ALIS: A Lesson In Stupidity

First Blog!!!!….. yay?

This blog gives an overview of some of the main characters (there will be many) and at the bottom are some screenshots. I won't give a plot summary yet because 1. I am still changing it daily and 2. Much of it is covered in the character descriptions below. I've been working on a big dungeon level lately (mainly plot, little grinding oddly enough) and i'll post a screenshot soon.

Characters:

The Unlikely Hero

Class: Gunner
Your average run of the mill game addict who spends his days playing rpg and mmorpg games. However one day he is approached by a daemon who offers him the chance for a real adventure. He tells the hero that he can send him INTO the game so instead of clicking a mouse he could be fighting dragons and beasts for real. Excited at the chance of what he thinks is the ultimate Virtual Reality experience ever, the hero accepts.... if you hadn't guessed, he's not the brightest bulb in the box...

Phil

Class: Unplayable
A daemon who "works for the customer relations department" of a company in the netherworld that trades in a commodity that could best be described as human luck. The company watches over humans and adjusts their bad luck in order to keep their luck balanced. Phil has recently been promoted to this position and the hero happens to be one of his clients. It is his job to watch over the hero and monitor his luck. However after weeks of watching the hero glare at a glowing monitor for days on end with no fluctuations in his luck rating, Phil becomes incredibly aggitated and decides to takes matters into his own hands.
Appearing to the hero one day, he makes him an offer he cannot refuse. The chance for an adventure like he's never experienced before. What Phil DOESN'T tell him however, is that he doesn't have the power nor the BUDGET to do so. Instead he sends the hero to an alternate version of his own reality where humans have yet to reach the dark ages. However this reality is not the same as our history. There are different continents, different animals and even different ways of doing things. So in other words it's EXACTLY like an rpg game! How convenient..

Layla

Class: Pagan Cleric
I'll try to avoid spoilers here but basically Layla is the eldest daughter of the royal family. With the queen long dead and the King in ill-health she was the soon-to-be queen. However due to some unforseen events she has been left.... incapacitated, while her younger sister takes the throne. After being freed by the hero she mistakes him for a peasant and treats him like he is disposable. As a result the two fail to see eye to eye and she almost flays him alive (but that's nothing compared to what she's capable of). However she decides against doing so as she sees that he may be useful if she is to reclaim the throne. Even if it is just as a meatsheid...

Johnathon
Class: Unplayable
Johnathon is a disembodied voice that seems to follow the hero in the beginning of the story. At first the hero thinks that he must simply be the game narrarator however when the princess is freed, it is revealed that he is an old friend of hers, even if he is just a wandering spirit... He knew of the princesses incarceration however without a mortal body of his own he was unable to free her. Because of this he looks for someone he can trust who is not loyal to the new princess to free Layla. After some failed attempts (one of which is particularly harrowing) he hears of a stranger who was seen in the castle and appears to be a foreigner. Immediately he seizes the opportunity and convinces an old drunk mage to guide the hero to the princess. In the end his whole plan seems to have worked but not in the way he would have imagined...

Frederick

Class: (Un)Dead Knight
Frederick is, or rather WAS one of the king's knights while the king was still alive. He was one of those in charge of gaurding the princesses and he harbours great affection for Layla... though it is most definitely an unrequited love. Also he was sadly not a very GOOD knight, having gained his position because of his noble birth rather than any talent or skill. As a result he is, well, dead.. for lack of a better word. Again I don't want to add in spoilers here so.... basically his corpse is reanimated by Layla when she decides she has use for him. However as he is so long dead his spirit has long left this world and now resides elsewhere. Now the only thing tying his immortal soul to his body is Layla's power, a fact she constantly reminds him of (so he's not really ressurected, he's just visiting :P ).
I've got some interesting mechanics in mind for Frederick. For example making him strong physically but having him die instantly in battle if Layla is knocked out, or having him temporarily leave his body to possess a foe etc. All of these are possible with scripts I just have to decide what suits the balance best.

So that's some of the main characters from the start of the game. The hero, Layla and Frederick are playable and I have two other characters in mind (both girls for a bit of balance), one a thief and one a summoner of sorts.

Classes:
Also the classes are a bit unusual, for example layla is a 'Pagan Cleric' (yes i know, contradiction) and she uses spirit powers which she draws from nature to cast magic etc. She isnt really a mage though, more a healer with spells for weakening enemies. Although she might get some stronger summon-like spells in later levels.

The hero is technically a gunner class but his abilities will be somewhat mixed with typical hero abilities and some for comic relief. I'm still fairly unsure of exactly what his role in battle will be.

Frederick is the knight class, he's basically the tank of the team. Most health, lancer abilities plus others. I might make him more of a paladin, im still throwing around ideas at the moment.


Screenshots FINALLY!!!!:


The mandatory typical old fart... although he does have a purpose in the story later, that wasn't originally intended.


There will be many multiple choice events in the game. But you choice won't just change what you say it can end up getting you killed or spawning totally different coversations.



This is one screen of 'The Forbidden Forest' and yes it's meant to sound cliché. I was playing with fogs and fog color here and although I sorta liked this effect I decided against it, at least for this forest.


Here is another screen, shows the difference the fog made. Also shows the purple default windowskin edit, I like it but it doesn't suit the start of the game so I think I might change the colour depending on the area.


Sample battle screen with the three main characters. The sideview system is Minoff's Enhanced Battlers, the Interface edits were quick script alterations I did myself. I know it's n00by stuff but if anyone is interested I could always make a youtube tutorial on how I did it, just let me know if you want one. Also this windowskin is obviously not mine its just a placeholder. I'm going to have different skins for battles and the map.


The hero's level 1 abilities so far. Their actually quite useful but cheap shot is overpowered right now and panic is underpowered lol. So I'll have to work on that.


Many of Layla's level 1 abilities. She is mainly a healer though, not a mage. Draw just recovers a set amount of SP by "drawing spirit power from nature".


Its going to be that sort of game...

So that's it for now but if people think this has half a chance of being decent then i'll make a game page for this sometime and give regular updates on what i'm doing with it. Any criticism is welcome as long as it's constructive but please do remember this is just a first project in it's early stages. Any questions, just let me know, thanks everyone.