Murder's Last Crow

After reading up on Musashi's idea for a NiGHTS MMO, I decided that I have some spare time and why not if I have the skills do so? So, we're beginning development now, and we want the community's input. Here's what's proposed so far.

Customized Dreamer and Maren (change colors, body and head types).
Twin City is waking world you can purchase, trade, and play minigames in.
"Sweet Dreams Hotel" is where you go to sleep and dream.
Dreams are 4 'Mares' like the original NiGHTS with a boss at the end.
Star Chips are collected and used for currency in waking world.
Scores in minigames and dream courses are recorded. (scores add to your 'rank')
2 player Maren Race from JoD Battle from NiD.

At the end of this message is a slightly more detailed outline from Musashi, if you want to skip to that.

What I'm thinking of adding:

Missions, for those addicted after JoD (don't see why you would be, but it could still be fun).
Dream exploration on foot.
Nightopian society- be good or evil to them.
Special items for effects- glowing, fire trails, transformations, etc.

I'm thinking of having a poll to test the approval of any ideas before beginning to program them. A little extra information before I open this up to discussion.

The platform is currently 2d engine with 3d graphics, but could easily be ported over if needed.
The graphic style will be realistic, at least as far as shadowing and texture goes.
Not for Macintosh.

Feel free to fling any ideas my way, since I'm only just getting started on some models, currently. I've made online games before, so I know what I'm doing. The only thing I really need help with is which ideas are best and which I shouldn't waste my time on.

So tell me what you want most out of this game, and I'll do my best to deliver if it's a majority desire of the community.

Musashi's Original Transcript

"NiGHTS into Dreams… MMO Project

As you all have probably heard by now, Murder'sLastCrow and myself have started working on my idea for a NiGHTS MMO. Since Sega won't do it, it's up to the fans to do something. The following is a report of what's been decided for the project at this point in time.

When the player first starts off, they design 2 characters. One is the kid they go around Twin Seeds as in the awake world. The second is their own customized NiGHTS which they use to fly around in dreams as.

To enter a dream, the player will go to what I've decided to call, "The Sweet Dreams Hotel". They go to sleep and then enter the dream world. Then, they will have their choice of dreams to fly though. Every so often, new dreams will be created and available for download. Also, at the Sweet Dreams Hotel, there will be a list that lists high scores on the different dreams as well as the player's world ranking on that dream.

Once the player is in, they go around and of course, collect the four Ideya. It's basically the same as any other NiGHTS game. At the end, the player fights a boss. When the player finishes, the points they got from that dream is added onto what is called their Overall Score. The higher the Overall Score is, the higher rank they have in the online community.

The gold stars they get from the dream is used as currency in the awake world. The players can use it to buy things like different customizations for their characters, art work, music(for when they are playing, not for download), and more.

In the awake world, players can walk around Twin Seeds. The players will also be able to talk to one another as well as make trades. Also, awake world games will be available such as basketball, soccer, and other mini-games which players can challenge each other to. The winner of each game also gets a certain amount of gold stars and some points added to their Overall Score.

Players can also challenge each other to Dream World games such as racing through a course and battle mode. The racing would work just as it does in NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, except there would be maybe another lap or two. Battle mode would work the way it does in NiGHTS into Dreams… because in my opinion, paralooping around your opponent 3 or maybe 5 times works better. The winner of each game gets a certain amount of gold stars and points added to their Overall Score depending on how quickly they won."

I searched for similar references, but I wondering if anyone knew of a place that has tabs (not sheet music) for Dreams Dreams or any other NiGHTS tunes for that matter, since I wanna' do some fan music with accompaniment. (ooo, such a purdy voice)

Any help, or am I gonna' have to do some conversions and post the results?

Hi. My name's Jack. I'm the premiere game developer at Murder's Last Crow, and we're developing a new online game with skinnable characters, stages, level editors, etc. And you get paid to play, etc.

However, even as the main project developer, the money only comes after I'm done unless I have sponsors, and I've been sponsored to create a 3d comic and t-shirt designs for a new magazine.\

So I wanted to dig up this idea I had a while back for a 3d webcomic I discontinued, but now I have an incentive to begin again.

PLOT: Basically, a little girl's father is depressed and disturbed by the way his life has gone, disappointed in what he's done. He goes driving one night in a reckless stupor and ends up in the hospital with a coma. The girl has a complicated life, and often uses dreams to escape the tremors of sadness that surround her real world.

Most of the comic takes place in the dream world, where the girl meets a lot of colorful characters and tries to blend into their world. So I guess you could call them Maren, but it's a very different circumstance than what exists in the NiGHTS series.

The girl ends up finding a Greek Mythology book and starts reading up on Death, anticipating that her father may never come out of his coma, and her Mother never felt very cared for besides, so her heart takes a partial turn away.

This is where it gets good and complicated, and I fear I may give too much away, but it's a really neat idea. Basically, the girl discovers that in Greek Mythology dreams were thought of as a pact between Death and the Gods, where death would back off as long as the Gods allowed him to take the spiritual energy from people as they sleep.

Also, she eventually discovers that all of the people in the dream world are either sleeping, or dead, and that the creatures (Maren) are reincarnations of those who have passed on from this life.

The girls Mother ends up siding with the evil side of the dream world. Basically Death trying to break the pact and unleash his new forces on the real world, etc. The girl meets a creature in this world that many people never see, who hides up in the most treacherous mountains, who no one knows very much about.

The girl eventually breaks through the creature's shell and gets him to talk, and the creature comes down to visit the other good "Maren." With increasing frequency, the creature finds himself caught in memories of a broken past, where he was abusive with a woman, lied and cheated in business, and left a little girl in need alone in her sadness.

If you can't guess who the creature is yet, you're stupid.

So basically they find out more about who he really is, and try to fight back against the realm of death to get him back to the real world, starting over again, finding his heart.

So, I know I gave much too much away, but hopefully this is the only place where I'll reveal this much. The comic is under development, and 3d modelling will begin very soon. However, here's where YOU GUYS come in.

I need more character designs and ideas for the charming characters that greet the girl in the dream world, other than the fearsome demon in the mountains. Please note that I'm willing to take Maren designs from you and give you proper credit, but I won't be able to pay you much compensation for their use. This is merely an offer that, if you have a good character design with a strong personality, and don't mind that I adopt him/her into this comic, I'm entirely willing to do so.

I apologize that, so far, I can't give you much in financial compensation for this, but you will be given credit for your ideas. Please note that the story is pretty solid, and that all I really want are a few good designs to give it more substance.

If you think my request is unreasonable, you don't have to help. I know it's not really part of the NiGHTS universe, but it bears similarities, so I wouldn't mind letting this be a big part of the NiGHTS community. It's just that we have to draw a line between originality and copyright infringement, so be careful. I guess two pronged Jester Caps could be allowed for one or two of the characters, but I don't want any NiGHTS copycats in this.

Sorry if I spoiled anything with the plot summary, but I want to make this an exciting and fun production, and I would like some help breathing life into it if you guys have ideas.

I'm a long-time imvu developer, and I decided it was about time I redid my idea for a NiGHTS head, but with better compatibility. The first product I ever made was an evil Jester head- the back story was that it was a reincarnation of a Carnival Madman.

However, I didn't want to get sued, so I didn't make it look TOO much like NiGHTS.

Since then, I've made hundreds of products, including two-pronged jester hats in honor of NiGHTS, and now I'm releasing the "Chibi" (NiGHTS) fully animated head for males and females.

The head works with any skin, eyes, and hairstyle.

Female
Male

Go have fun recreating your Maren in imvu, I guess. XD I'm having too much fun with this head.

P.S. I know that the eyelashes UV is off by just a tiny bit- I'm reworking that, and when I'm done it should automatically update on the head you already have. Have fun, kiddies!

I made this Maren outfit to build of off a year or so ago, and I decided that my first test of the outfit's capabilities would be none other than NiGHTS. However, due the fact that it was merely a blueprint of jester-like maren, there are things that are entirely different from NiGHTS.

NiGHTS 3d WIP

Now, to show you something I've done more recently along the same lines to show you how much better I could have done the NiGHTS model...

Velsefer

Oh, and a few more little pieces I dug up for your enjoyment, since they are NiGHTS related, albeit they are drawings.

From my OLD account.

MS Paint NiGHTS

NiGHTS is NOT SEGA's Yoshi.

NiGHTS into EVIL! (minimal gore)

Newer.

NiGHTS <3 Freakazoid

Opinions? Feel free to look at the rest of my account.