Next Demo: A Strategy RPG
If you follow the dev blog, I mentioned a while back that RPG Maker came out with a set of plugins that enable making a strategy (or tactical, depending on your definitions) RPG. If you're not familiar with the genre, think Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, and Final Fantasy Tactics.
I've been struggling with finding the motivation to get back to work on Maids & Masters (more on that is also on the dev blog), but I don't like not being productive, so I've been doing the database work on this new demo, which is nearly complete at this stage. The next step is to make sure combat works the way it's supposed to, then I can start implementing sub-systems and replacing placeholders with custom character assets. That unfortunately means I don't really have anything except a title logo to show you, at least for now.
This project is actually kinda special to me, because it's the first project I pitched to someone else to try and make a game out of. Before I began work on Maids & Masters, before I started joining other teams to try and bring some money in, this was the thing I wanted to make.
Granted, due to the limitations of RPG Maker, there are some things I can't implement, but I've reworked the project to accommodate what will work without really compromising the core vision, and I'm happy with what I have so far.
As for Maids & Masters - I am still working on it. I don't have enough done to share anything right now, but I'm hoping to get the first test build for v0.15.1 - the love shack content - ready for a VIP test build for next Friday. That may need to be split into two test builds, because there's 6 characters (minimum) that need content there, but we'll see how much I manage to get done.
Comments (2)
so it's gonna be like President Chainsaw, or Star Shift....? (those are RPG Maker games I know of and have played that have the (or a) tactics plugin for the battle system(s)
I haven't played either of those, but taking a quick look - in some ways, yes, in other ways, no. Combat will still be turn-based and take place on a grid. Numbers will be a lot smaller and much more predictable. A character's turn will be a singular exchange of attack and counterattack (potentially a second attack if one character's Agility is high enough). I'm still working out exactly how I want skills and spells to work, but they'll be limited and tied to the equipped weapon (the main thing I'm still working on being possibly learning skills after using a weapon for long enough). The difficulty and variance in combat will come mostly from weapon range, movement speed, and positioning.