Escape from the City

[SJWebster]

 
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Escape from the City is a game inspired by 80's action movies and classic beat-em-ups such as Streets of Rage and Final Fight, but presented as an RPG similar to Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest!


The game is being built in RPG Maker MV.  I'm very familiar with this series of engines and find it to be very versatile whilst still being easy to work with.  I believe this engine will make completion of the project within the next 2 years a viable goal.


The game will feature:

• Side View Battle System
  
• 8 Directional Movement
  
• 6 to 8 hour length
  
• Perishable Weapons - if you pick up a crowbar and use it as a weapon, it will break eventually
  
• Stealth and Touch Encounters - you can choose to sneak past enemies or take them head on
  

An unarmed black teenager has been fatally shot by a white police officer.  Peaceful protests turned violent after the city announced the officer would not face trial.  Looting and arson became commonplace as a full on riot ensued.  In a bid to maintain control of the city, a fence was erected around the perimeter while riot officers battled the public.  The fighting has escalated, the authorities have retreated, and the city has been lost to roaming gangs.


You've had enough.  You're leaving this hell hole and you don't care who tries to stand in your way, be it the law or the gangs.  Unfortunately, it's not going to be that easy and you might just find yourself investigating the circumstances of the shooting and uncovering the truth behind the harsh and excessive response from the government.

I'll be honest, this is the first section I head to when I look at other people's projects, so I plan to regularly return to and update this part of the topic.  I'm making all of the graphics in the game from scratch, by myself.  That is taking some time so the screenshots shown here are from an extremely early phase and may not represent the final product.


Alpha Title Screen - Uses royalty free stock images at present which are likely to be replaced, however this does convey the 'mood' I want for the title screen.

In-Map - Hanging out in an underground rail station.

Battles - In battle.

I look forward to your feedback and thoughts.  I'll keep this thread updated as development of the game continues.

 

[RocketKnight]

Your project looks cool dude! I'll be watching.

 

[SJWebster]

Thanks RocketKnight!  Awesome username by the way, fantastic Mega Drive game.


I've been spending the evening tinkering with the battle system, mostly how I want the HUD to be displayed.  I'm using MogHunter's scripts for this (thanks to WayFinding92 for pointing me in their direction).  I think it's a big improvement compared to what I had before.  I've updated the original post with this screenshot too.

 

[SJWebster]

Been updating the map graphics.  Added some destroyed tiles, a vending machine, benches, gravel and departure boards.  Updated screenshot in the original post too.

 

[Aleks]

I will be keeping an eye on this one for sure. Reminds me of old Street Fighter and Akira.


Great job, can't wait to see more.

 

[SJWebster]

Thanks Aleks!  I've spent the evening working on the assets for the second playable character and party member, Natalie!  I've also updated the screenshots to include her.

 

[animebunnies]

Looks interesting! I like the style of the game

 

[Authumbla]

I'm going to be completely honest here.


1) I love the idea of this. The logo is cool, and the 80s have a really fun aesthetic to them. Short RPGs are also a pretty nice thing, depending on what you do with them - Undertale and Space Funeral were both very short and a lot of fun. 


2) I don't like the graphics very much, although part of this is because I'm not a huge fan of digital art. I feel like you could make the graphics a lot more colorful/distinctive - think chiaroscuro, like if you've seen Blade Runner or Kung Fury there are huge contrasts between light and dark in a lot of scenes. Also you should make your battlers bigger or the screen smaller - as of now the battlefield looks extremely empty.

 

[SJWebster]

Thanks for your feedback.  The graphics are something that will constantly evolve and improve over the course of the game's development, however creating resources is taking some time due to me being a one man show.  Things like lighting will be added via either parallax or events (possibly a combination of both) towards the end of the project, with the reasons being:

1. It's more likely to be consistent if it's all done around the same time
   
2. I need to make progress in other areas first and have a game that I can put in the hands of friends, family and testers first
   

That said, I fully agree that the current battle sprites are too small, especially as the game runs at 720p.  I've reviewed this and made some larger battlers, I have to admit they look a lot better (I also played around with the wall in the background).

The downside is that these larger sprites took significantly longer to create than the smaller ones I had before.  This means that either the game will take longer to make than I first thought or I may have to find funding to hire additional artists to help with the workload as it's not just the main playable characters who will have animated side view battlers, but the enemies as well!  That might prove too much work for me on my own and I want to ensure this game gets finished.


I think, for the sake of both progress and my sanity, the next few updates may be me getting the actual game made using place holder assets and then going back later to replace those with custom graphics.


As usual, thoughts, comments, questions, it's all welcome.

 

[leon93]

You should add voice overs in battle. That will be epic

 

[AnimaScorpius]

Nice I grew up playing games like final fight and Double Dragons, I can't wait to see this project will do! If you need beta testers My team would be willing to help.

 

[Freank]

nice idea! A street game

 

[aliensalmon]

Interesting idea.

 

[nidhoggn]

I like the story, reminds me of The Warriors (great movie by the way), I am also a great fan of the beat 'em up genre. Good luck with the project!  

 

[LxCharon]

I really love the way this harkens back to the good ole sidescrolling beat-em-ups of lore. Like Double Dragon. It has a really spot on 80's-ish vibe and I'm here for it. Keep up the good work!