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Progress Report

Captain's big log #1: The party

To be honest I felt like a failure this time around. I wanted to make a good game, as good as some other Marrend's games. Added that it's a fan game, I wanted it to really shine. I still want it and I'm afraid, that I'm not able to deliver it. I'm really slow and got detached from the rest of the team (It's completely my fault) and keep on working with an outdated version of the project and haven't got to play the demo yet.
I'm sorry, guys.
Let's talk about the positive. Kloe, Tunger and Marrend are all really cool people to work with. I love the music, we got from the Man, and I'm glad that I'm not in charge of it. It's far better than a cheesy soundtrack I would put together.
Marrend is our mace wielding god of everything nice and good and together with Kloe they're working on dialogues, which are witty and on spot. Kloe is also our cheerful archer.
But I'm not here to write about real persons. I'm to write few lines about characters. I promise, it's gonna be a different insight than the previous 'Might be Heroes' blog.
The cheerful bunch contains jawless Thief, Marrend from Kentonia, Intellectual Kloe, No-neck Harold, Fake-beard Wilhelm and IDK Wizzage.


The game's cast contains characters which are based on us to some extent. They all have their own tunes, which are superb, and are more than archetypes, or a contradiction of these. We had classes first. They're six original classes from the very first of Might and Magic games (although we call robber thief all the time). And it's interesting how they fit our four characters plus protagonist and Harold.

Pictures used are my first ever drawn on computer. I don't have a proper pad, just a touch sensitive display. Also original hand-drawn sketches can be found here.

The Cleric
This choice was the most obvious.Marrendis just so cleric. It really fits his character around the site. He got his own polite humour, which stands consistent. He's a pillar of the community and I wouldn't have dared to experiment with genres, if he hadn't been on the team. Heck, he helped me with my first accepted description back when I joined RMN in 2014.
I wanted to add some coolness to the design, by making him look sharp (sideburns). The armor was stolen from artworks in the manual of Might and Magic 3.
The final design is far from the cool artwork. Due to my lacking skills, his cheeks got chubby. Thanks to the chosen form, armour is not displayed.


The Archer
Kloebeing an archer is more on spot than I thought at first. I like the class and could be little jelly about Kloe getting it at first. I like it because it sounds ordinary. Others are fancy names fanciers. You can't beat the simplicity of the name. Swordsman is too specific and warrior too broad. The class itself is usually fun to play as it has bows or crossbows and can shoot.
Kloe, i know from forums, is stronk. She's witty and friendly and energetic. Just like an archer, who needs to get quickly in an advantageous position before the battle starts. Her personality resonates with motives of a bow and an arrow.
My approach was to make her both a dreamer and a skilled warrior. She's not really as eccentric and loud as she may seem to be. I think glasses (I took them from her avatar) and practical clothes shows this well. Her affection towards Harold is a significant manner too.


The Paladin
I thinkHaroldis the simple member of the group. We needed a sixth character and Kloe came up with Harold. He's a date with a twist. It's easy to make him inspired and to find a way under his chest plate.
Drawing him was more of a challenge. Everyone knows him from MV and my drawing skills are nowhere close to the original design. I knew, I needed to keep the iron bandana and red overgrown spiky hair. Marrend chose the weapon. In battles they create 'The Dynamic Duo' withRobinKloe. He again wears natural colors of iron and leather and pink cloth. He's slightly darker than Kloe. They both wear capes. His chin is wide.
I feel, that he was mild as a character, when I was drawing him. I'm sure, Marrend and Kloe gave him the needed structure in dialogues.


The Knight
Tunger's character is an interesting one.Wilhelmis not your usual goofy knight, who solves everything through power (like Jeremy Clarkson). He's a philanthropist. He doesn't talk a lot, just like Tunger. Also, I like him as a date. I'm usually against younger woman/older man tropes. But that's from a male point of view. Recently, I found out how much does it make sense from a woman's perspective. Wilhelm wants to be more of a mentor, almost a father and he wants to share his wisdom. Thief should be the active one here, making first steps, while being charmed. And Wilhelm slowly falls for her.
I really like his quest for knowledge. It's somehow presumable that Marrend is a pieceful character and Wizzage is probably an aggressive one, cuz 'who cares about peasants.' It's nice to have Wilhelm among them, the guy has the biggest sword around and is hesitant to use it. His shield is more important to him. He can sit on it while reading or playing lute.
He wears an armour, which is directly taken from the Isles of Terra manual. Actually it combines knight's and druid's pictures. The Color scheme is simple. It mostly keeps natural colors with red/pink being his his signature color. It's dominant color of his leggins and he has his shoulders painted with it.


The Sorceress
Wizzageis avatar, which represents me in the game. I hope she doesn't use Engrish. It is only natural, that I put the most energy in her. Designing her was easy. I wanted her to look like me, if I were a 40 years old female elf. I even gave her the same varsity jacket I wear. And she got a big sword and sexy Xena-like dress beneath. She is sexy but bitter and resents males. She's cool and powerful, tongue-in-cheek when necessary. Frankly, I made her much cooler than my actual self. To balance her raddity, I made her really broken. She may seem to be only little bitter and annoying at first, but as you got further with her, you will discover her heart full of holes and emptiness, lack of motivation, even a personality crisis.
Again, she ought to be an interesting date. She is heart-broken and it's hard to make her act differently than a jealous stepmother. No, it's hard to make her care enough to be jealous. And she got nothing visible to live for. No simple goal like Marrend or Wilhelm got. You need to change her personality completely to find a way. You need to give her goals and help her to fulfill them. Eventually, she'll be happy again.


A Thief
It's you. I almost succeeded with this one. I recommend to check on original sketches here, cuz they can tell you much more about her and my intentions. She is strong and has a power. The power to inspire others. However she's weak too. Fragile, I would say and the appearance makes the player care about her the same way he cares about the protagonist of Oneshot and through her he cares about the world around and romances happening it it. Also, I made her really plain. The player knows nothing about her. She wars a short plain dress. It almost looks like a large t-shirt. No belt. She has a backpack with her daggers in it. The good thing about the backpack is, that there is probably something more hidden in it. Her haircut is innocent and It should remind us of cute actresses like Mia Farrow and Goldie Hawn in the 60s.
In the end, she became my favorite character to work on. Most of the time, she is cheerful, but may become more serious later on. The most important about her is that she never stops giving us second chances.


That's it. As I stated before, my perception may differ from the actual game. It's totally ok.
Next time, We will travel around the land of Morn. We will visit all major locations and I'll try to bring up, what is behind them.

Miscellaneous

Meet Team "Might be Heroes?"


Did I ever tell you about my adventurer friends, Team "Might be Heroes"?
INSERT FLASHBACK HERE





~A painting of Marrend by the Royal Artist Chloé II of the Kingdom of Morn

There's the leader, Marrend. A born leader, and a great Cleric. He'll heal your butt into the next decade. He's a cool guy too, not much of a customer, but he has a cool Bludgeon, apparently it's an ancient relic, those things are expensive wow. A cool guy and he's pretty nice, but before he got that Bludgeon he was really un-inspired... poor guy... Marrend and his bludgeon are inseparable, even once went on a double date with Kloe and Harold.

Jeez, get a room >.>

Speaking of which, Kloe and Harold, those two lovers bought a hella lotta beer from me. Mind you, Thief almost dated Harold, but then they'd be sad so Thief didn't. Those two are great customers but I wish they didn't show off their love so much, it's a not a sight I like that much. Those two are so lovey-dovey, it's pretty goddamn adorable, but that stuff creeps me out. That pink haired chick is pretty cute though, and that red head looks awesome. I hear they work great together in battle, Harold shields Kloe while Kloe kills em off from the shadows.


I also heard there use to be an old thief, before the happy, inspirational one today... but I aint in the know about what went on with that dude. I do know that old blue lady, Miss Sexy McPickles... (well that's not her name, Wizzage is) who is also a fiiiiiiine woman, I wouldn't mind getting her in be-
PEW PEWoh no he was shot, he'll never finish that sentence!
"Nah, you'll be fine, hang in there Dago" - Marrend



10 mins later...

Right so where was I?



Anyway, yes, Wizzage. She used to love the old thief... she drunk a lotta beer when he left, I'll tell ya. Passed out one night. But she's a tough cookie... Old but not too old to fight, she'll leave you burnt, electrocuted, frozen or anything else if you mess with her. Seriously, she's dangerous, somebody arrest her or somethin'!!
As I said, feel the burn from this cool chick as she shocks you




Last but... possibly not least... just a bit weird

Now who else have we got... well, the last adventurer, would be this dude, Wilheim was it? I dunno 'bout him, he's a bit wierd. He seems like a tough dude, but is reading books and studying every chance. He's a know-it-all, a show off and the worst customer I ever had ya know! He doesn't drink! Not a pint! Pah, what is the world comin' to eh? Bit of a nutjob too, seems a bit evil, probably driven insane by stupid relics mumbo jumbo. Wierd dude.



So that's Team "Might be Heroes?" the team I've know for years, even gave them my boat! Haha!

Miscellaneous

Marrend's aside

As I may have mentioned in a comment on the main page, the original pitch I made was an RPG with visual novel elements. My main sources of inspiration was somewhat from Heartache 101, but more from Memories Neverlasting.

With Memories Neverlasting, the protagonist could move around on maps, and visit various locations where the VN elements would take place. I liked this ten times better than the board-game-like mechanics of Heartache, not to mention whatever function decided who players would meet in a given encounter. How much this game concerned itself with romance was up in the air at the time. I will say, though, that the one thing I wanted to avoid, at least as far as the VN elements was concerned, was going so far as to have backgrounds and character models, and that whole shebang.

The demo of Memories Neverlasting that I played way-back-when only had dungeon-delving as it's RPG element. However, things like side-quests, or tasks that affect affinity by significant amounts, was a consideration for this game.

I'm not exactly sure when the Might and Magic inspiration came into play. Possibly when Cap_H got on the team, and him telling me on the recruitment/announcement thread that he'd love to make the ultimate Might and Magic fan-game with me. As I recall the conversation in our team's QuickTopic, Kloe's not played any Might and Magic game (That's okay!), while TungerManU's played a bit of Heroes of Might and Magic 3. I don't recall if Cap_H specified which games that he's played, and I probably didn't either. I know I've played all the main-line* games to completion, except for the original (Of course!) and the ninth game of the series. However, there's a number of concepts that we borrow/take from games before the sixth game of the series.

If there is one thing I'm definitely glad for, it's that we didn't try to do a first-person perspective (though I suppose it's at least possible in TsuK3). Working with GTBS again has brought some additional amount of illumination as to how it works. I'm not saying I'm more willing to go back to Nakaishi Wars as a result, but, it's still nice to have learned things.

*There can possibly be an argument that the Heroes of Might and Magic sub-series is the main-line of games now-a-days. Thanks for that, Ubisoft.
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