Requirements:
- Each town
must have the following utility buildings: costume shop, powerup shop, leek sanctuary. A catllama stable is also required unless the majority of the world's levels filter catllamas.
- Each town should have one mysterious hidden penguin NPC (essentially the hidden Raolock Holmes NPCs in Ep. 1 except these ones say noot noot)
- Each town should have switch blocks for all 5 characters, ideally with a set grouped together in the same room/screen.
- No life farms (Ep. 2 won't have lives, just demos), goals/level-ending leeks, free powerups or non-reward raocoins
- No start-of-level cutscenes aside from awesome dramatic entrances (W2's town is the sole exception for story & pacing reasons)
Ideal, but not strictly required:
- 1 to 3 sidequests
- A replayable minigame that can award players with raocoins and/or collectibles
- 1-3 signs to mark spots for treasure chests containing raocoins/collectibles (use "CHEST" as the message)
- NPC dialogue related to the story or easter eggs/advice for specific levels in the world (some NPCs can be reserved for these to be added later)
General Design Process/Workflow:
- Towns should be built vanilla-first but with later lua insertion in mind; try and leave enough space and resources for the above elements, and do so in a way that they can easily be repurposed if any of the related features don't make the final cut.
- Lua peeps will handle code insertion & collaborate with town creators to ensure designs are converted to code correctly.
- Creators may opt to crowdsource any of required or ideal elements if they don't want to bother with them and don't mind others taking part in their design; any elements to be crowdsourced should be given reasonable space/resources for others to work with (i.e. if you want a crowdsourced minigame, leave a section for it; if you want others to come up with a sidequest for you, include hiding spots and/or landmarks they can build the quests around)
- When submitting the vanilla town files, creators should specify which elements they would like crowdsourced with ideal specifications (i.e. "I'd like the minigame to incorporate blarggs if possible", "at least one NPC should talk about scented candles", "please do not use the giant robot statue for the sidequests but the fountain is A-OK") and which of the non-mandatory elements they absolutely do not want included ("a minigame would conflict with the tone I'm going for, so please don't add one").
-
Any non-mandatory elements that are not included/specified and not explicitly opted out of upon submission are assumed as "crowdsourcing permitted, include at others' discretion".
NPCs:
- NPCs will mostly consist of characters related to the world; only a handful should be talkhaus members as the majority of talkhaus self-inserts will be in the Tempura Anomaly in the hub.
- A custom pause menu system for viewing obtained collectibles/a quest log/library-related options is in the works; if we cannot replace the regular pause menu with it by the time all towns are ready for lua insertion, the menu will instead be accessed by a "lorekeeper" NPC in each town. Try to set aside an NPC near one of the shops/switch blocks as a candidate for the lorekeeper.
Utility Buildings:
- All utility buildings will have standardized mechanics and storefront sign graphics
- Insertion of the leek sanctuary and catllama stable will be mostly automated through their own libraries, so all you need to do for both is include the appropriate sign by a door/warp/pipe and reserve an empty section.
- For powerup and costume shops, give them their own section(s) with a bit of space for the blocks/other purchasing objects, and a flexible enough layout to expand or shrink the space if necessary; both types of shops will require space for the transaction blocks/pipes, and costume shops will also need space for an additional changing booth door/curtain/broom closet (the costume changing will be handled via a pop-up menu that appears after the player enters the warp, so the room
behind the door/curtain should not be defined).
- Shop selections and prices will be determined and balanced during lua insertion and testing
- To save on BGOs and blocks, shop interiors can be made as images and displayed with lua (provided they aren't too ridiculously large)
- If you want to do unique variations like a run-down leek sanctuary or combo shops like outdoor markets/bazaars, malls/department stores, etc., those kinds of things can be arranged, but the space/layouts need to be planned accordingly.
- Sanctuaries and stables will use music packaged with their libraries. Shops should use different music from the town's main theme, though which music is up to the creator;
pre-made themes are available here but creators may use any music of their preference.
- Plan for things that can take the place of the storefronts/shops, just in case.
Collectibles/Rewards:
- Sidequest/chest/minigame rewards will be determined and balanced during lua insertion and testing
- Possible rewards from minigames and sidequests will include leeks, exclusive costumes, trading cards and raocoin bundles
- Raocoins are the main currency and are used to unlock powerup generators, buy costumes, and rent catllamas
- Trading cards are unique arbitrary collectibles for fun/100% completion (card planning
here, mockups
here)
Minigames:
- Minigames can be done through mostly vanilla means, let us know if you need lua written for things like scorekeeping or rewards.
- Minigames will have leeks and cards as first-time prizes and high-score prizes, respectively, with raocoins being awarded otherwise.
- Minigames may or may not charge raocoins for replaying, we'll decide this during reward/raocoin balancing
Sidequests:
- Sidequests will follow this general format:
-- Player starts quest by interacting with a specific NPC/object and accepting their request/choosing to investigate further.
-- Player must complete one or more tasks (can be in a set order or any order the player wants)
-- Player finishes the quest by interacting with an NPC/object (doesn't have to be the same one that started it) once all tasks are done
- Sidequests-related UI, progress management, etc. will be implemented through an upcoming API (altruistX),
not cinematX's sidequest system
- Sidequest activities/sequences can be implemented through vanilla event/layer shenanigans or submitted as design plans/notes; we'll handle converting/implementing the necessary lua.
- Place a moon on a hidden layer near the NPC you plan to end the quest with as a placeholder reward.
- Additional guidelines for quests that require the player to do something out of town:
-- Could be in the hub, one or more previous towns or one or more levels in the same world.
-- Out-of-town quests will be run as self-contained scripts launched by altruistX in lunaworld (no changes to level or level's code will be necessary and quest scripts will only run in their respective level(s))
-- Get permission from/collaborate with the creator of a level or town before involving their level in a quest.
-- Likewise, consider allowing others to include your town in their quest.
-- Design them around mechanics/NPCs/objects/etc already present in the level.
--
Out-of-town sidequests may be left out of Ep. 2 if we don't end up with enough to justify their inclusion, so keep that possibility in mind.
- Example quests:
-- Talk to a cook, get asked to retrieve fruit. Player must collect at least 5 berries from 8 different spots in a level without getting hurt. Collect them all, return to the cook and get rewarded.
-- Mail carrier is bad at their job, dropped several packages (resprited mushroom blocks) throughout town. Find the packages and deliver them to the correct recipients based on given info ("the red one goes to this person", etc.), then return to the postal worker and get rewarded.
-- Someone wants a tour around town, agree to
escort them. After you take them there, finish the level and then meet back in town for a reward.
-- Sneak into a heavily guarded facility to retrieve the house keys someone dropped in there.
-- Kill X number of enemies from any level in the current world.