LunarProxy

I find it easiest to start with a story and dialogue, and have the character designs, mapping, and eventing reflect that more truly later.

I think I get what you mean, but I have no idea how to fix it....

I know I played a flash game about philosophy that has this very same idea, and it's done very well, imo. Socrates Jones, I'd recommend giving it a play for any ideas.

I'm not sure what's confusing about it, to be honest. They're on top. Would it be more clear if they were spinning, or am I going to have to mess with the color palette? EDIT: I've got my first character's down-facing sprites, Rathy. Something seems off in the animation for it, specifically in the first walking frame.

RPG Maker has the best character creation there is. You make a sprite of a character and import it yourself, complete creative freedom with some practice. Anyhow, the idea behind shapeshifting sounds good, I think the most difficult part would be to balance all of the character stats fairly where one NPC can't accomplish six tasks, and another NPC can't accomplish one.

That's probably a good thing, since it isn't a helicopter. I'd upload my first sketch of it, but I don't have a scanner. It's an enforcement patrol drone. It flies around and... shoots criminals, I guess? EDIT: Alright, finished the Wasp Mk I completely. I guess I'll give the Turtle Bearing another shot tomorrow with a new color and design.

I have no idea how you did that third one. O_o I can see a pattern there, but whoa. Anyhow, I can see where I went wrong looking at the second one. I was definitely thinking too hard about how the bottom half was supposed to look in the light. As for the uneven shading, that'll take time, I've always been bad at shading when drawing too. Well, I'll keep trying. Thanks for the feedback! EDIT: Okay, I tried a different enemy, a Wasp Mk I. I'll put the new sprites in the original post.

Not bad, really? The shading looks like a mess, and seems really off on the bottom. Not sure how to fix it, either. As for a blur, I have no idea how, I made this in Paint with the pencil tool. As for the RTP, I will likely use nearly none of those sprites, since I hope to make an urban setting with sci-fi themes, so I'm not too worried.

So, I've always had an interest in spriting, as I love pixel art and such, but I've never been too artistically inclined. I finally tried just making a simple sprite. It's a turret called a Turtle Bearing, and has turtle colors. I didn't worry too much about the size, and just did 64x64 px to get a grasp on the idea. Any criticism? I can tell it's not a great sprite, but it's the best I could do with my knowledge. EDIT: Okay, second attempt was a Wasp Mk I. It has four frames of animation and one alternate damaged form, which turns the servo light red. I've finished it now. The sprites I'll be working with on average are 32x32px. Rathy's character sprites: These are based on the base character sprites by Talaroc in The Mana World. It's reduced to three frames of animation. The far left sprite looks off somehow, though. Is there a noticable issue with the shading that I'm missing?

It's interesting, since many VNs include multiple endings and choices. This could be considered skill to reach the 'best' ending, or the desired ending. However, then there's some that only feature one ending, and even have no choices. It seems silly to separate VNs this way, but in technicality by that definition, VN #1 is a video game, while VN #2 isn't. Of course, Kamidori Alchemy Meister is the best VN of all time, and that's certainly 100% a game, so whatever.

I think the best way to find a card battle system is to look at actual board games, since many rely on cards for possible actions and such. Some ideas are Pathfinder, The Legend of Drizzt, and Munchkin (Kinda). There was an interesting Lord of the Rings dice game, but I don't think anything from that can really be incorporated into cards.

My personal favorite of the options is Picnic, as it's the simplest, but gives an air of mystery if done right. The same idea can be given with Long Term Studies if the humans are not aware of the aliens. Black Box doesn't give the same feel as Picnic to me, but the idea behind it is more suspenseful than mysterious, if that's what you're going for.

Thanks for the support. If I take an RPG approach, I'll probably take an indirect route, where instead of a value for your strength, like levels, you'll unlock scraps for completing certain criteria in missions, and scraps could be used to upgrade a character's weapon. That way, I can limit how powerful the character can grow by limiting the number of scraps in any given part. Along with this, I'll probably use a Fire Emblem-esque level select so old missions can be re-challenged for any scrap you missed, or to get items. Items are definitely going to be limited, either way. Not sure yet what the inventory size should be, but I don't really need to determine that right away. I don't even have a complete idea yet. I've thought of four enemies, and my artistic skill leaves much to be desired.

I'm relatively new to RPG Maker personally, but I've been helping a friend with an RPG for about two years, and we've played around with the system quite a bit, and I had an idea for a side project. I'm not currently happy with the sheer amount of options available, as I'm afraid there's too many. This sparked from the idea of having limited options with a more strategic approach. Quick overview: it takes place on a turn-based grid system, where on the player turn, the player acts as the commander and directs where all of the available party members move, as well as the attacks and skills they use. After the player acts, then the enemies. The second important part is Gear Shifting. Every character can Gear Shift for 1 AP. All weapons are elementally augmented to either Fire, Ice, or Wind. Gear Shifting changes this element from Fire to Ice, Ice to Wind, or Wind to Fire. This is important, because you deal no damage to an enemy of the same element, full damage to an enemy of a weaker element, and half damage to an enemy of a stronger element. Fire beats Ice, Ice beats Wind, Wind beats Fire. It's rock-paper-scissors, basically, but there's no bonuses for having the right element, only penalties for the wrong ones. Characters have between 1 and 3 AP to spend every turn, which recharges back to full at the beginning of the next turn. The other mechanic is SP, which is spent to use Skills. You recharge 4 SP each turn, and the maximum is 20. Oh, and Dodge is a guaranteed miss from an enemy attack, though enemies also have AP and SP, so they can attack multiple times, depending on the situation. I decided to name it Gear Shift for the time being after the main mechanic I want to focus on. There are eight characters of different classes: Every class has one trait that sets them apart beyond their Vitality, Power, Move, and AP rating. Brute--Pummel: Basic attack push enemies away 1 space. Scout--Shadow Step: +1 Dodge for every AP remaining at end of turn. Support--Recharge: If no action is taken this turn, recharge to full (20) SP. Medic--Damsel in Distress: +1 Dodge for every adjacent ally at end of turn. Shift--Utility: +1 Extra AP next turn if any AP is remaining at end of this turn. Grappler--Grapple: Basic attacks pull enemies until they are directly in front of you. Versatile--Trekker: Can pass through water and cliffs freely. Wildcard--Prepared: +5 Extra AP at the beginning of every battle. Does not recharge. I'm not sure if I would want to take an RPG approach to this by focusing on upgrading the character weapons, or purely a strategy approach. I have a mock logo of it I can attach later if people want to see. Opinions? Constructive criticism?