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Guardian Frontier
An RPG with classic-style gameplay and a non-classic premise, inspired by the history of exploration and colonialism of the 19th century.
An RPG with classic-style gameplay and a non-classic premise, inspired by the history of exploration and colonialism of the 19th century.
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Remakes Galore!
Actually, what might be interesting with a Secret of Mana remake, but I doubt they're going to do, would be to implement the story material which was intended to make it into the original game, but had to be cut due to cartridge size limitations. From what I've read, Emperor Vandole was originally intended to be a more significant character, and the conflict between the Empire and the Resistance was meant to be more drawn out, but that was all cut because they were running up against the memory limits of the format.
I'm sure there'll be material in the remake that wasn't in the original game, but it makes a big difference in my opinion whether it's done by people who were involved in the original, or at least were close enough to the project to know what the cut material consisted of.
I'm definitely not a fan of updating silent games to include voice acting though. First, players have already had the chance to come up with their own ideas of what the characters sound like which are likely to clash with the new voice acting. Second, I just feel like voice acting is so easy to screw up and so hard to get really right, my grand list of games which I feel were substantially improved by their voice acting is one entry long.
I'm sure there'll be material in the remake that wasn't in the original game, but it makes a big difference in my opinion whether it's done by people who were involved in the original, or at least were close enough to the project to know what the cut material consisted of.
I'm definitely not a fan of updating silent games to include voice acting though. First, players have already had the chance to come up with their own ideas of what the characters sound like which are likely to clash with the new voice acting. Second, I just feel like voice acting is so easy to screw up and so hard to get really right, my grand list of games which I feel were substantially improved by their voice acting is one entry long.
Remakes Galore!
Xenogears is kind of my favorite game, although a lot of that is for sentimental reasons, and if there's any sort of situation where I'd agree it would make sense to have a remake, it would be one like that, where the game was already pretty well received, but was notably hampered in its original development by funding or time issues or the like. But the driving figures behind Xenogears don't have the rights to it, and I'm not sure there are any cases where all the circumstances to make a remake I could get behind actually line up, given how often key team members come and go from companies and property rights pass from the hands of the people who were personally involved with the games.
That said, one thing I do think is really underexplored is reusing resources from existing commercial games for new games. More than just using the same engines for multiple games, I think there's a lot to be said for recycling substantial amounts of work between games which are built on the same continuity. Almost all the work that went into Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army was recycled back into its sequel, Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon, and the result was that the sequel was a much more expansive and polished game which I felt improved considerably on the first. Considering they were made so long apart for completely different hardware, I'm not sure whether A Link Between Worlds actually reuses resources from A Link To The Past, since it was probably more practical to remake it from the ground up based on the original model, but that's also a good example of how you can use familiar material as building blocks for a new game.
That said, one thing I do think is really underexplored is reusing resources from existing commercial games for new games. More than just using the same engines for multiple games, I think there's a lot to be said for recycling substantial amounts of work between games which are built on the same continuity. Almost all the work that went into Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army was recycled back into its sequel, Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon, and the result was that the sequel was a much more expansive and polished game which I felt improved considerably on the first. Considering they were made so long apart for completely different hardware, I'm not sure whether A Link Between Worlds actually reuses resources from A Link To The Past, since it was probably more practical to remake it from the ground up based on the original model, but that's also a good example of how you can use familiar material as building blocks for a new game.
[RMMV] Need help with my project
If this is a commercial project, are you looking to pay potential team members?
Most large-scale single-person projects don't work out in the long run (I say, while working on a large-scale single person project.) And team efforts often come apart. But if you're offering to pay team members, you may be able to get help from people who wouldn't otherwise want to gamble on a project.
Aside from letting people know about whether you're looking for paid assistance or not, it's probably also better to let people know more up front about what kind of game project this is. Nobody is really going to decide they're interested in helping before they know anything about what the project is like, so it's better not to restrict that information to people who have already expressed an interest.
Most large-scale single-person projects don't work out in the long run (I say, while working on a large-scale single person project.) And team efforts often come apart. But if you're offering to pay team members, you may be able to get help from people who wouldn't otherwise want to gamble on a project.
Aside from letting people know about whether you're looking for paid assistance or not, it's probably also better to let people know more up front about what kind of game project this is. Nobody is really going to decide they're interested in helping before they know anything about what the project is like, so it's better not to restrict that information to people who have already expressed an interest.
Remakes Galore!
I'm kind of constitutionally opposed to the idea of remakes. I agree with Red_Nova, the games which are really worth remaking are the ones which weren't that good the first time around, which could be revamped to better exploit the potential of some their ideas which weren't implemented properly the first time around. But, since these games generally weren't successful to begin with, game companies don't have much incentive to remake them, because their names don't lend any selling power. They'd be better off saying "hey, remember that game we made years back which was a flop? I think it had some interesting ideas we could salvage for a new project."
But if a developer's idea of how to make a successful game relies on repackaging their own work from years ago, I tend to doubt their ability to actually improve on the original work.
But if a developer's idea of how to make a successful game relies on repackaging their own work from years ago, I tend to doubt their ability to actually improve on the original work.
[Poll] What is your favorite Final Fantasy game?
author=Kylaila
I mean, IV was alright I guess? I finished it at least.
And how rude to say no other RPG could be fun just because you are not into FF o.o Ok, yer saying that, sorry^^
I never really got into em, I wanted to try IX maybe sometime again, but .. they never really caught my interest?
Yes, the production values are incredibly high - I just don't really care about them alone. I want something with heart. And they just never really got that for me, as much as I could see the appeal for others, as strange as that may sound. I remember playing FF X and wondering when the game was gonna really start only to then realize I was already half-way through. XII was neat too, but I just .. couldn't feel it? The graphics were top notch, free exploration, details, full orchestra soundtrack, and .. it just all felt kinda empty. It's a strange feeling.
Niche ones got me better. May sound strange, and it was to me too, but yeah. It just didn't catch me.
I can definitely relate to being more invested in "heart," or emotional content, rather than production values. I generally favor a performance approach to video games rather than a technician approach. Technical refinement always improves a work, but no amount of polish or lack of technical flaws can substitute for depth and emotional content.
But I feel like the Final Fantasy series at least used to have that quality to it. Not so much anymore, although I think the decline was a gradual process where it's hard to point out a specific point at which it lost its "heart." But at least, I don't think production values are inconsistent with an emotionally powerful work.
Development Methods:Which ones are your favorites?
It's more a category than a distinct method, but I guess I favor a narrative-first approach to games. Like, the idea of starting up a game project thinking "I want to create an epic-length adventure with a high-stakes plot, lots of characters, plot twists, etc." but not knowing specifically what the end product is supposed to be like seems absurd to me, but the idea of coming up with a gameplay concept or structure, working out what the play experience should be like and how to implement that, and then trying to figure out how the story should go seems pretty weird to me as well.
Not that I necessarily chart out the entire story in advance, but I always want to know what the story is going to be like, and what the key events are, first, otherwise I don't feel like I have a sense of what kind of gameplay and structure lends itself to the experience I want to create. Once I've figured that out, I don't feel the need to keep going back and adding features, changing mechanics, etc. because those elements were all consequences of my decision about what elements would best convey the experience of the narrative.
In a sense, it's the opposite of the method suggested in the Yanfly comic, which advocates making the game's story follow the structure rather than the other way around. But the way I see it, it's another approach to the same basic idea; start with the foundation which determines what everything else in the game should be like, and work up from there. To me, the narrative is the foundation, the gameplay structure is the implementation.
Not that I necessarily chart out the entire story in advance, but I always want to know what the story is going to be like, and what the key events are, first, otherwise I don't feel like I have a sense of what kind of gameplay and structure lends itself to the experience I want to create. Once I've figured that out, I don't feel the need to keep going back and adding features, changing mechanics, etc. because those elements were all consequences of my decision about what elements would best convey the experience of the narrative.
In a sense, it's the opposite of the method suggested in the Yanfly comic, which advocates making the game's story follow the structure rather than the other way around. But the way I see it, it's another approach to the same basic idea; start with the foundation which determines what everything else in the game should be like, and work up from there. To me, the narrative is the foundation, the gameplay structure is the implementation.
[Poll] What is your favorite Final Fantasy game?
author=Kylaila
I never really liked FF too much.
Which made for this really awkward explaining of "I like stuff n jrpgs, yknow. stuff like Final Fantasy! Only, I don't really like Final Fantasy!" : D
Chocobos Dungeon for Wii was really neat n cute tho. I liked it.
What RPGs do you actually like then?
I can totally understand not being into JRPGs, and not being into Final Fantasy as a consequence of that. But the whole Final Fantasy franchise has a broad enough selection of styles of JRPG, with high production values, that I'm kind of surprised if someone who's generally a fan of JRPGs doesn't like any of them.
Dungeons in RPGs - Which types do you prefer?
author=Satedauthor=Desertopa"This ice-themed dungeon has an ice-themed puzzle. Fuck this developer!"
If you have an ice cave, an ice-sliding puzzle is so expected I actually find it kind of annoying.
It's hard to properly describe such an attitude without breaking RMN rules so... let's just say that you're being very silly and leave it at that.
To be clear, I don't think it's a bad idea to use puzzles which are thematically consistent with the type of dungeon. If you have an ice dungeon, by all means go for puzzles with an ice theme. But ice-sliding puzzles are pretty overplayed, to the point that if you have an ice themed dungeon in a game which has featured any puzzles at all up to that point, I'm going to expect you're probably going to throw in an ice-sliding puzzle.
Subverting player expectations doesn't mean you have to do something which doesn't make sense in context. Or, to flip that around, doing something thematically consistent doesn't mean you have to do the most obvious thematically consistent thing. If you want to do something less expected in an ice dungeon, you might, say, have a puzzle revolving around constructing a bridge across unsafe footing so you don't slip and fall to your deaths. Or a puzzle based on charting out a route which minimizes your party's exposure to freezing winds so they don't get hypothermia. Those are just a couple examples off the top of my head of ice-themed puzzles which I haven't seen before.
Whatchu Workin' On? Tell us!
author=Waxiusauthor=DesertopaYep, the weapons are randomly generated, so it's possible to find a dagger, hand axe, or sword all on the same level. On higher levels, the lower weapons will no longer appear. The good news is that it's pretty easy to determine which items are better, and I've already implemented the "Auto-Equip" feature so that a character will drop the dagger and pick up the sword. All I have to do now is update the logic for the character dialogues away from the random phrases into something more purposeful.
Are the types of weapons randomly generated, or is there a distinct list of pieces of equipment such that you could apply some kind of coherent hierarchy to it?
So, I have next to no knowledge of scripting, but it sounds like it should be feasible to event this if you assign distinct "levels" to the equipment, and each time you pick up a piece of equipment you set it to check the variable represented by the highest level of equipment you've picked up, and if the level of the new equipment is higher than that, it stores that as the new variable. So say you have a level 8 weapon, and you find a level 9 one, you can set it up to give dialogue based on the difference between the level of the new equipment compared to what you already have, and then make the 9 your new weapon variable.
There are probably more elegant solutions for people who're proficient in scripting, but I think it should at least be feasible to do it this way, if you don't have a huge number of weapon levels to manage.
Whatchu Workin' On? Tell us!
author=Waxius
Currently working on the next iteration of Tunnels of Doom. I want to improve the what the characters say when picking up items, because right now it's totally random and sometimes doesn't make sense in context.
For example, a character might pick up a sword found in the dungeon and say: "This is a fine sword, I will definitely make use of it!". But it doesn't make sense to say this again if they get another sword, or already have better weapons.
So.. the challenge is to remove the randomness, and add logic to determine if what item you are picking up is better or worse than what you are already using, and then talk appropriately.
Are the types of weapons randomly generated, or is there a distinct list of pieces of equipment such that you could apply some kind of coherent hierarchy to it?
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