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I’m on another mech kick lately for some reason, so let’s do an action rpg with mechs!

Am I the only one here who really can’t make up his mind on a concept? :stuck_out_tongue:

I dunno I just went with the first thing that came to my head. Look at your desk or around your room and see if anything jumps out at you. Sometimes good ideas come from the strangest places :slight_smile:

Remember how Hardware Wars started out: “a long time ago, yet somehow in the future…”?

Big idea, but will be scaled down for reality I’m sure.

I’m not sure I entirely get the ‘Game Moment’ idea. Is it meant to be something typical that the player will be doing a lot of: fighting, exploring, conversations or shopping, say; or is it meant to be more a kind of climax moment: beating a major boss, developing an important relationship, or walking round your own newly acquired home/castle, say?

The former is likely to be a very early part of the game, but the latter will likely come much later - a reward for struggle and achievement.

Had this idea for some time now. I just want to make a game that has some of the nice ambience of Dark Souls but is a bit lighter on the mood and is more aesthetically pleasing. I’ll probably not be able to do the latter, but I still want to give it a try.

Here’s my idea. Basically Shining in the Darkness but with a lot more interactions and new visuals.

@BlackPhi Good question. The game moment is intended to be a fairly common part of your game with the core aspects of it, as opposed to some sort of epic climax where you have one-time-only things to craft. For our game we are working on movement, hitting, damage, level flow and other things that are important for regular combat in the game. From there we will build on more and more functionality, but for now we need to just get something core that can be built on.

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Working title: Crystal Towers (this will change)
Genre: RPG, 3rd person fixed camera RPG
Target Audience: T for Teen
Controls: Mouse & keyboard and controller
Thematic Setting: Cyberpunk/amime style
Tech Stack: Unity 5+, Blender, Photoshop, Audacity
Platform(s): Steam
Game Moment: Break into high tech building (puzzle), defeat enemies within and secure a connection to a server.

Thank you, I think I get it:

Basically the game moment is something the player will be doing a lot of, so it has to be both enjoyable in itself and flexible enough so that it doesn’t become a grind. Combat in an action RPG, puzzles in an adventure, quests in a different sort of RPG (thinking of RPGs I’ve played with endless pointless fetch quests), and conversations in another sort again.

Presumably if a developer has the resource they’ll want to incorporate different sorts of game moments, but for an indie it’s better to focus limited resource primarily on doing one really well?

Yep, by the time your game launches you’ll have many moments in your game. The idea with picking on core / important moment and prototyping just that is to ensure that you dont get distracted with the many, many things you need to implement. You’re right, being Indie it is better to limit the scope of your game and not to try to have too many different aspects. A good example is that in a AAA game you might have normal running around, you might have driving a car, you might have flying a plane. As an Indie its better to not try to add driving and flying into your game and rather focus on making that core aspect more compelling.

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Slightly off the topic but as an indie you are very limited in scope but what about teaming up? Where are some good forums to do this? I have tried TIGsource myself but never really got anything going. Even with a team you still want to keep it simple and focus on the core, but with a team can probably accomplish things a bit quicker. On that note I would happily team up if I could do my game idea. Most seem to have come here to implement their own ideas though.

Here is my GDD…Currently still throwing some ideas around but this is kind of the direction I want to go in for now.

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Hey @Casey_S thats a tricky one. I find the best partnerships are from people you meet at conferences, meetups, game jams. Ie. In person. If you want to find people online, the second best thing I can suggest heading to the Indie Game Developers group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/IndieGameDevs) and being active with the folks there, watching for people you might click with.

The best thing I can suggest is looking to find people on this forum and seeing if there is any common interest to team up. Sometimes there are artists over on the Blender discussions looking for a cool project to be part of. Make sure you are open with people, pitch them your thoughts and be very open to what they might want to do / contribute.

Hey @Casey_S, in addition to @Rick_Davidson’s excellent advice, we do also have the Collaboration forum right here, as the RPG course is still in it’s infancy I doubt many people have thought to post there yet - maybe you could be the first?

Teaming up with other people and overcoming some of the challenges that can present is also great experience.

Here’s a link to the specific Collaboration Forum :slight_smile:

Thanks guys, I gave it a try at least for posting here. Will look into other options as I go. Got a couple other projects I am working on but the more I take these courses the more it seems creating a game could be done a bit better/faster. The teams I am in now focus a ton on getting it to look good or everything to be really polished asap. When the real focus should be getting something playable/developing the core asap.

Look forward to more videos and seeing what I can do and possibly who I can meet to help out with projects!

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I’d like to see if I can create a world where kids can learn about different mental health issues and but still have a great playing experience. To also get something from it as coping strategies and not just education. Not sure how I can do it but will give it a crack!

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Here is my GDD (albeit as rough as can be). Currently still throwing some ideas around as I go. Welcome any feedback! And the title is just a working title for now! Thanks.

I have had something like this in mind for a while since I have 2 daughters and most Action RPG are dude focused…even if there are female characters.

Project “V.I.R.U.S.” 1-Page GDD

The Digital Dungeons



Genre: RPG. Twin-Stick shooter. 3rd Person view with overhead camera locked to player.
Target Audience: T for Teen.
Controls: Twin-Stick controller (PC & Console).
Thematic Setting: Inside a computer / arcade machine. Tron-inspired visuals. Electronic soundtrack.
Tech Stack: Unity 5+. Blender. Gimp. Audacity.
Platform(s): Steam (PC). PS4 (Console).


Game Moment: Simple level flow & basic combat (hitting and taking damage) with two enemy types:
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  1. Locate a RAM chip.
  2. Enter the RAM chip.
  3. Defeat a couple of different viruses.
  4. Retrieve reward data.
  5. Exit the RAM chip.
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