RMMV Project Ellicia (Disclaimer: Mature Themes)

[Kaelcat]

Worldbuilding Info:

So in the world this game takes place in, the life essence of the planet is called Aether. It's basically Mana in other fantasy RPGs. Aether is emitted by the planet's goddess, who sleeps within the earth until the day of her rebirth. Her children, the elves, worship and revere her greatly, and they believe that the Aether provides all that they need to survive.

Long ago, the elves and the humans of the planet lived together in peace, but as time moved on, and the humans grew more technologically advanced, the two races grew more distant, with the elves slowly withdrawing into their villages. They were simple folk, and stated before, believed that the Aether was all that was needed to thrive and that humans were being overzealous. The Aether allowed both races to use magic, but as the races grew ever more distant, and elves became just mythical beings within human culture, the humans were unable to harness the power of the Aether. Eventually, they just completely forgot it and the goddess who emitted it existed.

Story Info:

The game's actual story takes place in the modern day and follows the player character, a 10-year-old child. The player can choose between playing as a male or a female. This doesn't effect gameplay at all, and is just a visual change. They live in Eagleton, a quiet town that's been targeted as a prime spot for a mega corporation's next distribution complex. The game starts off innocent enough, but throughout the introduction, the player loses their father due to an accident. This, combined with various other reasons, causes their older brother to commit suicide just a few weeks later. The game's introduction is mostly split between what goes on in the player's life, and the pressure the townsfolk feel from this corporation wanting to build in their town.

Queue a 5-year skip. With the player character now 15, the player themselves get to experience how the town and its people have changed over the course of those years. The corporation has built their facility on the outskirts of town, and now manipulate the town behind the scenes. The player's mother has all but forgotten and neglected them, turning to drugs and other illicit activities due to her grief and sorrow. Eventually the player's best friend and neighbor comes over and asks them to come with them to go explore the facility at the edge of town. Apparently they've heard rumors about what secretly goes on inside... Once inside, they eventually get caught by a cyborg and are saved by a human girl who somehow has the ability to control the Aether. After that happens, something something defeat the baddies and save the world.

The Cast:

Dylan(the player character, name for female/male, though the player will be able to choose their own): The main protagonist of the story, has experienced great tragedy in their childhood and now is introverted and mostly mute. An expedition with their best friend eventually leads them to learn of their true destiny, they are the chosen of the goddess and must awaken her.

Samantha/Samuel (they will always be the same gender as the player): The player character's best friend, an adventurous teenager who's heard rumors that the corporation's facility has vile secrets hidden within. Convinces the player to join them in exploring the facility and later on joins them in their journey to awaken the goddess.

Te'malka: A human girl who was orphaned as a very young child and raised by a village of elves nearby Riverbend. Saves the player and friend duo from a cyborg within the facility. Due to being raised by the elves and growing up knowing of and worshiping the goddess, she is able to use the power of Aether. Recognizes a dormant power within the player and encourages them to follow her to her village.

Sethis: An elf who lives in Tamaka's village. Tasked along with his twin brother to protect the resting place of the goddess. Tells the player character that they are the chosen one to awake the goddess.

Nova: A mysterious cyborg that is tasked with ridding the intruders who've made their way into the facility. Constantly attempts to thwart the player character's mission on orders from her master.

There's more main characters, I just don't have names for them yet, and those 5 plus a couple more are the mainest of the main.

Let me know what you all think, I'm open to ideas and suggestions!

 

[falken14]

I like it as a starting point. Here are my first thoughts:

1. Why does the goddess need to be awakened?

2. Is the corporation manipulating Aether in a harmful way?

Answering these might be able to create tension that drives the plot (linking them would be the obvious idea). Also, IMO, I don't think that 'the races grew more distant' is a satisfactory reason why humans eventually lost the ability to use Aether. Maybe there should be another story element that explains why the races were separated into magic and non-magic users. Or they could still have dormant magic ability, but better technology made it redundant and magic skills weren't taught or passed down anymore (although you would think the magic would have to be pretty basic and/or the technology pretty advanced for this to be the case - magic is typically pretty awesome, so maybe that means it needs to be toned down for [tech>magic] to be believable). Making contact with the elves means the player and the best friend can be taught magic (that might open up more skill options for the best friend character).

Also, if you're going to include it anyway, I'd definitely return to the father's accident at some point in the game - it's a good opportunity to be able to tie in an innocuous pre-game event with parts of the main plot later in the game. Otherwise, I think it hangs there; same with the brother's suicide (see Chekhov's gun). Maybe the father and brother were also 'chosen ones', and they were eliminated by Mega-corporation to stop them interfering with the corporation's Aether manipulation? (If that's your long-term idea with the corporation, of course). You might have to adjust a few other things, like why the main character wasn't also eliminated, but I don't see why the father and brother are needed, apart from just being tragic events to set the mood. Up to you though.

 

[Kaelcat]

@falken14

I'll answer the 2nd question first, to boil it down, yes they, more like their leader, is using it for evil reasons. The long end-term goal of this guy is he's an elf that despises humans and wants to wipe them off the face of the planet. That sort of funnels into the first question. He's figured out a way to awaken the goddess without the need of the 'chosen one'. It requires a soulless being to harness the 5 points of power around the goddess's resting place. Which he's achieved by taking the dying husk of this girl and turning her into the cyborg known as Nova. So the reason the player has to awaken the goddess is because, well if you don't, then him and his puppet will.

Also, I don't really want to spoil major plot points that I'm still working on, but yes, both the father and brother's deaths tie into the story later on. I'm not killing them off for shock value or anything. Those earlier events help drive the story later on.

 

[falken14]

@falken14

I'll answer the 2nd question first, to boil it down, yes they, more like their leader, is using it for evil reasons. The long end-term goal of this guy is he's an elf that despises humans and wants to wipe them off the face of the planet. That sort of funnels into the first question. He's figured out a way to awaken the goddess without the need of the 'chosen one'. It requires a soulless being to harness the 5 points of power around the goddess's resting place. Which he's achieved by taking the dying husk of this girl and turning her into the cyborg known as Nova. So the reason the player has to awaken the goddess is because, well if you don't, then him and his puppet will.

Also, I don't really want to spoil major plot points that I'm still working on, but yes, both the father and brother's deaths tie into the story later on. I'm not killing them off for shock value or anything. Those earlier events help drive the story later on.

Right, well to prevent any further potential spoilers, it sounds like you're on the right track. One comment I'd make as food for thought, is that I guess there's a good reason why the player specifically has to awaken the goddess, rather than just defeat the agents trying to awaken (and presumably kill) her, but I'll look forward to playing the game and finding out. Good luck!

 

[Kaelcat]

Just a glimpse of how my game might look. Custom sprites made by me with a few used from the Omega Modern Graphics pack that were edited (also by me). Also a look at the male player sprite (young version).

 

[Kaelcat]

Finally got around to completing both the male and female player sprite sets. Haven't been able to work much because of school and being in the hospital, but I got something done. Also going to change it so both their names are just Dylan by default, as to not create confusion at all.

 

[onipunk]

Sorry to hear about your hospital stay, hope everything's grand and you're on the mend! I like the style of the game, you're probably going to hear the Earthbound comparison a lot but...I mean, it's no bad thing, Earthbound still looks great. The actual poses don't read super well to me on a first glance, I see what you're going for after looking at them for a while but it's not immediately apparent. Then again, maybe it looks better in motion, as an animator I know that sometimes your still frames look janky as hell but come together when they're actually moving. I can't say much on anything other than the graphics, because I use dark mode and the black text is borderline unreadable on the dark grey background. I'd advise removing that formatting, it'll stay black for those on the light theme but automatically switch to off-white for those using the dark theme. If you make the post a bit more readable, I'll be back to give you my thoughts on the game concept itself but for now it's pretty much limited to the admittedly-nice graphics.

 

[Kaelcat]

@onipunk I honestly have no idea how I managed to change the text color, but I can't seem to get it to revert back to normal so I guess for now its going to be a light grey so it'll show up on both themes.

And yes, I've heard the Earthbound comparison before already. My boyfriend is a huge Mother fan and that's the first thing out of his mouth when I showed him.

 

[Kaelcat]

I'm pretty slow at working, but I actually have gotten a lot done in terms of creating and editing sprites. I finally have an actual map done that isn't a test map. The very first one of the game.

 

[eluukkanen]

Nice graphics. Looks earthbound. Looking forward to see where this goes.

 

[Kaelcat]

Very first screen of the game after starting up. I think it feels more lively with a scrolling background.

 

[Kaelcat]

A look at both Dylan and Sam's young male and female sprites, as well as a couple random NPCs. I've been able to start on the game's introduction sequence and I've edited the thread to give it the current working title, Project Ellicia.

 

[Kaelcat]

Been working on a new sprite style for characters, I like this better personally! Hopefully next update I'll have actual game to show.

 

[Kaelcat]

Another map, still making sprites but soon (hopefully) I'll have gotten to a point where I can make the actual battle system and have gameplay. Have changed the story up some too. Will update the main post soon with all of that information.