Some people may have remembered that I posted a thread almost a year ago about how I was going to get back into the Verge scene and try to redo Rainbow Despair. Well, as fate would have it, real life started getting crazy about that time: I left the country, got a new job (teaching English in Taiwan), and didn't have access to my own computer for several months (although I could borrow the work computer for internet surfing). Well, I bought a new computer recently and lo and behold, Verge 3 and all the necessary sub programs appear to work perfectly on it so voila! I have returned from the dead!
Although my original plan last year was to try to reuse some of my old code from Rainbow Despair, I've since realized how ineffective that would be since my code wasn't very well designed (it was my first major programming effort). Verge 3 works differently than Verge 2, and well, I wrote that code over 6 years ago so I don't really remember all that much about it. Plus, I want to implement lots of cool new stuff so it'd be better to start from scratch anyway.
I've been reading the documentation and messing around with a Sully map trying out different code these past couple of days and I'm very pleased with Verge 3 so far. Maybe some of these features were in Verge 2 and I just didn't realize it, but I think stuff like the various translucency effects & the fact that joysticks are automatically supported without any additional coding is awesome. I'm so excited! I've been working on various aspects of the game design and I think I'll actually start writing honest to goodness real code that I intend to use in the finished game tomorrow.
I am not going to be remaking Rainbow Despair. Rather, I had an idea for a novel that was running around in my head and then I realized, "Hey, this story idea would work even better as a traditional RPG!" Since I don't have a playable demo at the moment, I figured I'd share some of the ideas that I plan on implementing.
First off, the game is called MaZoGiDeSto: A Magical Zombie Girl Detective Story. Like Rainbow Despair, the main character is once again a girl named Molly, however this time she's a detective. And um, a zombie. Yeah. Needless to say, I'm not going for a serious feel.
Not only is Molly the main character, but she's also the narrator. How this works is that I'm going to have narrator stats: namely Storytelling LV, Creativity Points, and Suspension of Disbelief points. Creativity Points are essentially Storytelling XP: you gain them for achieving certain goals in the game (like getting to a certain point in a story or seeing a certain ending) and when you get enough, your Storytelling LV goes up. At various points in the game, you will be able to change the flow of the story, but certain options will only be available if your Storytelling level is high enough. Suspension of Disbelief Points act like a sort of Storytelling MP. You can spend them to utilize various Suspension of Disbelief abilities (which you learn by increasing your Storytelling level).
Now, how this all works together is that at any time, you'll have the option of scrapping the current story "draft" and restarting the game. Storytelling LV & Creativity points carry over and Suspension of Disbelief points are restored to max (this is the only way to restore them). Through choosing different storyline paths (unlocked by having a high enough Storytelling level) and using your Suspension of Disbelief points wisely, you will be able to make the story go in drastically different directions.
Basically, my idea is to have a single story draft take only around 2-10 hours, but there will be many different (drastically different sometimes) paths to go through the game so really "beating" the game (having a max Storytelling level) will take many playthroughs and end up taking a good chunk of time.
As for combat, I'm going to use a turn based system with character order depending on speed (faster characters get more moves). Here's a link to the quick battle screen layout I drew up last night:
Rather than including a bunch of status effects that don't do anything 99% of the time, characters and enemies also have a % stat which shows how effective their moves are. It starts out 100% in each battle and goes down when damaged or using forbidden techniques. It restores somewhat each turn automatically, restores faster when defending, and can also be restored through the use of certain abilities & items. Some abilities & equipment will be more effective at dealing damage to the % meter and so taking advantage of the % meter will be an important part of strategy.
Also as that battle screen mockup indicates, I'm not planning on including any battle animations (well, besides menus & maybe a simple damage indicator). These battles are going to be as fast as you can input commands. Fast = fun in my book. :D
Okay, I think those are all the major gameplay & story elements that I'm really excited at the moment. Suggestions and comments are welcome. Unlike my post a year ago, I'll be sure to keep people informed this time around as to how things are going & I'll be sure to post a demo as soon as I have something that's worth playing (i.e. I'll probably upload a demo as soon as I have a basic non-branching storyline path fully playable).
