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Game Design
Game Design: Riyu the Hero
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In case you missed the prior posts in this series, you can find them here:
Alex the Black Mage
Van the Warrior
As part of my continuing exploration of the characters of Crystals, today I’ll be discussing Riyu, the leader and primary protagonist of the first game. Despite Riyu’s design still being in development, I felt it was important to wrap up discussion on the trio that you take through the first three dungeons of the game (Riyu, Alex, Van).
Riyu the Hero
Design
Riyu Rovgrex acts as the protagonist of the first game, and is therefore forced into your party throughout. This brings with it a special set of concerns for his design. Namely that he:
- Is relevant throughout the game.
- Displays a reason for others to follow him (to explain why Riyu is the leader).
- Is fun to play.
- Has a play style unique from other characters.
There are a couple common tropes for leaders in video games that I considered but ultimately rejected for Riyu’s design. My personal favorite hero trope is the knight: the strong, tanky, physical fighter. But Van is already the early game tank and Riyu’s character always struck me as more swashbuckler (his father is a pirate, after all). Another option is what I call the “omni-warrior,” or jack-of-all-trades. However, such characters risk being a “master of none” and serve little value to your party. I could make Riyu simply a master of all (an option I am generally not opposed to for game protagonists), but viability between characters is an important objective for Crystals, and “master of all” would go against that. The final option I call “customized,” which means the player can choose a path for Riyu to master. If Riyu were to be the protagonist for all future games, “customized” would be the obvious route to take. However, a new character will take over the protagonist role for the second game, and her design is less flexible. This creates imbalance that is not beneficial for the overall structure of the series. Therefore, “customized” is rejected as well.
In the end, Riyu is constructed like most any other character, with slight favoritism towards versatility and durability. The source material offered little in the way of Riyu’s character, mentioning only he wielded a sword, was often overly emotional, and was trained by his father. As a result, a large chunk of Riyu’s design is born from his initial creation in the Crystals demo.
In the demo, since Van and Alex were obviously not healers, Riyu was given that role. Riyu was also in-between Van and Alex in terms of attack power and durability. And to give Riyu some prestige in the group, I gave him a very powerful ability that one-shotted most enemies, but due to MP constraints could only be cast once initially. These three concepts ended up forming the backbone of Riyu’s design today.
Skills and Abilities
Riyu’s primary skill-set is Technique, which provides him slight healing powers for the early game, some situational skills (such as one which helps him cut through high defense enemies), and some inefficient but high damage abilities. Technique is intended to be situationally appropriate and not for general use, given Riyu’s small MP pool.
Riyu’s active is Boost. Boost increases Riyu’s strength by 300% for a single turn. On average this increase will double Riyu’s physical damage, but due to how the damage formula works, it is more effective with high damage abilities and less effective with low damage abilities. Combined with the inefficient but high damage abilities available via Technique, Boost makes Riyu a character who thrives in the difficult all-out matches. Indeed, even in the demo, Riyu’s ability to quickly dispatch a troublesome enemy is invaluable.
Riyu’s secondary skill-set is Cook. I am borrowing a food mechanic from Tales of Phantasia, where walking consumes food and slowly heals the party. To give the various grocery items more purpose in-game, Riyu can consume various grocery items in exchange for moderate in-battle effects. These vary from healing to buffs to damage, and balanced by their gold cost. When Riyu is looking to conserve some MP, Cook is a great alternative. Cook also gives a nod to the role he played in the Rovgrex household in the absence of his parents.
As mentioned, I am still finalizing Riyu’s design (and will likely continue to do so until I can play test him in-game). One notable absence in his kit is a passive. His planned passive was Synergy: Riyu deals extra damage to targets recently damaged by an ally (damage over time or self-inflicted does not count). I am always trying to build story into gameplay, and this passive had great potential. However, synergy was rejected because it fundamentally changed how one plays the game, which was too obtrusive to have on a mandatory character. I hope to repurpose Synergy on an optional character later.
Scan (reveal monster stats) was another ability rejected from Riyu, this time because of the protagonist switch in later games. I have not decided on how best to repurpose Scan, though it will likely be some in-game item that anyone can use rather than restrict it to a specific character. Scan may also disappear from the game outright.
Story
Riyu is a bit emotionally unstable, sees himself as a failure, and constantly looking for meaning in life. He regularly objects to actions taken by his older brother Alex, yet can’t bring himself to do anything meaningful to intervene. Similarly, he has deep seeded unhappiness towards his father for abandoning them, yet continues to respect his father’s teachings and look toward them for guidance. Ultimately it is Riyu’s desires and ambition that drive the main storyline.
Another characteristic of Riyu is the sword Excalibur, which was gifted to him by his father many years ago (apologies for the name Excalibur – it is, unfortunately, from the source material). His father also trained Riyu in the art of sword fighting using Excalibur, but despite hinting at the sword’s importance, Riyu’s father never provided details or concrete direction as to the sword’s use. This seems like as good a time as any to remind everyone that the subtitle of the game is “Legend of the Sword.”
In normal game play, Excalibur is heavy and weak, forcing Riyu to choose other weapons in battle.
Alex the Black Mage
Van the Warrior
As part of my continuing exploration of the characters of Crystals, today I’ll be discussing Riyu, the leader and primary protagonist of the first game. Despite Riyu’s design still being in development, I felt it was important to wrap up discussion on the trio that you take through the first three dungeons of the game (Riyu, Alex, Van).
Riyu the Hero
Design
Riyu Rovgrex acts as the protagonist of the first game, and is therefore forced into your party throughout. This brings with it a special set of concerns for his design. Namely that he:
- Is relevant throughout the game.
- Displays a reason for others to follow him (to explain why Riyu is the leader).
- Is fun to play.
- Has a play style unique from other characters.
There are a couple common tropes for leaders in video games that I considered but ultimately rejected for Riyu’s design. My personal favorite hero trope is the knight: the strong, tanky, physical fighter. But Van is already the early game tank and Riyu’s character always struck me as more swashbuckler (his father is a pirate, after all). Another option is what I call the “omni-warrior,” or jack-of-all-trades. However, such characters risk being a “master of none” and serve little value to your party. I could make Riyu simply a master of all (an option I am generally not opposed to for game protagonists), but viability between characters is an important objective for Crystals, and “master of all” would go against that. The final option I call “customized,” which means the player can choose a path for Riyu to master. If Riyu were to be the protagonist for all future games, “customized” would be the obvious route to take. However, a new character will take over the protagonist role for the second game, and her design is less flexible. This creates imbalance that is not beneficial for the overall structure of the series. Therefore, “customized” is rejected as well.
In the end, Riyu is constructed like most any other character, with slight favoritism towards versatility and durability. The source material offered little in the way of Riyu’s character, mentioning only he wielded a sword, was often overly emotional, and was trained by his father. As a result, a large chunk of Riyu’s design is born from his initial creation in the Crystals demo.
In the demo, since Van and Alex were obviously not healers, Riyu was given that role. Riyu was also in-between Van and Alex in terms of attack power and durability. And to give Riyu some prestige in the group, I gave him a very powerful ability that one-shotted most enemies, but due to MP constraints could only be cast once initially. These three concepts ended up forming the backbone of Riyu’s design today.
Skills and Abilities
Riyu’s primary skill-set is Technique, which provides him slight healing powers for the early game, some situational skills (such as one which helps him cut through high defense enemies), and some inefficient but high damage abilities. Technique is intended to be situationally appropriate and not for general use, given Riyu’s small MP pool.
Riyu’s active is Boost. Boost increases Riyu’s strength by 300% for a single turn. On average this increase will double Riyu’s physical damage, but due to how the damage formula works, it is more effective with high damage abilities and less effective with low damage abilities. Combined with the inefficient but high damage abilities available via Technique, Boost makes Riyu a character who thrives in the difficult all-out matches. Indeed, even in the demo, Riyu’s ability to quickly dispatch a troublesome enemy is invaluable.
Riyu’s secondary skill-set is Cook. I am borrowing a food mechanic from Tales of Phantasia, where walking consumes food and slowly heals the party. To give the various grocery items more purpose in-game, Riyu can consume various grocery items in exchange for moderate in-battle effects. These vary from healing to buffs to damage, and balanced by their gold cost. When Riyu is looking to conserve some MP, Cook is a great alternative. Cook also gives a nod to the role he played in the Rovgrex household in the absence of his parents.
As mentioned, I am still finalizing Riyu’s design (and will likely continue to do so until I can play test him in-game). One notable absence in his kit is a passive. His planned passive was Synergy: Riyu deals extra damage to targets recently damaged by an ally (damage over time or self-inflicted does not count). I am always trying to build story into gameplay, and this passive had great potential. However, synergy was rejected because it fundamentally changed how one plays the game, which was too obtrusive to have on a mandatory character. I hope to repurpose Synergy on an optional character later.
Scan (reveal monster stats) was another ability rejected from Riyu, this time because of the protagonist switch in later games. I have not decided on how best to repurpose Scan, though it will likely be some in-game item that anyone can use rather than restrict it to a specific character. Scan may also disappear from the game outright.
Story
Riyu is a bit emotionally unstable, sees himself as a failure, and constantly looking for meaning in life. He regularly objects to actions taken by his older brother Alex, yet can’t bring himself to do anything meaningful to intervene. Similarly, he has deep seeded unhappiness towards his father for abandoning them, yet continues to respect his father’s teachings and look toward them for guidance. Ultimately it is Riyu’s desires and ambition that drive the main storyline.
Another characteristic of Riyu is the sword Excalibur, which was gifted to him by his father many years ago (apologies for the name Excalibur – it is, unfortunately, from the source material). His father also trained Riyu in the art of sword fighting using Excalibur, but despite hinting at the sword’s importance, Riyu’s father never provided details or concrete direction as to the sword’s use. This seems like as good a time as any to remind everyone that the subtitle of the game is “Legend of the Sword.”
In normal game play, Excalibur is heavy and weak, forcing Riyu to choose other weapons in battle.
Game Design
Game Design: Van the Warrior
As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I decided to run through Crystal's massive character list and describe some of their skills and how they fit within the game series as a whole. Note that these are planned setups for each character, and due to technical challenges some of their special abilities may have to be changed. You can access the previous post here:
https://rpgmaker.net/games/5128/blog/17729/
Today’s character is Van. Van originally was one of my least favorite characters due to his uninspired design. However, after fleshing out the battle system more I was able to adapt his kit to better suit his personality, and what he is now is actually among my favorites.
The key alteration to the battle system was giving characters Life Points, like in the Romancing Saga series (or Saga Frontier on the PlayStation). Every time a character runs out of HP, they lose a Life Point. If a character runs out of Life Points, they are permanently dead. In Crystals, this means an instant Game Over. At the same time, characters who have been reduced to zero HP can be revived with regular healing spells or items. There is no need for Phoenix Downs or the Revive spell. Life Points, on the other hand, can only be recovered at towns (though I’m still debating exactly what mechanism will be used for LP recovery).
What I like about the Life Point system is that it allows a game to make running out of HP a very significant problem without making the consequences spill into other aspects of the game (such as cost of Phoenix Downs or Arise spells). A lot of games go the opposite route of making “death” not meaningful, which is an excellent design choice as well (Super Mario RPG is a perfect example of this). But as characters are going to "real life" die in Crystals, I felt it important for there to be an in-game explanation as to how this is possible (no Aeris issues please).
Being able to work with something as precious as Life Points also allowed for some extra game mechanics, which we’ll see happen with Van.
Van the Warrior
Design
According to the original story line (from which Crystals is adapted), Van is a “big stupid guy” and in the game primarily for “comic relief.” Being not particularly gifted with writing either comedy or amusing stupidity, Van functions more as a standard brute character of whom others regularly question the intelligence.
Van is one of two pure tanks in the game, and as such his passives and skills mostly serve this function. Additionally, Van has an extremely strong physical attack and skills centered around boosting his personal stats. He does not use MP, and all of his skills and abilities can be used as many times as desired. He is one of the more simplistic character designs in Crystals, an intentional decision given that he joins early when many of the mechanics of the game engine itself is still being learned by the player.
Van’s strength and free abilities is mitigated by his very slow speed, giving him fewer actions per battle than other characters.
Skills and Abilities
Van has two passives. The first is Iron Will, which gives him a boost to his defensive statistics each time he is damaged. The boost degrades over time and has a maximum benefit.
Van's second passive is Perseverance. When Van is reduced to zero HP, he has a 50% chance to automatically revive himself (though he still loses a Life Point). This revival chance increases if fewer allies are alive, reaching 100% if Van is the last one standing. These two passives combine as a sort of “tutorial mode” for early players, as it will be extremely difficult for an accidental total party wipe with Van as a member.
Van’s active is Cleave. Cleave hits all enemies on the battle field for damage equal to half of Van’s regular attack. Like Alex’s Dark Wave attack, Cleave is intended to give players access to some AOE abilities and strategic variety during the early game. Because it delivers on-hit effects to all enemies (such as poison from a weapon), it remains somewhat useful late game even as its damage falls off.
Van’s second active is Rest. Rest restores a percentage of Van’s missing HP. This provides Van a form of self sustain (useful before the party has a dedicated healer), and it synergizes well with his passives. If he auto-revives from Perseverance, he can then Rest to restore a large portion of his HP. Meanwhile, if he is constantly the target, Iron Will slowly reduces the damage dealt to him while Rest restores what HP he loses. Rest cannot be used outside of battle. Rest's power is also mitigated by Van's slow speed, as every turn of his is precious.
Van’s skill-set is Empower. Each Empower skill improves Van’s stats. Subsequent castings of the same skill are reduced in effectiveness, until eventually no benefit is gained from the usage. A common tactic will be to start off a boss battle with a defensive Empower, followed by an offensive one. Unlike in other games, status effects to not disappear when a character reaches zero HP, but virtually all battle effects (including Van’s Empower) will wear off over time. Later in the game Van will get Empower abilities that will raise the stats of the entire party, though in much smaller amounts than his personal buffs.
Story
Van is a good friend of Riyu and Alex. The three are about the same age and grew up in Green Wood together. Van is also a member of the town’s hunting party, and as a result is a bit more familiar with the surrounding landscape than the brothers. Due to this knowledge, I may have him act as the tutorial for the battle system, if I get to the point where I deem a tutorial necessary. Van’s parents are both still alive at the beginning of the game, and were instrumental in helping Riyu and Alex after their father left. It is thus from his parents that Van became friends with the brothers and feels some level of ownership in keeping the brothers safe.
https://rpgmaker.net/games/5128/blog/17729/
Today’s character is Van. Van originally was one of my least favorite characters due to his uninspired design. However, after fleshing out the battle system more I was able to adapt his kit to better suit his personality, and what he is now is actually among my favorites.
The key alteration to the battle system was giving characters Life Points, like in the Romancing Saga series (or Saga Frontier on the PlayStation). Every time a character runs out of HP, they lose a Life Point. If a character runs out of Life Points, they are permanently dead. In Crystals, this means an instant Game Over. At the same time, characters who have been reduced to zero HP can be revived with regular healing spells or items. There is no need for Phoenix Downs or the Revive spell. Life Points, on the other hand, can only be recovered at towns (though I’m still debating exactly what mechanism will be used for LP recovery).
What I like about the Life Point system is that it allows a game to make running out of HP a very significant problem without making the consequences spill into other aspects of the game (such as cost of Phoenix Downs or Arise spells). A lot of games go the opposite route of making “death” not meaningful, which is an excellent design choice as well (Super Mario RPG is a perfect example of this). But as characters are going to "real life" die in Crystals, I felt it important for there to be an in-game explanation as to how this is possible (no Aeris issues please).
Being able to work with something as precious as Life Points also allowed for some extra game mechanics, which we’ll see happen with Van.
Van the Warrior
Design
According to the original story line (from which Crystals is adapted), Van is a “big stupid guy” and in the game primarily for “comic relief.” Being not particularly gifted with writing either comedy or amusing stupidity, Van functions more as a standard brute character of whom others regularly question the intelligence.
Van is one of two pure tanks in the game, and as such his passives and skills mostly serve this function. Additionally, Van has an extremely strong physical attack and skills centered around boosting his personal stats. He does not use MP, and all of his skills and abilities can be used as many times as desired. He is one of the more simplistic character designs in Crystals, an intentional decision given that he joins early when many of the mechanics of the game engine itself is still being learned by the player.
Van’s strength and free abilities is mitigated by his very slow speed, giving him fewer actions per battle than other characters.
Skills and Abilities
Van has two passives. The first is Iron Will, which gives him a boost to his defensive statistics each time he is damaged. The boost degrades over time and has a maximum benefit.
Van's second passive is Perseverance. When Van is reduced to zero HP, he has a 50% chance to automatically revive himself (though he still loses a Life Point). This revival chance increases if fewer allies are alive, reaching 100% if Van is the last one standing. These two passives combine as a sort of “tutorial mode” for early players, as it will be extremely difficult for an accidental total party wipe with Van as a member.
Van’s active is Cleave. Cleave hits all enemies on the battle field for damage equal to half of Van’s regular attack. Like Alex’s Dark Wave attack, Cleave is intended to give players access to some AOE abilities and strategic variety during the early game. Because it delivers on-hit effects to all enemies (such as poison from a weapon), it remains somewhat useful late game even as its damage falls off.
Van’s second active is Rest. Rest restores a percentage of Van’s missing HP. This provides Van a form of self sustain (useful before the party has a dedicated healer), and it synergizes well with his passives. If he auto-revives from Perseverance, he can then Rest to restore a large portion of his HP. Meanwhile, if he is constantly the target, Iron Will slowly reduces the damage dealt to him while Rest restores what HP he loses. Rest cannot be used outside of battle. Rest's power is also mitigated by Van's slow speed, as every turn of his is precious.
Van’s skill-set is Empower. Each Empower skill improves Van’s stats. Subsequent castings of the same skill are reduced in effectiveness, until eventually no benefit is gained from the usage. A common tactic will be to start off a boss battle with a defensive Empower, followed by an offensive one. Unlike in other games, status effects to not disappear when a character reaches zero HP, but virtually all battle effects (including Van’s Empower) will wear off over time. Later in the game Van will get Empower abilities that will raise the stats of the entire party, though in much smaller amounts than his personal buffs.
Story
Van is a good friend of Riyu and Alex. The three are about the same age and grew up in Green Wood together. Van is also a member of the town’s hunting party, and as a result is a bit more familiar with the surrounding landscape than the brothers. Due to this knowledge, I may have him act as the tutorial for the battle system, if I get to the point where I deem a tutorial necessary. Van’s parents are both still alive at the beginning of the game, and were instrumental in helping Riyu and Alex after their father left. It is thus from his parents that Van became friends with the brothers and feels some level of ownership in keeping the brothers safe.
Game Design
Game Design: Alex the Black Mage
Since a lot of work on Crystals is going on behind the scenes, I figured I’d share some information about the game design itself. It might even be a little educational for those newer to game making. And with Crystal's large cast of characters, I felt it makes them a natural starting point for discussion.
Initially I was targeting a cast size similar to that of Final Fantasy VI, which would be 14 characters, to properly facilitate multi-party dungeons and a cast "reboot" of sorts for the start of the second game. However, as I refined the identity of each character, designs were discarded and recombined into new ones. And after a hundred redesigns I had enough material for 26 different characters. I'm not sure how many of them will ultimately make it into the Crystals series, but at least 15 already have plot points, so 18 or so seems like a safe bet at this point.
Riyu serves as the main character for the first game. However, his character design isn't finalized yet, so I'll be starting the discussion instead with Alex, Riyu’s evil brother.
Alex
Design
Alex is the initial party’s black mage. His spells are slightly atypical in that most cause a status effect in addition to raw damage (a more pure magical damage dealer joins later). Despite being a powerful mage, Alex can equip swords like Riyu, giving the party some interesting flexibility in terms of physical fighters. This makes him a useful damage dealer at any time in any battle. More importantly, though, it keeps him viable throughout early dungeons without me needing to give him a massive starting MP pool. Ultimately, though, his magic remains his biggest asset and the one relied upon most by players. He’s a bit brittle as a character, but not so much that Riyu’s pathetic “first aid” skill during the early parts of the game won’t be sufficient keep the party alive.
Skills and Abilities
Alex’s passive is Alternator, which makes him deal extra damage if he alternates between physical and magical attacks. Combined with the fact that all MP using characters have end-of-battle passive MP restoration, this means that even during random encounters Alex has a reason to use magic. Despite Alternator, Alex’s best DPS remains spamming black magic.
Alex’s active is Dark Wave, which, as some of you may have guessed, is a carbon copy rip off of Cecil’s Dark Wave ability in FF4. Dark Wave costs a percentage of Alex's maximum HP in order to deal damage to all enemies. The early game in Crystals is lacking in AOE spells, so this gives the party an option for handling something like six Goblins right from level 1. The HP cost of the ability early on is also meaningful, since the party lacks a dedicated healer. And later, when healing is readily available, it gives Alex another avenue for MP conservation. For the purposes of Alternator, Dark Wave counts as a physical attack, allowing Alex to continually blast AOE abilities if the player wishes.
Officially, Alex's primary skill is Black magic, but it’s more a combination of effect magic and conventional damage dealing abilities. This aspect of his character wasn’t planned so much as just morphed from how I structured his spells in the original demo. I like it, though. Balancing status effects is always a challenge because it’s easy to have them either too strong or too weak. By attaching a damage component, it makes the ability more relevant (damage + status effect) without needing to make truly abuse status effects.
Story
Alex will be a key player for the first game. Questions surround his actions, and it is unclear how long Riyu can hold back others from passing judgment. His negative outlook on life runs counter to the optimistic Luna, and add a conflicting element to the trying-to-do-good Riyu. Since he shares a backstory with Riyu, he acts as an effective avenue into the protagonist’s history, particularly with regards to the brothers’ relationship with their missing father. His physical attack prowess fits in nicely with him as somewhat a town bully and a successful fighter in an early-game tournament. From a story perspective, Alex's ability with a sword despite his natural magical talents is related to his desire to be able to wield the Excalibur.
Initially I was targeting a cast size similar to that of Final Fantasy VI, which would be 14 characters, to properly facilitate multi-party dungeons and a cast "reboot" of sorts for the start of the second game. However, as I refined the identity of each character, designs were discarded and recombined into new ones. And after a hundred redesigns I had enough material for 26 different characters. I'm not sure how many of them will ultimately make it into the Crystals series, but at least 15 already have plot points, so 18 or so seems like a safe bet at this point.
Riyu serves as the main character for the first game. However, his character design isn't finalized yet, so I'll be starting the discussion instead with Alex, Riyu’s evil brother.
Alex
Design
Alex is the initial party’s black mage. His spells are slightly atypical in that most cause a status effect in addition to raw damage (a more pure magical damage dealer joins later). Despite being a powerful mage, Alex can equip swords like Riyu, giving the party some interesting flexibility in terms of physical fighters. This makes him a useful damage dealer at any time in any battle. More importantly, though, it keeps him viable throughout early dungeons without me needing to give him a massive starting MP pool. Ultimately, though, his magic remains his biggest asset and the one relied upon most by players. He’s a bit brittle as a character, but not so much that Riyu’s pathetic “first aid” skill during the early parts of the game won’t be sufficient keep the party alive.
Skills and Abilities
Alex’s passive is Alternator, which makes him deal extra damage if he alternates between physical and magical attacks. Combined with the fact that all MP using characters have end-of-battle passive MP restoration, this means that even during random encounters Alex has a reason to use magic. Despite Alternator, Alex’s best DPS remains spamming black magic.
Alex’s active is Dark Wave, which, as some of you may have guessed, is a carbon copy rip off of Cecil’s Dark Wave ability in FF4. Dark Wave costs a percentage of Alex's maximum HP in order to deal damage to all enemies. The early game in Crystals is lacking in AOE spells, so this gives the party an option for handling something like six Goblins right from level 1. The HP cost of the ability early on is also meaningful, since the party lacks a dedicated healer. And later, when healing is readily available, it gives Alex another avenue for MP conservation. For the purposes of Alternator, Dark Wave counts as a physical attack, allowing Alex to continually blast AOE abilities if the player wishes.
Officially, Alex's primary skill is Black magic, but it’s more a combination of effect magic and conventional damage dealing abilities. This aspect of his character wasn’t planned so much as just morphed from how I structured his spells in the original demo. I like it, though. Balancing status effects is always a challenge because it’s easy to have them either too strong or too weak. By attaching a damage component, it makes the ability more relevant (damage + status effect) without needing to make truly abuse status effects.
Story
Alex will be a key player for the first game. Questions surround his actions, and it is unclear how long Riyu can hold back others from passing judgment. His negative outlook on life runs counter to the optimistic Luna, and add a conflicting element to the trying-to-do-good Riyu. Since he shares a backstory with Riyu, he acts as an effective avenue into the protagonist’s history, particularly with regards to the brothers’ relationship with their missing father. His physical attack prowess fits in nicely with him as somewhat a town bully and a successful fighter in an early-game tournament. From a story perspective, Alex's ability with a sword despite his natural magical talents is related to his desire to be able to wield the Excalibur.
Progress Report
Not Dead Yet
It's been nearly two years since my last update, and while work on Crystals has not stopped, it has certainly been slow. The primary reasons for that have been time and scope.
Time is the obvious one. I'm getting older and decided it was time for a career shift, headed back to school, and blah blah blah you guys all care about my life story, right? No? Good. Let's move on.
The second issue has been scope. The project was originally meant to hone my skills in game making, with me focusing a lot more on "get it done" than "get it right." As the project progressed, though, I found myself experimenting more. And while that experimenting was good, it also gave way to girth and scope creep. Before long it was clear that the old structure that I haphazardly put together wouldn't support my new ideas. So a complete database rework was necessary. But that meant I needed to know what the new database needed to look like so that I wouldn't have to fix everything again. That meant a ton of pre-planning, which isn't really a good thing for a "get it done" practice project.
On the plus side, that planning gave way to some awesome and amazing ideas. On the negative side, rm2k3 and "awesome" don't really mix all that well, and despite my best efforts (including making the Picture Text Creator program, which you should really grab if you're still using rm2k3), I decided I may need to look to a new program to make Crystals in.
I first tried out VXAce. Ace had some nice advantages, but not enough. I then looked around at other RPG game designers, then other game designing programs in general (like GameMaker). Soon I was looking into more do-it-yourself options like Monogame and Unity. And before I was done I was learning C# and looking at building a system from scratch using SDL for my graphics and Bassmod for sound.
All the while I continued planning out the game. I now have 26 planned characters, 31 passives, 28 actives, 34 skill-sets, 300+ skills, 92 relics, 20 status effects, and rudimentary story descriptions for the five games that were originally intended to encompass the Crystals "trilogy." (I'm going to pretend someone gets that joke, even though I know no one will.)
So what's the future look like for Crystals? I'm honestly not sure. I haven't found a way into custom designing that I'm particularly happy with, and the English version for rm2k3 keeps advancing. So maybe Crystals will return to its roots.
One way or another, though, Crystals isn't dead. It's just a little lost. And if all goes well, it'll be better for taking the detour.
Time is the obvious one. I'm getting older and decided it was time for a career shift, headed back to school, and blah blah blah you guys all care about my life story, right? No? Good. Let's move on.
The second issue has been scope. The project was originally meant to hone my skills in game making, with me focusing a lot more on "get it done" than "get it right." As the project progressed, though, I found myself experimenting more. And while that experimenting was good, it also gave way to girth and scope creep. Before long it was clear that the old structure that I haphazardly put together wouldn't support my new ideas. So a complete database rework was necessary. But that meant I needed to know what the new database needed to look like so that I wouldn't have to fix everything again. That meant a ton of pre-planning, which isn't really a good thing for a "get it done" practice project.
On the plus side, that planning gave way to some awesome and amazing ideas. On the negative side, rm2k3 and "awesome" don't really mix all that well, and despite my best efforts (including making the Picture Text Creator program, which you should really grab if you're still using rm2k3), I decided I may need to look to a new program to make Crystals in.
I first tried out VXAce. Ace had some nice advantages, but not enough. I then looked around at other RPG game designers, then other game designing programs in general (like GameMaker). Soon I was looking into more do-it-yourself options like Monogame and Unity. And before I was done I was learning C# and looking at building a system from scratch using SDL for my graphics and Bassmod for sound.
All the while I continued planning out the game. I now have 26 planned characters, 31 passives, 28 actives, 34 skill-sets, 300+ skills, 92 relics, 20 status effects, and rudimentary story descriptions for the five games that were originally intended to encompass the Crystals "trilogy." (I'm going to pretend someone gets that joke, even though I know no one will.)
So what's the future look like for Crystals? I'm honestly not sure. I haven't found a way into custom designing that I'm particularly happy with, and the English version for rm2k3 keeps advancing. So maybe Crystals will return to its roots.
One way or another, though, Crystals isn't dead. It's just a little lost. And if all goes well, it'll be better for taking the detour.
Progress Report
Small updates
A long overdue bug fix has been done for the demo. As a reminder, the demo is over after the first town is destroyed, though you won't have an official "end of demo" message.
As for other progress, a great amount of work has been done behind the scenes on game design for Cyrstals. I've also created a "picture text creator" to assist with custom menus and what not. Check it out if you're interested:
http://rpgmaker.net/engines/custom/utilities/78/
As for other progress, a great amount of work has been done behind the scenes on game design for Cyrstals. I've also created a "picture text creator" to assist with custom menus and what not. Check it out if you're interested:
http://rpgmaker.net/engines/custom/utilities/78/
Announcement
Error with the Demo
For any of you trying out the demo, I've just been notified that the ending trigger doesn't work, which means you won't be able to find all of the antidotes and save the mayor's wife. Until I upload a new version just consider the Vile Centipede the end of the demo. Sorry about that!
Progress Report
Demo added for Release Something Weekend!
Crystals has a long history of new versions being released during "Demo Day," so with the inaugural Release Something Weekend on RMN I figured it was time to resurrect the project (after a more than five year hiatus) and share an update with the world.
Specs for this release:
1-2 hours of game play
3 side quests
3 playable characters
3 dungeons
Specs for this release:
1-2 hours of game play
3 side quests
3 playable characters
3 dungeons
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