Oh dear, I seem to have missed a lot of interesting discussion during the night. I strongly suggest that we try to come together at MSN. WR, do you too have an MSN identity?
Why does everyone want Littlefoot and co. to do a ton of fighting? Look at their size! And look at the size of the sharpteeth, folks. Littlefoot and co. are not going to try to fight those. Keep in-character (that the gang wouldn't be stupid enough to try it), keep the way it is the films (Littlefoot and co. run and hide from most of their enemies, and then later, outsmart them), and I don't care if RPGs feature fighting. Having the gang fight the enemies everytime they meet them would just take the thing SO far from the premis that it'd be insulting to people who actually care about the context of the story.
I strongly agree with WR on this point. Fighting is not a major content of the LBT movies and I think that we can muster enough fantasy to create a story in which problems are solved through cunning and brainwork rather than the (partly hardly existend) muscles.
Structure: I would suggest a 'stage' set-up. A large level for you to explore extensively, with various objectives that you must complete in order to continue, and you can also have 'sidequests' that you can do by choice for extra points.
Objective: Well, we need to think of a story. I'd be happy to do some quick brain-storming to do it and I'll offer you some plot ideas, okay?
Jojo, think about it. An adventure wouldn't work.
Now this is something I don't quite understand WR. Is not an Adventure precisely the type of game you described in your first quote to say that it wouldn't work in the next quote? How do you define Adventure game?
The Maniac Mansion style is what I had basically in mind when I thought about it. I suppose it would be the easiest to programe (but I can't repeat often enough that I know next to nothing about programming). What I think may be a further point in favor of such a style is that we could use landscape screenshots from the LBT movies as backgrounds if we do it that way. I suppose with some editing (put the rock from the one landscape on the meadow of the other) we can create a large variety of landscapes.
I'm quite willing to give it a try. I would also be ready to draw and paint landscape backgrounds for the game. However, this would of course greatly vary from movie style. Landscapes might end up looking pretty much like they do in the pictures I posted here.
As for plotlines, here are three I have to offer (only very rough summaries in this message). As I mentioned before, they are all based on the assumption that one of the characters is lost and the others set out to bring him or her back.
The first variant is a plot I have long been planning on for a fanfiction. As a slightly humorous beginning the LBT characters would eat some fermented fruits which fell from some trees (obviously it must be a fall setting in this story). Petrie developes a special taste for them and ends up quite "giddy" and in a funny, reckless mood.
As cruel fate has is a storm is brewing up from the west. Petrie, unable to pick up any reasonable advice of taking shelter is blown eastwards out of the Valley. Remember, eastwards means right towards the wastelands we know from the original movie. As flyers send out to find Petrie (while his mother may have been injured during an attempt to recover him during the storm) fail to do so the grownups presume him to be death.
Littlefoot and the others are neither willing nor ready to accept this and set out to find Petrie (this of course is something the grownups would anticipate, therefore it will take some trickery or sneaking or both for the gang to leave the Valley).
Meanwhile far out in the Mysterious Beyond Petrie is regaining his consciousness. Being hit on the head by a flying piece of debris in the storm he lost his whole memory. He doesn't remember his name, he doesn't remember how to fly, he only has some very, very vague images left far back in his mind. So he sets out walking rather aimlessly through the wastes not really knowing what to do. He might thereby meet a kind of "Mysterious Beyond" character, somebody hardned enough to survive in that land (if we want it to be a bit creepy it could be a scavenger); that character would be optional I suppose.
Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, and Spike are meanwhile walking through many significant places we know from the first movie (including such potentially dangerous places as the region of the Burning Mountains). While walking through the land they are always worried that the grownups are after them to bring them back before they could find Petrie (possibly with such a large flyer as the one we saw in LBT 7). Before long, they are indeed spotted by a flyer. Far from being a resident of the Great Valley that flyer turns out to be Pterano. Upon hearing about his nephews fate he insists (probably against the wishes of Cera) to accompany them and try to find Petrie. Having lived in the Mysterious Beyond for quite a while he may turn out quite a help to the kids.
Meanwhile Petrie too has run into two old aquintances namely (you guessed it) Rinkus and Sierra who, once they understood the situation, device a plan to take revenge on Pterano. They are certain that Pterano will before long hear about Petrie's fate and will try to find them. Rinkus and Sierra tell the completely unsuspecting and naive Petrie that they are his flock, his relatives or whatever and tell him a false name for his own. Moreover they do everything they can to inculcate Petrie with a horrible fear and hostility against "that evil flyer who is after you" and also of that "insidious little landwalkers" once a scouting flight of either Rinkus or Sierra turned out that Littlefoot and the others are after Petrie too. Rinkus and Sierra intentionaly don't teach Petrie how to fly in order to keep up his dependency on them.
Rinkus or Sierra (I opt for Sierra) contact Pterano and the others and lure them after him by indicating (as if unintentionally) that he knows more about Petrie but is not going to help.
The further journey through the rugged wastelands leads past several known places and finally to the great landbrake from the original movie. Further earthquakes have caused a large piece of land to sink down creating a large basin with the ground covered by a lake of bubbling lava. It is this point Rinkus and Sierra chose for their final revenge. Leading Pterano, Littlefoot and the others there by carefully laid out tracks of Petrie they are waiting in ambush above a thin rocky path on which Littlefoot and the others are going to come. Petrie is to cause a rockslide at a spot only he can reach due to his small size. That rockslide would push Littlefoot, Pterano and the others right into the lava lake.
Yet inspite of the huge fear and hostility Rinkus and Sierra have stirred up in Petrie through their lies Petrie realizes how harmless these dreadful enemies look. Feeling pity he flies to Rinkus and Sierra declaring desperately that he just can't do what they asked him to do. During the angry reaction of Rinkus and Sierra one of them addresses Petrie with his real name which, in combination with his seeing the others and their calling his name brings back all his memory. Fearing for their revenge Rinkus and Sierra attack Pterano of their own after throwing Petrie down towards the lava lake. In this desperate situation Petrie regains his ability to fly. The outcome of the fight is to be discussed (it need not be as horrible as may be pictured with the idea of the lava lake at the back of our mind), but I suppose that Pterano could come off with a complete "rehabilitation". Maybe grownup flyers (including the big one from LBT 7) turn up in time so Rinkus and Sierra make their escape. Otherwise the return to the Great Valley might be included in the game, but the main plot would probably end at that lava lake.
An advantage of this story is that there are many possible landscapes from the first movie that could be used in the background. The story could be elaborated much further (so there would be good room for your input too). The escape from the Great Valley, the toils of the Journey (need to find food, clim obstacles etc.), searching for tracks of Petrie, and attempts of Petrie to relearn flying could prove interesting elements to include Little games in the story.
