My gacha game concept

[WetRat]

I made a post yesterday about my idea for a game that imitates one of those online idol gacha games except it’s entirely offline and zero micro transactions. My biggest worry was not knowing how I’d build a game like this with the rpg maker engine, however I think I’ve figured it out.

Basically my idea is to have multiple interfaces where you get your little character to walk around across the screen and you interact with things in the setting. (Yes I did snatch that background from A3 I promise I won’t use it in the actual game I’ll make my own)



When you walk to the gacha option, you are taken to this little area with gachapon machines lined up. You can choose the standard gacha that requires gems, or the special gacha that uses tickets you get from difficult missions or certain story chapters (this one will always guarantee a card 3* or above)



The mini games you will have an option between the rhythm game or a battle game. The rhythm game is where all the songs will be, the battle game will have 8 bit versions of some of the songs and will act as a mock pixel rpg game. You play these mini games to earn points in order to unlock story chapters. You can complete missions by getting point milestones in the games or getting combos and will earn gems for the gacha.



In the story section, you have 4 separate stories, 1 for each group (think of Project Sekai where there’s different idol groups and each has their own story). There will also be the event stories. You unlock these chapters by completing event missions that’ll give you tokens.

Once you unlock all the event chapters with these tokens, you gain access to the event gacha. Your tokens will convert to gems and you’ve gotta use these gems and the ones you currently have to pull and hope to get the featured characters cards for the event (you also have the option to skip this gacha and save the gems for a future event gacha) After that, all those cards will get tossed into the standard and special gacha pools.

My hope is that I can have a gameplay loop that goes like this

You play mini games to get points to unlock more story chapters. You need good cards in order to get more points to unlock the stories, so you’ve gotta pull from the gacha. To play the gacha, you need to complete missions, and to complete these missions, you have to get combos in the rhythm game and defeat bosses in the battle game. Once you have your good cards and get points, you can move onto the next chapter of the story and the cycle starts again (and then throw in the event side story section in the middle of that)

I also hope I can implement one of those things where all of your characters vibe in this room that you can decorate with furniture and stuff you buy with coins. However, this would be like the last thing I include as it’s not that necessary for the gameplay loop. It would mostly just be for fun and to have more chances to interact with your characters you’ve pulled from the gacha. Could also reward gems based on collecting furniture but again, lowest priority.

I have a feeling that the hardest part of this entire thing would be designing the rhythm game. I’d have to find some sort of plug in that I can get to work. Also the absolutely insane amount of time I’m gonna have to spend making music for the rhythm game, commissioning singers to sing some of the songs, and also commissioning artists to help me with all of the cards and other complex art in the game.

I’m hoping I can get a simple proof of concept out where each part of the game functions:

- A gacha system with a small amount of cards
- 1 event to show how the event system will work
- A single song to test out the rhythm game
-1 level of a pixel battle game
-2 chapters of story for each group

Those are my milestones I want to hit before I can get feedback. After that, I want to finish all of the stories, make some music, basically finish everything I can do by myself. Then I’ll set up a Kickstarter hoping to get money that’ll help me pay for artists. I might ask for volunteer artists who would help without pay, but that’s entirely an artist’s choice, I’m not expecting anyone to help me with this game for free.

I do have an idea when it comes to the story of this game, however it’s still in the planning stage and I have yet to even draw up the character designs so. I imagine this game will take me a while as I am about to head into college, but this will be a passion project that I am determined to make ^^

Anyways, thanks for reading my long ramble. If there are typos or weird grammar mistakes I apologize.

 

[lianderson]

I likes it! Now go makes it!

Power to the game make!

 

[Vis_Mage]

Your game outline sounds pretty solid from the looks of it. I'm a big fan of the idea of Gacha, although not so much the spending thousands of dollars aspect, haha. So I've made a similar in-game-only Gacha for one of my projects too. Without profit thresholds hanging over the odds, you can make a much more forgiving pity system. Since the Gacha is a main aspect of the game, you may want to have the game either autosave as you pull, or queue up the next dozen pulls or so to keep it feeling authentic.

Definitely within the reasonable scope of RPG maker as well. Besides perhaps the rhythm minigame, I'd imagine pretty much everything listed so far can be done either through eventing, or by using some of the frequently used community plugins.

 

[WetRat]

Your game outline sounds pretty solid from the looks of it. I'm a big fan of the idea of Gacha, although not so much the spending thousands of dollars aspect, haha. So I've made a similar in-game-only Gacha for one of my projects too. Without profit thresholds hanging over the odds, you can make a much more forgiving pity system. Since the Gacha is a main aspect of the game, you may want to have the game either autosave as you pull, or queue up the next dozen pulls or so to keep it feeling authentic.

Definitely within the reasonable scope of RPG maker as well. Besides perhaps the rhythm minigame, I'd imagine pretty much everything listed so far can be done either through eventing, or by using some of the frequently used community plugins.

I’ve seen people talk about having rhythm mini games in their projects, I’ve just gotta find one that I can get to work. If not I can always commission someone to make one for me :<

 

[slimmmeiske2]

I've moved this thread to Game Ideas & Prototypes. Thank you.

 

[akuakudac]

Im actually kinda glad someone brought this up since im making somehting similar too, i havent figured out a worksround for the rhythm game yet as it would be harder to create with events, but perhaps you can get someone to create a plugin for you!

 

[TheAM-Dol]

I realize the thread is a month old, so I'm not sure if you're still taking feedback (sorry, just doom-scrolling the boards because I'm bored at work) but have you tried playing any gacha games? I can never "recommend" any of these games because of their predatory practices, but what you'll see is that often these games are built as a game first and then they start to see where to implement the monetization afterwards. So basically they deconstruct the game from a playable product down to a monetized product.
You could, in theory, do the reverse? It might become a fun critique on mobile game design. I ~would~ say now is a good time for that kind of game too with Diablo Immoral's release, but considering it'll take you probably more than a few weeks to put this together, one would hope Diablo Immoral is no longer relevant.
What is relevant is the King of gacha, home of the most apologists for its monetization practices I've ever seen is Jenshin Impact. They just announced 2 more games this past Keigh3, and while I don't think they discussed monetization models, considering it's a Chinese mobile game company that owns one of the most profitable gacha games, I'm confident in saying: 2 more gachafilth games are coming, which may be an opportune time for you to sneakily release your game.

So, I guess what I'm saying is: Play some gachafilth games (don't get suckered into their monetization schemes), take notes. See how it's monetized, then reverse engineer it's monetization back into a playable game.

It sounds fun, and I'm always down for waifus (and waifus are a core part of their monetization)