WIP Games

One of my brother’s most ambitious projects is a series of RTSs based on the Potentium series.  Both him and I are working on the concepts right now.  Stencyl is shaping up to be a possible platform for these games, so I’ll be posting a couple of updates here, as well as a couple questions about some design decisions I’d llike you to have some input on (if anyone even reads this).  There are many ideas being floated around right now, so nothing’s set in stone, but I’m in the process of writing up a design document right now. 

However, I can’t say much about the story right now, because the game chronologically takes place after Dawn of Potentium (which takes place at the same time as the first book, if my brother ever gets around to writing the series).  So I’m not going to spoil anything. 

When I’m bored, I get some reallyscrewy ideas.  For example, here’s the “box text” for Red Sky: First Reckoning (actually, I haven’t titled it yet; that’s just a nice cheesy name that’s a good tentative title), a Lead Curtain/Run-and-gun idea tossed around in the design department.  The first half of the game is based on a dream my brother had, and the second half is how I think it would have continued. 

The year is 2XXX.  Dark days have descended upon the international community, and the nations of the world are in danger.  Over the past 10 years, the population of Zimbabwe has skyrocketed.  Now, Robert Mugabe has declared war on the rest of the world, using his population as a hostage to prevent a nuclear strike.  Obviously, there are greater, more evil forces at work here, because this whole scenario makes no sense. 

As Iran, Brazil, New Zealand, and Kazahkstan are hit by the Zimbabwean army, Mugabe turns his attention on the United States.  The President sees this maneuver coming, and hires the two most famous and expensive advisors in the world, Samus Aran and Yukari Yakumo, to organize the defense of the Great Barrier Reef, where Mugabe’s army flies towards the United States. 

Now, a random college student and a Japanese superstar must join the elite Bravo Squad to fight off Zimbabwe and find out what insidious force is behind this sudden insurrection.   Why did Mugabe attack the United States?  How did he raise an army when it’s obvious he isn’t in any position to do so?  What does Che Guavera have to do with this all?  And what is Great Rebel Leader Smitan’s legacy? 

* 8 levels of action fighting the forces of evil and obscure third-world national leaders to find the truth behind the Zimbabwe incident!

* Play as 2 different characters using spellcards, bombs, selectable weapons, and beam effects in your global struggle to stop the ultimate evil!

* Experience a fusion of shmup and run-and-gun action. 

Yes, I need more sleep.  <_< I mean, this game is based on someone else’s dream.   Yes, he already posted the full thing online.  Yes, it got a WTH reaction.  No, this is not politically correct.  Any questions? 

Yeah… I’m opening up art design for Shadow and Dawn of Potentium if someone’s interested in helping out.  I can’t draw at all, and my shading fails at much more than just life, so any help would be welcome.  Just send me a sample of your work and a statement including which project you and how much work you can do for it. 

I need overworld class sprites and character portraits, the portraits more urgently because I could try and do the class sprites myself.  As for battle animations, you can offer to help with those if you want, but I’m not sure I could ask someone to do that much work.  Then again, it would be rather dull without them…

Any spoiler-looking stuff… well, rest assured I haven’t spoiled anything more than I planned to. 

BTW, I’d much appreciate it if someone could help me with the Latin names in the Potentium classes in Dawn of Potentium.  I know absolutely nothing about Latin grammar. 

 EDIT: Oh, the links are on the right sidebar on the main Potentium Games page, right under the “About Me” link. 

Currently sitting in the dorm room, wondering what to do and hoping I can enjoy the week before classes start.  Either way, I’m going have either more time or less time than before (probably less) depending on how things pan out. 

So, I’m back from Malaysia.  While I was gone, I redid the Shadow of Potentium character list and completed the Dawn of Potentium outline (and the weapon list for both games).  Now, if only I could get actually posting my ideas where others can see them…

By the way, if anyone actually reads this, I have a question for you: did you like being the “tactician” character in FE7?  I’ve been idly thinking of doing something like that for  my games. 

Going on vacation for 3 weeks in August.  Going to be overhauling Dawn of Potentium’s campaign structure based on new changes (mainly the addition of a third faction). 

Well on my way to updating the Public Outline; made some chagnes, but it’s not ready yet.  However, I’ve finally finished Shadow of Potentium’s story outline, so now I can focus on Dawn of Potentium and the situation on Earth.

Speaking of which, my brother and I have decided to collaborate on the Potentium series, meaning that his works and mine will have continuity. 

To tell the truth, I’ve gotten more Shadow of Potentium work done in the last monththan in the 6 months before that.  I have to go to college orientation tomorrow, but rest assured that I plan to update soon.  I’ve overhauled a lot of stuff, so that means I have to update the main project page as well…

Here’s the (right now obsolete) link, in case you don’t want to wait:

http://www.dmajohnson.com/fefactory/forums/viewtopic.php?t=30

Take note that Dawn of Potentium now will take place on Earth. 

At last, I’m out of high school!  (Well, technically I still have Writing 121 to finish, but other than that… )

The mortarboard hats reminded me so much of Keine’s hat… I wondered for a moment if it would be possible to make something similar from a mortarboard, then quickly remembered that cosplaying is 27% evil.  That’s a bit too evil for me. 

That went a lot faster than I expected.  It was in a hot gym, so I was prepared for the worst in terms of length and torture (mentally playing Cirno’s Theme in an effort to make the heat feel like cold), but surprisingly it took only 1 hour (courtesy of my small school).  Since my school actually contains several programs, there was 4 different groups of speakers.  It was kind of embarassing that my program, the science-focused so-called “smartest” of the bunch, delivered the second-worst speeches.  I guess that’s what happens when you let favoritism drive the process; heck, the two speakers we chose had others deliver for them during the auditions (one because she was away, one because she had a nervous breakdown). 

After the speakers finished, they began calling up Seniors to receive their diplomas.  As one of the 6 valedictorians (based solely on GPA), I had to get up on stage and… well, I actually didn’t say anything.  I just stood there.  When I received my diploma, I forgot to get my picture taken and had to go back up (embarassingly).  Then, we all got cake. 

After all the ceremony and hoopla, I actually don’t feel any different.  I guess it’s because I still have Writing 121 to worry about (not to mention I’m still going to school in the morning to listen to the Psychology lectures).  Maybe after the class is over.