[RMMV] Spriter(s) & Programmers Needed For RPG/Shmup/Action Game

[mobiusclimber 3]

I'm currently working on a game in MV tentatively titled "Dance of Steel and Bone" and will need help from a spriter (or two) and possibly a programmer or eventer. As soon as I started work on this project, I knew it would take me a very long time to complete on my own, and would not be half as good, so I'm hoping that someone (or several someones) would want to work on this game with me. I can't currently offer compensation, but I am looking at this as being a commercial "sold for profit" game, and would of course pay royalties from whatever proceeds  that would generate (if it happens). Here is the basic game idea and where I'm currently at in developing it:

 

STORYLINE:

 

Spoiler

You start the game as a 9 year old boy. You have been accepted in an elite military academy where you will hone your specialty, as you have been gifted in the art of combat since your birth. You board an airship (shown in mode 7 graphics) which takes you to the school. There, you complete registration by marking down your name, "class" (it'll be called something else in the game), and elemental alignment (natch). Then you pair up with three other new arrivals and go on to the training area, which will act as a tutorial for the overworld battle engine (the non-mech portion). From there for the next few hours of gameplay, your instructors teach you about battle, crafting, hunting/fishing, and cooking, as well as set up "contests" between your squad and others at the school. One day in class, one of the students mentions seeing a large airship in the window. As you go to look out, your instructor shouts to get away from the window, and then... it's a bombardment. The school is shelled heavily and decimated. You manage to get out before it collapses. Teachers are using their tech (sword, artillery or elemental) to fight swarms of mini mechs the airship dropped. They also sprayed a chemical into the air that causes immediate genetic mutation in animals (similar to Parasite Eve transformations). You join in the battle, fighting the newly created monsters using your tech. Then, you see a downed mini mech. You pull out the dead pilot and start it up. It speaks to you in a sarcastic, hyperactive tone. It asks if you want to dance and then says "watch, then follow" before displaying button inputs on the screen. When you match them, it synchs your tech with it's available armament. You then engage in battle with other mechs. Soon after, the enemy gives the signal to retreat and, as quickly as the battle was begun, it is over. Your school is a smoking ruins. You vow vengeance for the dead schoolchildren, and to put an end to the war. Your journey will take you through war-torn countrysides, past peasants suffering the effects of shortages and shellings, to the seats of power of those waging war, and into the very heart of the enemy kingdom.

 

GAME MECHANICS:

 

Spoiler

"Classes" are divided into four (maybe more) groups of tech users: sword (which includes any bladed weapon), artillery (from guns to bombs and everything in between), elemental (magic users, divided up by their elemental alignments, with the different elements having status effects associated with them - ability up with fire, slow and stop with ice, etc), and apothecary (status up or down, including HP/MP healing, and status effects). Portions of the game will be battles fought on foot, with "monsters" whereas other portions will be mech on mech battles and short shmup segments. While in the mech, damage is boosted by 10% and up to 50% on successful completion of "the dance" - a series of button presses, different for every skill. Mech skills correspond to your character's but the animation is also different, and will use mechanical means to achieve the effect. Outside of the mech, battles are more of a Mario RPG-style QTE, for a 10% boost. Those battles will also be more about defense since you are more vulnerable as a person than you are as a mech. (You can't just pilot the mech all the time because it's power source is finite and it has to refuel.) Your skills level up the more you use them, and you have the choice between one of two new skills on the first level up. Equipment drops are randomized in the style of Diablo games, while you can also find parts for your mech and upgrade different stats at will (if you have the part for it). You age a year for every five hours of gameplay, with a small stat increase, and every ten years a new sprite and portrait to show your age. All equipment will change the look of your sprite or mech, as you "wear" them and take them off.

 

The action segments will all occur before a turn-based boss battle. Depending on the type of boss, it will either be a vertical or a horizontal shmup, or a side-scrolling platformer/beat-em-up, or an on-rails shooter.  Your ship can only take so many hits during these segments, but whether you get to the end or not, you'll still wind up in a boss battle. The more damage your ship takes, the less "HP" it will have for the boss battle. Likewise, the more ships you down, the less HP the boss will have. Whatever power-ups you accrue during the action segment will also carry over to the boss battle.

 

I've been trying to work out whether I want it to be just one character, or your squad from the school. I'd love to make this a multiplayer game, but I think that might be way too ambitious.

 

PHOTOS:

 

Spoiler