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Talking' About my Inspiration

  • Scourge
  • 01/03/2018 06:19 PM
  • 2650 views
Happy Wednesday, my dudes!

Let me give a quick update on the game's progress first. Dyluck, kenlan, and Dante_Selvar have all graciously stepped up and agreed to play through the game. While they test it, I don't have much to do except sit here and wait for a bug report to come in. Then, when one does come in, there's a nice explosion of activity that's usually preceded by me reading their PM and saying to myself "that is a stupid error. That is such a stupid error. How did I miss that?"

So, since it's not like I have anything else to do it's a slow day at work, okay? I decided to try and be more interesting. (If you haven't read that article yet, do yourself a favor and spend 5 minutes on it.)

Specifically, I wanted to talk about inspiration. If it's not clear from the gamepage, The Seven Seals is inspired by a lot of different RPGs (and non-RPGs and non-video games) from a variety of different eras. This includes games like Final Fantasy 5 and Dragon Quest 3 and, if you know a thing or two about RPGs, you know that those are old games.

However, I'm not an old guy.

As I mentioned in a prior blog post, I recently graduated college and so my first experience with these 'old-school' games was in a decidedly 'new-school' way. For example, this project takes a lot of inspiration from Dragon Quest 4. I first played DQ4 not on the NES, but on my Nintendo DS back in middle school.

For some reason, playing JRPGs on a DS did not make me especially popular in middle school, but that's a mystery for another time.

My first 'RPG' was Pokemon Yellow on Gameboy Color and that was only because we were taking a family vacation to Mexico and my parents did not want to try and keep me entertained by themselves for a 4-5 hour flight. I was so young that my strategy was 'kill everything with Pikachu' and I distinctly remember being confused why my Electric attacks weren't hurting these Pokemon that looked like giant boulders.

My first JRPG was Golden Sun for GBA, which in turn led me to Final Fantasy 1+2 and 5, and yes, I played the remakes both on GBA and DS and that was my first real exposure to the genre, not the originals, which sometimes makes me feel like I'm lacking in JRPG street cred. (I've played Treasure of the Rudra, so that counts for something, right?) I didn't pick up Dragon Quest 1-3 until middle school/high school and I had to go out and find them used so I could play them on my GBC. And if you want to hear something that will really raise your eyebrows, I didn't play Final Fantasy 6 until two years ago when I stumbled upon a copy for GBA at a thrift shop while shopping with some buddies for Halloween costumes.

I guess what I'm getting at is that sometimes I feel weird in the RM community because you've got people talking about how they played Lufia 2 and Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 2 (by which I mean 4) on the SNES when they were younger and then you've got people like me, who played Chrono Trigger for the first time on an emulator in August 2017.

However, I think this does have some benefits. Playing these games when I'm 'mature' and 'older' has helped me see them without the nostalgia goggles. (Please note the quotes around mature. I took a four year hiatus from gam mak for reasons besides 'I'm in college and this is a time-consuming hobby;' I had a lot of growing up to do.) And I think that has helped me make intelligent design choices when developing The Seven Seals. I'm not just taking ideas from old games willy-nilly like 'Suikoden 2 had a fishing mini-game; I better have a fishing mini-game' or 'Dragon Quest 2 had slow walk speed; I should have slow walk speed' (thank you to my testers for disabusing me of that notion right quick), but I'm instead putting ideas together that work well together and I'm unafraid to say that a mechanic doesn't suit my needs or to understand why a specific design choice was made in DQ3 instead of saying 'resetting your level when you change classes is stupid.'

Ultimately, that's what the remakes I played did. They looked at the games they were rebuilding, thought critically about decisions they made, and kept or changed those decisions in order to create a better experience. I don't know whether I'll be able to do the same with The Seven Seals, but that's my goal. I want to create a game that captures those 'old-school' experiences, but presents them in a way that critically examines whether or not those decisions were actually good and, hopefully, combines them in a way that has all the enjoyment and none of the frustration or tedium. And if this sounds like a certain other game hosted on this website, well, I'd be lying if I said I don't sometimes work on this game with Hero's Realm hanging over my head.

Then the goal is create cool game that evokes nostalgia, but is not frustrating or tedious, while making said game unique and different from other extremely-popular game hosted on this same website that takes inspiration and mechanics from many of the exact same sources.

Easy, right?

Posts

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I was a bit late jumping on the rpg bandwagon myself. The first rpg I ever played was pokemon blue. I remember being so psyched when I managed to catch a Pikachu in Viridian forest. I was significantly less psyched when I realized I had the worst team possible for fighting a group of sentient rock creatures. I was more into platformers than rpg's as a kid, so I never played the classics such as the early Final Fantasies, Chrono Trigger or Dragon Quest. I'm looking forward to that FF7 remake so I can finally play that game!

I haven't played as many rpg's as most gamers, but that actually turns into an advantage when it comes to remakes. Now I can see what I missed from the 8-bit era without hardware limitations holding these games back. That's probably why I love rmn so much. Well...that and all the free games, because who doesn't like free stuff? The idea of improving classic style rpg's and cutting out poor design decisions tickles my fancy, which is why I was drawn to your game. Thanks for sharing it with us, I'm certainly looking forward to its completion!
Scourge
I used to make games. I still do, but I used to too.
1605
author=WheelmanZero
I haven't played as many rpg's as most gamers, but that actually turns into an advantage when it comes to remakes. Now I can see what I missed from the 8-bit era without hardware limitations holding these games back. That's probably why I love rmn so much. Well...that and all the free games, because who doesn't like free stuff? The idea of improving classic style rpg's and cutting out poor design decisions tickles my fancy, which is why I was drawn to your game. Thanks for sharing it with us, I'm certainly looking forward to its completion!


I feel like this is part of the website that, weirdly, doesn't get a lot of notice. There's all these really cool games that you can download and play for free. I can download a game with a playtime of 15-20 hours without dropping a cent here, or pay $15-20 for the same privilege on Steam. That and being able to connect with creators and watch, or even have input on, a game as it's being developed, is something really unique.

Thanks for the continued interest in the game! A lot of people seem to take the route of polishing or even remaking older games on this site and I hope mine can stand out.
Dyluck
For thousands of years, I laid dormant. Who has disturbed my slumber?
5184
Good read, and I gotta say so far I'm impressed with your willingness to quickly do away with some of the old tedious traditions of the past in favor of newer more enjoyable mechanics for modern players.
I was thinking the other day, about how kids and teens now aren't growing up with the same games or genres that those of us in our 20s or 30s did. Heck, the days of Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, two games that some people still regard as the gold standard for the 2D JRPG, were over two decades ago now. What was our childhood is regarded as ancient history to some.

Like any artform, games grow and evolve, and you can only rest on the laurels of the past for so long until you realize there are opportunities to advance the genre (I won't lie: even some of the most well-regarded RPG Maker games bored me because they stuck so closely to established conventions). And the great thing about RPG Maker is that it embraces a genre I love but also opens up the opportunity to refine the formula for younger/newer audiences. That really helps keep the spirit of the 2D JRPG alive.
Dyluck
For thousands of years, I laid dormant. Who has disturbed my slumber?
5184
I loved FF6 too and it was one of my favourites, but when looking back on it, I realize that there was quite a few simple things that it didn't do well enough even by today's standards for free RPG Maker games.

I think in the old days, we didn't have as many games to choose from or loads of other free games and media for entertainment, so we were just happy that the expensive game we bought would last longer, and didn't really mind those time consuming design choices.
Yeah, I'd say the abundance and accessibility of games makes them feel less special and valuable these days. *sigh* Talking to you guys makes me feel old.
Scourge
I used to make games. I still do, but I used to too.
1605
author=SgtMettool
I was thinking the other day, about how kids and teens now aren't growing up with the same games or genres that those of us in our 20s or 30s did. Heck, the days of Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, two games that some people still regard as the gold standard for the 2D JRPG, were over two decades ago now. What was our childhood is regarded as ancient history to some.


This is something that feels surreal to me in some ways. In my childhood, I could have played a game like Final Fantasy 6 that somebody 20 years older than me might also have played in their childhood, albeit in a very different form. It's like we have a shared experience, but still one with noticeable differences. It reminds me of the Star Wars films to an extent. When I was a kid, I saw the prequel trilogy in theaters and now there are kids watching the sequel trilogy. It's a shared universe with shared characters and, I assume, many shared emotions and thoughts, but the experience itself is different.

Like any artform, games grow and evolve, and you can only rest on the laurels of the past for so long until you realize there are opportunities to advance the genre (I won't lie: even some of the most well-regarded RPG Maker games bored me because they stuck so closely to established conventions). And the great thing about RPG Maker is that it embraces a genre I love but also opens up the opportunity to refine the formula for younger/newer audiences. That really helps keep the spirit of the 2D JRPG alive.


I'm grateful that people are constantly reinventing the JRPG and other genres. Even ten years ago, I think referring to video games as an 'art form' would have caused a lot of people to laugh at such a crazy idea. And there are definitely games that shatter established conventions now that couldn't have in the past. I mean, can you imagine a game like Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy or The Stanley Parable being remotely successful in the SNES or even the original XBOX era? I feel like, as the medium grows, more and more people are willing to make games that deconstruct or improve on established conventions in addition to revisiting old games and advancing them so new generations can enjoy them.

author=Dyluck
I think in the old days, we didn't have as many games to choose from or loads of other free games and media for entertainment, so we were just happy that the expensive game we bought would last longer, and didn't really mind those time consuming design choices.


author=WheelmanZero
Yeah, I'd say the abundance and accessibility of games makes them feel less special and valuable these days. *sigh* Talking to you guys makes me feel old.


I agree with both of you. When I was a kid, I think I owned maybe 10 different games for my Gameboy Color and I played them over and over and over again, regardless of whether or not they were 'good' games. I remember one of my favorite games of all time was the Monster Rancher Trading Card Game for GBC. I played through it probably 4 or 5 times and I don't recall it being a short game either. Then, when I got older and had more access to the internet, I remember looking the game up and being shocked that it wasn't considered a 'good' game.

Nowadays, I have 93 games in my Steam library alone and I've played maybe half of them and I've only invested more than an hour or two in about 16 of those titles. If you had told me, when I was a kid, that someday I'd only bother to play less than a fifth of the games I owned, I'd call you crazy. With so many options out there, it feels like people are less interested in committing to a game that's anything less than excellent.

It makes me feel old and I have no right to!
Dyluck
For thousands of years, I laid dormant. Who has disturbed my slumber?
5184
author=WheelmanZero
Yeah, I'd say the abundance and accessibility of games makes them feel less special and valuable these days. *sigh* Talking to you guys makes me feel old.

Look on the bright side. One day soon, you can say to your grand kids:

"Are you playing that BrainBoxStation again!?? Back in MY days! We had to MAKE our own video games! By HAND!"
author=Dyluck
Look on the bright side. One day soon, you can say to your grand kids:

"Are you playing that BrainBoxStation again!?? Back in MY days! We had to MAKE our own video games! By HAND!"


Can't...type. Laughing...too hard.
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