I am the Architect, here to tell you about my vacation with my girlfriend, my sister and my sister's boyfriend visiting my brother and my brother's girlfriend in Helsinki, Finland.
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What? Of course my vacation is Tale of Omni-related! Whilst I did not make anything on the game throughout my trip to Helsinki, Omni never truly left my mind, and a lot of my trip ended up as inspiration for the game. We all need fuel, and I believe inspiration is a fascinating topic!
Flight of Patterns
Kicking off the vacation, first I had to get to Helsinki. The traveling was done by plane, and it was a 1½ hour flight. I did not sit by the window, so inspiration was less composed of beautiful vistas, and more so of the book I brought with me on this trip: Game Programming Patterns by Robert Nystrom. I read some of the book both going to and from Helsinki, but I only made it through the first part of the book, which is kind of a recap of some patterns from Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson and John Vlissides. Nonetheless it was well written and had me reflect upon my own code and how to improve aspects of it. I am looking forward to read the rest of the book, and I look forward to implement these new ideas.
One of these ideas was the use of observer objects to keep track of different things, such as achievements (as the book exemplifies). Especially in the case of our quest log system this approach can be giving. This pattern also mixes quite well with my trigger system, as the broadcasting functions can be used to pick up on specific events happening.
Another idea is the use of prototype objects. I have been using a similar pattern for a while, which I named "sibling objects", but in the chapter about prototypes (chapter 5) it was made clear for me, how I could improve on it, and how giving it could be to, for example, use a prototype object for both the player and AI controlled objects, and then combine this with the use of a state machine. In relation to this, the book also supplied some more tips and tricks concerning the use of states, which made me want to use them more.
There were a couple of more things I picked up from the book, and I believe I can learn tons from it. If you are interested in me going in-depth with what I read or the systems I develop for Tale of Omni, feel free to let me know on Twitter. You can write either @BlessHayGaming or @TaleofOmni - I am the one managing both accounts, so if you write, I am the one responding.
Anyway, that was the flight covered, lots happened at Helsinki as well:
Helsinki's Nature
We arrived pretty late on Saturday, ate pizza at the airport, and then went to our Airbnb and slept. Sunday we went to my brother's place, and then went for a walk in a large park. There is nature everywhere in Helsinki, all around the city. Lot's of actual parks too, and we went to one of the largest we could find nearby: "Månsasparken".
After walking for a while all six of us, following the main roads, my brother and his girlfriend had to go, and the rest of us chose to follow a smaller, cliffy path instead.
This detour led us to some beautiful sights with mountainy ground, and this whole mix of mountain grounds and nature inspire me in relation to the beginning of Tale of Omni, where you are on a mountain - I want to inject more nature into it: Bushes, trees, tufts.. And also rocky overlays, to break up some of the repeating tile sets.
We also found a small, old camp fire area hidden between some rocks, which I will draw upon when designing some fireplaces around the world, for the royal soldiers coming for Omni.
Lastly I found a good cliff wall to inspire some of the textures in the game:
It is some very generic findings, but it is sights that relate to the area we are currently designing, and we cannot find cliffs like these in Denmark. I am well aware that these are not exact mountains, but it can still inspire the feel of the place.
Tourists
Even though my brother has been living in Finland for around half a year now, this was my first trip to Finland ever. This meant that we spend a lot of time being tourists and taking in the city of Helsinki. In one of the souvenir shops we entered, I found a row of stone face figures. I am not sure if they are going to fit Tale of Omni, but I found them cool looking, and will keep them ready as inspirational material. In the world of Tale of Omni a lot of the environment will hint at a rich history, and they could inspire some fun stories..
Not everything inspiring will be of direct use - but I believe it is better to find a lot of inspiration and distill it, rather than working from a limited set of materials.
We were also at the Suomenlinna fortress, which was also a very much inspiring trip. In the latter part of Tale of Omni he arrives at the Queen's castle, and I believe a fortress is great inspiration for this area. Partly Omni has to sneak into the castle, and this fortress has a lot of dark, dark hallways and rooms..
Also, as you close in at the castle, you will come up against mechs, and a look inside a sub-marine may supply us with a nice, steam-punk-y, feel for them:
I also found some cool decorations around a church composed of huge chains, and I believe this could look cool in Tale of Omni as well.
And lastly, I found a gravestone, which just looked great, and which I might use in relation to Omni's parental figure, and which sparked some ideas which we have already discussed at one of our team meetings back in Denmark.
Now, I have shown a lot of images, trying to cover the inspirational sights, but these hardly scratch the surface. Not everything will be used, and the inspiration will properly be a looming factor, and not a direct "then this lead to this, and this became that". I do believe, however, that the sights and impressions will have an impact on the game, and having read this blog post, maybe you will be able to spot some of these.
Either way I hope you enjoyed this write. I will go work on the game now, whilst the inspiration lasts.
This website is fantastic. If you've got your language of choice under your belt, it explains some common design patterns, from a game development standpoint.
http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/
Bad news:
Pretty much every I've done so far is like a half-envisioned / ignorant attempt at doing these, so I have to eventually rework everything again. Oh well.
