This blog has been updated; 3 times.
*Note; always check for the latest updates in this series which is usually indicated by the “[UPDATE #]” brackets in the title, as well as which sequential “part” designations an update is i.e: pt.1, pt.2, pt.3 etc, which is also placed in the title, to fine the latest release and active update session. You can also always reach the latest release by clicking the “My Ninja I.P.: Aspirations & Development (UPDATE # Now Available)” link in my profile signature
[OCT/31st/2017]
Are your ready? I am here with more creative goodness once again, and today I will reinstate what I said before about the game being finished!. Look at it as I have created the building block and I just have to assemble the building blocks like the pieces of a LEGO set. Now while working on this project, which grew into a Superhuge project by the way, and I have tons and tons and tons of data, plans and so-on that just keep piling up containing ideas I come up with and such, I had been careful not get too technical with the development — there are lots of intricate pieces that make up this game and franchise, but I was wise enough to stay away from stuff that gets to technical, because I wanted to minimize the situation of having way too many things that aren’t compatible with one another or that conflict with themselves. I wanted to keep things as basic as possible but to where it would still get me in the league of quality and sophistication I was looking for that would keep things true to the kind of experience I wanted to present, and thanks to my ability to be versatile with my creativity, I managed to pull that off, because you can have many ideas but it is how they are put together that counts in the end.
One other critical thing I looked at, was the issue of migration, I didn’t want to make thing too technical so that in the event a newer version of RPG Maker got release, it would not be that difficult to transfer these ideas onto the new platform and have them work with virtually no issue, or if there was an issue, it wouldn’t be something that could not be fixed with relative ease, so I was basically thinking ahead with the future in mind, with this approach to implementing some of this game’s features.
I have all kinds of ideas for this game that you wouldn’t believe, I had been brainstorming like heck, because that’s what people like myself do, our brains are built for this kind of stuff, we’re not too fond on just being around talking about what the next person does, that’s too lame, we excel at art and stuff :D, and whatever I put my mind too I get over ambitious and I just have the urge to solve situations and think about better stuff, and so in many instances when it came to this project, none of that stopped xD. When I tell you i was brainstorming, trust me it was brainstorming lmao. Through such commitment and focus, I have produced ideas galore, and alot of that material was and is done behind the scenes, so in addition of these blogs I release online, I also have loads of material and stuff that I have documented, and most of that work that’s documented is where all the critical aspects of the project is detailed, which id why i can say to you that the game is finished, it’s because I know alot more about what’s going on with the project than I have actually released online. So what i’m telling you about the project, is only some bits of detail from a much bigger cache of information, or metadata containing lots of finer and more elaborate details.
Another thing to note as well, is that the main character is actually going to be a master of “unarmed combat”, which means he will be skilled with his natural limbs and innate abilities. Much like when recently I referred to him as a master of the fist, which is true in a sense. He is actually a master of unarmed combat, with one of his unique abilities being the Deflect Arts which so happens to be “fist” dependent skills, that I found to be incredible fun. The thing with the deflect abilities, is that it would makes battles for him harder and a bit more interesting, because I didn’t want him to just block damage since that would make him feel very over-powered and it’ll be just too easy. I wanted to have most of the functions in the game, incorporate interestingly in case-by-case scenarios, given the nature of this game and taking into account, the different abilities and powers of the characters, so over time I began to think of fun and interesting ways the block/guard function in RPG Maker can be applied and I just made the decision, that the main character can do without the block mechanic, and in it’s place he would be able to deflect, while other specific characters will in fact be able to block and put up a challenge when using that ability aswell as their own abilities.
There is a combo mechanic in this game i’m still working on, that will allow combinations of certain skills etc, and the main character is pretty much a combo-heavy type of character — that is pretty much where I am going with this in terms of this whole concept of him being very skilled in unarmed battle, and this is always one of the areas that required alot of focus and thinking to make it workout, because I had to develop it to where it was a possibility and also in a manner that would be compatible with the game engine i’m using, because remember even though my creativity isn’t limited, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be faced with challenges on the technical level with regard to the assets i’m using, for instance; RPG Maker. I often have to think of ways to make many of these things not just literal but practical and in a way that would be appealing, because often time, I am faced with issues such as “well I want a combo system for the game but how do I make it work in such a game like this?”, “how do i make combos execute in a turn-based game, yet alone make actual combos stick out and be distinct from the regular sequential-attacks and these kind of other factors, so that its inclusion does not make some of the other aspects of the game seem redundant?”, so for me that is usually where the real challenges come in and are usually the things i’m working on most in the project. So when I say I have finished the technical aspects of the game, these are usually the really technical things I am referring to, and I’ve been working on alot of that from since the time I started making this game.
So yeah, with the main character, his deflect capabilities aren’t the only thing he has going for him, he’s actually very skilled in being able to combo and cause Cataclysmic Siege hahaha :D. Speaking of which, I don’t know if some of you have seen his skill-set, but you would notice he has an affinity for the electric element,that’s because he basically is an electric god/ninja and he sort of goes into a mode of Cataclysm when god-status is reached, making his electric state become more volatile where he can do far more incredible stuff that has cataclysmic impact throughout the universe, as he now [in this mode] commands with more dominion of his innate electric powers. So his propensity to cataclysm is like a “mode” more so than it is another “Art” in the series, and it will be a significant recurring factor through his existence, and one thoroughly explored in the game. And that’s just his, there are alot of other ninjas and monsters and gods in the game with their own stories behind their own powers and traits, however due to the volume of characters, the history of all of the characters will not be explored, but there will be alot of instances where the story of a couple of them will be examined to a much greater extent.
The game will also feature 100,000 Character growth Levels xD. YUP!, you saw that correctly; 100,000 is the official max character level for this game, and what’s more, being the very ambitious dude that I am (as you can tell by that crazy idea to have 100,000 levels in this game to begin with lmao), the level will also have a special core and fundamental benefit in the game apart from what a “leveling” system in most games traditionally represent. So that mainly means it’s going to have a secondary benefit to it, as well as it’s primary benefit (which we all know is to get characters stronger as they level and to emphasize growth).
Lets not forget either that the stages in this game are going to have their own compelling dynamics at play as I had mentioned slightly in previous updates. There will be hidden dangers, hazards, weather effects and all different kinds of other fun things going on with the stages, and depending on what “type” of stage you’re in (desert, jungle, snow, coastal etc), there will be environmentally themed hazards and threats distinct to those areas. So the stages when it comes to traversal and exploration, are going to be very interesting in their own respects as well, just like the combat will be very interesting when it comes to combat.
I was also looking into putting in vehicles and I am conceptualizing things he can do outside of battle that would be essential to the main character in making his way around the various landscapes and being able to get exciting abilities to help you do do, so there is alot of thought and development going behind the scenes to make this game as fun as possible and it’s alot fun seeing what else I can go with formulas and the finer details. So that’s it for this update and I will see all of you fun loving gods in the next update xD.
[OCT/25th/2017]
In light of recent developments disclosed to you through the last couple of blogs, let me just also use this update to tell you about other things associated with the main character. Numerous times I had mentioned the “Ninja Deflect” abilities of the main character and how they are his main focus — he is the master of the epic Deflect Arts style, and I have been working on this area here quite a bit, and have recently discovered a much much cooler way to have his Deflect skills take effect.
I adjusted a couple of parameter with i the program, and now i have a much cooler version of a Deflect mechanic than the earlier version I started experimenting with, and it is very awesome that i managed to do that. In doing so, I have practically created a “refined” version of what was demonstrated to you in some of the videos I released prior, showing and sharing some things about this deflect mechanic.
Let me say too, that part of the aim was to also have characters affected in other interesting ways by certain skills, apart from the enemies (or your self) being defeated through typical K.O by a standard strike from a skill or weapon, and then the battle finishes. I have all kind of skills in this game and also came up with a TON of effects and things of that nature that weakens characters and make them have to endure very challenging odds, and the main-character’s deflect capabilities, were supposed to share such properties aswell.
So after playing around with RPG Maker for a while, i am very delighted to announce that I have figured out a way that can lead to endless possibilities in the area of how skills can affect characters, and now I can create various scenarios to determine outcomes by manipulating this very interesting process that I have been able to lean more about, and test for myself. This process that i am talking about was actually quite basic and can be found in the “enemy section” of the RPG Maker program, and it is knows as “Battle Events”. This [Battle Events] process allows you to create alot of instances based of what kinds of things you would like to occur, related to different elements and aspects utilized in the game, and how you would like to manipulate them to make fun, interesting things happen during battle.
It was a greatly valuable feature of the program, that I had overlooked LMAO. In my case, I was able to make very good use of this function, to develop a situation where I can now move forward with some of the excellent ideas that I had for the way skills would impact characters in certain situations, one of the situations being, being able to create different version of Ninja Deflect abilities that could ultimately alter the course of events in very crazy and fun ways — something I had been thinking about doing for a long time but it had just taken me a while to wrap my head and mind around the “Battle Events” panel, and realize how I can use it to bring to life many of the dynamic scenarios I had in mind for the effects of certain skills and outcomes of certain encounters.
So it is a wonderful thing to know just how it works and how flexible it allows me to be with my ideas, because upon realizing what a great tool the “Battle Events” functions was, I had went on to complete 8 different versions of this ability with all of them having a wide range of fun and advantageous effects on opponents, which was always something I had been wanting to do with the concept of the main character’s Deflect Arts :D.
You may know by now that this game is going to have a serious set of weaponry, and that I also mentioned that you don’t need weapons in the game, and a huge part of why I said that, is because of the conceptual style of the main character. The main character is going to be a “specialist” of unarmed combat, hence why he has developed some of his Deflect techniques. The idea is that he sucks at using weapons lol, but he is VERY dangerous when he is using his own style, his own style being the Deflect Arts, which is why I presented it to you as his main trade-mark specialty. So when it comes to unarmed combat, he is very skilled with his Ninja Deflect abilities, and he has 8 kinds of them, most of which he will discover through his adventure in this series.
When it comes to using weapons, unlike other characters that will see a weapon-boost stat, he doesn’t get that bonus, he will not benefit well when using weapons compared to other characters, though he will still be able to use them, but when it comes to his unarmed combat, he will be one of the best in the game at that, and even more so when he decides to unleash his “Ninja Deflect” arts, but there is a technicality as far as him and weapons go, and it is if he used his own “signature” weapons, he will be able to use them more effectively than the standard group of weapons, in terms of certain attributes they deliver.
Note worthy too is the fact that that he doesn’t fully “block” attacks, that is one of the concepts behind the Deflect Arts aswell, unlike other characters that can fully block and guard, he does not, and one of the fundamental ideas behind the Deflect ability, is that the deflect allows damage from attacks to be reduced while also deflecting a percentage of the over all damage inflicted on the main character, to be reversed back at the enemy. So this is another critical thing to note, the main character does not fully “block” attacks, the idea is the the Deflect Arts, reduces damage from attacks while deflecting a certain percent of that damage back toward an enemy that originally did the attack.
What’s more is that a huge part of being able to utilize the Battle Events functions, is that it allows for a multitude of benefits that can happen for you in combat situations, that can still be very helpful in matters related to things outside of battle. So by manipulating certain encounters via the Battle Events mechanic, you can create outcomes that are very interesting aside from just being awarded exp for defeating a boss or just being able to move on to the next encounter, instead, I can have execution of certain actions trigger instances that can lead to other fun things that you can progress based on, for example, you may be able to make bosses “give up” information, “teach” you an awesome skill and things like that — just as an example.
That being said, you know i love to be creative and think outside of the box, or even create my own box (lol), and I thought of yet another character idea that I thought was too good to resist, and because of that, along with the likes of many of the interesting Ninja’s that i have added to the game so far, I have yet another SURPRISE member joining the clan! :D, are you ready for this one?, introducing none other than, the one, the only; MK Ninja! xD. Yup!, you guessed it: Mortal-Kombat Ninja!!!! hahahahaha.
That is so cool, a Mortal-Kombat God Ninja has been added to this game’s very legendary cast of characters, and this just takes things once again to a whole other crazy level, because it’s said that Mortal-Kombat Ninja “specializes in giving gods fatalities” hahaha. Wow giving gods fatalities!, THAT is awesome, what the heck was I thinking??? LMAO!. And obviously he’s inspired by the original Mortal Kombat series, just as how Drunken Ninja was inspired by the Drunken Master in kung-fu movies, so yup, this is actually a thing, “MK Ninja” is now the latest ninja god added to the game, ready to kickass like the rest of em’ :D.
[OCT/21st/2017]
This update is just going to look closer at some of the weapons and stuff like that. So there is going to be a number of marvelous, crazy weapons which are:
1- Fists/Gauntlets (x30)
2- Claws/Fangs (x30)
3- Katanas (x30)
4- Nunchakus (x30)
5- Knives/Daggers (x30)
6- Blades/Great Swords (x30)
7- Spears (x30)
8- Scythes (x30)
Each category will have 30 individual pieces made, and they will range from low-level ones, all the way up to high-level ones which will be rare and much more challenging to get. So all of these groups will have 30 weapons and there will be a certain number of weapons from each group that will be, in essence, “Special Editions”.
Overall those are the “standard” groups of weapons in this game. On top of these standard weapons, the main character is also going to have his own personal “signature” weapons in the game as well, such weapons of his being the “Blades Of Destruction” I mentioned in a previous update, and a couple more. What’s also interesting to note, is that the way this game is, is that you do not have to “upgrade” or enhance weapons, you can still follow the basic trend of these games where, you can just work your way up to obtaining stronger gear then the previous much weaker equipment that you had gotten earlier in the game, so in this game it’s not mandatory to upgrade any specific gear.
The upgrade mechanic is just there to add MORE FUN things to do with weapons, and to provide a way to take advantage of customization features which is the important point, that way, if you find a weapon with stats you like, then unlike what traditionally happens in games where said weapon you like may become redundant after a while, and even though you like it, it may not be of much use because of other fundamental factors preventing it from being useful, in my game you have the option to keep a weapon, work on that weapon and develop your favorite weapon into something that gets super powerful and just kicks the crap out of stuff xD. With this very special revolutionary feature, you can make your favorite weapon of choice into something that “never gets old” so to speak, but there is also another side to the matter related to this feature, in that it will take time to improve equipment.
The reason why it will take a while to improve weapons when you’re taking advantage of this feature and upgrading a weapon or piece of equipment, to lets call it “super” status, is because it’s like an investment — it will take time because there will be certain things you have to do and certain things you will have to obtain, to get the weapon upgraded, which will require doing tasks, exploration and that kind of thing and you wouldn’t be able to buy upgrades for the weapons. This game does not really have a prominent currency system, it’s heavily crafting based and treasure hunting focused, so most of the things you obtain, will a huge majority of the time, be gotten through Treasure Hunting and finding treasure, and using the stuff you find to create stuff through crafting. Or you can find greatly valuable treasure that comes in all forms that don’t need to be crafted, and they will be just really cool stuff that you found, and can be used once found since they will not be crafting components but actually epic usable assets that can be used “as-is”.
The fundamental key here, is that if you would like to turn a low-level weak piece of equipment into something that will be super effective later on in the game against very hard bosses and killer opponents, then there are steps you need to take in order to make them become that epic!, but the awesome capability to do so, is very much there in the game :D.
Another thing is, the weapons in this game are actually more technical than just your average weapons, there will be the custom element + the improvable base-stats, and also the way each type of weapon works animation-wise, which will present it’s own set of advantages and disadvantages. So essentially each weapon is going to have it’s own style of combat, which is another interesting thing I want to point out — all of these weapons behave differently and have their own set of passive effects built on various other parameters, plus each has their own stats when all is said and done as I touched on briefly earlier, so it will be very interesting working on these weapons and their various styles and stat-based elements. I have already begun, because i have already came up with some awesome formulas for the gear-types, and blending all of that in with the “Weapon Effectiveness/no junk items” mechanic, and it’s just a matter of time before I finish.
Based off of all of this, you can see that even the weaponry, and armors etc alone will have tremendous potential and certainly gives the game great depth. Most of the content is going to come together with very grand story, speaking of which, I talked about the main character a little bit in one of my last updates, and gave you a sense of what he’s like, now keep in mind that’s the main character, alot of the things in this game were inspired by the main character, all of the skills, the bosses, the different enemy types, the equipment and all of that, were actually made because of the main character, and it’s the main character that doesn’t really need to use weapons because remember originally, this franchise is a Beat Em’ Up and this game i’m working on, is really a spin-off experiment of the original idea for the franchise. This version is going to have a light-hearted tone, but the details I shared about the main character, are actually of the main I.P and more directly applicable to the main original beat em’ up version of the franchise, so alot of that dark nature that got described in my last insight into his description, isn’t going to manifest literally in this particular game of the franchise, the only thing that would be directly applied to this spin-off version of the franchise, is his abilities i.e him being a Ninja, A DemiGod etc, but he and many of the content featured, isn’t going to be as brutal or vicious in this particular version of a game made in the franchise. The material shared in some instances of the main I.P/main series, are mainly for reference and are core ideas that can be interpreted into many different styles, with this particular game being one of many possible styles that i have came up with, based on the original ideas for the franchise.
So getting back on the topic of the weapons; the weapons too have a story, and the weapons themselves are a unique force on their own. The weapons and equips just being on a planet or anywhere in the universe, is enough to have profound centuries long effects on them, or even cataclysmic consequences — it’s like they have a life of their own but not quite. They are very mysterious in nature and alot of that has to do with a much broader issue of the game’s universe, but you still know and realize, that they are the stuff of unparalleled might, the stuff of legend and they rock, and in this game, there will be the awesome opportunity to show what a rising Ninja God can do to maximize galactic shifting change, with these cataclysmic legendary phenomenons :D.
Right, so that was just some of the details I wanted to cover and get more into today concerning the new mechanic and the different weapon/weapon types etc!, that I had mentioned in the previous update, and I will see you in the next God-Like update :D.
KING OF KRAP
THE REAL AKTION 