trip" "Murlocs" and "The Mist" are older but have some interesting story and scenes too.

Seriously, I'm going to watch this and if it doesn't go off into La-La land, I really want to help.

You should defiantly make a blog. I've got questions but I'm sure they will be answered as the project progresses. My main worry is that it will go like CoC and others.

I think you should focus on Heroin vs. Nature for now. The others seem to go wrong by changing from basic struggle (like every decent story ever written) to transformation or a slut sims with no real point.
In this framework you can chase every rabbit hole fetish possible in different areas or game overs, but don't rabbit hole your whole project.
 

effen

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Re: Eve's Garden

I really like this combat system. Maybe extend the time a little bit. I have trouble reading the text fast enough to choose something non-randomly.
 

Plopinou

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Re: Eve's Garden

Tested the combat demo and loved it. This has a lot of potential! The options are more interesting than the good ol' "attack, defend, run, item" combo and I like how you can feel your character struggle against the opponent. The fact that it is timed adds pressure and makes it harder but manageable with a bit of skill, which is a good thing.

Most games tend to rely only on stats and equipment and to either make you underpowered or overpowered. It's kind of silly when you have to lose on purpose to get to the game-over H-scenes, as much as it is frustrating to keep dying because your stats suck.

Keep up the good work!
 

Kln

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Re: Eve's Garden

Plopinou said everything I wanted to say. Great job. It really has potential.
 
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TheNeophyte

TheNeophyte

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Re: Eve's Garden

Devblog is up and running.
evesgardengame.blogspot.com/

New prototype on downloads page!
evesgardengame.blogspot.com/p/downloads.html
 

Kln

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Re: Eve's Garden

Navigation is ok, but I suggest you to use either different colors or letters to differentiate the environnements, not just contrasts of green, which can be confusing.

You could also implement a short text the kind of terrain we're on, on the side of the map (like "You're in a toundra/forest/jungle")
 
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TheNeophyte

TheNeophyte

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Re: Eve's Garden

I'm really sorry for not replying or posting updates for a week in a row.

I don't know what I caught, but it gave me an annoying fever and it's really hard to focus on anything, especially coding right now.
I'll try to get myself together and pick up working speed this week.

Next update I'll be working on making closer-to-final version of World Map.

On the player side it means changes in visual representation, fixed character icon with map moving relatively to screen, roguelike style, and gameplay.
Number of map tiles will be raised to more what is expected from "world". 100 by 100 or something like that should provide a nice playing field, I think.

There will be change in internal representation of World Map. Currently it's a bunch of hastily made chinese code, which must be reshaped in something more object-oriented and capable of expanding functionally without affecting rest of the program.

Creatures will stop being just a list of global variables and will be rolled into more civilized object form too. I'm adding 1-3 new ones, just so I could test out first iteration of...

Ecosystems. Probably next after next update. Very basic stuff. Static at first, incapable of expanding/changing/dying. But players should be able to affect number of creatures living in different map areas by dragging eggs to target places or changing natural reproduction cycles of local inhabitants some other way.
Last meaning some sort of inventory system is coming in nearest updates too.

So, once again, sorry for leaving the thread for so long and for not putting up any actual updates.

Oh, and thanks for all the kind words to all who commented. It feels great to have own work appreciated.
Thanks and stay tuned for next update somewhere this week.:)
 
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TheNeophyte

TheNeophyte

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Re: Eve's Garden

Minor update!
Info and link added in first post.
 
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TheNeophyte

TheNeophyte

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Re: Eve's Garden

Major update!

DOWNLOADS ARE BACK ONLINE

evesgardengame.blogspot.com/2013/06/update-2.html

Update #2
After many troubles I finally return with new version of the game!

New stuff:

- Fully reworked game logic
Combat scenarios are not hardcoded anymore, but are kept in data.xml file for easy editing or adding of completely new scenarios.
Available creatures and their attributes are set through the same data.xml file and also are fully editable.
Combat timer and sound settings can be changed through the same file.

- Beginnings of resource system implemented.
This will allow player to collect stuff into inventory for later use.
Not part of actual gameplay yet.

- Added menu screen
Will allow changing game settings without manual editing of data.xml in the future.

- Music and sounds!
Two tracks from machinimasound and button click sound to entertain players while they wait for more content.

Another major stuff:

- Accepting donations!
While I do plan on taking the route of full-time game developer, just having plans won't do much good for me, seeing as I'm still unemployed. Thus, I would welcome any financial help.

- If I can support myself enough to be able to dedicate most of my time to Eve's Garden, next big step would be setting up a campaign on OffBeatr.

- Download section reactivated!
Troubles-shmubles seem to be over, so the page is fresh and alive again.
 

Kln

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Re: Eve's Garden

Nice to see you again :)
 

kiko

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Re: Eve's Garden

How come I didn't see this?Great job neo!
 

mrblack

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Re: Eve's Garden

I'm taking a look at the XML and I'm going to try my hand at a new encounter and see what he thinks.
 
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TheNeophyte

TheNeophyte

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Re: Eve's Garden

Update #3


New stuff:

- Added 2 new creatures with corresponding encounters
- Creatures inhabit only their Primary and Secondary Biomes as specified in data.xml. You won't find a creature in other Biomes.
- Added softer transition between Biomes
- Added better tile graphics for World Map and Player Character
- Added window background and particle effect to Menu window
- Added window background for Game window, changing depending on current Biome
- Added background for Description Text for better readability
- Added multiple resolution support. supported resolutions are:
1024x768
1280x960
1600x1020
They can be changed in data.xml, for example:
data name="Resolution" value="1280x960"

- Fixed Menu window opening Game window when closed with "close window" button instead of "Quit" button in menu

Download here:
mega.co.nz/#!rZwnVL5K!OxqXN1Ynq_GwTFW4HmyKsUwrzVUGYkqBzxTHMAF6nlg

Screenshots
i.imgur.com/4H1zjFf.png
i.imgur.com/hRMkO9H.png
i.imgur.com/2dOF2D1.png
i.imgur.com/oFJttyE.png
 
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Kln

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Re: Eve's Garden

Indeed, graphics are much better to the eye.

By the way, wise choice on the xml format. It's easy enough to comprehend that everyone can participate and add content.
Aren't you worried about size issues, though?
 
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