Tutorial
Just letting you know, I am still working on this. I am working on the dialog and quest, map, NPCs and monster plans for the tutorial areas. I am almost done with the concepts and dialog of the tutorial section and will post it soon hopefully. I am loving how the dialog and story is coming together so far so I hope you like it to. Warning you now, it is ADULT jokes and content 18+ game! Designed as an adult parody of MMORPGs (BUT it is NOT an MMOrpg. It will not be multiplayer. I just don't think I could get a server for that)
Character Designs
The character designs for the classes have had some more thought. I am thinking of having them as anthropomorphic animals. However, it won't be like a human with bunny ears or something. It's gonna be full on anime style animal sprites that move like animals to but they can talk and move flexibly. Think of it like animals in a cartoon such as My Little Pony where they look like ponies but they can do unnatural movements for their species and they are intelligent. Speaking of which, the following are the decided animals for the three classes.
Warrior = Pony
Mage = Dolphin (they walk on their back fin and float with magic so they can swim in the air to move)
Hunter = Wolf
The pony is related to the warrior class as horses are often associated with power and warriors anyway. Horse power! lol that was awful. sorry but I couldn't resist. The mage is a dolphin because well...reasons. They are intelligent creatures and I just thought it would be hilarious. And the hunter is the wolf because of classic anime fashion. I mean come on! It's gotta be an awesome wolf! So that's it for now. Will post the dialog and tutorial plans latter as I said. Look forward to it. Hope you like my ideas so far. Talk to you again soon! :3
Tuesday 20 October 2015
Wednesday 14 October 2015
Method Revision
Crafting Revision
I have had a long think about what I want out of the game and how I would like it to play. I have played a good amount of Trickster online as inspiration since I love almost everything about how that game works and I have come to a conclusion. I had been working a long time on how classes would work with crafting and such. I have made a large list of cooking items with descriptions and stats already and I was about to post some of it to show you. However, realised I have been focusing too much on the realistic way items would craft and I didn't think enough about how this would effect everything in the game. It's impossible to have a logically sound game where all crafting options make sense. I started to wonder how I could even make enough monsters since they would have to vary from real creatures at some point. I tried to vary them but then I was still making logical connection with what the monster was and what it dropped. Like a cow like creature drops milk and milk is used to make cheese. This may sound OK in the short term but when you really think about how this could progress you get issues. I thought about how Trickster did it and realised that the items had practically no relevance to the monster other than a slight theme. Random items would come out of the ground and from the monsters. OF COURSE! I thought. It IS a fantasy game anyway! Why would I focus on so much making sense. Games always have had things that don't make sense. Then I realised that it didn't really matter what I said mixed with what as really as long as they made some sort of sense is all that matters. Considering this, I have decided to start again on the items and instead of focusing on the items first and figuring out the rest later, I am going to figure it out in order of how a player would play the game. Mission by mission. I will come up with a character NPC and what items they want. Then I will invent a monster and crafting options based on that. That way things will always make sense quest wise and things shouldn't get too confusing and out of hand. For example, say at the beginning of the game there was a writer who wanted to write about your adventure ahead. He says he forgot his papers so he asks you get him a certain amount of ink and a certain amount of paper. So where do you get them? Well you can get paper from the wood monsters outside and an ink pot and pen set which can be crafted out of found items from a squid-like monster (the ink sack of the monster) when fishing (which is a skill you can level up) and a feather which you can get from a bird-like monster. Can you see it now? Exactly! It is a lot better to understand this way and I think this will work out a lot better in the lot run. Hopefully this will be a good way of working for me.
Classes and Characters Revision
I also thought long and hard about how the classes should work and looked towards Trickster again. It seems complex but really it is rather simple. It is the amount of choices that makes it seem complex since the game has been going for so long. More and more items have appeared and they don't all relate to your character class or until you are higher level. So taking Trickster as a guide I have a made a simple set up of stats for the characters and I hope this makes sense and I can stick to it for once.
Warrior stats (group of stats that generally relate to a warrior type build)
Physical Attack Power
Physical Defence
Magic stats (group of stats that generally relate to a magic type of build)
Magic Attack Power
Magical Defence (defence against elemental spells instead of physical attacks)
Hunter stats (group of stats that generally relate to a thief or archer type of build)
Accuracy (affects critical hit chance and increases chance of an enemy attack missing)
Speed (affects speed of which you attack)
Of course items will affect these stats but the stats will NOT be restricted to each class. A certain couple of stats will automatically be higher when you choose a certain class such as the warrior will have automatically more physical attack power and physical defence. Then these stats will increase by a certain amount per level up. However, you will also be given a certain amount of points to add to ANY of the stats whenever you level up. Using this you can cross elements of one class with another to make a unique character. For example, a good combination of skills would be a Warrior class with extra Accuracy so those strong attacks can deal even more damage. However, this doesn't allow for too much bias as when you add to one skill you will be always be neglecting another. If you add equal amount of points to say physical attack power and Accuracy then you will have even levels of both but both will be lower and so you may struggle to handle situations of really high strength requirements and you will also have to sacrifice some physical defence for it to. Everything comes with a sacrifice which should make for rather unbiased gameplay and plenty of reason for replay ability.
Crafting and Class crossover effects
I have also thought about the crafting options and considering the changes to the classes and stats system, I decided to organise this in a similar fashion. So below are the crafting options (liable to change still).
Blacksmithing (warrior's natural skill)
Cooking (warrior's natural skill)
Mining (warrior's natural skill? not sure about this one)
Alchemy (mage's natural skill)
Enchanting (mage's natural skill)
Tailoring (mage's natural skill)
Harvesting (mage's natural skill? not sure about this one. This one is about getting stuff from wild plants. plant knowledge for potion making will make the mage good at this skill)
Fishing (hunter's natural skill)
Gardening (hunter's natural skill. This one is about actually growing the plants yourself instead of getting it from the wild like with harvesting)
Taming (hunter's natural skill)
Digging (hunter's natural skill? not sure about this one)
pottery, carpentry and glass making were considered options but in the end they are not needed so they have been removed from the list. As you can see, certain skills attain to certain classes. However, these skills are not restricted. In the same way as the battling stats, certain skills are naturally higher than others when you start with a certain class but then you can practice a skill and still level up in another one. However, natural skills for the class will level up much faster than other classes. Each class will also have special passive abilities they automatically have that only that class will be able to have that may help with a certain skill. For example, a hunter may have an passive skill that ups the changes of a successful capturing and taming of a creature by an extra 10%. You can still use other characters to capture and tame a beast like a hunter can use traps which he could make with the blacksmithing skill or buy ready made traps and the mage could use trap spells and the warrior could pummel the beast into submission with a certain percent chance of the beast being tamed with greater chance depending on how quickly you killed the beast or how high a level you are above the beast etc. Of course this means that this method could be less effective with other classes as they would always have less chance since they can't defeat them that quickly or beat an enemy with a significantly high level to them as they wouldn't be powerful enough but a warrior would be. meaning this is the best option for a warrior and the other options are better for the other classes. A mage would be better at using spells so using trap spells would be much better for them. The hunter would be best with traps as the other two will be a disadvantage to them since they lack the natural skills towards them. Make sense? These options may be made possible with combinations of the skills such as enchantment combined with taming can mean you can use great taming spells as I mentioned before. You could put the spells on the traps so enchantment can work with blacksmithing to. You could use plant knowledge with gardening skill to make much faster growing crops. Perhaps I will make it so you need certain levels of certain combined skills to be able to utilise a usable passive or temporary skill you can buy from a skill shop and then activate.
Weapons and Armour characters stats and crafting skill points
As far as weapons and armour are concerned, they would be slight variations of each weapon e.g. one mage cape may have loads of extra magic attack power whereas another mage cape may have less attack power but adds a little better alchemy results and a little defence. It would be up to the player to choose which type of stats they would prefer above others. However, certain ranges of items would be only for certain classes much as a mages cape would only be equipable for a mage and not a hunter or a warrior and vice versa etc etc. This would restrict the class stats to certain extent but not completely as little bits of other skills and stats from other character classes would be available such as a tiny bit of taming ability and physical defense on a mages cape. But since they are restricted to the type of armour or weapons, I would choose how much leeway I give to the player. If they find a good combination then good for them! I will try not to worry too much about it all.
Crafting box and how it works
Last but not least, how you could actually craft something. Similar again to Trickster but a little simpler. For example, the interface I will try to make as simple as possible coz no-one likes a complex interface on your crafting screen making it way too hard to craft something that should be easy. It should be as simple as, you choose the item you wish to make (ONE item in a little box) and then next to it there would be a few boxes for items to create that item. It will tell you what you need (if you have the recipe, found or given by an NPC) and then you just put those items in and press create. Your skill level will determine the percent chance of success. And viola! Simple right? Crafting items for quests would require more and more items, which are harder and harder to get either coz they come from a plant which requires high gardening skill or a monster who requires a high level or just a rare item to receive from a monster. Combining items with armour and weapons will be the same. I might try to restrict the items to only 3 max for crafting something to stop anything getting too confusing.
So I am going to try and organise my items creation in a different manner because of all this. Wish me luck in the new system. So what do you guys think of all this? As far as I am concerned, this is the most solid plan I have come up with so far. Sorry to give you lots of random brainstorming and not much actual building content but every game comes from humble beginnings like this and I want to share it so I can see it all for my reference and so everyone can see from the very beginning how this game was made. Wish me luck with the new ideas and tell me if you like the ideas so far! :3
Story
PS I am also going to try adding a story to it. I wasn't sure whether we really needed one but I have decided that is the best way forward. However, it is going to be rather simple. The story will be to rule the world. That's it. Most people don't bother with the story in a long online RPG and this game is no exception as the story will be only with dialogue boxes and such. Most of the time, the story will barely effect the game or be mentioned at all. However, it will become more prominent and move a little bit with each new town you have to go to. In the end, you will be ruler of the land and sitting on a throne. Then you will be prompted to start again with another character. I may add more characters over time when the basic game is done and more areas till you get to the end.
Wednesday 7 October 2015
food categories and working
I have decided to sort out the details of cooking items by putting the foods into a few different categories. I will focus on one major object or two from each category and then work my way down from there. Details of simpler combinations are easily figured out once the components present have been sorted by using a larger recipe first. The categories are not necessarily game relevant but are more for my organising during game development. The following are the food categories with their corresponding main foods to develop for each (the items are only a basis and more options will be made afterwards)...
Fried and take away food (full English breakfast)
Fruit and Veg based food (soup, sandwiches and salads)
Fish based food (sushi, fish and chips and fishcakes)
Dessert food (cakes and cookies)
The English Breakfast is what I am working on now. I have almost finished with the details of each component so you will be able to see that soon. I have also had to develop ideas for unique names for the food and animals the food comes from to make it fantasy and not just a copy of Harvest Moon. I have some rather weird names for stuff but I sort of grown attached to them throughout the process. They are silly but that matches the comedy theme of the game. We'll see what you think when I post that stuff anyway. But something I would like you to know is that though making the food I have also had to come up with concepts for some of the enemies in the game of which you would harvest certain foods. I have some details but they are not fleshed out yet. I do have the basic designs though in concept art. Although I am NOT a great artist so they don't look to impressive but the game is going to be made in sprites in the end anyway so it doesn't really matter as long as I know what I am aiming for. The sprites will be better. Look forward to more updates on those things soon :3
Fried and take away food (full English breakfast)
Fruit and Veg based food (soup, sandwiches and salads)
Fish based food (sushi, fish and chips and fishcakes)
Dessert food (cakes and cookies)
The English Breakfast is what I am working on now. I have almost finished with the details of each component so you will be able to see that soon. I have also had to develop ideas for unique names for the food and animals the food comes from to make it fantasy and not just a copy of Harvest Moon. I have some rather weird names for stuff but I sort of grown attached to them throughout the process. They are silly but that matches the comedy theme of the game. We'll see what you think when I post that stuff anyway. But something I would like you to know is that though making the food I have also had to come up with concepts for some of the enemies in the game of which you would harvest certain foods. I have some details but they are not fleshed out yet. I do have the basic designs though in concept art. Although I am NOT a great artist so they don't look to impressive but the game is going to be made in sprites in the end anyway so it doesn't really matter as long as I know what I am aiming for. The sprites will be better. Look forward to more updates on those things soon :3
progress on crafting and classes association
I have decided that the best thing to do would be to have the crafting work on its own accord and the classes to only affect the battling. It would work similar to Maplestory where you fight with basic class and light or heavy weapons and armour. You would fight tons of enemies and when you have collected the items instead of giving them to an NPC, you would put them together to craft things. Items from enemies and plants and items crafted from said items will only give you stuff for NPCs will not have any use other than that, except for food and potions which will obviously have healing and stat boosting qualities. This keeps the game simple and familiar in its gameplay.
I have also decided that crafting will be completely open to any class. The class will only determine the types of missions you may get or what armour and weapons and attacks you can have. It won't affect what you can craft. I decided to let people have freedom in that area. Of course, this might mean that some great combinations may be possible and they may be better than other options but I realised that there are biases in every game and it doesn't really stop people from enjoying it. Of course I will try to avoid game breaking biases but small ones I will let slip as if someone can figure out an awesome combination of crafting skill and class to get a strong character then cudos to them. They deserve the rewards. Not everyone plays like that and really, classes like the thief and hunter are made to make the game harder by making them weaker and people still like to play them. It should be the gamers choice whether they choose the most powerful character and work out the best way to do it or whether they would prefer a challenge by picking the slightly weaker class and crafting skills. It always adds to replay ability anyway. That is my decision. Things will move on in this fashion. I will focus on classes later. For now. The crafting details will be my focus as they are a major part of the game. See my 'food categories and working' post to see what I am working on now and how I will be working out the food crafting details.
I have also decided that crafting will be completely open to any class. The class will only determine the types of missions you may get or what armour and weapons and attacks you can have. It won't affect what you can craft. I decided to let people have freedom in that area. Of course, this might mean that some great combinations may be possible and they may be better than other options but I realised that there are biases in every game and it doesn't really stop people from enjoying it. Of course I will try to avoid game breaking biases but small ones I will let slip as if someone can figure out an awesome combination of crafting skill and class to get a strong character then cudos to them. They deserve the rewards. Not everyone plays like that and really, classes like the thief and hunter are made to make the game harder by making them weaker and people still like to play them. It should be the gamers choice whether they choose the most powerful character and work out the best way to do it or whether they would prefer a challenge by picking the slightly weaker class and crafting skills. It always adds to replay ability anyway. That is my decision. Things will move on in this fashion. I will focus on classes later. For now. The crafting details will be my focus as they are a major part of the game. See my 'food categories and working' post to see what I am working on now and how I will be working out the food crafting details.
Tuesday 6 October 2015
progress on crafting categories and other details
This is also a rather complex state of affairs but I think less hard to figure out than the classes. So far I have a basic idea of some crafting ideas.
Cooking
Blacksmith
Alchemy
Tailoring
Enchanting
Gardening
Hunting
Pottery
Carpentry
Fishing
Taming
I will probably drop one or two of these but I am exploring the ideas of each one. Cooking, Blacksmithing, Alchemy and Tailoring I most certainly want to keep. Gardening and fishing and taming I am not sure about as they seem to relate more to things everyone can do at any time so I'm not levelling is even needed for these things. Maybe there could be 2 menus. One for class based skills and one for skills every character can learn. That actually sounds good. All of these can be implemented in some way but the ones that I am having trouble with figuring out are enchanting, cooking and alchemy mainly. you see they seem to relate to certain character types in particular and so when you give the other classes free reign on it such as warrior with enchanting skill then you could just get a character that is better than any others. I doesn't feel right to cut it out of the game but it also doesn't feel right to let the warrior use enchanting. That's why I was considering blocking certain skills for certain classes as I said in the previous post about classes.
I have considered certain things about how these skills could work together by changing the way they work a little as follows.
Cooking (less healing power and less stat boosts than potions but the materials are more readily available. Warrior able to eat more food than other characters. BUT then we would have to have some kind of fullness system and that is silly really and too complex)
Tailoring (clothes allow for more stat boosts than weapons and armour from blacksmithing)
Blacksmithing (can be used to create traps for you to use for taming enemies. Good for hunter class not only warrior. Able to enchant for better stat boosts. BUT then the tailoring would become redundant as heavy armour with strong boosting stats would be better than weak armour with stat boosts)
Hunter (better rewards from fishing)
Wizard (able to enchant pottery and carpentry for stat boosts and faster healing while eating with said pottery or using a certain chair. BUT if I do this then cooking will have more stat boosts and therefore would be redundant so here is a problem despite it being a good idea)
Wizard better at gardening.
Sorry went a bit disjointed but this perfectly explains my dilemma. There is always a catch no matter what I seem to pick. I need to think further but that is what I have done and thought about this so far. Tell me what you think will work and what wont. What do you want to see? I would love any feedback I can get! :3 I am currently working on some food categories and details for the cooking skill at the moment and I will get back to you on that when I have finished up some more of it but basically I am deciding what items can be crafted for cooking skill and its a long process to go through all the recipes in the world. I am started with an English Breakfast in mind due to its many spate components and I am branching it downwards from there. Once I am done with that I will show my progress here.
Cooking
Blacksmith
Alchemy
Tailoring
Enchanting
Gardening
Hunting
Pottery
Carpentry
Fishing
Taming
I will probably drop one or two of these but I am exploring the ideas of each one. Cooking, Blacksmithing, Alchemy and Tailoring I most certainly want to keep. Gardening and fishing and taming I am not sure about as they seem to relate more to things everyone can do at any time so I'm not levelling is even needed for these things. Maybe there could be 2 menus. One for class based skills and one for skills every character can learn. That actually sounds good. All of these can be implemented in some way but the ones that I am having trouble with figuring out are enchanting, cooking and alchemy mainly. you see they seem to relate to certain character types in particular and so when you give the other classes free reign on it such as warrior with enchanting skill then you could just get a character that is better than any others. I doesn't feel right to cut it out of the game but it also doesn't feel right to let the warrior use enchanting. That's why I was considering blocking certain skills for certain classes as I said in the previous post about classes.
I have considered certain things about how these skills could work together by changing the way they work a little as follows.
Cooking (less healing power and less stat boosts than potions but the materials are more readily available. Warrior able to eat more food than other characters. BUT then we would have to have some kind of fullness system and that is silly really and too complex)
Tailoring (clothes allow for more stat boosts than weapons and armour from blacksmithing)
Blacksmithing (can be used to create traps for you to use for taming enemies. Good for hunter class not only warrior. Able to enchant for better stat boosts. BUT then the tailoring would become redundant as heavy armour with strong boosting stats would be better than weak armour with stat boosts)
Hunter (better rewards from fishing)
Wizard (able to enchant pottery and carpentry for stat boosts and faster healing while eating with said pottery or using a certain chair. BUT if I do this then cooking will have more stat boosts and therefore would be redundant so here is a problem despite it being a good idea)
Wizard better at gardening.
Sorry went a bit disjointed but this perfectly explains my dilemma. There is always a catch no matter what I seem to pick. I need to think further but that is what I have done and thought about this so far. Tell me what you think will work and what wont. What do you want to see? I would love any feedback I can get! :3 I am currently working on some food categories and details for the cooking skill at the moment and I will get back to you on that when I have finished up some more of it but basically I am deciding what items can be crafted for cooking skill and its a long process to go through all the recipes in the world. I am started with an English Breakfast in mind due to its many spate components and I am branching it downwards from there. Once I am done with that I will show my progress here.
Progress on Deciding Classes and How They Work
OK, so far I have come up with several ideas for classes. They are as follows...
Warrior (strong character with high strength and defence but slow)
Wizard (strong with magic and spells. Low defence)
Hunter (strong with long range. Low defence)
I'm sure if you have played RPGs before you will know what these are. I started with these as they are the basics that are needed in my opinion. But this isn't all. I am contemplating whether to combine these characters together to create more classes. I've not finalised the idea yet and I'm not quite sure how it would work or if it is worth doing. It might be better to stick to basics for now so this will be put aside for a while. However, I will list them here for your contemplation anyway.
Magical Warrior (less strength and defence than pure Warrior but able to use magic as well)
Magical Hunter (now able to put magic to your ranged weapons for more damage and elemental effects etc)
Hunting Warrior (your strength is focused on long range so you become the best long ranged battler there is)
The main problem with these is that they seem too good. They are likely to overpower the other classes. Maybe this could be an option after finishing the game at least once or something.
Now let's get into the details of the three original classes we have. I have contemplated quite a few different ideas for the details of these classes including, specific skills that will directly effect the crafting side and vice versa and elements that will help the classes to be fair and different from each other. So here are the bigger details of the classes according to crafting (see 'progress on crafting categories and other details' post for more on what these crafting options are of which are mentioned here.
Warrior (unable to use alchemy crafting and is only able to food crafting and items as a healing source. However, naturally good at blacksmithing and so starts with higher blacksmithing level)
Wizard (unable to use cooking craft but is allowed to use alchemy. Naturally good with harvesting plants and so starts with a higher farming or plant harvesting skill)
Hunter (can use alchemy or food crafting but not both. Naturally good at with wild animals and so has a higher monster taming skill)
There is a big question in my mind of whether classes should be specific to fighting elements only and purely only effect your style of taking down enemies and leave the crafting as a separate thing to do after the items are collected. Then have the crafting levels go up according to whatever you decide to craft and you can craft any kind of thing at any time. OR whether to make the classes directly affect and limit the crafting you can use for more replay ability. I would like to make the game more complex but I don't want to feel like I am not giving the player enough freedom to do what they want.
But it's not just this relationship of the classes and what skills should relate to them I need to think about. The classes need to feel different so I also thought about special abilities and advantages they could have for battling.
Warrior (all around tough. High strength and defence but only from short distance. Also lower defence than Wizard in the end. Overall balanced stats compared to the other classes. Average damage to almost anything but no critical damage against any particular enemy)
Wizard (high defence. Able to use powerful stat boosts but only temporary. High damage to magical beings)
Hunter (average defence and average attack but long range. High damage to non magical beings)
But then I started thinking about how certain skills can associate with certain classes in combination with other skills and special abilities.
Warrior (can use magic to enchant their weapons and armour for better fighting power)
Wizard (can use magic to tame beasts. Can use magic to create a large weapon to be more like warrior class)
Hunter (can use alchemy to create flash bombs and stunning effects to better hunt prey and tame enemies. Can use potions to add magic effects their long range weapons)
These are all great idea but this mixes the classes and skills again though but I like the idea of different combinations allowing different things so if no restrictions where on the abilities for each class then these fun idea would be able to appear. But then we are faced with another problem. Some of the crafting ideas are rather similar so I will have to be careful with how I balance the special abilities of them so that the skills don't become biased (see 'progress on crafting categories and other details' post for more on this exploration)
But now when I think about it, I think there may be a way to do this. Perhaps each class could have a certain way of doing the same thing. Like for taming enemies the Warrior could beat them and have a chance to tame them when they defeat them. Hunter could use traps, stunning potions etc to make them easier to tame. Wizard could use magic to make them easier to tame. They are doing the same thing but in different ways depending on the character. That sounds like a good idea. Doesn't help with all the confusing issues of how the crafting links with the characters though. I think it might be best to keep them separate after all but that means working hard on making the crafting not biased in any way and that is gonna be hard to do. Tell me what you think about my little excursion. What ideas do you like? What ideas don't you like? Any feedback would be very much appreciated.
Warrior (strong character with high strength and defence but slow)
Wizard (strong with magic and spells. Low defence)
Hunter (strong with long range. Low defence)
I'm sure if you have played RPGs before you will know what these are. I started with these as they are the basics that are needed in my opinion. But this isn't all. I am contemplating whether to combine these characters together to create more classes. I've not finalised the idea yet and I'm not quite sure how it would work or if it is worth doing. It might be better to stick to basics for now so this will be put aside for a while. However, I will list them here for your contemplation anyway.
Magical Warrior (less strength and defence than pure Warrior but able to use magic as well)
Magical Hunter (now able to put magic to your ranged weapons for more damage and elemental effects etc)
Hunting Warrior (your strength is focused on long range so you become the best long ranged battler there is)
The main problem with these is that they seem too good. They are likely to overpower the other classes. Maybe this could be an option after finishing the game at least once or something.
Now let's get into the details of the three original classes we have. I have contemplated quite a few different ideas for the details of these classes including, specific skills that will directly effect the crafting side and vice versa and elements that will help the classes to be fair and different from each other. So here are the bigger details of the classes according to crafting (see 'progress on crafting categories and other details' post for more on what these crafting options are of which are mentioned here.
Warrior (unable to use alchemy crafting and is only able to food crafting and items as a healing source. However, naturally good at blacksmithing and so starts with higher blacksmithing level)
Wizard (unable to use cooking craft but is allowed to use alchemy. Naturally good with harvesting plants and so starts with a higher farming or plant harvesting skill)
Hunter (can use alchemy or food crafting but not both. Naturally good at with wild animals and so has a higher monster taming skill)
There is a big question in my mind of whether classes should be specific to fighting elements only and purely only effect your style of taking down enemies and leave the crafting as a separate thing to do after the items are collected. Then have the crafting levels go up according to whatever you decide to craft and you can craft any kind of thing at any time. OR whether to make the classes directly affect and limit the crafting you can use for more replay ability. I would like to make the game more complex but I don't want to feel like I am not giving the player enough freedom to do what they want.
But it's not just this relationship of the classes and what skills should relate to them I need to think about. The classes need to feel different so I also thought about special abilities and advantages they could have for battling.
Warrior (all around tough. High strength and defence but only from short distance. Also lower defence than Wizard in the end. Overall balanced stats compared to the other classes. Average damage to almost anything but no critical damage against any particular enemy)
Wizard (high defence. Able to use powerful stat boosts but only temporary. High damage to magical beings)
Hunter (average defence and average attack but long range. High damage to non magical beings)
But then I started thinking about how certain skills can associate with certain classes in combination with other skills and special abilities.
Warrior (can use magic to enchant their weapons and armour for better fighting power)
Wizard (can use magic to tame beasts. Can use magic to create a large weapon to be more like warrior class)
Hunter (can use alchemy to create flash bombs and stunning effects to better hunt prey and tame enemies. Can use potions to add magic effects their long range weapons)
These are all great idea but this mixes the classes and skills again though but I like the idea of different combinations allowing different things so if no restrictions where on the abilities for each class then these fun idea would be able to appear. But then we are faced with another problem. Some of the crafting ideas are rather similar so I will have to be careful with how I balance the special abilities of them so that the skills don't become biased (see 'progress on crafting categories and other details' post for more on this exploration)
But now when I think about it, I think there may be a way to do this. Perhaps each class could have a certain way of doing the same thing. Like for taming enemies the Warrior could beat them and have a chance to tame them when they defeat them. Hunter could use traps, stunning potions etc to make them easier to tame. Wizard could use magic to make them easier to tame. They are doing the same thing but in different ways depending on the character. That sounds like a good idea. Doesn't help with all the confusing issues of how the crafting links with the characters though. I think it might be best to keep them separate after all but that means working hard on making the crafting not biased in any way and that is gonna be hard to do. Tell me what you think about my little excursion. What ideas do you like? What ideas don't you like? Any feedback would be very much appreciated.
Project Details (See here for more info on the concept of the project etc)
Why I Started to make M.E.G.A. Craft
OK let me tell you about this game I have wanted to create for years and years. Everyone wants to make their own game and I hadn't really thought that seriously about it until the last few years when I realised that it was actually possible and without too much coding knowledge. Yes, with the power of RPG Maker it is possible for little me to make an awesome video game. Of course this doesn't mean the project is gonna be a simple crappy beginner thing. I am gonna make it big and if I have to learn some coding I will. I have already used RPG Maker to experiment with and even learned some manual codes along the way for things like opening doors to look better and such. When looking at the programs capabilities, I realised that this will be very possible for me to do. Crafting is not a very complex game in terms of programming as games go. It is more about the amount of details you have to create and implement into the game that is the biggest struggle. I will work on it little by little and post updates about what I have done so far on this very website. Here's hoping it goes well. Wish me luck :3
Basic Game Concepts and Mechanics
As for the actual game itself. Let me specify a few details about what the plan is. The game, in case you didn't read the description, is called Marvellous Extreme Giga Awesome Craft or M.E.G.A. Craft for short. It is a silly title because the game is going to be a comedy game and it won't take itself seriously. The main basis of the game and the main mechanic of the game is going to be crafting items. NPCs will ask for a certain selection of items and you are the one that needs to craft them all. I am still in early stages and I am still working on the details but I plan to have several different types of crafting and these will level up the more you do that type of crafting. For example, cooking would be of course food and every time you finished a recipe you would get experience. Then when you levelled up, you would have more options available to you. Similarly, certain plants and ingredients from enemies you need for certain crafting recipes will not be available until you have reached a certain level. Then you basically just keep making more and more recipes as the NPCs ask for different things but you might be able to go into a different branch of crafting, different times of playing. You might focus on tailoring one time and then do cooking the next. This is the basic concept of the crafting. The details are being worked out currently and I will make another post for the details on these specific mechanics and my progress with them so far. Remember though, anything I say is subject to change along the way.
For beating enemies, there will be RPG elements which will determine whether you can beat a certain enemy. Here I am crossing the crafting gameplay with RPG gameplay. This is because the game I took inspiration from (see inspirations section of this post) and many RPGs I have played have a problem with being a little too repetitive and yet not being fun to go back and collect and run around. I want to avoid this if I can and I believe adding simple RPG aspects into the game to help improve the fighting system will help to make fighting more interesting and worth repeating over and over. I am starting with a basic but effective style of fighting similar to the way the Maplestory fighting system works. A basic attack and a select choice of power attacks and/or spells to cast activated through a simple button press during battle. Then there is the classes which of course make the choices of attacks and spells different to change things up and make the game fun to replay. Again, these elements of the game will be discussed in more detail in another post where I will show my progress on figuring out appropriate classes and how this will integrate with the crafting and how the classes will be balanced (not having any biases in MY game!).
Inspirations
I am inspired by many different aspects from various games I have played. I know from years of being a gaming fan, what things are good and what things are not (at least in my opinion of course). I have played plenty of RPGs in my time and of course they are a rather big inspiration. The one I will probably be taking some inspiration from for the RPG elements in the game is Trickster. This game was my favourite online RPG for a long time. It ran on low specs and yet still managed to look amazing for a start and my computer was absolute trash at the time. The games servers were very well handled compared to some other online games I can think of. The fighting was simple but still rather fun as it has a basic attack but also certain little power attacks that were different depending on what you chose to learn and what class you were (basically the same as Maplestory if you need an example). This works very well to keep the grinding parts of the game a little less taxing. Also speaking of grinding there wasn't an excessive amount of it even when you were a high level. I never felt like I was too bored of being in the same place doing the same missions as the game changed rather often keeping me invested. There wasn't any crafting elements or at least not very advanced ones but the interface and menus for buying items proved to be very organised and clear. I love a clear and simple to understand shopping system in my RPGs. The game also rather funny and random at times and I just loved the music and environments. So you see, I don't know how the game is now as it has been years since I played it but these things that Trickster did so well will be a great inspiration for my RPG elements.
Then there is the crafting side. Of course, this is the main part of the game so where do I get inspiration from for this? Well it is difficult to explain because the actual game I got big inspirations from has actually been discontinued since. It's very sad and I loved the game and it makes me want to make this game even more to make sure other people who miss that gameplay can have something to play. You might not know it but the game was Sanrios Hello Kitty Online or Sanrio Online (can't remember exact name but it was something like that). Yes, I know it's a kids game but it had an interesting gameplay style I had never seen before and I loved crafting so I gave it a go and it was actually much more awesome than I expected it to be. The basis of the game was that you were dropped into the land of Sanrio with all the characters all around and you had to give them the items they wanted by crafting them. There were enemies and plants scattered about which you had to harvest to get the items. There was even a gardening system so you could grow your own plants you needed for crafting. And that was the entire game. Longer and longer lists of items to craft in more and more quantities. The gameplay was simple and repetitive but somehow very addicting. I hope to implement the same awesome addicting crafting feel of that game. That is the biggest goal here.
So without further ado, please feel free to find out more about my progress so far on this website or give me a comment about any questions or suggestions you have. I will be happy to answer and I will check often for comments. Well with all that said...wish me luck everyone! X3
OK let me tell you about this game I have wanted to create for years and years. Everyone wants to make their own game and I hadn't really thought that seriously about it until the last few years when I realised that it was actually possible and without too much coding knowledge. Yes, with the power of RPG Maker it is possible for little me to make an awesome video game. Of course this doesn't mean the project is gonna be a simple crappy beginner thing. I am gonna make it big and if I have to learn some coding I will. I have already used RPG Maker to experiment with and even learned some manual codes along the way for things like opening doors to look better and such. When looking at the programs capabilities, I realised that this will be very possible for me to do. Crafting is not a very complex game in terms of programming as games go. It is more about the amount of details you have to create and implement into the game that is the biggest struggle. I will work on it little by little and post updates about what I have done so far on this very website. Here's hoping it goes well. Wish me luck :3
Basic Game Concepts and Mechanics
As for the actual game itself. Let me specify a few details about what the plan is. The game, in case you didn't read the description, is called Marvellous Extreme Giga Awesome Craft or M.E.G.A. Craft for short. It is a silly title because the game is going to be a comedy game and it won't take itself seriously. The main basis of the game and the main mechanic of the game is going to be crafting items. NPCs will ask for a certain selection of items and you are the one that needs to craft them all. I am still in early stages and I am still working on the details but I plan to have several different types of crafting and these will level up the more you do that type of crafting. For example, cooking would be of course food and every time you finished a recipe you would get experience. Then when you levelled up, you would have more options available to you. Similarly, certain plants and ingredients from enemies you need for certain crafting recipes will not be available until you have reached a certain level. Then you basically just keep making more and more recipes as the NPCs ask for different things but you might be able to go into a different branch of crafting, different times of playing. You might focus on tailoring one time and then do cooking the next. This is the basic concept of the crafting. The details are being worked out currently and I will make another post for the details on these specific mechanics and my progress with them so far. Remember though, anything I say is subject to change along the way.
For beating enemies, there will be RPG elements which will determine whether you can beat a certain enemy. Here I am crossing the crafting gameplay with RPG gameplay. This is because the game I took inspiration from (see inspirations section of this post) and many RPGs I have played have a problem with being a little too repetitive and yet not being fun to go back and collect and run around. I want to avoid this if I can and I believe adding simple RPG aspects into the game to help improve the fighting system will help to make fighting more interesting and worth repeating over and over. I am starting with a basic but effective style of fighting similar to the way the Maplestory fighting system works. A basic attack and a select choice of power attacks and/or spells to cast activated through a simple button press during battle. Then there is the classes which of course make the choices of attacks and spells different to change things up and make the game fun to replay. Again, these elements of the game will be discussed in more detail in another post where I will show my progress on figuring out appropriate classes and how this will integrate with the crafting and how the classes will be balanced (not having any biases in MY game!).
Inspirations
I am inspired by many different aspects from various games I have played. I know from years of being a gaming fan, what things are good and what things are not (at least in my opinion of course). I have played plenty of RPGs in my time and of course they are a rather big inspiration. The one I will probably be taking some inspiration from for the RPG elements in the game is Trickster. This game was my favourite online RPG for a long time. It ran on low specs and yet still managed to look amazing for a start and my computer was absolute trash at the time. The games servers were very well handled compared to some other online games I can think of. The fighting was simple but still rather fun as it has a basic attack but also certain little power attacks that were different depending on what you chose to learn and what class you were (basically the same as Maplestory if you need an example). This works very well to keep the grinding parts of the game a little less taxing. Also speaking of grinding there wasn't an excessive amount of it even when you were a high level. I never felt like I was too bored of being in the same place doing the same missions as the game changed rather often keeping me invested. There wasn't any crafting elements or at least not very advanced ones but the interface and menus for buying items proved to be very organised and clear. I love a clear and simple to understand shopping system in my RPGs. The game also rather funny and random at times and I just loved the music and environments. So you see, I don't know how the game is now as it has been years since I played it but these things that Trickster did so well will be a great inspiration for my RPG elements.
Then there is the crafting side. Of course, this is the main part of the game so where do I get inspiration from for this? Well it is difficult to explain because the actual game I got big inspirations from has actually been discontinued since. It's very sad and I loved the game and it makes me want to make this game even more to make sure other people who miss that gameplay can have something to play. You might not know it but the game was Sanrios Hello Kitty Online or Sanrio Online (can't remember exact name but it was something like that). Yes, I know it's a kids game but it had an interesting gameplay style I had never seen before and I loved crafting so I gave it a go and it was actually much more awesome than I expected it to be. The basis of the game was that you were dropped into the land of Sanrio with all the characters all around and you had to give them the items they wanted by crafting them. There were enemies and plants scattered about which you had to harvest to get the items. There was even a gardening system so you could grow your own plants you needed for crafting. And that was the entire game. Longer and longer lists of items to craft in more and more quantities. The gameplay was simple and repetitive but somehow very addicting. I hope to implement the same awesome addicting crafting feel of that game. That is the biggest goal here.
So without further ado, please feel free to find out more about my progress so far on this website or give me a comment about any questions or suggestions you have. I will be happy to answer and I will check often for comments. Well with all that said...wish me luck everyone! X3
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