We've decided on a schedule, and we're officially going into 'alpha' phase and beginning to roll out a demo.
We're revamping the battle system, but I'll save that for another post.
The good news is that most of the art is done for the demo (maybe a few items here and there) and that most of the prelim coding is done, as well. The programmer is going to send me something tomorrow in regards to the conversation system, and we'll go from there.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Making Stories in Video Games
Many video games have had ground-breaking, successful stories that captivated their audiences. I can think of several that come to mind on console: Xenogears, FF7, and Street Fighter, of all things. (All three of these have had multiple movies and spin-offs made from them.)
I'm making a game that's a mash-up of mythology, anime concepts and graphic novel, so it's important for me to consider a lot of elements that don't always have to go into video games to make them fun. I'm limiting myself even further by making it for a mobile console. (Anyone that thinks making for mobile isn't limiting is stupid or lying.)
I just finished watching Fate/Stay Night's prequel, Fate Zero today. It didn't live up to the original series in my mind, but there's a couple things it did right that always, always capture a large audience.
1. They used mythical heroic characters that are interesting and vivid.
2. Each hero has a persona. They are not a Hero, but a 'hero class.' It makes for an interesting shift in dialogue and scenario. There's a meta-level to the hero story.
3. Instead of being about survival, like the first show was, Fate Zero is more about the deep personalities each Servant have and fleshing out the content involved. By comparison, the Master characters are much, much less interesting. That was clearly a design choice in this series. (probably due to the popularity of characters like Sabre, etc.). Anime watchers, and fantasy lovers in general, usually love deep fantasy. This series and (Fate/Stay Night) is a pretty good example of that.
4. Each of the characters steal the show in their own right. The Caster class duo are both the comic relief and the source of tension for the entire series. The Rider Class and Lancer class are both bold and herioc. The was very much a series about being heroic, which is a huge contrast to the original series, which was about kicking the crap out of different heroes and villains.
This show was a gamble from the normal story structure of a hero anime, which is good, since I think anime is changing the way it does its storylines. (Not such a bad idea, since the formula hasn't changed in decades. I'm looking at you, Bleach. You used to be a good show. Then you had a second season.) I feel it paid off well, and I have decided to incorporate several story elements into the game that I didn't plan to that have more anime inspiration to them. Hopefully it will balance out the story structure and simplify it a little bit.
I'm making a game that's a mash-up of mythology, anime concepts and graphic novel, so it's important for me to consider a lot of elements that don't always have to go into video games to make them fun. I'm limiting myself even further by making it for a mobile console. (Anyone that thinks making for mobile isn't limiting is stupid or lying.)
I just finished watching Fate/Stay Night's prequel, Fate Zero today. It didn't live up to the original series in my mind, but there's a couple things it did right that always, always capture a large audience.
1. They used mythical heroic characters that are interesting and vivid.
2. Each hero has a persona. They are not a Hero, but a 'hero class.' It makes for an interesting shift in dialogue and scenario. There's a meta-level to the hero story.
3. Instead of being about survival, like the first show was, Fate Zero is more about the deep personalities each Servant have and fleshing out the content involved. By comparison, the Master characters are much, much less interesting. That was clearly a design choice in this series. (probably due to the popularity of characters like Sabre, etc.). Anime watchers, and fantasy lovers in general, usually love deep fantasy. This series and (Fate/Stay Night) is a pretty good example of that.
4. Each of the characters steal the show in their own right. The Caster class duo are both the comic relief and the source of tension for the entire series. The Rider Class and Lancer class are both bold and herioc. The was very much a series about being heroic, which is a huge contrast to the original series, which was about kicking the crap out of different heroes and villains.
This show was a gamble from the normal story structure of a hero anime, which is good, since I think anime is changing the way it does its storylines. (Not such a bad idea, since the formula hasn't changed in decades. I'm looking at you, Bleach. You used to be a good show. Then you had a second season.) I feel it paid off well, and I have decided to incorporate several story elements into the game that I didn't plan to that have more anime inspiration to them. Hopefully it will balance out the story structure and simplify it a little bit.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Programmer missed our weekly meeting
Can't believe I got up before noon on a Saturday for that.
On the bright side, did some work for an hour in the morning. Now have hours and hours of work ahead of me for the evening.
On the bright side, did some work for an hour in the morning. Now have hours and hours of work ahead of me for the evening.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Worrying about game design
Spent 4 hours today reading game design documents, watching videos from studios like Wolfire Games and looking at their impressive community numbers.
Mostly concerned about how I'm going to reconcile the art I have and the game elements.
Programmer and I are thinking about the future of our battle system, which right now is not quite working the way I wanted it to. It's good, it's even a bit fun, but it's not as strategic as I'd hoped it would be. Granted, it's based on an RPS mechanic, so I'm not sure what I expected. =/
Going to be setting up a a game document for the programmer so we can do some slightly more advanced menu systems for the game.
Mostly concerned about how I'm going to reconcile the art I have and the game elements.
Programmer and I are thinking about the future of our battle system, which right now is not quite working the way I wanted it to. It's good, it's even a bit fun, but it's not as strategic as I'd hoped it would be. Granted, it's based on an RPS mechanic, so I'm not sure what I expected. =/
Going to be setting up a a game document for the programmer so we can do some slightly more advanced menu systems for the game.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Had a great conversation with the programmer
Game is officially in alpha, we are working on the code, and we have lots left to accomplish.
Next steps involved completing a complicated story sequence and tweaking the battle system.
Next steps involved completing a complicated story sequence and tweaking the battle system.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Did a first look at the demo of the game
It's looking good. Battle system and music work. Art needs to be updated. Some crashes, but overall relatively stable for a .001 version. Needs to do some major refinishing on menus, dialogue, etc.
Overall, pretty darn exciting. Playtested it for about hour and half. Only got sick of it after that. So, that's pretty good, all things considered.
Overall, pretty darn exciting. Playtested it for about hour and half. Only got sick of it after that. So, that's pretty good, all things considered.
Starting to work on the code
And I am so not a coder. Hope I don't slam my head against the desk too many times.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)