Pilots a: Planet?

In a word: Juvenile.

Most likely found: Everywhere.

Has been known to: Pass out divine muffins.

Combat Style: Deus Ex Machina.

You probably wouldn't guess: She has a bit of a Sabre Tiger fetish.


Sylvanr, the ever-present goddess in Whisper, plays an important role in the setting and story. When designing her character, I had to make sure that she fit the existing Zoids universe (CC/GF canon), that she fit Whisper and that she was interesting to boot. As she's supposed to be omnipotent and powerful (but not all powerful), I decided to flesh her out first.

First, I had to rectify Reese's psychic abilities, which I decided to do via various 'gifts' from the goddess. It neatly explained why none of the normal humans in the show (who presumably would know nothing of the goddess) had any and why the various Ancient Zoidians had such wide-ranging powers. It also helped reinforce the symbiotic human/zoid relationship that was so interesting.

Second, I needed to set-up both how the zoids came to exist and why fleshy life forms also existed. At various points in CC/GF, one sees the characters interaction with fish or snails or perhaps eating some form of meat. In doing this, I wanted to continue to reinforce the aforementioned symbiotic relationship. After considering a few options, I decided to introduce another god; Sylvanr's brother, Skies. Having him create fleshy life forms behind her back allowed to remain as the 'zoid goddess.' It also helped explain why knowledge of her is so limited, as she has little reason to seek out humans.

Third, I had to be very careful not to destroy the Zoids feel. It is, after all, a mecha franchise. A divine element wrapped up loose ends nicely, but needed to stay out of the spotlight. Like CC/GF, the focus needed to be on a conflict that involved zoids. The gifts accomplished this well as they removed direct contact with Sylvanr and shifted it to the characters instead.

A: Well, yes...and no. Though, I'm glad you (who does not want to be named) asked.

I'm tired of games that are mere pandering. While I probably will buy any game with a Zoids logo on it, I'm going to be disappointed if the only thing it offers is new zoid pictures (though I would definitely like those). Like any franchise, even gameplay heavy entries like first-person shooters, players want something to consume beyond the titular goods.

I am, in a sense, tired of playing the same GBA games. It's been years now, and they were never meant to provide such extreme lengths of gameplay.

I find the gamecube games a bit tiring because the multiplayer doesn't appeal for long to my friends without zoids knowledge. I'm still glad they exist, but like their GBA counterparts, I've about played them to death.

What I'm not tired of is the zoids themselves. The relatively recent HMM line has done a pretty amazing job of wowing me. Not to mentioned, there's a special place in my heart for all of the amazing custom models that I see.

I'm also still firmly in love with Zoid's potential in terms of both gameplay and storytelling. They've pulled off serious and grim (http://www.comicvine.com/spider-man-and-zoids/4050-37825/), light-hearted fun (NCZ) and wartime dramedy (CC/GF). To some degree, it's because the general tag is used across a multitude of casts and settings that it looks so flexible, but that it works in all of them is nothing to brush aside.

If you are a person that has ever experienced high school, then you probably know what it's like to know a person's name, appearance and little else. You know, those kids that you always say hi to or wave at but rarely interact with in any meaningful way. Usually, you can guess that said kids are probably interesting people, but you just never got around to getting to know them.

NPCs tend to evoke many of those same feelings. They have a blurb, maybe a face and perhaps a name. This is a serviceable baseline, but not nearly as satisfying as it could be. Of course, some players are fine with this and that must be respected. Others prefer the world they're playing in to have some diving room and I would be remiss to disappoint them.

That's why, with Whisper, I chose a setting where I could give every friendly NPC a truly meaningful interaction with the player. That means that, at some point in the game, each friendly NPC will be part of a sidequest, open a shop for the player, be part of the main quest or perhaps teach a skill. All of this is optional; as in, the game was completed to the end and tested before any of this was implemented in order to be sure that it could be safely ignored. However, it is available and rewarding for those who are interested.

NPCs will provide further story for those looking for such, further challenges for those who wish to test themselves and further skills for those who want to craft new strategies.

The first question to answer is probably as follows: Why choose a game in an existing IP but create a total alternate universe?

As usual, there are a few reasons, but I'll summarize.
1.) The zoids canon splits several ways, and it can be difficult or impossible to get every canon to make sense together.
2.) Of the most presented canons (the anime), New Century Zero lends itself more to an arena style game and Chaotic Century/Guardian Force, while tempting for an RPG, would require extensive resource creation due to the expansive traveling. The Spiderman and Zoids comic was fairly well distributed as well, but was a poor candidate to jump mediums (if you haven't, check it out though).
3.) I didn't want anyone to need foreknowledge of the zoids universe to be able to fully enjoy the game. This made any adaptation of canon material rather difficult to do while still crafting strong characters. I'd first have to identify what shaped them, then communicate that to the players via actions that made sense within that universe. Not a totally impossible task, but a large undertaking on top of the other issues.

In short, low visibility and inter-universe inconsistencies have rendered the zoids canon less malleable than others. Even the official zoids games by and large have opted for new material. Those that include existing characters do so mostly via cameo; they assume that the player already knows who these people are and do not spend much, if any, time developing them.

The next question is likely: Why this? Well, I first looked through other zoids games to see what made them work and what didn't go over well. Obviously, zoids were a must, but Zoids Assault showed that zoids alone were not enough. Outside of the visuals, which were too grainy by most tastes, the game offered little in the way of interesting combat, not much in the story department and zero in terms of characters. In contrast, Zoids Battle Legends had exciting, if questionably balanced combat and its own cast of characters. It may not have been a masterpiece, but it was fun through and through, which is the ultimate judging point of any game. Zoids Legacy lacked when it came to graphics and was pretty light on plot and characterization, but offered something to play with in several zoids universes while also delivering fun. The bits of characters that it offered triggered several welcome nostalgic highs.

CC/GF was fun to watch not just because of the zoids, but due to the interesting characters and the conflict they experienced. I didn't wake up at five in the morning to see just a Shield Liger. NCZ is much the same. Just try imagining it without the Toros family.

Thus, I knew that it wasn't just enough to rip some sprites and have anonymous pilots blast each other to bits. Part of the genius of the series is that it has serious, violent conflict all around, but doesn't feel as dark as something else trying to take all of that on. However, that conflict is meaningless without characters.

The first issue to solve was the zoids themselves. Specifically, where did they come from? Also, how did humans and zoids end up in the same place? There are a couple of different, but similar, canon explanations, though they left a few loose ends when extended outside of their source material. For example, the Ancient Zoidians in CC/GF exhibited all manner of supernatural abilities, but no explanation was ever given.

Knowing this, I decided to create a world where the traditional explanation held, but that also took into account and codified the Ancient Zoidian powers. I also wanted to avoid the space/time travel elements present in some of the other canons as those tend to get really hairy really fast in a rather unsatisfying manner if not carefully managed. In addition, since I had a heavy incentive to avoid any setting with cities (resources) and anything that might tax immersion (mid-battle repair), early Ancient Zoidian civilization seemed like a great place to start.

Next up, I'll talk about the issue of healing non-organic creatures and healing in general with an in-depth look at Whisper's main character.

A Theatrical Demo, for those who don't know, is a clip reel created by an actor in hopes of getting noticed. When applied to games, the term is a bit ambiguous. In some cases, it can be a Technical Demo; a showing of what the game's engine is capable of or a display of mechanics. It can also refer to a sort of Interactive Trailer, where the player is able to get a feel for the game's interface and setting.

Whisper's demo is more like the latter. It is a 5-10 minute tidbit designed to establish a general feel of the game experience. It has a taste of story and setting and a teasing of combat.

When making a demo, it's important to consider the goal. Many professional studios have done away with them altogether as their sale boosting potential is often largely unrealized. What made them popular in days past (floppy disk era), though, was that the player could get a sampling of what was to come and decide whether or not it was worth looking into. Today, if the game is already advertised and has multiple trailers and what not, it is nearly pointless to demo it. The stuff the player used to expect in a demo has already been delivered. Furthermore, it is difficult to make a demo that is up to par with the game as a whole, so it may hurt sales in the end.

In the amateur scene, however, the demo retains its original purpose. Players tend to have very little idea what to expect as they're dealing with an unproven developer who probably doesn't have any commercial pressure to ensure at least some baseline of quality. The demo establishes, for better or for worse, some semblance of the developer's abilities. Whereas a professional may worry about the throttled nature of a demo making them look bad, an amateur has no reputation to sully, and thus little to lose.

The Demo, however you call it, will be released tomorrow, May 28th. In the meantime, I was asked to talk a bit about what kind of issues I ran into while making it, so I'll answer those questions here.


Q1.) How do you know what to include?

A1.) Start with everything, then pare down whatever the player doesn't interact with meaningfully during the demo. You'll probably end up with just a few systems, but that's alright. The demo needs to be focused; it should highlight a point or two and then end. Remember, time spent developing the demo doesn't necessarily translate to time spent developing the game. Thus, make sure you aren't making the demo better at the expense of the game proper.


Q2.) How long should the demo be?

A2.) Not long. This ties back into keeping your dev time on the actual game. The player knows it's a demo and doesn't expect a long engagement, so give them something to chew on and then get back to work on the main course. Try not to exceed ~5% of the game's length, as a rule of thumb.


Q3.) How do you handle tutorials in a demo?

A3.) Don't. Any tutorial will probably put you over on length. Change whatever needs to be changed to make tutorials a non-issue. On that note, make sure you think long and hard about putting any Game Over situations in there. Find a different way to create challenge for the micro-experience.

This was a rather significant issue with Whisper, and I ended up changing up the combat dynamic because of it. I wanted a challenge present, but I also wanted anyone to be able to just get through it, so I added a secondary objective. In addition, I cut down on the number of choices available so that the player could make reasonable decisions without being overwhelmed by the number available. There're still multiple ways to approach it, but it's a sampling of combat rather than an incongruous chunk.


Q4.) Should a demo be a segment of the main game?

A4.) This isn't a bad idea, but make sure that it works as a demo. Just playing the first level is usually passable, but often you can do better with a dedicated project. The upside to this is that it takes the least amount of time away from the main game.

Note, however, that the goal of level/area 1 in your game doesn't totally overlap with the goal of a demo. Some changes would likely be beneficial. For example, the player probably shouldn't start off at ground zero for the demo. The excitement level needs to be a bit higher.