Nailing Game Progression

Once November 20th comes around, I'll have less than a year to effectively finish at least more than half of VHEL. From what I've seen thus far and from the build we do have working, this is a very, very complicated game in a league of it's own, indie wise. I'm only now just accepting that because of how methodical the story is, and the many unconventional mechanics and systems used for the gameplay.

One particular issue I'm tackling now is the flow of the game. I gave up on trying to create 100% handmade levels and environments -- I simply cannot do such a thing with a supposed +20-40 hours of gameplay. Instead -- and I've already talked to my programmer about this -- we're going to use a type of random level generation, but how the game spawns additional areas would more than likely be based around the stress system, which now acts as a type of estimation of how the player is doing in-game over a period of time. However, object placement would be based around certain preset configurations, just with re-skinning for each environment type. Since we use cover points for stealth along with certain other objects for triggering your presence to the Ragnic, these elements would be thrown into play based around player performance.

Time Constraints vs. Procedural Events

Another ongoing focus has been on how the game presents story elements to the player seamlessly, as well as making sense of the whole "playing by the calender" aspect. Originally, VHEL was meant to be a game where you raced against time to complete objective A, in location B, by due date C. Once you did this, you would go into a type of intermission mode, where the story presents a bunch of stuff at you, give you a new objective in a linear fashion, then expect you to repeat the process all over again.

That didn't fly.

The issues came in the form of player intentions; or rather, how the player paced himself or herself from point to point. The original design would have ended up like Metal Gear with a strict time limit, with the cut scenes dominating just as much time -- that's not fun. Instead, I'm using what we're now calling "events", which are broken down portions to a complete day, but generalized. It looks a bit like this:

(Day -> Night) -> (Day -> Night) -> (repeat)

There's a few reasons for this:

1) "Player intention" is what's classified as player driven game progression. The player can either choose to move forward and commit to a particular action, or preserve a given moment without any unintentional repercussions (al la time constraint or penalty).

2) Time limits can create a claustrophobic sense of freedom. In most cases -- all proven, mind you -- players situate their priorities in a one-dimensional manner. Instead of experimentation and player defined objectivity, the player alternatively takes shortcuts and invests more energy into success. However, success doesn't always equal fun; it encourages efficiency.

3) Implimenting an autonomous save feature is a bitch with time limits.

4) Storytelling and gameplay can both be presented in the same fashion without deviance or distorting game rules. This means that being in a place like West EDOC during a day event, would be no different than being in the wastelands of Ivara for a contract during a night event; the contextual nature of "when and where" is more consistent despite game variety.

Real people eat food

When I eventually nailed down how the story and gameplay was meant to progress, I then looked at how the beef of the game could be presented. I'm talking about UI, in-game situations, an expansion of the core gameplay, etc.. For me, I don't just want to turn this game into a RPG where you use linear, and pointless, progressive models that encourage vertical character development (upgrades) with little player development (skill). This is a real-time tactics game, after all, which means that the utmost responsibility of this game is to deliver -- you guessed it -- tactical gameplay. Strategy is key here.

I've studied for the past 2 years solid to find a solution to this problem -- and although I have a solution, it may not be what you were expecting from me.

See, all characters within VHEL have "stamina", which is pretty self-explanatory in itself. Each characters' stamina is different. For example: Khana has 120, while Nolan has 150. Whatever physical actions they commit to, they lose a small percent of their stamina. Obviously, if you were to compare the two (Khana and Nolan), Nolan would have more stamina to last him a while. Now, the easy way to make this system seem "better", as it may, is to give the player multiple ways to develop each character like a RPG; level building and all that stuff. Seems rational enough, right?

That's where you're wrong. >=|

RPGs focus on upgrades, which only negate the meaning behind each character's stamina limitations and don't encourage the player to use different characters based around stamina alone. Additionally, game balance would be gimped. If enemies have to be scaled upwards JUST to match up to your now, so called, "uber team", then that's throwing gameplay balance out the window. Characters in VHEL all play the same as, so this is very important to keep in mind.

What I've created in replacement to direct stamina upgrades is "growth", which is somewhat self-explanatory. If you've played the Sims, Odin Sphere, or even Oboro Muramasa (I doubt many of you have), then you're familiar with the hunger meter, or in the later two games, "eating for more max hp". The concept is simple: during the day or night events in intermission and transitions between day and night in contracts, you'll have an opportunity to "ciao down" on an assortment of otherworldly foods and delicacies. Each type of food has a assortment of attributes and benefits, but most boil down to recovering lost stamina and adding more points to growth. Statistically, you'll have stuff like this:



Scary looking, I know. Though growth is added directly on top of your max stamina, each character has a maximum growth limitation. Again, let's look at Khana and Nolan: Nolan has 150 stamina and 50 growth, however, Khana has 120 stamina and 120 growth. Khana beats out Nolan by 40 excess stamina points, making her worthwhile to have if she's maxed out. Nolan doesn't need as much pampering in short burst, but 200 stamina (stamina + growth) is still fairly low to survive for long stretches at a time.

Now, even after a character eats up, there's a catch. There's a duration in which each food lasts on a character. In the case of the "Fuchsia Candy", it can maintain it's growth on a character for 0.5 days, which is exactly one full event. That +7 growth bonus helps, but it's really all up to you to see who gets it and needs it more. Once the duration cap is reached, the growth effects are removed. In a more complicated situation, you could effectively bump up everybody to their growth limits with many types of food, but over the course of several days, you'll lose each bonus, forcing you to indefinitely juggle the system.

For the time being, I won't go deeper into how this system is expanded in the game, because it's very thorough...and it gets crazy.

And I'm out

I know this wasn't exactly what I would call a "fun" post, but it gets to the heart of what I'm working on right now. Muff has been helping me with the storyline a bit, which is great because I need input from time to time to make it absolutely grand. Since this was an unofficial update, as well, no auditions from my new voice actress. I still need to upload those, sorry. =P

Likewise for me. I've played a majority of them, both JRPG and western, but RPGs aren't exactly what I call a well defined genre that knows how to evolve and change with the times.

To the credit of some, RPGs are getting "better", but they all do the same things and have very similar objectives in some vain or another. That's largely why I didn't bother using the tried and true, and decided to try my hand at new things.

BTW, if I must comment on which RPG I love the most, it's the Shin Megami Tensei series. =P

I'd go with the $20 price on steam with discounts for pre-ordering, and occasional discounts that appear in the steam updates. A good demo is also key. I demo indie games all the time, and if i like them, i just might buy them. At least I'd be more likely to buy one after a good demo than if it had no demo.

I once played a demo that gave you access to some end-game abilities (like one or two) but was limited to the first level. I think it was for Ninja Gaiden for xbox. It hooked me hardcore.

This is pure Awesome. Like awesome to the max. I can't wait for this, mark me down as a pre-order :D

I wish it were that easy, but unless those action figures were made by a professional craftsman one by one, you can forget about mass production. Most companies that make them in mass are out of the US, because labor is cheaper (yes, I've checked before). =/

Finally, I have seen the light...and it is awesome.

In all seriousness though, this week was the LAST week for main character auditions for VHEL. Other than keeping my head completely submerged in that stuff, I really haven't had much time for anything else. Luckily, I got a lot of work done on that front. I'm not going to bother writing out how I felt about every single audition I got up until the end of the deadline(s), so I'll just show you the page where it shows who got what part (Mrs.C, I'm so sorry DX).

VHEL Courier Auditions on Voice Acting Club

I'll wait until you see the list.

*waits*

Saw it? Awesome! Now I bet you're wondering who these people are. Some of you are saying no, but I'll tell you anyways! The main actor playing as Khana has probably one of the most fleshed out resumes I've ever seen. Big or small, Hnilmik has virtually done everything, and now she wants to try her hand at one of the biggest character roles I've ever had to write for. Due to the size of the script and the very specific goals I have for the character, it's vital that I spend oodles of time around Hnilmik to understand not only her strengths and weaknesses, but her quirks, her lifestyle, her fears, and what gives her the motivation to live her life. This will allow me to effectively direct her, seeing as how I cover nearly every emotion in the script with Khana, so that Hnilmik can deliver natural dialogue while in character.

Caitlin (the girl with the Casie and Page roles) had to compete against 8 other voice actresses to get her part. Some were amazing, others were poor. Considering my decision ultimately came down to who flowed more naturally in character, the competition for the part was pretty close. Fairuza had to go against a few folks for the Iberian part. Mrs. Crawdad just about had it at first, but Fairuza, surprisingly came in at the last second to hand in her audition. From what I can tell, the girls who have been casted are extremely competitive and experience heavy. I honestly didn't think I would get good voice actors, let alone great ones, but I guess I was wrong -- these girls are beastly.

The last of the last main characters are up for grabs this month. After that, I have to get the voices to several dozen minor characters who, although small in role and purpose, still play a big part of the experience. The final character count may be above 50 characters now, seeing as how I added a lot of new scenes and back story recently, but we'll just see how much work that will put on development. Speaking of which.......

Is there anything else?

My programmer gets 3 months off from school to do whatever the heck he wants. He and I are spending that time developing the last of the animation system, particle systems, system mechanics, and of course, the gameplay. I've had to revise my Master Design Document several times because of issues relating to all this, but as it stands right now, I feel very confident about how enjoyable the game is..........though it may take time for everyone to adjust to.

3 months is just enough time to finish up the beef of the work, so..........play testing within the next 3 months? Maybe? We'll see. I doubt I would have enough time by then to complete all the in-game animations, but I'm pretty sure a priority build would be stable by then. It's just hard when so much of the tech is custom made and experimental. =P