[WIP][MPGAME] "Pokitto Party" single/multiplayer game project

Pokitto Programming Games
1

Hello!

This is the main project page of a game project of “Pokitto Party”. It is a Super Mario Party esque. For those who are not familiar to (Super) Mario Party games, here is a short explanation:

image image
image

The gameplay is a board game like system where players you go around the track in turns and throw a dice. There are many action spots on the board and many of them launch a minigame, where players can collect more money/points by winning. The minigames can be as simple as “find the pair” or more complex ones, but usually take less than a minute to play. There can be tens of different minigames.

Pokitto party can be played as a single player game (at least in a minigame training mode) or a networked multiplayer game.

Here is a rough estimate of the phases and tasks (thanks @carbonacat !):

Phase 1

  • One (or two) simple game using a constrained API (MP)
  • Party/meta game itself (turn/turn aka dice throwing game, MP)
  • Recover system or host-owning transfer for MP library
  • Basic graphical assets (characters mostly, some tiles, etc. Could be a ready-made, free or few euros, tileset which we will extend)
  • Basic audio assets (mostly sfx, maybe some music)

Phase 2

  • Launching the games from the meta game, all in MP context
  • Making sure the code loading works with the constrained API
  • Make another or so minigame to feed the API

Phase 3

  • Compile/load the minigames as external chunks of code
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Everyone, whether you will be contributing to the project or not, what features you would like to have in “Pokitto Party” ?

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So, in Super Mario Party the players can select one of the well-known characters to use on the board (Princess Peach, Mario, Luigi, etc.)

Do we have some “iconic” Pokitto characters that we could offer? We should ask the original artists/developers for permission, of course…

  • Joe
  • Dark Ritual
  • Lanea?
  • …?

Although we could also use Pokittos with different colors and faces, that would be ok and easier to do, too. :slight_smile:

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There are also Matti, Watti (evil Matti), Katti (a cat) and Dogminator :slight_smile:

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Features:
Collectables like coins and highscore lists
Cards you can pick up and use anytime before each round to alter some game elements (let someone skip a round, go backwards, etc.)

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A suggestion: the host client could be running in the server machine. The host would not be participating to the game, just hosting it.
Benefits:

  • There would not be connection problems in the host, so no need to save the game state
  • The client-host roundtrip time would be 2 times faster as the lag between the host and PGS is zero.
  • The host would be running in the simulator, so it could use much more memory and cpu if needed
  • Due the short roundtrip time it is more possible to use the “server authoring” (host authoring) for critical events to prevent cheating

Basically the host would be a “plug-in server logic” module.

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Maybe it could start with these and have the iconic characters as unlockable based on winning a number of matches or completing a mini-game based on their game theme or something such as this? I definitely agree having some familiar characters from Pokittoland show up would make the charm go up :arrow_double_up:

I am a huge sucker for collectibles :smiley:

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Does anyone know a good tileset which would suit to this game? I was thinking about 2d tiles a bit like the GBA version of the game in the pictures in the top post. I guess the size of the tile could be16x16 on hires, 220x176 pixels, 256 colors, screen mode.
The tileset can be free or paid.

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Might something like this be a good starting point?
There is also a bundle.

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Not bad at all :slight_smile:
image

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Or how about this?

It’s not as cute as the Cute RPG pack, though. :smiley:

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Probably my all time favorite tileset from OGA is this: https://opengameart.org/content/zelda-like-tilesets-and-sprites. It’s 16x16, very rich and looks awesome, and it’s CC0 (I don’t favorite anything else than CC0 xD). Here is a preview I made of it:

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Looks very good!

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I think Watti, Katti, Dogminator, Malice and the ubiquitous Pokitto Statue fit quite nicely to the tiles :slight_smile:
pparty

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Looks awesome! :smiley:

What about the color palette? How many are there/how many will the game need?

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The current plan is to use 256 colors, probably the Miloslav palette (?).

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That Pokitto statue looks amazing :smiley:

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Now I am going to try to do Matti character in that size :slight_smile: I doubt I will not match Vampirics’ or Jonne’s creations, but I try to at least capture the bouncy walking style and the wavy hair :wink:

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My first attempt to make the Matti character.
matti3

Edit: And with sunglasses, because…err…why not?
matti3_sun

Edit2: A bit more grown up.
matti7

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There is a modified Miloslav palette with #000000 black that isn’t considered as transparent. We’ll need nice outline!

If we need alternate colors, it could be nice to use a reduced palette (16/32 colors but we can use any size actually), so we can recolor with just a palette offset (e.g. sprite has color 5, recolor is 16, final color is 21).

We can also use an intermediary palette which can be used to recolor on the fly - but is more costly in CPU (I used this in TASUI).

1 Like