A History of Esper Quest, the making of. (RPGM1)

[Alutra]

{One of the missing games on this site is Esper Quest. I thought If perhaps I wrote an article about the game and shared with the Pavilion it might motivate me to get the ball rolling on finally finishing it, and posting it here where it belongs.}

March 2nd, 2010

A History of Esper Quest, the making of.

Back in 2002, after tinkering with another demo length game on RPGM1 (Dragons that Sleep), I started a new project called “Esper Quest”. While I had enjoyed making the first game, I discovered that I really wanted to make an RPG that was less linear. The classic “on rails” feel that most RPG’s offered began to grow stale for me, at least in the sense of creating something new. I didn’t have a particularly specific storyline at the time, but I had a strong sense of how I wanted the game-play to be. Being a huge fan of FF6, I decided to make a sort of spin-off game, using the Esper-taught spell learning formula. I wanted a game that, with so many random variables, there would be a high replay value. 1500 creating and testing hours later, I have a monster that I don’t really have time to finish…but I feel like I wont be at peace until I do.

After the first couple of years of work, I had come up with a formula for a partially self designing game. This included a centralized town where the core of the story was held, but the geography in every direction of the town was put together uniquely each time you restarted the game. This self designing also made it so that the selection and arrangement of dungeons in each new game were unique.

The main character in the game is one of 8 choices, selected by the player. This selection also rearranges the available party members that eventually join the Main character. One of the main jobs of the heroes is to of course discover, rescue, and join with Espers found in the game. Some of these opportunities are random, some occur based off of major choices the player makes. With each Esper offering a different variation of available spells, the player can customize each character the way they see fit, similar to FF6. The first available Esper in the game is randomly selected from a handful of possibilities; for example, the player may discover Ifrit, and learn fire magic, which does big damage in a forest, but not in a desert. Or they may discover Kirin and be more of a healer. This coupled with a random set of environment choices can impact where a player may explore early in the game.

There of course had to be multiple worlds to explore. This meant using “portals” that connect one realm or dimension to another. The realm of the Espers, the humans, and others. I wanted a very balanced and interesting battle system, at least with what the default battle system had to offer. I wanted a robust arcade in the game, intricate enough to rival Remote Control, dating sim included. Also, I decided to make this story into more of a fairy tale, with chapters in a book. I wanted a player to really have a sense of a plot, changes in story, and a sense that they could accomplish quests or story arcs in a small amount of time. This also meant that there would be multiple endings. I wanted the player to have to make big choices in the game that eventually steered them to one ending or another. This also meant that some chapters would vary depending on the choices you have made.

I really wanted Big Story, at the same time I wanted Big Open World, with things to discover and explore. The limitations of a PS1 memory card quickly helped me define how much I could have of each.

In 2005 the Pavilion held the “Anything goes” contest. I tried to use it to motivate me. I remember franticly trying to finish the game in the months before the due date. My ideas were just too big for the time frame. I posted version 1.0 in time for the deadline, which included a fair amount of testing. After posting it, a replay through revealed a fatal flaw in the game. A black screen between card switches. After further review, I was dissatisfied with the endings. They just didn’t match up with the rest of the game. I pulled the game off the site.

I am a bit of a perfectionist, at least with this game. I have long since added, tweaked and improved vast quantities in the game, but there are still parts of it unfinished. Mostly, I want the endings to be huge and meaningful, and they just aren’t yet.

The real problem is that I am a busy guy with 3 kids and 2 jobs and wonderful girlfriend to take care of. There have been times where I thought of just dropping this game for good. But it haunts me. I feel that if I don’t finish it, it will always haunt me.

So even if there are only like 2 Pavilionites left with functioning Dex Drives, I am going to post this game.

One solution I thought of is to post the game in Volumes. It is 8 or so PS1 cards big. The first portion of the game (a couple hours worth) fits neatly on 2 cards. I could release Volume 1 soon, and then Volume 2 down the road, with 3 or 4 volumes in total.

Now…I found my dex drive…but I don’t have the old serial port on my newer comp… any suggestions?

Thanks for reading.