RMMV Metal Tamers: A Somber Monster Catching Game(Demo)

[Bone]

Pokemon and Pokemon like games seem to take place in what appears to be highly functioning socialist nations. Free healthcare for your monsters, children are given Pokemons at a certain age, the professors are not privately funded and thus their research is aimed at the overall benefit of their world. I suspect some of the Gym's are also state funded.

The concept for Metal Tamers(working tittle) is of a monster(Chimera) catching game that takes place in a highly corrupt capitalist state.
The corporation that runs the healing centers also charges for Tamer Licenses, has a monopoly on monster equipment, items, TM's, and the sale and trade of monsters.

For years now Pokemon fans have come up with self imposing challenges, like the nuzlocke challenge, in order to give themselves a more challenging experience. I am aiming to develop a game that has this type of intensive gameplay in which they have to make decision on who to save in their party.

Battle System is the weakest part so far. I have no scripting background and have cobbled together a pokemon like system that fits the narrative but its very much held together by tape and shoe strings. Very clunky. I have several key concepts in mind for the battle system, for example the trainer participates in the battles but are very limited. Attacks aren't strong but the player will be able to use their whip to boost the Chimeras speed or to disrupt opposing Chimeras.

Lore
The whole world runs on magnets, Magnet-Punk? Magnets are the power source for everyone's home and the Chimeras themselves have magnetic cores that can be used to either tame them or harvest them. Because of this, there are restrictions on who can become a tamer and the limit of Chimeras a single person can own. These restrictions can be waved by expensive Tamer Licenses or becoming an OT(Officer Tamer).

The demo has the first town where you acquire your first Chimera but this is still a work in progress. I want to avoid boring the player with a lengthy intro that is nothing more than an info dump and I want the games themes and mechanics to naturally introduce themselves. This is very hard and will need to re work this town but for now I think it does a good job at capturing the mood.

Download Demo
https://juanesparza.itch.io/meta-chimera

 

[Jayje]

This would be an interesting entry if you were able to get this done for the IGMC 2018. Looks interesting. There are places where you can find plugins and event system that can help you get this done. I've done a lot eventing to help me with my project. BEST OF LUCK!!

 

[Bone]

This would be an interesting entry if you were able to get this done for the IGMC 2018. Looks interesting. There are places where you can find plugins and event system that can help you get this done. I've done a lot eventing to help me with my project. BEST OF LUCK!!

Thanks! I think for the most part I have figure out how to make the main mechanics work and what I can't will just have to rework into the games themes. The enemy of art is the absence of limitations and all that.

And now an update.
In the current demo, the main quest ask for the player to enter their home and pick up all the properties they can sell in order to buy a tamers license. The idea for this quest was to make players feel like becoming a trainer in this world is an economical challenge.

This doesn't work. I have realize that to most players, this will just be a tedious task and something they have to do in order to progress. I really need players to feel like they are losing something that they wish they could keep.

A bicycle is a common fun transportation tool in RPGs like Pokemon and Earthbound. Its neat because it lets you travel fast and there is something inherently fun about using this transportation device, probably tied directly to childhood nostalgia. So I will be giving the player a skateboard from the very beginning, it will be there in their room and hopefully they will become attached to it for the brief early portion of the game until they eventually have to sell it in order to being their journey as Chimera Tamers.