I started working on something a couple of hours ago. It's an idea for a new RPG using actual 2D character models rather than pixelated sprites. I've included a picture of the "mannequin" models that I've made down below. The one on the left is a humanoid model and the ones on the right are goblin models. They currently only have their idle animations which are really just them bouncing up and down a little on their feet. It's really just to give them a bit of motion rather than having them standing completely still.

I feel that if I go ahead and make an actual game out of this and I'm happy with it, it could maybe be the style that I utilise in the future. I love sprites, but trying to make animations out of them isn't fun at all, particularly considering that I make them in Paint, haha. I'm currently writing battle mechanics as I'd like this game to be a lot more focused on battle strategy than any of the other RPG games I've made or am still making.

When I say mechanics, I'm more coming up with concepts and spells rather than actual stats just yet. I'll keep to the same basic elements that I usually use for the magic system only have it seem a little more divided. There'll be Quadrant Magic (Fire, Water, Wind, Earth), there'll be Balance Magic (Light, Shadow), there'll be Negative Magic (Void) and I'm going to be including Status Magic as it's own thing rather than tying it into the other elements.

I'll probably work off a class system too this time around. The characters won't have real classes exactly, but their starting builds and special abilities will push them in that direction. So a warrior may have a special ability called "Duel", a monk may have a special ability called "Combo" or something in that direction. Magic layout will be largely customisable, it'll be dependent on the players learning the magic from certain items and spending experience points to use it. This means I'll probably abandon the traditional levelling up system to give the experience points more of a cash-in sort of feel.

As far as characters and settings go, I'm not entirely certain yet. At the minute, the setting will be one of the planets in the Eleverse which is in the same universe as two of my current games, Ender Story and Quick Quest, that I'm working on. Rather than make it a game that's instalment based like the JUGGERNAUT series and Ender Story series, I'd want to make it one complete game. It's really far too early to be thinking about sequels properly, but it's always something that'll be on my mind as I work on it. Potential sequels would follow a different cast of characters on a different planet in the Eleverse so it keeps the stories very separate.

Now for the bit that I love the most and hate just as much sometimes...writing the story. The way I usually do things is come up with a character or group of characters and then write the story based around the characters. This time I want to do things a little differently and write the basic idea for the story, then write the characters, then flesh the rest of the story out around them. That way I can hopefully avoid my usual route of rewriting the ending of the game (or series in most cases) twenty different times!

Remember that last post I made about always taking on too much? IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN!