I haven't worked on this in a long while. But the past few days, I started messing with my old prototype and thinking about it, and also considering renewing my Gamemaker license so I can work on this (it expired a while ago). GM used to be a one time payment and didn't require logging in all the time, but I guess those halcyon days are over. If I was going to work on new projects, I might be better off learning Defold or Unity, but I absolutely don't have the energy or time for that right now. This would just be going back to GM because Starfighter Ronin is in GM, and I have no inclination to rebuild it, or start a project from scratch.
Aside from working on regular old writing, the important thing that I should probably be doing instead of game dev, I've toyed with making an RPG Maker game, something I decided to do because I was hooked on emulating old console games for a while, especially from the SNES and Genesis era. Having premade assets and code to work with gets me past two major hurdles. Premade code removes the biggest headache of development for me. Premade assets make my game look 'good' and accessible, compared to the more unique but terrible art that I produce, so maybe people would be more likely to actually play it. And not having to spend time on art or code means that I can do the things that I ostensibly like: writing and building a world.
On the other hand, now that I've messed with RPG Maker MV for a while, the problem I run into is that everything feels formulaic and confining. In terms of the end result, this is obvious: using a program made for making a particular type of RPG produces nothing but that type of RPG. But it's also kind of terrible on the creative side, because I'm constantly feeling smothered by the assets and mechanics that I have access to. And coming up with any unique idea usually involves this long period of hunting for plugins and assets that can make the idea possible, rather than just implementing it myself. It's not a *longer* process necessarily, but it is frustrating in its own way. Also, the aesthetics of the available assets really limit what sort of stories I can tell, even within the limited design space, which is even more demoralizing.
And beyond that, I keep getting this nagging feeling that if I'm going to make a writing-focused project anyway, I should just be writing, not making a game.
Prior to all this, I also toyed with making an RPG in gamemaker, back before I stopped using it, and this is what that looked like:
Implemented turn-based movement, simple combat and stat systems, half-baked inventory, rain, and modular building assets to quickly create new structures. That's as far as I got before losing interest.
But, as I said, I started thinking about Starfighter Ronin again, the past few days, so I wanted to jot down some ideas for things to implement. My previous blog entry was a bunch of rambling notes to myself on ambitious things that will never happen, so today is for more achievable goals...
- Mario style powerup that increases your size, but makes you more cumbersome. Boosts your health and gives you a couple of auto-firing turrets, essentially turning you into a cruiser for a limited amount of time.
- Add more large, imposing enemies. It's generally accepted that enemies that are larger than the player are more satisfying to fight, although that's not necessarily why I want to do this. They should be large and outlandish, probably slow with high health, and attack patterns unique to them. But NOT like the cruiser. Nothing that is destructible in parts, please. That was a nightmare to implement.
- Stationary geometry and building blocks for making prefab levels. I can use the existing station blocks for this, in addition to making new parts that are not intended to move around. I spent a long time making those stations function correctly, but they are too uncommon in the current build to have been worth the trouble. On the other hand, turning up the spawn rates can be disastrous, so it would be nice to just have some that start out as stationary level geometry, to add some variety to the landscape. This would allow a lot more flexibility in the types of shapes I could include, as well, in addition to adding some that are meant to be hand-placed instead of randomly generated.
- Allow transitioning to new rooms using a hyperjump mechanic. Randomize spawn variables for each room, so they are noticeably different from one another. This will likely function as I've described it before, by collecting a 'fuel' resource within each level, then teleporting at will when you have enough. It's also an opportunity to have handmade levels, but I think even just changing the existing spawn rates would go a long way toward adding variety, even if everything is still random.
None of these should be all that difficult to implement. And if they are, I should simplify them so that they aren't. If I'm ever going to continue working on this (which I may not), I want to prioritize features that are high impact but low effort.
Now that I look over these 'achievable' goals, though, it occurs to me that none of them actually excite me enough to get me to work on the project. The unachievable, but actually interesting, goals are to turn this from a randomized arcade game to a fleshed-out world with interconnected levels, characters, and story. My original plan was to have a tile-based strategy layer, but that kind of bores me now. Instead, having a more traditional metroidvania structure seems more interesting. I had also wanted to allow the player to dock at stations and then have on-foot sections, which would mean creating an entire second set of assets and mechanics to support that.
I had also planned for the on-foot sections to use mouse-driven aiming, which would be unfortunate for players who are only on a keyboard. One of the things that initially appealed to me about this project is that it wouldn't require any peripherals, so it would be easy for a laptop user (like me) to jump into. I could make the controls more like Robotron, but that would result in a completely different feel to the combat.
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