DESPAIN'S PROFILE

Sandfall is still my primary project, although I haven't done much for it at all. Playwright is my secondary project which I am working on creating completely original graphics for.

I'm also working on a project or two with the team at Gaydads Interactive.

It's a great movie. After the first time I watched it, I really enjoyed it but was a bit unsure, and after the second time I began to see why it's considered the greatest movie of all time.

Wikipedia, Hive, RMXP, RMN, GW...Smash Dojo every night or morning.

watchtvsitcoms recently died but otherwise I would list it. :-(

Mostly I hand out on irc on Slacked so.

My idea wasn't that the events of the game were parallel to the events of the play, but rather that the actors were becoming stuck in their roles and as such the world of the play would overtake the characters. As in elements of the fiction world that would never have been explored in the play's storyline would become a reality to the characters that exist within this world.

As plays aren't usually science fiction or post apocalyptic either, there are going to be some obvious difficulties making the world a play. I thought of making it a movie, but I really liked some of the ideas that I came up with this in regards to it being a play. Still, there hasn't been a solid outline yet or any game (since as I've said I want to get lots of graphics made before making the game itself) so there's lots of room open for change.

Some generations ago, the world as it was known was wiped out. Since then, all of mankind has retreated into a few massive cities in order to live and prosper as a collective race. There has been success, and in Rage City, it has come in the form of thirteen guilds. This is the story of a man who must find himself in a world consumed by factions.

There are three goals with this project:

• To take the tired "post-apocalyptic" premise and turn it on its head with a unique storyline, setting and characters.
  To motivate and inspire the use of the modern/future-themed geredrethM template.
  To create an enjoyable and interesting game through a world and atmosphere worth exploring.
  

Rage City
The entire world of the game is set within this massive urban city. It is "ruled" by twelve guilds- each named for a calendar month. Everybody in the city is a member of- or works for members of- the guilds. The only way to avoid an allegiance is to join the "thirteenth guild" - the police force that serves to uphold the law and balance between the twelve. For the most part the guilds exist in harmony- there are some long-standing grudges and there are some alliances, although each guild tends to stick to its own purpose. However, because of the strength of this guild dynamic, there is very little room for individuality among the citizens.




Vyate Cole
Age: 36
Weapon: Gun
Vyate is a police officer in Rage City. Divorced, and the father of one son, he lives alone in a small apartment where he does nothing but sleep and work. After he arrests a unique Guildless criminal, his son and ex-wife disappear, and an unfamiliar name- Elliot Boon- begins to haunt his dreams.


Salt Magnum
Guild: RCPD
Age: 24
Weapon: Sword
Salt is arrested by Vyate early on, and seems to know more about things than he lets on. He manages to convince Vyate that his help is needed if Vyate wants to find his son. He is one of the few Guildless, people who somehow make a living in the city without any allegiance or employment to the guilds.


Quay
Guild: January
Age: 27
Weapon: Sickle
Quay is a member of the January Guild and - like Vyate - has recently become aware of a name that she has never heard before. She hopes that she too will be able to find the answers that she is looking for, and her high status in the January Guild proves useful to Vyate's quest.


Bruno Riot
Guild: March
Age: 48
Weapon: Fists
Riot is an ironworker in the Magnet Mines of the March Guild. Like the others, he too has been plagued by a name. However, he tries to distance himself from it, and as he does so, it eats its way more and more into him, forcing him to go slightly mad. He has to resolve to find the identity behind it.


Juno Wulfrum
Guild: Guildless (formerly July)
Age: 29
Juno is a historian and professor of pre-apocalypse history at one of Rage City's two universities. He has severed all ties from the December Guild and has become Guildless. His goal, based on his research into pre- and post-apocalyptic lore, is to locate the artifacts of the apocalypse and use them to undo the damage that had been done to the world. He is a character that Vyate and his party will run into throughout the game.


Claude Vertigo
Guild: October
Age: 32
Claude is working against Juno, with the goal of finding the artifacts in order to prevent the apocalypse from being undone. A member of the October Guild, he also seems to have past ties to Salt, as he hints at the same mysterious knowledge that Salt seems to have some grasp of. Like Juno, he is knowledgeable about the world before the apocalypse, however he doesn't share Juno's reverence of the "old world", instead seeing the current post-apocalyptic society as a second chance at creating a utopia on Earth.


Ariabel
Guild: November
Age: 30
Weapon: Summon Jewels
The former Queen of the November Guild, she was kidnapped by members of the June (this might change) Guild. The kidnapping Guild wanted to study her, because she--and members of her family--emit a unique signal to members of the November Guild, effectively creating an antlike colony mentality. Presumed dead by everyone in the city, she has recently escaped from her captors and is in hiding.


Deiji Cress
Guild: Feburary
Age: 24
Weapon: Claws
Deiji is a priest of the Feburary Sect, a religion that worships gods of time and values the concept of reincarnation. In the past he earned a reputation as violent and ill-tempered, traits that he has since managed to subdue by taking up watercolor painting. Still, when his faith is questioned, flashes of his old temper may break through his otherwise calm exterior.


Syracuse
Guild: RCPD
Age: 38
The chief of police in the North Precinct, and thus Vyate's boss. She does what she can to help him find what he is looking for, but she can be very strict about Vyate getting his job done. She is very motivated to remain tough on inter-guild crime, and is an advocate for forming alliances with the more peaceful Guilds.


Webster
Guild: January
The leader of the elitist January Guild, Webster is essentially a mobster. He's very relaxed and laid-back, and relies on a very large network of connections and his wealth to remain in a position of very high authority in Rage City.



A Social RPG
As I've already said, the entirety of the game takes place within Rage City. A lot of this deals with interacting with the Guilds and their members. The gameplay is focused heavily on "social exploration" among the city and its citizens. The thirteen dungeons in the game (one for each guild) do have traditional combat (all combat takes place in dungeons, except for maybe some special boss fights) and puzzle elements- however they will also be populated with NPC characters. Most of these dungeons will also have to be revisited multiple times throughout the game. Backtracking and reaching new areas is integral to the way Rage City is explored- some areas may be visited multiple times and be different each time.


The World as Fiction
This is a storyline aspect that I really enjoy, and calls into question the most basic assumptions about characters in fiction. It will be presented as a gradual twist throughout the game. As Vyate and the characters progress they learn the identities behind these strange names. Vyate, Quay, Riot and others become aware that they are characters in a work of fiction (I'm going to heavily imply that it is a play rather than a videogame, something that will be echoed in many features), and these names that they are wrestling with are the actors who are playing them. Is Vyate Cole really Vyate Cole? Or is Vyate Cole just a character being played by Elliot Boon? Does Vyate even have a son and ex-wife, or are they characters that simply exist to give him a backstory?

The characters in the game (all of the major characters except Salt, whose role I don't want to spoil) have to gradually come to terms with the possibility that they do not exist, but are only being "acted" by other people, and that their entire world may be a fiction created by a Playwright.

Brainstorming time!

Battles and Party
Battles are going to be set up similar to battles in Paper Mario, framed with an audience in the foreground. The main party can only have three members in it at a time--outside of battle, there will be a "backstage" area where you can switch party members as well as do other things that would alter the gameplay (I have some preliminary ideas where moving different props would affect the placement of obstacles on the regular maps, haven't put much thought into it yet).

The audience would have an effect on the battle. In Paper Mario they can throw things at people on the stage, causing damage or giving items that restore HP. I might incorporate something similar.

I am also thinking of having reward money be awarded based on how good the "performance" is (ie. the audience likes lots of flashy special moves or really enjoy a fight that brings characters to the brink of death), and varies based on the size of the crowd. I think it'd to a lot to avoid the "why does this cave bat have money on him" thing.

Skills
Each character has a group of "core" Special Effect skills. These are the basic elemental skills that characters learn as they level up. These would mostly likely all be basic damage skills.

A good number of Guild-based skills will be learnable through events and social interaction (I'm thinking two for each Guild, one in the Guild house and one in the Guild's dungeon). All playable characters have the same capacity to learn these abilities, it's up to the player to determine who gets what. These would probably be support abilities, such as healing, inflicting status conditions, raising/lowering stats, etc.

Each character also has a Final Act skill, which would be usable only when the character's MP is depleted and uses HP as an alternate resource. I plan for these to be incredibly unique and not just "big super attack"--for example, adding up all the HP of all players (heroes and enemies) and then dividing it evenly between everybody. Just some ideas.

Rage City and Dungeons
I want the dungeons in the game to be a definite part of the game's world. As I've already said, the entire game takes place within one massive city, and the dungeons are a part of that (ie a power plant, an ore mine, waterworks). The dungeons are going to have multiple entrances/exits in the city--in some cases, dungeons might be spaced throughout the entire city and not restricted to one area. There will be NPCs in dungeons, and backtracking will play a role. Dungeons are not separated temples spread throughout the land--they are not areas of their own that feel like they are cut off from culture.

Essentially, the only difference between dungeons and non-dungeon areas will be the presence of combat. There will be no fighting in the city areas.

NPCs
These guys will usually have a role to play. All NPCs in dungeons will matter (I can think of puzzles already where you have to work with other human beings rather than just push blocks around). NPCs have Guild allegiances, as everybody in the city works for or is a member of one of the guilds. Unfortunately I will be re-using graphics for a lot of them, but I plan to name and give backstories to a LOT of "nobody" characters, if only for the sake of fleshing out the world. I've said it lots of times and want to stress it again--much of the gameplay in this involves interacting with different people in the environment.

Juno and Claude
The game will have a sub-plot taken from one of my many other projects. Juno Wulfrum and Claude Vertigo are competing to find artifacts that they believe will be able to "undo" the apocalypse. Their storyline will weave in and out of the main storyline.

I want to do this to give the players a feeling of not being main characters for once (which is a lot of what the storyline is about). Your main storyline is about Vyate's personal quest to discover his identity. Juno's storyline is about collecting artifacts to save the world, one that would seem like the more obvious choice for an RPG plot. By being observers to this, I want to give the player the feeling of looking at the more conventional RPG games from the other side.

Creatures!
If you accept an offer from one of the Guild leaders, you will be given an egg. It will hatch after time, and then you will have to take care of the creature that is born (food, happiness, etc. think tamagotchi). It'll hang out in your inventory menu, and you can use it to sniff around and dig up hidden items that would make the game a lot easier. This is a feature from that old game that I am incorporating into Playwright (the one where Juno and Claude were main characters).

It might also have a role in battle- maybe as it grows, Vyate could learn skills that command the creature to fight. I haven't put much thought into that aspect yet.

The game doesn't have much for it yet beyond extensive planning. As I've said, this project doubles as a vehicle for producing my geredrethM RTP, so I can't show any screens or anything until I've done some more graphics. Please, give me whatever sort of feedback you can - especially the aspect of fiction and reality. This is a very early stage for the idea, so questions and criticism are definitely welcome.