Friday, April 29, 2016

Character Concept: The Muted Child (Isaac, Part 2)

I've come up with a bit of an interesting scenario. With the previously mentioned % Story Spoiler %, every Party Member but the Main Character has some form of Amnesia. However, I've decided that Isaac's is a bit worse, and with certain things happening to him during the % Story Spoiler %, he's lost a lot. Not only is Isaac unable to remember any of his abilities, he's actually ended up nearly incapable of speech! Or, sort of.
See, Isaac, along with some other characters, including some that only do this sometimes...
They speak in symbols and motions instead of actual words.
Isaac always does this, while Rachel will go to a playful sort of symbol-speak at times. She can still speak normally, though.
Symbol-speech involves the character creating a speech bubble instead of a text box most of the time. A box may appear for some actions, but mostly it's a speech bubble filled with (potentially) animated images attempting to detail what they're saying. For instance, if Isaac requests one of the Party Members, the letter associated with them is placed in front of a sort of siren light. This ends up making a sound similar to an alarm going off, calling for the person he requested.
Another example of this could just be different faces displaying emotions, or different symbols representing different stats. (Heart for Health, Blue Lightning for Energy, etc.)
On top of this, Isaac now acts a bit younger. Instead of being around 18 like he was earlier, he now acts similarly to a 10-year-old, though he at least knows not to make certain mistakes. He'll end up making some eventually, though...

Isaac's basic stats and Abilities haven't changed much. His speed might have gone up a bit, but that's about it. He's still got an affinity for the Aspect of Lightning, and his Abilities are pretty much the same, with the possibility for a few extras (like potentially a lightning shield??).
He also no longer sleeps throughout all hours of every day.

Hopefully I'll update this post to include a picture, but until then, this is how this post looks.

Until next time!
-Josh

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Concept: Q&A

But we aren't asking me anything, no. That's at a later date!

No, instead we have questions throughout the game that may drastically change the final fight, making it easier or harder! Depending on how you answer certain questions, the final fight of the game will be changed. This could mean forcing you to wear only one type of armor or using one type of attack, or maybe changing an item set in your inventory, perhaps getting rid of it entirely! The effects and questions will be random for each playthrough (maybe. Now that I think about it, having a sort of Speedrun mode has been a goal of mine and I'd like to keep that sort of randomness rather low.), causing a variety of effects.
Maybe I could do an entirely separate Speedrun mode, but who knows. I haven't gotten that far into creating it yet, so anything could happen.

Some questions and effects I've thought of so far include...
"What piece of armor do you believe is the best/worst?": Causing the choice to disappear, or be the only armor you wear.
...
Hm.
I'm thinking about how all of this would work, and how maybe this isn't the best idea, to be honest. I mean, it's really cool, sure, but...
It's kind of... Really unfair.
If I were to actually implement this, the effects would be drastically toned down, making only slight changes to the fight.
I don't know.
Kinda depends on how well it goes during testing, I guess.

Til next time!
-Josh