Switching Gears

Well, this week’s visit went off well. Not a lot of design work done, but we did get some issues out of the way. That small problem I mentioned before about us not getting enough cooperative time should hopefully be resolved. We have all agreed to try to keep it at a 3 meeting a week minimum.

On top of that, we have effectively switched gears for a bit. Our main project is still “SoulLess”, but with the ImmUnity contest dead-line looming, we are putting more effort towards getting our entry finished. The artist, Anna, is stopping her work on the SoulLess assets so she can concentrate more on the assets for The Black Arena. Luckily, there are not a lot of assets we actually need. The contest really only calls for a prototype, so we can go bare minimum and still be fine.

The game itself is, for lack of a better word, an RPG-lite. It uses the traditional turn-based/real-time combat system we all grew up with and remember fondly from games like Final Fantasy, but does away with the endless walking, talking, and exploring. The leveling, learning new abilities, and combat are all still there. In truth, that is basically the whole game. I know, I know… not very original, but the game is meant to be more of a “coffee-break” game. Something you can do for a few minutes, and then stop whenever you want to.

Plus, this gives us a chance to work on some of the fundamental code for a true RPG. This will give us a place to jump in at once we start coding for SoulLess. The only problem is the ImmUnity contest calls for complete exclusivity of the winning entry for a year. This, I have a problem with.

I wrote them to clarify, and it turns out my largest worries were true. When they say exclusive, they mean fully exclusive. They want the exclusive rights to the code/scripts/assets, etc. Which means, no re-using the code in a different game, even if the game has a completely different feel, objective, etc. I.e. no building a working turn-based/real-time combat system in The Black Arena, and then just modifying it a bit to use in SoulLess. The two games are about as far apart as two RPGs can be, but lets face it… an RPG combat system is an RPG combat system. Slight variations exist here and there, but that is mostly just tweaking the code to give it a different feel. Still the same code, though.

Not sure what we are going to do about this one. The people at Muse Games say they are willing to work with people on a special circumstance basis, but this is about as reassuring as a robber saying he “might not” shoot you, as long as you give him a good enough reason.

Our choices are not submit The Black Arena, and miss out on a chance for $10,000. Of course, we could always sell The Black Arena on something like BigFish, but that requires us to take it from prototype to finished product before ever seeing a dime. The 10k would have done wonders to get our fledgling studio off the ground. We shall have to see just how much “compromise” Muse Games is willing to make.

As always, wish us luck.

Louis “Gryphon” Crochet

Lead Designer, Chaotic Heart Studios