22: Gears of War as a JRPG

[Gazza_N]

22: Gears of War as a JRPG
By Gazza_N

Join Marcus Fenix, EmoDom Santiago and the rest of Delta Squad as they trawl through the Hollow on an epic quest for wives and fights!

The game will play like most JRPGs - a top-down exploration mode with a side-view turn-based combat mode when you get into fights. Cover will be assumed in the combat (all characters will be behind cover by default), so there's no need to find any - you just need to use it effectively.

Combat is simple: you're either in cover, or out. Switching cover modes is a major action, taking your full turn. In cover, you'll regenerate a portion of hit points every turn, but can't fire anything. Out of cover, you can fire your weapon, but are vulnerable to enemy fire. Naturally, the Locust will work the same way. You'll need to keep an eye on your ammo and reload occasionally, which brings up an Active Reload bar. A successful active reload increases your Special Attack bar, which allows you to use mortars, grenades, the immortal chainsaw, the Hammer of Dawn (outside) or even the dreaded COLE TRAIN HORSEY ATTACK in caves. Should one of your members be knocked down, you need to use a unit of Fenix Down to bring them back up to combat readiness. Characters will level up as they go, increasing their health and unlocking special attacks and the ability to use new weapons.

Sprites will be provided by the ever-awesome Azimuth "Azimuth" Azimuth.


Prototype soooooon...

Releases:
*WIP*
Combat Prototype 1.1 (1.2MB ZIP. Totally fixed, yo. I hope...)

Super Gear of War Adventure XD Advance Alpha III Combat Prototype 2 (1.5MB ZIP) PRESS F1 FOR HELP. PRESS F1 FOR HELP. PRESS F1 FOR HELP. Also, press F1 for Help.

*FINAL*
Super Gear of War XD Advance Alpha III Final. (2MB ZIP) Game instructions in the readme.

*REAL FINAL*
Super Gear of War XD Advance Alpha III Totally Real Final Version Gaiden 360-exty-six! (2MB ZIP) Once again, game instructions in the Readme.

[Cleric]

Awesome awesome awesome idea. Sure, it violates copy rights, but there are ways around that. Love the Cole sprite.

[Gazza_N]

Heh, well, every game in this comp will violate copyright to an extent, but since we aren't selling them or stealing assets from the originals, we can classify them as fan games. ;)

[Azimuth]

[Cleric]

Epic. Win.

[Fengol]

What are you making it in?

On the combat, if you look at some of the FF characters, their special skill was mini-mini-game (like Setzer's Slot ability which ran a slot machine) you must see if you can include that in either the characters or the weapons.

*Waaaaah* I want sprites from Azimuth "Azimuth" Azimuth the Azimuth.

[Gazza_N]

I'll go for GM, since that's what I know, and it'll give me the flexibility I need. As for the minigames, I was thinking of having them for special attacks, a-la Penny Arcade Adventures. Button-mashing for the chainsaw (how apt! :P), some form of aiming minigame for the Hammer, stuff like that.

[Tr00jg]

AWESOME! Love the cover aspect.

[Kensei]

Looks good, Gaz :)

If you need some help writing some dialogue I would be happy to help (considering most of this game WILL be just dialogue and cut scenes, amirite?)*

What kind of missions are you planning to do?
Collect the 'Golden Lancer' type thing?

* = This writing service is not limited to Gazza_N's game, I would be happy to assist with any of your guys games :)

[Nandrew]

Originally Posted by Kensei

* = This writing service is not limited to Gazza_N's game, I would be happy to assist with any of your guys games :)

Are you sure about that?

Also: damn you Gaz, you snagged an artist?

[Gazza_N]

More like the artist snagged me. <_<

[Gazza_N]

As promised, I've slapped a prototype together over the weekend. For now I've started work on the combat system, since that's the most important and finicky part of this project, so that's what you'll be playing in this proto. My apologies to those people who wanted to see the "Run around and talk to people about stuff" portion instead. :P

Link in first post, and you can hit F1 for controls and instructions once the game is running. Anyone who's played any form of JRPG shouldn't have any hassles, though. ;)

All comments, complaints and suggestions are welcome, naturally. Except for the graphics. I know they're odd. :P

[SkinkLizzard]

gazza straight off it seems revive has a bug :)
cole got stuck half way while trying to revive marcus
also those drones are leet O_O I'm dying so sadly here :)

[Gazza_N]

Thanks, Skink! Sorry 'bout that - a stupid collision problem that I thought I'd squashed. Fixed version in first post. Being able to revive should make things easier. ;)

[Aequitas]

I managed to kill all the locust, and my team survived :D
Is there a health maximum? One of my guys went into cover and his health went to 55 (starting health is 50).
Now you just need to start adding specials. I had 1 locust left, and he just styed in cover for *ages*

[Darth]

Sweetness !!!

Here some thoughts and ideas for you...

Gears combat is all about getting closer to your enemies (as you taught me with the shotgun over and over again back when it first came out :P).. so maybe have 3 layers of cover. 1 each side and one in the middle. When you start, all your characters are at the back, and you can use a action to move closer. When you are closer, the shotgun could do more damage, and if you are at the front cover and a locust is there, the chainsaw action becomes available, but it leaves you out of cover completely until your next turn.

Maybe make the characters feel a little different.. here are some examples:

Only Baird could have a sniper rifle, but no shotgun.
Dom could do 2x damage with the shotgun.
Marcus could move closer as a free action.
Cole could chainsaw and remain behind cover.

Also maybe make it that when an ally revives you they are vulnerable to damage until the next turn... as there seems no point in cover at the moment as it takes one turn to revive with no real penalty and the guy revives with full HP.

Also maybe make being in cover revive 10 HP.

Its looking really sweet though.. looking forward to some more gameplay!

[Azimuth]

Originally Posted by Darth

Maybe make the characters feel a little different.. here are some examples: Only Baird could have a sniper rifle, but no shotgun. Dom could do 2x damage with the shotgun. Marcus could move closer as a free action. Cole could chainsaw and remain behind cover.

While I'm not entirely convinced by those particular suggestions, the idea is a very good one.

[Cloud_Ratha]

I thought azi would detest this project with every fibre of her being. Seeing as she loves gears, but hates jrpgs.

Food for thought :P

[Gazza_N]

Quote:

Is there a health maximum? One of my guys went into cover and his health went to 55 (starting health is 50).

Thanks. It shouldn't do that. :<

Quote:

(as you taught me with the shotgun over and over again back when it first came out :P)

Have we played Gears together? I'm not GaZZa, if that's where the confusion comes in. ;)

Quote:

Gears combat is all about getting closer to your enemies... so maybe have 3 layers of cover.

That's an interesting idea. It would require a slight reworking of how I'm doing things at the moment, but it might make things a little more tactical. I first want to see how my current implementation plays when it's complete, but this is a great way to spice things up if it turns out too static. Thanks! :D

EDIT: Actually, scratch that. I love this idea. I'll chop it down to two levels of cover, but it'll make things a lot more fun!

Quote:

Maybe make the characters feel a little different..

Aaaaaah... But I haven't implemented character stats and levels yet, have I? ;)

In typical RPG style, each character will have a set of stats, used for damage calculations in combat and such. They will be:

ATTACK: A modifier that gets added to attack rolls. Determines how much damage the character does. Marcus will have a higher attack when the game starts.

ACCURACY: A modifier that makes a character far more likely to hit things, and even make hits behind cover at higher levels. Some weapons (Like the Longshot) will require decent accuracy to use effectively. Dom will have higher accuracy to start off with.

AGILITY: A modifier that increases maximum HP. Basically their ability to "dodge" and avoid damage, if you want to translate it back to the real game. Naturally, Cole will have initiative in this one, since he's a friggin tank. WOOOO!

APTITUDE: This stat determines the special attacks the character will be able to do, once that's up and running. Baird has this one cranked up a bit, being the tech of the team.

As you gain levels, you'll be able to increase each stat as you see fit, moulding the characters to suit your purposes better.

Quote:

Also maybe make it that when an ally revives you they are vulnerable to damage until the next turn... as there seems no point in cover at the moment as it takes one turn to revive with no real penalty and the guy revives with full HP.

At the moment both the reviver and the "revivee" are out of cover (ie, vulnerable to damage) once it's done. I'm seriously considering having revived characters only revive to half (or even quarter) total health though, since it does feel a bit hax to revive to full health at the moment. As for +10HP heal per turn, that's a keeper, especially with that complaint Aeq had about the one Locust who stayed in cover for umpteen turns to heal.

Quote:

I thought azi would detest this project with every fibre of her being. Seeing as she loves gears, but hates jrpgs.

I thought the same thing, and next thing I knew I had a set of pixel sprites to use. I guess the love for one overrides the hate for the other. ;)

[Fengol]

I find the keys un-intuitive, please can you change them it to Enter and Escape. Also, rather than pressing X and accidently skipping a turn, will you add an option to the menu Skip or Wait?

Finally could you put in an initiative list on the top or on the side to show who's turn is next etc?