Recruiting for a Long Term, Probably Big Project(s)

[MalakiGenesys 1]

Hello people, I'll cut right to the chase so you can stop reading early if you're not interested... There will be little to no monetary gain short term with my plan. I am not rich and cannot afford to hire people despite how passionate I am about this project... But I have dreams of this project becoming more of a side hobby and passion project some day... And I'm not giving up that hope. With that said, let me begin:

 

I am looking for people with all talents to help me see a dream fulfilled... What has been floating around in my head for over a decade is extensive but by no means strict (as I have ALWAYS supported for the most part artist/writer creative freedom even when helping someone else). With all the ideas in my head though I need people who have experience with the actual design part of the project. I dabbled a bit in rpg maker in the past, but I never had the artist and coding talent to ever pull off what was in my head and I gave up after exhausting pretty much all resources I had all those years ago.  

 

So I've decided to do the one thing I never wanted to do... Put this out there to people who can help me; Other writers, sprite artists, coders, etc to make this happen for me... Even if I can only get a taste of it I think it would work out for me.

 

Now, I'm not going to lay every gameplay detail, story element, character, what have you out there right now for many reasons... Mainly due to how long this thread would be if i did and my major paranoid for protecting my own intellectual property if you know what I mean... But I'll give you a synopsis for now of what things inspired the project and some broad themes and ideas of the project itself. 

 

The inspiration for the project comes from many sources... It all started based on a forum role play i did for years in the early 2000's when rpg maker was still young and was the first time I attempted this project. Overtime I played more and more games that inspired more and more ideas for the game itself... And before long... It became too much for me. So, here are some inspirations for some gameplay elements to give you an idea of just how much thought I've put into this:

 

1. Final Fantasy (and others) style job system with a little more complexity and variety. I liked the Final Fantasy Tactics job system quite a bit but thought there was a lot more that could be done with it. So, a class or job system but a little more in depth and focused on so no class is bad. 

 

2. Star Ocean, mainly the second one, one thing I loved about this game (there was another jrpg series I remember playing that did this too but I can't remember for the life of me what it was called) was that you had a choice between two characters and it changed the game in various ways. Heck, in the other series I can't remember the name of I believe there were more than 2 characters to pick from and the majority of the story was different. I don't know how far I want to go with this idea early on, but it's something to keep in mind if you are interested in this project. 

 

3. VERY VERY specifically Final Fantasy Record Keeper. Yes a mobile game, but don't let that turn you off yet, hear me out. The thing that inspired me so much from record keeper is the gameplay itself and really only the idea that they in a way made a traditional FF game has mmorpg roles within the party and some of the event bosses and challenge bosses have mmo style mechanics to them... Not just "hit it till its dead", like you have actually pay attention to what's going on. This would be a bit more challenging in a full fledged rpg because record keeper tells you the bosses mechanics for the most part before you even enter the fight... It would be harder to do in a traditional rpg setting, but maybe I'm wrong this is one of the reasons I need help, more ideas is a good thing. There is also the whole thing of being able to use a bunch of characters from the entire franchise in your party... And that could be a huge hint I just dropped as too how far this has gone in my head. 

 

4. And this is the one that I see being necessary to the game but would make it unique and would be really cool I think for the player if we could pull it off... Specializing the aforementioned classes. So if you don't know what that means, I'll give you an example... 

 

Say Bob is a Knight... Bob the Knight has reached level 10 in his job class... So now Bob the Knight has some options... He can specialize in becoming a tank... The abilities he gets, stat gains he gets, and possibly even gear the can wear or that is best for him to wear changes. He might get a one per battle use  ability where he puts a temporary shield on the party to let them avoid one physical hit from an enemy... Or maybe he gets the classic FF cover skill... Or maybe be gets an ability that boosts his defense and makes enemies hit him for a few turns... But this tank specialization isn't Bob the Knight's only option... He can also specialize in being a damage dealing knight, losing the ability to drop those team buffs and protection and such.... And focused on going through the enemy then protecting his friends. Maybe he wears lighter armor in this spec so he can move faster, maybe his stat that dictates damage goes up but his health and defenses don't go up as much as they would in the other spec... Maybe he gets some cool swordplay skills he wouldn't get in the other spec... Which in theory if you like the knight class meaning Bob the Knight's party member Steve the Everyman can also become a knight and they can use different specs and not have the class be redundant to the party synergy. I think you get the idea. 

 

Now as far as themes and plot go. I love dark and tragic stories that have moments of lighthearted and feel good moments. Like yeah, the whole world could be days away from imploding... But there is still hope kinda thing... Which is pretty much exactly the premise. So here is kind of a plot summary I guess? 

 

A group of heroes from various backgrounds are forced or choose in some cases to attempt to stop a threat to their entire world. That threat isn't immediate obvious as they spend the first half of the game, maybe more, chasing down a red herring villian who is either a puppet to the overall big bad... Or straight doesn't even know the big bad is even there. This is pretty vague I know, but as I already said... With no interest even being there yet outside of my own... I don't know that I want to put a story I've been working on for 16 years just out there right out the gate. 

 

I will say, in this case, the game is mostly a high fantasy setting. Nothing you wouldn't see in an early FF, or Breath of Fire... You know. There might be some mildly high tech stuff... In fact there would have to be at some point... But the setting would be pretty early rpg traditional in that regard. 

 

Tl;dr... This old not so talented with rpg maker guy wants to write and I guess direct an rpg (yes I'll help with literally everything i can and want to learn along the way too) based on his own head world(s) that needs YOUR help to see it fulfilled. Now, granted... I realize that not all of this will be possible, especially depending on what talents and experience levels (if any) would be interested in this project... And at the end of the day... This just turn into a really cool way to make some friends. 

 

So how about it? :)