Keepsake Info

[Cl�mentXVII]

Yeah, Morte was a bit like that.

Planescape:Torment is my all-time favourite PC RPG... it can be compared to an adventure game (except for the combats, of course), because the storyline is really deep, and you get attached to the main character. It's become hard to find now (released in Nov. 1999). If you get the opportunity to try it out, give it a go!

[shae]

Je n'ai pas de pr�f�rence entre la version anglaise et francaise, les deux sont aussi int�ressante a jouer!

What's your native language? Or is it both? :)

You have Lydia who is the main character, Zak who is your sidekick and that follow you everywhere, and there are 7 NPC through out the game.

While generally I prefer crowded worlds, it can work well depending on the framework. The Dig had very few characters but was still extremely nice.

Why did you choose to have only 7 NPCs?

Any idea why there hardly are crowded adventures (or even none)? It could be nice having crowds of tens and hundreds, even if they are minimally interactive filler. Lack of populace brings about gloominess (though in this case it appears intended).

[Wicked_Kesalas]

Our native language is french (we live in Montreal, Qc), and we all got to learn english with school and TV and friends hehe.

As for the NPC, well it fit well in our setting. You enter an empty school of magic and it's really hard to have tons of NPC's because well, the school wouldn't be empty anymore. But also, if these NPC's are there, how come they have no idea of what happened!? How can they have missed the dissapearance of hundreds of students and school staff? Why are they still in the school? What can they bring to the story? How can we make them all look suspect and at the same time not suspect at all?

These are the questions (and tons more) we asked ourselves when creating the NPC's, so we made a list and picked the ones that fitted the most in our story and setting.

Why adventure games don't have tens and hundreds of NPC's... well there is a lot of factor to consider:

- Time to create them
- Time to animate them
- Time to give them a personnality and a purpose

Then you have to check after, is it worth to pass so much time working on a character that has only one or two lines to say that people won't notice too much?

There is also questions about: does the engine support it? Would the game keep running smoothly with all of these NPC's? Will players managed to remember the important NPC's out of the crowd of "useless" ones?

I think that mostly sums it up

PS: Sorry for the late reply shae!

[shae]

These are the questions (and tons more) we asked ourselves when creating the NPC's, so we made a list and picked the ones that fitted the most in our story and setting.

Yes, I acknowledge some scenarios benefit from emptiness.

- Time to create them
- Time to animate them
- Time to give them a personnality and a purpose
...
There is also questions about: does the engine support it? Would the game keep running smoothly with all of these NPC's? Will players managed to remember the important NPC's out of the crowd of "useless" ones?

There are tools for crowd creation. I suppose a lot of it could be automatic -- mix and match model parts, textures, animations. Personality could be minimal and semi-random, only enough AI to make the characters *appear* purposeful. Most of them should only be there to fill up the world. Will players remember the important NPCs? Of course. In the real world, while going through a crowded street, people have no trouble recognizing "significant" people.

Sure, it'd require engine support, but that's part of the deal; broadening the possibilities by improving engines or creating new ones. There are existing example of crowds, and they aren't even too recent. Serious Sam (by Croteam) had relatively large amounts of enemies. Urban Chaos (Mucky Foot) and GTA 3 (Rockstar) did rather nice simulations of living worlds. There's still a lot to do, but if 3D action games from 3-4 years ago could handle it, surely a more paced adventure game can, and even better considering the improvements in CPU/GPU power.

[imported_imported_Crow]

On the screenshots we havent seen a lot of characters. How many NPCs will be in the game?

You have Lydia who is the main character, Zak who is your sidekick and that follow you everywhere, and there are 7 NPC through out the game.

That's not very much ... is it part of the story? (Lydia starts at an empty acadamy) And how many lines of dialog are used then when there are no people araound?

Hehehe our NPC's are really integrated in the story and will speak a bit more then NPC's in other adventure games. You will as well see some of them under different circumstances. Also, don't forget Zak who follow you everywhere... maybe you will wish he wouldn't speak so much sometimes

I'll see ... different circumstances ... was hoping you say something like that. And I don't mind it's too much for me. For example it's an often wished feature in rpgs that the companions have more ..hmm, how I say it, get their own life?
By the way, the first impression I've got of Keepsake was: Hey, this looks like Neverwinter Nights! (if you choose a fermale magican or sorceress plus companion you know what I mean) I hope you allow me this comparison... ;-)

Regards,
Crow