COGA: Once Upon A Time...

[Commander]

COGA: Once Upon a Time...

 

Before I begin with the article, I want to start out with an analogy. There are 10 people in the room who are asked to complete a project over the year, but it is not for a grade and doesn't effect them at all whether or not they complete it. Two people leave the room without even thinking about it. Another two read what they need to do before leaving the room without ever attempting it. Four of the remaining people try to make a bit of the project before dropping it within a month. Of the two remaining, one eventually has to drop the project due to burnout and needing to work on other things. One person makes it to the end which surprised the professor believing nobody would finish it. The professor first asked, "Why did you see this project through?"

 

The student responded, "I wanted to accomplish something that nobody before me could."

 

The professor still in disbelief then asks, "How were you able to accomplish such a massive task alone?"

 

And the student replied, "Oh I didn't do it alone. I had the engineering club help me."

 

Not only did that student pass the class, they later on got a high paying job out of it due to the impressive work of the project.

 

It's a simple story, but this is basically what a fan-game is to a degree. Those ten people represent people with fan-game ideas, but the two who left knew it'd be too much work and not in their interest ie the people who know their limits. The two who followed after seeing what they need to do are what I'd call the incompetent people who don't believe they can do it but were interested. Just picture four out of ten video game ideas are never even spoken. The next four are people who pitch in an idea and even may release a beta, but they don't reach very far usually do to lack of motivation. The last one is the saddest who drops out because it is someone who is really committed and has gotten very far, but just stops for one of many different reasons. Look at Reborn, Rejuvenation, and Desolation. It's a scary thought, but one of them has a high chance of never being completed.

 

Now let's talk about the single person who completed the project. There's a reason that the professor is in disbelief. He has a mindset that completing this project brings no benefit to a student at all since there's no grade assigned to it. Most fan-game makers have a net loss in terms of the game since their only income of it is donations. Even Ame was taking a net loss at a point for Reborn. The professor here also represents a fan in a sense because the student doesn't get the respect they deserve. Instead of cheering the students on and pushing them, he kind of just expects them to fail and ignores it. If he did, perhaps two or even three of those students would've successfully completed the project. I really don't think certain developers get the amount of respect they truly deserve when it comes to these projects. (You could read more on those thoughts in writing 101: the importance of feedback for more information on this).

 

So now back to the student. What did the student do to be successful? The most important thing is that they had a mindset that they wanted to do this. This was something the student know was a lot of work, but they also knew the payoff of creating this. Having something you can call your own is a much bigger deal than you think. They also could obtain many skills in which they could refine if not master so that they could work on similar projects and make them better. They could not do it alone. In fact, you cannot make a fan-game by yourself. You have to build connections with people so the student decided to see if the engineering club wanted to help, which they did. This success lead to the student having connections and they used those connections later down the line to be very successful in life. Fan-game making and its rewards depend on what the developer wishes from it though.

 

Sorry for that story, but I wanted people to get a good picture of what fan-game making is and why you may want to create one. Today's focus will actually be on where to start which is very, very different from person to person. For me personally, I would start with the story, but it actually goes a bit before that. Most of you probably don't even know how a fan-game is made. Not to call anyone out, but it's kind of funny when someone announces a game idea and they have no idea how to even do anything. It's kind of like asking a painter who doesn't know how to paint to make a portrait of you. So I'll go a little bit into getting experience for the game before going into my personal belief where you should start when designing your game.

 

There's really only one good way to get experience in anything: practice. You can first learn stuff by watching tutorials, but those are to learn the concepts. For me personally, I could watch hundreds of spriting tutorials and not learn a single thing other than some new tools to work with (Yes, I actually can sprite believe it or not...I just really dislike it as it takes me forever). Art is the hardest thing to pick up on so learning about that is vital because you will be doing art as the head developer of a game. This is pretty easy to do yourself as you just need paint.net or a free art tool to start spriting.

 

As for everything else about a game, the best place to start learning is to work under somebody. That's very, very difficult in this day and age because most people drop their projects way before they are even close to finishing. If you do get to be part of someone's project, try to learn bits and pieces of what they do that makes them successful and not successful. Some projects are full commitment while others are short term but if you wait a year learning the parts of making a fan-game, you are much better of than starting with nothing. If you can't afford to spend six months helping someone out or just learning all the basics before starting, then you shouldn't really be making a fan-game because it's going to take a couple years to see the whole thing through.

 

Now that we have previous experience out of the way, now we get to starting and creating your own fan-game. For me personally, I start with creating the story first. Instead of trying to explain how it works, I'm going to show you how I start my storyboarding instead. I choose to challenge myself a bit so I'm using someone's answers in an interview as my restrictions. Below is the interview which I will break down little by little before combining it all together:

 

Spoiler

Commander-Last Sunday at 11:14 PM

So my first question: What's your favorite RPG title?

RBRN Decibel-Last Sunday at 11:14 PM

Kingdom Hearts/Final Fantasy

Commander-Last Sunday at 11:14 PM

Which of the Kingdom Hearts is your favorite?

RBRN Decibel-Last Sunday at 11:15 PM

HD 2.5 Remix

Commander-Last Sunday at 11:15 PM

Now which Final Fantasy is your favorite?

RBRN Decibel-Last Sunday at 11:16 PM

X/X-2 Remastered(edited)

 

Commander-Last Sunday at 11:17 PM

Interesting...I just wanted to see if my guess was right on the last question

I guessed XII

 

As for the next question, you can pick from any form of media from games, to books, to anime, etc. What is one of your favorite characters?

 

RBRN Decibel-Last Sunday at 11:19 PM

Zeref Dragneel from Fairy Tail

Commander-Last Sunday at 11:20 PM

Can you describe them in a sentence or two?

RBRN Decibel-Last Sunday at 11:21 PM

Zeref is a black mage. His parents and brother died at a young age. He wants to die in order to seal his powers forever, but he is immortal due to a curse caused by his magic.

 

He's a misunderstood character at best

Commander-Last Sunday at 11:22 PM

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?

RBRN Decibel-Last Sunday at 11:23 PM

Hiroshima, Japan

Commander-Last Sunday at 11:24 PM

Pretend you have a portal device that can take you to any figmented world for a day. Which world would you pick?

 

RBRN Decibel-Last Sunday at 11:25 PM

The universe in my head Earthland from Fairy Tail

 

Commander-Last Sunday at 11:26 PM

Now you see a girl on the streets crying as you pass by, what will you do?

 

RBRN Decibel-Last Sunday at 11:27 PM

Give her food and ask what's wrong

 

Commander-Last Sunday at 11:28 PM

As you approach the girl, it turns out to be a man with a magnificent long beard cross dressing. What will you do now?

 

RBRN Decibel-Last Sunday at 11:29 PM

A look of horror would befall my face. I'd leave the food there and walk away.

 

Commander-Last Sunday at 11:30 PM

What's one of your favorite activities to do when you get back home to your house?

 

RBRN Decibel-Last Sunday at 11:31 PM

Sleep or play in competitive leagues

 

Commander-Last Sunday at 11:31 PM

Does this avy make me look fat?

 

RBRN Decibel-Last Sunday at 11:31 PM

No, you look elegant

 

Commander-Last Sunday at 11:32 PM

Now for my last question: do you judge people more on the way they look or the way they act?

 

RBRN Decibel-Last Sunday at 11:32 PM

A mix of both.

 

Commander-Last Sunday at 11:32 PM

Good answer

 

I do have one last last question: do you have any idea why I asked you these questions?

 

RBRN Decibel-Last Sunday at 11:33 PM

For a sociology class? o.O

 

Commander-Last Sunday at 11:34 PM

Actually for a COGA which I'll show the madness behind storyboarding

 

RBRN Decibel-Last Sunday at 11:34 PM

Ah xD

 

Commander-Last Sunday at 11:34 PM

You don't mind if I post this when I do the COGA, do you?

 

RBRN Decibel-Last Sunday at 11:34 PM

I don't particularly mind

 

Commander-Last Sunday at 11:35 PM

Whelp we're done here. Thanks for your time

 

RBRN Decibel-Last Sunday at 11:35 PM

Pleased to be of assistance. ^-^

 

Now the first thing I asked were favorite RPGs. I got the answers Kingdom Hearts 2.5 (I'm going to refer to II for this) and Final Fantasy X. These games have both a mix of Sci-fi and Fantasy but skew much more on the fantasy side. They are also lighthearted only slightly touching on darker themes so we're going to go for a T for teen age range will be my focus. There's not much I need out of this, but it's a good idea for resource material later on.

 

Next we have Zeref Dragneel from Fairy Tale. I personally have seen a grand total of one episode of Fairy Tale so I needed an explanation of this character. Immortality is a little hard to play here so instead we'll use a theme of fear of death. A man who lost everything yet is afraid to die pushes him to be a sheltered hermit. We do have a fantasy theme so perhaps he did try to kill himself in the past but was reincarnated into someone else as someone who retained his memories. Something people mistake is that you can't use other characters for inspiration, but I do it all the time putting my own personal twists on them like this. I believe he'll fit better as a side character in out story.

 

Now the two places: Hiroshima (Japan) and Earthland (Fairy Tail) are not my source of expertise so I will spend about ten minutes doing a bit of research on them...this is quite a tricky one. Earthland is kind of more medieval setting while Hiroshima is modern time. Perhaps we could have a festival reviving some old cultures of the past to help with a broken city after being nearly destroyed by a devastating attack from a monster (Hiroshima was bombed by a nuclear warhead). This could lead to an interesting conflict for a setting.

 

The situation I gave with the little girl who was a bearded old man was a tale of role play. Perhaps this would be a good scene for our main protag to experience and I do know how he would react in such a scenario. Being quick to help the helpless, but he's quick to judge something disturbing as well. You may not see the connection yet, but I see a character who greatly fits this role.

 

When I asked for activities, I got league and sleep. The latter would most likely be for a lazy main character who doesn't like doing much, but the league would be for competitions. This sounds like a character who is always ready for a fight, but only for a reward otherwise he cares very little about it.

 

When I asked if this avy looks fat? That was kind of a silly joke question. It could be implemented into a little humor seen if I wanted.

 

The last question I asked actually has a lot more meaning to it. Something I think a lot of people have a misconception is that a likeable character has to have a really good backstory or fantastic personality. Looks do matter for a character and characters such as Laura from LoH Cold Steel is a very shallow character, but she's really well liked due to her looks and that bloody giant sword. I got a mix of both so I'll implement both factors in which our main protag judges people.

 

So here's what I got from all of that stuff:

 

We have our protag (not a full design but I know he at least would have a grin when talking trash) coming into a town with many tall white buildings. Our player eventually crosses paths with a little girl sobbing on the streets. He then decides to offer some bread he bought at a nearby stand in which she turns and reveals that she's actually a full grown man in a dress. This startles our protag causing him to back up and bump into a tough looking guy. This pisses the guy off telling him to watch where our protag is going. Our protag then sasses the guy by mentioning he was a little busy experiencing something that would scar him for life. This pisses the guy off even more as he's about to duke it out with the protag, but his partner stops him saying to save his energy for the tournament. Our protag is interested saying he'll gladly kick this guy's ass in one. The PO'd guy then smirks saying that this is a tag team tournament and that there was no way a jackass like him could find any friends in this town. This causes the bearded man (in a dress) to walk up and say that he and the protag we'll beat them together telling the protag to come along before walking north. The two jerks begin laughing saying that they're going to get a kick out such an easy win. Meanwhile, the protag is still in disbelief at what had just happened.

 

The tournament is actually part of a Renaissance fair which celebrates some old cultures and also where the protag can buy some unique items. The tournament itself has sort of a castle design with a big open ring for battling. During the tournament phase, we actually would learn that the bearded man actually was a young lady who supposedly died in a house fire, but she woke up the next day as a man to her disbelief (also makes a joke how old habit die hard as she wore dresses all the time).  At first the protag is weirded out by this guy, but over the tournament the two ended up becoming friends before winning it. After the tournament, our protag gave all the prize money to the man since he deserved it more to the protag (also says he should consider a change in wardrobe).

 

So there's a lot of good stuff that could be taken from this idea even if it's not used. We made a decision to use a talking protag over a silent as well as decided a bit about the setting. If this was a non-Pokemon RPG, I probably would make that bearded man a party member as it would lead to a lot of interesting scenarios (and people claiming identity fraud because...y'know girl trapped in man's body). The most important thing is that we have a starting point in the middle of the story. That way you can move both backwards and forwards expanding it rather than have a permanent starting point. I know one of my ideas started with a scene 12 chapters in the book yet it doesn't even exist anymore due to me developing it more and more. There are three things I didn't do and for a Pokemon game I'd use these three when first developing a story:

 

1. Avoid implementing Pokemon when first brainstorming

2. Start out with realism

3. Look into other media for inspiration

 

In a sense, all three are saying the exact same thing. Notice how I avoided mention Pokemon at all when throwing that scene idea out. Pokemon is actually a bit of a distraction which adds noise to the base concept. You should only include Pokemon if they express emotion or are a necessity for the scene. The latter case is actually rare as it would involve concepts like animal abuse otherwise Pokemon battle could be temporarily changed with human fighting for the moment being. This helps with removing useless facts and details (I like to call noise) so that you can really focus on what you do. You could interchange Pokemon with gameplay as well.

 

Now we get into realism. I could make a COGA just on this simple idea. Something you will need to learn and develop while writing is setting rules and laws for your world which cannot be broken. These laws are ones that do not abide by the laws of realism which is the idea that this could happen in real life. When you get more experience with writing, you will always skew towards realism with the only thing stopping your are the laws of the world. This helps set a story foundation before you get into the crazy and weird stuff. 

 

The last one is one that someone probably is using without even knowing. Inspiration doesn't come out of thin air, but a spark of ideas after an experience. One of my favorite Commanderisms is "Just because I don't like Romance novels doesn't mean I shouldn't read one." The more you open yourself up to new things, the more experiences and wider range of knowledge you gain.

 

Now many people will argue what your first steps to making a game and even when starting a story should be. My mindset and belief is that you start with a scene early on but not at the beginning. Here's why I like it: there's no template you follow when creating it and allows a large degree of freedom when building. You'd then dive into an experience and build your world using that slice as an inspiration. For some people that might work, but for others it might not. This is just a look of how I can make something up on the fly before fleshing it out. I may actually keep this and use it for future COGA's. I hope you enjoyed this little introductory article in story as this is a section I really like talking about.

 

I may or may not have also named the bearded man Jenkins

[Phi-Bi]

Another nice written articles, Commander!

 

About not implementing Pokemon when first brainstorming, I think it's only true if the Pokemon is not involved heavily in the plot. For Mystery Dungeon-styled game, Pokemon is always needed though. Also Pokemon is needed to emphasize specific character's signature Pokemon and their interaction. This is even more true for games with talking protagonist and his partner--signature Pokemon.

I totally agree with realism and for Pokemon fan-game you have to determine in what universe your game settings is, in the same universe of Gen I-V, in the universe of Gen VI-VII, or in its own parallel universe. If the writer decides to make the game in the same universe as official sources then deep-research about official facts is needed: from the beginning of the universe. If the writer decides to make the region in its own parallel universe, the writer need to point out what's the difference among the universes and why can they be different? It's better if you left hint in-game that the universe you reside in is different than the official universe--not blatantly saying it out loud but through more subtle method depend on the game's focus. This explanation is somewhat needed so keen player can accept if official facts and the law and rules for the game is different since Pokemon game is known to be dependent for each installment until XY come out. Example of independent series are Tales series (although some are dependent) and Final Fantasy series. For example a game which focus is on the cycle of life and death set in different universe could feature and NPC (a crazy street rat) singing, "Aiiiiii........hate this life but don't you get worry.....for I'll be a very rich man.....in my next life. In another time.......in another universe. I just have to wait.....have to wait."

 

Many may not see it but after several attempts to pokemon fan-game story, I realize that GameFreak is great at worldbuilding: They have little facts left for the audience to enjoy and we, the consumers are free to theorize from those little facts--and the more you theorize and try to connect each fact about the history of Pokemon world you will realize how great Game Freak at worldbuilding. Depends on your game, you may need to focus your research on specific areas.

All and all, thanks for your article @Commander! Very insightful especially for beginners like me. Looking forward for the next one~

Edited September 25, 2017 by Phi-Bi

[Commander]

On 9/25/2017 at 7:37 PM, Phi-Bi said:

 

About not implementing Pokemon when first brainstorming, I think it's only true if the Pokemon is not involved heavily in the plot. For Mystery Dungeon-styled game, Pokemon is always needed though. Also Pokemon is needed to emphasize specific character's signature Pokemon and their interaction. This is even more true for games with talking protagonist and his partner--signature Pokemon.

A talking protag doesn't need to be bound to a certain Pokemon. Pokemon could be considered equipment in a sense. The player may want to keep their equipment but with limited spacing, they may want to part with it. That would be cool and cruel to make it so that players could either only have 6 or 10 Pokemon at any given time. The thing about Pokemon is that it's a tool of player immersion. Pokemon are lifeless pixels in which it is a player that gives them life through imagination and it's them that set the ideas "you have to always use the starter" and "you can't use legendaries." That's why you don't really need to have a big focus investing in it because even GF really doesn't.

 

On 9/25/2017 at 7:37 PM, Phi-Bi said:

I totally agree with realism and for Pokemon fan-game you have to determine in what universe your game settings is, in the same universe of Gen I-V, in the universe of Gen VI-VII, or in its own parallel universe. If the writer decides to make the game in the same universe as official sources then deep-research about official facts is needed: from the beginning of the universe. If the writer decides to make the region in its own parallel universe, the writer need to point out what's the difference among the universes and why can they be different? It's better if you left hint in-game that the universe you reside in is different than the official universe--not blatantly saying it out loud but through more subtle method depend on the game's focus. This explanation is somewhat needed so keen player can accept if official facts and the law and rules for the game is different since Pokemon game is known to be dependent for each installment until XY come out. Example of independent series are Tales series (although some are dependent) and Final Fantasy series. For example a game which focus is on the cycle of life and death set in different universe could feature and NPC (a crazy street rat) singing, "Aiiiiii........hate this life but don't you get worry.....for I'll be a very rich man.....in my next life. In another time.......in another universe. I just have to wait.....have to wait."

Pokemon is a loosely connected game series that really only briefly talk about one another and their lore. Most game series don't take place in the same world as well it's very difficult to connect them all or keep consistent. Why do you think I praise the Legend of Heroes Trails series for literally creating a massive storyline separated into arcs which all have taken place in a 5 year time span so far. 8 games with a span of 5 years in there setting (might be 8 with CS III recently coming out in Japan). You don't need to compare universes to the original but the rest of what you're talking about is worldbuilding. I'll likely be making a COGA on that one of these days. Not a big subject I'll cover since there's countless leagues of RP articles you can dig up and find regarding it.

 

On 9/25/2017 at 7:37 PM, Phi-Bi said:

 

Many may not see it but after several attempts to pokemon fan-game story, I realize that GameFreak is great at worldbuilding: They have little facts left for the audience to enjoy and we, the consumers are free to theorize from those little facts--and the more you theorize and try to connect each fact about the history of Pokemon world you will realize how great Game Freak at worldbuilding. Depends on your game, you may need to focus your research on specific areas.

I'm going to have to agree to disagree here. It is because Game Freak is very barebone in designing their world that so much can be worked out from it. They created God but avoid saying things due to religion and in fact opted out of giving it originally. Pokemon does have solid mythology which is sometimes based around actual myths (if not all of them are) which is actually something you can look into on Bulbapedia based on their origins. Ho-oh is Phoenix, Thundurus is based on a Sky Deity, and so on. The biggest thing about the games is that it's actually a lot of rubbish which some is intentional. The game lies to you and in fact most legendary stories are more likely tall tales which is how they became famous (many could just be really rare Pokemon).

 

The lore and backstory is the most interesting thing about Pokemon as there's quite a bit there but it rarely gets tapped other than the surface. Most towns don't have history like Ecruteak City. It is possible to connect Pokemon's history with barebone knowledge but one thing people forget is that Professor Oak is one of the earliest Pokemon trainers, but the earliest one is Az who was the king of when Pokemon and people worked together without capsules. The most interesting one has to do with Lt. Surge as that was the last Pokemon War in history. That likely happened 5-10 years before Generation I. Using what little info GF gets us, the Pokemon League was established as an act of peace so that nobody would ever face the traumas like Surge did. 

 

Maybe one of these days I'll configure a history of Pokemon but that's something I'll probably have manga and anime fans fact check with me as there's so much media for Pokemon no single individual could know it all.