Okay so my newest crazy TotemHead idea is more of a continuation of previous ideas. The line idea was dropped due to complexity issues, but I'm moving on and trying to see how this whole maze mechanic will fit into the game. I like it. Below is a guide for each of the storyboard slides.
1) TotemHead is brought to life. This is the very beginning of the game, and the very first action you see as the player. The totem pole is brought to life and TotemHead is free to walk around the space using arrow keys or whatever control we end up with. 2) Once the player steps out of the shrine-stand bounding box, an invisible event is triggered that calls the squirrel onto the screen. He approaches TotemHead. 3) Now that the squirrel and TotemHead are standing face to face, it's time to interact with him. Some instructions pop up on the screen indicating that the user should click on the squirrel. | 4) When clicked on, a strange jibberish appears inside a dialogue box above the squirrel. 5) TotemHead cannot understand the jibberish and is instruction to draw a line between himself and the squirrel. 6) So now the user draws a line. This is NOT the complex meandering nonsense line I concocted in an earlier post, it's just a line. When the two characters are connected, the map can form. 7) Ta-daa! We have our map! Now all we have to do is figure out how this map actually WORKS. Sam and I are working on ideas for that. |
Once the maze is completed, TotemHead is able to open up dialogue with the squirrel. I'm toying with the idea of the jibberish line being a specific phrase that TH uncovers as he completes the maze. As TH navigates the maze, different symbols are converted into letters until either you figure out the maze (leaving the entire dialogue uncovered), or you know enough of the jibberish to figure out what the squirrel is trying to say and you can fill the rest in hangman style.