RPG Maker Forums

The Monsters Of [REDACTED]

This is my first project, which I am producing (initially) as a gift for my siblings' children, currently aged between 6 and 12 years. I  hope to complete it by this Xmas, but I may be somewhat ambitious here! I am at the very early stages of development - I am currently planning the story and main questlines, getting used to VXAce and toying around with third-party scripts that I may want to utilise. I am a visually creative person who has some skills in interactive media, but this is the first gaming project I have undertaken.
 
I would like to share an overview of my game, the features I am going to include, and most importantly my plan for (hopefully) succeeding in this exciting and enjoyable endeavour.
 
Synopsis
 
The Monsters of [REDACTED] is quirky and fun personalised adventure RPG-lite that takes place in the main part on a representation of an actual real-life island (sorry, but I prefer not to say where at this stage, hence the [REDACTED] in the title). It is set in both the present day and a mysterious alternate fantasy past, and involves a large group of children exploring a surprisingly exciting version of the small sleepy island that they usually spend their Summer's visiting.
 
Their main impetus beyond adventure is the rescuing of their respective hapless parents from the story's maniacal mythological antagonist. The game is story-based, with an emphasis on exploration, quests, family and humour. The RPG elements like levelling up etc are subsidiary and will not be required to complete the game, but may be of interest to the older geekier kids!

The game has been inspired by the Zelda series, pop-cultural appropriation of Lovecraft's Mythos (especially cute stuff like Cthulhu Saves The World), modern science fiction fantasy for young adults, the real-life location it is based upon and the crazy antics of my nieces and nephews who it stars.
 
Features
I've thought long and hard about the elements of the game, and seeing what I can achieve with VXAce and third-party scripts, so I'm planning to include the folowing:

• A choice of 9 playable characters at the outset, based upon real extended family members. Characters will be given one of 4 dfferent classes, though this is not selectable and the player is not informed in advance. Depending on the decided art style, the game may include digital photos of actual people cartoonified using Photoshop, for character portraits and, if time allows, in cutscene images.
   
• Individual character 'origins' tutorial levels, set in one of three locations, dependent upon character chosen and the family they are part of. This will introduce the main exploration and interaction elements and feature a representation of their actual home, garden and nearby street..
   
• Secondary tutorial level in main location to introduce two different sorts of combat and the multi-character party system. At the end of this the player will be able to choose wether to continue the game using the standard turn-based gameplay or play as an action RPG (with character choice from party formation), possibly with an option to switch at will!
   
• A large main island-based field map, with smaller separate field maps for other associated islands. There will be no random encounters on the field map or the areas in the main quest, but there will be many optional locations for side quests or just for the fun of additional exploration and fighting. The map will be explored as a party and players can switch characters to be the lead at any point, meaning they can take turns if playing along with siblings or cousins.
   
• Towns, villages and other locations will be loosely based on real places on the islands, plus plenty of fictional areas to explore. Again, depending on art style this may include 'shopped images of real locations, but only for illustrative stuff and cutscenes - all maps will be produced using tile sets, instead of parallaxes.
   
• A possible inclusion of modes of difficulty, selected either at the outset or after the tutorial when choosing preferred battle system. These might be as follows:

•  Easy: save anywhere with active opening of save screen at many key points, no random encounters, evented monsters only, all combat avoidable, not required to complete story or explore most locations, monsters ignore player who can choose to battle or not, all initiated battles can be escaped with no penalty, no death at defeat and all stats restored but a small penalty, bosses can be defeated easily and/or bypassed with quest items.
   
• Medium: save anywhere with limited reminders, no random encounters, evented monsters start combat if you are close, good chance of escaping initiated combat with a small penalty, no death at defeat but a larger penalty and no stats restored, bosses defeated by a combination of combat and quest items.
   
• Hard: save at certain places only, random encounters in optional dungeons, evented monsters actively seek player out, less chance of escaping and a larger penalty, defeat = death = gameover!, bosses defeated by harder combat and coup-de-grace quest items only (may require grinding and levelling up?)

Other important things being considered:

• Quest logging
• Teleportation
• hand-drawn artwork
• whether to use Chibi or older larger-style sprites.

Other not-so important things being marginally considered:

• Character generation & generic home tutorial area for any possible wider release beyond immediate family members
• NewGame+ mode (very hard, unlock hidden areas, play as me!?)
• Perhaps create a version alternative alternate island for a mature audience, with a more realistic and horrific visual style, based more closely on HPL's mythos
• Eventual commercial release? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Development Plan
 
I think a proper plan is important for any creative endeavour and this is mine for this game. Whilst this is mostly laid out in sequence, I think many things will be done in parallel.

• Explore RPG Maker VX Ace engine further and investigate appropriate third-party scripts to find out what I can realistically implement. (I think I have very nearly settled on what I can make use of after almost a week of playing around with stuff)
   
• Produce a summary of main story and themes, as well as sketch out related quests.
   
• Research the location and its main towns, villages and areas of interest, possibly including any local myths and legends and actual historic peoples and events, gathering images along the way. Also, gather images, information and anecdotes about the people on which I will base the characters.
   
• Write the story and main dialogue, and plan the gameplay flow and main quest, noting down ideas for side quests and any other interaction.
   
• Using RPG Maker VX Ace, produce a fully working barebones 'sketch' of the core game mechanics and the main quest, with main events on small placeholder maps and some monsters to test. Will look at incorporating the choice of two different combat systems (or maybe decide to stick with a particular one), but not bothering with difficulty levels etc at this stage... Make it 'Easy' or maybe a slightly easier version of 'Medium' by default.
   
• Once playtested and satisfied, flesh out sketch with full and properly designed maps, and add scene events and monsters.
   
• Produce and incorporate the artwork and audio for characters, titles, cutscenes etc.
   
• Test test test! Polish polish polish! If time is limited then this is the place at which to finish it off as version 1.0

Optional Additional Stuff

• Plan out and then incorporate side quests, optional dungeons and any other subsidiary content that might warrant inclusion.
• Add a lots of extra things for character and interest, such as extra interesting non-player characters
• Think about including the difficulty modes I mentioned before.
• Or just rest my poor weary brain and RSI-afflicted fingers.

Where it can go wrong
 
Well, obviously I may be being over-ambitious for my first project using software I only purchased a week ago, but I am keen and believe I have the skills to complete this (and some time on my hands!) but maybe not to the scale I would like. Having a real goal, timeframe and a target audience is a real boost though!
 
I may have a problem implenting a balanced RPG system due to my lack of experience playing JRPGs and understanding the mechanics, but I aim to make this game easy to play so that may not be too much of an issue.
 
So far I have got my head around the way VXAce works, built a few little working maps incorporating many different base elements and more complex stuff involving third party scripts. In my screenshots I illustrate that I have developed two ways of doing the character picking part, one with an extended menu  and the other a more graphical bit of interactivity involving the actual character. I've also sketched out the initial areas as a test. It's a start I guess!