Tiny Tinker Toys

Is this one game or many?

What we want to Share

Core Design Principles
Rule of Three: Any mechanic added must have three roles, purposes, or reasons for existing.

Core Design Ideas/Constructs
Scale - The scale of anything on screen should be the same size as you would expect it to be in real space, more or less.

Adventure Block - A chunk of content that represents a large amount of resources, a level in a mario or metroid game, an environment like a terrarium, a particular experience to share, a minigame, or some other amount of gameplay that lasts at least five minutes.

Material - Almost everything in the world is made of a material. Materials have properties, base stats, and objects made out of materials have inferred properties such as wood being flammable.

Actor - A character that can probably be controlled by the player. Also enemies. Actors represent anything alive inside a level.

Tool - Tools are how the actor interacts with their environment. Tools are also the direct way that the player controls an actor.

Doodad - A stationary object in the world. These can be crops, buildings, or other miscellaneous objects

Terrain -

Professions - Scout, Farmer, Tinker

Immediate Goal: Have the Tinkers act out a scene. This scene is interactable and the player can control each of the four characters at will.

Cast of Characters

Skyla: The Naturalist

  • Priorities are basic needs above all else, including for others. Efficiency is a means to that end
  • Starts out unhappy due to basic needs not being met.
  • Skills: High military, high farming, low others
  • Needs: Food, Water, Shelter

Merdiwen: The Aloof Artisan

  • Priorities are towards upgrading tools, helping his friends, and improving the mood of others
  • Starts out neutral, tends towards neutral. Interaction with others involves matching their emotions
  • Skills: High artisan, high engineer, low others
  • Needs: Forge, Sun, Water, Social Interaction

Selena: The Knowledge Keeper

  • Priorities are shelter, books, and food
  • Starts out neutral, becomes extremely displeased without a place to store books
  • Skills: High knowledge, very low others.
  • Needs: Library, Food, Water, Shelter, Social Interaction

Melvin: The Tryhard

  • Priorities are towards learning. Basic needs are prioritized when they are high.
  • Starts out happy. Hard to make unhappy. Doesn't take orders while happy.
  • Skills: Top rank engineering. Bottom rank on everything else
  • Needs: Food, Water, Shelter, Social Interaction

The Setup

Raw Resources:

  • Dirt. Lots of it
  • Grass. Also lots of it.
  • Three teaberry trees of varying potency
  • Small rocks scattered around

Problems:

  • Clouds dot the sky. Rain will come eventually
  • Tiny Tinkers have various needs. Most need 'food' and 'water'. All have interests.
  • Priorities may conflict with circumstances

Start

Four toys are dropped in the middle of a field. It's early morning and the day is sunny with a lot of clouds in the sky. One of the toys wakes up, takes stock of the situation, and notices the others are 'off'. Each one is activated and they have a conversation.

(For the purposes of this first scene, Skyla is the one to wake up)

Conversations:

  • Skyla wakes Selena. They talk for a bit. Skyla tries to get Selena to hunt food, but Selena gets irritated and prioritizes shelter instead. Selena starts gathering materials to make a basic house.
  • Skyla wakes Merdiwen. Merdiwen looks around, asks about tools, Skyla suggests food, and Merdiwen 'agrees' to get food, instead running off to make tools.
  • Skyla wakes Melvin. He acts happy. Skyla berates him until he agrees to acquire one of food, water, and shelter. This conversation may take some time, as he won't agree to the request without losing a significant amount of emotional state.
  • Skyla ends up highly angry due to the length of time it takes to make Melvin do anything other than random stuff. She takes out her anger on one of the tea trees.

(Actions are performed throughout the day)

Dusk: The four characters gather up enough material to make a campfire. They sit and chat about their day, how they have no food, a tea leaf is roasted and passed around for munching.

  • Selena makes a dirt 'house'. It's a hole in the ground with two sticks and a leaf large enough for two people to sleep in. She is angry about the whole subject. Skyla is concerned, Merdiwen and Melvin are not.
  • Merdiwen has somehow fashioned a basic workbench, a few tool patterns, a hammer, and a spear. Skyla is angry about the lack of food but appeased by the spear. He is sad about this. The others are nonplussed.
  • Melvin has managed to bash two rocks together enough times to make fire. In his hand. There is no apparent fuel. He is happy about this. The rest of the group is not.
  • Skyla has turned a tree into scraps. She appears to be 'happy' about this. Merdiwen is impressed, Selena is annoyed, Melvin is scared.

Sleep:

  • Skyla takes watch all night as she is the only one with a weapon.
  • Melvin sleeps outside somewhere, probably in a tree.
  • Merdiwen and Selena sleep inside the mud hole.

Night:

  • Rain comes. The mud hole falls in, burying the two sleepers inside. Skyla digs them out. None of them get much sleep.

Day 2:

Melvin wakes up looking chipper. He immediately asks about food, realizes that there is none, and becomes sad. He goes to ask the others for food

  • Skyla begins to berate him, changes her mind, and hands him the spear. They both go hunting.

Selena speaks to Merdiwen about the house. She suggests a lean-to from grass, he disagrees and suggests bricks. They both agree on the plan and she searches for resources while he works on a sword.

  • Merdiwen spends very little time on a sword and a shovel. (Crude quality) He promptly goes to find better resources.
  • Selena eventually gives up and starts making a mud house with her two sticks. When Merdiwen finds her, he explains the process of making mud bricks by cutting down grass, turning it into fibers, and drying it.
  • Selena gets flustered at the weather, then explains the lean-to again. The sword allows for a grass roof, so they agree this time.
  • At various points throughout the day the two get hungry and go looking for Skyla and Melvin; they should have food or know where some is. No designated food area is made yet.

Melvin and Skyla make a good hunting pair.

  • They hunt worms, pill bugs, and beetles. Melvin acts as bait while Skyla delivers the kill.
  • Each time they are successful their mood improves, and when it gets too high Skyla yells at him.
  • By the end of the day they have harvested enough food for three toys, and are not hungry.

Dusk: The four characters meet up at their starting area again, this time centered around the campfire. They chat about the day over a meal. Another tea leaf is roasted and passed around for munching.

  • Selena explains the lean-to. The other characters look happy. She explains there is only room for two people. Selena, Skyla, and Merdiwen are not happy about this. Melvin says he'll sleep under the stars again.
  • Merdiwen has fashioned a sword and a shovel. Skyla, Selena, and Merdiwen look happy about this. Melvin looks sad; he's left out of the tool group.
  • Melvin gives a tale about hunting a worm. Skyla looks happy, Selena looks scared, Merdiwen looks neutral.
  • Skyla gives a tale about hunting a beetle. Skyla looks 'happy', the others look scared.

Sleep:

  • Skyla takes the first watch, Merdiwen takes the second watch.
  • Melvin sleeps outside somewhere, probably in a tree.
  • Selena sleeps under the lean-to. Merdiwen and Skyla alternate based on their watch.

Night:

  • A beetle attacks on Skyla's watch. The commotion rouses Merdiwen and they fight it off successfully. Neither one gets much sleep.
  • Rain comes. Merdiwen gets wet. Melvin gets wet again, he doesn't care.

Day 3:

Merdiwen and Skyla are suffering from sleep deprivation.

  • Skyla stays awake due to only having food for one toy.
  • Merdiwen has all of his basic needs met and sleeps in.

Day 3 continues much like day 2 with Skyla and Melvin hunting for food. Halfway through the day Merdiwen gets up and helps Selena build a second lean to.

Win Conditions

  • Buildings: 1 Workbench, 2 Basic Shelter, 1 Brick-laying Area
  • Status: Fully fed, fully rested.
  • Resources: Food for all present Tinkers

Lose Conditions

  • Zero available Tinkers to control.
  • Methods:
    -- Disloyalty so high that all Tinkers defect
    -- Lack of charge in toy batteries, making them 'dead'
    -- Capture by terrain or other creatures, rendering the Tinkers immobile or otherwise restrained to zero actions

Definitions

Toy - An actor that the player can control and play with. Each one has a set of skills and is built out of items
Print - A generic category for the toys to define how objects are made. Generally these prints fall into one of three categories: actors, items, or structures. Name is formatted as {type}print
Block - A set of resources and environment objects that resembles a level in a game, a resource pit of some kind, a large structure like a plant, or a minigame. Name is formatted as [Name] Block
Store - A place for the player to buy and sell items. Each store has a motto, a description, and a set of categories for sale

Tinker Toy Co'

  • "The Tinker Toy Company is proud to present our latest creation: Tiny Tinker Toys!"

  • This store is upbeat with a sunny yellow interior and a lot of toy-related items packing the shelves. It is often noisy with foot traffic and the murmuring of a crowd.

Category: Tinker Chests

  • Imagine a Gacha system with a toy, some materials, and a structure of some kind in each chest.

Category: Playprints

  • Tinker Toy Co' defines a standard distribution of blueprints as: Blueprint, Gearprint, Toyprint
  • Blueprints describe structures and the way they are built.
  • Gearprints have a pattern for items like tools and clothes.
  • Toyprints detail all of the parts needed to assemble a toy into an animated creature.

Category: Adventure Blocks

  • Adventure Blocks are standard levels in video games. These are mostly comprised of setpieces like a minecraft jungle temple, levels like a zelda dungeon, or small scale metroidvania areas.

Tiny Tinker Toy Co'

  • The Tiny Tinker Company store is another section of the store run by toys. You can purchase pre-defined items here

Categories: Tiny Tools, Tiny Equipment, Tiny Toys

  • You can buy and sell tools that your toys would use
  • Equipment is similar
  • Tinker Toy Co' provides some pre-built toy types for someone who just wants a basic farmer or a slime to put somewhere.

Category: Material Bundles

  • A variety of materials in toy size can be bought here.

Category: Toy Plants

  • The toy company sells premium gene-spliced or hybrid plants here. Notable varieties are Toywood, Tea Tree, and Oreberry Bushes

The Everything Store

  • "You can find everything in here. It is decided that this is true."

  • The Everything Store is an anomalous version of Walmart. The store seems to only have items in stock that you can afford.

  • This store is literally run by Satan. And a unicorn. And Cthulhu. And a cherub. You could have sworn you saw a leprechaun behind the counter at one point.

  • The store sells a bland, generic copy of every single item in the entire game.

  • Categories are pulled at random. There are always three categories to pull from

Categories: Playprints

  • Even the names are off-brand copies of other stores Blueprint -> Whiteprint Gearprint -> EquiPrint Toyprint -> Playprint

Category: Tinker Chest -> Toy Box

  • This is ostensibly like the toy company's gacha system, but you always get generic versions of characters. Solid colors, average stats, nothing modified at all.

Category: Block -> Fun Blocks

  • How do you feel about a styrofoam block to put your characters in full of toothpaste and chips?
  • These blocks should be random assortments of other items and real-world supplies like toilet paper

Farmland Flowers & Bonsai

  • (Motto undecided)

  • This store is a specialty store for flowers, bonsai, and farm crops that work best in planter boxes

Category: Flowers

  • Both full size and toy size flowers can be found here

Category: Greenprint

  • Toys need to know where to plant seeds, how to plant them, what the best way to take care of them is, and when to harvest
  • This is just the information on the back of a seed packet

Category: Arbor Block

  • The shop owner specializes in bonsai. Their store has taken off as people started looking for unusual places to have their toys live or to give them a good method of acquiring a lot of a material in a moderately small space, like a tree in a pot.
  • This might also be a rose bush, a small tree, or a variety of other woody things

Category: Farm Block

  • Crops planted in boxes or pots are found here.

Homeland Hardware? (Name up for debate)

  • (motto undecided)

  • This is a home improvement store. Due to the popularity of the Tiny Tinker Toys(tm), they have a section dedicated to what toys can build

Category: Blueprint

  • These are shed blueprints. Full human-size blueprints. I'm sure the toys can adapt them to a smaller area.

Category: Building Block

  • Modern, industrial, or resource-based blocks.
  • This might be a small skyscraper or an entire block of cement.

Aftermarket (Name undecided)

  • "Welcome! You must be here for modifications and cool stuff!"
  • "What's a motto?"

Category: Modprint

  • Modprints are unusual, as they don't directly make things. Instead they contain instructions on how to modify things into others.
  • Example: Adding quartz and sapphire to an arm will store and amplify essence to a large degree

Category: Rigprint

  • Rigs are things that hold up other things. Scaffolding, tool racks, and exosuits are found in this category.

Category: Arcade Block

  • Minigames like Tetris or Pac-Man are in here.

Test Block:

  • These blocks are for debugging toys. They contain a vareity of tools and equipment to change out parts, manipulate level elements, and otherwise modify things
  • The 7D printer is a test block in its own right.

Black Market

  • "Scram!"

  • "We have everything you need and then some."

  • "Everyone wants what we have. You know it, we love it, buy our guns!"

  • "I can get you anything you want, for a price."

  • The black market is where disloyal and escaped toys go to sell their goods. It's better if you don't ask where those goods came from.

Category: Random, Random, Random, Random

  • The black market can have a variety of materials, random objects, or modified equipment that you won't find elsewhere.
  • Every time you visit the stock changes. Each vendor will have something different. Some vendors may have a theme to them, at least four merchants are needed to make the theme work

Category: Blanks

  • Blanks are a special kind of toy that must be player controlled. They cannot have AI and serve best as "extra lives" in some of the harsh challenges from this place.

Category: Blackprint

  • Blackprints are a mix of prints that are unavailable elsewhere. They are considered contraband.
  • Some blackprints may cause difficulties for unknown or obtuse reasons.
  • Some blackprints are guns. These aren't sold at other stores for obvious reasons

Category: Black Box

  • These are blocks
  • Black Box type blocks are dangerous. Some have acid, others have spike traps, a few might involve an obstacle course with live ammunition.