For this game I wanted to try something different from the usual gameplay, but I'm wondering if is the right move or not. It's obviously safer to go on with established gameplay systems, but sometimes I like to experiment. However, since I also invested a lot of money on this game, I wouldn't like to waste it

My idea was:

- have a SIMPLE RPG element. Not complex as Loren or even Planet Stronghold

- have a headquarters where each hero has his/her own room, and you can buy improvements, and research new battle moves or train your heroes

- have a strategic map similar to a chessboard, with some special points (who remembers the old game http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archon:_The_Light_and_the_Dark?). The map would show where the two HQ are, but you can't simply attack the enemy HQ, you have to hold several special spots for XX turns, or other way to win

- the battles. This is probably the most risking gameplay element. I mean all of the above should look COOL right? but here comes the thing: I wanted to have tag-team battles, where you fight 1 vs 1 but you can swap your active hero with 2 "reserves". The battle would work in a very similar way as http://www.kongregate.com/games/Kongregate/kongai



now the easiest solution to play "safe" would be to have the battles in a similar way as Planet Stronghold (even if this would mean to do extra graphic for new enemies). I could still reuse the battle pose and have a sort of Final Fantasy battle with a side view, which could still be nice to see.



Any thoughts / suggestions are welcome

So I was stumped on how to give feedback to this and asked my husband his opinion:



I think the Archon system is pretty cool, obviously though we'd need some clarification on how capture points would work. I would love if his last point if he uses a marvel vs capcom 3 flare and the reserves can have a special ability while they're in reserve. That way you could have a healer or aoe ability in reserve and you can select/call on them to help with the fight or even swap out with them. And that way you can have more tactical consideration in your party selection.



Mostly for me I'm wondering about capturing as well. Would that mean one of your teammates would need to stay on the board or will there be special NPC's that both sides can place in a strategic point to hold it while the heroes and villains go back to HQ and rest/skill up/train and check the map to see if the opposing side is mounting an offensive. Ultimately though I'd hate for you to have to purchase even more art at this point since you have so much of it already and the Kongai visual system sounds interesting (I'm familiar with it, even though I suck at that game). I'd like to get to see the dramatic posed fight between the characters if it's possible to still retain it. Reminds me of old school fighting games.

Yes it would work as you say, with characters in reserve being able to help the fight. As for capturing you'd have to stay on a place for some turns, but you can also build some structures/outpost on the map. For the battle another option I thought about was to have "minions" for each element, and they would fight in the game like Sword & Soldiers or (gah another flash game I forgot the name!!).

I think the crucial point are the battles since the map Archon style I'm sure will be cool to play. I guess the only way will be to make a test battle and see if is fun or not to play

Your idea reminds me a lot of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_Wars. There's a lot of elements that Archon and AW have in common, like capture points, HQs, and units with different abilities.



To tie it to your game, I'm thinking that it would have two parts for the battle sequence. It would start off with an overhead map with your characters, important places, items, and enemies represented by miniatures, just like an old school 2d rpg. In this mode, both the hero side and the enemy side would take turns moving around, discovering/capturing points, attacking HQs, finding treasure, etc. For combat sequence, it'll switch to a 1 vs 1 battle where it can be one of two things: an automated battle where stats, equips, items, and luck determine the outcome, or a FF like turn based battle.



Also, it'll be really fun to play around with including the actual world map into the 1 vs 1 battles. Certain environmental tiles (ex: mountains, cities) can give defensive bonuses over others (ex: a plain) and some can give offensive bonuses over other as well (underwater vs. mid air vs. jungle vs. invisibility). You could also use these to incorporate strengths and weaknesses to your characters, since many of your characters are elementals.

Yes somehow similar to Advance Wars though I don't want to have a scrolling map, that's why I said Archon. Also, the player will have the possibility to change the terrain type. In practice each terrain will be one of the 6 elements - so it won't be earth-like (after all we're in a sort of alternate dimension, the Limbo). Obviously if you use the character with associated element, he/she will be stronger: Aquaria in water, Superfoxy in Air, Undead Lily in Death, etc. If they're on the opposite element they'll be weaker:

Death <-> Life

Air <-> Water

Nature/Earth <-> Fire

so Alpha on the "graveyard node" (the Death one) will suffer severe penalties. I think already those element would make the map and the battles interesting. The only doubt I have is about the 1 vs 1 with tag team possibility battles, though in Kongai they're fun to play, so maybe is not a big deal.

Some serious thread necromancy here, but my question fits the topic...



While I have played a lot of games, I never really got into Trading Card Games. How would the trading card aspect work? Is it just that the various items and/or party members are replaced by cards, or are there any special things?

Did you check the blog post I made about the game? I explained a bit there.

However is still early stages, but in practice each element would have a set of cards (12). So if you use Ace/Lily you would get the death cards, with Angel/Alpha the life cards and so on. Of course, in the beginning you don't have ALL the 12 cards. Also the last two ones (the most powerful) are linked to the character alignment (Chaos/Order).

Then there are spells cards for each element.

So yes in a way you can say that the "party members" (even if are more like minions of each party member) and the spells are replaced by cards.

A good card game which I use as reference is Spectromancer, there's a free flash demo here if you want to check it out: http://armorgames.com/play/15578/spectromancer-gathering-of-power

I love the idea of the Archon element (old hat, Apple II whatever version myself).



But this does lead me to a question. If you already answered this, I apologize for repeating.



Are you going to have creatures/monsters which could benefit from two different types of squares?



In your art thread you have a picture of Magma. Which, if a monster, implies she could be strong on both fire and nature/earth squares?



Or the picture of the dust devil you had on twitter. Would they be strong on both nature/earth and air squares?

Yes battlefield will have an impact on gameplay similar to what you describe, have to think about the details yet but will be something like that

Any chance for combination attacks? Like certain characters when together can do a more damaging move/moves together? Kind of like how they have people in Fire Emblem Awakening attack together if next to each other or Valkyrie Chronicles with friends.

This is more a CCG game, so there aren't really "characters" but avatars. The current idea is described in this blog post: http://www.winterwolves.net/blog/2013/05/undead-lily-gameplay/

Hm, if one of the three avatars is out, then will they remain out the rest of the battle or does it reset the health? Also, it said one of the mains has to be present, but doesn't that kind of limit how many troops you have? Do you have teams of people at the same time or has that changed?

Each hero summons avatars in form of cards, not sure yet how many will be on the battlefield. If you know the game Spectromancer you have a good idea of what I'm thinking to do (of course will be different, but the layout could be similar).

Each hero summons avatars in form of cards, not sure yet how many will be on the battlefield. If you know the game Spectromancer you have a good idea of what I'm thinking to do (of course will be different, but the layout could be similar).

Saw some gameplay, seems kind of chaotic with all those spells looking and such but I think I get the general gist of it. Never a big fan of CCG since usually I play people with super powered cards that devastate me. I suspect this will be somewhat more fair

Saw some gameplay, seems kind of chaotic with all those spells looking and such but I think I get the general gist of it. Never a big fan of CCG since usually I play people with super powered cards that devastate me. I suspect this will be somewhat more fair

Not to mention most of the games Jack1974 has released has also had the choices of 3 modes. I would imagine this one may have an 'easy' mode if it gets tough.

I'm necro-resurrecting this thread

Based on the recent events with PSCD, some people wondered what would be the gameplay of this game.

Well, obviously, NOT a card game anymore. I have a few ideas on how to do it, since there should still be some "battles". I need to do some experiments. The writer for now is writing the game independently - it's not like he needs to describe the battles anyway - and once I have the full plot, I'll start tinkering with the gameplay.



I think it's safe to say though that in future, apart some tested formula like RPG or raising/stat sims, I won't try to mix VN gameplay with other genres. I would probably make a gameplay only game. Or if I do it, will first try with A SMALL GAME to test the waters

That's a shame, because PSDC gameplay was good.

And I'm very pricky when it comes to TCG gameplay, played Magic for years (to the point I cant play it anymore).



But I understand your concern about the sales.

Yes I think some genre mix works, others not. I want to make more card games since in general I got positive comments about PSCD system, so at least it means I can do something good after all if UL was smaller I might even have tried it, but since will be another big game (one of the last to be so big probably) not worth risking.

The gameplay from the first techdemo completely off the table? Looked promising back then (or at least I personally thought so)

Well the art is different now, so I should redraw all the sprites, and... of course that's not possible. Otherwise I'll go bankrupt just by redrawing the characters of games not yet out!