#31. Stealth Game Idea (Based on the article by Yahtzee)

Guess what? I'm back, finally, from my service. Now I'm back to my ordinary daydreaming and time-wasting routine, so here we go:

Few weeks ago I found this article from The Escapist by none other than Yahtzee himself. Now, I'm not a big fan of stealth-based games if anyone asks, and my latest experience on sneaking in videogame was that curtain scene from Super Mario RPG. Still, the genre is quite attractive, and I'm quite sure I'm not the only one. So, hey, why not? Maybe I can come up with some neat ideas, based on Yahtzee's suggestions.


The cheapest way to stealth-based game plot seems to be something dirty and fishy, such as espionage and burglary, so I'll take some shortcuts. Imagine there's a team of not-so-law-abiding citizens whose lifestyle is literally based on someone else and unwitting, and give them the title of protagonists. We shall call them The Team.

Yahtzee suggested three types of non-lethal stealth characters: The Sneak, The Spy, and The Conman. The Team is composed of these three, and player should make good use of them. Well, duh. It's a videogame, what did you expect?

Here's the catch: You don't go directly to your target location to take stuffs, hack computers, and leave without a trace. The Job will be composed of Pre-Job, In-Job, and Post-Job, and every part should be taken seriously. In Pre-Job you pay visit to the site, either public or incognita, to locate your target and study the surrounding environment. You will make a map based on Pre-Job part experience, and this will keep you moving during In-Job part. The Spy and The Conman can just walk right into the building, look around, and walk out of the place, without getting any suspicions. If the target is in somewhere out of reach, or the target is protected with maximum security, The Sneak can jam laser traps or cut some wired in Pre-Job part for other teammates.

In-Job part is the main event, where you reach to your target. If the process involves crawling through air vents or moving through shadows, The Sneak will be your choice. If it is mainly taking some super-important intelligence and walking away, The Spy and The Conman can pull it up nicely.

So you snatched that diamond, uploaded that database to your Google Drive, but that doesn't make everything all clear. This is where Post-Job part comes to play. In this part of the game, your work is known, but your existence is not... yet. You expected no one would find it strange when a diamond that big is gone? Your objective in Post-Job part is to avoid suspicion, whether by putting a fake diamond in original's place or blaming someone else for network breach. This is the part where The Conman shines the most, as (s)he can convince the others more actively and effectively than the other two.

Okay, that's it for now. Special thanks to Yahtzee for his brilliant article that sparked my brainstorming. End transmission.

#30. Sudden Brainstorm: Turn-Based Strategy Game

Weirdo Whoever here, back for a long while. I'm still at my service (Gah!) but at least I'm almost always online, it's just my slacking nature that keep this blog more or less un-dead.

So I was doodling with (yes, again) Kriegspiel the other day, and came up with an idea that, if I get the hang of it, might be more interesting to someone else than myself. I'm a big fan of turn-based games in general (you should be knowing this by now) and I was always fascinated at how X-COM: Enemy Unknown pulled it nicely. Add that with Warhammer 40,000, Infinity Wars (fun fact: I must be the only one around here who knows this game), and for some reason Dungeon & Dragons, and the result is something like this:

- I chose the overall motif as Dice. I'm really into tabletop RPGs and board games, and want that spirit in this game.

- The map is made out of hexagonal tiles. Some tiles may have covers on their sides, some tiles may have heights, and some tiles may be left blank, which needs Flying ability to access.

- Players build their Rosters before the game, but they can improvise their armies before the main game begins. A Roster is consisted of Slots (4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 20, continuing the dice motif) on which the player places one type of Units or Abilities on each. You may abandon some slots if you find it unnecessary (e.g. you want your army more elite) and you may receive additional points for your choice. My current idea for slot-point system is something like this: You receive 10 points per slots, and you receive additional points equal to your maximum slots for each slots you abandon. (e.g. if you start with 12 slots, and you abandon 2 of them, you receive 24 points.)

- Units are, well, exactly what it is. Your army needs at least one type of Units. Units have stats, which defines them in many ways. Here are some ideas I have for now:
　- Name. Exactly what it says on the tin.
　- Type. Self-explanatory. Examples of Type will be Infantry, Vehicle, Human, Beast, Psychic, etc.
　- Initiatives. Every Units and Abilities have Initiatives, which defines their priority when battle starts loose. Units with high Initiatives strike first, but they also get hit first.
　- Attack. There are three types of attacks I have prepared so far - Melee, Ranged, and Artillery.
　- Save. There are two types of saves I have prepared so far - Cover and Reflex.
　- Health. You lose your Unit when it hits zero Health.
　- Special Ability. This is tricky one, I'll let you know when I'm ready.

- Abilities are, well, this one's just the same, only Abilities are fire-and-forget type, i.e. you can only use your Abilities just as much you have prepared. I'm taking some leaves out of D&D rulebook - Vancian Spell is just awesome!

- I'm currently considering D20 for battle system. Yes, that D20. I'll explain this later when I'm more confident with my decision.


I'm still working on this one, I'll let you know when it's more complete. End transmission.

#29. Gi Megami Tensei, Part 2: Small Step with Protagonist

Gi Megami Tensei is on. I'm not joking... yet.

I know, it's been such a long time since I posted anything on this alleged workshop of mine. I've been minding my own business... er, that is to say, my other own business, and as I focus more on my real life my own project went... well, just look at the posting dates and it says all by itself.

So... where was I? Oh yeah, I'm here to prove that I am making some progress, contrary to some (including, well, my) beliefs. I've been writing stuffs for Gi Megami Tensei, a fangame project based on Shin Megami Tensei franchise, and I decided to start with something small, yet something so important - the protagonist. So here we go:

- Our protagonist for Gi Megami Tensei will be an everyman in Kichijouji, Tokyo. Sometimes oldies are goodies, just like in I.

- Both Shin Megami Tensei and Digital Devil Story, the novel on which the game is based, depict their respective protagonist as their own designer of COMP. Now that we have smartphones and Google Glasses, we practically have our COMP ready-made in 2015. But I want this particular COMP I'm intending to give to the protagonist handmade, just for tradition and, well, cool. Perhaps it's a science project. Who knows?

- The gender of the protagonist will be multiple-choice: players are given both male and female, and is to choose one of them. This I have explained before, but I want it this way, you choose one of them and the other becomes your partner for the rest of the game. Perhaps the other one, the Neutral Hero, is your partner for a science project.

- Speaking of COMP, let's talk about its feature. I want to stick to the most basic features of COMP: summoning demons, talking to demons, analyzing demons. This is the three key features of COMP since I, so let's call it 'vanilla'. In SJ and IV, we are introduced the concept of Applications for COMP, powering up COMP as game progresses. This is nice and all, but maybe it was too much in IV, really. I mean, doubling demon stat boosts and fusing demons even powerful than the protagonist? C'mon.

- Oh, and here's an idea: make some slots for skills in COMP, and set skills for protagonists to use. I was inspired by oh-so-free skill setting system of DDSAT, loved it, and came up with this one. IV's Demon Whisper system also helped me, but again, maybe it was too much for protagonist whose whole concept is 'everyman'.
Here's some ideas for COMP skills: -kaja skills, -nda skills, Charge (Power Charge), Concentrate (Mind Charge), immune skills, Pierce (for Phys and Gun, respectively; both of them will be too broken), Skill Link, Demon CO-OP.

- Equipment will be categorized in five: Sword, Gun, Bullet, Armor, Accessories. This concept is based on Persona, especially 3 and 4, and perhaps 5, as long as the trailer shows me right. I was rather disappointed in DDSAT that guns are next to useless, and wanted to keep it one of the main arsenal of protagonist. Here's a philosophy: in Gun attack, damage is based on Gun itself, and the side effect (inflicting status ailment and stuffs) is based on Bullets.

So far, this is all I've got, but tell you, I'll be back with more ideas. End transmission.


So far:
 - Gi Megami Tensei is On.
 - Gi Megami Tensei, Part 1: So, Where Should I Begin?

#28. Another Miss... Another Hope

Okay, last time I made a careful suggestion on Persona 5, I wasn't even half sure of myself. And, as we all know, Atlus just knows how to make it cool. Dang, that was awesome. Persona series was not well known for its action sequence, and the newest series just breaks that in the coolest way possible. Further news revealed that Social Link is deleted in 5, but even that makes sense in picaresque mood of the game, and the protagonist (more commonly called 'Chair-kun', for some reason) using gun and transforming himself into his persona reminds me of the older SMT games.

Only... There's one thing missing in the game. My assumption. Yup.

But that means... Hey, I can own that one, right? I can make useful of Hercules-protagonist ideas, right?

So it settles then... I'll be working on this idea for next few weeks, if my patience serves me right. I'm so looking for this new Persona series! End transmission.

#27. A Rather Careful Assumptions on Persona 5

I love Persona series. You should've known it by now.

So last time I remember gushing about how my birthday wasn't on November. Persona 5 is ready to deploy, yet all we know about it is a) it's about freedom; b) the protagonist is a second-grader in some high school in Shibuya, contrary to how 3 and 4 was far away from urban area; c) it's bloody red. There was this Wild Mass Guessing that it's based on Greek mythology, mostly because of how Q used a certain event featuring very Greek symbolism.

You know what, I have another assumption on 5. So here we go:

Persona 5 may be based on Greek mythology, to specify some more, the myth of Hercules.

We all know that there must be something very, very Greek going on 5. While I was working on my Gi Megami Tensei stuff and some other fanboying I thought if 5 is going to be Greek and talking about freedom, then legend of Hercules is very plausible. Here's why:

a) Born as a bastard child of Zeus, Hercules lived quite a miserable life, mostly because Hera found him very, very irritable. The result is lifetime slavery of his own fate, accomplishing twelve labours, fighting godly wars, and living as a tragic hero. This could be used as a metaphor of seeking freedom in the midst of oppression - freeing oneself from one's own fate.
b) Hercules is famous for his Twelve Labour, given by Hera (via Eurystheus) for killing his own family. Now we all know that twelve months makes a year, and in 3 and 4 the player is given a year for the entire storyline. Maybe each Labour comes per a month, as Arcana Shadows did in 3.
c) This might be rather suggestive, but Persona series have used goddess figures for final boss (The exception being 2). There was Pandora and Snow Queen in 1, Nyx in 3, and Izanami in 4. If my theory is correct, the goddess figure for 5 - the True Final Boss behind all this, and the greatest enemy of Hercules - would be Hera. This matches the certain event in Q, which caused my brainstorming in the first place. (Abandon all hopes[on spoilers], all ye who enter the link.)

Well, it's all just another Wild Mass Guessing, so don't take it seriously. Unless - and it's really, really improbable, I know - it's correct. Who knows? End transmission.