[WIP] "Don't Let Go" Full conversion with some neat features.

[Mooserider]

Hi. The other FC that I started didn't really go anywhere, but I've had a bunch of ideas for a new one:

"Don't Let Go"

Which follows Thomas Harriot, who has just recently bought a new home, only to find, of course, that something is up with it. I'm not saying a lot about the story as I want the player to find things out for themselves.

Now, bear with me, I know that premise is a little cliche but I'm making an effort to avoid being cliche in any other way. Regardless, the main thing I thought people would be interested in are the features I've planned.
Here's a list:

____________________________________________________________________________________


Definite features:

-Permadeath. Upon dying your saves will be deleted (Not sure if this will be possible, if it is I'll do it.)

-No monsters. Scares and encounters are scripted sequences - but encounters are still just as
life-threatening as in the original ATDD.

-Sanity plays a strong role. Your sanity can affect how you interact with things, what you see,
and the story as a whole. Your sanity, along with your health, also regenerates very, very slowly. Since there are no sanity potions, the only way to really regain sanity is to progress or perhaps go to certain "calming" areas.

-Dying is a VERY significant thing. You don't die in the typical way for Amnesia - if you fail
certain things in certain ways you're killed, and a cutscene-esque thing is played unique
to how, where and when you died.

-Non linearity. The story and events will play out differently depending on what you do and when you do it.

-Many endings. After seven days in the house the end-game is triggered if the story hasn't already ended via you being killed or ending it in some other way. Your ending is influenced by your actions during the story. Will you solve the mystery of the house or will the house consume you?

-No momentos or hints. It's up to YOU to put the pieces together and act accordingly.

-Unique key system: The player starts off with a key to each door in the house, as well as
the front door key. From an in-character angle they are kept on the player's keyring.
There are no "tags", the description of each key reflects what it actually looks like. They are all
named "Key". The player is not told which key leads to what door; they need to figure it out
for themselves, get familiar with the house, and memorize which key leads to what door.

When the player uses the corresponding key on a door, the door unlocks or locks respectively. During
encounters - during which there are more than one way to survive/escape I might add - the player may
need to quickly get inside a room and lock the door behind them.

...Or the keys may be knocked out of the player's "hand", and they'll have to either scramble to pick them up or just get away and return for them later.

Potential features:

-No special glowy items. Players cannot single out items by their glow and pick-up-able-ness. If it's
possible for an item to be used, you can pick it up, even if it actually does nothing.
(I thought in ATDD - Why do I know to pick up the hammer when I could have picked up the brick,
or the knife, or the tongs, etc etc.)

Also I'll add that there is no "Cannot use item this way!" If you try to use two things together that
could work but don't, there'll be a message saying how you used it and the result etc.

-No protagonist voices apart from during cutscenes (which are only actually there in endings or the intro) to improve immersion. I think it may be better if the player was left to their own thoughts and reactions, rather than their character telling the player how they are feeling.
____________________________________________________________________________________

I feel if all these things were able to be implemented it would make for an excellent FC. What's your opinion, particularly with the potential features? I'm really just after people's thoughts with this thread & the poll; so far the story is in pretty early stages. I'll upload a screenie when there's a completed scene done.

[Unearthlybrutal]

Very nice ideas"

[SilentStriker]

-No special glowy items. Players cannot single out items by their glow and pick-up-able-ness. If it's
possible for an item to be used, you can pick it up, even if it actually does nothing.
(I thought in ATDD - Why do I know to pick up the hammer when I could have picked up the brick,
or the knife, or the tongs, etc etc.)

That is only possible I think if you make a static entity of EVERY item or some other way, since you can not remove the glow by code if i'm not mistaken

[Statyk]

That is only possible I think if you make a static entity of EVERY item or some other way, since you can not remove the glow by code if i'm not mistaken

If you make a full conversion, you can edit the shaders, which is what make items glow blue. Another conversion already did it, but I forget the name.

[SilentStriker]

That is only possible I think if you make a static entity of EVERY item or some other way, since you can not remove the glow by code if i'm not mistaken

If you make a full conversion, you can edit the shaders, which is what make items glow blue. Another conversion already did it, but I forget the name.

Oh, that's good to know

[Your Computer]

If you make a full conversion, you can edit the shaders, which is what make items glow blue. Another conversion already did it, but I forget the name.

Deterioration

[Streetboat]

Beware: If you aren't careful, editing the .cfg in charge of that blue item glow can mess up your vanilla Amnesia. When I changed that part in Deterioration, every other mod and CS followed the same change, but it didn't bother me because I prefer it that way. Others may not agree.

[Mooserider]

I was going to just make item versions of a heap of props but just removing the glow is much more efficient now that you mention it, as long as I can make it work. Cheers

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Sounds like a very ambitious project... I hope you're not biting off more than you can chew. But since this isn't your first Custom Story (If I understood correctly) I'm quite confident that you'll succeed.

As for the planned features, I think most of them are pretty awesome. Not so sure about the key and locking doors thing though - personally I find dragging something in front of the door more immersive than opening my inventory and using something from there. But then again, I'm a great fan of minimal menus, HUD and UI so this could just be me.
Looking forward to further updates on this project

[Mooserider]

Sounds like a very ambitious project... I hope you're not biting off more than you can chew. But since this isn't your first Custom Story (If I understood correctly) I'm quite confident that you'll succeed.

As for the planned features, I think most of them are pretty awesome. Not so sure about the key and locking doors thing though - personally I find dragging something in front of the door more immersive than opening my inventory and using something from there. But then again, I'm a great fan of minimal menus, HUD and UI so this could just be me.
Looking forward to further updates on this project

Thanks for the feedback! Dragging something to a door would make sense, but you can't really store the keys in your pocket or inventory or whatever that way. I get where you're coming from though, I love minimal HUD and the like or if there's an in-game reason for the HUD to be there.
Also yeah I've worked a lot on various custom stories as well as a full conversion but I've never actually gotten anything to the point of being released. I'm quite sure I'll be finishing this one though