How Badly Do You Want It? is a VX Ace game that’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen for RPG Maker. A blend between RPG, Strategy, Party Game, and Time-Management Sim, How Badly will challenge your wits, reflexes, and especially your expectations. And – I hope – it will entertain and charm you at every turn along the way.
The Story
It’s the start of summer vacation, and six school-age mages are enjoying the freedom and leisurely pace that comes with the long, sunny summer days. Their bliss, however, is shattered with the arrival of bad news: the local bakery – the place where circumstances brought them together as friends years ago, and also the home of the insanely delicious Chocolate Monster Cookie – has fallen into financial hardship and is about to be repossessed!
Horrified at the thought of losing their beloved bakery, the kids scramble to come up with a way to raise the money needed to save it. Pulling a few strings, they’re able to become contestants on the popular game show How Badly Do You Want It?, filmed at the nearby TV studio. The game show offers money and prizes galore, but only to those who are intelligent, powerful, and brave enough to take on the myriad obstacles and monsters (not to mention the other contestants) that stand in their way.
They’ve only got a few weeks to fight for the prizes, raise the required funds, and save the place they love most!
The Main Cast
From left to right: Nytes, Pyretti, Tielle, Kai, Rhyss, and Ismaria.
Nytes
Class: Wind Mage (see ‘Battle System’ below for more info about each class’ role in combat)
The de facto leader of the group, Nytes is fun-loving, easy-going, and bright – though despite his intelligence, has a lot of trouble pronouncing long words (to Rhyss’ occasional amusement). His confidence and optimism seem to attract people to him. He doesn’t have many ambitions of his own, preferring to just enjoy the moment, but he has a knack for helping other people reach the goals they’re seeking.
Pyretti
Class: Fire Mage
Hyperactive, passionate, and gung ho about nearly everything she does, Pyretti marches to the beat of her own drummer. When she has her mind set on something, she can be completely oblivious to the things – and sometimes even the people – around her. Fiercely loyal to her friends who like her for what she is, her sometimes extreme moods are second only to her even more extreme sweet tooth.
Tielle
Class: Energy Mage
A sanguine, kind, and energetic girl who always seems to be smiling, even during bad times, and loves to help other people. Popular and fashionable, she likes cooking and dressing up, though she’s equally happy (well, almost as happy) when she’s running around and getting dirty. She idolizes her big sister Tyria, who works at the TV station, and is able to get Tielle and her friends onto the game show.
Kai
Class: Light Mage
Wild and adventurous, though very good-natured at heart, Kai’s penchant for combat often got him labeled as a bully at times where he didn’t realize his own strength, though he’s been more well-liked ever since he met a group of friends who could withstand his physical and magical prowess in a bit of sparring. As much as he enjoys a fight, his true passion is music, and he can often be found spending hours practicing drums and guitars of all sorts.
Rhyss
Class: Water Mage
Rhyss is kind and extremely intelligent, but lacks social skills somewhat, which often got him picked on, at least until a few neighborhood meanies found out the downside of bullying an adept mage. He likes playing games and building things. Jokes tend to go over his head (to Nytes’ occasional consternation). Though he sometimes has a hard time expressing it, his friends mean more to him than anything.
Ismaria
Class: Time Mage
Warm and wise, but rather shy, Ismaria is a prodigy who mastered the extremely rare art of Time magic at a young age. She lives with her mother, as her father sent the two of them away from a far-off land to protect them from danger that was transpiring there. Perhaps because of this, Ismaria lacks self-confidence and courage despite her profound abilities – though she somehow seems to draw it out of nowhere when the people or things she loves are in danger.
All of these characters (at an older age) are going to be playable allies in Nights in Blue, a slice-of-life style RPG which is set in the same universe. (For that matter, you’ll also recognize many of the same battle mechanics, skills, and items in that game. How Badly was originally intended as a kind of demo to show off elements of Nights in Blue, but as I worked on it, it evolved into something more.)
The Town Map
Even a small town feels like a huge, wide world to a child, so it’s appropriate that this “epic” adventure takes place entirely within town. There are several locales to visit:
How Badly Do You Want It?: The Game Show
This locally-produced hit game show is sweeping the nation (or so the network claims)! How badly do you want the incredible grand prize that’s up for grabs? Twelve contestants answer that question by bidding with their willingness to take on a difficult or painful challenge... and on their confidence that they’ll survive it! Contestants who don’t show enough heart are eliminated on the spot, and as the numbers dwindle, the challenges get harder and harder and bonus games tempt contestants to risk throwing it all away for the chance to win bonus prizes!
At the beginning of each game show, you’re introduced to your eleven rivals, chosen out of a large pool. Each rival has a bit of backstory, to put a bit of character behind the names that you’ll be facing off against.
Your goal is to outlast all the other contestants by either taking on and winning the challenges, or bidding wisely enough that your rivals have to take on the challenges instead. Here’s how it works: the host, William Williamchester III, will explain what the next event is, and give you an aspect of that challenge (such as “how many seconds do you need to complete it” or “how many enemies can you take on”) to bid on. Your bid allows you to put your money where your mouth is.
Generally, the contestant who placed the most conservative bid is immediately dropped from the game, while the contestant who placed the most aggressive bid must face the very challenge they claimed they could complete; failure to do so sees that contestant eliminated as well.
With this result, Chet is immediately eliminated, and Slake will have to complete the "Lights Out" game in 53 seconds in order to survive. With your bid of 74, you are safe and immediately move on.
If an AI rival is the one who made the most aggressive bid, the game will simulate the results of their attempt at the challenge. If you’re the one who made the most aggressive bid, however, that’s where things get really fun...
Minigames
There are 18 different challenges that you may need to take on. Several are battles, but the majority are minigames that run the gamut from tests of concentration to full-on action sequences. As a bit of a tease, here are just a few of the minigames you’ll be playing if you’re confident enough to take them on:
“Zombie Nation”: A horde of zombies are shambling after you around an abandoned castle! Your goal is to either push them or lure them into the pits that time has opened in the walkways on top of the castle walls, but be careful not to get surrounded because they do bite (doing damage to your party)! You have a number of seconds equal to your bid to drop them all; once time is up, you’ll have to battle any zombies that you failed to drop as they try to eat your braaaaaaaains!
“Rat Race”: Inspired by a carnival-style game I loved in the arcades as a kid, this minigame is played by the three contestants who bid most aggressively. Each contestant has a number of seconds equal to their bid to charge their Robotic Rat; you do so by hitting the Up, Left, Right, and Down keys corresponding to the red energy orbs that light up around you. Successive chains of correct inputs grant more and more energy. When time’s up, the Robotic Rats are released, running along the course until they run out of steam. The contestant whose rat runs the least distance is eliminated from the game!
“Party Crashers”: In a world of impostors, there can be only one. You are introduced to the Guest of Honor at the start of the event – either the King, the Tycoon, the Princess, or Rabbi Ben. After that, a parade of impostors march out, and they all start mingling, zipping about to distract you from the Guest of Honor. If you’re really good, you might even be able to pick up one of the food items that appear on the banquet tables without losing track of the Guest of Honor. The number of impostors, and amount of time they’ll mingle for, are based on your bid; after the time has passed, you need to pick out the Guest of Honor among the cavalry of impostors.
Bottom-Left: That pizza is yours to keep win or lose, but it's deceptively hard to go for it at the same time you keep your eye on the King.
“Booty or Bust”: This is one of the bonus games you can play for extra prizes (the 2nd and 3rd highest bids get to play, but the highest is eliminated from the game instead). “Pilferin' Pete” Scarbuckle sets a pit trap on one of the three bridges, and you must outwit him to claim his treasure! The Blue and especially Red chests hold more valuable prizes, but Pete knows this and will set his traps accordingly. Choose correctly and you collect whatever is in the chest, and move on to the next set of bridges. Choose incorrectly and you’ll get dunked, losing all of your bonus winnings. If you’re happy with what you’ve won, you can hit the red Panic Button and end the bonus game, keeping your prizes.
Battle System
Some of the events in the How Badly Do You Want It? game show aren’t minigames, but rather battles.
I’ve made great efforts to make the battle system feel exciting and strategic, adding and tweaking different elements until it all came together right. And because most of the battle events have a unique twist that scales with your bid, you can be rest assured that it will never feel rote. I wrote extensively about the unique features of the battle system (such as Adrenaline, Priority, and Crit Points) in the Dev Log thread, starting with Post #25.
"All we wanna do is eat your brains! We're not unreasonable; I mean no one's gonna eat your eyes."
Each of your characters is a mage, but every element of magic has a very different feel and strategy to it:
DreamBay
Congratulations! You’ve won a fabulous treasure for your success in the Game Show, like a Jet Ski or a Designer Necklace or a huge Ceramic Dalmatian! That’s nice and all, but the local shopkeepers don’t really deal in that stuff and will only pay a small percentage of the item’s value if you sell it to them. What’s a cash-starved kid to do?
That’s where the Library comes in. Log on the free computers there, load up DreamBay (which is totally not an eBay knockoff or anything), and start listing your items! Collectors out there want to buy your items, and every day you come back to the Library you can review the highest bid on each item, which could be very high or very low. It’s your option to either accept the bid and take the money immediately, or decline the bid and come back another day, hoping that someone was willing to pay even more.
Time elapsed: One in-game day.
You can also browse DreamBay yourself and try to find deals on rare items that aren’t available in shops!** These deals will change every day, so a day at the Library can yield some great items if you can afford to take the time from your other ventures.**
Credit Where It’s Due
There are a lot of people who provided me with help or inspiration, and I want to sincerely thank them for that. Without these people, this game wouldn’t be here:
Ωbright and TheHonorableRyu, who kindly Beta-tested this extensive project with me so that the official release would be of the quality it deserves.
Valkysas, head of the Pavilion, and host of the contest without which this game would never exist.
Ryner, whose great VX games inspired me to try out the PC Maker series in the first place, and showed me how easy it is to get fancy with battle skills
Fomar0153, Tsukihime, Yanfly, and the fine folks at RPG Revolution, whose scripting solutions and resources made it much easier for me to understand how to edit RGSS.
The EasyGameStation team and Carpe Fulgur team, who created Recettear, a huge inspiration for How Badly's feel and flow.
John de Mol and the Big Brother team; the “what are you willing to sacrifice to win the Veto?” competitions were the creative spark that led to me making this game.
Everyone at the Pavilion who supported me with their ideas or simply their interest in the game – Kire, Kefka, Ryner, Big Rick Cook, John Mora, Redeye, Jamos, Pagerron, Duelpro, Dreamknight, Fayorei, and of course Obright and Ryu.
The baker(s) at Toojay’s Deli in Coral Springs, who make the most delicious triple chocolate cookies I have ever tasted.
Release Info
The current release of How Badly is the 1.0 "Sugar Cookie" version. You can download the full version right here, or visit the Submission thread for more download options.
Like a sugar cookie, I think what's here is wonderful in its simplicity, and very smooth. There are always things you can add to a simple sugar cookie to make it even better, of course - and I will be adding lots of cool features and playability upgrades to the game in the coming months.
**Features marked with two asterisks are planned, but weren't implemented in the 1.0 version, due to time constraints. They will, however, most likely be available in future versions of How Badly.
The Story
It’s the start of summer vacation, and six school-age mages are enjoying the freedom and leisurely pace that comes with the long, sunny summer days. Their bliss, however, is shattered with the arrival of bad news: the local bakery – the place where circumstances brought them together as friends years ago, and also the home of the insanely delicious Chocolate Monster Cookie – has fallen into financial hardship and is about to be repossessed!
Horrified at the thought of losing their beloved bakery, the kids scramble to come up with a way to raise the money needed to save it. Pulling a few strings, they’re able to become contestants on the popular game show How Badly Do You Want It?, filmed at the nearby TV studio. The game show offers money and prizes galore, but only to those who are intelligent, powerful, and brave enough to take on the myriad obstacles and monsters (not to mention the other contestants) that stand in their way.
They’ve only got a few weeks to fight for the prizes, raise the required funds, and save the place they love most!
The Main Cast
From left to right: Nytes, Pyretti, Tielle, Kai, Rhyss, and Ismaria.
Nytes
Class: Wind Mage (see ‘Battle System’ below for more info about each class’ role in combat)
The de facto leader of the group, Nytes is fun-loving, easy-going, and bright – though despite his intelligence, has a lot of trouble pronouncing long words (to Rhyss’ occasional amusement). His confidence and optimism seem to attract people to him. He doesn’t have many ambitions of his own, preferring to just enjoy the moment, but he has a knack for helping other people reach the goals they’re seeking.
Pyretti
Class: Fire Mage
Hyperactive, passionate, and gung ho about nearly everything she does, Pyretti marches to the beat of her own drummer. When she has her mind set on something, she can be completely oblivious to the things – and sometimes even the people – around her. Fiercely loyal to her friends who like her for what she is, her sometimes extreme moods are second only to her even more extreme sweet tooth.
Tielle
Class: Energy Mage
A sanguine, kind, and energetic girl who always seems to be smiling, even during bad times, and loves to help other people. Popular and fashionable, she likes cooking and dressing up, though she’s equally happy (well, almost as happy) when she’s running around and getting dirty. She idolizes her big sister Tyria, who works at the TV station, and is able to get Tielle and her friends onto the game show.
Kai
Class: Light Mage
Wild and adventurous, though very good-natured at heart, Kai’s penchant for combat often got him labeled as a bully at times where he didn’t realize his own strength, though he’s been more well-liked ever since he met a group of friends who could withstand his physical and magical prowess in a bit of sparring. As much as he enjoys a fight, his true passion is music, and he can often be found spending hours practicing drums and guitars of all sorts.
Rhyss
Class: Water Mage
Rhyss is kind and extremely intelligent, but lacks social skills somewhat, which often got him picked on, at least until a few neighborhood meanies found out the downside of bullying an adept mage. He likes playing games and building things. Jokes tend to go over his head (to Nytes’ occasional consternation). Though he sometimes has a hard time expressing it, his friends mean more to him than anything.
Ismaria
Class: Time Mage
Warm and wise, but rather shy, Ismaria is a prodigy who mastered the extremely rare art of Time magic at a young age. She lives with her mother, as her father sent the two of them away from a far-off land to protect them from danger that was transpiring there. Perhaps because of this, Ismaria lacks self-confidence and courage despite her profound abilities – though she somehow seems to draw it out of nowhere when the people or things she loves are in danger.
All of these characters (at an older age) are going to be playable allies in Nights in Blue, a slice-of-life style RPG which is set in the same universe. (For that matter, you’ll also recognize many of the same battle mechanics, skills, and items in that game. How Badly was originally intended as a kind of demo to show off elements of Nights in Blue, but as I worked on it, it evolved into something more.)
The Town Map
Even a small town feels like a huge, wide world to a child, so it’s appropriate that this “epic” adventure takes place entirely within town. There are several locales to visit:
- Treehouse: Nytes’ treehouse is the main base of operations for our heroes. You can view your team’s status and prepare for a day of adventuring. You can also furnish your treehouse with useful “collectible” items that you win at the game show – everything from Crystal Balls to Costume Wardrobes to Jukeboxes!**
- Library: The town’s library doesn’t see a lot of traffic, but it’s a great source of knowledge for all manner of things from magic to international politics. You’ll be going there a lot to log onto the computers, where you can sell the prizes you’ve won (see ‘DreamBay’ below).
- Bakery: A homey bakery with sweets that could break the will of even the most disciplined of dieters! Some story scenes and character development takes place here, and you can also stop by to grab a batch of stat-boosting cookies from the grateful bakery owner!
- TV Studio: This is where the bulk of the action takes place, and where your dreams will come true... or be shattered! See below for a lot more detail about what you do here.
- Playground**: A playground area tucked into the edge of the forest, kids come here for a bit of fun and adventure. Come here if you’ve got some spare time, and you might get pulled into a rewarding side activity, or get treated to a bit of bonus character development via a slice-of-life scene.
- Riverside: A fashionable shopping district on the bank of the river where people eat, shop, and enjoy the ambiance. The stores include a weapons & armor store, an accessories shop, a restaurant, and a confectioner. The townsfolk roaming around the area will often have a quest for you, as well.**
How Badly Do You Want It?: The Game Show
This locally-produced hit game show is sweeping the nation (or so the network claims)! How badly do you want the incredible grand prize that’s up for grabs? Twelve contestants answer that question by bidding with their willingness to take on a difficult or painful challenge... and on their confidence that they’ll survive it! Contestants who don’t show enough heart are eliminated on the spot, and as the numbers dwindle, the challenges get harder and harder and bonus games tempt contestants to risk throwing it all away for the chance to win bonus prizes!
At the beginning of each game show, you’re introduced to your eleven rivals, chosen out of a large pool. Each rival has a bit of backstory, to put a bit of character behind the names that you’ll be facing off against.
Your goal is to outlast all the other contestants by either taking on and winning the challenges, or bidding wisely enough that your rivals have to take on the challenges instead. Here’s how it works: the host, William Williamchester III, will explain what the next event is, and give you an aspect of that challenge (such as “how many seconds do you need to complete it” or “how many enemies can you take on”) to bid on. Your bid allows you to put your money where your mouth is.
Generally, the contestant who placed the most conservative bid is immediately dropped from the game, while the contestant who placed the most aggressive bid must face the very challenge they claimed they could complete; failure to do so sees that contestant eliminated as well.
With this result, Chet is immediately eliminated, and Slake will have to complete the "Lights Out" game in 53 seconds in order to survive. With your bid of 74, you are safe and immediately move on.
If an AI rival is the one who made the most aggressive bid, the game will simulate the results of their attempt at the challenge. If you’re the one who made the most aggressive bid, however, that’s where things get really fun...
Minigames
There are 18 different challenges that you may need to take on. Several are battles, but the majority are minigames that run the gamut from tests of concentration to full-on action sequences. As a bit of a tease, here are just a few of the minigames you’ll be playing if you’re confident enough to take them on:
“Zombie Nation”: A horde of zombies are shambling after you around an abandoned castle! Your goal is to either push them or lure them into the pits that time has opened in the walkways on top of the castle walls, but be careful not to get surrounded because they do bite (doing damage to your party)! You have a number of seconds equal to your bid to drop them all; once time is up, you’ll have to battle any zombies that you failed to drop as they try to eat your braaaaaaaains!
“Rat Race”: Inspired by a carnival-style game I loved in the arcades as a kid, this minigame is played by the three contestants who bid most aggressively. Each contestant has a number of seconds equal to their bid to charge their Robotic Rat; you do so by hitting the Up, Left, Right, and Down keys corresponding to the red energy orbs that light up around you. Successive chains of correct inputs grant more and more energy. When time’s up, the Robotic Rats are released, running along the course until they run out of steam. The contestant whose rat runs the least distance is eliminated from the game!
“Party Crashers”: In a world of impostors, there can be only one. You are introduced to the Guest of Honor at the start of the event – either the King, the Tycoon, the Princess, or Rabbi Ben. After that, a parade of impostors march out, and they all start mingling, zipping about to distract you from the Guest of Honor. If you’re really good, you might even be able to pick up one of the food items that appear on the banquet tables without losing track of the Guest of Honor. The number of impostors, and amount of time they’ll mingle for, are based on your bid; after the time has passed, you need to pick out the Guest of Honor among the cavalry of impostors.
Bottom-Left: That pizza is yours to keep win or lose, but it's deceptively hard to go for it at the same time you keep your eye on the King.
“Booty or Bust”: This is one of the bonus games you can play for extra prizes (the 2nd and 3rd highest bids get to play, but the highest is eliminated from the game instead). “Pilferin' Pete” Scarbuckle sets a pit trap on one of the three bridges, and you must outwit him to claim his treasure! The Blue and especially Red chests hold more valuable prizes, but Pete knows this and will set his traps accordingly. Choose correctly and you collect whatever is in the chest, and move on to the next set of bridges. Choose incorrectly and you’ll get dunked, losing all of your bonus winnings. If you’re happy with what you’ve won, you can hit the red Panic Button and end the bonus game, keeping your prizes.
Battle System
Some of the events in the How Badly Do You Want It? game show aren’t minigames, but rather battles.
I’ve made great efforts to make the battle system feel exciting and strategic, adding and tweaking different elements until it all came together right. And because most of the battle events have a unique twist that scales with your bid, you can be rest assured that it will never feel rote. I wrote extensively about the unique features of the battle system (such as Adrenaline, Priority, and Crit Points) in the Dev Log thread, starting with Post #25.
"All we wanna do is eat your brains! We're not unreasonable; I mean no one's gonna eat your eyes."
Each of your characters is a mage, but every element of magic has a very different feel and strategy to it:
- Wind Magic focuses on speed, and on temporarily knocking down foes. It deals damage in small but frequent amounts, making it great for taking down vulnerable enemies.
- Fire Magic can damage and burn multiple enemies, and often becomes more powerful when foes are on fire, increasing its damage output even further.
- Energy Magic can be used aggressively by gaining bonuses against weakened foes, or can be used to support friends by recharging their Adrenaline.
- Light Magic focuses on “Crits” (critical hits); it can reveal enemies’ weak points to make Crits more likely, grant bonuses to the party every time someone Crits, or even turn attacks and spells into automatic Crits.
- Water Magic is slow but powerful. Its expensive spells include the best heals in the game as well as a few Charge Spells, which require a turn to charge but produce spectacular effects.
- Time Magic manipulates battlers’ speed and Priority, making it a great support class; additionally, some Time magic ignores an enemy’s defenses, making it good for dueling against boss-type enemies.
DreamBay
Congratulations! You’ve won a fabulous treasure for your success in the Game Show, like a Jet Ski or a Designer Necklace or a huge Ceramic Dalmatian! That’s nice and all, but the local shopkeepers don’t really deal in that stuff and will only pay a small percentage of the item’s value if you sell it to them. What’s a cash-starved kid to do?
That’s where the Library comes in. Log on the free computers there, load up DreamBay (which is totally not an eBay knockoff or anything), and start listing your items! Collectors out there want to buy your items, and every day you come back to the Library you can review the highest bid on each item, which could be very high or very low. It’s your option to either accept the bid and take the money immediately, or decline the bid and come back another day, hoping that someone was willing to pay even more.
Time elapsed: One in-game day.
You can also browse DreamBay yourself and try to find deals on rare items that aren’t available in shops!** These deals will change every day, so a day at the Library can yield some great items if you can afford to take the time from your other ventures.**
Credit Where It’s Due
There are a lot of people who provided me with help or inspiration, and I want to sincerely thank them for that. Without these people, this game wouldn’t be here:
Ωbright and TheHonorableRyu, who kindly Beta-tested this extensive project with me so that the official release would be of the quality it deserves.
Valkysas, head of the Pavilion, and host of the contest without which this game would never exist.
Ryner, whose great VX games inspired me to try out the PC Maker series in the first place, and showed me how easy it is to get fancy with battle skills
Fomar0153, Tsukihime, Yanfly, and the fine folks at RPG Revolution, whose scripting solutions and resources made it much easier for me to understand how to edit RGSS.
The EasyGameStation team and Carpe Fulgur team, who created Recettear, a huge inspiration for How Badly's feel and flow.
John de Mol and the Big Brother team; the “what are you willing to sacrifice to win the Veto?” competitions were the creative spark that led to me making this game.
Everyone at the Pavilion who supported me with their ideas or simply their interest in the game – Kire, Kefka, Ryner, Big Rick Cook, John Mora, Redeye, Jamos, Pagerron, Duelpro, Dreamknight, Fayorei, and of course Obright and Ryu.
The baker(s) at Toojay’s Deli in Coral Springs, who make the most delicious triple chocolate cookies I have ever tasted.
Release Info
The current release of How Badly is the 1.0 "Sugar Cookie" version. You can download the full version right here, or visit the Submission thread for more download options.
Like a sugar cookie, I think what's here is wonderful in its simplicity, and very smooth. There are always things you can add to a simple sugar cookie to make it even better, of course - and I will be adding lots of cool features and playability upgrades to the game in the coming months.
**Features marked with two asterisks are planned, but weren't implemented in the 1.0 version, due to time constraints. They will, however, most likely be available in future versions of How Badly.
))
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