While playing Chrono Trigger with someone who isn't into video games we decided to make a game with a focus on story. An RPG seemed like the place to start and then we settled on an art style: hand drawn everything scanned in. One world will be drawn with colored pencils, another with markers, another with pen, crayon, etc... we're going 2d side scrolling. The decision was made to de-emphasize combat and increase the puzzle solving. Inventory management only makes sense if there is a lot of combat so the typical RPG system had to get thrown out. So that's where we are headed now: a story-driven game with a lot of fetch quests and puzzles, with occasional combat that isn't about managing resources. Now about the details: Inventory management is out for combat so I am thinking that it should be physics based. I'm thinking that each character can have a cool weapon that he can use as much as he wants, and you have to aim it. Then depending on gravity, wind, obstacles, distance, etc... you hit your target. So one character might have a mortar which launches in a parabola, another might roll a bowling ball, a third might release a hawk. It will be a little like Worms. Due to non-combat gameplay concerns, the art style and my desire actually finish the programming, the terrain won't be destructable as in Worms. There might be a few objects that can break though. Party size will be two. I know that it is small for an RPG but any more and the battlefield will get crowded. There will be two main characters and several minor characters. Non combat... hmmm I am not sure how to make this fun. King's Quest VI seemed so cool... but really it is just a bunch of fetching and talking to people. I know that it can be fun, but there doesn't seem to be any real rule. It seems that the real fun doesn't come from gameplay but from story. The game is just a way to unlock the story. I would appreciate your feedback.

One thing to assist the player out would be the ability to switch the two party members with people of other classes to somehow balance the class types. (Consider if there are classes in your concept.)

> One thing to assist the player out would be the ability to switch the two party members with people of other classes to somehow balance the class types. (Consider if there are classes in your concept.)

What do you mean by switch the two party members? I am already planning to have the characters switch in and out of the party as the game progresses to keep things interesting, is that what you mean? For example about a 1/3 of the game you will have the two main characters. For another third you will have the first main character and one of the other characters. The other third of the game you will have the second main character and one of the other characters. I'm not going to have classes but each character will have unique abilities.

This sounds interesting - I especially like the proposed art style.

I don't have time to post an in-depth response, but was wondering if you have ever played Cave Story, since your idea seems to have some parallels? CS was a side-scrolling, story-driven game with some action and RPG-like elements which I think pulled things off pretty nicely.

Quote:Original post by Glak
> One thing to assist the player out would be the ability to switch the two party members with people of other classes to somehow balance the class types. (Consider if there are classes in your concept.)

What do you mean by switch the two party members? I am already planning to have the characters switch in and out of the party as the game progresses to keep things interesting, is that what you mean? For example about a 1/3 of the game you will have the two main characters. For another third you will have the first main character and one of the other characters. The other third of the game you will have the second main character and one of the other characters. I'm not going to have classes but each character will have unique abilities.

That once you find the new characters, you can switch your party members at any time. I hated that you couldn't in Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest. Worst game ever.

Wavy: I haven't heard of Cave Story. I'll look into it for ideas. Thanks. Also we have a small bit of art done and I think that it looks really good. It is very memory intensive so I am a little worried about that but oh well.

Cos: The game is going to be highly story-driven so I think that it would be much easier to decide which memebers are in the party instead of letting the player decide. I am playing through Chrono Trigger right now and I would enjoy it more if they had taken that freedom away.

Quote:Original post by Glak
Cos: The game is going to be highly story-driven so I think that it would be much easier to decide which memebers are in the party instead of letting the player decide. I am playing through Chrono Trigger right now and I would enjoy it more if they had taken that freedom away.

I can understand that, making the player strategize with their materials. Since you're playing Chrono Trigger, you also noticed you could switch there too. That was where I was coming from.