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Weekly Update 2020-1 (Development)
5 years ago - Edited 5 years ago2,637 words
I've done quite a bit on the MARDEK Reimagining this past week! This time, I'll be talking about the title I've decided on, and a basic battle system I've planned and got working!

I've decided to write 'weekly update' posts, divided into two parts. There's the ∞ half where I rant about my dismal personal experiences ∞ (why didn't I become a marketer, with this knack for making things sound appealing??), and there's this, where I talk about what I've achieved project-wise.



Title Decision!

I talked in a previous post about using the title Divine Dreams, which is likely what I'll stick with. It's multi-layered; here are the word definitions for ∞ divine ∞ and ∞ dream ∞:

divine
Adjective
1. Of or pertaining to a god.
2. Eternal, holy, or otherwise godlike.
3. Of superhuman or surpassing excellence.
4. Beautiful, heavenly.
5. (obsolete) Foreboding; prescient.
6. (obsolete, of souls) immortal; elect or saved after death.
7. Relating to divinity or theology.

Noun
1. One skilled in divinity; a theologian.
2. A minister of the gospel; a priest; a clergyman.
3. (often capitalized, with 'the') God or a god, particularly in its aspect as a transcendental concept.

Verb
1. (transitive) To foretell (something), especially by the use of divination.
2. (transitive) To guess or discover (something) through intuition or insight.
3. (transitive) To search for (underground objects or water) using a divining rod.
4. To render divine; to deify.


dream
Noun
dream (plural dreams)
1. Imaginary events seen in the mind while sleeping.
2. A hope or wish.
3. A visionary scheme; a wild conceit; an idle fancy.

Verb
1. (intransitive) To see imaginary events in one's mind while sleeping.
2. (intransitive) To hope, to wish.
3. (intransitive) To daydream.
4. (transitive) To envision as an imaginary experience (usually when asleep).
5. (intransitive) To consider the possibility (of).

Adjective
1. ideal; perfect


Many of these meanings are appropriate to the setting and story, and the title can be read in several different ways.

Consciousness makes up the substrate of the universe, and the worlds were literally dreamed up by the gods. Big parts of the story involve Dharma's desire to transcend the limits imposed by the gods, the cosmic jail he perceives them as being trapped in against their will, as well as traversing the non-Euclidean 'drealm' - the 'consciousness sea' in which Alora Fane's petal worlds are like 'dream islands' - which involves divining locations using memories. There are also other things that are more spoilery to go into.

It could be read as "godly imaginings", "track down minds' fruit", "aspirations of godhood", "wonderful hopes", "God is asleep"...

You could even use a thesaurus to render 'divine' - in the 'God' meaning - as the ultimate or final, and 'dream' as fantasy...

So overall, it seems like a very good and extremely fitting title, now that I've given it more thought! (Plus the DD acronym amuses me.)

Maybe a lot of that doesn't make sense to anyone but me yet. It's the kind of thing that'd become clearer from actually playing the game, of course!



Battle System

First, I've made a model of Mardek; it's interesting seeing a years-old design in 3D finally:



For the most part it turned out okay, though the sword and shield are (obviously?) placeholders, the particle-based sword trail - which I left in accidentally - is likely to change, and I may or may not make some other minor changes to details of the design around the shirt bottom/hips area. The 'whale tail' double cowlick thing in his hair also looks bizarre in 3D; either I need to reshape that, or have some braid-like bit tying it up, so it looks like the trunk of a palm tree. It doesn't really make sense that he'd have hair in that shape considering the frizzy African style hair he has otherwise, but then again it's hardly the worst offender in the Most Ridiculous Fictional Hair category (I'm thinking of you, Seymour Guado, and everyone from Yu-Gi-Oh).

Also, I'm aware that I posted that silhouettes thing and have yet to formally reveal Mardek from it on this site. I'll still do that eventually, though I'm delaying that until I can use it to build up to the demo/Kickstarter/original MARDEK Steam re-release, which I can't predict a date for just yet.

I'm mentioning that first because he's used in this image, which is the main thing I want to talk about in this bit:



It's a battle system!!

It didn't take long to implement at all, and I absolutely don't consider it final in any way. It's more like a foundation to start building from.

A number of people have said that they consider MARDEK's system perfect, and that I should just keep it exactly as it is in this, and to some degree I agree with that after having recently replayed it myself. The aim here isn't to reinvent the wheel, and having an easy, fun battle system that allows anyone to get through the story without too much challenge or tedium - but without reducing the fun factor - would be ideal.

I think, though, that there are some changes that could be made while keeping the general essence the same. I mean, I'm not going down the path of Belief or Taming Dreams and turning it into an alternate interpretation of familiar mechanics based on something other than violence, but there are clunky or outdated features of the original battle system that I think could be streamlined or revised.

I'm aware that I need to be careful about it, though. A while back, I played the mobile game Pokemon Masters, which changed the traditional Pokemon battle system completely. I didn't much care for it, and I got the impression many other people felt the same based on in-game messages from the developers essentially apologising for the game being what it was. When I got Pokemon Sword (whoops, I forgot to write about that here! I finished ages ago), I was dreading changes to the battle system, but was relieved when there were none... at least at first, though as I went on I felt that many clunky elements of the system had been retained when they really should have been improved in some way (for example, battles are so much slower than they need to be because things happen in sequence with text messages for each one).

I used to get excited as a child when games included RPG-like numerical stat mechanics (unaware that every game does, behind the scenes), though as I grew I came to really dislike systems where you had a ton of different stat values for different things. For example, here's a character's stats from Morrowind:



That's stuck in my mind since I first played it, many years ago, as an example of so many stats that it's just overwhelming. I spent probably over 100 hours in that game, and I still don't know what those eight stats do exactly. And having Health and Magicka and Fatigue seems like too much to me. Skyrim improved things massively, simplifying stats stuff while keeping core mechanics (like skills) intact, from what I recall.

Actually, maybe this is even worse:



I love that game, but I don't know what most of those stats do. I can guess, but I'd have to look up the complex formulae used in damage calculations to know for certain. The game certainly doesn't tell you. There's something about the obscureness of it that just always bothered me. I particularly disliked how these stats grew drastically with each level up anyway, so what was the point of them? Why even have them if they change all the time in ways you can't even control? I never had to check what they were.

I used systems like this in my earliest games because I just assumed that's the way it had to be done, but I quickly felt I outgrew it.

I preferred the D&D system, where the stats were designed to be managed by human brains rather than computer algorithms. Everything's simpler, and your character's stats tend to be for the most part fixed. A change by even a single point to any stat really means something, so an item or ability that improves that stat won't quickly lose its value.

It's a mentality I had when developing MARDEK, and in that, characters have four primary stats (STR, VIT, SPR, AGL)... but also ATK, DEF, MDEF, and a bunch of other things like elemental resistances etc. It all feels so bitty/granular in a way I've been openly annoyed about in the past. Each stat point mattered, but I also didn't even really know what my characters' stats were until I made this gif just now. And even looking at them here, my eyes glaze over, I don't really take in the information because it doesn't feel valuable to know or understand.



I also feel that MP is an outdated concept, like expendable lives and a points score in a platformer, and I wanted to include an alternative to that. I never liked how JRPGs gave you a basic attack to use entirely for free while charging you for magic, which in many cases was no more useful or powerful (or it was used by mage characters who had no alternative actions to take).



This system I've made takes the simplified-stats idea to an extreme. Characters have two primary stats, Body and Mind (or maybe I'll use "Soul"). They're used as a combination between attack, defence, HP, and MP.

For example, say Mardek has 100 Body. His basic skill, Slash, deals damage equal to 40% of his Body stat. At full, this is 40 damage, but if he's at half Body, this goes down to 20; it represents him being overly fatigued, so his sword slashes lose their power (in contrast to other games, where a character can be swinging with full ferocity at 1 HP, only to fall down dead at a tap). His Slash skill costs a few Body points to use, though, so he can literally kill himself by throwing himself into a physical attack if he's too weak.

Mind acts as a separate stat with a similar function; some skills deal Mind damage or have Mind costs, or have their power determined by the Mind stat, and being reduced to 0 Mind leads to KO.

There are no levels, but each time you either use a Body skill or you're hit by one, you get 1 'Body XP'. Accumulating 6 of these increases your Body total by 1. So it's like slow but gradual gains from repeatedly exercising, rather than a span of nothing followed by a sudden, massive jolt of power. The same is true for the Mind stat.

Weapons grant a set amount of bonus damage; a sword might have +5 Body damage, for example. Shields reduce Body damage by a set amount if used, and perhaps there'd be defensive stats that do the same.

In MARDEK, you had basic reactions which were all the same. Here, attack reactions have a wide gold window and a narrow blue window. If you fail to hit either window, the attack misses. Gold means a normal hit. If you stop the cursor on the blue bit, it activates a 'bonus effect' specific to that skill. For example, Slash might have +10% damage as its bonus effect, while another skill might have a (greater) chance of inflicting a status effect. When you're being targeted, you just have the narrow gold window, and hitting it successfully makes the character block with their shield, subtracting the shield's defence value from the damage inflicted. Different skills or enemies might have different timings for their reactions.

Healing items take the form of food, since these seem fairly popular in other modern games and appeal to our basic animal instincts in a way that magic potions don't. It also means I can make food of different types, and each character has different preferences, meaning if they eat something they like, it'll be more effective than something of equal raw potency that they dislike. I like this since it gives each character more individually, and makes them seem (to me) more alive and human than just a bunch of Combat Units. Food items like meat, bread, and greens restore Body, while chocolate, savoury, or cake-based snacks restore Mind.

Characters have a 'turn meter' that fills according to their Speed stat, kind of like the old Final Fantasies' ATB system, except it immediately snaps to the next turn rather than expecting you to sit waiting watching bars fill up. The clock-like lightening of the runes in characters' stat circles shows this turn meter. Normally using a skill resets your turn meter to 0, though food items have 'heaviness' values, so for example one that restores only a few points might only reduce your turn meter by 20%, allowing you to act quicker, while something like an entire cake (eaten in one bite, of course) delays you by 150%, so it takes longer than usual to take your next turn. Perhaps skills would have similar variable speeds.

Does this animation make you laugh, or will it haunt your nightmares from now on?



It's based on an idea from Clarence RPG, and it amuses me quite a bit to imagine items like "Entire Roast Chicken" or "Live Rat" which are consumed with that animation, their model taking the place of that placeholder white orb. But I imagine mileage would very much vary there, so I might change it (probably to something like the eating animations in Breath of the Wild).

Currently, each character has a small selection of skills that can be upgraded via means I've yet to decide on, rather than the old-style-JRPG thing of having a 'basic attack' plus 'special skills' or magic that you collect but mostly neglect once better ones become available. I've not given the skills much thought though; I'll need to get around to that. I can only do so much at once!

Oh, and I think that's what both Deugan and the Leafish monster will look like in the final game. And I've changed their names to Marble and Dingle and that's final and I'm sticking with it and it's a good idea.

Some additional comments about the gif up there:

The quickly-added, experimental sword trails aren't ideal, especially since they're active all the time. I'll probably change that.

Characters' facial expressions really make characters feel more alive, in my opinion! The insane look on their faces as they leap to an attack amuses me, though I'll probably change that to something more fitting!

I quite like the minimalistic, circular GUI and the element glyphs, which are reminiscent of but different to the original MARDEK's. The more subdued colours feel more mature than my earlier games too.



I added this particular battle system sort of on a whim, and while I'm finding it fun to play around with in this simple demo, I don't know whether it'd scale to a full game's worth of battles. I can also imagine objections to it, many of them, but I'm curious about your thoughts anyway. But don't interpret this as "I've decided on the battle system and this is what it's like!"; it's more like "here's a random idea I've played around with for how things could possibly be!". It's interesting to take ideas from the realm of possibility to see how they fare in practice.

I've also started composing music for the game already, and wanted to talk about that, but I've written enough today already, so I'll save that for another post!

38 COMMENTS

Tama_Yoshi82~5Y
This is so exciting! I'm excited! I don't even have anything to say (other than that I'm excited), which is unusual for me. I guess you're hitting all the right notes for me.

Your saying that you "outgrew" complex RPG stat screens, though, did make me think of an RPG game with game mechanics that felt novel. Have you heard of the Octopath Traveler game (or apparently, the Bravely Default games, which have similar mechanics)? I really enjoyed the MECHANICS of Octopath Traveler (didn't really care much for everything else, honestly). The way you could save up turns and create feedback loops was really interesting (although it does lead to major game breaking strats, which is only truly fair when you consider how brutal the secret final boss is).

I think it's rare you get to make meaningful choices in RPG battles, and it's easy to fall into obvious metagames, by which point the game becomes repetitive. Octopath Traveler really felt novel in that sense.
2
Tobias 1115~5Y
I'm glad you're excited!! I am too!!! When I'm not too tired, that is!!!!

I must have spent many hours playing through both Bravely Default games (I ended up going through the second one twice because I missed the obvious thing you were supposed to do during its time loop thing, and it just let me continue so I thought I had to do that... pfft!), but they're the sort of games I completely forget about for the most part, even though I enjoyed them well enough. I suppose I must have found their mechanics fine but nothing worth remembering? I can't remember how they played at all. I tend to pay less attention to mechanics than to story though.

I'm only vaguely aware of Octopath Traveler, mostly from comments here, so I've added that to my list to something I should probably play!
1
ExtremeHunt3~5Y
What made MARDEK fun for me was the reaction system in general. It made battles slightly more interactive. Some kind of management of mastering those reactions was also present there. You could try to master some reaction on a couple of your party members to make certain bosses/monsters less difficult due to dealing more damage, negating status effects, or taking less damage from a particular element or you could not and face making important decisions like making a compromise of equiping an armour piece/accessory over the other for it's reaction it gives. Even then, you only got a limited amount of Reaction Points to spend depending on your character level, which made it battles more complex and fun. I guess the cons of having this reaction system, is the possibility of making the game a little bit grindy, if you want a particular reaction mastered on more than 1 party member.

I just looked at my old save and it was funny to see how nutty the reaction system can really be too. Like in this link [LINK] . Like how my Mardek has a lot of chances to cause a lot of different status effects with one hit. Well, you also see a couple unavailable reactions you cannot normally learn since I edited my own .sol file and made Mardek learn unavailable reactions to see them for myself, but only did so when I was near the end of this chapter.

I am not sure how I feel about introducing the Body and Mind stats to replace the other ones. It brings another form of managing them in battle, but I am not sure if it is just as fun as the existing system, but it does make the battle slightly more realistic. To me STR, VIT, SPR, AGL, DEF, MDEF and EVA statistics seem to make perfect sense of what they mean jus like how it's clear what Physical Attack Reactions, Physical Defence Reactions, Magical Attack Reactions and Magical Defence Reactions are meant for. However, the only exception here is that STR and ATK seem ambiguous to me. Though If I am correct, ATK is just the base attack of a party member and STR only influences how strong physical attacks are? But again these stats are also great for bringing in the management aspect of the game and making compromises over things. Like being slightly under-leveled for a boss, the decisions would have to be made to use armour/accessories over the other one in case you do not want to get 1-hit KO'd from a particular skill/attack, but outputting less damage in general. Those elemental statistic are also fun, requiring you sometimes to use armour/weapons over the other than using always the same weapon. Also in general you need a battle tutorial either way, or at least most games have them of educating the user of what each statistic is meant for. I guess people who would have played pokémon in the past would seem to better understand those elemental statistics over other who do not, but that's an inevitability I suppose. It's at least more creative than those ordinary RPG maker games with the same ATK, MATK, DEF, MDEF attributes in a battle.
2
Tobias 1115~5Y
I suppose we'll need to find out from direct experience how well and how fun the system plays. From my own testing so far, it's fine, but it's hard to know how it'll be in the long run.

And I think having that many reactions equipped is just way too much! What level is Mardek there though??
1
ExtremeHunt3~5Y
He is level 99 in my save. So he deals quite a lot of damage, but also heals for a lot, to almost full HP every hit due to mine chosen reactions. I also seem to have stumbled upon an other save were I appeared to fiddle around with playable characters you can always choose from the save crystal. I guess there's never too many Deugans in my party :P . [LINK] Same with the Mardeks in my save crystal [LINK] , with a bunch of other characters you could play in previous chapters.
1
Tobias 1115~5Y
Ha, that looks so ridiculous! I never played around with the game like that myself, despite making it. I can see the entertainment value in it!
1
JohnnyBoi45~5Y
Would you consider uploading any of those sol files to dropbox or something? I'd love to play around with them. I've dabbled in soledit but I've never done anything like add other playable characters.
0
ExtremeHunt3~5Y
Sure, I also added a couple new characters too. like these: [LINK] . Unfortunately they do not have any skills, since it seemed it was never programmed in the game, unlike for Aalia and Bartholio, which you can control at the end too.

I use this tool for .sol [LINK] . As other tools makes my Mardek saves be called "undefined" and I am not sure what else it may have done wrong. Also with this many characters, adding a couple new ones is pretty undo-able through the .sol editing tool I use as it reloads every new change I do which takes a couple of minutes. To battle this I use a HEX editor instead [LINK] and copy any existing character in my party and change variables accordingly (changing a variable value doesn't make the .sol editor tool reload the tree-like structure it as it already exists).

Anyway, here are my .sol files [LINK]
1
JohnnyBoi45~5Y
Woooooo! It's a dev update and I'm so happy to see it. First off - the 3d models and battle system look visually great. I had previously expressed my concerns about the departure from 2d but those have been laid to rest and I am definitely sold on this new direction. The battle UI is also very appealing, I understood what everything was but it comes off as more modernized than the original Mardek visuals. One small thought about it: the reaction bar could perhaps be moved to the gap to the right of the ally health bars; as it stands now it's place in the middle of the screen is somewhat jarring.

As for mechanics, it's funny that you bring up Morrowind, which is one of my favorite games of all time. As you may know, there have been no shortage of people who claim that "Morrowind had it all right" and that Skyrim was "dumbed down." Though I liked Morrowind's more traditional RPG approach to player growth, I will admit that half the time, I still to this day don't really know what boosting each stat does. I think the original Mardek did a good job of being relatively clear on what each stat was and what it did, even with a large amount of different stats. It appears to me that in this new rendition, body is like a combination of STR, VIT, and base HP, mind takes over for SPR and base MP, and then the speed stat just takes over for AGL. I feel like this could be a good change, and the idea of skills costing body points to use or dealing either body or mind damage is definitely interesting. It also seems like there are some new fun mechanics like taunt, which would have been welcome in the original Mardek series.

Other ideas I like... having a smaller pool of skills that can be upgraded is a fantastic idea and one that would have fared well in the original series. There were *so many* skills in Mardek and often many went were made obsolete like Sharla and Donovan's first spells, or were never really used in the first place. I also think using food as opposed to potions could be good. The many potions of Mardek worked because that game was parodying other RPGs, so having "chocolate milk" and "god piss" was hilarious because of the setting. Having food take more or less of a turn is also really cool and innovative. That food-eating gif is terrifying though.

The last point I want to touch on is about progression, itemization, and choice. One thing I really enjoyed about Mardek was how itemization choice worked: you had a very limited number of item slots to work with, and a big part of the game in my opinion was choosing the right items for the area you were in. There were totally legitimate (and sometimes hilarious) strategies, especially for the bonus bosses, that involved using the right combo of items, usually ones that boosted resistances, to completely cheese a fight. I hope that some of this gameplay will return, as it was really fun. Going back to the Morrowind vs Skyrim analogy. Morrowind had many more OP, powerspike items than Skyrim, but in Skyrim there was almost no choice to it. In Skyrim you get items that have small, only positive bonuses, and you keep those until you get something marginally better. Conversely, certain Morrowind items really *meant* something. To bring it into terms of this game series, take something as simple as the fire pendant. A cheap, easily acquired item could literally make you immune to magical fire attacks. But it was at the cost of using an item that boosted stats, or gave health, or offered a passive auto-buff. Now maybe that's a bit extreme, but it means you make a choice, and in my opinion that is good gameplay. The same applied for reactions - having limited RP and needing to choose what reactions you want to use was really effective gameplay and I hope it returns in some sense. I think some of the simplifications you've made to this current battle system can be applied to this sort of gameplay, but I do want to caution against simplifying to the point where there is no choice. Instead, consider offering "power spikes" through itemization, skill upgrades, etc, but at the cost of something else. This can greatly increase the game's replayability value as well from a gameplay perspective, as you will have multiple "builds" to try out on various characters. Honestly, this might be getting out of the scope of this specific dev blog, but I do believe it's something worth considering. Anyway! Thank you for reading another rambling comment of mine. This game looks like it's already shaping up well, and I'm excited to see what's next.
4
Tobias 1115~5Y
Interesting that you say the reaction bar in this position is jarring, since this is where it was in the original MARDEK! The space at the right of the current status circle things would be an odd choice, since there can be up to four of those so that space is variable, plus less horizontal space gives less precision. Where it is now feels like the only place it'd really work, to me.

I'd forgotten about the silly potions like "God Piss" (the name of which is misleading, since it's never been near a real god)! Makes me think I could add potions as a subtype of 'food'...

I forgot to talk about equipment etc in this post, whoops! I'll probably do something like I did in Taming Dreams. I'd forgotten about how I handled it in that until just now, but I like it and think it could work for this.

Essentially, rather than having stats in the traditional sense, weapons could have a Passive skill that'd always be in effect (could be something like '+10 Body damage', or '20% chance of [status effect]' on hit), plus a Reaction skill that'd take effect on top of the reaction bonus for the action you were using. Maybe? Shields could be similar, though the reaction would apply defensively of course.

Rather than having a bunch of different armour items to equip, instead characters could have a limited selection of carefully designed Outfits, which would change their appearance. Each one might offer both a Boon and a Drawback. So Mardek for example might have his Casual, Cherub, and Seraph outfits... though plot stuff might prevent you from switching between those for him in particular. Even without manual choice between them, the way the character would play would change accordingly, so that might spice things up a bit.

Each character could also equip up to three 'memento' items, which might be unique to each character, relating to specific memories of theirs. In Taming Dreams, I see that mementos granted action abilities, so that's a possibility! What I was thinking before I looked back on this was that each memento could grant a passive skill, which might be more complex than just some simple stat boosts. Like, say, 'counterattack whenever Deugan is attacked', or something. And of course you'd only be able to equip three at a time, so you'd have to make a choice about your character's build.

I've not given that as much thought as I need to just yet though; I'll need to devote some time to it later.
1
JohnnyBoi45~5Y
I see why the reaction bar wouldn't work on the right - I guess the only difference with the original is that the screen was set up to allow a bit of space for the bar, so that it was below the characters, not on top of them.

For this equipment system, would that mean that skills and reactions could no longer be mastered? I don't know how Taming Dreams' system works so I can't really comment on it. It could be really interesting! A lot of items in Mardek existed for the sole purpose of mastering a skill. Take the blood opal, for example. Aside from the reaction it teaches, it's almost entirely useless as a standalone item because very few enemies inflict bleed. But in this new system, if it only works while equipped, that's a choice you'd have to make if the HP-draining effect would be worth what other items can offer. Then again, that's a choice one has to make in the original series to spend those 4 RP on the Drain HP 10% reaction as opposed to, say, Accuracy +50%. Mardek did have a slight problem with power creep due to the ever-accumulating skills and reactions, so maybe this is a good move? The idea of having interesting unique passive skills is great as well!
1
Tobias 1115~5Y
Ah right; I just had to check the game myself to see the positioning, and it is indeed under the characters. I suppose I see this as the '3D equivalent' of that positioning though? And having it layer over the 3D scene adds an appealing kind of depth, in my opinion. But as with everything, subjective perspectives vary!

When playing through MARDEK recently, I actually disliked items that 'forced' me to keep them equipped just to learn a skill (especially one I wouldn't even use just for the sake of completion), so I want to avoid that. In Taming Dreams, I don't think you mastered skills? Honestly I can't remember! I suppose it was more like Pokemon abilities, where you have a set number and can replace them, but can't accumulate a list, and a lot of strategy comes from what you choose to fill the limited slots with.

I vaguely remember that you could gain permanent boons from using the miasmon many times, so perhaps I could do a similar thing? That is, you don't need to use skills to learn them as such, but if you use them enough, you can get some permanent stat boost not necessarily related to the skill? It's one thing to add to the ideas pile.
1
JohnnyBoi45~5Y
First of all, thanks for replying to my many comments - gonna try and cap this off now. I will definitely get used to the new reaction bar placing. I agree on your point that it was sometimes annoying to keep items on for the sole purpose of skill mastery, especially passive skills which often took forever, so this feels like a step in the right direction. The permanent boosts from using certain skills enough sounds like a good idea to revisit though, especially if characters feel like they end up plateauing progression-wise. Limited skill slots also seems like a solid move so you don't end up with characters like Gloria or Legion completely overshadowing ones like Donovan or Sharla just due to their sheer versatility.
1
DetroitLolcat7~5Y
A lot of these ideas seem pretty cool! I especially like the simplification/streamlining of the stats. Mind and Body make a lot more physical sense than "Attack", "Defense", etc. And oftentimes games just rename Attack/Defense/MAtk etc to be Strength/Dexterity/Spirit without making them work differently.

This Mind/Body system seems great. I 100% agree that the D&D stats make a lot more sense than most JRPG stats: they represent tangible human characteristics instead of statistics meant to be processed by computers. I'm also happy that you're condemning MP to the annals of history, as you're absolutely right that they're an outdated concept much like "points" or "lives". I cannot stress enough how much I like your simplified stat system.

The food system seems a bit odd to me, however. It's a bit of a double standard, but I like the idea of health being restored from magic potions and thought that makes a lot of sense in JRPGs like Final Fantasy or MARDEK. It reminds the player they're in a fantasy world where magic reigns supreme. Furthermore, healing items are supposed to be capable of healing a character from death's door to fighting form in an instant. Common food can't do that, while "magic potions" can. I personally feel like magic healing potions are more immersive than healing food. To employ your D&D analogy - characters in the D&D world eat common food, but when they need to heal they use magic potions.

The "speed system" is pretty neat too. Definitely seems like you're adding a lot of realism to your battle system that isn't seen in many JRPGs.

It also seems like you're maturing the reaction system too, at least compared to MARDEK. I was wondering if you intend for the same attack to have the same reaction every time, or will the positions of the gold/blue bars change even when using the same attack over and over? Either way, this is a neat idea as well and I think if there's any part of MARDEK that could stand to be more complex rather than less, it's the reactions. Makes the game "easy to learn but hard to master", if you will. Kind of like in the Mario & Luigi RPGs, where each attack had its own timing. While this system wouldn't be as complex as M&L's (Part of M&L's system was figuring out the timing for each attack then mastering it, while this system seems it would just require the latter), it's still a nice improvement that keeps the player engaged more.

All in all, this seems great and I'm excited to see the battle system and the Reimagined MARDEK mature more.

...

But please, for the love of God/Dharma/YALORT, please do not keep that eating animation...
1
Tobias 1115~5Y
I'm glad your opinion of this system is positive! I was expecting people to mostly just point out potential problems, like what always seemed to happen whenever I presented any idea back in the Fig Hunter days...

I like the food idea because it's hardly realistic; I suppose it's no less ridiculous than a night's rest in a bed fully curing all injuries and ailments? I just find it particularly funny imagining a character scoffing half a dozen whole roast chickens in a single battle and recovering from sword slashes to the face in the process. It's silly.

Breath of the Wild used food as restoratives instead of the typical magical potions, and gathering and cooking it added a whole new aspect of the game that wouldn't really be possible with potions (unless you brewed potions from ingredients or something, but that's just introducing an extra step). Link can also eat multiple whole meals in a single bite each, back to back, all between his combat opponent's attacks since it's done from the menu that freezes the world, yet it never seems to register as absurd. Game logic!

I had in mind Mario & Luigi when wondering how to improve reactions, and I might do a similar thing but to a lesser extent. I think having attacks vary in their reaction times each time they're used would lead to more annoyance than appreciation, but if different monsters' attack animations were all slightly different, that might work. I suppose it's going to be different to M&L anyway though because the reaction bar makes it clear when you're supposed to react, rather than just watching the animation visuals. Maybe there could be an option to disable that for people who wanted a greater challenge?
0
Verdusk21~5Y
I'll be looking forward to seeing the faces the characters make when they eat Entire Roast Chicken and Live Rat, both when they like it and not.
2
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Tobias 1115~5Y
Ha, that makes me laugh! I'll be sure to add that for the Whole Baked Whale edibles.
3
ChuckNorris18~5Y
I think you're on track to make something really great here! The 3d animations look brilliant, and the innovations to the battle system make sense. Watching these developments with interest.
2
LotBlind53~5Y
Divine Dreams is, at any rate, better than Divine Divinity! XD
0
Dingding32167~5Y
The whole Divine Dreams demo display definitely does look impressive! (I know I got carried away with the alliteration there but I'm not that sorry)

My own two cents:
- I'm really glad the reaction system is here to stay, and has been upgraded! It made a lot of difference to me to have that bit of interaction and made grinding a lot less painful than it could've been otherwise in MARDEK, which says a lot about the battling system. Perhaps skill acquisition (or permanent item boosts) could be linked to the number of times one reacted in the blue region/ equivalent? Hmm.
- I completely agree with the facial expressions adding to the dynamics; I wasn't too sure about the move to 3D from a player perspective but things look much smoother and dynamic (and are probably easier to create from a developer's point of view) so I can see the appeal!
- The speed rings are intuitive but I can foresee difficulties comparing whose turn comes up next if they're quite similar, especially when food digestion effects need to be taken into consideration; an optional turn counter could help for those who wanted one, without cluttering the screen for others happy to do without
- On items/ skills-- The current idea with changing skills and permanent boosts seems to be on the right track for me! MARDEK did had an overwhelming and probably uselessly high number of skills, and though I did like mastering them at the time, adulting does tend to get in the way of playing games to my satisfaction nowadays. One of the "pet peeves" I had with playing Taming Dreams was the linearity/ lack of choice mentioned, where the developer's perfectionism streamlined gameplay to the point where players had fairly little meaningful input, but hopefully DD will offer enough variation to avoid that particular trap. I also wonder whether DD will have the multitude of branching sidequests and secrets that MARDEK was so beloved for! ...Though that would definitely mean sacrifices on your part to implement.
- I like the idea of cooking and preparing food as per Breath of the Wild! Though I can also see a role for potions etc which could be a more magical, powerful version that would ostensibly be "lighter" on the stomach and probably not incur as hefty a speed cost but be far more difficult to acquire, I would imagine. I will admit that the eating animation will probably haunt my dreams, but it's also hilarious, as disturbing things can sometimes be! The ridiculous shenanigans that a Cook/Healer person could get up to, trying to bake ever-larger portions of food to keep up with Mardek's never-ending appetite (culminating in the Whole Baked Whale you mentioned in a comment above) amuse me!

Amazing work as always, looking forward to hearing more from you~
1
Tobias 1115~5Y
I absolutely adore artful alliteration!

That's a good idea about skill acquisition! Perhaps you could get 2 points for hitting the blue area, 1 for the gold area, 0 points for a miss? I'll probably do that!

I might add a turn order display thing like the one from MARDEK. Maybe. I could have it change accordingly when you were selecting food items or skills, to show when your next turn would be if you chose that action. I imagine that could influence decisions.

I'm certainly aiming to capture MARDEK's open world aspects, at least later in the story; currently, the plans for the first (or I suppose technically 'fourth') chapter are quite linear, since it's based on MARDEK 2 and that was, but you're given much more choice about what order to do things in in the other two chapters. I'm going to have to be careful about it though because I don't want to make it too linear, but it's very difficult to tell character stories in a way where the order isn't known! I think there are a lot of places in my current plan where your party is determined by the story, but it sort of has to be that way to make the development time sensible and the character relationships and story developments emotionally meaningful. I hope that I'll be able to find a balance though, since I know the freedom about skills, characters, and story direction was important for players in MARDEK (3).

Potions would make sense as light but powerful 'food' items that were difficult to acquire! I like the idea of potions being promoted from something so common you end up with 99 gathering dust before you know it, to something special and unusually effective, which is what a ~magic potion~ really should be!

Thanks for your interest, and your comment!
1
Refurin24~5Y
I never found MARDEK's stats and stuff to be overly complicated or obscure, I always considered it fairly simple compared to most RPGs I've played, and I liked it for that. I don't mind trying to simplify it further though.

I've written very lengthy explanations of all the things that I loved about MARDEK, gameplay-wise, that put it above all other RPGs I've played, and why I consider MARDEK chapter 2 to be one of the most delightfully designed RPGs ever. Unfortunately that was on the last version of Fig Hunter, which I think is gone now.

Also I very strongly agree with the sentiment that each stat should be worthwhile, and I like being in control of it. I always love when increasing a stat by 1 is a noteworthy difference, and a choice that I made.

In a sense, a lot of MARDEK was a balancing act with your stats, and each thing being so valuable is what made this so engaging. Elemental resistances were extremely important and I liked how the story and gameplay aspects of it combined to make it clearly a core part of the universe, but you also could never fully focus on your elemental resistances without neglecting other stats.

Overall the system described in the post seems interesting and I want to see how it develops, there's only two things I read that I have some concern with.

Firstly the idea of each character having a preferred food is interesting and helps with character building, but I do worry that it might just be a bit inconvenient if it's too complex. This is a conversation I had recently with other people I know who are making RPGs. I just hope such a system of favourites is very straightforward.

I'd seen people planning to have each individual food item have some varying levels of interest in it that would change how effective it is, but that personally doesn't sound fun at all to manage. Like trying to feed a picky family that just so happens to have an RPG tacked on. Seems unnecessary to me.

To me it'd be a lot more reasonable to have very clearly defined favourite food groups that they either like or don't, that way it's not hard to think about whether they might like it or not, while still keeping the positive aspects of the system. That's possibly what you already had in mind though, not saying that it can't work and you'd be making a mistake, just bringing up a concern.

And secondly I personally don't find the idea of a character being weakened by low health to be appealing. While it makes sense as far as realism goes, I think it would make things quite a bit less engaging.

The option of trying to make a last ditch effort to win a battle even though you're rather weak, or putting off healing for a bit to do other things and the excitement of effectively making a comeback or taking a risk and it paying off seems like it'd be lost. You'd probably just have to constantly keep healing all the time.

Maybe it could work out with some experimentation, but it feels off to me.

Despite that, I look forward to where things go, and I'm glad it seems you're enjoying yourself with it.
1
Tobias 1115~5Y
I was planning something like this for the food items:

There are six food groups, in two sets of three: Meat, "Bread", and Greens all healthy foods that restore Body; Chocolate, Savoury, and Cake are all snacks that restore Mind. Characters like one from each group, dislike one, and feel neutral about the other.

So a character might like Cakes and Greens, but dislike Meat and Savoury snacks. Anything more complicated than that would just be irritating, I think!

Also, rather than having a bunch of food items with varied effects that you'd need a guide (or a Curry Dex...) to keep track of, I was thinking each of these food groups would have a limited number of items within it. So there might be small, medium, and heavy Meat food items, which restore progressively more of their respective stat but delay your next turn by more as well.

Usually food in RPGs is something I ignore, because there are so many different meals and they have such small effects (usually not even anything significant) that it never seems worth the bother. So the aim of this would be to be simple to understand and use, and, like with the stats, for every food item to be worth using.

I actually quite like having to restore health using these food items often! I'm one of those players who accumulates tons of items that I never use, and I like the idea of having it so you 'have' to use restoratives often rather than just stockpiling them. I think I might lessen the potency of healing magic for that reason; not to the point where it's irritatingly useless, but I don't want it to make the food items obsolete.

I can understand the thought about lower health meaning lower attack; at first I thought it might be unappealing too, and I was fully expecting a negative response to this because of that.

In my experience testing so far, though, I've found that it actually introduces different kinds of strategies and decision-making. With the familiar system, there's really only one bit of information to consider: "am I at low health? Should probably heal then". Here, you might consider whether it's worth eating quickly before an attack, or whether you're healthy enough to finish your opponent off.

It also affects how you choose targets. Consider a situation where you're against three opponents with 60 Body each, and you've got two characters who can each inflict 50 damage. If you have them both focus on one target to take it out, as you typically would in any other RPG, then two full-health opponents will get attacks in afterwards. However, if you attack two different targets, they'll both hit you at low health, and their attacks will do little - perhaps even nothing - and they might even knock themselves out in the process.

And remember, if you eat a small food item, you usually get your next turn immediately after, so that affects decisions too. You don't need to choose to heal or attack if you can do both. I've also added a 'food menu' button that lessens the amount of menu navigation you need to do, to make it as easy as possible.
1
Refurin24~5Y
That food system seems a lot more manageable than some I've seen people try before, it sounds good and provided it's clear from just looking at them what food group they fall under then I doubt it should be too much of a hassle. Especially with a rather limited pool of items, it sounds like it could be a fun element with heavy food filling a less-used but important niche in preventing catastrophic disaster or recovering in longer periods of downtime.

From what you've described, this turn system reminds me a bit of FFX in that sense, which sounds really appealing to me. A turn-based RPG with clearly a lot of somewhat hidden systems going on in the background (not unlike instantly filling invisible ATB gauges) made things feel a lot more malleable.

I've ranted extensively to mostly nobody about how much I've grown to dislike the ATB gauge over the years. Putting time-based pressure on my turns (when I prefer having all the time I'd like to make sure I'm making the correct decisions), while also wasting my time between turns where all I can do is sit and wait.

And also on the same token why I think MARDEK tackled turn-based RPG battles in a much more engaging way than most (it's not alone in this, but still rather rare) where the ATB gauge wastes your time where you aren't in control (watching animations, waiting for gauges to fill) while putting pressure on you when you are in control, which feels to me like it's trying to put more action and engagement into the areas that are already engaging (and instead losing some of the enjoyment of taking your time), instead MARDEK allows you as much time as you need (and information too, there's no Scan, you can check any time the stats and resistances of everything!) but fills the empty waiting of watching animations with the reaction system. You're always engaged (even if in a rather simple manner) so even grinding usually doesn't have you looking away and mashing buttons.

I also really appreciated the really detailed turn-order displays that FFX used to not only let you plan long in advance but also see the effects it would have if you used something slower or faster.

I really love turn-order displays in general, and I liked that MARDEK had one, even if it was a mostly unchanging loop outside of deaths and haste.

I'd be really excited to see the new MARDEK employ a similar system of extreme transparency in who gets to go when. It just feels more fair and it feels like it rewards you more for better strategising.

I'd have to see how the connection between health and damage output plays out, though. Maybe if its impact is less extreme than I'm envisioning, I dunno. I'm still a little iffy on the concept but I haven't played it, so I'll have to wait and see.

Edit: On the topic of a huge variety of food with fairly insignificant effects, I'm reminded of Terraria which had a massive list of painful-to-make potions that were not at all worth making for general use, that the game essentially still forced you into maximising the use of simply because the bosses were so extreme that you needed every small advantage you could get. Which was both good and bad, I liked the level of depth it provided and that it managed to get me to use them even though I hated it, but at the same time it doesn't change the fact that I hated doing it.
1
Davkett9~5Y
I'm really interested in the new battle system! I hope it ends up being fun.

Making different actions have different effects on turn time is an idea so brilliant I'm surprised no other game has done it before (at least that I know), it feels like such a natural progression from regular status effects that target speed.

Different food tastes for each character is an interesting concept that would certainly give them more personality. But I think it would only work if food is valuable/scarce. If I can simply buy a bunch of each type of food then there are no strategic choices, just inventory management.

While the idea of less health = less attack may sound like it encourages conservative playstyles that prioritize health, it also opens new strategies on how to deal with enemies.

I love the idea of slow gradual gains. Many people certainly enjoy the rush of a power spike after leveling up, but that same rush could be achieved through equipment upgrades.

A small pool of upgradeable skills? Yes please, especially if you need to choose between different upgrades.

Overall, there are some amazing ideas here Tobias, I'm excited to follow the development of this game.
2
SafiyaMukhamadova11~5Y
I don't think that it's the graphics that really "made" Mardek, I think it's the story and the witty, engaging dialog. Even on my 16th or so playthrough, I find myself going back to bookshelves to see the jokes. The gameplay was solid and the equipment and stats were sensible, but that's true of a ton of games I haven't fallen in love with and don't look for updates on. Also there's the angle of needing the story to be completed; we as humans have a psychological tick where if something remains incomplete, it gnaws at us until we finally complete it. It's obvious where the story was intended to go but not seeing it completed is frustrating.
1
Tobias 1115~5Y
I understand the frustration there; it eats away at me even more since I'm the one who started the story! But I'm choosing to finish it in the form of a reimagining because the satisfaction of scratching that old itch wouldn't be worth the cost. I'm hoping the new story will be just as appealing as the old one, or even moreso. It's written by the same mind, after all, just with several years of growing up and learning.
0
SafiyaMukhamadova11~5Y
To be clear, I didn't mean that as a criticism of you, it's just a fact of human psychology. I have a weird habit of brutal honesty with myself about myself and my motives or opinions that makes me come across as abrasive or rude to people who aren't used to it. I'm confronting myself with the question "why do you compulsively follow this particular game compared to the thousands of others you have played over the years?", and I think that part of the answer is that I want to see the story end.
1
Tobias 1115~5Y
Compared to some of the other comments on this post, yours definitely didn't come across as abrasive!

I do get it, though, and I wish I could give an ending to the story. It's just unfortunately not feasible at this point for a bunch of different reasons. If I could click my fingers and have it appear, I definitely would! The remake's the next best thing though, I hope.
0
capnbunnypaws11~5Y
Greetings, Tobias! I am an old follower. I wanted to give you my input, as I am an artist and I used to be a writer.

I've followed your progress and, while it's good looking so far, I am afraid to say that it's still a new product under the illusion of being the old product. Basically, it's still not the same game, no matter how much you make it look like such.

The people that loved the original games most liklely are not looking for a clone of them in the same "ancient style" as you would put, what people want is consistency. They started a story, reached the "to be continued" part and they want to see what's going to happen next, how the characters will continue developing, how the plot will develop, how the story will end, and so on. It has nothing to do with graphics, game mechanics (not to a high degree at least) or anything of the sort.

To put it simple, they're watching a movie, then you come and switch channels into a different movie, even if the new movie is good, the people still want to finish watching the other thing, they don't want to be cut suddenly, they were invested. The people that played your old games were invested, they were hooked, and they want to see how the story unfolds. It's not so much about childhood nostalgia, but consistency. If I get immersed, invested, even spend money on a game, I want to see it unfold from beggining to end and I would feel disappointed if the creator discontinued it mid-story and sold me a different game with a hint of the old one and tried to convince me it;s the same. I would really like to get to finish the old one and THEN check on their other content.

If you plan on making money out of your creation, then you need to be consistent, especially if the past creation was a success like Mardek was. People are going to have expectations after it, and it happes to all content creators really. It's completely OK to work on what you like, but when you become a business you need to also keep in mind what your followers want and listen to them, oyherwise your product is going to suffer.

You tend to judge your fans the wrong way, I've noticed (you can correct me if I'm wrong though), either by treating them as "rabid" or nostalgic... when, from what i've seen, a lot of them only wanted consistency out of you. If you start a story, people would want you to commit and finish, let them close the chapter and then offer them new things. I am sure they would be more than happy to try them. But not only you haven't listened to them, you've also tried to force new and different material on them under the name of the story they started with (in this case Mardek). THAT is the main thing that causes so much resistance, not the change itself. Makes sense?

Another thing I wanted to bring out is that you don't need the best graphics and art to make a game good, a lot of people like simplistic things and it's totally okay. When you have a good story and loveable characters, something that leaves an impression, you don't need the best graphics. Undertale is a good example of this.
Don't compare your own work to the work of other developers (especially companies) because then you are going to get insecure and the quality of your work will suffer. You do not have to be perfect, your game does not have to be perfect, you do not need a team of people to make something good.

I am talking to you from the perspective of an artist and story teller that makes money off it. You have talent, you have skill, but your major flaw is not listening to people unless they say something good, and that's going to affect you in the long run.
A lot of times we won't be able to work on the things we'd like. I mean, I have gotten sick of some of my stories or characters, but people really loved them and it would be unfair if I just quit because of that. I am not famous, but it's them the reason I have an income, so I need to find a way to keep them and myself happy. If you want to earn money, then find a balance, give your followers what they want while giving yourself something you enjoy.

I'm hoping this helps in some way!
1
Tobias 1115~5Y
I'm glad you're able to make money from creative work; it's not an easy feat. What is it specifically that you do? I'd be curious to hear how you made the transition to earning from it.

I feel like I've already replied to a lot of what you've said in several other posts, but a few notes:

I'm currently working on "Divine Dreams", which is set to be told over three chapters that I'm intending to stick with until the end (unless something like dying of brain cancer gets in the way). It's inspired (heavily) by MARDEK, but it's got a different title because it's a different game.

My opinion of the old series was sour for many years, largely because it took forever and was a financial failure (plus other factors like general poor mental health, trying to find my place in the world, etc). I recently played it again and have a much better opinion of it now.

Still, I'm not continuing with that exact thing for a few reason. Some are technical; it was made in Flash, and Flash is dead. I can't port any assets over, so I'd need to remake everything anyway, so since I'm doing that I'd rather go all the way. There's so much I've learned about every skill I use in the years since then.

Another is that I'd be targeting a limited and diminishing audience that way. Let's say there were (for the sake of example; I don't have a clue about the actual numbers) 1 million people who played MARDEK. According to stats I've seen, only a fraction of them stuck with it long enough to actually complete it. So let's generously narrow the number down to 10,000. It's been a decade since MARDEK 3 came out, so the number of people who played it then and would remember the story and would be interested in more is a fraction of a fraction of a fraction, and new players might be put off because they're expected to be familiar with this old stuff but they're not. I would be.

By making an improved reimagining, capturing the essence of what made the originals great while (in my opinion) improving many aspects, seems to me the best way to target a new audience (hopefully) while also giving something to the old fans who liked the general aspects of the old experience but might not even remember the details now anyway.

I'm aware that there'll always be a portion of people who'll resist anything that's not exactly what they remember or hoped for an ending for, but I don't think they're the majority. We'll see, though; I think people need to actually see what I'm making now in more detail before they reject it.
2
capnbunnypaws11~5Y
Aw heck, let's hope none of that gets in the way! Have you been better in that regard? Health-wise I mean.

As for what it is that I do... I make illustrations and short comics at the moment. Mostly centered around fantasy, cartoon/manga styled characters, gore/macabre, some fetish art as well.
I started selling it back in 2009 or so when I saw that people were liking the style, especially the dark fantasy aspect and weird stuff I was making. As a disabled person, it really helped me not to starve to death, haha.
2
Tobias 1115~5Y
I'm not dead yet and I don't have any major cognitive impairments from the surgery I had, thankfully (though that's largely because I convinced the brain surgeon to take a different path through my brain using the knowledge of neurology I'd gained at university), but this kind of tumour often comes back, so that's always going to be looming over me.

I've heard that fetish art tends to sell well, and I wouldn't be surprised if gory stuff is the same; I can understand the appeal of having things that cultural taboos normally make forbidden and inaccessible. I'm glad it's working out for you; I've wondered about it myself if nothing else works out, but my art skills aren't up to scratch just yet! Too little time to practice. And I feel I've come far along on this particular path that I might as well stick with it at least a while longer.
2
Crimson1~5Y
Hey Tobias! In my opinion, the MARDEK trilogy is one of the best game(s) I've ever played. I'm definitely excited for all these new games you're working on.

I'd say a lot of these ideas seem cool for these new games. A lot are unique, and some follow the categories of "commonly used in games" and "realistic/logical." The realistic/logical aspects (I'm referring to the things you mentioned like body, mind, food weight, etc) for the battle systems seem definitely interesting. While they would make sense in battles, and would (probably) be one of the main things that makes these games stand out from others; in a way I'm on the fence about it. Don't get me wrong, it certainly is different and I usually like originality in games. However, there's just something about that old, regular, battle system with the attacks, agility, etc; that seems like it could be better for battles, but maybe it's just me.

To furthermore explain what I mean, the part where you mention the body points and attack DMG working with eachother; it has its pros and cons. It would bring a lot more strategizing to the battles, but it also seems a bit weird to me in a way. The body part would make sense for magic, but with physical attacks it seems odd to me. I feel as if it would be strange if body points corresponded to a let's say blade's own power and strength when that's in the blade and the body points are for the user. I get it that it takes up energy to do things like swing the sword and usually the force of the swing controls the impact of the sword, but I still feel like most of the body points should correspond more to actual body. Why I say magic would make sense is because it does seem like it would make sense that channeling power and strengths as a(n) attack/defense/healing/etc would take up energy.

For these games, I have a few questions, unless you aren't willing to answer, which I would be fine with but would still leave me curious. Although potions won't be the "main" healing items anymore, will they still exist in the game? Will items up/add things like stats, haste, regen, and nulls, like the power drink, speedy juice, healthy juice, and rainbow juice from the original MARDEK? If not then that's a shame, I'm really looking forward to that type of thing again. It could be fun to mess around with with certain enemies (particularly bosses.) If you were to eat a food that delays you for 1%, then is that 1% of 1 or any amount of speed point(s) (or whatever you're gonna call that), or is that 1% of the entire speed? I feel as if it would make more sense if the items didn't slow you down TOO much, but still delayed you in a way. Will there still be all the elements and statuses and will anymore be added? I feel really comfortable with the elements and statuses in already, and to be honest, I wouldn't really mind much of a change if more were added. Will the stuff with Anshar and Rohoph still exist? I'm still very curious to see the strengths of Gaspar (who's supposed to be the Annunaki to fight in chapter 4,) Anu, etc, and the connections they had made with Rohoph in the past.. BEFORE HE SLAUGHTERS THEM AND TRAPS THEIR SOULS! Are you still working alone or with someone on your games? I'm curious because there's this other RPG I grew up with called "Epic Battle Fantasy" if you've heard of it. In a way, it's similar to MARDEK. Good battle mechanics, good story, humorous at times, likeable art style and design, etc. The creator, Matt Roszak works with Phyrnna. Matt works on most of the coding and Phyrnna does the music (and let me tell you, there are a LOT of themes in the EBF games.) The games end up being played through really nicely, and come out quite a bit sooner than it would with one person working on it.

I would recommend you upload these new games to Steam too, and perhaps start a Patreon if you haven't done/thought about doing either one yet. You could get some good profit off of each, which can go into your life and your games (stay healthy while developing.) You could possibly also use the profit to work with other people on your game. Not only would you get things done faster, but there would be a lot more brainstorming and opinions on game mechanics, and parts for later in the game. Obviously, the main outcome would be up to you, but you'd get more options to choose from.

I also want to bring up the art-style. These art styles seem rather acceptable but weird in a way. Although I get your old MARDEK series was made with Adobe Flash, and we only have a few more weeks with Adobe Flash, and you need to remake things, they don't need to be all pixel-like anymore, they can just look normally drawn out. You don't need to go fully with anything to get a good game out of this. You don't even need the best art style, you'd still for the most part get a good game out of this and possibly profit if you upload it to Steam and/or Gamejolt or game sites like that.

Anyway, I think that's all for now. I thank you for engaging and hearing out your community's voices now, that's definitely good. Hopefully we can see more of your admirable game-making talent, and hopefully people can see your work and you can get some popularity from the internet. Hopefully this helped you in some way, shape, or form. I'm looking forward to the future of Alora Fane!
1
Tobias 1115~5Y
Hello, and thanks for your comment. I'm glad you like MARDEK!

I think with the battle system, we'll all have to play it a bit before deciding whether it works or feels okay or not. Personally it feels fine to me in what testing I've done, but it's very rudimentary at the moment and I've no idea whether it'll scale properly; we'll have to find out.

Come to think of it, a big reason MARDEK 1 started with the empowered versions of the characters is because I wanted to see if the system worked both at the start and endgame levels, so doing a similar thing with this should be enlightening.

Swords don't affect the Body stat directly, they just add a fixed amount of damage on top. It wouldn't really make sense for a sharp sword to give you more energy and HP!

I'm unsure about how to handle status effects. I've played some games in the years since MARDEK that handle status effects more meaningfully than I feel the Final Fantasies that inspired MARDEK's system did, so I'll likely be drawing on those for inspiration. It's something I plan to experiment with.

The new story draws on many elements of the original, but it's not exactly the same, is all I can really say about that! I'm hoping it'll have the same appeal as MARDEK but with more coherence. But we'll see.

I envy Matt Roszak for sticking with EBF, getting several out, and making money from it! I don't have any plans to work with anyone else any time soon just because I really like doing all the aspects myself. Writing the music is a hugely important part of the experience for me, for example. I know it'd be faster to work with others, but it's not as if an appropriately skilled person I get along with would just appear as soon as I wanted them to. The main reason I've always worked alone is because I've never met anyone who had the appropriate skills and a shared interest; I think that's all about luck. I know it's possible to hire people, but even if I wanted to do that - and I don't - I feel I need to have some financial success under my belt first (MARDEK was not a financial success).

I'm still trying to decide what to do about funding; I'm thinking Kickstarter, but I might use Patreon if that doesn't work out. I already have a Patreon account, but don't feel comfortable pushing it if I've nothing to show just yet. I'm aiming to release on Steam; I already released my first game on there last month (Memody: Sindrel Song).

I'm not sure what you're getting at re the art style, but I like the 3D I'm using for this and it serves my purposes well.

I'm hoping this will be the year I make my triumphant return!!!1
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Ampersand68~5Y
The use of a stamina meter to measure both health and attack is something that reminds me of the game The Banner Saga- though in it, strength is not depleted as you attack, and the main dilemma is whether to prioritize Strength damage or Armor damage- as Armor blocks Strength damage and reducing Armor makes subsequent attacks stronger, but as you lower a unit's Strength, they in turn deal less damage (which is important so your own units don't take Strength damage to the point of being unable to hurt the enemy). It was an interesting addition for a Tactical RPG of its kind, and I wonder what depth a similar type of system would provide to a more traditional-style RPG.

Something I am wondering about though is the way you say progression will work- a slow grind of incremental changes. I don't think this is a bad idea per se, but it does still run into the same problem of balancing as regular levels do (with static stats it's far easier to tailor encounters to play out a certain way), and could encourage counter-intuitive strategies like purposely taking damage and in effect "penalizing" efficient gameplay.

It also runs into the problem of underutilizing certain party members and the resultant imbalance from that. There are ways for level-based systems to avoid this (like having inactive party members get token XP, or level ups applying to the entire party) that wouldn't apply to you system. On top of that, it's rather grindy, though grinding can certainly be part of the fun in RPGs.

Making it so upgrading skills or equipping items is the most important determinant to combat effectiveness could solve this, but only by making the experience system redundant. I don't think there's a completely obvious solution, and it may turn out that a "solution" isn't even needed, though I do have to question what this type of progression brings to the table vs discrete levels.
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Thinking about it further, I actually think that the idea of "shared Team XP" could be utilized in such a system, though in my opinion permanent stat upgrades would need to go for it to work- what I'm thinking of is a kind of "affinity" or "rapport" that builds as the team fights battles together, which could go up or down based on various factors, but would apply a bonus to the entire team's stats rather than on a character-by-character basis. This solves the problem of uneven progression, and could also be a solution to purposely grindy gameplay (by punishing a player for dragging out fights in order to train strength by getting hit over and over again, as getting team members hurt isn't going to help with team cohesion- perhaps team rapport could even be increased based on how well the battle went (though how that would be determined I don't exactly know). Having the bonus capped at some arbitrary amount could also help prevent grinding/unbalanced enemy encounters). I think this could fit better with the resource-management aspect of the Body/Mind bars as well- a fluctuating bonus seems more in line with that than incremental stat increases.

These are just some ideas off the top of my head, and of course it's up to your own discretion where you want to take your game's systems- though for me, one of my favorite things about the original MARDEK (3 specifically) was how you could unlock more dialogue with party members as you leveled them up, fleshing out their characters and providing a reward for using them aside from the obvious power boost. I guess that's why I thought of the rapport/affinity thing, since I do like the idea of party members slowly getting more in tune with each other, and the roleplaying opportunities that could arise from this (for example, story events massively affecting affinity levels*, providing a gameplay effect for plot-based progression).

*to take an example from the original games, Emela "killing" Steele could result in a massive loss of party rapport, though I don't think all changes would necessarily have to be negative- an emotional breakthrough between two party members might boost their affinity as well, perhaps even raising max affinity levels (though that'd be a whole other can of worms itself).
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Tobias 1115~5Y
This is something I definitely need to give more thought!

I want to avoid grinding as much as possible, and I was expecting people to reject the proposed system because of how much grinding it might encourage.

I dislike the idea of levels being completely segregated from story elements, though. In MARDEK 3, characters like Meraeador joined at a much lower level than Mardek because that made sense, I thought; it'd be ridiculous if this "I've never battled before" character was suddenly on equal footing to someone who'd been doing it for years! I would have made him level 1 actually, but players complained about the level discrepancy even when it wasn't enormous. I dislike XP going to non-combatants for the same reason; what's it actually representing, then?

I'd like to just discard levels entirely, and I'm even thinking about getting rid of random battles, and instead populating dungeons with a limited number of encounters such that it's possible to fully clear them. There needs to be some reward for finishing a battle, but if they're obstacles, then clearing them is a reward in itself, sort of. This is something I've thought about for years, and in an earlier game idea, you acquired new abilities by clearing out all the instances of a given monster species in a particular dungeon. I liked that a lot.

But it's tricky, because I know why level progression exists: it's appealing to players, to feel like they're growing. So getting rid of leads to a big loss that needs to be made up by something.

I'll need to brainstorm this before coming up with something for certain, and it'd be valuable to get feedback from players once I get to that point. I'm thinking the slow progression might not be the way to go about it though.

I'm unsure how I'll be handling the party chat. In Taming Dreams, there were no level-based backstory bits unlocked, but instead there was a more complex chat system where individual characters - and pairs of characters - occasionally got new optional dialogue based on the party state, which you were alerted to by a (!) that appeared in the corner and a sound effect. Writing bits for the current situation enhanced the immersion, but it also took ages to write. One possibility is a blend of the two - and something similar to what you're describing - where characters who take part in battle get affinity points for all the other characters present, and when they reach a certain point, it unlocks a bit between them... though I'm concerned about that leading to dialogue inappropriate for the current situation. Maybe the benefits outweigh any hits to the immersion though?

I've just added this to my notes, so I might end up doing something like that! Thanks for the idea!
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