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American Hare

Hard Knox

Educated
Joined
Apr 18, 2009
Messages
125
Chefe said:
Juan Carlos: "Let me take care of that for you, conejo."

You step to the side of the door way. Juan takes a few steps back and wipes the sweat from his forehead. He picks his leg up, rears back, and slams the door open with one mean kick. It hits the wall with such force, that a vase falls from a table several feet away, falling to the floor and shattering into a million pieces.

As a vibration lingers in your ear, it may be just the pain in your head, but you believe you hear another door shut in the distance.

You: "Well, that's one way in. That bastard probably knows we're back. I think I heard a door shut, maybe to the basement."

Juan Carlos: "What now?"

- Look around
- Sneak around
- Go to the basement
- Yell for Raul

You look over at Juan Carlos and nod your head. He pulls his revolver out of a holster, and you check the bullet count on yours. There's seven. You enter the house, with Juan right at your back.

You walk through the small hallway. There are pictures of family and friends lining the walls, along with a painting of a river and two ducks. There are several dents in the base boards, and some chipped paint slighty above that. The silence is deadly. Not even the birds are chirping outside. You look through old window, and the bright sun of late afternoon flashes in your face. You rub your eyes, seeing spots, and everything seems to get darker.

Juan Carlos: "Hey, conejo. There's some stairs leading down in the kitchen over here."

You turn and follow Juan through the doorway. You place your hand along the wooden edging as you turn in. The place is fairly clean, with several dishes in the sink, and some on the table. You walk over to that central table and touch the mix of corn and rice still on a plate. It's warm. Your hand firmly grips your gun. You smile at Juan, but his eyes are fixated on the stairs leading down.

- Look around
- Tell Juan to go down the stairs
- Go down the stairs
- Yell for Raul

You: "Hey you slippery son of a bitch! We're here on business! We know you're down there, so show yourself before things get nasty!"

No answer.

- Look around
- Tell Juan to go down the stairs
- Go down the stairs
- Yell for Raul again

You: "Juan, check it out."

You point towards the stairway. Juan gives you a shrug, then heads begins the descent, with you in tow. The stair case is not that long, maybe fifteen steps. You squish a spider climbing along the wall with your finger. Juan attempts to open the door at the bottom of the stairs.

Juan Carlos: "Locked."

- Bust open the door
- Tell Juan to bust it open
- Look around for something to pick the lock with
- Yell for Raul

You pull up your sleeve and charge the door. It vibrates a little, and you bounce back in pain.

You: "God! Ah! Shi... Raul!"

Juan laughs.

Juan Carlos: "Ha ha! Oh, little conejo, when will you learn?"

You: "Quit fuckin' callin' me conejo!"

Juan laughs some more. He fires a shot at the rusty door handle, blasting it clean off. He kicks the door. It swings open. Hard. You peer inside and see the man himself, Raul, standing in the middle of the small, dark room and covering his face.

- Tell him why you're here
- Ask him if he knows why you're here
- Shoot him
- Kill him

You: "Juan, check to see if there's anyone else around here."

You fire a shot straight at Raul's leg. It hits his thigh, causing him to clench it and scream in pain. Juan enters behind you and looks behind the door.

You: "Yea, buddy boy! Like that? I'm back! Courtesy of the Don man himself!"

You fire another shot at the same area, hitting his hand. He yelps for God and collapses onto the floor.

You: "You lied to me. That Kenny bitch didn't have the money. Hell, I tore him open and he didn't have any inside of him either!"

Juan taps you on the shoulder. You jump.

You: "Yo! Don't do that!"

Juan Carlos: "We've got a problem, boss."

He points towards the other corner. There is a table, and under the table, a woman and a little girl.

- Smile
- Frown
- Laugh
- Get discouraged

You smile at them. You turn and smile at Raul as well, letting out a slight chuckle. You turn back towards the cowering femine duo.

You: "Well, well, well, look at we've got here, Raul. Let me guess, you hired some underage whore and this is her chaperone."

Raul: "Leave them alone! This is between me and the Don."

You: "It's between me now, too. I've had to do a lot of footwork because of your pointless shit and constant lies. Maybe I can extract some truth out of them."

Raul: "No..."

- Threaten him
- Taunt him
- Shoot him

You fire a shot, hitting Raul in the shin of his injured leg. He cries.

You: "Shut the fuck up! Every time you speak you only dig your hole that much deeper."

Still fixated on the Raul's wife and daughter, you take a step closer towards them.

You: "Hello, girls. Do you know what my friend Raul has been up to?"

Little girl: "Leave my daddy alone!"

You: "I'm afraid that's not an option. Tell me, how old are you, dear?"

Little girl: "I'm eight you stupid monster!"

The woman grasps the little girl's mouth and shushes her. You look over at Juan. He shakes his head.

Raul: "Stop! Please!"

- Continue
- Turn back to Raul
- Talk to Juan

You take another step closer and point your gun towards the little girl.

You: "Do you know what this is, little girl?"

She pulls the woman's hand off of her mouth.

Little girl: "It's a gun!"

You: "Wow, you know what a gun is? Is it healthy for a child such as yourself to know what a gun is? I do not know much about human culture, but if you know about violence, I believe that means you are mature enough to know about love."

You glance over at Juan, smiling. He gives you a confused look.

You: "Tell me honey, does your daddy love you?"

The little girl gives you an angry nod. The woman has tears in her eyes. You look over at Raul, he's still gasping on the floor, holding his leg with his good hand, while his damaged one is sprawled out parallel to his body. You turn back to the girl.

You: "Has your daddy every shown you how much he loves you?"

Juan Carlos: "Where are you going with this, boss?"

- Continue
- Talk to Juan
- Talk to Raul
- Talk to the woman

You: "Ha! This is a funny situation. Well, you see darling, when a man loves someone very much, he sometimes shows his affection in a... physical way. Has your daddy ever shown you love in a physical way?"

Woman: "No."

Raul: "Aughhhh! Stop!!"

Juan: "Conejo!"

Little girl: "... what?"

Woman: "Don't answer him!"

- Continue
- Talk to Raul
- Talk to Juan
- Talk to the woman

You turn towards Raul.

You: "Hey, you! You know where I'm going with this! Or do you? Ha ha! I suppose it doesn't matter."

Raul: "Look, you sick fuck! I'll give you whatever you want! I'll give you my life!"

You: "Your life? You've already given me yours and theirs!"

Raul: "Just listen to me!"

- Let Raul talk
- Demand he tells you where the money is
- Talk to Juan
- Tell the little girl to get up

You turn back towards the little girl, smiling.

You: "Stand up, kid."

Woman: "Stay down! Don't you dare touch her!"

You: "I just asked her to stand up. I was thinking of letting her go. You guys and your whining might have gotten to me."

The girl stands up, shaking.

- Let the girl leave
- Kill the woman
- Talk to Juan

You turn towards the woman.

You: "This will be good. Unfortunately, you won't get to enjoy the show."

In one quick motion, you shoot the woman, hitting her in the chest to the left of her heart. She falls backwards in agony. You fire two more shots at her chest, ending her life. Raul musters what strength he has and crawls over on the floor towards her. He holds his dead wife in his arms. His cries are a mixture of pain from his loss of love, and of the blood pouring from his own leg. The little girl shakes and sweats, unsure of what even happened. You look over at Juan again. His upper lip is quivering, but he retains his posture.

- Threaten Raul
- Talk to Juan
- Tell the girl to take off her clothes

You: "Save it for the funeral. You, kid! Take off your dress. Now! I've got one more bullet, and it could be for you!"

The girl obviously has no idea what is going on. Juan is still looking at Raul grieving over the body. Slowly, she removes her clothes until she is wearing nothing.

- Talk to Juan
- Walk over to her
- Tell her to go over to Raul

You laugh.

You: "You know, I really don't feel any kind of urge at all. Maybe it's because I'm a rabbit. Maybe it's because I'm half your age. Ha! Doesn't anyone else find this funny? Look, girl, walk over to your daddy. We're going to go over that love lesson."

Raul heard this. He looks up at his naked daughter. The look on his face is one of gastly horror as she walks over to him. Juan's fixation ends, and he looks over at the girl, then over at you.

Juan Carlos: "Wait. This ain't right boss. This ain't right at..."

You: "Shut the fuck up, you god damn spic! I'll determine what's right and what's wrong! Raul, take off your pants!"

Raul: "You sick fuck!"

- Talk to Juan
- Threaten Raul
- Shoot the girl

You bite your lip in anger. Blood flows down your throat and on your chin. You raise your pistol, and fire the gun. A bullet rips through the little girl's knee. Her cry sounds like death itself. Raul screams. You hand your pistol out towards Juan.

You: "Reload me."

Juan: "You're fuck up, conejo. I don't want any part of this."

You: "Oh, suddenly now you have morals? Cutting open some chick's intenstines, that's fine, but this is going too far. What is it, the age? The relationship? Fuck the age! Fuck the relationship! Now reload my god damn gun you god damn mexican nigger!"

Juan reluctantly accepts the gun, reloads, and hands it back to you. You point it back at the girl.

Raul: "Fine. Do it! End her misery! I won't do what your sick mind has planned."

- Kill Raul
- Kill the girl
- Talk to Juan
- Take care of the girl yourself

You: "Okay then, Mr. nice guy. If you won't do it, then I'll do it! I can get this baby up at any time. Isn't that right, sergeant woody? Hey, girl, get over here!"

The little girl, shaking almost to the point of seizure, slowly walks over to you.

- Continue
- Kill Raul
- Kill the girl
- Talk to Juan

When she gets near, you grab her by the throat and forcefully pull her until her body is rubbing up against yours. You wisper in her ear. Raul is screaming hysterically for you to stop, but you block him out. He's losing too much blood to move anyways.

You: "Hey, baby. How would you like to get fucked by the Easter Bunny?"

Juan Carlos: "I can't let you fucking do this! Drop it, conejo!"

- Continue
- Kill the girl
- Threaten Raul
- Kill Juan Carlos

Still holding her throat, you lower your gun between her legs, and then push it in. She yelps. Suddenly, you hear a gun shot. You look around frantically.

You: "What the fuck was that?"

You look over at Juan Carlos. He's shaking, sweating, breathing hard, and holding a smoking revolver. The revolver is pointing straight at you. You start to feel a slight ting. You drop your gun, the girl, and move your hand over your side. A warm liquid is flowing. You look down. You've been shot.

You: "Juan..."

Juan doesn't say a word. He clenches his teeth and fires another shot. It hits you in the shoulder. You gasp, and strangely feel nothing. Time slows down. Sound becomes hollow. Your vision becomes a tunnel. A shot is heard in the distance. You feel your chest jerk back. Breathing is harder now. Everything is dark. You look around. Raul is curled up in the corner, almost dead. The girl is on the floor, hands over her eyes and crying. Juan Carlos is looking straight at you, with the fury of a thousand hells in his eyes. His revolver is laughing at you.

Another shot, and then another. And another. And another. And then, strangely enough, a series of clicks. You see Juan standing there firing blanks. You try to laugh, but you can't. It feels as if you are no longer in your body. Your vision darkens. Then, a flash of light. You see a man in a suit. He looks familiar, but you don't remember seeing him before. You're in some kind of an office. Now, you're in some alley. What city is this? There's a man in a distance. He's closing in fast. You're in Santa Rosalía. The cool sea breeze is brushing through the fur on your back. Things get dark. You're in a room. You're looking down at the ruins of Tikal from the sky. You see Yvonne, she's smiling. You see Tex, he's drinking. He looks over at you and laughs. Everything is fantastic here. You're on an island. You see a volcano in the distance Is this Hawaii? No, you've never been.

You're at a party. There's a woman there. It looks like Yvonne. She's waving at you. Everyone is excited. People are talking, laughing, and having a good time. There's a drunk man in the corner that you know, but you cannot think of his name. Everyone is dressed so nice. Yvonne calls your name. You're name? You can't make out what name she's calling, but you know it's yours. A man stops you and shakes your hand.

But you're not at a party. You're in a basement, in a rural region of Honduras. A cold, dark basement with a corpse, a naked girl, a dying man, and Juan Carlos. The adventuring Juan Carlos whom you met long ago. Light is peering through the top of the stair way. It will be dark soon. The next sunrise will not be for you to see.

What about Juan? He was a good guy, just a little confused. Or maybe he was a rat bastard. It doesn't seem to matter now. He'll probably leave Raul for dead and take the girl to some orphanage. Maybe he'll adopt her and take her on adventures across Central America. They could travel to South America too. Maybe they'll go to Europe.

Or maybe they'll end up like you.

You have died.

Game over.

That's evil.

You are the most disgusting creep ever.
 

DarkUnderlord

Professional Throne Sitter
Staff Member
Joined
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Messages
28,335
Chefe said:
Someone un-sticky this. It's a disappointment. There was a lot of great potential but I am a fraud. No need to further decline the RPG industry by showing that this will never see the light of day.
Okay, it's been unstickied.
 
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DarkUnderlord said:
Chefe said:
Someone un-sticky this. It's a disappointment. There was a lot of great potential but I am a fraud. No need to further decline the RPG industry by showing that this will never see the light of day.
Okay, it's been unstickied.
:lol:
 

Chefe

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Joined
Feb 26, 2005
Messages
4,731
Hard Knox said:
You are the most disgusting creep ever.

What, you would have let the player character get away with it? Maybe given him some exp for his efforts? So, I'm disgusting for punishing those kind of intolerable actions. Let me guess, you like to keep a bowl of candies and puppies on your doorstop and in your free time try to explain to the neighborhood parents that your name is only in "that database" because of a simple misunderstanding. You make me sick.

DarkUnderlord said:
Chefe said:
Someone un-sticky this. It's a disappointment. There was a lot of great potential but I am a fraud. No need to further decline the RPG industry by showing that this will never see the light of day.
Okay, it's been unstickied.

You know that's not what I meant. Making it an announcement makes even less sense than a sticky. I don't understand why you would want this failure to headline your RPG design discussion forum.

poocolator said:
It's a pity this is being scrapped. It would have been a nice experiment to contrast the drivel already out there, developed by shit companies like Bethesduh.

What's a pity is that I'm too much of an incompetent hack to program a text based game, and have no ambitions to do so. Sure, I could strip things down and make it more doable than the epic I was planning, but nooooooooooooooo I won't because I'm fucking pathetic. Besides this game, had it been made, would never garner more than a couple downloads because I have no marketing skills and the majority of people are pussies and graphics whores.
 

wrathofdog

Scholar
Joined
Jan 4, 2009
Messages
538
Hard Knox said:
You are the most disgusting creep ever.

Aren't you the guy who was telling people they were pussies for opposing torture a few days ago? You're a hypocrite and an intellectual coward. Gtfo.



Too bad you're not finishing this, Chefe; you're writing style is damn good. Even as a text-only game, this would rock.
 

Chefe

Erudite
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Messages
4,731
Well, here's what I've been thinking. American Hare is dead, right? However, the concept is still intriguing. I'm not taking any classes this summer, so I'll need something to do in my free time besides watching prime-time drama re-runs and wishing I was someone who didn't suck.

It would have to be unbelievably simple programming wise, though. We can probably forget about graphics and music altogether. We can forget about it being an epic that spans dozens of hours and crosses several major countries. Also, due to the ire I've drawn from giving up on American Hare, it would have to deal with a subject matter that really knocks your socks off, and makes the previous "game play examples" I've posted look like scenarios on Sesame Street.

I do have something in mind, and have been looking around on the Internet for some basic Lua and C++ resources. I could probably put something small together in three months. One of my biggest complaints with the game industry, and the reason I find it hard to really "get into" so many games, is because of poor writing, forced stories, lame quests, and what I like to refer to as 'adolescent maturity' (blood & tits =! mature). I could do something about it.

Now, feel free to say, "Here we go again!"
 

bat_boro

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Nov 22, 2006
Messages
1,531
Actually I think it's pretty intriguing concept, now if you could actually release something like that...
 

shihonage

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The "pick your story" format of the game will result in a writing tree that is impossible to manage or ever complete.

There has to be a system where the game manages character's reactions automatically, and such system will not be simple by any means.
 

Chefe

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I'd obviously divide areas of the game into sections, that are influenced by hidden and regular stats, determining what situations you get and the possible outcome - it is an RPG, after all. It won't be one, long continuous spiderweb looking monster, with six billion branches.

I figured an object oriented language would make it simple. The scenarios would be "packages" that were accessed whenever a user hit a situation that would "transport" them or clicked on a map marker. I don't want to make a 'choose your own adventure' / 'pick your story' game.

There will also not be a ton of character's to manage. It will not be like American Hare, where the proposed main character count is through the roof. That's just impossible for me to do with absolutely no experience. Why do I think this is feasible? No combat to balance. Maybe I'm wrong, but I like to think this will involve significantly less programming than even your most basic roguelike. Well, the slim version I'm proposing, not the American Hare behemoth.
 

Chefe

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My rep is so damaged here that even if I was to create an entire playable game, and send a copy along with a full-fledged color manual to every single person on this forum, they still would claim it didn't exist. I can't say that I blame them.
 

shihonage

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So, the NPCs will each be confined to rooms. You enter room 1, solve situation, enter room 2, solve situation...

Thats the only way this will work. More like an adventure game where you're plonked into "situations" that you have to "resolve".

The freedom of choice will lie in the order in which you resolve them (meh) and a few predefined outcomes for each situation depending on your dialogue choices.

In the end you can have a voiceover going "Rabbitland was drained due to your decision to not repair their waterchip. Hamster Hills thrived because you used DDT to eliminate all the mosquitoes. And Pedro from the Chloroform City... Pedro got married to the real doll you bought for him."
 
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Is there a text-game editor that is available? I would love to work on one, I'll even still help you Chefe if you want it.
 

Chefe

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shihonage said:
So, the NPCs will each be confined to rooms. You enter room 1, solve situation, enter room 2, solve situation...

Thats the only way this will work. More like an adventure game where you're plonked into "situations" that you have to "resolve".

The freedom of choice will lie in the order in which you resolve them (meh) and a few predefined outcomes for each situation depending on your dialogue choices.

In the end you can have a voiceover going "Rabbitland was drained due to your decision to not repair their waterchip. Hamster Hills thrived because you used DDT to eliminate all the mosquitoes. And Pedro from the Chloroform City... Pedro got married to the real doll you bought for him."

My idea is more focused on the story and how your actions change the world around you. But you have essentially described most every game, and certainly every RPG, in existence - at the most basic level. You might as well have said, "This is nothing more than 1's and 0's turned into if-then statements. BORING."

Here's how I look at it at the most basic level of logic.

You have an NPC. The NPC exists in a box. You have a scenario. The scenario exists inside another box. Your character enters the scenario box and encounters the NPC. The scenario box holds the NPC's possible reactions based on your reputation, and their background (whether you directly or indirectly affected them in the past - that's stored in 'their' box). Once you've changed something, that new information is carried over into the NPC's box as their 'memory'.

I won't be relying on the order in which you solve situations, but rather what you do once you are in those situations. Indeed, many scenarios will be locked out once you complete one, but by completing that one instead of the others before it, you open up new avenues. Let's say you never introduced Mike to Anne. Mike is available to help you out later, but you don't get the benefit of the story between Mike and Anne, or any connections they might have developed on their own that could help you out. Maybe Mike alone is more of a vigilante, while Anne knows the cops. While you could uncover a greater truth when they are together, you and Mike could go it alone, guns akimbo, if they had never met, and uncover a different secret.

I'm looking for an experience instead of a high score. I'm not looking to create dungeons where you buy some potions and swords, go in, clear out a room, go to the next room, clear it out, head back to town, sell your loot and get the next bit of quest related material, and head on back to the killing fields. I'm thinking about something more substantive than that.

If you look at it as being "enter room 1, solve situation, etc." you might as well look at books as being "development, problem, development, climax, epilogue".

The freedom of choice thing is an obvious problem, and I'm looking to avoid that, of course. Too many RPGs use that as a crutch - as in, you're free to take this quest now, later, or not at all - and call it c&c.

I'd like to have the endings be endings that you personally would want to happen. "Of course," you say, "then what's the point?" Well, what's the point in spending dozens of hours tweaking out your guy, defeating a big bad, then getting a little cut scene that shows the world going back to normal, followed by a credit roll? I don't really find that satisfying or enjoyable, which is probably why I don't finish many RPGs.
 

shihonage

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I didn't mean to scold your approach. Sorry if it came out that way. I merely took a practical look at how the game has to function in order to remain simple-to-program the way you envision it.

Apparently I didn't understand what you meant. Now that you've gone into more depth, I realize two things:

1) your system is fundamentally the same one I am creating in my game, and the same one MvBarracuda is planning for his PARPG
2) this system will not be simple to create

Chefe said:
It would have to be unbelievably simple programming wise, though.

The system that WOULD be simple to create, should it rely on scenarios that are truly isolated and where NPCs in different "rooms" can't affect each other, i.e. more of an adventure game. That's what I meant by my previous post.

I'm not saying you can't do it the way you WANT, but it will be more challenging than it seems at the current level of abstraction.
 

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