Oh god what have I done
Jul. 1st, 2009 01:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
majutsukaiSo. In what appears to be a temporary lapse in sanity, I've decided that I think I want to revive my old game project, Project Oracle. REMEMBER THAT OLD THING, GUYS?
I'm a much better writer now, I have a better handle on the difference between good ideas and bad ideas, I know a bit more about game design, I have better access to sound and graphics assets, and I generally know my head from my ass much better when it comes to technology than I was in High School when I started this thing. I'm kinda dying to get my hands dirty and make this thing not suck.
I still don't know how to balance a game, though, orz. I guess I'll have to improvise. Unless anyone knows how to balance stats in RPG Maker 2003? Heh, yeah, I'm not banking on it. Right now the game is on the wrong side of way too fucking easy.
However. What started as a self-insertion story involving me and my friends, I think I'm going to revise into an original story with original characters. Characters BASED on me and my friends, granted, but the cheese factor should be significantly reduced.
The basic story's still contrived and unoriginal, but I think I'm going to stop caring. I'm sure a lampshade here and there will make it all better. 8D
So here's the stuff I need to fix. The game has:
>>>A gigantic cast of "main characters". I've only got four of them implemented, but the planned total size of the cast was twelve. The cast split into three parties of four characters each for pretty much the entire (planned) game. I think I need to lower this number. Hell, most of the planned characters are people I haven't spoken to in years anyway.
So I'm thinking I'm going to drop at least four characters from the final lineup. So we have three parties of three or less. I don't know yet who I'm going to base each individual character on yet, or who I'm putting in what party, but this thing needs badly to be ripped out and reconstructed.
>>>A stupidly convoluted system of Elemental magic. I based the magic system on Final Fantasy, but the final number of elements was-- wait for it-- fourteen. Each playable character had a unique element, and there were two additional "neutral" elements for healing magic and non-elemental attack magic. They were all arranged in opposing pairs, with fire/ice, lightning/water, earth/wind, etc. And another problem? There was only like three or four spells for each element. (e.g. Fire, Fira, Firaga.)
I have two ideas to improve this. First, if I reduce the number of characters, that'll reduce the number of elements; so far, so good. But I'm also considering switching to a Shin Megami Tensei/Persona-style magic system instead of a Final Fantasy-based one, which would double the number of spells for each element (instead of Fire/Fira/Firaga, I would have Agi, Maragi, Agilao, Maragilao, Agidyne, Maragidyne). I can easily dig out spells from older SMT games for the more obscure elements if I need to. I might just use the SMT system, but keep the Final Fantasy naming scheme, modifying it for the full-party spells (Fire, Mass Fire, Fira, Mass Fira, etc.).
Also, the non-elemental magic needs some tuning up. Right now, there's only Cure, Cura, Curaga, and Meteor. I'm gonna need to add some variety here. More buffs, debuffs, and other stuff will need to be added. I have plenty of ideas for this, and I'm always open to suggestions too.
I might even add an Almighty element. If I use the Final Fantasy naming scheme, though, it'll be called Pearl (as a vague homage to the original translation of FF6).
>>>Lame dialogue. Honestly, what was I thinking? Such a gigantic cast of characters, and not a single personality between them. Mostly I was afraid to get too adventurous with characterization because I was working with real people, and I didn't want to "get them wrong"; with the scrapping of the "real people" aspect, this shouldn't be a problem anymore.
And slightly related to that,
>>>Almost zero character variation. Except for a few subtle stat variations, most of the characters were practically the same character. Basically, each character had their own element, and an element would favor the growth of one stat and suppress the growth of another; for instance, the character with Earth would have high Defense but low Speed. Otherwise, all they would get is the same elemental spells, varying only in their particular element. Also, basic healing spells could be bought in shops and given to individual characters at will. Which sounds like it would support character customization, but in reality, all it did was make them more identical-- there really was no excuse not to just give every spell to every character. I need to fix this system up and add some variation.
>>>STUPID STATS. Most random encounters give either too little or too much EXP, are incredibly easy and slow (I think Slimes have like two minutes between each turn. O.o), and maybe a bit too common for my liking. Also, character stats vary erratically. I may have to read up on RM2K3 stat calculations in order to fix this.
>>>Too much pre-made content. All RPG Makers come with a "Run Time Package" of sounds, graphics, special effects, and other things pre-made for people who don't want to make their own. For the most part, I was pretty good about this, but I still relied on the pre-made stuff for a lot of things, and as far as I'm concerned, I need to use none of it. Luckily, I have a HUGE selection of sound effects and sprites/graphics at my disposal now, so I should be able to polish this thing right up, with a little work.
Now, why am I posting all of this here? basically, I am open to suggestions, ideas, and requests. Even if it's just "I like this idea, but I don't like this idea so much." That's what made this project so fun to work on back in the day-- my friends were in on the idea-making process, even if it was only feedback.
So yeah.
^ Check out the cut if you're interested in the details of the game.
I'm a much better writer now, I have a better handle on the difference between good ideas and bad ideas, I know a bit more about game design, I have better access to sound and graphics assets, and I generally know my head from my ass much better when it comes to technology than I was in High School when I started this thing. I'm kinda dying to get my hands dirty and make this thing not suck.
I still don't know how to balance a game, though, orz. I guess I'll have to improvise. Unless anyone knows how to balance stats in RPG Maker 2003? Heh, yeah, I'm not banking on it. Right now the game is on the wrong side of way too fucking easy.
However. What started as a self-insertion story involving me and my friends, I think I'm going to revise into an original story with original characters. Characters BASED on me and my friends, granted, but the cheese factor should be significantly reduced.
The basic story's still contrived and unoriginal, but I think I'm going to stop caring. I'm sure a lampshade here and there will make it all better. 8D
So here's the stuff I need to fix. The game has:
>>>A gigantic cast of "main characters". I've only got four of them implemented, but the planned total size of the cast was twelve. The cast split into three parties of four characters each for pretty much the entire (planned) game. I think I need to lower this number. Hell, most of the planned characters are people I haven't spoken to in years anyway.
So I'm thinking I'm going to drop at least four characters from the final lineup. So we have three parties of three or less. I don't know yet who I'm going to base each individual character on yet, or who I'm putting in what party, but this thing needs badly to be ripped out and reconstructed.
>>>A stupidly convoluted system of Elemental magic. I based the magic system on Final Fantasy, but the final number of elements was-- wait for it-- fourteen. Each playable character had a unique element, and there were two additional "neutral" elements for healing magic and non-elemental attack magic. They were all arranged in opposing pairs, with fire/ice, lightning/water, earth/wind, etc. And another problem? There was only like three or four spells for each element. (e.g. Fire, Fira, Firaga.)
I have two ideas to improve this. First, if I reduce the number of characters, that'll reduce the number of elements; so far, so good. But I'm also considering switching to a Shin Megami Tensei/Persona-style magic system instead of a Final Fantasy-based one, which would double the number of spells for each element (instead of Fire/Fira/Firaga, I would have Agi, Maragi, Agilao, Maragilao, Agidyne, Maragidyne). I can easily dig out spells from older SMT games for the more obscure elements if I need to. I might just use the SMT system, but keep the Final Fantasy naming scheme, modifying it for the full-party spells (Fire, Mass Fire, Fira, Mass Fira, etc.).
Also, the non-elemental magic needs some tuning up. Right now, there's only Cure, Cura, Curaga, and Meteor. I'm gonna need to add some variety here. More buffs, debuffs, and other stuff will need to be added. I have plenty of ideas for this, and I'm always open to suggestions too.
I might even add an Almighty element. If I use the Final Fantasy naming scheme, though, it'll be called Pearl (as a vague homage to the original translation of FF6).
>>>Lame dialogue. Honestly, what was I thinking? Such a gigantic cast of characters, and not a single personality between them. Mostly I was afraid to get too adventurous with characterization because I was working with real people, and I didn't want to "get them wrong"; with the scrapping of the "real people" aspect, this shouldn't be a problem anymore.
And slightly related to that,
>>>Almost zero character variation. Except for a few subtle stat variations, most of the characters were practically the same character. Basically, each character had their own element, and an element would favor the growth of one stat and suppress the growth of another; for instance, the character with Earth would have high Defense but low Speed. Otherwise, all they would get is the same elemental spells, varying only in their particular element. Also, basic healing spells could be bought in shops and given to individual characters at will. Which sounds like it would support character customization, but in reality, all it did was make them more identical-- there really was no excuse not to just give every spell to every character. I need to fix this system up and add some variation.
>>>STUPID STATS. Most random encounters give either too little or too much EXP, are incredibly easy and slow (I think Slimes have like two minutes between each turn. O.o), and maybe a bit too common for my liking. Also, character stats vary erratically. I may have to read up on RM2K3 stat calculations in order to fix this.
>>>Too much pre-made content. All RPG Makers come with a "Run Time Package" of sounds, graphics, special effects, and other things pre-made for people who don't want to make their own. For the most part, I was pretty good about this, but I still relied on the pre-made stuff for a lot of things, and as far as I'm concerned, I need to use none of it. Luckily, I have a HUGE selection of sound effects and sprites/graphics at my disposal now, so I should be able to polish this thing right up, with a little work.
Now, why am I posting all of this here? basically, I am open to suggestions, ideas, and requests. Even if it's just "I like this idea, but I don't like this idea so much." That's what made this project so fun to work on back in the day-- my friends were in on the idea-making process, even if it was only feedback.
So yeah.
^ Check out the cut if you're interested in the details of the game.
