27 replies to this topic

[11clock]

What I haven't seen in an RPG church that happens alot in real life is a... church service! (Mass, if you're Catholic). That would be interesting.

This could be really interesting. You sit through a SHORT sermon(preacher reads a random real/made up proverb), and then everyone has to sing a hymn. Add in a mini game where the player has to match the notes, just using the arrow keys, up, down, left right, and you hit it on time. On success(or partial success) of the mini game you get... buffs, one-time use item, etc. a worthy award atleast. You could easily get sound samples for this using the choir voice effects from a MIDI keyboard. I'd say I could sample them for you, but I don't like to make promises i cant keep. You can download free sound editing programs and virtual MIDI keyboards though and you'll need something called soundfonts. If i were gonna do it I would use a soundfont called Chaos something or other and StudioONE, but there are plenty of other programs. Just google search and I'm sure you can find them yourself. Or keep bugging me enough and I'll make them for you, but I encourage the DIY attitude more. XD

And if you dont think i'm giving you enough information, thats because to find this stuff, the only person I asked was google. You can do it if you want it enough.

That's an interesting idea, but I can see it getting rather tedious.

[howzer]

That's an interesting idea, but I can see it getting rather tedious.

The idea isnt that it should be very time consuming or required. Perhaps it only happens if you go and actually sit in a pew. Just a little bonus feature adding depth/immersion. Probably a better idea conceptually than realisticly, unless you have the team/resources ready.


Or on second thought you could take it the other direction. Hymns could be an entirely added part of the game that are used like spells, and you must complete the hymn for a successful cast. You learn hymns by completing so many times, or maybe each different church has a different hymn to learn. Perhaps in actually use you only have to "sing" a short part of the hymn.

EDIT:
Or it doesn't even have to do anything. You sit through church, copy the notes of the hymn. Then later on you find a mausoleum or tomb or some such. When you reach the door of the tomb, the musical bars appear like they do in the church, but this time the notes aren't there for you to match, you must remember the song yourself to open the door.(perhaps there could be a cheat, where in the church you can find a hymn book, dont forget clues to hint this too)
It could be an important part of the story, or it could just be an overly elaborate easter egg(such as an uber-weapon). Just remember to make the reward worthy of the task.

EDIT AGAIN:

Perhaps this tomb could contain the "legendary sword" required to defeat the final boss. If you follow the story directly it will lead you to take the hymn book and automaticaly open the door near the end of the game. If you figure it out on your own, you can gain access the weapon at any time.

Edited by howzer, 15 June 2012 - 04:52 AM.

[Super Guy]

I was thinking of having a few services. One of them is confession, but I think it is a bit odd that you can just go confess without a price and the citizens immediately love you again...

What should you have to do/give in return?

[GameDevDan]

I liked the church in Dragon Quest IX. You can resurrect fallen party members and save the game there.

[Kawasaki Games]

Depending on the level of freedom in your game and it's story you may want to make the church an optional thing that people can use if needed. If used with fictional, in-game gods this may not be a big deal, but if the church is based on an already existing god then it may make some people feel uncomfortable if they are forced to participate and making said church optional would prevent this from happening.

[{UM} GHILLI]

But that would make it pointless.

It depends. Does your game have a made-up religion, a RL religion, or an unclarified religion (never really announced)? Some useful stuff could be healing, saving your progress, and praying to activate certain benefits. Or you can do it Bastion-style and have it so that you can use the church to activate handicaps that make the game harder but you get more rewards in return.

Not everything in the game has to serve a gameplay purpose. A lot of things in games just tell the story and shape the atmosphere.

The point of my suggestion is that it's very similar to how real-life religion works. If someone breaks their arm, they might go to the church and pray for it to heal quickly, but I very much doubt a light will literally shine upon them and they get all their health back; more likely, they'll feel better about their arm and feel like it's healing pretty well. So, at the designer's discretion, it could affect the player character or not, but not visibly, leaving the player to decide for himself whether he believes he's received a benefit or not. Or, in other words, whether he has faith in the game's deity that he just prayed to. There should be something that tells the player that praying does indeed do something good for him, but not something 100% reliable, like the interface, but rather a character or something. And possibly another character that tells you he doesn't believe in that stuff. The important thing is that the player has to question himself on whether or not to have faith in prayer and whether he should pray more.

This is pretty unconventional stuff, I know, but I think it would be really interesting.

Now that you explained it that way, it actually makes a lot of sense... and is definitely more realistic.

Games don't have to be realistic. It's a freaking video game, take advantage of that. It doesn't have to follow the rules of reality.

I don't care much either way, but I'd prefer for the church to have a use in this game. I'm all for more gameplay elements, and I think that a clear use would be more interesting than an unclear one.

You're right, they don't have to be realistic. But to me, I find it more impressive when a developer goes out of their way to make the video game more 'life-like'.

That and the idea of 'messing' with the player psychologically is rather interesting.
Provide the player with an opportunity to gain a reward, but do not guarantee the reward.
The player has to decide if the 'reward' even exists and if it's worth his/her time to go an obtain it.

Perhaps if the player "believes" that the reward exists (he consistently goes to the church and receives his reward) the reward will actually become "real".

[EJRobertson]

I've placed a Church in my game and it's used solely for the Storyline progression. I'm planning on adding perhaps a side quest located there however.

It's a good place for Horror.

[PetzI]

You're right, they don't have to be realistic. But to me, I find it more impressive when a developer goes out of their way to make the video game more 'life-like'.

That and the idea of 'messing' with the player psychologically is rather interesting.
Provide the player with an opportunity to gain a reward, but do not guarantee the reward.
The player has to decide if the 'reward' even exists and if it's worth his/her time to go an obtain it.

Perhaps if the player "believes" that the reward exists (he consistently goes to the church and receives his reward) the reward will actually become "real".

Exactly my point =)