Project Journey Development Log 1 - Byte Off VI Planning and Ideation

So, Byte Off VI has started, and the announced theme for the year is "It's not about the Destination, it's about the Journey." So, how do we make a game where the entire point of the game is the journey?

The first instinct I had was to make a game out of one or two genres. The first is an RPG, but, as can be seen with the last development log for .sys//CRASH, doing so with the current version of NES Maker is more trouble than it is worth for my skill set. I'm still waiting on the next version/Retro Game Forge to tackle that again. So, option 2: an adventure game ala Zelda. With a genre chosen, what do I want the game to be about? What is the setting, what gets the players to set out on this journey? Why not replicate the best journey I personally have been on recently: adapting the Noss Saga by Joaquin Baldwin. Though, I guess this would kind of be a demake? And so we start with Wolf of Withervale.

Slight spoilers below for Wolf of Withervale by Joaquin Baldwin

So, we have to start with the planning, and with an adventure game, part of that planning is how the map will be laid out.

NESMaker gives us access to 256 "overworld" screens, with an addition 256 "underworld" screens for 512 screens total. This includes using some screens for the title screen, any menus,m credits, etc.

My first instinct, again, is to take the full overworld and translate the full Noss map to it.

If this were an RPG ala Final Fantasy, this could actually work. Unfortunately, in this case, not so much. As we can see, book 1 of the Noss Saga covers a rather small area of the whole world map.

So, if we condense the map down to just the areas explored during Wolf of Withervale, and potentially just down to the segments explored by Lago and his crew, we can add more detail, allowing greater map exploration, more varied locations to encounter enemies or regular NPCS, building interiors, and "dungeons".

And while I fully intend to complete the entire book "demake", for this Byte Off, I want to try and stick to something I think is achieveable: We are going to map out and adapt the start of the book: from when we gain control of Lago, to when the party escapes from Withervale and begins heading towards Thornridge.

How we are going to adpat that? That we shall tackle in Development Log 2.

For a quick preview, however: Diamond Cave - Creek - Mountain Pass - Fence - Mines - Hollows - Observatory - Home - School