[Developing] Cursed Books

[Quto]

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Software: RPG Maker VXAce

Introduction:
The story and concept behind Cursed Books story has captured the hearts, minds and ideas of hundreds and among hundreds of people. It started originally as a plain and simple role play on a forum board back on the social website Gaia-Online, within one of the few million guild boards dedicated to role playing. From there, in under an hour, I accumulated roughly 8-12 people, willing to join in and become apart of the world. From Gaia, I started posting Cursed Books time to time from board to board and accumulated a fan base to the roleplay itself and had always been told I should do something with it, make it into a comic, a game, a story, something unique and epic, after posting it here on Pkmn community last year, I decided to just plainly do it. I'm still attempting to write the novel, while at the same time, slowly attempting to create the game. I have a composer on hand willing to lend me a hand when I need him, but I am falling short in other areas such as art, game balancing, plot mechanics and map design; however I'm still slowly coming along.


Plot:
The story to Cursed Books focuses a group of victims who attain possession of a book, cursing them and in exchange, giving them powers that should not be within the realm of possibility. The curse remains with the victim until the book self-writes about the life of it's owner, when the book is filled, the curse is lifted and the owner is free, keeping the power he or she attained while dealing with the trials in their lives under the books influence.

The setting takes place on another world called Tiera, stuck between the age of industry and medieval as the countries within the world fight for peace, survival and superiority. The country of Twan is a democratic country that attempts to improve itself and to continue inventing, making every known attempt to push forward mankind and attempt to work for the day they can live in a comfortable age. Yovo is a simpler, democratic, farm country that does not take part in war, though they strive for peace amongst the other countries in an attempt to stay as far out of war as possible. Diligent is a country ruled under multiple Monarchies, driving war against Twan for the technology the denizens create, in hopes to use for their own kingdoms to improve themselves and tightening their rule. The war between Twan and Diligent has been drawn on for a few years, the end of who will succeed in this war will depend on the book carriers.



Characters:

Talos:

Carrier to the 'Drifter' book, cursing him to become a cold-hearten man and empty husk of society in exchange to manipulate, form and control ice. Born and Raised in the country of Twan. He grew up before the war under the care of a hard working mother and l fatherless by age 10. Taking an interest in invention, he educates himself day by day working to improve his knowledge of machines and gear. As later devices and vehicles are invented, he starts working on an engine to assist in transporting siege weapons. Walking home from the junkyard with a set of parts to help complete his project is when he encountered a mysterious being and the 'Drifters' book was thrust upon him. The morning following, Talos took notice to a subtle change within himself, where he then took notice when his power first took form, his wrench, freezing over the metal until it encased the bolt and the wrench itself in ice. From here, his journey to understand his curse, his new found power and his book begins.

Nate Ward:
[W.I.P.: Working on revising this bio for this project.]

Cad Varnish:
Mercenary Extraordinaire, Cad is loves fighting, and has based his entire life off of it. Not only does he love it, he excels at it. He is an ex-general, so he is used to positions of power, liking to give orders and have them followed. He has a strong hatred to those who live in Twan, due to years of warfare between Diligent. Born in a low class, country-ass town, he left the town at the age of 10 and decided that the soldier's life was the life for him. It was there that he began to create his career. After years of loyal service, he was permitted to be a general. Cad took the chance and spear-headed the next war against Twan. The war ended in a stale-mate, but he led an attack AFTER the war ended in order to spite the Twanians. His force consisted of twenty of his best men. The attack was devastatingly effective, but he was dismissed from his position as general. After that, he moved to Yovo and became a mercenary. Ever since then, he has been floating between countries, never staying in one spot for very long.

Amna Curnín:
[W.I.P.: Working on revising this bio for this project.]

Skye Miller:
[W.I.P.: Working on revising this bio for this project.]

I will post more characters as the project develops.



Features:

Overlay Mapping:
Aside from RPG maker's use of tiles, I want to break this project free from it's norm or box-shaped/space maps and do something more unique. Granted, I may do the towns using the block by block space structure unless I develop better skills.

Example

Spoiler:

This is a standard RMVXAce Map

This is what Overlay maps look like.

Change the World:
Players who play this game, regardless of who they are, will be affecting the future for Tiera. As the story progresses and the player gains more party members, they will be able to embark on quests, leading to other stories of the people in the world and what they do for their country. The actions you perform do not depict you as good or evil, though there will be consequences and effects of the actions you partake in. An example, if you perform an action that would be considered of great evil to the people of one country, you may have done it in order to do good for another or even better, improve the lives of everyone for both countries, such as assassinating the mayor of the village who has deep connections with organized crime and has been causing a lot of trouble for everyone, however he is respected by billions of people, seeing him die, they could consider you someone evil; unless you just love being the villain, you could just go on a killing spree mission and aid criminals, vice-versa if you love just being a hero. At the end of the story, the players will be briefed on their actions from what happens now and what will happen later in 10 years.

Combat:
[W.I.P.]

More features are to come; subscribe to the thread if you like!


ScreenShot:

to the left is a sample title, the program is modified to skip RMVXAce's standard main menu template and go to this map setup instead. the image to the right is a map I've been tinkering with while working on a few other art pieces I've yet to implement into the game.

Credits:
Producer, Writer, Artist
Quto aka Patrick aka Shadoan

Composer
Drew aka dcjboi

Special Thanks - Scripts
MogHunter - Anti Lag & Weather
GaryCXJk - Free Movement
Fomar0153 - Smarter Monsters
PK8 - Overlay Mapping

I am recruiting, looking for more help, if you want to give a hand, other than beta testing, I'm all ears.
Beta testing filled up in 2 days back on the OOC thread when I announced I was attempting this project.
Looking for someone who can draw, code in RGSS3 if able and assist in creating quests.

Progress Bar: 4%
[|||||-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------]
Set Goal: Create Alpha Demo
Completed: Script for Menu & Combat
Doing Now: Implementing Maps
​

 

[TBM_Christopher]

I have to say, I love the concept and obviously a lot of thought has been put into it. I can't wait to see where it goes. However, I am wondering - with RPG Maker, are non-grid maps even within the realm of possibility?

 

[Quto]

They are;

First off, using an image editor, I determine how big I want my map. For example, I want to create a map that has 20 x 20 tiles, the map is generated. I go into any image editor I have and create an image 32 times the map size.

To better explain it, all tiles in ANY version of rpg maker are 32 pixels high and wide, so for this map of 20 x 20, I need to multiply 20 by 32, thus my image has to be 640 x 640 pixels.
15 x 45? 480 x 1440!
31 x 56? 992 x 1792!
From here, I can set the image as a Parallax Backdrop and the ground work for one map is done. However, it doesn't stop there; If the image editor has a use of Layers, I create a second layer and if the editor allows it, setup a 32 pixel grid. I copy the trees from any RMVXAce commercial free tile set available and plop it as close or somewhat close to the grid the best I can.

From here, I make the ground invisible and save the image of the tree's themselves, removing the ground work and with the help of a Overlay script, I include it into the game and it lays the tree's overhead of the hero as the player plays, all you need to do from there is preset the collisions with the standard map editor, providing you can keep note where you placed your walls, trees and so on.

Last but not least, to truly BREAK from RPG Maker's grid is with a script called Pixel Free movement. So instead of moving by the standard 'tile by tile,' 32 pixels a tile, you can move between 8-10 pixels across the map.

Sooner or later, anyone will break from the norm and figure this all out. I just did the research and wanted to attempt this first before any other RPG maker game could. If they already did, I hope to beat theirs then in friendly competition.

 

[Rymich]

nice maps i hope i can play this :)

 

[Quto]

Cad's Profile has been updated.

While I'm on the Note of adding the sprite sheets to the characters, does anyone think they're too cute or are they OK to use for such a project?

 

[Nathan]

While I'm on the Note of adding the sprite sheets to the characters, does anyone think they're too cute or are they OK to use for such a project?

Your sprites look good. But they look little in the map or maybe it's just me :P

 

[Quto]

Update. Added a Progress Bar at the end of the post, containing 100 dashes!
Well, 96 Dashes, 4% of the game is done since I have a rough character. I'm still looking for a decent battle system. It may still be turn based.

GRANTED, to so one based on Grandia's System, SO MUCH, but noone would fulfill my request, even if I paid them. I then started looking for something similar to Zelda's Top down or at least something like Y's. I did find them, but they weren't commercial free, which means I have to contact the original owner to the script and buy it off them or work out a deal where I pay them royalties.

 

[FlexxGaming]

Is your character(Talos) perhaps a little nod to Skyrim? Looking forward seeing your progress with developing the game.

 

[Quto]

Not really.

The story to this game's characters comes from previous character pages when I posted this back as an RP. In fact, Talos is the first character I created when I created Cursed books back in Middle School. The relation to Skyrim is pure coincidence.