!Discussion! General gist of the game, Solved.

The IRC chat resulted into the following story (which is actually more indepth than I expected it).

Members who took part in it: Glukom, shymouse, Black Boo and myself.

Here is what we have got, storywise:

> Bowser and Captain Syrup team up.
The reason behind this is the following: Syrup has plans and Bowser has the means to create a machine/tool that transforms stuff into gold. Let's call it the "MIDAS MACHINE" for now.
So Bowser helps Syrup to build the machine if he can use it to change his enemies (Mario and Luigi) into gold.
Syrup can keep all the golden statues that result from the previous action.

> The experiment fails
On testing out the thing, Bowser finds out that there's an error: the "Midas Machine" doesn't work on Mario and Luigi (aka humans) but only on mushrooms. But that's fine aswell. Being unable to use Mushrooms (since they have all turned into golden versions of themselves which can obviously not be eaten), they shouldn't be able to defeat Bowser this time.

> Mario and Luigi embark on a journey
Of course, Bowser tries to fix his machine, so the Bros. need to stop him.
On their way they also plan to pick up the golden mushroom statues to later restore them.
The golden mushrooms will be the special collectables that will lead to unlockables later. There will be one or three in each level to find. (besides reaching the goal(s) of the level)

> The Wario Bros. embark on a journey, too!
Where there's gold, there's Wario. And this time he takes his brother along to get the shrooms.

> First boss fight:
If you started the game as the Mario Bros., you fight against Syrup first.
If you started as the Wario Bros., you fight Bowser first.
Since they find out that their arch enemies united, the four bros. also unite after they meet in world 2.

> Final Boss fight:
In the end, we fight against Bowser AND Syrup as a team.

> Final Final Boss fight:
Mario and Luigi want to restore the golden mushrooms, but Wario and Waluigi want to keep the gold for themselves.
You fight as the brother you have finished the previous Final Boss fight as and pull up against the respective other brothers team.

> Rewards:
Depending on the amount of golden mushrooms you collected, you get extras unlocked. (e.g. new playable characters, one of which is yet secret though and you'll never guess him anyway. But this doesn't matter now.)
When you won as either Wario or Waluigi, you will get an amazing castle (on which you spend all your golden shrooms).
When you won as either Mario or Luigi, you get an amazing cake (which is made out of the restored shrooms).


This is what we've come up with in the chat and we want to share that with you before deciding on it.
Note how all four of us were FOR that idea.

If you have suggestions or additions to this (but not too much yet, as we didn't want to go THAT indepth anyway), please post them. If you are ok with this, this is the basic plot we will head for. If not, bring up a better alternative.

Obviously... The shroom thing came in after I left.

But who cares? I LIKE IT!

So I take it everyone is alright with what I posted?
If that is the case I will use the 24-hours rule again.

You have 24 hours to complain, otherwise we will use this, etc.

Wow, that's a pretty cool story. The only thing I'm gonna say is that it seems a little outside Bowser's character to create the machine himself. I think he would probably force his lackeys to do it, which may explain why it doesn't work right. It also doesn't seem right that he would just give away Mario and Luigi once they're golden. I think it would make more sense if he kept them as trophies of finally defeating them, and then gave Syrup eveything else turned to gold. That and Peach isn't in the story at all, and that seems a little wrong. Maybe Bowser could offer to make Peach a golden castle or something?

Good ideas here.

Bowser of course does not build the machine himself... sorry if that sounded like it. He HAS it built.

However we might also spin this around. After all, Syrup is the one with the machines and robots, so she might be the one building it and Bowser has the plans found somewhere.

It could also be that Syrup has the plans AND the means, but Bowser has one specific material/part that she needs so they would team up.

We can twist that around a bit yet... we'll see where we land.

Ah, okay, that makes sense. The other thing is, all the way through this story I expect Bowser or Syrup to double cross the other at the end. I'm not sure about Syrup, but I doubt Bowser is trustworthy enough for that. It's perfectly set up for it, and then it doesn't happen, which just doesn't feel right.

We might also include this at some point.

But only when we go really DEEP into the story developping later in the course of this project. I think as a basic guideline for the major plot, what we have is alright.

There will be a story-discussion topic at some point in which all those in-depth things will be discussed.

Okay. You'll probably hear from me again at that point. I've found that doing games with stories that actually have more than one plot point need a lot of development, and redevelopment or they come out cheesy and stupid. Every cut scene I write usually ends up getting rewritten once or twice before it turns up in a game, if I even use it at all. I see a lot of potential in this story, but it'll have to be handled carefully, or I fear it will feel to "fangamey".

Of course.
And it's appreciated to hear from you as much as possible.

The only thing I don't like is that Mario & Luigi gets a cake as a reward.

That's not a problem. Things like that can be changed at any time.

I think the long forgotten Koopalings should make a comeback in this game.

Like you fight one as a mini boss in each world or something, Ludwig being in world 8.

Ludwig should have also built the machine, since NONE of his inventions work right except the Doomships.

Dunno, Koopalings sound a bit too far.
After all we bring back Syrup already... The KLings might look like crammed in for the sake of it IMO.

I think that, for this genre of game, there's enough to the story as it is.

Yeah, one thing to be careful of is cramming in too many characters just for the sake of bringing them back. Too many fangames do this. The creators think, "Oh, hey, this guy hasn't been in a game for a while, let's stick 'em in there just for the heck of it." It makes games feel unprofessional. In general, old characters seem to return one at a time, so bringing all the Koopalings as well as Syrup might feel gratuitous. Of course, Syrup just popped up in Wario Land on Wii, so perhaps she could be considered "back" now... I don't know. Just throwing in the Koopalings because they're not around much any more sounds like a bad idea to me.

This post has been edited by Super Paper Toodles on Aug 29 2008, 02:47 PM

I like it, but I think that the final boss sounds a bit weak. I don't know, it just seem like it could use a kick if you know what I mean. And by weak, I don't mean physicaly, I mean that it's expected and just doesn't seem worth the build up that you'd expect from a final boss.

Also, just cuz I'm wondering, was anything said about my story idea? Not that it really matters.

Also, koopalings could work IF put in properly.

I don't think adding the koopalings is a great idea. We have enough main characters, we don't need to add more.
And besides, that allows us to be more creative with boss battles and mini boss battles.

And SGG, we liked your idea, but I think the consensus was that it would work better in an RPG. Combinding Smithy's creator with Capt. Syrup, Bowser, and have the Wario and Mario bros. seemed like too much.
It is entirely possible that we could use that idea for a CFP3, though.

Yeah, I guess it is more suited for an RPG.

But I stick with what I said about the final Boss thing. I do like the idea of fighting the opposite bros., But isn't there some way of kicking it up a notch? Like if they are accidentally turned to gold by the machine (since, as it was stated, Bowser is trying to fix it) and become stronger or something. Idk, just a thought. I'm a fan of climactic final bosses.

Why is it that these are being locked after 24 hours anyways
I mean, I hardly ever get to post in one of them because lol lock

MB: You just need to get here quicker.

Guinea: I suppose you're right. Maybe they could be in the CFP 3?