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-   -   Meerkat Manor: The Game (A non Pokemon game.) (https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=181587)

Haz June 7th, 2009 3:26 PM

Meerkat Manor: The Game (A non Pokemon game.)
 
Meerkat Manor: The Game

Introduction:
Hi, it's hazzamon here. I'm new to the game making thread although I've been a member of P.C for nearly a year now. I had an idea about one of my favourite shows, Meerkat Manor, and was wondering "Wouldn't it be cool if it was a game?" You might not like the idea but I still hope I get support for it. If you would like to know more about Meerkat Manor look at the official website or here.

Basic Story:
The story follows along with the TV series with a few minor changes. For example, you take the place of a pup in the latest litter of Flower and Zaphod, the dominant male and female, and after a run-in with the rival group the Lazuils, your siblings are killed and you are the remaining pup. You follow the series and can pick choices in what happens. For example, instead of Shakespeare dying in an underground battle with the Lazulis, you can help protect him. Here is a list of episodes if you still need more information.

Features I would like to have:
* A day and night system.
* A weather system such as a dry season and a wet season.
* Mini Games for certain events.
* Similar to the Sims, you build relationships with people and have different options to how you react to events.
* More human like characteristics by being able to learn attacks and building armour and weapons.
And probably more once I think them up.

The Health System:
Health will consist of three things:
Energy: During the night you can sleep but can venture out if you're strong enough. If you sleep during the day, you'll miss valuable foraging hours. Energy is repleted by sleeping, napping or resting. Energy is lost by being attacked, foraging or using attacks.
Hunger: This will require you to eat at least once a day. certain foods will cause you to fill up, others will poison you and deplete it. Special fruits and berries can raise your stats.
Hygiene: If you spend all day walking in the mud and dirt, your family members relaitonship with you will decrease because your a bit smelly :P. Fill it back up by grooming and washing.
Stamina: An extra stat only used in battles. Powerful attacks deplete it but weaker ones don't. Special foods can make it last longer.

Relationships
Relationships are a prime factor in the game. There will be a meter displaying how much a meerkat likes or dislikes you. It'll probably go like this (from bad to good):
Hates you---> Dislikes you moderately ---> Dislikes you ---> Has no feelings for you---> Likes you---> Sees you as a friend---> Loves you.
I will probably change them if someone has better suggestions.

The Battle Factor
Throughout the story battles will occur with rivals, predators and prey. You learn techniques and attacks throughout out the games. Techniques will be forgotten and new ones learnt as you progress from a pup to an adult. There won't be elemental ones like in the Pokemon games but there will be weapon available like rocks, sticks, thorns etc. You can increase your skills by training with you're family and by building armour (okay meerkats don't do that it the wild, but still it adds concept to the game).
If you're versing potential food the EAT option will be available. If you're versing a rival you can use the CHASE OFF option to drive them away although in real life, meerkats will kill them instead.
With predators, if your health gets low enough, they will take you to their nest where you can escape before they eat you. A mini game may be added here.

Meet the meerkats:
Here are some of the meerkats I hope to include in the game. Note that there are more member than the ones I have just listed. They are the ones that apper in the series but I hope to include more.

The Whiskas
The main group of the show. Despite thier many rivals they still stand strong even when their numbers dwimble.
Spoiler:

Flower: The dominant female. Died in Series 3 from a snake bite.
Zaphod: The dominant male. After Flowers death, he left the Whiskas.
Yousarrian: Zaphods younger brother, previously the dominant male.
Shakespeare: Flowers son, known for his bravery. Died froms Lazuli attack.
Tosca: One of Flowers oldest daughters, can be rebellious.
Daisy: Tosca's sister.
Mitch: Shakespeare's younger brother. Now dominant male.
Rocketdog: Another of Flowers daughters and is now dominant female.
Axel: In a rare occurrence fhe went from being an abandoned Zappa pup to being accepted as a Whiskas member.
Seacrest: A roaming male during the 4th series.


The Lazulis:
Made their first appearance in Series 1 where they constantly fought with the Whiskas for territory. Their number began to disappear when member died or were evicted.
Spoiler:

Cazzana: Dominant female. Died from disease in series 3.
Big Si: Known for being 'the biggest and baddest meerkat on the savanna.' Was put down by the researches of the show after he contracted tuberculosis.
JD: Current dominant male.
Carlos: A roaming male who is known for seducing the Whiskas females. Joined the Starsky as the dominant male.


The Commandoes:
Appeared in Series 2. More tougher then the Lazulis, the Whiskas were constantly on alert for these troublesome foes.
Spoiler:

Nikita: Dominant female.
Hannibal: A one-eyed merciless foe. Dominant male until series 4 when he dies in his sleep.
Wilson; A roaming male. Joined up with exiled Whiskas meerkat Mozart only to find her dead from a predator attack.
Zorro: An ex-Whiskas member. He left with 4 brothers and Zaphod in the 4th series to join the Aztecs, a new group. He meets the Commandoes and becomes the new dominant male only to be dead 3 episodes later.
Mike: An exhiled member after he callenged Zorros leadership.
Aussie: Hannibals son. Was killed in a fight with the Whiskas.


The Zappa:
After the Whiskas were forced to leave thier territory when the Commandoes took over, they met the "neighbours from hell": the Zappa. Not much of a threat due to the constant bickering they have in the group.
Spoiler:

Lola: The ex-dominant female of the group. She was one who left Axel who was later accepted into the Whiskas.
Frank: Ex-dominant male. Was evicted after a much younger Houndini challeged him.
Punk: Lola sister. After Lola was bitten by a snake, Punk used the opertunity to become the new dominant female. Her pups were able to survive a rival group Aztec attack thanks to Lola.
Houndini: The current dominent male.


The Starsky:
A small group consisting of evicted members. Hardly a threat, they held little territory and eventually died out.
Spoiler:

Mozart: Ex-Whiskas member Known as the caring on of the Whiskas, she helped out with everything even staying by Shakespeare side when he was bitten by a snake. Died from a jackel attack.
Kinkajou: Half-sister of Mozart.
De La Soul: Sister of Mozart. Died after a Commandoe attack.
Carlos: Became the dominant male but later died.


The Aztecs:
These rivals joined the series in the final episoide of the 3rd season. Even with a couple of members they still stand strong.
Spoiler:

Maybelline: The dominaent female of the Aztecs. Another ex-Whiskas, she left the Whiskas with a couple of adults to form the Aztecs. Rocket Dogs sister.
Zaphod: The once powerful dominaent male of the Whiskas is now the dominent male of the Aztecs. He cannot mate with Maybelline as she's his daughter.


Team List:
Hazzamon: Head mapper, head scripter, head spriter, head tile maker and everything inbetween.
.Swift: Meerkat Manor helper (Just helps me get my information correct).

Needed:
Another mapper, another (better) spriter and tilemaker and someone who can help me with scripts.

Closing notes:
That's about all, I'm just posting this to get opinions and see if people like the idea. As you can see I worked hard on ideas for this and some may be out of the question. It'll probably takes me a while to learn all the techniques and stuff but I hope to complete it.

SytheXP June 7th, 2009 10:53 PM

Um ok if Meerkats and Animal planet is your thing go for it ^_^ I googled this b/c I had no idea what you were talking about...... Hmmm I may have to watch a show or two is it like a documentary thing? Also the idea is not that bad....... Although meerkats are um yea lol cute but don't seem like they would be part of anything other than the lion king. I wish you luck on this m8.

Haz June 7th, 2009 11:51 PM

Thanks for the comment!
Meerkat maner is a T.V series/ documentry. Yeah, they're cute and I find their way of life amazing. How they communicate with each other and live thier lives is amazing.
I didn't want a Pokemon game and this seemed the best thing to do. I'll have to play around with tools and figure it out.

What's better- Sphere or Gamemaker?

Freak A June 8th, 2009 12:04 AM

definitely game maker is better

Haz June 9th, 2009 10:46 PM

I decided to go with Gamemaker. I feel like it may be better then the other RPG makers.

The games system will be similar to Mystrey Dungeon. Like the set up of the screen.

Swift! June 10th, 2009 1:16 AM

I <3 Meerkat Manor.

This looks like an awesome idea, I hope you make something of it. :D

Haz June 10th, 2009 2:03 AM

Thanks, I hope I do :).

Maybe you can help with facts?

Luka S.J. June 10th, 2009 1:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazzamon (Post 4734503)
I decided to go with Gamemaker. I feel like it may be better then the other RPG makers.

The games system will be similar to Mystrey Dungeon. Like the set up of the screen.

You do know that all the game engines will be have to made from scratch. RMXP provides a nice built in game engine that can be customized easily. You shouldn't leap into programs like that if you dont have any good scripting experience, and as i said, in Game MaKer you will need to script the game engines from scratch. That's pretty hard work to do.

Haz June 10th, 2009 11:27 PM

Okay then, I'll try RMXP.

Swift! June 11th, 2009 1:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazzamon (Post 4734845)
Maybe you can help with facts?

I can try. Although, it's been a while since I've seen Meerkat Manor.

Haz June 11th, 2009 2:23 AM

Okay I'll add you to the team list.

weavile96 June 11th, 2009 6:29 AM

Wow, this sounds unique. Good luck! :)

Swift! June 11th, 2009 6:44 AM

I can do research if you want me to. Just tell me what you want to know and I'll find the episode(s) with that information.

Roconza June 17th, 2009 7:02 PM

I support this game 100%

I wish you good luck and would help but I'm to busy at the moment to sprite.

Haz July 10th, 2009 3:27 AM

That's okay, I'm trying to sprite at the moment. However I quit this project to concentrate more on hacking. If anyone wants to do this idea, be my guess.


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