1177: Dev Diary 2

Progress has been continuing on the RPG Maker game I’m working on (which is called One Year Later if you missed the slightly spoilerish post a while back). I’m very pleased with how things are going, because I’ve pretty much figured out How It All Works and am picking up speed with actually making things happen.

Here’s the gist of things. All of this will be common knowledge to the player before they start playing if they read the accompanying “manual” or help file or website or whatever I put out alongside it, so these aren’t really spoilers. I will keep specific plot details that aren’t immediately apparent under wraps for now, however — I’d like people to explore this game’s story with “beginner’s mind”, after all!

The game is set one year after the conclusion of a typical JRPG, when our plucky band of heroes drawn together by fate successfully defeated the demonic overlord T’Bon and restored peace to the land. At the end of their adventure, they had one last meal together in a pub they’d grown fond of, and agreed to meet back up again exactly one year later. The game begins on that day.

There are six main characters in the story.

Amarysse “Ami” Jerhynsson is the game’s main character. She’s a 30-year old woman from the farming village of Wishford, the destruction of which set her on her path to adventure when she was rescued from the wreckage by a wandering mercenary. She became the de facto leader of the group thanks to her level-headedness and rationality, despite the fact she never saw herself as particularly remarkable. Since her adventure, she’s spent the last year helping the citizens of Wishford rebuild their town, and has been taking after her parents by tending the farm beside her house, much to the pleasure of Wishford’s citizens.

Daren “Dax” Zael is the mercenary who rescued Ami from the wreckage of Wishford. No-one knows exactly how old he is, but he appears to be of a similar age or slightly older than Ami in appearance. As soon as he opens his mouth, however, his immature sense of humour and crudeness generally makes people think a little differently about his otherwise seemingly noble bearing. He was a strong fighter and was always the first into battle to protect his friends from harm.

Feena Denimore is a priestess of the Order, the organised religion that worships the divine entity known only as “The Goddess”. She is skilled in divine magic and is a beloved priestess, but when she lets her hair down outside of her holy duties, she’s cheeky, spunky and flirtatious, and more than capable of drinking someone like Dax under the table.

Hiro Nagase is a teenage boy who spent his formative years learning to fight with a sword under the tutelage of his father. These skills were put to the test shortly after the party came across him in his seemingly-abandoned family home — his parents had been killed by T’Bon’s forces, and Hiro decided to tag along with the party in an attempt to get revenge. He likes to make out he is braver than he is, gets easily embarrassed and frequently says stupid things without thinking them through first.

Lily Cole is a teenage girl who came from the small fishing village of Bannford. She once had the strange ability to summon “Guardians” — supernatural creatures thought to be nothing but a myth — and eventually used this skill to seal away T’Bon once and for all. Since the final battle, she lost her powers and is now nothing but a normal, rather cheerful and optimistic teenage girl — traits she somehow managed to retain even in the party’s darkest hours.

Zero is a powerful, knowledgeable mage whose real name is unknown. The party rescued him from torture at the hand of one of T’Bon’s lieutenants, and he adopted the name “Zero” as a mark of spite against those who had abused him — an attempt to reclaim the word and give it positive connotations. Zero is typically stony-faced, contemplative and quiet, but occasionally displays a dry, dark sense of humour.

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The game begins with Amarysse leaving home and heading for the capital, then meeting up with her former comrades-in-arms. Exactly where the story goes from there depends on the choices the player makes as Amarysse — which aren’t always explicit choices from a menu. Sometimes taking a particular action (or choosing not to act) has an effect on the unfolding story and its eventual conclusion. There will be multiple endings as well as a “true ending” that is only accessible once certain conditions have been met. Discovering the “true ending” will require that the player make use of the New Game+ feature to carry over certain data from one playthrough to the next when they see one of the conclusions.

Interacting with the game will largely be like a regular top-down sprite-based JRPG. Players will control Amarysse and any party members tagging along with her as they visit various locations. The emphasis is very much on the story, so what needs to be done next in order to advance the plot will always be very obvious, though charging straight for the next story trigger without completing certain side objectives may mean you miss out on certain events — or perhaps trigger new ones later. Through the New Game+ system, the game will reward the player for experimenting and trying all the possibilities in various playthroughs.

Amarysse collects “topics” as discussions unfold between her, the party members and other incidental characters. Topics have three levels — at “bronze” level, they’re something Amarysse is curious about; at “silver” level, they’re something she’s found something out about and wants to know more; at “gold” level, they’re a truth she’s discovered beyond any doubt. Advancing the plot will sometimes require Amarysse to use the topics she has collected to trigger various events or discussions between characters. At other times, she will have the opportunity to relax a little by herself and contemplate some of the things that are weighing on her mind. Sometimes, whether or not Amarysse has knowledge of a particular topic will have a significant impact on whether or not she can resolve a critical situation.

Currently, I have a plot outline in my mind. I know how the whole thing is going to end, and I know a few snippets of things that are going to happen along the way. I just have to work out the specifics, which I’ve found tend to flow quite naturally once I start actually composing scenes. I’m very much looking forward to exploring these characters through writing, and I hope some of you will take the opportunity to explore them through playing the game when it’s finished. At present, I have no idea when that will be, but I will, of course, keep you posted!