So, I'm on a game development team.

[Seattleite]

So, I was recruited by my friend Justin into an indie dev team. Right now it's me, my brother Jack, Justin, our friend Steven and one of that friend's friends whose name I cannot recall. We're still in the planning stages, and most of us are learning at least one new tool right now. (Unity, for instance, is entirely new to everybody but me and Justin.) I'm writing along with Justin, a designer again with Justin, level building with Justin, composing music alongside Justin and Steven, doing pixel art alongside Justin and Jack and I'm learning C# so I can take some stress off Steven's friend, who is presently our only programmer.

 

The game's a top-down 2d action-RPG, with faux 16-bit graphics. We're aiming to have two-player co-op capability, with one player controlling each of the game's two player characters (in single player, the second PC is left at the Sanctuary and you can switch between them). The game's combat is extremely defensive in nature, and the player must prioritize avoiding damage over dealing it. To this end, the player has block and dodge moves, both of which they can be expected to use frequently, probably more than their attacks. (Taking one solid hit can often be the beginning of the end for you, crippling a limb or causing life-threatening bleeding.)

 

The player characters are two small children of indeterminate age, a boy and a girl. They stand at a positively tiny 28px, where most adult NPCs are 40-50px tall. That translates to 112cm, and their in-game weight (which is relevant to only a few things) is 20kg. They're both celestials, immortals tasked with maintaining the sixteen realms and all the lesser connected worlds, with these two tiny ones being tasked with closing unwanted links between them, and occasionally re-opening links when they are needed.

 

This task is not normally a difficult one. By the time they arrive, the opener of an unwanted link is usually not present and the portal can be safely closed without confronting them. In the intro, however, things go differently. The link open is a stable portal, rather than the normal temporary link. That isn't too unusual, but it is cause for concern. Still, the girl approaches the portal and cheerfully greets the unseen owner of it on the other side, asking him what the purpose of the portal is, and how long he plans on keeping it open. A sword erupts from her back, and she is thrown aside. A being with six arms, twelve wings and many tongues steps through the portal, dressed in a loose black robe. Eyes adorn the palms of its hands, and it carries with it a sword, an apple, a book and a small sack. The boy gets ready to fight it, only for it to raise a hand and blind him with the eye in its palm. The boy is then run through while he's blind. (Yes, we seriously are starting with two tiny children being horribly murdered in the intro sequence. They're immortal, it's hardly the same.)

 

Both children awaken in a bed, in the quarters of a church, with clothes laid out for them at the foot of the bed. This is the Sanctuary, and where the cutscene ends. The actual game starts with the children dressed at the foot of the bed, and control is handed to the player.

 

The plot of the game from here is that the players have been disowned by their old god and picked up by a new one, who wants a series of links it made to be re-opened, and whoever or whatever is responsible for closing them to be eliminated. The players never see this god, or hear from it, all their orders are given by a woman in a victorian mourning dress (just referred to as "the Mourner"), in the church they wake up in. (Which is actually a sort of pocket-world.) These start with the one connecting this church to a nexus beyond it (also a pocket world) and then all the links leading out of this nexus.

 

The player finds that the creatures that shut down the nexus have also barricaded the doors between its levels, forcing the player to venture into the worlds the nexus links to in order to reach each successive level and remove the barricades. They don't have to visit every world, but they have to visit one world per nexus level and make their way through it to reach the following nexus level. (There's only one between the first and second nexus levels, but three for each of the others.) This makes huge parts of the game entirely optional, but the huge difficulty spikes after each area encourage you to go back and do the other worlds.

 

The game also features a lot of combat, with enemies coming in far fewer numbers but being individually much stronger than the fodder found in most action RPGs. Enemies have complex attack patterns, and finding where the openings are is central to fighting them. It should be to the point where every encounter feels like a miniboss, that's about the feeling we're going for. However, the game is also going to include a lot of secrets, hidden areas and hidden pathways. It's possible to completely bypass many of the game's fights, and often beneficial to do so. (And not just because it helps you keep all your fingers and toes.) There's always more than one solution to each encounter, and even with bosses the requirement is just to open the links they're guarding, not necessarily to kill the boss. If you can come up with another way of doing that, the game won't exactly look down on you for it. The results are the important part, not your means.

 

The game's projected to be released in late 2017, or early 2018. We should have the demo up within the year, but we aren't putting up a Kickstarter until the demo is released because none of us are willing to take anybody's money until they at least know what they're getting into.

 

More as it develops.

Edited March 1, 2016 by Guest (see edit history)

[UndeadNecro]

The only thing I can suggest that is a big flaw in many many games is character development - If you're going to have any kind of character development, don't be loose with it. Actually put effort into it other than "Hey, here's some dialogue for one quest! Wow! Now we're friends! Okay, bye forever!" I don't know how in-depth you're going to go, but don't be like most games and do it half-assed. Such a waste of good potential when character development goes half-assed.

 

I think smaller but stronger enemies fit for more "realistic" atmospheres, unless you intend to have fodder enemies that are very weak but annoyingly high in numbers. Personally, I like the less-but-stronger, especially for RPGs. Makes it more fun for me. The way you explained your intent to make the combat seems to fit how I'm envisioning this game - Defensive combat, perhaps a bit of stealth or focusing on ambushing enemies? Hit and run tactics? Not a lot of games do that, so it would be new.

 

As for the story, it seems like you're going for a dark atmosphere, which I suppose could work but then again it's starring two children. Interested to see how that would work out.

 

It sounds different, so that's a good thing. I'm more into action-RPGs and, at times, turn-based RPGs but the way you've described it makes it sound interesting, especially with defensive combat which really isn't done a lot. It's either having a party of members with a weak support character or being an individual with high power that requires a lot of skill.

[Seattleite]

The only thing I can suggest that is a big flaw in many many games is character development - If you're going to have any kind of character development, don't be loose with it. Actually put effort into it other than "Hey, here's some dialogue for one quest! Wow! Now we're friends! Okay, bye forever!" I don't know how in-depth you're going to go, but don't be like most games and do it half-assed. Such a waste of good potential when character development goes half-assed.

 

Depends on the character. Everybody you meet in the Sanctuary is pretty well fleshed out, but the player interacts with them a LOT. But the same cannot be said for every random villager, though giving them more personality than most games would *is* a goal of ours. And a lot of them end up being particularly unhappy with you, really fast.

 

I think smaller but stronger enemies fit for more "realistic" atmospheres, unless you intend to have fodder enemies that are very weak but annoyingly high in numbers. Personally, I like the less-but-stronger, especially for RPGs. Makes it more fun for me. The way you explained your intent to make the combat seems to fit how I'm envisioning this game - Defensive combat, perhaps a bit of stealth or focusing on ambushing enemies? Hit and run tactics? Not a lot of games do that, so it would be new.

 

Well, once you're in combat, when I say it's "defensive" I mean you'll be keeping your distance and dodging a lot while you look for opportunities to get hits in without being re-purposed as a scabbard. Stealth isn't out of the question, though. And opening a fight with a sneak attack is a great way to make sure it isn't much of a fight, so using it that way makes sense even if it would usually make more sense to avoid the fight entirely.

 

As for hit and run tactics, the game has crippling and bleed systems. And those systems combine well with hit and run tactics, indeed they do.

 

As for the story, it seems like you're going for a dark atmosphere, which I suppose could work but then again it's starring two children. Interested to see how that would work out.

 

I assure you, the characters being little is used to enhance the darker atmosphere to the game, rather than take away from it. Them being brutally murdered in the opening cutscene is pretty jarring, for one, and certainly not something that screams light and fluffy. (Lots of red pixels.) And even if you were to skip the intro the combination of their small size and the strength of the enemies you go up against definitely does a lot to make the player feel dis-empowered, which reinforces that atmosphere. The second boss is literally just an adult human (well, an adult human spirit, all the major realms you go to are after-lives) with a spear and some deep-seated emotional trauma. Granted, he's the second easiest boss in the game, and the difficulty spikes after each world are pretty huge, but in most other games he'd be a momentary distraction and here he's enough of an obstacle throughout your time in that world to allow for significant character development.

 

It sounds different, so that's a good thing. I'm more into action-RPGs and, at times, turn-based RPGs but the way you've described it makes it sound interesting, especially with defensive combat which really isn't done a lot. It's either having a party of members with a weak support character or being an individual with high power that requires a lot of skill.

 

Uh... This *is* an action-RPG, so I'm just going to assume that's a typo.

 

Anyway, the thing that makes the combat so defensive is that taking damage can be extremely meaningful in ways it just isn't in a lot of other games. The opening cutscene had both characters being killed by a single sword thrust through the chest, and I assure you that is not a case of gameplay and story segregation. This game handles injuries very realistically. There's a crippling system, and you can be crippled, just for one example. There's a bleed system, so you could be run through and start bleeding health every couple seconds. There's also a poise system, and you can be staggered or knocked down either by hits or by bleeding caused by those hits (which is especially nasty). And while it doesn't always seem so on paper, attacks deal a relatively large amount of damage, meaning hits can and often will cripple you and a hit that bleeds will drain your health quickly. So getting run through the chest like you do in the opening cutscene will lead to a lot of bleeding, and said bleeding will swiftly result in death. Healing is also limited, so even if you aren't crippled or mortally wounded in a fight, losing health or especially limb integrity is not going to be pleasant. Dodge if you can, block if you can't, and failing that have some good armour.

 

The characters also don't have set roles. They have slight statistical differences, but when I say those are slight I mean it. You can build either to perform any role you wish, and some mixture is a good idea in single-player, since you can't take them both at once if you're not in co-op. The game is a LOT easier with both of them, though. That much is for sure. (Not just because of combat. Their extremely minor regeneration is boosted when they're together. This is insignificant for everything but stamina most of the time, but has a HUGE impact on how much they heal by resting.)

[Seattleite]

Today's topic: Defence.

 

I've mentioned already that you have a lot of defences in this game, and that you need to because the game is just that lethal. Now, I'm going to better summarize each of these defences. Most of them are pretty simple, but their implications are vital to the game.

 

Evasion:

You can dodge in this game. Dodging takes you a set distance (one meter) and takes an amount of time determined by your agility multiplier. This multiplier is 1+0.05*agility, so with the boy's 12-24 agility it's 1.6-2.2 and with the girl's 13-26 agility it's 1.65-2.3. This multiplier is a multiplier to the speed of movement and all actions, including attacks and dodges, and that means that with a multiplier of 2 you take half a long to dodge. You can figure out the rest.

 

Dodging does not grant true invincibility frames, but while dodging some attacks may only be able to hit you if their attack score is higher than your "evasion" score, which is initially only equal to your agility and a size modifier that for you is 1. This only affects thrust, projectile and beam attacks. Swing, shot, blast and area of effect attacks are not impacted by evasion, you have to actually clear the affected area before they hit. And as a general rule, you'll be aiming to clear the area anyway in case their attack score is too high for you to ignore it while dodging.

 

Reflex:

Closely related to the above, the reflex defence applies to blast and area of effect attacks while dodging. It is also based on your agility. Any blast attack with a damage less than your reflex defence (1/2 your agility by default) that hits you while dodging, guarding or performing other defensive actions is downgraded. Damage grades are an important in-game mechanic that determines what effects an attack has. For instance, a "deep" piercing attack and a "shallow" piercing attack are very different in that a deep attack inflicts bleeding and a shallow attack does not, and a "shallow" piercing attack and a "minor" piercing attack are very different in that the shallow attack inflicts body damage and the minor attack does not.

 

For example, an explosive fireball that would normally have caused vital heat damage, setting you on fire for absolutely massive DOT to your health and stamina until extinguished, would be reduced to dealing only regular heat damage if your reflex was successful, which will still damage your stamina, health and integrity immediately, but won't get the DOT.

 

Guard:

Guard is your defence associated with blocking. If your guard score is higher than enemy attacks, they are redirected to the body part you're guarding with (if using a weapon, the body part holding it) and downgraded. If your guard score is sufficiently high the downgrades can happen multiple times. (Twice, for instance, would take the deep pierce damage of a knife thrust down to minor pierce damage, stopping both the bleeding and the body damage.) Weapons also give a little extra DR on a successful guard, depending on how well constructed they are and what type. (Wood-handled weapons provide 1-5 and blades provide 2-10.) Guarding is generally your strongest defence, but it's difficult to fully defeat incoming attacks with it, and as projectiles resist it and area of effect attacks ignore it, you can't use it all the time. You cannot guard and attack with the same weapon at the same time, but you *can* attack with one weapon while guarding with another, which is the primary strength of both two-weapon and shield builds.

 

Logic:

This defence is run by pressing dodge without a direction, and dismisses illusions that are ongoing. You need a higher logic score than the caster's resolve score for it to work. If the spell is being cast when you use this ability, the illusion doesn't work on anyone. Otherwise, only you dismiss it and others are still affected. Caution, using this ability takes longer than any other active defence.

 

Dispel:

Used simultaneously with logic, the dispel defence destroys enemy spells being cast in front of you. It activates earlier than logic, and releasing the button before it finishes will dispel without using the logic defence and tying you up for extra time.

 

Armour rating:

The first passive defence on this list, armour rating works much like the above defences in that it competes directly with an enemy's attack score. If it is higher than the opponent's attack, the attack is downgraded. It can also downgrade multiple times if it is several times higher, and it works all the time. It can also defeat area attacks, there competing against twice their damage instead of their attack. Armour rating is the single most important passive defence in the game, bar none, and can be achieved with surprisingly little weight. Sometimes, armour will provide extra armour rating against attacks that deal particular damage types. This makes it important to track what armour type you're using and what damage types you're up against.

 

Damage reduction:

You know how friggin' damage reduction works. This many points come off incoming damage, that's about all there is to it. Here we also have "penetration", which negates a certain number of points of damage reduction, but that's the only difference. Damage reduction is kept fairly low, and only completely blocks attacks that are already pretty weak. As with armour rating, some armour types will provide extra damage reduction against some damage types. Damage reduction only applies to kinetic attacks.

 

Resistance:

This is a percentage resistance, and comes in multiple separate layers that never go above 50%. This only applies to energy, and armour only provides resistance to energy damage types it is strong against. For instance, metal armour provides heat resistance, and hide armour provides cold resistance. Resistance is fairly hard to acquire large amounts of.

 

Fortitude:

A percentage resistance that targets the duration of poison, the magnitude of infection, both duration and magnitude of disease, and the buildup of curses. Fortitude may seem low (IE: 10% if your constitution is 10), and it usually is, but as these effects often compete directly with your heal rate, it is much more meaningful than it looks, at least where disease and infection are concerned.

 

Will:

Will is a passive, point defence against morale damage. Basically, this much comes off all morale damage. It's extremely effective at defeating small, frequent sources of morale loss, but many morale hits are often so huge that will is completely negligible to them. If you have 8 will, a 10-damage morale hit for getting hit by a divine spell will be knocked down to 2, but a 1,000-damage morale hit for killing somebody will still deal 992 and likely shatter your morale and inflict a trauma on the spot.

 

Critical resistance:

The sum of your relevant armour rating, evasion if evading and guard when blocking. If an enemy's attack score is higher than this, they score a critical hit and their damage is upgraded once. Crits cannot upgrade multiple times, no matter how good an attack is, without some other effect (usually a talent) stepping in. Critical resistance also doesn't have any effect other than determining critical hits.

 

Cover:

When behind something, either an object or a shield, enemies take a penalty to their attack when attacking you. This also transfers a percentage of area of effect and blast attacks to the intervening object, up to 100% if it covers you completely with room to spare. It's not that complex. Shields provide 5-25% cover normally and 10-50% when blocking, and this is the primary benefit of using a shield instead of an offhand weapon, when both are used to block.

 

Since we're here, let's talk about stamina, health, vitality, integrity, morale and poise.

 

Stamina:

Actions use this, damage reduces this, spent with vitae to cast arcane spells. When it runs out, further use and damage to it goes to health instead. Regenerates by the minute, much faster than any of the others, and resting will usually fully heal it. As a small character you have a LOT of stamina, running from 400-800 depending on your constitution. And as a child, you regenerate stamina at double speed. (Constitution per minute instead of 1/2 Constitution per minute.) Some entities don't have health or vitality score and are immune to some or all forms of stamina damage, but these entities are immediately incapacitated when their stamina runs out. Inanimate objects do not have stamina, but anything powered will have a similar system.

 

Health:

Damage reduces this, over-exertion reduces this, used with vitae to cast occult spells. When it falls to 1/2, your character slows massively. When it reaches 0, your character loses consciousness and further use and damage go to vitality. Regenerates by the day normally and by the minute when your powers are restored. As a small character you don't have much health, running from 100-200 depending on your constitution. Your youth doesn't help it regen, either. Bleeding is the best way to lose large amounts of health, and several other effects (poison, burning) also damage it massively over time, but these do so through long duration rather than high speed and large immediate losses can be difficult to achieve. You take more immediate health damage for hits to the head (4x), less to the legs (1/2) and even less to the arms (1/4) than you do to the torso (1x). These multipliers do not apply to bleeding. Some things don't have health scores and cannot be affected this way.

 

Vitality:

Damage can sometimes reduce this, and anything that damages health carries over onto vitality, which is the primary way it's lost. When vitality reaches 0, you die. You have exactly 50 vitality as a small creature and cannot increase this. It regenerates by the week, by the hour when your powers are restored. The health damage multipliers for different body parts also apply to vitality. Some things don't have vitality scores and cannot be affected this way.

 

Integrity:

The structural integrity of various body parts. When it runs out, a part is crippled. If you weren't a celestial, this would be a lifetime problem as it caps natural regen at 0 and requires reconstructive surgery to fix, but as a celestial this is just a long lasting and severe, but still temporary, debuff. A crippled arm can't be used, a crippled leg forces you to the ground where you are slower and more vulnerable, two crippled legs slows you down immensely, a crippled head renders you comatose and a crippled torso paralyses both of your legs. Further damage can sever body parts, which for a mortal would mean nothing can heal them, ever, would mean instant death if inflicted on the head and full-body paralysis for the torso. For you, the more severe effects for the head and torso remain but you can regrow limbs so it isn't more permanent. Integrity regenerates by the month, by the day when your powers are restored. A severed limb regrows from -1000% integrity, so it takes exceptionally long. In game, though, you are basically forced to rest to regenerate limb damage, and if you're crippled when your powers are lost it may as well be permanent because it takes so long to heal. Everything has integrity.

 

Morale:

Many actions reduce this, it's spent alongside vitae to cast divine spells. When it runs out, you are inflicted with a trauma based on the effect that brings it down, and instantly returns to full. Regenerates by the hour, though its regeneration is based on resolve, not constitution, and is by the whole value, not half. Trauma effects are severe debuffs that last a long time, and should be avoided at all costs. Morale is 1,000 for all people, though some perks increase it. Some things don't have morale scores and are immune to traumas.

 

Poise:

Health damage reduces this, melee attacks and blast attacks get extra automatic damage to this, natural weapon strikes in particular get extremely high automatic damage to this. Regenerates to full every six seconds. Running it out causes somebody to stagger, leaving them wide open for a brief period. Running it down to -100% knocks them down, leaving them open for longer and forcing them to either remain on the ground or get up, which is a tough choice as both make them vulnerable. Reducing it to -300% causes a knockout, rendering them unconscious for a couple seconds. -700% knocks them out for a full minute. Some enemies don't have health scores, and thus only lose poise from melee attacks and blasts. Everything has poise.

 

So, you should be getting a good picture right about now as to how the system works, given the above.