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ZEJ Game Dev Directive

Discussion in 'Creation Station' started by Gold Dullahan, Nov 27, 2016.

  1. (feel free to throw in some thread title ideas within your posts)

    As we know, there's a quite a few programmers here! And also writers, most of like writing at least to some extent. (This is a roleplaying forum after all.) And we have artists. And also I'm pretty sure Dark, if no one else, dabbles in music. And also also we all love video games.

    You can blame this thread on both Cid's original one and this exchange from #statplay on Discord:
    Eebit-Today at 5:44 PM
    Back in the day when Gold was truly Moon
    But yeah. I had wanted to run a Galamion campaign (or just a general RP) to introduce a bunch of people to statistical roleplaying, but the majority of those who finished the tutorial were already statplaying veterans by that point in time

    Gold Dullahan-Today at 5:46 PM
    i am the 1%

    Eebit-Today at 5:46 PM
    You and the Mudster

    Gold Dullahan-Today at 5:46 PM
    we are the 1%

    Eebit-Today at 5:46 PM
    So I mean technically you're like the 40% or something :5

    Gold Dullahan-Today at 5:46 PM
    we are the approximately 40%

    Muddy-Today at 5:47 PM
    Let's make that our band name, Moon Moon

    Gold Dullahan-Today at 5:47 PM
    The Approximate 40%
    new game dev company
    Muddy does code, I do the #words

    Muddy-Today at 5:47 PM
    "The other 60% is DLC" can be our slogan!

    Eebit-Today at 5:47 PM
    LOL

    Cerberus-Today at 5:47 PM
    LOL

    Gold Dullahan-Today at 5:48 PM
    our logo is a load bar... at about 40%

    Cerberus-Today at 5:48 PM
    "Finally, a company that's transparent about it!" gamers will say
    (followed by, "still fuck you though")

    Just like the other thread, this is a general brainstorm area for a potential video game. Anybody's free to throw in their thoughts-- ranging from setting, to general plot ideas, to how radical our reconstruction will be on a scale of the APUSH exam to early 2000s surfer boy. (Pardon my personal in-joke there, I wanted a third item :5)

    To steal from Cid's spoilerino section for future notes:

     
    #1 Gold Dullahan, Nov 27, 2016 at 6:30 AM
  2. Just like in the old thread, I'm always stoked to see threads like this crop up. I hope that it generates some discussion and that we can construct something fun out of it!

    If we were planning on going the same route as before, I'm certainly partial to developing an RPG. I love me some Tactical RPGs, and ATB-based systems (such as Chrono Trigger) are always fun. I also would enjoy doing a 2D, sprite-based action RPG in some vein similar to Secret of Mana / the 2D Legend of Zelda games / Hyper Light Drifter. The art of a JRPG is a dying one, and it's always been my dream to develop one of my own.

    Something else I've considered (I may have mentioned this elsewhere, who knows) is making a 2D sidescrolling stealth-oriented platformer based on Starr's roleplay Quirenyun's Imprinted [sub]{ Roleplay Thread | OoC Thread }[/sub]. Obviously, this would require her blessing as I know it's a bit of a heavy subject for her to talk about. But I've always been enamoured with the variety within the cast, and the story's setup of it being mission-based lends itself well to the format of a game. We could probably stand to mix in a couple additional "archetypes" of play if we were to make it into a game... I could probably write up an entire post based on this idea, but this is just me throwing the idea out there.
     
    #2 Eebit, Nov 27, 2016 at 8:09 AM
  3. On the subject of sidescroll action, as we know, one of my favorite GBA era games is the Summon Night spinoff— Summon Night Swordcraft Story. Which itself, during combat at least, has this wonderful little format! You're in a sidescroll battle with enemies that can spawn on either side; A is your attack, B is defending. You can use the L/R buttons to scroll through some squares at the bottom-- this switches your B from defending to any equipped items/skills you've put there. Example: a battle I just found on youtube.

    You're statement of "I'm certainly partial to an RPG." made me realize that our old thread was fairly RPG focused— whether ARPG, strategic (in the vein of FE), or general turn-based (like Pokemon). I don't think most of us had any comments on that, but if anyone wants to throw in a different genre or suggest elements of a genre, toss 'em in.
     
    #3 Gold Dullahan, Nov 27, 2016 at 8:22 AM
  4. Well, as it was, the thread was originally titled "Let's Create an RPG! (Together!)" :p

    I have never played Swordcraft Story, but it seems like a very simple, yet inspired and clever battle system. It's kind of like a mix between Smash Bros and an action-RPG, which is neat. I would definitely be open to going that direction with it, were we to choose that route.
     
    #4 Eebit, Nov 28, 2016 at 8:21 PM
  5. Wow you're right, I even linked it and I failed to notice :x
    Well either way, let it be known this particular thread is open to any genre-mixing suggestions then, LOL!

    I've recently been thinking about the key differences between the JRPG/Western genres, which can vary depending on who you're asking. But the specific one I was considering was the prevalence of customization. Western games have quite a bit— Skyrim, Saints Row, Dragon Age, etc. etc. Whereas, while of course this isn't a 100% correct-all-the-time statement, our foreign market games from Japan tend to have more limitations on their customization. For example, up until recent generations, the extent of your customization for your character in Pokemon was picking between male and female sexes and making your own name. Similarly, SMT/Persona customization is restricted to naming— with the exception of Persona 3 Portable, for example, which also allows the non-canon option to play as the female MC.

    What I'm getting at here is: Of course majority of this game will be scripted and the plot, while potentially choices-matter and whatnot, won't be getting too wild and branching and infinitely complex. But as for our protagonist, would this be the set story of one predetermined character with no customization? If not, where do we draw the line? Will we just allow naming? Will we add male/female options? Some sort of appearance customization?

    I might be getting ahead of myself here, asking these sort of things so early, but definitely something to consider :5
     
    #5 Gold Dullahan, Nov 28, 2016 at 11:08 PM
  6. I think we would be getting ahead of ourselves to start considering the degree of customization (or, I guess, where that customization lies) that we want this early on. That, to me, depends on the kind of story that we want to tell. I'd say that we should hammer that out to begin with. If we were to base our story on a pre-existing ZEJ roleplay, does it make sense for us to shoehorn some sort of "blank slate" character into the mix just for the sake of providing an avenue for (aesthetic) customization? A lot of JRPGs have you playing the "silent protagonist" as a lens for you, the player, to view the world. But do we want a silent protagonist?

    I myself am partial towards not customizing the aesthetics because it's ultimately less work lol jk I feel like it provides the opportunity to forge an iconic protagonist who has their own motivations, even if they are ultimately determined by player actions. I think that having a protagonist with a face, a story to tell, a set of defined motives... a foundation gives us something to springboard off of. The customization can come from how the player wants to play -- the way they "build" the character(s). I would prefer going the route of building a well-defined, cornerstone character to hinge our story on.

    ((Off topic, but incidentally I read an interesting post by Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street, a designer at Riot Games, about JRPGs tonight. I thought I would share it here because it made me think about the whole JRPGs vs. Western RPGs thing, and how the characters interact with the world. It helped me nail and articulate my thoughts on one school of thought vs. the other. LINK))
     
    #6 Eebit, Dec 4, 2016 at 8:11 AM
  7. Yeah, as I said, customization is like way over                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     ?there

    But it did get us talking about what sort of base character premise we want so, well, all's well that ends well or something. For our ZEJ project I do definitely agree with the idea of a somewhat set character, with the brunt of customization probably being through narrative choice and gameplay.

    I'm not sure whether it should be based on a pre-existing ZEJ roleplay necessarily, as there could be this sort of... "well i wasn't in that RP, i don't want to use it!" sort of thing when it would come down to picking. Majority of our roleplays are maybe 4-5 a group, which is definitely not everyone, and it would be tricky finding that one roleplay everyone involved would agree on. Having ZEJ-related things could certainly be a good addition, of course! Walruses, being banish to an islet, a Canadian boy dressed up like a sunflower, etc. etc.

    [tip id= 1 content= Imaginary “cult-classic” sort of JRPG. What’s up with that weird name…?]Zero Ender Jaegers[/tip] when
     
    #7 Gold Dullahan, Dec 4, 2016 at 9:01 AM
  8. I've been relying on the idea of a ZEJ roleplay as a touchstone because I think that, for me, it's a bit of a labour of love to the community. We've had a number of fun, unique, and interesting concepts pass through our doors! I can see where you're coming from when you say that it does run the risk of shutting people out -- we have a number of members who don't actually roleplay at all, and as you said the RPs tend to max out at groups of five. But it's been something of a dream of mine to design a game that brings one of our home-grown roleplays to life. Perhaps that dream would be better lived out on my own rather than imposing it onto this project, though.

    Beyond that, I'd say that despite the fact that we're a bunch of writers (by and large), maybe a better way of starting out would be to pinpoint the genre and mechanics that we want to work around first. What clever spin do we think we can put on a JRPG? If we were building a game that explored a combat system similar to Swordcraft Story, to use your example, how do we push the mechanics further? If we're making a game based on a tactical RPG (a la a statplay like FE or FFT), where do we introduce our "hot take" on the formula?
     
    #8 Eebit, Dec 5, 2016 at 9:28 PM
  9. I was thinking of the ATB battle system discussion you brought up on Discord, actually, and I just remembered the example game that slipped my mind at that point! Off!!!!! It was developed mainly by this French guy, Mortis Ghost. (here's his English blog, you can find his French one in his link section) I definitely recommend that to anyone who hasn't it played it by the way, it's freeware and it's a neat, intriguing bundle of wonder and awe.

    Anyways, yeah, that was the ATB example that slipped my mind that day.

    Our discussion seems to be just a back-and-forth here, and that's cool, but this is of course meant to be a bit of "community brainstorm" sort of thing. Of course, I'm not gonna drag in everyone just because I can :5

    We'll stick with @Muddy because The Approximate 40% and we'll toss in some @CerberusLycan because I know he loves games and game mechanics (re: #statplay)

    Any general input, fellas?
     
    #9 Gold Dullahan, Dec 5, 2016 at 10:18 PM
  10. You know, funny enough, I just brought up the point with Starr that we have many foundations within our collective universe (and even some outside) that would lend themselves well to the whole "every-entry-is-standalone" format that mainline Final Fantasy follows, even outside of Oblivion Phantasy: Notto Gonna Happenu. In-Manaverse, we have my Things, where the only connecting element is thaty one or two characters appear in every story, then we have all the different Sadistic Seven chapters (one of which has had its own plot in development for a while!)...

    Hell, we could even make something bespoke for this type of project if we wanted and go anywhere with it.
     
    #10 Nebulon Ranger, Dec 5, 2016 at 10:37 PM
  11. I really have no idea what could work outside of an RPG since I'm not exactly familiar with any characters or roleplays. (Despite being here for such a long time...!) And that's pretty much the reason why I haven't been posting here much. Game Dev and Designing might be my Thing but I really haven't a clue aside the obvious playable Shadow System With A Fire Emblem-Like Campaign But No Explicit Main Character So Anybody Can Die Whenever And Alter The Main Story (Title needs work)

    The work put into to making that would be insane, I've mulled over it quite a bit on my own already.
     
    #11 Muddy, Dec 6, 2016 at 1:56 AM
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