Dallas Alvis
02-06-2005, 02:14 AM
I am sure at least some of the RPG Maker Development Forum regulars in the former site remember me talking about a game I've been making called Blades & Storms. Many things have been getting in my way of making this game, including loss of game data. Today, I am going to announce what I have been working on for the past four months.
Since my brother's PS2 was sold and my PS1's internal hardware became fried confetti many months ago, I had to start over on the game from Square One, again. This would be the third time that I had to do this, but I am still inspired to make the game. This time, I have to start over with nothing but epsxe and my laptop to run RPG Maker 1 on my computer, in light of a recent suggestion by Valk. I think that I still have a jump on it, because I still have RPG Maker 1 experience and I've got the inspiration.
For those that do not remember, the original Blades & Storms was going to be designed in a format that was some-what akin to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. This is not going to change, or at least, not very much. Before, my idea was for all of these characters who were going to be in the game as NPC's that could join the party if you met them and met certain criteria. The good thing about this is that I have an easy plot that I can plan that can connect from A to B to C, etc. The bad thing about this is that I restrict the player's option to just his/her character's gender and that's it.
A recent idea is to give the player the ability to create his/her own character. Pick his/her class, weapon of choice and grow his/her character the way he/she wants it to grow as he/she progresses on as he/she levels up. How it is going to be done is the classes are simply the Skills you choose from in the beginning, this determines your abilities like STR, DEF, STA, etc. Then you select a weapon of choice, and this selects what character slot to use (since weapons are limited to characters who use them, most of the 15 slots will be the one player's character and picking a weapon of choice picks that character slot so that he/she can use the weapon style chosen.
The other slots will act as summoned creatures (which the spellcasting classes summon before battle) Then he/she can choose the character's gender, The good thing is that it allows the player to create the character he/she wants to play. The bad thing is that it limits the party to just one guy and I am afraid that it will be too much like Morrowind (where most fun thing in the game is making the character and that's pretty much it). I am thinking about making another game that does this instead, but I still like this idea, or at least some of it. Most likely, I will only incorporate the class and gender portion of this idea into the game, because I want this game to have party members to interact with.
I think that I am going to try to find an in-betweener, some how and suggestions would be great, but I am about 90% sure that I am going to make that game somewhere in between these two ideas.
I am also balancing the game out with an EXP limit system, to make sure that no character gets too powerful. You will only be able to advance to 5th level, because you can not have any more than 99 EXP per character. I know that this sounds stupid, but this is used to encourage the player to do other things than battle to progress in the game. The game isn't going to be a hackfest, for once I'm making an RPG Maker game that allows you to be the character and roleplay, it's a story-oriented game and less of a "run around and kill stuff, make money and gain levels" kinda game.
I've done the math, 5th level is a good maximum to play the game to the end with and it will be balanced. Yeah, it will seem wierd playing the game for a while and getting like EXP rewards that don't even go into double digits, but I don't think this is that bad of an idea, if I make sure that everything is balanced. Hey, at least I'm not making the enemies level up with you like in FF8. :p
A non-linear game is what I am best aiming at, it will be up to the player to say where to go to next, what party members go and which ones stay and which side he/she will take against the whole "good vs. evil" thing. This part will be the toughest, aside from the story itself, but I've compiled a method of doing this, regardless. "Freedom with Story" is my goal here.
The story is still in progress, these are just the features. I'll update on my progress in about a month, after I move and get more accomplished. Suggestions are more than welcome. Thank you. Goodbye.
-Dallas
Since my brother's PS2 was sold and my PS1's internal hardware became fried confetti many months ago, I had to start over on the game from Square One, again. This would be the third time that I had to do this, but I am still inspired to make the game. This time, I have to start over with nothing but epsxe and my laptop to run RPG Maker 1 on my computer, in light of a recent suggestion by Valk. I think that I still have a jump on it, because I still have RPG Maker 1 experience and I've got the inspiration.
For those that do not remember, the original Blades & Storms was going to be designed in a format that was some-what akin to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. This is not going to change, or at least, not very much. Before, my idea was for all of these characters who were going to be in the game as NPC's that could join the party if you met them and met certain criteria. The good thing about this is that I have an easy plot that I can plan that can connect from A to B to C, etc. The bad thing about this is that I restrict the player's option to just his/her character's gender and that's it.
A recent idea is to give the player the ability to create his/her own character. Pick his/her class, weapon of choice and grow his/her character the way he/she wants it to grow as he/she progresses on as he/she levels up. How it is going to be done is the classes are simply the Skills you choose from in the beginning, this determines your abilities like STR, DEF, STA, etc. Then you select a weapon of choice, and this selects what character slot to use (since weapons are limited to characters who use them, most of the 15 slots will be the one player's character and picking a weapon of choice picks that character slot so that he/she can use the weapon style chosen.
The other slots will act as summoned creatures (which the spellcasting classes summon before battle) Then he/she can choose the character's gender, The good thing is that it allows the player to create the character he/she wants to play. The bad thing is that it limits the party to just one guy and I am afraid that it will be too much like Morrowind (where most fun thing in the game is making the character and that's pretty much it). I am thinking about making another game that does this instead, but I still like this idea, or at least some of it. Most likely, I will only incorporate the class and gender portion of this idea into the game, because I want this game to have party members to interact with.
I think that I am going to try to find an in-betweener, some how and suggestions would be great, but I am about 90% sure that I am going to make that game somewhere in between these two ideas.
I am also balancing the game out with an EXP limit system, to make sure that no character gets too powerful. You will only be able to advance to 5th level, because you can not have any more than 99 EXP per character. I know that this sounds stupid, but this is used to encourage the player to do other things than battle to progress in the game. The game isn't going to be a hackfest, for once I'm making an RPG Maker game that allows you to be the character and roleplay, it's a story-oriented game and less of a "run around and kill stuff, make money and gain levels" kinda game.
I've done the math, 5th level is a good maximum to play the game to the end with and it will be balanced. Yeah, it will seem wierd playing the game for a while and getting like EXP rewards that don't even go into double digits, but I don't think this is that bad of an idea, if I make sure that everything is balanced. Hey, at least I'm not making the enemies level up with you like in FF8. :p
A non-linear game is what I am best aiming at, it will be up to the player to say where to go to next, what party members go and which ones stay and which side he/she will take against the whole "good vs. evil" thing. This part will be the toughest, aside from the story itself, but I've compiled a method of doing this, regardless. "Freedom with Story" is my goal here.
The story is still in progress, these are just the features. I'll update on my progress in about a month, after I move and get more accomplished. Suggestions are more than welcome. Thank you. Goodbye.
-Dallas