The Woodcutter's Daughter

[TheAwfulWaffle 28]

The year is unknown and has been for some time.

 

Decades, perhaps centuries have passed from where you stand today and when the world came crumbling down. What was once a bright green future has turned into a barren wasteland in which no life can sustain itself. Human ingenuity kept your race alive, and now you all live underneath the ground which was once walked upon. However, no amount of cunning or quick-mindedness can save you from a natural death. Your resources are depleting rapidly, and your life support is running dry.

 

To be blunt, you are nearly out of water.

 

You are a Practitioner: A member of a controversial group created shortly after the world went to hell. Your organization has accomplished some of the greatest feats in this era, but at great costs to both the financial and moral well-being of the people. You are liked by few and respected by next to none aside from the rest of your peers. But this is not a popularity contest: What must be done, must be done.

 

Your group consists of some of the finest members to ever enlist in this service. You've all contributed plenty towards your name, defending the population from the horrors of the world above you. Today, you celebrate the seventh year anniversary since you all became a team. But tomorrow you carry the weight of a mission that no one before you has had to bear.

 

Tomorrow, you take an indefinite journey into the Outside. Your goal is to find water so those remaining can survive. If your team fails, the human race will die.

---

 

Gameplay

So, that's the pitch we're going to use for The Woodcutter's Daughter. But what is the game? What can you look forward to?

The Woodcutter's Daughter is an Adventure RPG set in a post-apocalyptic world. It is told in a chapter-based story format, and is dependent on the path you choose.

Your actions will have consequence. It will not always be bad, but it will always happen. Now, is every decision in the game like this? No, absolutely not. Some make a minute difference, and some make no difference at all. However, the absolute most important decisions in your game will be obvious. Ordering a grilled cheese in a diner will not determine who lives and who dies, but it might improve your mood enough to open some new dialogue. Choosing to assault your guards or sneaking out of prison may lead to someone being captured/killed depending on other factors. This isn't meant to keep you constantly guessing if you made the right choice. It's meant to give you a unique experience. The player is supposed to discover these things, not seek them out.

Let's move on to another important aspect. Exploring. Exploring is a pretty big part of this game. NPCs and objects aren't always just there for the sake of the environment. About 90% of this game has things that you can interact with. Some things will reward you for discovery, some things could possibly shape your story, and some are there just for fun. You should enjoy the world you're in, and I'm pretty confident that I've done a rather nice job of creating that world.

There are a few places that might pop up in this post, so just to let you know what they are I'll give you a short description.

The Compound: Where your team, other teams, and the Practitioners are stationed before combat. Traders and merchants are sometimes allowed, as well as scientists and researchers, but the Compound is often on lock-down. Why? Because not only does the Compound hold the majority of humanity's water supply, it also connects to the Outside.

EDIT: This is the first, albeit low-quality (I use free recording software) look at the Compound. Click here to take a peek.

The Outside: What earth used to be. It's a wasteland, only holding the most hardened of hostile creatures and remnants of what used to be. It is incredibly hot. Your team must wear protective gear to enter the Outside.

Nova: The big, big, BIG underground city. The central hub where people live, where businesses set up shop, where governmental procedures are conducted, so on and so forth. The Compound is connected to Nova, and other smaller, less significant towns connect to Nova as well.

That's all well and good. But what are you going to be doing in this game, then? What's the content? It's a complete quest-fest. You have your main objective, which is to find water. You can go full-red-zone on that objective and not worry about anything else in the game. However, it will not be an easy thing to do. And it will be a shorter game. Side quests aren't meant to be necessary, and if the player doesn't want to do them then they're not going to be heavily punished for it. Just keep in mind that a game that is heavily based on questing rewards you for doing more of those things. You will not be forced to do them, but they will help you with your game.

Can you fail your initial quest, though? Yes. You can never take a hit of damage and still lose the game because you failed to complete your initial mission. It doesn't matter if you've gotten to the highest level, if you don't find water, everyone will eventually die. Of course, this means the game can have multiple endings. I've gotten about four figured out so far, but I'd like to have around eight or ten.

Let's move on to something else in regards to gameplay.

In this game (this will be in the demo, please don't worry about spoilers right now), there are two formats of play. The first is... Well, your own. Your existence in the era you live in with your team, your occupation, your home, and your way of life. However, there will be things found along the way of your quest that are called 'fragments'. A 'fragment' is a literal piece of history, and has energies surrounding it that can be analyzed. (In order to save space, I have left out a bit of detailed explanations in the forum post. All of these things will be explained thoroughly throughout the game's development and in the game when it is released.) Doing so will transport you to the past, to another time before the apocalyptic nightmare that took place. For the sake of convenience, I'll refer to this as 'Memento mode'. In 'Memento mode', you will play as Madeline. She is the woodcutter's daughter. She is not a fighter, and thus you will not encounter combat in this mode. You will deal with things like questing, exploration, story-expansion, and perhaps some puzzles/problem-solving.

Again, HOW you solve your problems is more important that solving the problems themselves. Please note: Madeline WILL NOT BE KILLED as a result of your decisions. However, that does not mean that there will not be other consequences.

To sum this up, you are playing a story: Your story. You will uncover what happened, why it happened, and who was responsible for man's downfall. You will get to figure out how the world went from a lush paradise to the metal, underground fortress you live in now. You will get to mold both the past and the present. I'm the developer, the creator, and the owner of the content... But this is your game.


Past Times

I know what you're thinking. I just said the game's main focus was on exploration, so why would you need a past time? What purpose does it serve?

Well, it depends. Would you like to learn how to cook, to make food that will restore more health, focus, and energy as well as increase your team's morale (morale is a mechanic I'm working on, but is not currently implemented)? Or, perhaps you'd like to learn how to make armor? You could learn how to reinforce armor to make it more durable, lighter in weight, or simply just better. Maybe you're curious about this world's religion. Maybe you'd like to learn about the history before you, and how it affects you. Maybe you'd just like to learn how to better strike a conversation.

Past times are in the game to improve your content and experience. Not all of them will be immediately present, and they all do different things. Some will help you in combat, some will unlock different dialogues with characters, and some might add to the story. For example, if the player thinks they might like to learn Communication, it's possible that they can approach subjects more diplomatically than those who choose not to invest in this field. There is not a limit on how many past times the player can have, and that really depends on how long the player wants the game to be. I will let you know, however, that it is far more effective to invest more time into one past time than it is to invest little time into many. However, it is the player's choice. Past times are not necessary, but much like questing the player will be rewarded for doing the content (and not being harshly punished for skipping over it).

I have five past times in the game so far: Cooking, Armor-Making, Religious Study, Communications, and Historical Study. I would like to have a minimum of ten past times for the player to choose from.

**PLEASE NOTE**: These past times DO NOT change the player's or any other character's class/combat skills. Some are useful in combat, but it will not change what everyone is.

We'll move on to that, next.


Combat

5/23 UPDATE:

I'm going to be doing custom hand-drawn animations for battles. Short, 5-10 second clips of the characters performing their attacks.

One of the ideas I had was to make different animations based on the levels of the characters. As in, a lower level character might have a more basic animation for an attack, then develop a more flashy or impacting one as they gain experience.

I just got this uploaded, it's a basic wireframe sketch of what a low-level Enigma's attack might look like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qil5aUAACIo

I was going to do an animation of what a higher, more skilled level character would look like performing the same attack, but it's about 2 AM right now, so expect it to be updated sometime tomorrow.

As of 3/17/16, the combat is nothing spectacular. However, there are a few unique features.

Instead of Mana and TP, you have Focus and Energy. Every class requires both of these stats, some more than others. A Seeker will require a massive amount of focus in relation to energy (ranged combat), whereas a Brawler will require more energy than focus (physical combat) to deal greater damage. Enigmas require a great amount of energy, but needs a bit of focus to perform their abilities. Finding the balance for each class is important, but not hard to learn. The game will walk you through it in the early stages.

Your combat is meant to be skill-based. The different types of skills include: Physical, Ranged, Energy, and Defensive. The Player and Weasel both use Physical attacks, Seeker will use Ranged attacks, Enigma will use Energy attacks, and Alan will use both Physical attacks and Defensive skills. All characters will be given a base physical attack called 'Jab'. It's not good. It does very insignificant damage and is meant to be your last resort. I'm looking for a way to remove it entirely, but for now it's just something that exists.

The Player, as a brawler, will use fist weapons and claws-- One for each hand. Seeker will use a ranged weapon, starting off with a bow but may later discover rifles. Enigma will get to use a staff/stave. Alan, as you could imagine a Knight having, will be able to equip a sword and a shield. Weasel will have daggers that will also require both hands. If he does not have a dagger in each hand, he can not attack with his weapons (well, he can 'jab', if that remains in the game). The Player can use their attacks without fist weapons or with just one equipped, but it will not be nearly as effective.

Because the combat is so simple, I'm looking towards a way to make it more visually appealing. Battle animations, maybe longer, more detailed animations for special attacks, those kinds of things.

That is all I have on the combat, so far.

I suppose we can't really go forward until we meet our characters, now.

Main Characters

**Not all art here is original. As original art is created, content will be changed. Please also keep in mind that original art may also be altered later down the line. **

The Player

 

The Player is someone I can't really talk too much about. By which I mean, your story is your own.

What I can definitively tell you is that the character you play as in this game is a Brawler. The only customization you can make is the ten character 'enter-your-name' slot in the beginning. Your gender is undetermined. Your physical appearance (your sprite) can not be altered.
 

 

Enigma

 

An Enigma is very attuned towards energy, though no one is quite sure what makes them this way. Your team's Enigma is the youngest member in your group, very cheerful and passionate, and very, very loyal. However, her age tends to make her less emotionally stable than the rest of your team, and she's more likely to have more dramatic and extreme reactions towards pivotal events. She takes interest in cooking for a past time, and loves the color pink. Everything she can make pink is pink.

She's very close to Seeker, and thinks of her as a best friend and an older sister. She sees Alan as a brother-figure, as well.
 

The Enigma is the only class who has three different routes to specialize in: Archaic, Lifewarden, and Entropy. Archaic is relatively similar to the way she is initially played. It focuses more on dealing damage, but is still a very important support class. Lifewarden is, as you can guess, the healer option and will focus mostly on restoring life and granting buffs towards your party's damage. Entropy allows control over nightmarish energies that can be used to terrorize enemies, leading towards weakened attacks and even frantic panics to leave them immobile and stunned in battle.
 

Alan
 

Alan is the only member of the team (with the possible exception of The Player) who refuses to abandon his first name. The reason for this is that he doesn't believe his training defines him, and this is a common mindset in this field. His field of training is referred to 'Knight', skilled with the sword but moreso the shield. That means that he is the first line of defense. Alan's eager in combat, and will happily join you on any side adventures to practice his combat and reap the rewards.
 

Alan and Seeker are married, and have been for several years. He's generally a warm personality, though has the tendency to sometimes be deadpan and sarcastic.

Knights are a full support class. You can deal damage with them, yes, but if you choose to ignore Alan's defensive abilities then you're going to be seeing a lot of 'Game Over' on your screen. His defensive skills (what he's been trained for) can sincerely make the difference between life and death for your team.
 

Seeker

 

The Seeker is the only class of the Practitioners who will not always be trained/used for offense. While most of them prefer to fight in a team, some Seekers will be researchers and historians. Following the models of archaeologists and anthropologists, these types of Seekers dedicate their life towards observing the changes throughout the years. Seekers that take on the role of combat perform these jobs as well, but not to the same extent.

Your team's Seeker is very calm and composed, with a steady mind and a stable hand. Like the Enigma, she is able to use energy for attacks but does not control energy itself. Instead, the weapon she is able to use (bows and rifles) will be imbued with a 'synthetic' type of energy. To save space in this post I won't explain exactly how that works here, but it will be explained clearly by the time the game's demo is ready to play.

Seeker is married to Alan, and is a close friend of your team's Enigma. She's warm towards The Player and Weasel, as well, but she discloses very little about herself. She's a history-buff, obsessed with when the world was once green and full of life-- Even though she's never seen it, herself.


Weasel

 

If you were comparing this class towards a traditional RPG class, then I suppose it would be a rogue. However, I hesitate to call it that, because a Weasel is much more. A Weasel must possess several skills and qualities: First, to be swift. If the student can not complete certain trials of speed, then they aren't permitted to follow the lessons. Second, to be able to identify weaknesses/certain points in targets that would benefit themselves. These could critically hit an opponent, or if something is terribly wrong with your own team, a Weasel could identify it so the team would know where to improve. And thirdly, the Weasel must be able to build and engineer their own objects. Objects include, but are not limited to, explosives, weapons, appliances, and armor modifications.

The Weasel isn't just a stabby-stab-stab class. Every single one of these human beings is incredibly intelligent. You have one on your team. Use him for what he's trained to do. He's mostly skilled in engineering explosives, and dabbles in a bit of armor modification. He is very quiet, and doesn't give his opinion very often unless it has to do with tactical planning, or if someone asks it of him. Despite being a bit anti-social, he's rarely wrong about what he observes. Having been trained to spot enemy weakness as well as knowing the strength of his team is vital in combat. The Weasel knows how important it is that they're effective and efficient. Your team's Weasel is very reliable.

I know I've said it a hundred times, but seriously. You'll find that it's a good idea to harness each member's abilities to be used to the fullest potential. Obstacles, enemies, roadblocks... Sometimes, when it's possible, it's just quicker and easier to just blow it all up.
 

Madeline



This is the woodcutter's daughter. She lives in government housing with her mother and several other young women. She is the one who has left behind the fragments, though whether this was intentional or just something that happened is not known until much later in the game.

Madeline always speaks positively of her father and often misses him. She has a very close connection with her mother, as well. She does not have any siblings. While she is a friendly person, the only true friend she has is a girl around her age named Karen.

You will play as Madeline when you are accessing the fragments in 'Memento' mode. Remember, Madeline will not be killed because of the decisions you make, but will be affected by them.

I'm not really good at drawing cute, younger girls, so I have a feeling that Madeline will be the one who's most edited over the course of the game's creation.

Nashtavara:
 

The only things you need to know about this character right now is that she is self-motivated and incredibly violent. Nashtavara is a huge part of this game, and an obstacle that will not be easy to get around. You won't meet her until later on, but your interactions with her are very, very important.
 

Minor/Unmentioned Characters

There will be many characters in this game that are more than just some lady in a park talking about her cat Chippy. However, for the sake of space, I'm going to leave them out of this forum post.


Artwork and Music

 

All final artwork and music will be completely original. There are substitute images and sounds in the game until I can work on the final pieces, but I will randomly do a little bit of art at a time. I'm not doing the artwork first, as it'll be easier to add it at the very end when everything's built into the game. Here's a couple of pictures to give you a preview of the style and quality.

As you can probably tell, some of the line art is clunky. The right half of my right hand has recently been affected with numbness and it can be very hard to use a stylus. So, these pictures, the character icons, and other images may later be edited to have a smoother appearance. Nothing here is final.






In-Game Screenshots
 

These are required, even though right now they're not very attractive. This will, of course, change later on.

(You approach a Practitioner in the Compound who tells you a little about himself.)

(You begin your mission to find water-- Time is of the essence.)


(Your room in the beginning of the game.)




Features

I've already gone over most of the features of this game, so I'll just list this as kind of a summary section. This concerns the final product.

+ Completely original music and art.
+ Weighted dialogue/interactions between your character and the other characters in this game.
+ Multiple endings based around your game choices.
+ Animated cutscenes.
+ Many, many, many side-quests that will impact your game but are not necessary to complete.
+ Skill-based combat, which differs for every class.
+ At least 10 pastimes.


Follow Development

This game is still very far from completion. Website is not available right now.


Credits

Original Artwork: Self (CynaMarqi)

Stock Imagery/Music/Programming: RTP

(This is all for now, this may be edited in the future.)
 

Edited May 23, 2016 by CynaMarqi

[Tsarmina 2,612]

I have decided that I love this idea.

 

It's this well-developed, you-determine-your-own-fate concept that I think should really be expanded on more in games, especially well (that's the key, and it seems like you've put some great thought into your system! ) The storyline is very nice as well--it has a simple aim (get water->don't die) but offers a lot of side chances to do kinda whatever you want. And I dig that. 

 

I always have great respect for custom art as well (them artist instincts never leave), so I'm suitably impressed that you're undertaking something this large. Best of luck! c: I like the party structure and classes you've set up as well. It's so unique--probably fitting for a postapocalyptic game--but I love the diversity and flexibility that it offers.

 

I feel like I would totally die within twenty minutes of starting this game, but I'm interested in your development hehe ^^ Keep us updated!

[TheAwfulWaffle 28]

Thanks, Red, it might take some time but it'll definitely deliver.

UPDATE:

I took a bit of a sabbatical to take care of some health concerns. Back in the saddle, now. Sometime next week (date to be confirmed and will be added later) 'The Woodcutter's Daughter' will have a YouTube page with more information/a preview of the gameplay/story behind it... Updates will be made to that channel at least once a month. Thank you for following!

[Whiona 310]

Well, this sounds really interesting! I like the focus on completing quests - you can just gun for the ending if you want, but if you take your time with the game, you'll be rewarded. Also, the Seeker's design is great! I love the CG of her. Look at that big smile. ;u; I agree with Tsarmina about the story. It's very straightforward, but in a good way, and the plot could go in all kinds of different directions. It lends itself well to a game that's all about choices and consequences.

 

Glad to hear that you're healthier again, and I'll look forward to seeing that video!

[TheAwfulWaffle 28]

Thanks much!

I did manage to get a very small something done that introduces the starting area of the game as well as some of the features. You can click this to view it. It's also included in the blog post.

[Whiona 310]

Sorry I'm so late to reply to this!! I must have missed it in my notifications. Very cool video! It seems like you have a wide variety of character interactions going on - that's great to see. I'm looking forward to exploring the compound and seeing how these conversations change as the story progresses.

 

I know you said the video is pre-everything and there are many placeholders, but I feel like I should point out that the wall in the main character's room did look a bit off. If you want to add a divider in the middle of a room, try something a bit more like this. It also looked strange how the doors to people's rooms were attached to extremely low walls. (But if you just did that to quickly get the general layout of the compound down and intend to heighten the walls later, then that's fine.)

[TheAwfulWaffle 28]

Yeah, most of what's there is there just for show right now. The entire thing is getting a graphic makeover, but that's going to be the very last thing I do. It's just easier for me to add the all of the new imagery after the game is built. I've already gone through about 5 faces for each main character's profile, hehe.

[Tarq 746]

I'm surprised this game isn't getting more attention. There's a lot of room for improvement judging from the screenies but the concept has plenty of potential; if properly implemented, the scope of this project is huuuge (that's not a typo, you have increased the length of the word!).

 

Anyways, GL with this. Maybe give us some more frequent updates, hmm? HMM?

[TheAwfulWaffle 28]

Heh, welp, thank ya first and foremost.

I haven't been updating this page or the website because I just got settled from college, and I maaaay have had a computer wipe because it got fried. So I lost everything and I've had to start from the beginning. Which wasn't that bad, I was stuck on the combat system (and still am). But now I'm taking the placeholder graphics and I'm starting to build depth to them. In short, there hasn't been much to update as of yet other than concepts which are in this blog that I ramble aimlessly in.

When something's set in stone, I'll update this section. I might push the combat aside for a little while and just work on other facets of the game to make progress. Probably gonna crank some better art out over the next couple of days (plus I've gotta finish that damn webpage).

[TheAwfulWaffle 28]

BUMP FOR SLIGHT UPDATE... In the combat section, a video link has been added. It's a 10 second animation of an attack. Details are in the post itself.

More coming tomorrow, right now I gotta bed. Nearly 2 AM.