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Plans for my first project. Critiques welcomed.

Velosis

Villager
Xy$
0.00
Unfortunately I have yet to come up with a title, but i'll keep brain storming.

Rating: M
Length: Undetermined
Battle system: Side view

This is only a first draft and things are likely to change. The game is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi themed world with a bit of a horror/survival twist.. The following mostly to set up for this world I have planned. I plan to flush it out a bit more even if some of it may be considered cliché. The tale below is of the world’s history told by a village elder and is told much like a fairy tale. So please keep in mind that much like a game of telephone maybe not every bit of it is true and over generations the story changed. It’s just what they were raised to believe.

A low rough voice echoes off the softly illuminated walls where shadows dance from a nearby fire. You fall hypnotized as you begin to focus on the voice of the old man before you…

“In The Age of Light the world prospered as the gods smiled upon man, but man’s rapacious nature would lead to its downfall. They learned to harness the power of the gods, the power of light! Man no longer feared the dark and with their new power came the creations of wonders! Chariots that needed no horses, the warm illumination of the sun on every street corner, and metal animals to do their biddings.

The Church had warned that the gods would become angry and they would not tolerate man’s gluttony, but we were blinded with our new power and lost faith in those we once praised. Not long after the war began. The Church could no longer tolerate man’s sins and began their crusade to save us from ourselves, but they were too late The Darkness came! The god’s wrath finally fell upon us. The Twilight moon came crashing down from the heavens. Erasing man sins from the surface of the world, dark clouds blotted out the sun covering the land in complete darkness.

The Age of Twilight had begun the world born anew and covered in darkness. Man was scattered and frighten. The need to survive will bring you to do things you never thought possible. The strong fed on the weak, pillaging and murder common place. The land had started to become stained with blood. Then in the darkness a ray of hope! A faint light had shown itself! In what is now knows as the City of Light. The gods spared the true believers! The Church had survived and were blessed with the god’s illumination. It was not long before survivors all over began to migrate, but not all were given entrance to the city. Only those who give all obedience to the church are allowed to enter. Was not long before those who had grown strong and in power outside the walls grew jealous and wished to wield the power of the gods for themselves once again. An army had gathered outside the walls ready to siege and that’s when they came the monsters….the Demons. Like a flood they came out of the darkness slaughtering those who stood beyond the gate of the glimmering city before retreating back into the black void. There must be no doubt the city is blessed as it was left unscathed, but its doors now forever closed to us who live outside its gate.

It seemed a new life form was to take over our world. Demons…feeding on us who were unworthy of the god’s blessings. Our village was soon too to be engulfed by the wrath when our first chieftain fell to his feet and prayed asking how we may prove ourselves. In a bright flash of light a weapon was found. A silver sword appeared in his hand and enriched with the knowledge on the ancient art of Alchemy. With this weapon the Demons finally learned fear themselves! He cleansed our village of the wrath that had almost doomed us. This is our village’s legacy this is why you must learn the way of our people. To cleanse this world of the darkness that surrounds us!"

SYSTEMS

My plans are to make this game hard with adult themes. It’s a dark harsh world where surviving day to day is no easy task. So to keep to that theme I want a death to matter! If you’re team mate falls in battle he only has a short time before he bleeds out and dies for good. No resurrection going to bring back your fallen comrades here.

An obvious theme is the world is covered in a black void. Visibility in this world is low with only certain lights sources increasing it. A common one being fire. So keeping a good supply of torches and etc is a good idea. Unless you want to wonder aimlessly in the dark.

You leveled up! I want exploration and using your knowledge of the enemies you face be what makes you strong. You can’t expect to walk into a strange monsters nest and expect to walk out unscathed. You’ll need to learn its habits and weaknesses. Was that a growl or a hiss? Knowing the difference will help you avoid a incoming attack that could devastate you! Talking to villagers or reading scattered scrolls/journals will be some ways of getting this info. Plans for leveling on the other hand is passive perks or unique weapon skills with very minor stat increases. Feel like this is a good way to express your character learning from experience.

Silver! A rare old ore is the only known weakness of the creatures who live in the dark. This will be a main source of currency. The idea is to make this a valuable resource. Crafting or finding weapons made of this will not be common place. I want this to be part of combat strategy. Do I save this silver bullet for the journey ahead? Or do I use it now to kill this mob and save me some health for a upcoming battle.

Mmm that's some good potion! Alchemy is another big part of the strategy of survival/combat. With it you can create tools, bombs, and poisons. With herbs being scarce as well as some ingredients only come from certain monsters. Needing you to choose wisely on how you spend those resources. You will not be able to making Healing Potions, but rather Healing salves. What’s the difference you may ask? Healing salves will not be common or easy to make and will only heal small portions of health (More of a I need a little health to make it to the next town or I need to hold on just a little longer in this fight!). The goal being I want to keep the game difficult and potion chugging or healing spells make life to easy. The only way I want a full heal is by camping or by staying at an inn (Old school I know, but feels more grounded and real to me).

Gardening! With herbs being such rare resource you will need to grow some of your own, but you’ll have limited space. Another level of strategy…I want you to be able to play your way so here a added layer of customizing your play style. Do you like bombs or poisons more? Maybe both? Then grow what you need, but beware! This will not be instant gratification! These things take time to grow so use that limited space wisely!

Adding onto crafting….I want crafting to be part trial and error some recipes you’ll have to figure out for yourself while the basic ones are taught to you from completing quest or scrolls you may randomly come across from exploring.

PEW PEW GUNS! Well Flintlock guns really…In combat I plan for this to replace magic. Being able to do big burst damage or CC effects with the downside being its flintlock so it takes a while to reload in between shots (With perks being able to shorten the timer depending if you want to invest in Gun perks).

Combos! Another level of customization of how you choose to fight. Much in the way of Chrono Trigger. I want your special attacks to change depending on who you choose to fight by your side. As an example...one of the side characters I have planned who we will call “The Mutant” for now. His specialty is that his blood is contaminated having a thorns type effect while also being able to injure himself in able to empower an attack or allies attack. Can be helpful support but be careful not to abuse it and end up killing him and as I stated before death will be permanent!

In Closing
That's all I really got for you now. I could go deeper into who the main character of the story is and what his story arc may be, but i'll keep that close to the barrel for now. My hope is after months of hard work getting the systems in place that I want to add i'll be able to show a demo of it and get feed back on balancing and such from the community, but for now i'm willing to take your thoughts and critiques on the ideas I've laid out. For those of you who actually read it all thanks for putting in the time!
 
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Bizarre Monkey

I SHALL BE GLORIOUS!
Much as the idea itself is generic, or cliche as you put it, some of the systems you've suggested make it unique.

We can talk all day about Dystopian settings caused by Man's rapacious nature being cliche, if you have some earnest ways to backup that with gameplay, then you will have people invested.

I like the idea of level up the most! A lot of games hand you the power to slay on a whim these days, and my recommendation is making exploration and other things like Alchemy, Gardening, etc. Very rewarding! Much more so than killing monsters. Making Monster dens really dangerous early on is a good way to make them things players will seek later, with huge rewards at the end, but the encounters become easier the more you have prepared.

Maybe Monster Dens will be the only place you can acquire Silver, but to clear one you have to really be prepared, have a stock of things Demons are weak to in that Den, find out what they are weak to before you make those things, scout and spy, all that sorta stuff!

I like the idea of limited visibility too, also I think making Monster Dens intimidating to approach is a good idea, on the map with the entrance, you have a bunch of warnings, both of a sign kind and a visually unsettling kind. Bodies strewn about or hanged, scorch marks, and ofcourse the entrance itself should be rife with the intimidation tactic. I think having no music, or just a dark uneasy feeling drone for this map would be ideal.

And when you first enter a monster den, have a damning music effect play. Then keep either music strictly to ambience and/or creepy disturbing drones.

Also, one other cool idea, since players will want to avoid monsters if they can, have the on map encounters just a black silhouette of a terrifying shape.

Just a couple quick examples.
 

DevoidOS

Knight
Xy$
0.00
Much as the idea itself is generic, or cliche as you put it, some of the systems you've suggested make it unique.

We can talk all day about Dystopian settings caused by Man's rapacious nature being cliche, if you have some earnest ways to backup that with gameplay, then you will have people invested.

I like the idea of level up the most! A lot of games hand you the power to slay on a whim these days, and my recommendation is making exploration and other things like Alchemy, Gardening, etc. Very rewarding! Much more so than killing monsters. Making Monster dens really dangerous early on is a good way to make them things players will seek later, with huge rewards at the end, but the encounters become easier the more you have prepared.

Maybe Monster Dens will be the only place you can acquire Silver, but to clear one you have to really be prepared, have a stock of things Demons are weak to in that Den, find out what they are weak to before you make those things, scout and spy, all that sorta stuff!

I like the idea of limited visibility too, also I think making Monster Dens intimidating to approach is a good idea, on the map with the entrance, you have a bunch of warnings, both of a sign kind and a visually unsettling kind. Bodies strewn about or hanged, scorch marks, and ofcourse the entrance itself should be rife with the intimidation tactic. I think having no music, or just a dark uneasy feeling drone for this map would be ideal.

And when you first enter a monster den, have a damning music effect play. Then keep either music strictly to ambience and/or creepy disturbing drones.

Also, one other cool idea, since players will want to avoid monsters if they can, have the on map encounters just a black silhouette of a terrifying shape.

Just a couple quick examples.
Dang Bizzare, good job.
 
I like the sound of this concept. Planning a system is actually very wise; did you do this alongside story planning, or was figuring out the system the first thing you wanted done?

I can see the limited visibility having an awesome impact on the gameplay. Do you plan to have items like torches and lanterns come into play? Carrying a fire that lasts only a certain amount of time to help widen the player's circle of perception?

Do you plan to make this more of a real-time, field-based battle system (Kingdom Hearts, FFXII) or a side-view active battle system? The way you frame the experience/leveling up working, it sounds more like the former - that, or the stats you level up are more about the weapon and skill levels than personal strength, etc.?

With keeping healing items at a minimum, how steep do you think you're learning curve will be? It sounds like it'd be very difficult from the get-go, and with everything in limited supply it seems like if a player runs out and can't access any more salves, they'll be screwed and re-re-re-re-re-reloading from save points if they don't have the battle system mastered. ;(

And then there's gardening. This is a nice combination of unique concepts! X3 Keep up the good work!
 

Kevs

Villager
Xy$
0.00
I would like to become tester. For me, the best way i could do to learn about making games, is to try it.

Can't wait yours!
 
Ah yes, a post-apocalyptic story....I wouldn't worry about people disliking it because it is a cliché. The truth is, a cliché is a cliché for a reason, people secretly like them. However, these kinds of stories are under greater scrutiny by readers/players because of how many times they have seen this kind of story (post-apocalyptic story of survival, star crossed lovers trying to be together, etc), and nobody wants to read the same thing over and over again. So, the question is, what will you do differently? These variables range from what kind of themes and characters you employ to all the little aspects the universe you create, these are the kinds of things that will make or break your story.

What I like about your story:
1. Has room for rich lore (i.e. different gods, different demons, perhaps different churches for different gods? Can lead to different factions, etc)

2. sci-fi + magic = wide range of fun concepts

3. special ore (touches on number 1, just wish that you would expand on it.)

iffy aspects:
1. why not have magic and guns? (those with faith = some magic power?)

2. will there be different churches/factions? (i.e. villages, churches, demon worshipers, etc)

3. try to avoid generic names. (i.e. maybe Age of Light should be something else, Age of Radiance perhaps?, maybe the city shouldn't be called "City of Light", maybe it should be something like "Radian, City of Light".)

4. more special ore! (an example of this would be if you decide to add magical church people, maybe you can can add rare metal that negates/dampens magic. This can add more strategic diversity and richer lore)

5. can't really say anything about characters, just remember to try and sometimes show other aspects of their character (avoid characters who's only motivation is something like...."Urgh! A Demon killed my family! I must kill all Demons!" These kinds of stories are usually guilty of having one dimensional characters like this, just remember to show other sides of their character as well, through interactions with other characters, character development, etc.

So, in my opinion, try to make the lore as rich and detailed as possible, and remember; the little things matter too...maybe even more. Try to create a world where someone could imagine living in (even though your world would not be a place I would personally want to go..seeing how there are demons everywhere :( ), because if the world isn't fleshed out enough; people will just see another post-apocalyptic story and not become invested.
 

CM Games

Towns Guard
Xy$
0.00
(Repost) I think you should read this first.

ON FIRST PROJECTS
by Dark Gaia
Advice for newbies on why a simple first project is often the best choice.

On First Projects

This article is intended to show new RPG Makers why a simple first project is often the best choice. In this article, I'll try to explain the reasons why newbies should, at first, put their ambitions on hold, including:




    • - A simple project is not overwhelming
      - Simple projects allow the user to play around and learn.
      - Simple projects offer no distractions for inexperienced users.

As you all most of you know, I've been a part of the RPG Maker community for quite a while now. I haven't yet reached the elusive status of "legendary" but I've been around long enough that I begin to notice trends and failings in the community. In my many years in the community, I've seen and played uncountable projects. Some were great, some only mediocre. Some were horrible. Over time, I've noticed that game making trends change, so new projects eventually steal the thunder of old ones, and the community moves on. There's one thing, however, that has remained the same ever since I first opened up RPG Maker to make my very first Final Fantasy fangame.

How many times have you seen newbies announce their epic, 20+ hour long, feature ladden, script infested first projects that they cancel shortly after? Why are first projects almost always doomed to fail? It seems that people new to the art of RPG Making are far too ambitious for their own good. I've done it myself, many moons ago; I've decided that my first project's going to be an epic saga set to rival the cherished classics of the RPG genre. Eventually, I learned that trying to pull off an ambitious project with little or no experience under my belt has two possible outcomes: either I become overwhelmed with the sheer scale of the project, realise I don't have the skill to do it justice, and cancel it, or else I finish it and release a bug-ridden crapfest. The moral here is that new RPG Makers must learn to recognise their limitations, and work within them until they are experienced enough to tackle a project that is truly spectacular.

The key piece of advice that anyone new to game making should heed is that to make a truly revolutionary game requires patience, skill and experience, three things that people often lack at the start of their RPG Making careers. A first project should be a tool for refining these things. The ideal first project should be something simple that isn't too hard to make. It's important for new RPG Makers to learn the finer operations of the program such as switches, variables, making skills, and editing the database. Likewise, there are fundamental aspects of RPG design that must be learned, such as how to create a balanced difficulty level, how to create interesting battles and strategies and how to construct an interesting, well paced storyline and likable characters. This is a tremendous amount of things to learn, and this is why it's often better to start off with something simple rather than that epic saga (powered by 10,000 scripts and custom systems) that you've always dreamed of making. Furthermore, it's important for any game maker to learn how to present a game correctly, and how to read and respond to criticism, so that they can further their abilities. Taking on a simple project that has a steady rate of progress and is not too overwhelming allows newbies to have the very valuable experience of actually releasing a completed game to the community and receiving feedback.

You don't always have to make a game so tremendously revolutionary that it turns the community upside down. A large part of being a member of the RPG Maker community is learning skills and gathering experience. Even a very simple game with no fancy scripts or custom features can be a joy to play if it's made well and clearly shows effort. Likewise, even a game done badly gives its creator an important opportunity to learn how to improve and become a better game maker. Think of it this way, new users: would you rather release a short, simple game that's helped you learn the nuances of game making and release that epic saga later and really do it justice, or would you like to release it now and have it fall far short of your ambitions? Taking on a small, simple game as your first project is really the most logical choice a new RPG Maker can make.

http://rpgmaker.net/articles/465/

good luck on your game(s)! CM
 
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