Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 6
Your Second Dungeon
So, when last we left off our role-playing game (RPG) story, Eric and Noah defeated the latter's brother in (not-so)
gruesome combat. What follows next? Well, as a longtime RPG player and overall gamer, my first reaction would be
to return to Seaside and see what (if anything) has changed and then decide on my alter-ego's next course of action.
That is the initial topic for this chapter. The first order of business is to update the Seaside nonplayer characters (NPCs),
to reflect recent events.
Updating Our NPCs
In true RPG convention, our intrepid hero and his mysterious companion will find that news of their endeavors
travels faster than they do. To update any NPC, all you need to do is make a new event page for it that requires the
BossDefeated switch we created last chapter. Let's have the barkeeper tell the player of the new tidings. Here's a short
setting blurb that you can use to tweak the barkeeper's conversation:
Ever since Eric and Noah's defeat of Gemini, the locals claim to hear a disturbing humming sound
that fills the night air at Seaside. One of the locals believes that the strange sounds are coming from
the ancient tower at the far end of the continent. The ancient tower, they are quick to add, has been
sealed for the better part of a century and seemingly has no path of entry. The people of Seaside
worry that perhaps the sounds portend some greater calamity . . .
As in any good RPG story, we had previous events lead the player into new ones. In this case, and as you'll recall,
Gemini gave away a plot hook after being defeated by Eric and Noah. He spoke of the dark master that would “avenge
him,” as it were. What better place to house a dark master than in another dungeon? Now you may be wondering why
I would have two dungeons in a row. Well, I finished Part 1 with a dungeon, so it felt appropriate to start Part 2 with
the same. With that said, it is also a good chance to show off some more advanced eventing than we've seen up to
now. As a minor teaser, think about the following situation:
You have a majestic dragon statue that you want the player to look at (and possibly even interact
with). The easiest way to set up the events is to have a single Same As Characters/Action Button
event for every square that the statue occupies. However, that is highly wasteful of event slots. What
if I told you that there was a way to have two events that could cover a theoretically infinite amount
of places?
Do the possibilities boggle the mind? Well then, let us hurry toward that particular exercise. First, however, we
must create our dungeon maps. This time, we'll have three levels to our dungeon and each map occupy its own slot
(if only to vary a bit from what we designed for the first one).
