RMMV My current project - looking for feedback

[Finnuval]

Hello everyone

I'm currently working on a massive game wich will take years to complete (it took me about 8 months to come-up with a main storyline and game concept so LOL) wich is fine by me .
It is a game I am primarily making for myself and as of yet I have no intention to make it public, however things can change... who knows. However I would still like any tips, tricks, advice and feedback you guys (and girls) can give me.

Most things are more fleshed out then I'm putting down but I've opted to keep things basic

Working Title : Karmody - Song of Fate.

STORY

characters caught up in much larger story not about them.

15 years after war. Emperor is kindhearted and seeks peace, senate is corrupt and greedy.
Rebellion of recently subjugated nation throws the nation into war. Surrounding nations watch closely and prepare to get involved.

Protagonist : Parents died during last war is raised by 'Uncle'. Protagonist doesn't know Uncle is the one who killed his parents.
Friends with the Prince and sent together with him on a mission during wich the emperor dies and all hell breaks loose.
At first they are at the mercy of the events surrounding them, slowly taking their fates into their own hands.

FEATURES

RELATIONSHIPS - Player actions influence relationship with pary-members both positively and negatively. Possible romance option (as of yet undecided).

BASE BUILDING - suikoden style base building where the people you recruit expand your home base and open up various options.

PLAYER CHOICE - player actions determine how certain events will play out, confronting the player with their previous choices, influencing relationships, recruitment etc.
Example: player gets to choose to kill, spare or possibly recruit a fromer enemy. Later in game the player is confronted with his wife/widow... wich will play out completly differently.

DIPLOMACY SYSTEM - Player actions will influence your relationship and reputation with neighbouring nations and groups.
This in turn influence things like; Trade - what items, armor etc. are for sale through merchants and wether or not characters will join you or possibly leave you.

Example: Nation A requests you to hunt pirates.
If you accept and complete this request Nation A will think more highly of you and open up more items for trade but pirate characters will not join you as easily or end up as your enemy instead of being recruited.
If you refuse Nation A might stop trade with you or send an assassin to kill you creating a battle you would otherwise not have.

LARGE RECRUITABLE CAST - suikoden style recruitment system with the difference that most recruits are NPC's that influence your base building etc. The cast of 'actual' party-members will remain low(ish).
All recruits will however have their own little background and story for the pleyer to get involved in and are influenced by the relationship & reputation mechanics...so your trader can actually up and leave you if things get really bad!

FAST-TRAVEL - not unlike God of War where you not teleport instantly but instead travel 'between worlds' via shortcut.

MULTIPLE ENDINGS - 2 or 3 possible endings determined by all things mentioned so far.

And that's it...
That's the game I've decided to make and would like any and all feedback.

One more thing though:
Yes I am aware of the massive and complex scale of this project
Yes I have made (and finished) a smaller game using rpgmaker MV before

One point I want to clarify :
I am not adding in a zillion features because... well features
Every feature (I feel) adds to story and character development and fits the game making it the game I like.

To all other devs, artists, members, etc. Good luck on your respective projects and keep on the good work!

I do not have any screenshots as of yet since I spent the past 8 months writing everything down. Still I hope this will get posted since I would really like the feedback and will post any images I can once I arrive at that stage.

 

[Frogboy]

Sounds good so far. You're making the game that you want to make (which is great and highly advisable) so there's not much I can offer for now until/unless you share a playable demo when you've got one. It's when you have something concrete that you, and the RPG Maker community, will be able to find things that could be improved upon, made easier to understand or offer suggestions for ideas that you might not have thought of.

So yeah, good luck with your game. Look forward to seeing your progress as time goes on.

 

[Finnuval]

Thanks for your reply
Yeah I know it's rather bare-boned for now
Once I've got some screenshots, etc I'll be posting them and hope people can advice me then on looks, situations etc.
As for now I'm mostly just looking if people like the general idea or have an idea what suits the minimal info I have given, etc.

I'm also already brainstorming with a few people on this forum on both my project and theirs so...

 

[MMMm]

Have you considered building this game in episodes and linking them together whenever you release another update? You have a lot of good ideas and if you put out demos that people could critique, it would make bug testing faster and give you more motivation from all the positive feedback.

 

[Finnuval]

Have you considered building this game in episodes and linking them together whenever you release another update?

I see your point and I have considered this, however at this moment I'm unsure if that would work for me... Thanks for the feedback though!

 

[MMMm]

I'll bug test your demo when you release it.

 

[cthulhu135]

Sounds great! I don't think I mentioned it when we spoke yesterday, but your ideas are really cool Not to mention that the world certainly needs more Suikoden-likes Also, don't worry about having that many features; as long as they don't feel extraneous (which none of yours do imo), add as many as you think you need!

I already said it yesterday, but I wish you the best of luck on this, it has the potential to be something special

 

[Finnuval]

I already said it yesterday, but I wish you the best of luck on this, it has the potential to be something special

Thanks and like I said before so does your project

 

[Kupotepo]

@Finnuval, wow your hard work on the writing process is inspiring. The story and the features look good. like many others said if you make a game for doing the game you like and can be silly as possible.
If you someday decide to do a commercial, I don't think the preview philosophy is going to work well because you need to make a lot of surveys and what is an individual's target audience want?
Good to see some of the RPG maker developers who have an appreciation of political and diplomatic complexities in the fantasy world.

 

[Finnuval]

@Kupotepo thanks

Good to see some of the RPG maker developers who have an appreciation of political and diplomatic complexities in the fantasy world.

Yeah I think any world, fantasy or not, has to deal with this in some regard. I've just chosen to take it a bit more head on I guess

 

[Kupotepo]

I know right @Finnuval , some RPG developers avoid politics at all costs and focus individualism like society expections and laws do not impect the main characters. Sorry for expanding the scope if you do not want to.

 

[Finnuval]

@Kupotepo I agree. The main character is formed by more then just finding the sword of his long lost father one day lol They live (and have lived before starting the game) in a living world with it's own politics, laws, cultural pressure, etc. as long as one avoids making political statements I think you should reflect this in a game.

 

[Kupotepo]

@Finnuval I agree that the game developers should not make political statements which claim only their opinions or answers are absolutely true. However, many RPG are confused about the political agendas and the game themes/moral lessons.
I think themes are trying to teach players such as teaching an individual to keep doing good things, care about others sufferings, and be nice to others. Are those themes political agendas? I am not sure.

 

[atoms]

I agree 100% with making the game you want to make, and this seems to be it for you, so yeah good luck with it.

Feedback on what you said though? I'd say yes, the ideas that you shared can work, sound very good, there's a nice twist to all of them so far and room for surprises through them to the players. Those features you listed can work really really well too, but you've got to think about how to present them. Here, you've done that well with the features but not as much with the story itself to us. It's great having good ideas, but they also have to be presented well in the game itself. Think for example how cutscenes will play out. Since you haven't shared any of that here with the exception to the protagonist and prince seeing the emperor die and slight detail on the wife being a window, I can only give you feedback on the ideas themselves.

I see the Emperor as different from most stories, since this guy is way too often the bad guy and you've changed that nicely where. The protagonist parents are dead is done over and over, but if presented well it definitely can work and you've changed it with the 'uncle' actually being the killer, nicely done there, that could make a good plot twist but you have to plan it out. Will the protagonist find out? How? Is it deeply relevant to the story at hand or is it more of a side matter or a subplot?

The Prince is the prince of where and who? Do you mean the emperor or is there a independant royal family somewhere?

Intresting choice giving the protagonist a wife! Will we know how his wife became a window? Is that important or connected to other stuff in the story in someway?

You don't have to answer these questions to me if you don't want to, there just the sort of stuff that comes to my mind, but if you want deeper and better feedback on your story presentation you will have to some of it with someone.

I do like the ideas in the diplomacy system, as you're aware it can get complex for you because you have to plan out all the options not just the ones a single player may pick, but it opens room for replayability, which is nice. You could have the player wondering "What would happen if I did such and such? I'll play the game again and find out.", but make sure to make it clear in the game itself that this is how the game goes. Probably obvious but there are finished games and demos out there where the mechanics aren't explained that well.

I did like MMMm suggestion of making episodes, from the way you've written out these ideas so far I can see that working well, but if you don't think it would then you're probably right, just saying from the looks of this so far here I can see it working in both directions.

You do seem to know what you're doing with this game so far with your ideas and features, or you leave that impression strongly, so that's another positive. I can tell you have put a lot of thought and work into this. Very good ideas!

Hope this feedback helps.

 

[Finnuval]

@atoms thank you for your feedback
I do have some deeper story ideas, yes and I am getting feedback in various ways . I chose to focus on the bare basics and mechanics here because that was the first thing I wanted feedback on. Though I do realize any feedback I get is as incomplete as the info I have given.
I intend to have a lot of 'what ifs' in it but yeah, it can get pretty complex at times but I am still just at the beginning of this project and have no rush
I you're open to it I would like to run some things by you via pm at some point when they're a bit more fleshed out and see what you think, have regarding feedback further.

 

[atoms]

Sorry I don't mean to suggest you rush or anything, that's all fine just pointing out some stuff to make sure to think about evetually.

Sure! I'll be happy to give feedback on anything you'd want in the future, feel free to send a pm anytime. I'd advice if it's possible to still share the same parts you want feedback on with others as well though. Even if you want it privately, 3 to 4 people could be enough if no more, that way you can end up with different views and thoughts and see what they've all agreed on and differed on. That can always help you think clearer on what direction you may want to take things. Good luck with everything!

If you put as much thought as you have here in the game itself, once you get there, I think you'll end up with something very successful. I agree as well, no rush.