Inspiration

Hi everyone!

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been debating a lot of things; story, gameplay, themes, amongst other things. Right now, I want to talk about the gameplay.

Basically, I want my project to be a sort of “love-letter” to the games I played as a child, which primarily consisted of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Golden Sun, and Pokémon. In short, anything I could play on my GameBoy Advance, or that I played on my uncle’s PS2. Because of this, I want to try and take my favourite aspects of the games, and meld them together to create new mechanics.

Here’s a list of mechanics I’ve been looking at, by series and game:

Final Fantasy

• Materia (Final Fantasy VII)
• Espers (Final Fantasy VI)
• Job System (Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy V, Bravely Default, Bravely Second: End Layer, Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance)
• Summoning (Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XV, Bravely Default, Bravely Second: End Layer, Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance)
• Magicite (Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates)
• Weapon Proficiency (Bravely Default, Bravely Second: End Layer)
• Active Time Battle (ATB) (Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy VII)

Dragon Quest

• Vocation System (Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie, Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past, Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies)
• Skill Point System (Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies)
• Item Creation (Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies)
• In-Battle Item Abilities (Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie, Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Satrry Skies)

Golden Sun

• Djinn System (Golden Sun, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn)
• Out-of-Battle Magic (Golden Sun, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn)
• Summoning (Golden Sun, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn)

Pokémon

• Growing Crops (Berries) (Pokémon Ruby, Pokémon Sapphire, Pokémon Emerald, Pokémon Diamond, Pokémon Pearl, Pokémon Platinum, Pokémon HeartGold, Pokémon SoulSilver)
• Personal Home (Secret Base) (Pokémon Ruby, Pokémon Sapphire, Pokémon Emerald, Pokémon Diamond, Pokémon Pearl, Pokémon Platinum)

Fire Emblem

• Tactical Battle System (TBS) (Entire Series)
• Stronghold (Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Fire Emblem: Awakening, Fire Emblem: Fates, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia)

Suikoden

• Rune Magic (Entire Series)
• Stronghold (Entire Series)
• Skirmish Battles and Tactical Battles (Entire Series)

You see one of my issues here, right? Too much inspiration. As I’ve played plenty of JRPG’s, I know what mechanics exist, but I want too many of them in one place. I have neither the time or the expertise to implement everything, no matter how much I may want to try. The deadline for this project is at the end of May, so I don’t have long to get this ironed out. Whilst I may be running a little slim on time, I can produce my game quite quickly, once I know exactly what I want.

I do feel like I was maybe a little too overambitious in my project proposal, as my plan went out the window quite quickly. They say that no plan ever survives first contact with the enemy; I seem to be living that addage. What I need to focus on now is sorting through this mass of inspirational material to produce something that at least vaguely resembles the brief I wrote at the start. Otherwise, this has just been a wasted exercise.

Actually, this is quite a common trap for indie developers to fall into (apparently). I have a video by Yanfly on FIVE traps that independant and individual developers can fall into quite easily:

I’m guilty of at least three of these traps myself, and projects like this are incredibly aggravating because of it. To be honest, I think that I’m massively overthinking this project. What I mean by that is I’m getting hung up on the academic side, and not enjoying the project for what it should be: a chance for me to make something I love. I mean, that’s why I got into game development in the first place.

Let’s have some fun!!!

Bibliography:

Finalfantasy.fandom.com. (n.d.). Final Fantasy Wiki. [online] Available at: https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_Wiki [Accessed 26 Apr. 2019].

Goldensun.fandom.com. (n.d.). Golden Sun Universe. [online] Available at: https://goldensun.fandom.com/wiki/Golden_Sun_Wiki [Accessed 26 Apr. 2019].

Suikoden.fandom.com. (n.d.). Suikoden Wikia. [online] Available at: https://suikoden.fandom.com/wiki/Suikoden_Wiki [Accessed 26 Apr. 2019].

Fireemblem.fandom.com. (n.d.). Fire Emblem Wiki. [online] Available at: https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Fire_Emblem_Wiki [Accessed 26 Apr. 2019].

Bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net. (n.d.). Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia. [online] Available at: https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Main_Page [Accessed 26 Apr. 2019].

Dragon-quest.org. (n.d.). Alltrades Abbey – Dragon Quest Wiki. [online] Available at: https://dragon-quest.org/wiki/Alltrades_Abbey [Accessed 26 Apr. 2019].

YouTube. (2018). 5 Common Traps Indie Devs Fall Into – RPG Maker MV. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNH5xMYHkVw&t=115s [Accessed 26 Apr. 2019].