RINE'S PROFILE

More of a general question, does anyone know of a good listing of the various variables and objects in scripting at various times? I'm having a bit of an issue scripting due to not exactly knowing how to call certain things and what variables they might have. For example, I had an issue earlier today with a script not working...because in battle, after an ability is called 'self' refers to the battle script, not to the user of the spell. So self.remove_state(x) bugged out, but user.remove_state(x) worked fine. Are monsters stored as an array I can call with a script? How about states, what variables do they have?

Hopefully someone has an article or website I can check for these things ^^;

So something I've noticed a lot in these forums, and always made me curious: Why do people want to keep their ideas a secret when they post about them, especially when wanting to recruit others?

Admittedly, it always seems to be a new poster comes on, posts about an idea they want to do, but not give details, and then asking for scripting help or sprites.

It boggles my mind, I guess because a rather large thing that got drilled into me was 'fail early, fail often' in the few design courses I've taken. The basic theory is if its testable, test it as early as possible, so you can find out the flaws before it grows so large that they become unfixable. Simple things like making sure your jumping mechanics are right, or that your combat system feels right. It also works for ideas though, get your ideas out in front of as many people as possible, so people can point out flaws in them. Story, systems, all of those should be vetted as much as possible, and as early as possible.

I guess often people think that their one big idea is so amazing they don't want others to steal it, but don't realize that everyone else is working on their own ideas. In addition, most of the time people think their idea is new...when its not "Card game based RPG!" *points to the SNES DBZ game*. Games are more about execution than unique ideas. Pretty much every game nowadays, no matter how unique, can have their ideas traced back to something else.

Maybe I'm missing something?

...for introductions, I guess?

Hey all, I generally go by Rine in most internet forums nowadays. Always been an aspiring game designer since I was much younger, though my college experience told me working in the industry was definitely not where I wanted to be. I currently teach English/Science in Korea at a semi-government facility. Since this place actually pays on time and is pretty much guaranteed long term, I finally have time to work on personal projects.

Previously, I have designed some tabletop games for use among my circle of friends as well as coding for a MUD in the past. I consider myself a perpetual student of game design. I will play pretty much everything, because I feel most games, even some reasonably bad ones, have things we can learn from. My coding and design style tends to be taking elements from various mediums/works, and rehashing them to put them together in new and interesting ways. As such, I tend to learn better when I watch people do something, or look at someone else's work, and mix it around to make it do what I want it to do. Examples being taking a waterfall auto-move code in the MUD I worked on, and redesigning it so it could be used for a sliding trap area, or taking code that caused an enemy to counter-attack certain spells, and changing it so it made a boss monster change forms instead.

I am always up for testing other games if wanted, though I will be brutally honest if I don't like portions of your design.

Hello everyone,

As I have exhausted my personal contacts in my search for an artist, it now comes to posting for one.

I am currently working on my first professional game project (and first video game project), Binding Wyrds. The game setting is modern, supernatural horror, with game play being a JRPG with trappings of a strategy game/visual novel. The game itself is based off of a tabletop RPG I designed, which itself was based on the works of Kinoko Nasu. However, Binding Wyrds itself is not a fan-game, but taking the concepts I started in the tabletop RPG and expanding it into a full fledged IP of its own. The concept entails a player sending their team of characters on missions, while balancing out giving them rest time, and sending them to support other sections in a maintaining peace role. Permanent death, finding story events for characters, and completing story arcs before a time limit will all be major gameplay factors, while normal JRPG concepts such as exploration, towns, and the like will not be included at all.

If you would like to see more, the game page is here. The game is currently in character balance testing, as I try to balance out the already numerous roster of characters versus a sampling of missions. I am making major updates fairly consistently, along with new characters/missions included in each. Currently 'finished' systems include R&D and the mission setups, while future updates will include an item crafting system, Bureaus, Mission timers, and the implementation of the story-chains instead of the current 'all missions unlocked at start' system.

Now for the job posting: Unfortunately, my skills with anything artistic are completely lacking. My talents lay more towards balance and numbers, instead of aesthetics. As such, I am looking for an artist to work with on this project. While I could finish the entire project in RTP materials and search for an artist then, I would rather the games style grow along with its system. I would also like for it to have a consistent style across all factors, including character sprites, map designs, icons, menus, etc. Someone who has experience crafting an entire look and feel of a game would be hugely preferential, as while I have some idea as to what things should look like, someone with more vision and ability to flesh things out would be a great asset.

The current scale of the project is looking to be 40 or more characters, with upwards of 200 unique Mission styled levels. The project currently has 24 characters, with many more designed and waiting to be implemented. Currently the game has around eight missions, mostly test cases, with far more designed and waiting implementation/broader changes.

This game is planned to be a commercial venture. While a long-term partner would be preferable, and I personally think would be healthier for the project as a whole, I do understand that not many would be willing to work on someone else's project in hope of future profits. If you would like to partner with me on the project, you would get an equal share of any profits when the game is released.

On the other end, if you would rather work for a commission, I am willing to pay for professional quality work. While I do not have the funds at my current job to support someone else full time, I can pay an artist for their work as they go. A necessary requirement for this is any artist that is willing to work on this project must be (within reason) willing to work long term as well. Changing artists mid stream would be severely detrimental to the work I believe.

My personal prior experience: While not a professional, I am a Computer Science major by schooling, and a game designer by hobby. I have done volunteer work for a MUD, mostly focusing on boss, weapon and combat design (given the text based nature, it was easy to design things without being artistic). I have also designed several tabletop fangames, though release was limited to my close circle of friends and whoever they wanted to show them to. I can make available any of the in-progress or finished tabletop games if it is necessary, especially given one is the inspiration for this project.

If you would be interested in the work, please PM me. If you have any questions, feel free to post them in this thread.

Thanks for your time,
Rine

I hate when topics could fit in Help me or Dev...guess this is closest?

So, I'm planning on starting my first playtest of my game this week, with a select group of volunteers. It will be for character balance/tiers and balance versus monsters, along with general feel/playstyle of various characters and whether or not players can figure them out. I already have a few things written up for them (IE, quick explanation of the pseudo-homebase set up, some game concepts that they should keep in mind but aren't currently in game IE Perma-death) along with a document for them to post thoughts and notes.

Any suggestions for running a good playtest and getting useful data from it?