RINE'S PROFILE

Hey all,

So this is more of a generic question as opposed to particular help on my game, and wasn't quite sure whether it should go here or in development, so sorry in advance if I flipped a coin badly.

I was wondering when I should shoot for posting the game I'm working on up to the website, at least for preview/blogging purposes. I know the answer isn't 'right now', given that I have one sample mission (small dungeon if you need a comparison) done and a lot of fiddly bits, but nothing that's really screen shot material, especially since until I can get a dedicated artist, I'm using RTP stuff. Should I aim for a few missions so I can show a bit of variety in what they are doing? Or should I worry less about showing unique screen shots?

Thanks in advance!

I actually didn't need a centered portrait, because effectively I'm going to turn that window into a data window, so the player can see the info about the characters before they get sent over to another location. Mine are all in the upper left corner. Good to know though in case I do need centered portraits!

I mean, I know its terribly inefficient, but I hate to ask anyone else to fix up my mistakes (more than I already have on here that is).

Hey all. Just thought we should have a topic where people discuss or talk about various RPGs with interesting design concepts, or things that have inspired you to make certain games. Interesting battle systems, magic systems, storylines, overall concepts, whatever people might take inspiration from.

As a note, when I say interesting or inspiring, I don't necessarily imply 'good'. Some of the games I've drawn a lot of inspiration from are not necessarily good, or I may not even like them all that much. They can inspire us with unique game systems or stories, even if they don't do them well on their own.

My own personal list, off the top of my head:

Metal Max Returns: An old school JRPG, never released stateside. I found it interesting that for most of the game (at least what I've played, I didn't get through much) there was no real central story, but a bunch of kill monster quests, as you were a bounty hunter. It also has tanks included in the combat, and as vehicles you ride around in.

Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsu: An RPG for the SNES, its pretty bland, very grindy, and not very likable unless you really like DBZ. However, the combat system is something I've not really seen elsewhere. You get five cards in your hand, with different symbols and numbers, symbols for the kind of attack/defense, numbers for how powerful it is. You can give those cards to up to 5 fighters (you could have far more in your team if you don't let them die, perma-death is a thing for the optional characters). It created an interesting system where you wanted to save certain special cards for boss fights, and use the cheap ones while grinding.

Legend of Mana: Not really the best Mana game, but I found the creatable map the most interesting part. Basically, each time you need to go to a new area, or finish a big quest, you get an item representing an area. You can place that area on the world map connecting to areas you've already placed. The further it is from your 'home' location, the more difficult the enemies are, and placing places next to each other might cause extra effects.

Cyber Knight 2: A cool little RPG in general, where you are commander of a starship, commanding a group of mech pilots. The upgrade system where you salvage parts from enemies is cool, the combat system itself was pretty cool with grid movement and such in a side by side RPG, and the fact that units you didn't have in party could back you up with supporting fire.

Gah! I keep overwriting variables and definitions without realizing it. I hate having overly long variable/class names, but it looks like I'll need to start doing that, just so I don't overwrite stuff in the base classes.