In the image mockup above, you see Amber and Vin in Vin’s witch house 🙂
As you probably have guessed by the title, I’m talking about yet another game I started… “a while ago”, that it’s finally getting done! Amber’s Magic Shop was originally announced in this blog post, from 2011. Of those four games, Roommates was done in 2014, Queen Of Thieves is in advanced beta testing right now, and “The Hospital” it’s being worked on but as a side project (without hurry).
I must say that while of course having to wait for 5 years is a long time, I am happy that the game is being done now. Now I have much more experience, and similarly to what happened to Queen Of Thieves, which was supposed to be just a simple dating sim with no combat/RPG part, I’ll be able to add more (optional) gameplay stuff even to Amber’s game.
Go craft yourself!
In particular, one of the aspect I want to put the focus on it’s crafting. If you’ve been playing RPG games recently (but even some simulations or other genres) the “crafting” has become one of the key features for many games.
So, together with Anima (the coder) I’m building up a crafting system, not just for Amber’s game, but even for future titles. I’m building THE ULTIMATE CRAFTING SYSTEM MOUAHAHHA!!! 😀
I’ve commissioned over 150 items to PSCD artist, since he is very good and fast (and he’s only drawing objects this time! hehe). He already finished some items:
This system will be expandable, which means that you (obviously) won’t see the same ingredients or recipes for all games. For fantasy games probably a lot will be in common (since the games also share the same fantasy world) but I could reuse it even for a sci-fi game (allowing people to craft weapons/armors in Planet Stronghold 2 for example) or modern settings (for example a zombie game where you can craft weapons with scrap materials).
As you can see the possibilities are endless. Obviously for Amber this is also a key feature since you play as a young alchemist, so gathering/buying ingredients/materials and crafting will be what you do most of the time 🙂
So as you can see, sometimes it’s better if a game doesn’t come out right away. Because there’s no way that the “myself of 2011” (or even 2012!) could have added such complex system to the gameplay!
Sounds fun good luck dude.
I can see how a crafting would make sense and be a vital component of a game where you play as an alchemist.
But the overload of unnecessary crafting systems in RPGs that have no business doing it is starting to annoy me. I’m not completely opposed to the idea of crafting, just make sure you don’t shove it in your games simply because it’s popular.
Still, I think your fantasy/medieval games are your best ones so far. I’m looking forward to Amber’s Magic Shop now that you’ve officially begun work on it. 🙂
Yes I know that is not for everyone. That’s why in my games I always try to add options to enable/disable as much stuff as I can, so everyone can play them as they want 🙂
In Amber’s case, the difficulty will impact how much you need to fiddle with the crafting system, but there will still be a “VN Mode” even for this game, so people that aren’t interested (or maybe that are replaying the game for the 5th time just to see another ending/romance) will be able to skip it completely.
As for the RPG, there will be crafting but will be optional, you’ll still be able to just buy items in shops 🙂
first of all the crafting thing is a killer idea….It would make gathering ingredients and combining them and discovering all possible combination gives the game a pokemon feels(not that you could combine pokemon ….can you? lol) anyway Amber’s Magic Shop was one of the only upcoming games I wasn’t excited about but (here comes the punch-line!!!) now im really excited (bet you didn’t see that coming) but jokes aside….can you tell us about the most fun(and important) aspect of your games , regarding this game? I don’t want a full list just please tell if the super hot redhead witch is an option(specially a yuri one) if not can you please make an effort to make it happen? since almost half the writing and 2/3 of coding remains I really have my hopes up 🙂
Lol no, the redhead witch is Amber’s adoptive mother!!!!
However there’s a sexy bonus CG I have added featuring her (not romance, just sexy) that is worth seeing 😉
lol you know what they say : “incest is best”(not that’s incest if they adopt you lol) but thanks…. a sexy CG is better than nothing at all….but still im a little bummed so you better make up for it with the actual romances…among other aspects of the game of course….
“Crafting armor/weapons in PS2” – I know this was just a thought tossed out, but since we’re just talking about vague ideas, I think this would be kind of weird. Not crafting in a sci-fi game, but crafting armor/weapons.
If you look at the setting, we have robots, spaceships, lunar colonies, all kinds of automated machinery. It seems something as mundane as a piece of armor or a gun would be easily mass produced.
On the other hand, it seems like you’d have options for augmenting your gear. Maybe you choose a different gun barrel for certain types of enemies, or different combat visors for benefits or things like that. So instead of focusing on making items, it seems more suited for a Queen of Thieves style gear modification system.
…unless you were to make a sci-fi simulation game. Play as Jack Nelson’s father and attempt to conquer the alien races as you build up your base, harvest resources, and train/equip your troops.
Haha yes, I meant that, modifying the weapons, not crafting new ones from scratch.
Or, it could still be possible if you gather rare minerals or schematics. Then yes, the robots assemble everything, but you have to get the materials and other stuff by exploring the planet! 😉
I actually dig the idea of crafting one’s own weapons/armor; anytime it’s possible for a player to be creative within a game I’m all for it! 😀
And to me it seems it would work in cannon:
Michelle’s ex in PS1 was a gunsmith, so why shouldn’t players’ characters also be of high enough caliber? It would expand the scope of the game, and I’d shell out extra to trigger such a sight! 🙂
Seriously, though: I meant that first part. I love games that let the player create custom things through their own decisions. 🙂
This made me think of the “Better than nothing” meme (or what turned into a meme) after Mighty No.9’s release. :p Even Sega retweeted it
Crafting sounds really cool, but please I ask for one thing: DON’T put Amethyst or any form of Quartz in the rare section of minerals. You’ve done that in both Loren and Season’s of the wolf and it’s WRONG! They aren’t only common all the compounds of SiO2, but they’re also very easily quarried. On the other hand, aquamarine which is a type of Beryl is quite rare. I know that’s a really small thing for such interesting games, but I can’t help myself but noticing it since my sister is a geologist and she talks all day about these stuff 😛
Haha well, first of all being a fantasy world, it’s not like the rules must be the same 🙂 I have quartz on tier2, so just above the tier1, but amethyst is tier6.
It’s all relative as I said. If you check wikipedia: “Up until the 18th century, amethyst was included in the cardinal, or most valuable, gemstones (along with diamond, sapphire, ruby, and emerald). However, since the discovery of extensive deposits in locations such as Brazil, it has lost most of its value.”
So I won’t change that. “Realism” in a fantasy game doesn’t make much sense IMHO. If that deposit locations in Brazil weren’t discovered only recently it would still be an expensive gem. And the same thing could happen for other gems too.