RMMV Creature Party [feature demo 0.1.0]

[Lemonrice]

Good morning,

since I've already started to bug you people with questions regarding my feature designs, I wanted to share the current prototype with you.

A quick heads up!
The download is a feature demonstration only. It is a throwaway prototype to test whether the features are working as expected. Therefor, it will not be looking fancy, and it will definitely not be balanced. The values are exaggerated, and the wording is not lore specific but rather clear as for what should be happening now. (e.g. Monster 1 vs. Monster 1 buffed). This is to keep the actual game as clean as possible. You will find a list of what I am currently working on at the bottom of the thread. Of course everything will be shown here.

Thanks for reading this! Now to continue with the introduction, shall we?

Spoiler: Core Mechanics

You pick one out of three playable Characters that have been chosen by the four remaining ancients to find and fight madness. To help you on this quest the ancients connected you with a group of higher creatures that have agreed to help you - if you are willing to exchange some of your battle loot for their deeds.

The creatures that are willing to join you are separated into different classes. Depending on which character you have chosen in the beginning, creatures in one of these classes get boosted when you have them with you. Each creature class offers you a different Set of skills that influence the way you play. Active, passive, deal Damage over time or all at once, go for magic or melee - mix and Match your companions to create your favorite style of fighting. Choose your allies wisely to create the best combination of skills for every battle ahead.

Click here for information about the main game loop

Spoiler: Story

Sit down child, listen for awhile. Do you know the story of the ancient mothers and fathers? No? Well barely anyone does now. To most of you, they are nothing but temples that can be found all over the world. Well, there were five of them. Creation, the oldest one is to be thanked for everything that your eyes meet, your skin touches and your lungs breathe. Fate, who gives purpose to our existence as he is providing all of us with destiny. Wisdom, who made us clever enough to challenge our personal fate. And of course the youngest ones - Time and Death who made us mortal to give meaning to our existence. Yes, of course that is a good thing. Because fulfilling your destiny is not quite thrilling, if you do it over and over again, won’t you agree? Oh stop looking at me like that. Now where was I? Ah yes. It is said that Wisdom had the greatest interest in Creations work. It is said, that his love for her beings was so immense, that he left his place at the side of the other ancients to be with mankind. However, some of the old writings tell, that he was consumed by humanities hunger for knowledge and finally withered away. Other, more unsettling writings, say he lost his sanity and became a plaque amongst mankind called Madness.

Time has chosen you, at the verge of your life yet desperately clinging to it, to regain the purpose that was taken from you. The ancients have sworn not to interfere with mortal concerns, as their interference has already caused entire worlds to collapse. However, they have long enough witnessed the decay of their old friend Wisdom, as it is beginning to cause more and more destruction in your world, they call it your duty, no your privilege to rise against Madness. At your side, some of Wisdoms last creations unicorns, if you will, as they are more intelligent than their fellow species. But the corruption of Wisdoms mind has already tainted them, and they only bother to help you in exchange for offerings of their choosing. The only exception, is an old familiar face that has been at your side in life, as it does now, that it’s gone. A gift from death.

Spoiler: Characters

Druid

Born under a bad omen, the Druid was banned from his village and abandoned in the wild. It was an old woman that pitied the newborn enough to raise the child as her own, teaching him/her how to command the forces of nature. The child has now matured and the old lady joined the stars. Still stigmatized the druid longs to find a place in the world.

The Druid is able to affect the powers of spirits of nature.

Necromancer

Curious by nature, the Necromancer always enjoyed taking risks and toying around with the higher arts of raising the dead. If only he/she had payed more attention to the younger brothers adoration, he/she would have noticed that he followed him/her to the burial site. But now the damage is done and the grief sits deep within the chest.

The Necromancer is able to affect the powers of undead.

Spoiler: Necromancer female

Witch/er

Once a brave soldier, the Witch/er has returned to his home to find the family he longed to protect has long passed away. Struggling to make a living he/she now works in a workshop to fix broken familiars. However the only one he/she can not seem to fix, is the little sparrow that his/her mother left behind.

The Witch/er is able to affect the powers of mechanical familiars.

Spoiler: Contents of the Prototype

• player can select on of three main characters
• selected character boosts the respective creature class
• creatures need to be unlocked initially by making offerings during battle (special skill)
• once unlocked, offerings gain deeds with the creature
• player can use deeds to have a creature join his party
• deeds are lost when the creature is removed from party or dies in battle
• game over when the main character dies
• demo chicken helps you out with unlocking creatures and managing deeds

Spoiler: Known issues

• characters in party should be presented transparent on the plates, but are solid when the player leaves the map
• non buffed monsters do not level up, this is due to an earlier state of the game where they were not supposed to.

Spoiler: Currently in Progress

aka "what are we going to see next?"

• collect list of needed plugins and implement into demo 0.1.0
• clean up demo 0.1.0
• create character concepts
  • Necromancer male
  • Necromancer female
  • Druid male
  • Druid female
  • Witch male
  • Witch female
• create concepts for villages of druids, necromancer and witches

Last but not least, here is the link for you. Within the folder you'll also find older versions of the prototype along with a changelog and feedback sheet (however there is no need to use the feedback sheet if you comment directly here).

Click this link to get to the Prototype

Also, everytime I upload a new version, I'm going to ask you a specific question and it would be awesome, if you pay attention to that when playing the prototype! So today's question is:

What came to your mind during the battles?


Okay that's it, thanks a lot! I'm really excited for your feedback.

 

[Lemonrice]

updated the story

am i expected to post major turning points in the plot or should I rather keep them secret?

 

[Kupotepo]

@Lemonrice, I wait for you to write more and for the information that you are presented here, it is up to you. I think your mechanics sound great keep doing a great job.

 

[Lemonrice]

@Kupotepo thanks a lot for the kind words. I added a spoiler within the story part to keep the plot twists and other spoilers hidden for those who don't want to read them.

On other news... I'm currently working on the first tiles to create a look and feel for the druid habitat.

 

[Lemonrice]

Proof, that I'm working! Tada:

Spoiler

This is the first basic tile for the druid habitat. There still is a lot to do, the tiling of the (mossy) roof is completely wonky and I'm still not sure about the mossy wall... also, some of the shadows are a bit harsh aaand it needs a proper socket, grass probably. But I'm tired now and need to sleep.

 

[Kupotepo]

@Lemonrice, take your time because I am doing the game too and take a break often because of the burn out stuff.

 

[Lemonrice]

Okay so, I bounced the concept a little since I wasn't quite happy with the deed system and it led to a major rework/refinement of the core features. So what is going on, here is a quick overview.

Battles

• the player is no longer able to make offerings in order to gain deeds
• the player is not able to use items (in fact, items like potions are removed completely since all effects are able to be cast via the skillsystem)
• to compensate the lack of mana potions, mana regenerates over time
• the player can choose to "wait" which increases his defence and shortens the waiting time to the next move
  • this makes it able to have slower characters apply e.g. a debuff
  • this makes it able to create skill combos
• character and creatures no longer level up

Deeds

• deeds are no longer gained with offerings in battle
• battles give the player currency which can be exchanged for
  • vendors
  • creature deeds
  • payment for shady people who give information on special locations / equipment / skills and where to find them
• deeds are no longer for a specific creature but instead can be used for every creature
• deeds are no longer only to hire a creature but also to improve them
  • deeds are used to teach a creature an active skill for use in battle
  • deeds are used to teach a creature a passive skill which is active in battle as long as the creature is part of the group and not knocked out
  • skillresets can be bought from shady vendors
• deeds are capped to limit access to high power skills early in the game
• the deed cap can be increased by visiting temples throughout the game

Temples

• temples can be found by travelling the world or by purchasing the information of the location from a shady vendor
• at temples the player can increase the skills of his main character
• at temples the player can increase the maximum deeds

Please feel free to ask any questions that you have in mind. It'll take awhile for me to implement everything into the prototype so keep in mind, that only the contents of the changelog that’s included in the prototype folder are implemented.

 

[Lemonrice]

Hello peeps,

I already mentioned a while ago, that I'm busy working on theoretical stuff for the game and now I'm thinking: why not share some of that with you guys. It might give you some more insight on what to expect from the game and forces me to flesh out the gamedesign a little more, which is a necessity for me to do before I consider this game to be in development.

So let's say I'm in pre-production right now. That includes writing at least a small game design document, a LOT of lists with assets and testcases to check off (don't worry, I'll spare you the lists) but what I really enjoy is creating gameflows (that don't follow any design conventions but my own so bare with me...)

Allright, enough chatter. Today, let's talk about the

main gameloop
aka "what the heck am I doing in your game?"

Spoiler

You might notice, that there are already more arrows and images around the main loop, but for today let's focus on the highlighted part.

Game Start / Get Creature

Once the player has started the game and completed the introduction he is introduced to his first companion creature. Creatures are supposed to accompany the player throughout the game to make fighting enemies easier.

Once a creature has agreed to accompany the player, it can be found in the hall of creatures where the player can invest deeds for actions like adding the creature to his party or teaching the creature new skills. [the entire creature menu will be covered in a later post]

Fight enemy

Each creature comes with its own unique traits and skills, making it possible for the player to create a battle style to her liking. This means, the player is able to play e.g. a set of creatures with heavy defence, close combat or different variations of magic combat.

To add to that, each creature has skills that can interact or react with those of other creatures, or even skills of enemies to create stronger attacks or completely new effects. [fighting will be explained in more detail in a later post]

e.g. fighting an enemy weak but immune to poisonous liquids, which slide right off his shell. One way to achieve maximum damage would be to create fumes:

A plant cage surrounds the enemy > rain or a water armor casted on the plant cage boost the plant cage to last longer on the battlefield > an undead attack taints the water that feeds the plant, making it emit poisonous fumes​

This is a rather complex example. An easier one would be to cast a melee damage protecting water armor onto the enemy to increase the damage of a lightning spell. [I will probably make an additional post about the elemental table and some example skills once I’ve fleshed out the list of skills a bit more.]

Travel

As the player travels on his main goal is to get more creatures, improve them and improve herself to fight stronger enemies and progress in the main quest. Every once in awhile the player comes across major cities or outposts where he can purchase better equipment or visit the hall of creatures.

The player will also encounter special locations and landmarks out in the world which can e.g. start quests, hold special equipment or hide shady vendors. [I will provide more insight on what to do in cities and what to do while on the road in a later post]

Quests

The player follows a main quests that leads through the story but sidequests can be found along the way to get rewards like more creatures, new skills and equipment. Doing sidequests is not necessary, but highly recommended as having more creatures will make it easier to progress in the game (leading back to the initial point: Get creature.) [questing will be explained in more detail in a later post]

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Congratulations! You made it through the first GD post now feel free to ask questions, or continue with your day!

 

[MagicPizzaGuy]

This is interesting, I played the latest version you uploaded and the concept of the game piqued my interest, but it's on really early stages so I don't have much to say.

I'm waiting for more updates on the game when you have them

 

[Lemonrice]

Thank you! Yes, there is still a long way to go I plan to update the demo whenever I introduce a new part of the game cycle so anyone interested can directly try how the feature works ingame.

 

[Lemonrice]

Okay, that was a long time without updates. I'm currently working on the next feature demonstration. Today, I want to show you the design for one of the main characters: the female Necromancer, together with the first Creature the Necromancer will be accompanied with. I will do a spotlight on the main characters at a later point.

Spoiler: Necromancer female

 

[samkfj]

Keep it going! Looking forward to seeing the demo ^-^

 

[Lemonrice]

Hey dudes and dudettes,

It has been done! After working on the prototype for so long I..... scrapped everything. Ahem...
There is a full list of all the changes in the file (Changelog) that you can find in the folder along with older versions of the demo.
The link to the drive is in the top post, as well as a bit further below in this post.

Let's get started. Today, I want to talk to you about the "creature management" feature. But before we can do anything, we need

Currency
aka "what do you mean, you're broke?"

Currency is used universally to invest in progress. This includes buying new armor for the hero, but also exchanging currency for creature deeds, investing currency into new skills for the hero or trading currency for information that may or may not be useful to the player. [I will go over this in a little more detail once we are talking about traveling the world]

Creature Management
aka "sure i can do that... for a small fee"

Deeds

Throughout the world, the player is able to visit shrines where he can exchange currency for deeds. Those deeds can be offered to creatures to invite them into his party, or invested to have a creature learn new skills or auras. [The entire section how skills are learned is covered after the main features]

The number of deeds that can be gained through currency is limited, making it impossible to have the creature learn higher tier skills or auras, as the number of deeds required will exceed the maximum number of deeds. However, the maximum deeds can be extended by visiting temples throughout the world.

Spoiler

Well, it still does not follow any common guideline xD but i guess it's easy to understand when compared to the GD.

Adding a creature to the party

The player can offer deeds to invite a creature into his party but he can not offer any more than the current maximum of deeds he can exchange at the shrines. A maximum of three creatures are willing to join the hero simultaneously on his journey.

Deeds are consumed when a creature dies in battle so it is a good idea to offer more than one deed. Once the deeds offered to a creature are depleted, it will leave the party. Creatures will only leave the party after a fight, never mid fight so it is possible to resurrect a creature even when the deeds are depleted.

Creatures can also be dismissed in the hall of creatures but any remaining deeds from the offering made to join the party will be lost.

Learning new skills and auras

Learning new skills and auras will consume different amounts of deeds. Since the player can only exchange a limited amount of deeds in the beginning, higher tier spells are locked until the number of maximum deeds is raised, others require an event to be unlocked e.g. help the farmer to find his daughter to unlock higher tier earth spells. When opening the skill / aura menu, skills and auras that can be learned are fully displayed while skills that require more deeds are only slightly visible.

Each creature has its own set of skills and auras that belong to a certain element or attribute e.g. Undead creatures are usually low in agility and have elemental attacks such as undead (duh), poison and earth. Knowing this, players that prefer their companions to be faster in battle and attack more often can avoid inviting undead creatures to their party while other player may want to take advantage of the skill combinations that can be made with the undead elements. [elements will be covered along with the skills after the main features]

Skills and auras are only available in battles when the respective creature is part of the team. While skills are added to a skill menu and have to be selected to be used in battle, auras apply automatically once the creature is in the party.

Learning special skills and auras

Unlike regular skills and auras special skills and auras can only be unlocked by finding them, receiving them as quest reward or purchasing them from a shady vendor. Special skills and auras can only be learned once but can be learned by any creature. Of course a creature has to be available in the hall of creatures in order to learn a new skill or aura so the player might want to keep the skill or aura for later use.

Once received, special skills and auras are available in the respective menu and can be learned the same way regular skills or auras are learned by creatures.

Resetting skills and auras

Resets are very rare and can only be bought from shady vendors. It can be purchased for each skill and aura individually and gives back a large part but not all of the invested deeds. Has the creature learned special skills or auras these will become available again for other creatures to learn.

Increasing maximum deeds

To increase the maximum deeds the player can donate some currency in temples throughout the world. Temples can be discovered by exploring the world. Information about temple locations can be received as quest reward or through purchasing them from shady vendors. [More informations about temples will be given in the post about traveling]
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And just like that, you have read your second GD post. Isn't it wonderful? Here are some

Spoiler: Questions you might have now

But if I exchange currency for deeds, can’t I just grind until I have every skill learned?
Absolutely. Money is not a limitation to having your creatures learn skills and auras. Slowing down the developing progress is ensured by

• finding more creatures with new skills throughout the game
• discovering new skills and auras through progressing in the game
• increasing the deed cap throughout the game

So if you want to go for maximum possibilities at all times, go for it! But be aware, that it might become very grindy. Let’s quickly recall, what currency is also used for:

• deeds
• equipment
• information (useful or not)
• resets
• increasing the deed cap
• character skills

Why don’t I get back all of my deeds, when dismissing a creature or using a reset?
Think of it as a payment in advance. The creature has probably already fought at your side when you discover, that it’s just not to your liking, or the creature has learned a skill for you that you now don’t want to have anymore. It’s like making a deposit when you’re going to get a tattoo. It covers some cost if you decide to just don’t show up.

Ultimately it’s just a part of the lore. If too many people complain about this to be annoying, it can easily be changed.

How many deeds will I have available in the beginning?
Good question! I have no idea. This value has a huge impact on the balancing of the deed management, how fast or slow the character progresses… deeds in general are a small value of ones and tens, as opposed to the currency which comes in much higher numbers as hundreds and thousands. So in the beginning I’d actually start with a maximum deeds of 2 or 3 and then test it, balance it, test it again, adjust it, and then test it again...

I have played the demo and I did not receive any exp from the evil guy. Did you forget to add that?
No. I have not completely settled on the decision yet, but at the moment I do not see the need for levels as the player progress is restricted and reflected in other ways.

Finally, here is the Link to the demo, the current version is 0.1.0 and it is a feature demonstration only with 10 to 15 minutes of playtime. enjoy!

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Also, as already told in the first post I will have a question to those who want to play the demo. The chicken actually acts as a tutorial, so my question to you is:

How do you like this style of tutorial?
How was the explanation - action ratio, did you feel too railroaded, did you feel lost? Did you feel the urge to skip through it? All of your feedback is very appreciated! Thank you very much.

Spoiler: Credits and Plugins

The following is a wild collection of Plugins and will change with the next version

VictorEngine: Basic Module, Passive States, Information Window

Yanfly: Battle Engine Core, Visual HP Gauge

Himeworks: Hidden Choice Conditions

DoubleX: RMMV Permanent States

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EDIT: fixed: maximum deeds can no longer be raised to infinity

 

[8bitBartabas]

Wait....you actually have a demo of your game and never mentioned it to me? Haha