COGA: Picture Perfect

[Commander]

Commander's Opinionated Gaming Articles

Picture Perfect

 

I already know what you are thinking, but I'm never going to cover anything regarding graphics as not because it's not important as it is one that is mostly skill and practice based over concept based. What we're here to talk about today is the framework of a game which the best way to describe it is a kid going into college. They need to pick a degree for what they want to do for the rest of their life. Once you go through this stage, you can't really go back, but you can modify it after feedback. While it sounds scary, it's scarier to skip this phase and rush ahead to the fun phase of building it and seeing it all come to life or...sometimes people spend too long in this stage and never even make a single segment of the game. Hopefully by the end of this article everybody will see the importance of the planning stage of making a game (or any project really).

 

So if you remember in a previous article, I talked about getting the first idea for a game. I tend to collect a number of thoughts and ideas before I begin weaving them all together. I don't actually recommend this type of writing style because it requires a keen eye to connect and flesh out all of the ideas so they flow smoothly instead of feeling jagged. I do think it's good to have a couple so that you can set major events in the plot. I'm a firm believer you should start with the plot when designing something or else you will likely end up starting your idea something like this:

 

A fan-game with:

-18 badge system

-field effects

-all available wild mons to catch

 

If you do that, now you write a story around the inclusion of all that. You've forced yourself to try and make an interesting plot with an overused system that everyone else is using and people expect a certain level of difficulty with the inclusion of a gimmick found in a difficult Pokemon fan-game. This is one thing I don't think a lot of the newer fan-game developers just understand. If you take and use somebody else's resources, your players will hold you and match you to that original developer's standards and quality which you will never surpass since you didn't create it. I remember in one fan-game project the head developer of the project said my writing was "probably as good as Reborn's" which I responded with "I'm not trying to write a story like Reborn's, I'm writing one in an attempt to try and be better than it." The scary part is that now I can think back on it, it actually might have been able to had the right people and the right group worked together.

 

You can include those elements I listed, but please for the bloody hell don't set another game as your inspiration or benchmark when planning. You're constricting yourself and your creativity which is the worst possible thing you can do to yourself. If someone asked me to put a fan-game up for the golden standard, I'd have to decline as I haven't seen one hit all the right notes yet. Pokemon Reborn is the closest only hitting about half the benchmarks. That's okay though as only three video games I've played actually hit all the benchmarks: Xenoblade Chronicles, Chrono Trigger, and Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask. If you do your homework, you can probably guess why I picked those three even if two aren't in my top 10 favorite video games. The higher end developers already know exactly what I'm talking about and why being the best isn't necessarily a good or bad thing.

 

So now we go back to story once more. You don't think about anything except drafting up a world. It could be a world full of offbeat people fighting in a tournament (like the one article), it could be a tale that takes place in the future with humanity blissfully in a cage they call home, or it could even be a twisted place where crime rules and the fight against each other for survival. I could name the worlds I've built up over time and talk a long time about them. One of my favorites was a vendor's point of view during a revolution and how he conducted a business siding with the "empire" of the region. The best way to build a world is to sort out your thoughts and spotting key things like doing this:

 

-There was a tournament and our protag takes place in them

-Are they considered good or bad? Probably good

-There was a man in a dress. Is this a social norm? Definitely not

-Is our protag a good person? Likely yes

 

So we know that in our world tournaments are a good thing and it seems like a pretty normal world with the occasional offbeat person. Or is it?

 

-There's a man wearing a dress. Is there anything unique about him?

-He was originally a female. Is this the original body? No.

-Was magic used to make this occur? Likely yes.

 

So there is magic in this world. When looking at Jenkins' design, I pictured it was her Grandmother her placed her under a curse of a life immortal likely for making fun and not believing in magic. So I would need to decide is how these events took place. Maybe it was through the use of a Pokemon or maybe a special charm. That part of the story wouldn't matter until later. Since this is Pokemon heavy, I'd always revert back to humans as much as possible.

 

Do you see how removing all that noise when first storming up ideas really helps. Likely I'd play with the concept of a soul with Jenkins as personally I believe it's a concept not only misunderstood but overlooked at how fascinating it could be. I'd write that into my to research segment and try to get a better understanding before digging further. Normally, I'd look into the beginning of the story, but I feel it's more or less going to be simply a kid growing up and leaving his hometown on his own decision ending with the townsfolk throwing a victory party now that the protag is out of their hair. Nothing too major as it's mostly tutorial and world building. I did make the decision to make the protag a talking protagonist (I've done a mix of both). When you have enough of these ideas is when you start making the big decisions.

 

The first thing I always recommend jumping into is the difficulty. This is easily the hardest thing to decide on. I love how people go like "OMG! Reborn is so difficult and so brutal I wanna quit so badly." Honestly, I think Reborn would be considered about the average difficulty of RPGs slightly skewing towards the easier side. The best way I can describe difficulty is the amount of leeway you give players. Pokemon doesn't really care all that much about difficulty as it caters to being easy to pick up and easy to get into which is the whole big mess when it comes to difficulty. My own personal difficulty taste is a little bit harder than hardcore, but I care more about easier training and grinding. It really grinds down to who you're targeting how difficult you make a game but I'd say strive for being easier than Reborn since the bulk of the Pokemon fan-base aren't RPG strategists.

 

The next step to determine would be the mechanics. The dumb answer would be all mons and mechanics up until Gen VII. Technically that is enough to create a game...but that doesn't really help you. Field effects could be placed into here, but that's something to put off into the side. What exactly are you adding to make the game feel fresh over the flood of fan-games/hacks that have happened over the course. Maybe you have a judgement system which pushes your morals to light/dark boosting certain types and hindering others. Maybe the protag travels between the real world and distortion world to effect both and change/traverse them. For the idea above tournaments are going to be a big thing so altering how battles work for each one would make for a challenge (such as one where only fighting type Pokemon are allowed for the second one...even though our protag hasn't crossed a single one yet). The possibilities are endless, but there is one system I want to talk about.

 

There's this trend that's rose up called the reputation system. You see when one fan-game does something, every other fan-game creator feels like they also have to do the same thing as it's apparently a great idea. The concept of a reputation system is an awful idea at least in the way it's presented now. It's the one decision I really don't think was the wisest move for Reborn. So let's actually look at what games rely on reputation systems: visual novels. That's a whole different genre that focuses on story and only story. There is a misconception that this is to make sure you only fall in love with your waifu at the end of the story...which is absolute BS (though some games use it for that). A reputation system simply is a system that is supposed to change how characters view and react around you generally based on choices. You probably don't see the problem....yet but I shall explain.

 

Let's take a character in a scene. Normally they go through one path A to B. With a Rep system, they would go from A to B, but they could go through that path in three different moods (happy, neutral, angry) depending on what you said or have said to them in the past. Let's say they have 20 different scenes meaning a possible 60 lines need to be made for that character (40 more than normal). Now let's say there are 20 characters which would roughly add an additional 800 lines you'd have to add to make this system work. Now if I don't write this, somebody is going to ask, "Wouldn't their emotion be based on a decision you made at that exact moment?" And yes, you are correct. Making a choice then and there could affect their mood. Heck a couple bad choices could easily lead to their death (maybe two or three) instead of a "this amount of points means they hate you." Choices matter is a concept introduced even as early as Chrono Trigger (probably way before) in which you cannot just freely do something and not have consequences.

 

Does reputation have benefits? Absolutely, but in small instances and not a main focus. Take Tales of Symphonia's traveling companion. You build rep throughout the whole game and while their is a canon scene, it can be altered and you could have another character take her place. It's not this heavy mechanic that defines the party nor really affects the overall story. I could name others, but that one truly is one of the best examples and a pretty good gem. Even story branches is debatable in a story at times as sometimes a story is meant to only be lived once (I'm the kind of writer who writes scenes to be viewed twice to see the connections). Sorry to dilute into this, but I wanted to clear this up as too many people think you have to have all of this to make a good game which I'm here to say no, no you don't.

 

Now that you have all your mechanics set, it's time to start writing the plotline, right? Nope. This is where people are really divided how to make a video game plot as a book plot or play are both very different. A book and play both have something in common: they move in a straight line. The best way to describe a video game plot is like a Goosebumps story. You make choices in that book and eventually you end up with a certain ending, but rarely do you read from page 1 then page after page until the end. Something you need to take into consideration when making a video game plot is that certain aspects of it are not fixed. People like running around and talking to NPCs or even seeing all the places than can go before pushing the plot. Others just want to get the game done and over with ASAP. Now how in the world can you please both these people? The answer is in the question.

 

Everything I've been talking about all lead up to one single point: building the world. People are going to tell you to think up the history and important plot points then create characters to fill the roles while others will tell you to build the character and let them write the story for you. I've used both these techniques and they are quite helpful when polishing the game and details, but they won't get you very far. These work great when things are small or a very short game, but most of you dream for some massive or expansive games (with bloody 18 badges). I believe the first step is painting the background. When I personally start building a world, I don't actually start with how the world is shaped, but create cities based on it. I usually start with a small village (not necessarily the first town) and figure out the climate which is usually a warm area which I imagine with a nice breeze. This leaves the villagers to be carefree and really respectful of one another. Of course old man Harvey is giving everyone a hard time in his rocker. You can't blame him as he lost the ability to do what he loves. You now it's daytime as a group of children run down the street playing tag. This innocent town with so, so innocent people have no idea what happens to the outside world. Many of them simply mine iron and ore and sell them for a good price to a nearby army. How little they know they are the reason countless lives are suffering and the world slowly spiraling out of control. How could they? They are just sweet innocent villagers.

 

If a spark flew out of your eye, you know exactly what just happened. Notice how the storyline kind of just wrote itself there. Materials are involved so perhaps our protagonist would try stopping it by making the villagers aware. Maybe they are aware and don't really care. That's something a video game can show where a book cannot. You experience these events and it gives more realism if these people show emotions and feelings toward a particular issue. Characters can react to this and show emotion back...causing them to drive or take action. Doesn't that have a nice flow to it?

 

Wait where's the main character when describing that? Why isn't a gym leader mentioned doing something? What's the evil team and why do they use that village of all places? Never once did I really talk about the main plot of the game when describing the village. Hinted, but never directly told. This could just be a simple side plot and not part of the main evil team (there's rarely ever one big bad controlling all like in Reborn). Never once did I mention gyms in my idea which is true since people train with others to get stronger and test themselves in tournaments, not by an official. A gym leader would actually feel more like a burden adding than a good addition. I also did not mention the main protag because well, the world doesn't revolve around him and the place had a history well before he stepped into the place so why does it matter? His role is to keep time moving forward and to bring forth the action, not create their history (that's the developer's job).

 

I did fail to mention the one use of gym leaders. There is an important role they do serve as an element in the game. A lot of RPGs you do a "beat up bosses to show you've gotten stronger and smarter" but the thing about Pokemon is that it's a friendly sport. Gym Leaders do show player progression over their allies. Amaria in Pokemon Reborn may have felt overwhelmingly strong when you first meet her, but by the end of the current episode a player probably feels more confident they have a chance of surpassing her in strength. There's many different ways of writing this including a student-teacher relationship. So don't fret if you feel the need to include a gym based system in a game. I'm just redefining how a game is constructed in my point of view.

 

Thus begins the long cycle of building and seeing the connections from place to place. I wish in reality it was merely a loop of town -> characters -> plotline, but rarely is it a straightforward process especially when plotlines get more and more complex. This is just to get an idea of how to start your planning. As a little bit of advice, I do recommend building your game once you get the first segment fleshed out (ie one badge) so that you are more aware of your resources and limitations at hand. Don't try to brainstorm an idea you know you're not capable of building even with a solid team. Once you get those ideas you can finish planning out the rest of your game. Generally, I recommend a planning stage of one to three months since revisions and flow checks are needed to make sure the story works. And trust me, you aren't getting the story just right the first go around. That does also count towards other sections of the game such as battles and graphics.

 

If you guys really, really want me to build a full scale plotline out of the Jenkins and other concepts from the once upon a time COGA, I guess I could at least build a full scale chapter, but that does take a bit of time and thinking to flesh out all the needed resources. I guess it would serve as a good example of what my drafts look like, but that'd be for a bonus COGA and not an actual focused article. Also, don't feel bad if you're not a big fan of this article since it's not my favorite but one I need to talk about.

[Tringus]

1 hour ago, Commander said:

I remember in one fan-game project the head developer of the project said my writing was "probably as good as Reborn's" which I responded with "I'm not trying to write a story like Reborn's, I'm writing one in an attempt to try and be better than it." The scary part is that now I can think back on it, it actually might have been able to had the right people and the right group worked together.

I'll keep it hush-hush, but is the project what I think it was?  Man, how time flies.