LOOKING FOR IDEAS FOR MY BATTLE SCREEN LAYOUT.

Hmm... Well as I said, there's not SP in the game. HP doubles as SP, meaning that to perform a special skill you'd need to essentially damage yourself, which could be risky if you're at low health.

The hero will be able to use perform a basic attack, perform special moves, use items, rest, and attempt to flee. Resting would essentially be a Defend move, you lose a turn but recover a percentage of your HP.

I'm a big fan of classic turn-based RPGs, so I want to keep things simple combat-wise. That said, I had considered trying to implement a "focus" system similar to the threat system in the Deadly Sin games whereas performing specific attacks or moves will draw the enemy's attention to a character and make them more likely to attack that character. I actually think it would work well, especially with my HP system. I'm hesitant though, because I don't want to be seen as copying their system. I also imagine such a system would require heavy scripting and I'm not a scripter at all.

Status ailments would also play heavily into the game and their use would sometimes be needed to beat a boss. For instance, a boss with a high defense might need to be attacked with a defense lowering attack to even put a dent in their health. Another goal with my status ailments is to keep them largely grounded in reality. I'm looking to make the Game of Thrones of RPGs and keep magic a very limited presence in the game. So far none of planned attacks are magical in nature and the status ailments will be along the lines of broken bones, sprained knees, poison, bleeding, etc. I imagine that would play into things like icons for status ailments and such.

Oh! And the art stops at the area containing the player characters. It would just be black past that point.

I hope some of that was useful...

There will be 3 party members total. I just don't have battlers for the other two yet.

How hard would it be to replace the fight/escape text menu with icons? I.e. one for attack, running, special attacks and resting? A nice HP bar would be a good idea too. I'm not sure how many skills each character will have... I'm shooting for a game length of about 10-15 hours, so maybe 6-7 per character?

Heh, how much do you charge?

Psh...Well when my multi-million dollar Kickstarter campaign succeeds we'll see what tune you sing! :)

Seriously though, if anyone is interested in helping out and possesses the skills to do so I'm willing to negotiate a compensation. I said $20 but I'm open to discussion.