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Terra Nova:Perspctives (Game Idea)
Game Ideea,by Ferk

Disclaimer: WORDS

I want to build a game,since its a childish dream o' mine to do so.I've allways loved games for the fact they they combine visuals music and narative to create something YOU can interact with.I adore the feelings of geting a new game,playing it from start to finish,and seeing all there is to it.The the downfall is the ending,"every" game is just like an elevator (feels train too),uplifting the first time,but then a let down after too much repetition.

So in short I wanna make a game,but . . . I posses no high skill in doing art,music,writing,coding,etc.

I want to share my toughts and see if its worth(or snatch/infiltrate a couple of good-doers gamedevs).


The general ideea is the fantasy world building and wierdly charismatic characters (ok maybe also plain unrelatble but complex),back up by a conveluted (say hello to Kingdom Hearts) plot and realistic mechanics and 4th wall breaks (subtle or plain messing with you)

For inspiration I take everything the media has to offer and I enjoyed;games such as Zelda a Link to the Past (I swear this game is better than its age,it feels "new" but "old" at the same time,hiting you hard with nostalgia and wonders),Earthbound(A very simple and powerful message,"love" and that's pretty much it,also the 4-th wall breaks and the ending that ask the player prayers for the characters for defeating an unspeakable evil),Super Mario Rpg(Just good and wonky and very inovatiove with the mixed rpg/platformer),Chrono Trigger(team skills,and dynamic combat),Ib(good graphics and atmosphere),hyper light drifter(2d dark souls anyone?),OneShot ( mmmm . . . 4th wall breaks that messes with your expectations),Undertale(hype train,god-like music,lovable? characters).


Standard rpg with lotsa tweaks to make every single mechanic cool and dynamic and all mechanics to intertwine with the plot and actions characters take.

The title menu should also be simple options,new game/continue(new game +/extras upon finishing it once).

The pause menu should be standard(maybe some artistic theme like somone looking into a crystal ball to "scout" our game sesion),it pauses your game,options or exit.

The inventory will be very simple,only able to have a few items,the inventory is literary a bag-pack so you will be able to only carry something a back-pack can hold,no holy swords stacked in a seemingly endless inventory ( :3 actaully later on there will be a INFINITE inventory but you probably won't need all the items).On the inventory menu you can see the body (and portrait) of the protagonist alongside all his/hers equipments (the equipments will be visible in the overworld aswell,expect for maybe earings or something).Equipped inventory will be put in the slots for the respective item,so they dont take inventory space.

Now for the combat system . . . I have no clue

The thing is that you want it to be dynamic and have patterns (but the game is supposedly 2d top-down and I dont want to take the "it cuts to a bullet hell" pattern) but you also want the simple but going nuts with lotsa spells later on turn based combat.Let's mix them in a wierd way shall we.

Each spell/action plays a minigame.

Example:you want to hit your enemies with a sword,how would you like to slice,dice,bash(aka just knock out with the hilt),or pierce them? You choose one way of flinging your weapon of choice (differes from weapon to weapon) and then a silhouette of the enemies appear in a box for you to drag a line resmbeling how you want to hit them. (much like the Pip-Boy quick shot effect from the Fallout series)

But what about throwing a fireball?Would you like to throw it straight,fling it from the top or even do some underground sneaky attack? The same silhouette appears in a box for you to give your fireball a dirrection to ram it into.

But what about dodging/blocking something?(you defenetley dont want "quick" playstation events "press X to dodge bullets")so the actions will be real time,turn-base-ish,you will see the animation of the enemies attacking you and you will be greeted by the same silhouette,but this time is yours ,so you will choose in which direction you want to dodge or how (crouch,jump over,block with weapon/shield).

The battles will most defenetley be realsitic for the most part (no fighting rats and slimes as level 1's and also if you hit a wolf 3 times with a axe,that's a very dead animal)

Ok for the health and mana bars,you will use them as resources.I will link stamina and health to one concept and just call it vitality and mana is the state of mind.

Say you are full hp,you are totally fine,70%< you're tired,40%< ill and hard to move,<10% you're nearly dying(can you still do martials arts when you are probably in a bloodbath?no you can't),0 you body breaks,your mind still works.

For mana full is alert and cunning,70%< you get slower thinking,40%<you're probabily having headaches and feeling stupidly tired,10%< you're braindead by this point,0 you're just a flesh vessel by now.

Basically all stats and spell costs are determined by the health and mana bars,everything scales accordingly.

You dont get skillpoint per level,levels are more of a means of scaling the power of individuals (also a narative point),you get better at stuff for doing the said stat,you cast spells more times they get better(but also on better enemies,no pointless grinding in here is allowed,no spaming low zones).Spells have levels of usability or how hard is to cast/mentain them(from one until ten and to the infity and beyond).

The animation times and other time consuming stuff will be completley cut off(short and sweet animations,the random encounter shouldnt be random either,mobs are on the map or they may sneak on you,earthbound style)That means that the combat entrance shouldnt last more than one secound ( or completley disabled in the options/also some variety).

The "Plot":

If the mechanics stated above are either to pretentious or impossible to code let's hope the plot will make some justice (probabily won't).

The plot is still a subject to change and will have many sub plots ( like daily note-worthy events),but the basic ideea is that "there's a great cosmic evil that four choosen ones are to deafeat".

I absolutely want to shatter everything that is a prophecy and cliche and turn it on it's head.

The meta will be strong with this one and there will be plenty full of bad and humerous references (but not taken lightly).Subtle humor like remarks,name-sakes,4th wall questions.

There is just a few points I want the story to take;The story follows the perspective of the heros and how they overcame the obstacles,but they've grown enough to overpower all previous villans and even the many next,so they will rather talk with the villans than deafeat them and humiliate them into surrendering most of the time

the scales are cosmically out of proportions but the all mighty can't affect the least powerfull,its a full circle that everyone is ruled by.A pagan god can only affect people if they give him sacrifices,that kind of deal.Being powerfull should not be the opposite of beaing weak,it should be just the current state of one's being,so its not the "strong>weak" but the "X vs Y".

Perspectives,the heros will find themselves as both the victims,villans,heros and the others since they will become nearly all powerful they can be all those people.

More plot:

The village of Jorlenz

A mountainsided small wooden village,with vague roads and many pines surrounding it,its a beautiful,peaceful,rpg-generic village.It is home to the main protagonists Christopher and Wanda Parfey,two siblings with generic kind parents.

One night their uncle that works as a undercover mercenary pays them a visit warning of a possible incoming raid for supplies by some band.They decide to leave in a few days but the band tracked down the uncle and attacked imidiatley.Their father is killed and mother stolen as slave all while their village is burned to a crisp.Wanda begans to cry(and a tiny wooden branch snaps in half ,foreshadowing her magic powers)and Chris remains numb in the shock.

The uncle takes them the out of the village and leaves them with some traveling nomads.

They tag along for a while and the two kids decide to join the same mercenary gang and plot revenge on it.

But in the meantime the mercenary band got a new leadder that rules right and dontesn't kill on whims (Robin Hood basically,a good underdog). Conflicts rise when they find this out.



Wanda is a quick thinker and impulsive person that takes lead everytime she sees herself fit to out-do the current "ruler",she enjoys learing very much,stating that is the meaning for existing at all,she is very calculated and never rushes a decision,but that also makes her very frustrated and pesimistic when a decision takes her time to decide.She rarely exagerate and is allways out-foxing the people around her,she has quite some ego but she only brings it out if she knows she can back up her statements.A invalid argument or a flaw in her logic hits her like a truck and makes her reconsider all choices ever made,she is very simple in her thinking actually,"All we ever do is learn,whenever it's a magic spell or how to cook a potato,and we allways secretly strive to improve,even if we may think otherwise".This also reflects her spells,she is most of the time lost the them and usaully there is some elemental magic controling her body while she is learing and perfecting spells in her own mind.She represents the mind and all that we as humans are able to achive trough thinking.

She is the brains of the team.

Christopher on the other hand is a very naive and dense person,but he is hard working and extremely simple purposed.He sees everything with a bright side to make others feel good,since "We need random acts of kindness since we get hatred on a daily basis for no apparent reason".He is somone who would help everyone in sight if he can do so,because he doesn't have anything else better to do.He is very warm-hearted and gullible,he will help anyone asking for help but if he realises he has been tricked he will flip the coin on the other side.Despite all that content smiling and helping hands theres is a berserk inside.He doesn't think that pain is bad at all(for him),"if we can get healed we should hurt ourselves more",so he will glady take the shot for the team.If he snapps he goes full berserk caring not for anything in his path,one self destructive onslaught for not being able to "help himself" control his anger.He is also very straight forward and unable to keep most things a secret,hes too foolish.

He is the brawns of the team.

There will be two more joining along the way.

Vineto,a gipsy prince of a kingdom that he singlehandedly ruined by being born sick and saved by a wind elemental at the expense of the kingdoms riches (very Disney).Now he is a ex prince and cool rogue (he steals more because he can and then return it,he's a prankster but not one that hurts,one that messes and relieves).

He is the COOL DUDE of the team,the humor,4th wall and the thing that is missing but you dont realise it.

Carmen Lyra ( a nameless spirit wandering a locked room in a tower somewhere,she forgot who she was due to using too much soul power,she joins the team to have some sort of purpose,she finds out she was a bard in one of her previous lifes and a nun in the other)She isn't impressed by anything at all,and is never fazed. "I've died before,got anything new this time?"

She is the healing of the team and despite having a personality of cardboard laying around she can crack some jokes too.
<FONT font="Bradley Hand ITC">Take everything with moderation,even moderation.</FONT>
Hey, you talked about this on the discord awhile back and one of the ideas I gave for "dynamic combat" was to have the combat skills and stats of characters be tied to the decisions they make. IDK if you saw were I @ you(I think you went to sleep before I could finish) but,here is a rundow of what I said plus, some revisions:

Basically, having players either start with a set amount of abilities or growing and learning to use the abilities(pretty standard rpg stuff,ya know) but, then throughout the game changing the skills players can achieve or contiue to use with certain characters based on a few factors. First, the psychological toll it takes to perform certain task. For instance, Christopher is pretty kind it seems but, when tricked or angered he loses control.
Example scenario:What if after an encounter with a woman who reminds him of his now enslaved mother he becomes attached to her. But, suprise she is actually a robber who just wanted to steal his loot. This angers Christopher and he pummels her in a fight. But, near the end of the fight she explains it was actually nice to hang out with him and that if she wasn't so desperate then she wouln't have robbed him at all. Then she exclaims "You remind me of my son who died in(some sad creative way)" With my idea Christopher actually starts to resist his berserk tendencies and this in turn effects his combat by say reducing his speed or strength in combat against people that have tricked him because he is now heistant to "flip the coin" on people.

The second thing is based on the characters and your writing for them.This is Similiar to the above example. But, when a character uses a spell or move that is out of character for them the move either weakens or the amount of times it can be used within the game are lessened.
Example:So if a character try's to use the move" Fake cry" to distract or lure enemies but, they are not expressive to begin with it would not work well(only effect the dumber ones with low state of mind)/or at all/ or only once per battle on enemies(especially humans and intelligent creatures) that could tell it was a fake.Not because this character is weak but, it simply doesn't fit who they are. I guess the fake cry wouldn't work well for Carmen due to her flat personality

Also, you could limit the game events or experinces achievable based on characters exploration and what they have in their backpack.Basically, encouraging players to take there time in certain areas of the story by limiting what they can do later on based on what they collect and save in their backpacks(making their choice of items more important). This might also give players several unique storyline that they can access on one play through but comeback and play the others later.

These are some of my basic ideas that I just had.I really want to see the progression of this idea. You seem to have put a good deal of thought into it.I appreciation this sort of ambition.So yeah if you have some question about my ideas ask or need clarification. Also, is there anything you want feedback on specifically involving the stories or characters? I don't know much about game development or coding/programming so I can't help you on the technically end but, I have learned a lot about story sturcture and whatnot.
<EMAIL email="kidkazarie@gmail.com">kidkazarie@gmail.com</EMAIL> is my email. Hit me up if you need something.

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