Our own production pipeline

[Adam Lina]

Doing a 2d game can be even more difficult than a 3d one, it depends. But doing even a simple asset or animation in pixel art can take you up to 10 hours, keep that in mind. There is a reason why everyone jumped into 3d as soon as the technology became avaiable.

Oh yea I remember realizing that back when I was messing with pixel animation. I just really like the look of 2D sprites though. Azure Dreams was cool in that it combined 2D sprites with simplistic 3D environments. You could rotate the camera and the sprites all had turn arounds that changed as the angle changed. I realize its more work that way but its got such a strong nostalgic appeal to me because so many games I loved where like that.

Roguelikes are experiencing a revival lately so thats not a bad idea at all Adam! you can always replay Azure dreams and think "i dont like this particular thing, or i would have done this differently, etc..." and think about your own version of the game, eventually it will become your own concept.

Cool, I didnt even know what a roguelike was till you said that. I just really like challenging games that make me think strategically. And oh believe me I've rethought the game ideas from different games sooo much. I just dont want to spend all day typing it to you guys and overwhelm you haha! I want to combine elements from Azure Dreams, Zelda, Chrono Trigger, FF6, Tactics Ogre, WC2 and Diablo.

Also i forgot to mention, one awesome thing about unity, is that you can make a test scene or a prototype, upload it to the net and let everyone test it from their browser, without downloading or installing anything. It can be great to try out features and mechanics and let people test them with ease.

Cool, I was planning on downloaded Unity on my new computer in the next couple weeks after I get it put together and stuff. GameMaker Studio also allows you to play it through your browser and you can publish it to be played on smartphones and other platforms.

What about going with that anime happy times looks on the surface, but making the story and the mechanics of the game have a much darker and disturbing nature. So the player starts adventuring and everything looks nice but there is a feeling of "something is not right..." then after a few hours into the game the player starts thinking "this is not for kids, definitely not for kids..." and you can leave it at that or going into full downer ending/mindscrew/existential crisis territory haha.

I thought about doing that too! We must think alike haha! Like what Nino said about Chrono Trigger was exactly what I was thinking. Also had this weird idea to make a game with a western style setting and characters like Diablo that travel to another dimension which is Anime style Akira Toriyama-esque reality. And some of the characters are vaguely aware that they exist inside a game to entertain a god like being which is the player.

Or if you if you want to make the game more humorous and comedic, do the inverse. Let the aesthetic of the game be as dark as possible but make the actual story/characters/mechanics be as soft and lighter as a childrens saturday cartoon.

That was something I was thinking about too. With the character Angus having this past he doesnt want to talk about. While hes putting up this flimsy persona of an ultra bad ass hes really a scared little boy. When he gets really angry he shouts out shit like "No Daddy! I dont wanna!" to which the enemies have a look of fear and confusion as this huge axe wielding maniac with a giant arm charges at them.

Also the priestess character is this innocent sexually confused nun who fawns over this pretty boy knight Sir Lance who has an ambiguously gay relationship with his squire, the swarthy Francisco.

So assuming there's this tower thing that adam said , about the tower, why would he risk his life to go in there , what's in there that is so valuable?

My idea for that was that hes pursuing this bandit that killed a shop keeper. The old shop keeper was the only person who was ever nice to Angus when he was a kid so hes on a revenge mission. The bandit originally has the demon arm attached to him but during the fight Angus loses his arm but still kills the bandit. The arm then attaches to him. Its a sort or revenge story that turns into a redemption story. Either Angus is consumed by the demonic arm and loses himself to its will or he finally breaks free from his hatred. I even have game play mechanic in mind for this concept. As he uses special attacks with his demon arm it fills a meter. If the meter fills completely he essentially loses himself and becomes completely taken over by the arm. He has to get blessed by a holy character to empty the demonic meter.

Also since he had to enter the tower to fight the bandit hes now trapped in the tower until he can defeat the bosses at the top and bottom. Thats just a rough idea but my ideas for what the tower is and how it works go a lot further than that. I could try to explain it all right now but I think I've typed enough.