Monday, March 17, 2014

I seem to go through phases where in order to re-energize myself to work on JtW, I go off on another idea in my attempt to actually finish something as a confidence booster. Which is all well and good....until I don't finish and am right back where I started. Nothing. All the greatest ideas and stories are nothing without implementation.

In my naive optimism, I stand to create yet another small/short adventure. "Aren't you just procrastinating again, bard?" Perhaps, but I am hopeful that this one will be done in a week. To force myself on this, I shall keep a blog of my progress to see if that'll make a difference. I want to do game development for a living some day. Kind of hard to do that if I never finish what I start lol Let the experiment begin.

I started making the game Saturday night. The gist is as follows:

A boy named William is new to the small village and makes friends with an adventurous girl named Kayla. While exploring the western forest, which is against the rules of the village, Kayla is taken by the vines of a plant monster. The villagers can't find her and feeling responsible for what happened, William breaks the rules again and searches the forest to rescue his friend. With the help of Michael, a young priest in training, and Lauren, a reclusive witch girl, William will hunt down the monster that kidnapped his friend and hopefully rescue her before it's too late.

Now, I've tried my best to keep it simple. I'm not going to use facesets or anything fancy at this time because I feel that the more picky I am the longer this project is going to take. If I finish and still have time, then I might but I want to focus on the gameplay and actually have something people can play. Kind of important in a video game, don't you think? In the spirit of keeping it simple I have decided to only have 4 skills available for each character. They are children so I tried to keep them appropriate:

William
-Throw rock, Big damage, chance to miss, unless stunned then it's 100% hit
-Hit with stick, chance to hit twice
-Kick, If target is frozen, kick to kill instantly; otherwise, single target damage with a chance to stun. Think kick to shins.
-Cover, When covering, your defense goes up. Something about your sense of justice ;)

Kayla
-Not-so-girly punch, Does more damage if stunned
-Not-so-girly kick, High chance of stun, does good damage
-Hit with stick, less damage per hit than Will; two hits normally, three if she has a temper
-Temper, raises attack, allows for Not-so-girly Punch or Kick, lasts three turns

Michael
Healing Light (takes a turn to recharge the light) heals hp and cleanses status effects
Smiting Light (takes a turn to recharge the light)
Focus (takes a turn, then next turn allows you to heal or smite all enemies or allies x1.5/2.0)
Stick of Light (If the light is within you, it'll do damage + holy damage. If not, then just normal damage which isn't that much; if focused you deal more holy damage and don't lose the light just the focus next turn)

Note: "The light" is a status buff that will be returned at the beginning of the next turn after he uses something that gets rid of it. While he doesn't have the light, he is weak and susceptible to damage. As long as he has the light he has a health regen that counters his weakness. He will have no mana. Everything is done via the light status.

Lauren
-Icy Touch (Chance to freeze, small damage) Cheapest mana cost, slimes are the most susceptible to freeze, single target
-Tiny Flame (Chance to burn, small damage) Next cheapest mana cost, the final boss is pretty susceptible to this. Burn stops his powerful attacks and the regen of his minions, single target
-Rock Barrage (Throws several rocks; straight damage dealing, same as throw rock though with the miss chance) medium cost, random targets
-Wind Sphere (Chance to blow them away/kill no xp, if doesn't blow away it does moderate damage.) most expensive hits all enemies, blow away doesn't work on final boss but it does on his minions.

Battle System notes:
-There is no standard attack, only skills.
-You can defend and it will give you a bit of health
-There is no cost for skills, except for Michael's Light which is explained in his section
-Lauren's magic is up in the air at the moment. Consistency tells me to not let her have cost either but I might give her 100 mana and simply have a significant mana regen similar to Michael's health regen.
-No items or equipment, for simplicity sake
-Heal to full after battle

Enemies:

Slimes, Highly susceptible to Frozen status; decent amount of life;
1. Tackle, single target moderate damage
2. Mitosis, create two slimes each with half the hp of the original slime but the same stats otherwise.

Rats
1. Knaw, jumps a target and chews on them for 1-2 turns during which the target can't move; the rat while doing this can only knaw so they won't knaw and then tiny bite or knaw two at once.
2. Tiny bite, single target moderate damage

Giant Bees: Weak against rocks; added once Michael joins up
1. A poison sting, poison target + moderate damage
2. Multiple hit attack, single target 1-3 hits

Bats, Weak against light; in the cave leading up to the boss fight
1. Vampire bite, moderate damage that heals the user for that amount
2. Ultrasonic (bit of damage with a chance of stun)


Final Battle:
2 x Giant Bees + Flower monster,
1. Spiked vines, Hits 2-3 randomly, good amount of damage each
2. Wrap, like knaw but will disengage with burning the flower monster, single target
3. Pollen, Hazy status which is like being blind, chance all targets
4. Nasty Nectar, Stunned & Poisoned status, single target moderate damage

Note: As long as the flower monster is in play, at the end of turn the Giant Bees will heal to full by sucking it's nectar. The Flower Monster will have a good amount of life & can do a lot of damage/status effects to the party; however, if you set it on fire it will cry out in pain 50% of the time while it's burning and the nectar will not flow for the giant bees making them easy pickings. Every 2-3 turns after both bees are downed more bees will come to replace them.

Scope:

You have the village, the western forest, the northern forest to Lauren's hut, and the cave where the monster is. I have attached a VERY basic idea with circles that represent maps. The circle with the V is the village. You'll notice colored lines connecting the circles, they simply represent who is with William when he originally travels those areas. Pink for Kayla, Yellow for Michael, and Red for Lauren. The pink X is where Kayla is kidnapped. The red circle is the cave with the plant monster but isn't available until you get Lauren's help to find the hidden cave(inaccessible even if you stumble upon it because you need her fire magic to open the path). The yellow X is where Michael leaves you because being near the witch is kind of against his religion. Ultimately, the whole team will come together in the cave for the fight against the plant monster.

Thoughts? Critiques? Suggestions? Feel free to comment below :)