Quests and Scenario

Learn Content
,
1

Hey fellow Chop-Choppers!
Now that we have the quest system ready to be tested (almost) and the diagram for quests ready to be drawn, let’s discuss the quests of the game.

In this thread we’re going to talk about the story of the game, from start to finish. The story will be recounted in the form of quests that will help the player navigate the whole game.

We want to discuss the story and the quests so that we can implement them in the game, and start designing/creating special items and dialogue when needed.

To be more efficient, we came up with a diagram that will help the team and the community catch up quickly with the thread.

6741166--776860--diagram final.PNG
6741166--776860--diagram final.PNG1036×771 39.2 KB

The legend for this diagram is as follows.

6741166--776551--Legend.PNG
6741166--776551--Legend.PNG385×794 16.7 KB

A Quest is represented by the red diamond shaped diagram.
The rectangle is a Step of the quest.
Blue rectangles represent the step a player needs to complete in order to win the quest.
The purple rectangles represent the final step / The one where the player gets a reward.
The yellow rectangle is for the character you interact with, when a step requires an interaction.
The half circle is for the location this quest will start in.
A quest can start in a location and have step in different places.
The dotted rectangle containing the quests is the group this quest is in.

-The quest is a list of steps.
-A step can be : An interaction with a character. Getting an ingredient. Fighting a critter. Discovering a new place. Preparing a dish ….
-Quests are divided into groups
-Quests in one group can be activated unorderly.
-Groups need to be activated orderly. Items from one group will be needed in the next group.
Quests can be :
-Simple: A Quest needs an input (item) and has a reward (item).
-Complex : A Quest can have multiple inputs (items), multiple actors and multiple rewards.

Useful links
Game Flow Diagram Discussion
Quest System thread
Quest System card
Game Flow Diagram on Miro

1 Like
2

This might be mixing things up a little bit too late in the game, but I’ve always liked quests that require both character and environment interactions. And it’s really cool when the character makes a discovery that changes the player’s expectations at the end of a quest.

Also, one thing I’ve thought about is why the NPCs who have all these recipes haven’t entered the cooking contest on their own. One way to solve that is to have the quests take an unexpected turn, which gives you a recipe that no one else has.

Here’s an example:

  • Meet with the Bard Hare, who informs you that he is cooking his family’s secret sugar soup recipe.
  • However, the Bard Hare has been too focused on playing his music to keep an eye on it.
  • The Bard Hare offers to teach you the recipe if you go to his house and stir it to make sure it’s not sticking to the pot
  • You go to his house and, unsurprisingly, it is on fire
  • You find a way to put out the fire, then go inside
  • After cooking in the intense heat of the house fire for so long, the sugar soup recipe has actually formed rock candy!
  • So now you walk away from the quest as the only one on the island that knows how to make rock candy

After several quests like this, the protagonist should have a collection of unique recipes. Then, perhaps combining all of these recipes into one giant recipe, you get a truly unique dish that will dazzle the Fry King. I think this would build a sense of progression and has the potential to be an addictive gameplay loop. With each quest, the player will wonder what twist lies at the end.

For the example quest that I gave with the Bard Hare above, it would require some additional work on the quest system. I’m happy to work on this implementation, if needed. Some additional StepTypes that would need to be implemented in the quest system for this particular example include: (1) Go to Location (check when player arrives at Bard’s house), and (2) Check Game State (for when Bard’s house = not on fire). Both of these would be pretty easy additions to the current system.

To keep the player on track if they haven’t advanced past a particular step, it would be easy enough to add a little thought bubble over the protagonist’s head. Just like the bard’s lost sitar quest demonstration in the last live stream (EP. #6), the player will be reminded of the step via thought bubble dialogue until is completed. Ex: if the player hasn’t found a way to put out the bard’s house fire, a thought bubble might appear : “Hmm…I really ought to find a way to put out this fire before the house burns down!” Maybe this could even be extended to give hints if the player is stuck : “I wonder if I could use this bucket for anything…”

3

I like unexpected turns! And these little disasters where accidentally something good comes out of it. We could include some humour in the story. Perhaps this sugar soup is something that you will initially cook with Bard Hare, so that you have a good reason to go gather some ingredients while learning the game’s mechanics. Maybe it would consist of some [Slime Critter Eggs]( 3D art assets page-4#post-6727291) (Beach) and [Plant Critter Seeds]( 3D art assets page-4#post-6731773) (Glade). Once you have them, you cook together with Bard Hare while he starts singing and telling you more about the Festival and this awesome soup. And while he does, perhaps our little Phoenix Chick starts nibbling some of those seeds in the background. A few moments later it leaves a small burp or sneeze (it’s a baby after all, it’s cute) right on the pot, completely burning down its content. And that’s how the Rock Candy has been bestowed upon this world. Plus you learn that the chick exhales fire and you can actually use it for cooking. And obstacles burning, as it’s probably pretty intense (even for a baby!).

2 Likes
4

I really like this take on it. Good opportunity for linking story, gameplay tutorials, and even a dose of humor, which is always a good thing in my opinion. Good job!

1 Like
5

So then, combining these ideas, I think the flowchart for this questline would look like this… Note that I added grey blocks for additional info and a green block for triggering actions, like cutscenes.

6764602--781363--beach_mission_diagram.png
6764602--781363--beach_mission_diagram.png1674×1704 114 KB

And I had a bit of a story idea to tie this all together. My understanding on the story so far is that the narrative beats have pretty much been figured out, but they haven’t been given a specific narrative treatment yet.

If that is the case, this is my proposal (and maybe there’s a better sub-forum to post this in…if so, I’ll repost there):

  • Hamlet is a pig in a state of relative comfort, but looking for greater glory. When he learns about an island that holds an annual cooking festival and that the winner of the festival gets a great prize, he sets off to join the competition.
  • He gets into his boat and heads off for the island. In a cutscene aboard his little wooden boat, he explains to the Phoenix Chick his strategy for winning the cooking competition. The Phoenix Chick doesn’t prove to be a great conversationalist…all of his replies to Hamlet’s detailed explanations are just “chirp.” Still, Hamlet doesn’t mind. He’s just happy to have someone to talk to about the competition.
  • Hamlet approaches the island…for some reason, his boat crash lands on impact.
  • Hamlet emerges from the wreckage and explores the beach front…eventually he meets the Bard Hare
  • Excited to finally have someone to talk about the competition with, Hamlet asks the Bard Hare if he’s joining in the competition
  • The Bard Hare says that he is, as is almost everyone on the island…then he reveals that they are all being kept prisoner by the head chef who demands the perfect dish…and the prize for winning the competition? Freedom. It’s not that the head chef is evil or anything…he’s just a perfectionist.
  • But the Bard Hare has a problem…he hasn’t been able to enter the competition for the past two years because the Slime Critter population has really grown…and Slime Critters are their Sweet Eggs are the main ingredient in his masterpiece Sugar Soup recipe…he asks if Hamlet could help him with his nifty little cane
  • If accepted, the player searches for the Slime Critter nest and destroys those Slime Critters defending it…then he scoops up the eggs and returns them to the Bard Hare
  • That’s when the Bard Hare remembers that the last time he entered his Sugar Soup recipe, it was too sweet for the head chef’s liking…so he asks if Hamlet can get him some Tart Plant Critter Seeds to balance out the flavor
  • If accepted, the player get the Plant Critter Seeds and returns to the Bard Hare
  • Then, the player finds a cauldron and cooks the Sugar Soup recipe
  • He and the Bard Hare each have a bowl while sitting and discussing the competition. The Bard Hare reveals that he has taken up playing the sitar to pass the time.
  • During their discussion, the Phoenix Chick eats a leftover Slime Critter Egg and lets out a forceful sneeze, directing an intense ray of fire at the cauldron holding the Sugar Soup.
  • This flash cooks the soup, drying up all the liquid, and forming Rock Candy with the remaining sugar…now the player has a Rock Candy recipe.
  • Hamlet could probably win the competition with just the Rock Candy recipe, which he thinks about doing briefly…but he looks over at the Bard Hare playing a sullen tune on his sitar…he decides that his goal is not only to win the competition, but to help his friend escape the island…so Hamlet decides to continue exploring ways to help the Bard Hare
  • Along the way, Hamlet meets several other characters that are also prisoner on the island and are taking part in the competition just to earn their freedom…for each character that Hamlet interacts with, he’ll learn a unique recipe
  • By the end of the game, Hamlet will make a truly unique recipe that combines ALL of the recipes he learned from the characters he has interacted with.
  • Once the final dish is presented to the Fry King, he is amazed and asked how Hamlet was able to pull off such an amazing dish.
  • Hamlet says that this dish combined the recipes of all the other characters that he met, so it’s a shared victory.
  • Hamlet wins the competition and earns the freedom of all of his friends by convincing the Fry King that the winning dish was a result of combining everyone’s recipes.
2 Likes
6

Hey @calculus7 , thought about providing some feedback and additions to the above well-structured diagram!

I am not sure whether Hamlet arrives at the island because of the cooking festival, I was thinking this was just another stop in one of his adventures.

Cute, I like that! Mr VanDough is about to have his mind blown with all these truths (I really liked the name that was proposed in the livestream! Since FryKing has only one ear :smile:)
Now looking at the Beach – Glade/Forest 1 group, taking into consideration the above but also @NicknEmart suggestion in his [Beach Whiteboxing]( https://discussions.unity.com/t/812566 page-2#post-6546943) :
I guess the bigger task in the start of the Game is to get that Key Ingredient C, that is one of the 4 for the winning recipe (I guess for the next areas, again, the bigger quest would be “Get Ingredient A” and so on). To get that Key Ingredient C, you have 2 sub-quests:

  • Go through the tutorial (without interacting with any characters just yet)
  • Learn about the Festival and get a cool recipe to start with, which is the one that will give you the Key Ingredient

(Hope I used the legend right. I also added an extra bubble to indicate where we could have cinematics and implicit missions, I like how these were implemented in the above diagram. Plus some “comic relief” moments if we 'd like them)

6809399--790334--Beach-Glade quests.jpg

So I guess this could require adding the following tasks (just to realize the scope of it and as a pool for ideas now that we have the related threads created):

Animation

  • Tree shaking once hit by cane, dropping a fruit.
  • Barrel breaking into pieces once hit (case 1)
  • Barrel opening (case 2)
  • Bard Hare surprised as you land on his cooking spot and begins the dialogue.
  • Bard Hare singing
  • Hamlet stirring the pot?
  • Tikki picking on seeds
  • Tikki burping fire on cauldron (best animation task ever)
  • Hamlet patting Tikki’s back like nothing happened, while
  • Bard stares at the cauldron in despair insert drama here

Cinematics:

  • Arrival at beach
  • Showing (destroyed?) barrels scene
  • Hamlet and Bard chilling, then the Tikki accident happens and the cinematic ends with both characters looking at the Rock Candy in awe.

3d Art:

  • Bard Hare’s house – probably a big tree with two entrances (holes?doors?) one at the Beach and one at the Glade to serve as Scene Loading point (we will never see its interior). This is both to justify the barrels and the To Do list at the Beach, but also justifying the Bard Hare cooking and being in Glade, he could be using both areas.

Any feedback also welcome!

2 Likes
7

@calculus7 what I also find cool about the Rock Candy, is the fact that this accident could have a domino effect in the whole game.
Idea for Rocky Path:
For example, we have this Rocky Path area where we will find the Rock Critters. Now we need to find a Key Ingredient in that area too, which makes sense to me if it was a Rock Critter Egg. It would be cool for this area, instead of just slaying the poor critters, to actually have a small puzzle. What could that be? Well… A rock candy, really looks like a Rock Critter egg to me! What if you’d go to that area and you see a bunch of Rock Critters guarding their nests. There is no chance you would be able to get one, intact. You need to find a way to distract the critters, and make them leave their nests. You throw a rock candy on the ground and…voila! Critters are confused, they see one of their eggs laying there unprotected, so they will instantly reach out to get it. And quickly enough as they do so, you’ll have your chance to get one actual Rock Critter Egg from a nest. NPC movement / Navigation / AI thread , I am looking at you.

Idea for Forest Maze:
And then for the Forest Maze, which is going to be full of Plant Critters, which have these delicious sweet seeds: I would like us to meet an NPC at the heart of the maze that would give us something or tell us something important. Just to enhance that sense of accomplishment of what you are supposed to find at the heart of the Maze. Now, I don’t know what this could be, but I was really thinking of having the famous [Desserter]( Concept art page-2#post-6544156) spawned there. She is one of @Smurjo 's interesting concept art inputs (one of the many puns I enjoyed). It would make sense for her to be there alone, simply enjoying solitude while making top-notch desserts to reward the travellers, with all the plant critter seeds around her. Perhaps the Rock Candy recipe would bring a new outcome at this point and take something interesting for [Bake Away]( Concept art page-2#post-6529913) !

In general, because I think there are too many nice inputs from all over the place, I’ve created this Community Miro Board (view only) (i’ve shared one before to collect ideas about the town, but this one is updated, it’s on Miro and it regards every area, and any community input so far. Hopefully to get inspired, to see “holes” and to contribute more!).
If you’d also like to be able to edit, here is the Community Miro Board invite to edit link .

3 Likes
8

I like the big tree as house. Any other special feature you have in mind for this house? Roof in-between the branches? balcony? Door bell hanging from a branch?

Or more like a “hobbit hole” in the “Lord of the Rings” films? Absolutely credible it has 2 entrances, natural rabbit holes have multiple entrances too.

I don’t think the player should get rewarded for smashing the barrels. I dare say it is typically ill adviced to destroy the islanders’ property right after your arrival on a foreign island. The player should rather get some delay with Bard Hare venting his anger and then not talking to him for some time. I also see no need, I like the idea of hitting the coconut tree instead (looks like I have to make coconuts…).

1 Like
9

Nice reference! Honestly, I don’t mind. I would go with the hole, I also liked the doorbell idea. Do as you fancy!

Me neither, that’s why I suggested the cinematic, to make the player feel a bit “remorse”?They could just have opened them instead :stuck_out_tongue: (the reason behind having a case1 and a case2 for interacting with the barrels). But if that’s complicated or unecessary lets skip this!

:smile: Not sure if this interaction with vegetation in general is going to happen. But it could be fun!

1 Like
10

6811781--790892--4i7ssBD.gif
Pretty much how I feel Hamlet is going to win this together with the Wunnais help!

3 Likes
11

@itsLevi0sa , thanks for the edits! I think the new flowchart looks great. Overall, I think you’ve done a nice job of weaving together narrative and gameplay. I have a couple of small comments below…let me know what you think. Nice diagram by the way! I like the changes.

Sounds good to me. He is a pretty adventurous little guy!

I think this (or something like this) is the key to making the characters and story of the game mean something. Something that ties it all up in a neat little bow and sort of summarizes the moral of the story.

Yes, this is a good idea. Not all of the quests have to be complex like we’ve discussed in this thread for the sugar soup / rock candy recipes. I think it’s a fair point that most of the ingredients required for recipes would involve straightforward quests, but every third or so ingredient sought out will use a more complex questline.

I think that for the most part this idea is fine. We should allow the player some time to learn the controls and take in the world before hitting them with character interactions.

But I do think the block that you’ve labeled as “Implicit Mission” under the “Initial Tutorial” diamond should be given by the Bard Hare rather than a sign. The reason? I think it’s an opportunity for some character development that gets the player invested in the story. Here, the Bard Hare explains (do we know if Bard Hare is male / female / androgenous? … not sure what pronouns to use) how the Slime Critters have kept his plans for escaping off of the island from becoming a reality. Getting invested in an NPC’s backstory early on I think will pay off once the game has been completed and you’ve helped out all the characters on the island.

That’s just my two cents. What do you think? I think the “To do list” is a workable idea as well.
That being said, I do like how you worked in the comedic moment in the Glade where the Bard Hare sees the destroyed barrels. Maybe Hamlet could meet Bard Hare on the Beach at the Implicit Mission point but then the Bard Hare says he needs to retreat back to his home to work on something. At this point, he doesn’t tell you about the sugar soup recipe…just that he desperately needs slime critter eggs.

I like the idea of two entrances, serving as a physical gate between the beach and glade. What if instead of two doors on the same house, it’s just a gate? Maybe one side of the gate (on the beach side) leads in to the glade. Maybe the Bard Hare is so desparate for Slime Critter eggs, he locks you in on the beach side until you’ve collected them. Then, once you have the slime critter eggs, the gate is unlocked, allowing passage into the Glade. I think either way could work, honestly.

12

Ooh! I really like this idea! It’s almost like a Bugsnax puzzle, haha.

This is also super cool! I like the idea of working in character interactions at key moments.

Thanks for this. I think something like this is necessary to pool all of our thoughts together. I made that first flowchart in Paint thinking it would just take a few textboxes and lines and would be done pretty quickly…won’t be making that mistake again!

13

Referencing my reply to @itsLevi0sa above, whether we go with a gate or house with two doors, I think the Bard Hare’s house asset is still needed. If we go with a gate, maybe we enter the Bard Hare’s garden on the Glade side (with carrots at the main crop, of course). And we will interact with the Bard Hare just outside of its house.

I think the idea of hobbit hole style home is great!

Just my two cents: I’ve always enjoyed video games that point the finger at the player as a way of saying: “look what you’ve done!” In video games, we as players typically go through houses without permission, and break open crates to loot things without asking who the boxes belong to. I think sort of breaking the fourth wall and acknowledging the absurdity of that is comedic gold. But, of course, it all depends on what kind of game we want to make. Either way is workable. As I said, just my two cents.

2 Likes
14

I would like that as well. In the Game Flow diagram and a couple of times before it was mentioned that we might want to have a character who could help us but they would face some kind of trouble - probably preventing them from doing so, so you could actually achieve your goal by having helped someone else (moral of story?). I think Bard Hare could take on that role better than a Townsfolk as he is a special character that a lot of people have wondered about his role in that island.
(I think we have pretty much early on decided its a he. Along with Hamlet. I don’t mind about the gender so much since most characters looked mostly neutral anyways - yet we thought of them as males. But since we can’t escape a he/she pronoun/naming I think we might have a key “female” character at some point. That’s why I turned the Desserter into a “she” above. I am glad you wondered though, it felt weird in the beginning how everyone assumed the same - including me. Still, Bard Hare lacks a name though. And not sure if the sound department has worked on a voice yet.)

As for having Bard Hare on the beach that could be more helpful indeed, because I don’t know how effectively we could communicate having a loading scene point (that gate) that would be non-interactable at first but interactable later (after you gather the eggs). Having Bard Hare there could solve this simply by telling you “hey follow me” and be led to the new location.

Ok I didn’t know the game, and watched the trailer. It has a lot of ideas that were initially thrown at a gameplay thread that was created back then :stuck_out_tongue: Since I haven’t played it, would you elaborate more on what kind of puzzle this is? Since we are still figuring out the Whiteboxing, this could be helpful.

Yes of course, that’s how I made mine too! Didn’t quite get what mistake you are talking about? :stuck_out_tongue: If you were thinking about the Miro board this is just something additional - non official, just to help ourselves out (the community) and have it floating around (as it regards multiple threads). Anyways, thanks for the feedback as well! I enjoy this conversation, you definitely bring more than 2 cents in xD

1 Like
15

Bugsnax is a bit of a wacky game that has you as the player observing NPC patterns and what their attractants are, then devising some sort of way to trap the NPCs and feed them to other NPCs. Here’s an example mission: catch two Shiskabugs … steps: (1) observe that Shishkabugs are shy creatures that like hiding in bushes … there doesn’t seem to be an apparent way to get them out of the bushes and into your trap. (2) Meanwhile, you observe that “Bungers” are NPCs that look like walking hamburgers and are attracted to ketchup … so, you sling some ketchup and notice that the Bungers run to wherever you shoot it. (3) Finally, you realize that by shooting ketchup at a bush that the Shishkabug is hiding in forces the Bunger to run towards the bush, which forces the Shishkabug out of the bush and into your nearby trap… told you it’s a wacky game. If you want to watch this whole pattern play out, check out this video starting from the timestamp below…(if the timestamps didn’t work in the video I linked, just watch from about 22:00 to 26:00.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpRQW-Ba8j8

I personally haven’t played the game, but I liked watching the “Let’s Play” series on it. It’s a simple game with simple rules, but these simple mechanics come together in a bunch of “a-ha” moments when the player figures out how to capture a certain bug.

I was just making a joke about how inefficient it is to make a flowchart with a tool like Paint. Something like Powerpoint, for example, has more flexible tools for putting together a flowchart much quicker. I was just poking fun at myself for using Paint when there are already much better tools out there.

1 Like
16

I was thinking that once we start actually writing dialogue, it would be good to use a tool like Celtx, which can be with limited features as a free member. I’ve used Celtx for other projects before and it has made story development super easy. Here’s a sample of how this tool is used for game writing:

Alternatively, if we didn’t want to use something like Celtx for writing the final script, we could make an in-editor Unity tool for doing something very similar. It wouldn’t be difficult to make something like this, and a node editor could be used for drawing out the gameplay sequencing.

Of course, before we get started on writing dialogue, we need to really nail down the story beats and quest design. I couldn’t resist doing a mockup though…here’s an example of what I’m talking about (this was created with Celtx):

6812969–791195–Script UOP1 - Chop Chop.pdf (187 KB)

1 Like
17

My vote goes to Bard Hare (surprise surprise that’s my choice … name suggestions so far here (is it too old of an American-centric reference?) and here ), especially if we can actually do more than just 1 song after completing a quest. I’ve always envisioned BH as speaking in haiku all the time, as this would be totally different from how everyone else speaks. The haikus could be informative, comedic, or simply riddles to the next step of the quest. Additionally, since he’s been on the island for a while, he could have secret passageways to all the important places that Hamlet will need to go to collect his ingredients, so if the player is ever stuck, Hamlet could call out to BH for help. I know we said a following helper would be too much work to do, but what about spawning BH at specific spots under certain circumstances?

Another thought that might help for this thread (and I can try to do after the [latest whiteboxing efforts]( https://discussions.unity.com/t/812566 page-3#post-6812432) are merged, but feel free if you have more than the 5 minutes I’ll probably have in the next week): do a flat 2D (aka top-down) map with location outlines and dots for important characters from the naming characters and things thread so we can get a high-level overview of where everyone is and might interact with Hamlet. Paint might be okay for that. :stuck_out_tongue:

3 Likes
18

@shuttle127 noted! Happy to see you still invested in your favorite character.

So I’ve tried to sketch out a frame to work on with some questions. If we have the same questions, maybe we can come up with some interesting answers and blend all this together. @calculus7 I like what you suggest, and you already answered a lot of the questions below, I am just putting it out there and have everything under the same umbrella. So questions I think we need to answer:

  • Why is Gabbott the only one of his kind on the island and willing to help us
  • Why is the Cooking Festival happening every year
  • Why is VanDough not impressed
  • (Also: Why is VanDough red and only has one ear?)
  • How are we going to win this? What will make our dish so special?

Recap about our objectives that the story should revolve around:
Key Ingredient A + B + C + D + Special utensil + Key Recipe (?) =Winning Dish
Not sure about the Key Recipe: I guess if we combined A,B,C,D that would make the Key Recipe anyways. But perhaps we might find one on how to cook one of those Key Ingredients.

I would also link each Key Ingredient to a Key Character that in turn could be linked to each other.
Key Characters are the ones that can hand us one of the above
Important NPCs are the ones that lead us to Key Characters

Key Ingredient C (Beach): Rock Candy
Important NPC for Key Ingredient C: Gabbott (Bard Hare)
Key character for Key Ingredient C: Tikki (our Phoenix chick)
Key Ingredient A (Rocky Path): Rare Rock Critter Egg (perhaps a golden one?)
Important NPC that leads us to Rocky Path: ……
Key Ingredient B (Forest Maze): … [ ]
Important NPC that leads us to Forest Maze: ……
Key character that gives us the Key Ingredient: Desserter
Key Ingredient D (Town): …[ ]
Important NPC that leads us to Key Character: …
Key character: Farmer? I liked this one, and makes sense to have him as he deals with ingredients. (Nice work @MortyJHin )
Special Utensil: …[ ]
Something that is necessary to pull out the dish. Like…?
Key Character for Special Utensil: ….
Key Recipe: …[ ]
Key character that gives us the Key Recipe: …

So trying to answer some of the above:

About that Special Utensil: A Rock Critter Egg cracker
Again, citing @Smurjo : While introducing us to the Rock Critter eggs she also made the remark that they are pretty hard to break. Suggesting that one might need a special utensil for that, like a nutcracker. So it would make sense if we got that from some of the Townsfolk. And this quest might be a separate quest from the Rocky Path one, so they will be connected later on. In general I am in favor of introducing small separate quests that will be linked together later. Hopefully with those a-ha moments! (Suddenly hearing “Take on me” while I write that).
Gabbott:
Perhaps he is the only one left of his kind on that island, because….
Perhaps he came from another island but decided to stay because…
How does he know about the Sugar Soup? I would draw a link there to the Desserter.
Desserter:
I think I got the term “Deserter” completely wrong on what it means to the English language. In my native language desert-er (coming from desert= empty area) means the one who resides away from people. But on the English language apparently is the person who abandons army without permission ^^ so maybe the pun will not come across (A deserter who makes desserts == desserter). Or does it? Perhaps the Townsfolk do invest on this competition with almost a militaristic discipline. That might have put our little Desserter off. Maybe she decided to stay away from all this and just enjoy pure cooking instead. Or maybe – like VanDaugh- she is just missing something in all this. Maybe they have a backstory together.
Links between Desserter – VanDough (FryKing):
Maybe those 2 were the best in their art and they were friends/or ”rivals”. But something happened and Desserter has withdrawn away from people.
Why is the Cooking Festival happening every year and why is VanDough not impressed:
Maybe her decision to “withdraw” made VanDough and everybody else sad and now everyone is just trying to replicate the tastes she took away with her. So the contest just lacks some originality and imagination! And that’s the roadblock and the reason Van Dough is not impressed?
What will really make our dish so special:
So Hamlet could bring the “originality” out from the Townsfolk, by finding out about what their own preferences/specialties are instead of what they think will win, and bringing insights/feedback from his adventures and knowledge. This would result in unique contributions, their mixing of which will result into the winning dish. It’s not that they are incapable, they are just trapped!
Links between Desserter - Gabbott:
Perhaps she is the one who gave Gabbott the “Sugar Soup” recipe. Becauuuuse….

TO BE CONTINUED.

Gosh I know it’s too much. There are a lot of blanks to be filled in. Story is not really my thing, I’d rather design spaces for it (The reason why I try to “push” it)! So feel free to change anything – recommend a different direction.

PS: I made another Miro Board to summarize the outcome of these discussions, and you can use this to edit instead of Paint!
Quests and Scenario Miro Board - View only
Quests and Scenario Miro Board - Edit invite

@calculus7 I also re-edited the Beach-Glade quest I think now we are cool? I kept the sign, because I think reading something should be part of the tutorial (as we are going to read recipes along the game), but Gabbott will have time to tell his story once we sit in the fire. Not sure about the Gabbott-Slime critters link you draw but still- the sign could have whatever written on it - even revealing a backstory hint.

19

So glad you asked because I’ve been working on an adjustment to Bard Hare’s name (and was going to update the naming thread before I saw this post) that answers this question. Instead of Gabbott being a first name, it is a surname/last name/family name, and the family’s purpose is to be the cataloguer/story teller/guide for foreigners of the island that they live on (i.e. 1 Gabbott per island, and part of the intro is some variation of “I come from a long line of Gabbotts,” which is funny to me because rabbits are known for procreating a lot). Gabbott’s are differentiated by their first name and middle initial, each of which is a play on an adjective that describes their personality. For example, our BH now becomes Garrul S Gabbott because he talks a lot, and eventually Hamlet finds out that Merr E Gabbott is the resident BH of the next island over. My one concern about this is that these names work in English, just not sure how they might be translated to other languages. We could always just keep the surname idea and never reveal first names or middle initials because the islanders only ever refer to BH as Gabbott anyway (hence the suggested summoning phrase “Heyyyy Gaabboooottt!” :)), so that might be easier in the end. Either way, with this backstory, Gabbott already knows all the shortcuts on the island as well as everyone on the island including the Desserter (who my mind’s eye sees looking like Slurpuff, is that bad? :p).

This is exactly what I was hoping my 2d map idea would resolve, as I do have ideas for each of those blanks and question marks, but I’ll save it for the map itself. To preview, my thoughts were to outline each scene/area and include icons for each character, maybe color code them to show which should belong to each key ingredient. Hopefully I’ll have more time over the weekend to at least draw up a rough draft, but anyone with ideas can feel free to chime in or make their own.

I prefer the Reel Big Fish version.

1 Like
20

And on top of that maybe desserts, cakes and sweet dishes aren’t considered proper cooking. And they even caught her sneakily using the community pizza oven for cake…

Here is kind of some fragment of a quest I had in mind:

  • Meet two townspeople arguing: The first was supposed to bring blue slime critter eggs but brought orange slime critter eggs to second. The second says he doesn’t want the orange “there is nothing better than blue”
  • Get blue Slime critter eggs from mountain lake area. Exchange for orange, but have some blue left over
  • Discuss whether the different colors taste different with Bard Hare. He would like to know as well and gives Hamlet a yellow egg for experimenting.
  • Go to forest and get green egg.
  • Make orange, yellow, green and blue cake dough.
  • Bard Hare comes to see what Hamlet is doing. While they discuss someone willing to help (Tiki, the desserter?) pours one bowl of dough over the next into the cake tin. Since there is no chance to separate the different colored dough again Hamlet has no chance but to bake it all together. This is how the rainbow cake is born. reward: rainbow cake recipy

I imagine the rainbow cake to look like this (complete with caramel coating which results from the phoenix chick breathing on the sugar coating, not unlike the coating on creme brulee or creme catalana):
6830420--794039--RainbowCake.png

3 Likes