KIANA'S PROFILE

author=Neok
Anyone else like this? Typically, most intros will establish a setting, introduce the main character and his/her situation, then maybe drop you into a tutorial or two before finally letting you take proper control and explore the game. Am I alone in thinking this is the absolute worst way to hook your players?

I think it's more a matter of how the game provides the information before you take control, rather than whether or not it does it.

Taking too long or dumping too much information onto the player right out of the gate is definitely a poor way of handling it. Taking 5~ minutes to set up the fundamental information and establish who we'll be playing for the game is good if it's presented in an engaging and succinct way. A lecture is terrible, a demonstration is good.

For example, a lot of the Atelier games start off with a brief explanation of what "alchemy" refers to in the setting, gives a little information about the state of the town/country you'll be in and usually shows the main character going about their daily routine while telling you this, so you get to see the town a bit and see how they interact with people at the start of the game.

Atelier Rorona and Atelier Totori are good examples of this. It takes a little while before you actually get control of your character, but that time is well spent on giving you just the essential information, showing some nice scenery and giving you a feel for the main character. Within ten minutes, you'll have a basic grasp of their personality and their place in the world, and it's usually pretty organic instead of STAR WARS TEXT SCROLL OF IRRELEVANT INFORMATION.

author=Pizza
If you plan on buying it, DEFINITELY don't pay full price. I mean, no one game is worth ~50$ but this really isn't.

I might be willing to pay $50 for the pair*. That's like one game.

* I'm not actually doing this. I don't have a 3DS and I still haven't finished Soul Silver, which I picked up nearly two years ago.

Makes me yearn for more fan games.

author=LockeZ
Star Wars confirmed for Kingdom Hearts 3:

The photoshops just get dumber and dumber... I'm already sick of hearing about the new Star Wars.

I've spent the last two weeks (give or take a day) working on a game inspired by one of my childhood passions. It's definitely still in the planning stage, as most of my time and energy has gone towards figuring out the general plot and key characters.

Also implementing scripts and removing any scripts that I initially felt would be a good addition, but no longer fit once I got a more concrete idea of the mechanics I was after. A few compromises had to be made due to script incompatibilities, but that's why I'm working this out first.

Somewhere in between all of that, I made the world map. It was a fun break.

On the mechanics side of things, I've reduced the number of stats. Each character only has four: Power, Resistance, Speed and Energy. Energy works as both HP and MP, so there's an inherent risk in using powerful but costly spells. I did a little window adjusting to make some of the menus look a bit nicer with the reduced number of stats (and increased number of equipment slots), which was also quite fun. Though occasionally frustrating.

I'm also employing a Pokemon-esque system where losing a battle just teleports you somewhere safe. So failure just means you lose some cash (based on the total party level) and have to run through that dungeon again, but you keep any exp and items you picked up.

Today, I took a break to start drawing some art assets for the game. Below is one of them.

Over a decade of practice and hands are still impossible to get right. Even I reduce the number of digits.
You will probably find out very quickly that I have a fondness for white hair.

Hopefully, it will be my first submission to RMN. And with some (possibly a lot) of luck, it will be my first completed game.

I like risk vs reward when I have the option to take the risk or not.

In Fire Emblem, for example, I frequently have to ask myself "Do I use the weaker but more accurate weapon to kill the enemy in two hits, but take one myself, or do I use the stronger weapon to kill them in one shot and avoid damage, but with the risk of missing?" Though this is simplified, since I usually have to consider if the character can survive getting attacked multiple times in a turn from one-rounding enemies.

But regardless, if I have a choice, and I win the choices I make, then it feels good. If I don't have a choice and I win, it's not fulfilling. If I don't have a choice and I lose, then it's frustrating. Which happens on some early maps in Fire Emblem games, as I may only have one or two characters even capable of harming a boss, due to a lack of options to train or outfit my group.