Features Feedback

[Lunarea]

Are you wondering if a feature is right for you? Wondering if players would like one of the features you're adding? Or maybe you're unsure if two features go well together ... Have no project thread to post all of this in?

This is the right place for you!

Post your features here, or help a fellow designer decide how to tackle game mechanics in their project.

Rules:

If you're asking for feedback:

- Be descriptive.

Include the game genre, atmosphere and general ideas.

- Describe how you're planning to implement the feature.

Are you going to use an elaborate event, or a script? How is the rest of the game affected?

- Note your inspiration(s) or offer an example.

Referencing an existing game makes it easier for people to imagine what you want to achieve.

If you're offering feedback:

- Make sure it's clear you're offering feedback, rather than just chatting about a general topic.

- Name the person you're giving the feedback to in your post.

You may also quote relevant portions of their post. But please don't entirely quote lengthy posts.

- Have fun!

 

[TeganGibby]

I recently began work on a game with an interesting concept sort of reminiscent of Yume Nikki: you play as a character with the ability to transform into many different characters. This is primarily used as a device to explore many different short stories; you will go on adventures able to fill many different roles. There will be little to no actual fighting in the game, or at least little to no non-scripted fighting.

In the world of this game, everyone is able to use magic. Everyone except you. You are of a race born around once every 100 years that has no traditional magical talent but is able to transform into almost anything, gaining the abilities and characteristics (not MENTAL characteristics, i.e. no personality change every ten seconds) of whatever you transform into. Transformation is impossible (some illusion is, however) with the magic that everyone else can use. Unfortunately, you have almost no control over this ability at the beginning of the game other than to prevent it happening and to revert back to human form. Thus, you must rely on others to help you transform. You cannot be transformed unwillingly, but nearly anyone can guide your transformation given permission. Thus a 6 year old girl trying to find her parents could transform you into an eagle to fly around and find them with your enhanced vision, or a wounded soldier could make you a doctor or magical creature with healing abilities. This limits your power, but does not make you completely helpless.

Spoiler

Later in the game, you gain the ability to transform at will into a few different forms. Some still require the assistance of a normal, magic-wielding person.

Each person who has the desire to transform you has a story to tell and some sort of objective/journey. Therefore each unique transformation is its own story and likely will be its own game genre.

Before I forget, one more crucial detail about the story: your identity as a changeling (not in the traditional sense of fairy-child, but one with the ability to transform) has been kept secret from most. Skilled mages can detect it, but to most of the population, you would have to reveal this to them before they would offer you a job.

Also, magic does not affect those of your race (except for guiding your transformation).

Does this seem like an interesting enough concept? As it is, I have no plans for a story outside of the many small ones, but like the game Legend of Mana, those will probably build on each other to become a few bigger overarching storylines.

EDIT: Oops, forgot to tell how it would be implemented. The spoilered stuff would be implemented similar to Yume Nikki, while everything else would transform when you agree in dialogue with a character and then transport you to a new place.

 

[Lunarea]

I think it's a good feature, overall.

Though I think it may be more interesting if the transformation from an NPC was the ultimate goal that happens in the end of the quest, rather than right when you agree to help. From a lore perspective, you could explain it with the transformation only happening when the characters are attuned to/resonate with each other (mentally, spiritually, or however it best fits). This would allow the player to focus on exploration and get to use those persistent transformations to make sense of the world and the NPC's background.

To use the example of the soldier, he could just ask you to heal him. Then the inner world you go into could be his body, where you try to navigate and figure out what's wrong with him (including making use of various transformations - like you can only access certain areas if you transform into something small). Once you do, then you can tell him what he really needs is a heart surgeon and he can transform you into one. Then you can play an operation mini-game/puzzle where you are the surgeon operating on the soldier's heart.

I think people would find it fun to gradually uncover how to solve the problem, in addition to transforming into various roles.

 

[TeganGibby]

Thanks for the feedback. I like that idea and I will probably incorporate something similar into the game. The point of this project is to be on a small enough scale that I actually finish it, but I do have enough coding experience to realize most anything that I want in the game. I will probably mix that idea with my original and have instances of each. One example that I am working on right now is a traveler trying to get home safely transforming you into a warrior/knight of some kind in order to be her bodyguard on the way home. After each quest, I will likely make it so that you keep whatever transformation that you had while you were playing so that you can use it for other puzzles.

 

[Acetonide]

I was going to post here but as I don't actually have a project yet (not even one that doesn't meet the requirements for a project post) and since I'm asking for what features I should include rather than asking about a feature I decided to make my own post and alter it to be a more general question.. But while I was looking here I couldn't help but wonder something, and after some thought it seemed like the best option (of the the ones I could think of) was to post it here.

In the original post it says

- Tag your post with "feedback"

but I can't seem to find any way of tagging a reply, only when I make a thread can I tag the original post..

I'm sorry if I should of done something else instead for this question, if so please let me know so I can do i the proper way in the future.

 

[Lunarea]

I've reworded it to be more clear. The word "tag" was probably misleading. I just meant make sure that people know you're offering feedback, as opposed to just randomly chatting about a topic.

 

[T.Bit]

I'm planning a game where the character's level is capped at certain points in the game and only by visiting new dungeons (ie. progressing the storyline) will the character's level cap be increased. I also want the dungeons to open up other things like items, equipment and classes. The characters can level up in different classes and hopefully subclasses as well. I know plenty of people probably wouldn't have a problem with the later.

However, my question is, would level capping be obnoxious or would you, the average player, find it to be an interesting dynamic in a game.

The game's dungeons wouldn't be long, perhaps 5-10 minutes.

EDIT:

Whoops, guess I ought to include game stuff a bit more. This would be more of a fun romp, light hearted, rather than a dark tale. I want to keep the story fun, but most importantly concise. I don't have much more than a general idea formulated so far. I mostly just wanted to see if people would like the level cap mechanic. Thanks for any feedback!

 

[Levi]

@Irili

Could work. Definitely makes it easier to balance.

Will EXP carry over? That is, even though the level is capped... will the player continue to gain EXP? Then when you proceed to the next part, it all "kicks in" at once? Or will EXP be frozen altogether?

 

[T.Bit]

@Levi: Exp would freeze but I'm hoping it would encourage players to try out other classes. For instance, Character 1 is a level 10 (capped) Warrior and a level 5 Thief. The player still wants to level up another character so that the next dungeon isn't as hard so they would change Character 1 into a Thief and continue leveling that character as a Thief instead.

I'd want to make it to wear certain skills from other classes could be carried over to other classes by equipping an accessory (easiest way to do it by my thinking). Thus, it would (hopefully) encourage leveling up in several classes.

And I agree, it would make balancing infinitely easier.

 

[Necromus]

It's like how FF XIII works, higher stages of character development only open up past certain story events.

Works fine and makes it really easy to balance accordingly, cause you will always have a certain maximum ammount of power the player can actually acchieve.

In a way the beginner sphere board in FF X also works like that, just a bit more open than FF XIII.

 

[T.Bit]

Hmm...I've never played Final Fantasy XIII. I might have to go read about it's system though so I can see what you're talking about Necromus. I don't want to do anything too complicated since I'm making everything through events. (I don't script really.)

 

[Necromus]

FF XIII does not have lvls, you basicly store your experience (crystal points) to unlock crystals in the crystarium.

Those crystal are either statboosters or skills.

What is similar to what you want to do, is that the crystarium has stages.

Once you learned everything in one stage, you will advance to the next one but you have to unlock higher stages through story progress.

That way your characters always have a set maximum power, and thus can't simply outelvel boss fights.

The game itself is easy enough, but you can actually balance your boss battles around that system pretty well.

 

[MooshraKun]

Ok I believe this is where thiis should go please redirect if I am wrong but I had a dream and thought why not make a game from it but it seemed like it would be better as an anime but I ain'y no animator so I thought what if I could make an anime using rpgmaker. So I thought about how it would lay out and came up with this. The game will be called Gesture of Kaisar in which you have your generic kid that becomes the hero who gets transported to a midevil world where there is a being called the Deppresser that feeds on host to stay alive and well the Depresser your generic fairy tale villian takes away peoples ablity to laugh and feel sad about it so they can only become in rage so wars often took to get rid of the anger but when he gets sent to the world he is the hero in a gernic prophecy where he would become the Gesture and bring laughter back to the kingdom of Kaisar. Well here is what I thought would be a wierd idea have it like interactive anime where I make a lot of cutscenes but unlike an anime you actually get to expierience all the cut out scenes they take out to see time, And to make it like an anime It will have voice acting and on episode titles aand it plays the intro and ending at the end of every episode but I will use a script that lets you skip the intro or ending when you press a button so you don't have to listen to it. So what your ideas on a interactive anime using rpg maker grpahics and the rpg maker program so that it a wierd 2d anime except you actually get to put a bit of your own 2 sense it and you actaully expeirience the battles and stuff they take out to save time.

 

[Mouser]

@Mooshrago

1) Punctuation is your friend. Paragraphs are your cousins. Get to know them.

2) In all honesty, if you're looking to put out a 'free' product at the end, Dragon Age (not Dragon Age II) may be what you're looking for. I know it's probably bad form at least to mention competition, but in this case mechanime is exactly what the Dragon Age toolset was created to do well. Fair warning - it does have a steep learning curve - just being able to lay some ground and plop some trees down will take you some time to get the hang of.

I don't know that you could ever get that feel - especially the details of visual emotion - out of a 2D game the way that you seem to want.

 

[demmozero]

Ok for my first commercial game I decided to go the ff x-2 route and do a stage like platform. The way I plan on doing this is by having the player visit a town and listen in on conversations

"my main characters are elements and can't be seen by people" , within certain conversations a location of enterest will come up thus unlocking the level for exploration. not all locations would be part of the main story some would be like side missions where you could get special items. As the game progresses new npc's will show up in the town providing new information and unlocking new locations. does that sound like a decent system for exploration? I'm not really sure if that constitutes as a mechanic or not.

 

[T.Bit]

@demmozero: Is there any other purpose to visiting towns? Like, stocking up on items, resting, etc. (I would assume not since no one can see you). If not, going in to towns might get a bit boring.

 

[Based MG]

For my game Cavarel Tales: Zephyr, I'm having trouble deciding on which features I should add; the most prominent of which being the battle system, but I also have a bunch of ideas that may or may not fit, which is why I'm posting here. You can also refer to this post for more on how I want the game to feel. At any rate..

Battle System

Spoiler

I was thinking something along the lines of roaming monsters in the field that chased you down if you moved within a certain radius, but left you alone if you were significantly higher level than them. The battle system itself would be sideview, and the side you were on would change depending on where the enemy encounters from (encounter front & left: characters are on the right facing left; encounter behind & right: characters are on the left facing right, if attacked from behind then an ambush would occur). For bosses, the character sprites would be drawn on the bottom just above the menu, so it gives that sense of looming threat to the boss. This type of battle system could easily be accomplished with events and Jet's Viewed battle system. It works smoothly with Yanfly's battle engine so I'll get all the neat fixes that gives, but for some reason with Yami's Classical Active Time Battle system, the game lags out a little. I assume it's because of all the gauges being drawn at the same time, but I also notice that the speed isn't as choppy when I just do basic first-person frontview.

The system would either be that, or an ABS like XAS or Sapphire Action because of the more "live-action" events discussed in the second post I linked up top. The draw to this is the fact that the flow of the game won't be interrupted by battles (except for boss fights, since those are about the experience rather than slashing through everydamnthing), and with an ABS I have more tools at my disposal for puzzlemaking. The drawbacks to this system are the sheer complexity of setting it up, and the fact I may not be able to implement group dynamics or individual character mechanics as outlined in the first post I linked.

Either way, the game's main focus is on the story and player interaction with said story, so I'd like a battle system that reflects this, but also gives me control over how the characters work.

As for other features, here's a list of what I think could go into the game:

Spoiler

1. Crafting System - May or may not implement this, as it doesn't really fit with the theme of the game.
   
2. Socketing/Runic Enchantment/Item Enhancement - Use gems or crystals or runes to add stats to weaponry and armor. It would fit the adaptive and changing feel of the game more than a mundane crafting system.
   
3. Quest Log - Would almost certainly be a requirement with the sheer number of sidequests I plan on implementing.
   
4. Reputation List - In order to gain a country's trust you must help them in some way, building your reputation with them. May just be as simple as "hated, disliked, neutral, liked, loved" with the status rising after a certain number of quests were completed for them. And reputation shops may be implemented as well. It would certainly befit the diplomatic nature of the story.
   
5. "Mini-games" - Would most likely take the form of "quest points" such as a "defend the castle" style event for one of the sidequests.
   
6. Optional Dungeons - Usually unlocked by finishing all of the "objective" sidequests of a particular sidequest chain (free the prisoners, defeat the slavers, etc.), however some can be found just out in the field. I'll probably implement a "grinding tower" type dungeon but give it significance to the story when you finish it.
   

I plan to have nearly every player-made decision have an impact on the direction and outcome of the story in some way.

 

[Kyle]

@Zephiur

Battle System

Based on the information you've provided, it seems you already have your character concepts down as far as gameplay goes. With such mechanics as limited skill uses, MP/TP, enviromental/situational abilities, it sounds like it would be hard to manage in an action based battle system (this is referencing the information given outside of this topic). I'd also like to add that since you plan for boss fights to use the ATBS regardless of what battle system you use for regular battles, it would make more sense to test the player's skills in a system their familiar with rather than having important battles filled with unfamiliar features. It would also be difficult to flesh out both systems completely when focusing on two very different gameplay mechanics.

Other Features

1&2: Crafting/Socketing systems are more or less the same: Collecting items/runes and turning it into equipment/enhancements. These can be very fun, but I suggest picking one or the other under the assumption it fits with the plot. Really dig deep for interesting combinations... basic increases like +Attack, +Magic are a little boring and straightforward, for example the strong guys get the attack runes and the magic users get the magic runes. Eh. I'm more for things such as this option reduces resource cost whereas this other option offers critical strike. Efficiency vs chance to double/triple damage.

3&4: Quest logs are standard for games with many sidequests. There's no reason this shouldn't be included. Along the same line as this, reputation systems are a good incentive to doing sidequests. Since you have so many reputations in your game, I suggest making them relatively easy to max out.. even so much as ensuring one or two of them can get near max just by story events. On the other hand, there's also the option of making one or two of them extremely difficult to max out and only for the completionists playing your game. An interface to help keep track of this should be standard.

5: Minigames can be fun or annoying. Just about every game ever has them. Not that this is bad, but throwing the vague term 'minigame' isn't descriptive enough. Minigames can be anything. However, including them was quest objectives is a good way to break up the usual model.

6: Optional dungeons are expected in a game revolving around side quests.

These mechanics sound like the basics of a game similar to Dragon Age. I enjoyed the single player-MMO mechanics-type feel it gave you. The simple out of combat crafting systems, quest format, and political backstory made the game really enjoyable for myself. Good luck.

 

[Castern]

I came up with an idea for a mechanic for my first game, but was wondering if I could get some ideas for how to implement certain aspects of it.

In the beginning of the game, the player rescues a large eagle (in the game it is called a roc), from a hunter's trap in the forest. After taking the roc to a healer and saving its life, it become a sort of "non-combat" companion that becomes an important aspect of wilderness/dungeon puzzles as well as resource gathering for crafting. As the game progresses, you unlock certain abilities for your roc that allows you to go places you otherwise wouldn't. Such abilities include:

--- sending your roc to fly a few spaces in front of the player and activate out-of-reach switches and levers

--- sending your roc on "hunts" with a random chance to recieve certain items depending on what region you are in

--- sending your roc to create a gust of wind that clears foliage that may hide treasures, passages, or switches, or untangle a block or statue from vines

--- your roc carries you a few spaces over void or damage terrain (since it is a roc and not a normal eagle, it has the strength to carry the player) sort of like the

leaf used in Wind Waker

While the later three are fairly straightforward to event via a common event call from a "falconry glove," I am struggling to create the first ability where the roc flies a few spaces in front of the player to activate a switch.

My plan for this ability is this:

1) certain "roc" switches would be activated by an "event touch" with the roc being that event

2) common event creates an event (the roc) one space in front of the player that would then move a set number of spaces

3) When the called event activates collides with the "event touch" switch, the switch would be activated, furthering the puzzle

The trouble is, when creating the common event I don't have the option of placing an event/sprite at a location. My idea for a work-around is to have a transparent/through event hidden in some corner of the map that gets placed in front of the player when the event is called... but it doesn't have quite the same flexibility. Are there any tips some of you pros out there could give me to get this working?

 

[Velex]

@Castern: How many places could there be out-of-reach switches/levers? Just set up an event for each one. When the player is looking over a cliff, or whatnot, keep a sprite-less event there to be activated by ENTER, which then turns into your roc and flies over, flips the switch, and returns. Unless you want the player to be able to send the roc out without any switches to hit, in which case, unfortunately, I'm useless.