Ascension: Trail to the Skies

[FHZebedee]

The premise for my game:
Science has rapidly advanced, creating many deadly weapons. The pain caused by these have ruined the lives of untold millions, sometimes obliterating them within seconds. Still, even the most terrible weapon can be a savior in the right person's hands... or the end of the world in those of the wrong person.

This is the story of the wrong person, with the right weapon. This is a story of the eight youths who tried to stop him, and their struggles. This is a story of innocence, a story of wisdom. A story of valor... and deceit. A story of children, and one of things more ancient than civilization. A grand story, of how all was lost... and how it was then saved.

ASCENSION: TRAIL TO THE SKIES
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/LeeTupper/ascension2.png

Plot: A group of children in middle school find out that a scientist has been creating advanced weaponry and robotics in secrecy, and soon after learning this, they hear him mentioning plans to destroy the earth over some perceived slight. The children break into his house, and find a teleportation portal.
They pass through it, and find themselves in a forest. While there, they encounter an assortment of robots and a monstrous creature. The creature drops a device, and the heroes discover that they can use this device to perform superhuman feats and even defy the laws of physics. Going from portal to portal, they attempt to amass enough of these devices to ensure their victory against the scientist.
During this journey, they find out many secrets... About the plans of their nemesis, about the world, and even about themselves.

Characters:
Zebedee Taylor

Strengths: Good in boss battles
Weaknesses: Poor against swarms. Usually hits single targets.
Weapon of Choice: Tennis Racquets
A young scholar with great enthusiasm for the fringe of science and the paranormal. He serves as a sort of exposition character, often filling in information that would be unknown to most others. He puts his curiosity first and foremost over any other concern in life.

Albatross Trevelyan

Strengths: Massive damage potential, with insanely powerful attacks.
Weaknesses: Low accuracy, runs out of stamina (MP) quickly
Weapon of Choice: Staffs and Spears
A young man of Polynesian descent who is a close friend to Zebedee, Tudor, Kala, and Karine. He is extremely proud of his heritage, and loyal to his friends to a fault.

Tudor McMurdo

Strengths: Fairly balanced, many attacks inflict debilitating statuses
Weaknesses: Much less effective against bosses.
Weapon of Choice: Scythes
A youth who, despite his dark sense of humor and even darker attire is a rather out going member of the community. He does all that he can to put up a tough front, and to intimidate anybody who isn't a close friend.

Mark Keegan

Strengths: Balanced
Weaknesses: Balanced
Weapon of Choice: Swords (Well, actually, his PREFERRED weapon line is various spheres used in sports, but putting Balls under preferred weapon is just asking for trouble.)
A kid mostly interested in sports, he joins with the group after it has initially formed. He generally tries to give a humorous bend to situations, and ends up failing quite frequently.

Chaya Quetzal

Strengths: Huge damage potential, great speed.
Weaknesses: Low defenses make her extremely fragile, weapons are very expensive.
Weapon of Choice: Handguns
A girl who generally is concerned with keeping her life in order and ensuring that she does the best she can in life. She at first thinks the party is just pulling her leg, but soon decides to give them the benefit of the doubt. Unlike most of the others, she forgoes the more whimsical weapon options for much more powerful conventional weaponry (knives, guns).

Nyssa Tradescant

Strengths: Good at penetrating defenses, has several unique attributes.
Weaknesses: Weak physical attacks, fairly fragile.
Weapon of Choice: Dartgun
A girl who generally did not associate with the group before they asked for her assistance. She is quiet and reserved around people who she doesn't know well, but has a sharp wit and is very good with a blowgun she practiced with at the local archery range.

Kala Faisal

Advantages: Very useful array of techniques and status inflicting abilities.
Disadvantages: Slightly fragile, pricey gear.
Weapon of Choice: Katanas and Daggers
A girl who was a friend of Zebedee, Al, and Karine in an earlier time, her family moved to the small city of Stinson, a considerable distance away. She has honed many of her skills, including archery, martial arts, and several languages, pursuing her own interests to better herself.

Karine Nrutas

Advantages: Many healing skills, very sturdy.
Disadvantages: Little attack power.
Weapon of Choice: Random Trinkets, thrown at the enemy.
A self proclaimed raver who has been a friend of Zebedee and Albatross since early childhood. She always keeps up a good front, trying to remain positive despite the negative situations that the group gets into.

George Buckland
(Sprites unfinished.)
Advantages: Insane damage potential, good stats.
Disadvantages: Low speed, some party members will refuse to work with him.
Weapon of Choice: Pitchforks and Explosives
An extremely odd fellow that decides to join the party in their goal around halfway through their quest. He has a tenuous grasp on morals and reality, and will not hesitate to employ excessive force against his enemies.

Game Features:
*Item Synthesis: Many weapons and items have to be made by way of cobbling random junk that one finds together. This can be done at several locations in the game, or even as an action on the fly for some items with some characters.
*Flexible Weaponry Lines: Characters will not stick with a single variety of weapon throughout the game. Many weapons will be used by many different characters, though some are fairly exclusive.
*Massive Levels: There are two towns visitable in game, Dettham and Stinson. However, they have been scaled to represent the variety and freedom of real-life towns, meaning that much exploration is possible.
*Character Attributes: All characters have skills that make them unique and useful to the party beyond their roles in combat, and may even lead to accessing hidden areas. These abilities may trigger special plot sequences and cut scenes, depending on the party selected by the player.
*Ascension and Technique System: Characters start out with only technique lines, basic human capabilities. However, as the player progresses through the game, many more abilities become available and are unlocked by finding “Angel’s Feather” devices.
*Over 20 unique skills per character!

Game Quirks:
*Contemporary Nonfantasy Setting: Scifi games are rare. Scifi games that take place in the here and now USA? Even more scarce.
*Low Power Gain Curve: Characters will not get exponentially stronger. Though leveling up does benefit a character, it is much more subtle than standard RPG stat progression.
*Stamina replaces MP.
*Equipment Nonlinearity: Barring the ultimate weapons, most weapons in game can be obtained within the first two or three levels of the game. A player’s power is directly tied to their will to explore and experiment.
*Peculiar Transportation: The two vehicles available, pickup truck and rowboat, both are fairly nonstandard RPG vehicles.
*Nonconventional Money Earning: Money is earned through allowances, performing odd job minigames, and other non-combat methods.

Resources:
*Charasets: Mostly modified charas made with the on-site generator and then tweaked by me. NPCs, usually resources found on the site.
*Monsters: Mostly self-made from RTP/Charas, with some entirely self-made and some RTP where it works.
*Battle Chars: Chara style, entirely self made.
*Weapons: Almost entirely self-made.
*Music: RTP.
*Chipsets: Resources from the completed resources section and RTP, some heavily modified by me.
*Battle Backgrounds: Resources from the completed resources section and RTP.

PROJECTED PLAYABLE DEMO: APRIL 2007 (Up to end of first/second level)
Current Progress:
Character Creation: 88% (George!)
Skill Creation: 35%
Item Creation: 10% (Lots to do.)
Monster Creation: 30%
Map Creation: 3% (Lots to do.)
Demo: 20%
Overall Game: 5% (Tons to do.)

Opinions anybody? I'm doing fairly well, but variables and key inputs are still being kinda janky.

[Yhtomitsu]

sounds like a good game can't wait to play it do u have any screen shots of the game. You have some original character weapons love the tennis Racquets.

[FHZebedee]

A few fairly nonimpressive screens from my game.

One of Zeb's physical attack techniques.


Tudor's Comet Maelstrom tech.


Karine's deviant glitter attack.


Nyssa's Strafing Shot technique.


One of Al's techs.


Kala's Stellar Lance special.

[drenrin2120]

RTP battle animations are the suxxors.

But seriously, the weapons are a little too abstract. I'm not sure I'd like it, but I'd have to play it to see how it works.

[InsaneJP]

looxXx like it has potential but whats with the tennis racket as a weapon?

[FHZebedee]

Yeah, Tennis Racquets. They're about the only thing that haven't been an RPG weapon yet, and they're visually distinctive, so I couldn't resist.

In retrospect, it may just be best to release a demo of the game that is just a modified version of the first level and some of the town, seeing as how the two towns will probably be THE most labor intensive part of the game. If I do such, I could have a demo up by early February.

[Arcelot]

The charset/batleset thing allways gets me fo some reason.

But still I agree drenrin2120, Theyr too abstract.

Love the charecter Bios though, for the most part ther origional and still seem human.

[FHZebedee]

Yeah, they did end up rather tiny. But I decided to make that neccessary sacrifice. It gives a lot more of a feeling of size, power, and threat to some bosses you face later on in the game, including several that actually fill more than half of the screen. I wanted to give a feeling of desperate combat to some of the later battles, as the characters are rapidly drawn into something way beyond what they expected. I might go and showcase one of the later bosses some time, since spoilers don't matter too much out of plot context.

[FHZebedee]

Not currently, unfortunately. I could get some more from in game, but most of my accomplishments are in the battle system. So most stuff would just be battle screens showcasing attacks or enemy sprites.

I guess I'll upload a few screen shots of my finished maps and maybe a boss/two, some custom enemy sprites and such.

[FHZebedee]

As promised, some more screen shots. A lot more work has been done, but most is subtle “Prevent game crashes” or “Neat little things that one would need to see in play” like a radio item (Still glitchy) and multiple allowance systems that earn money in a variety of ways.

One of Tudor’s attacks, dropping a colossal ice skull on his opponent. No, I won’t use the FF spell naming system. The attack name is just a little nod.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/LeeTupper/Skull.png

A better shot of “Deviant Glitter”, and if you look closely, Zebby wielding his ultimate weapon.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/LeeTupper/Glitter.png

Halfway through the game, your characters learn a technique that allows them to bend the light around themselves and synchronize with their device to change their appearance and increase some of their statistics. Here’s Albatross’s Ascended state.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/LeeTupper/AscendedAl.png

One of Nyssa’s first special attacks, an energy ball barrage kind of deal. *Note: The volcano background probably will be replaced with something better. I'm getting more experienced with Background making, so I may cobble myself up a volcano.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/LeeTupper/Alfihar.png

To end this post on a low note, here’s a shot of the town and some vehicle sprites. Right now, they’re the best fairly original looking stuff I could find, though I plan on upgrading the chipset thoroughly, and finding better cars if at all possible. Truck was almost totally customed by myself, based roughly on a posted charaset of cars. By maul, IIRC. I’m going to need to heavily upgrade the chips for rooftops and asphalt, and slightly prettify the grass.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/LeeTupper/Truck.jpg

[SilverBlade]

I like the story and I'd like to see your game.
But you might reconsider using rtp music and battle animations...

[FHZebedee]

Well, okay, here's the full truth on those two: I am using RTP music for most things, though I'm trying to replace most of the more important stuff with original fare. I went and n00bed my way through editting "dimension" to sound considerably better, probably gonna be the battle music for normal battles on "Disc 1".

The battle animations do use RTP components, but are heavily customed to include character animations, and bits of other stuff that I've found handy. It's a sort of mish-mash, though I did use slightly editted standard issue battle animations for a few attacks where they were servicable.

[SilverBlade]

Allright...I'm just saying some people won't like the RTP...Don't say nobody warned you!