Southern Quest

Status

The project is still being fleshed out, I'm writing things out and establishing how I'd like gameplay to work. I welcome collaboration on every part of this process, especially the devellopment in OHRRPGCE.

Overview

"Southern Quest" is the tentative title for a small, essentially 32-bit rpg game set in a fantasty world mirroring the American South. I'm definitely more of an artist than a programmer, so for now I'm working in OHRRPGCE [1] for now.

Gameplay

I see it as an RPG in the style of a console Japanese RPG from the 32-bit (think SNES, Final Fantasy 6) era. The gameplay will be entirely in sprite-art, which has its limitations but I think that the strengths overcome them. They're not overcomplex, but simplicity is a strength when you're an amateur goofing around for no money. Also, primitive games offer a lot of character and story happening through surprisingly expressionistic characters. Very little animation is required, another plus. Plus the OHRPPGCE is open-source which would make it easier to find support (via the popular wiki) and welcome collaboration.

Main Story

The hero begins on a quest simply to escape the humid, intolerant, and backwards South, but is eventually drawn into a larger plot to save the South from the terrible forces that keep it that way, led (probably) by Colonel Sanders, who is trying to revive the religious conservative, hypocrital bigot Zombie Strom Thurmond.

Hero

The main character possesses above average intelligence, allowing him to see the Catch-22 logic employed by the lands' culture to keep its citizens poorly educated and thoroughly ignorant but absurdly proud of their heritage. He also possesses the seemingly mystical ability to read and write.

• Other teammates include
  • A Drunken Master hillbilly moonshiner who homebrews his foul drinks to enhance his fighting style
  • At least one freed slave. It's hard to take a subject like that and be funny while still being relevant, but I just can't see talking about the South for this long without dealing with it. Possibly combine with blues guitarist.
  • Southern Belle
    • Main Weapon is a deadly hoopskirt. I don't know how to make that deadly, but there's gotta be something there.
    • Saddlebacking reference?
  • Blues Guitarist, who draws bard-like powers from his deal with the devil. He sold his soul for blues fame, and the ability to

melt brains with the E chord. Inspired by the legend of Ray Johnson. Character receives upgrades by encountering the Blues Devil at specific story points (The Devil is just hanging out, you know, meeting new people) and teaches him a new guitar solo, maybe you could earn these abilities through a quick rhythm game section, like Simon.

• • Eli Whitney, unlocked after defeating him. He must repent his inventing the cotton gin and reinvigorating the slave trade, and must now invent steampunk weapons for great justice. Collect random scrap to assemble devastating weapons.

Settings

I'd like to avoid a few game design cliches in location, like the standard Fire and Ice level. Every game gets one, and I just think it's stale.

• Swamp (Nature's Armpit)
• One ridiculously shabby school (This week's lesson: The Wheel!")
• Plantation
  • Introduce freed slave character
• Dog Racing Track
• NASCAR rally
  • Eli Whitney
• Wal-Mart
• Waffle House
• Steamboat
  • Mark Twain
• Creationist museum
• Evangelical Mega-Church
  • Final Dungeon

Enemies

All enemies in the game are taken from sillier aspects of southern life, including folklore. Special effort could be made to have special attacks based on what makes them what's wrong with the south.

• Giant Mosquitos
  • Malaria attack
• Swamp Gators
  • Vulnerable to Rasslin'
• Monster Trucks
• Civil Rights Re-enactors
  • some kind of confederate flag shield?
  • very slow enemy - takes forever to reload primitive rifle

• Rednecks - the Hellbilly Clan
  • Function more as a caste than a fashion or lifestyle. Fiercely territorial with hostile land, proudly ignorant, traditional to a fault.
• Different tiers of redneck as you progress through the game, but the idea of a standardized caste allows for a template of abilities.
  • Belt Buckle whiplashings
  • Tobacco spit (ranged attack)

• Boss Fights
  • Hillbilly cult leader
  • Grand Emperor of the Ku Klux Klan
    • Too easy?
  • West Virginia Mothman
  • Boggy Creek Beast (It's a redneck sasquatch. Yes some people really believe in it)
  • Zombie Strom Thurmond
    • Trent Lot, lead henchman

Cameo Appearances

Famous figures from the history of the South reinterpreted to suit this new world.

• Mark Twain
• George C. Wallace
• Jefferson Davis
• Zombie Strom Thurmond

Misc. Concepts

• All healing items in the game are fried food.