Project Darkma NX: Story & Overview

[Shane]

Project Darkma



Concept art not drawn by me, but drawn for this game with permission to show it.

I had some ideas for small video games for me to make, and I focused on the easy to achieve due to myself being pessimistic and ascetic. Meanwhile, I've seen Jack Lovejoy working on a huge, ambitious project and he's really impressed me and I now feel much more ambitious. I'd like to scrap my two other ideas and work on a big game as well - a dark party game. And have it released on the NX. Here is a sample of some of my ideas, a simple rough draft:

Storyline:

The main character is Eric, a 19 year old male warrior. Play as him or 3 other party members which are his friends, or his girlfriend Melanie, or as the bad guy, a "Dark Warrior", or his girlfriend the vampire girl. The goal of the game is to get a magical Orb to become all-powerful for good or for evil, by doing the best overall during the party game.

Todo list:

Save $xxxx for a NX dev kit
Look into what music to use
Further flesh the ideas
Create the minigames
Develop the game in general

Okay so my other two game ideas, Mintleaftopia and the underwater ghost game, were interesting, but I've decided I'm working on this. I realize it can be confusing and an inconvenience to change my mind all the time, but it's part of the process.

Project Darkma, in any case, is the codename of the game I'm working on.

FAQ

Q: This game sounds terrible!
A: Maybe so, but with suggestions and prototyping and thought, it will improve.

Q: What are you doing with your other game ideas?
A: Nothing right now.

Q: Will you change your mind again?
A: It's unlikely, but if I do, with every mind change I come closer to what I want to work on.

 

[Shane]

Project Darkma will be a dark party game for teenagers and adults. It will use a 2D game engine with an overhead view, for quicker prototyping, however I will commission some of the best pixel artists in the indie scene, for some pretty killer, high resolution pixel art. I feel it's easier to make a 2D game look sinister than a 3D game, on a technical level, but that's just me.

At least 40 minigames and 5 or more boards and 7 characters.

4 or more players

If you want an idea what the gameplay would be like, think a "SNES remix" game with a board and multiplayer.

This game will also share resemblance to Mario Party. It will have a board with positive and negative spaces.

 

[Shane]

Eric inspiration:

Eric's girlfriend inspiration:

Party members inspiration:

Dark Warrior inspiration:

Dark Warrior's girlfriend inspiration:

 

[Jack Lovejoy]

So will your game be an anime game? If not, probably mine is going to be cel-shaded anime style. It will be distinguishable since Vigilante will be pretty much the only mainstream hack and slash that has characters that don't look realistic.

 

[Shane]

It's not going to look completely cel shaded, but it may look between real and anime, a bit like this:

Unless the artists make me go cel shaded, which is doubtful, this is probably the closest I'll get to anime or cel shaded.

 

[Shane]

So let's talk about some of the challenges of Project Darkma...

The first challenge is budget. I figure this game will cost me in the upper four figures range, which I'm not going to ask for donations for. I'm determined to fund it all myself.

The second thing is that programming wise, I need algorithms for the enemy AI and the sorting of the game, of players and AI. I'm not good at algorithms. But I will have to deal with it.

The third thing is I need groundbreaking ideas for the game, and I'm not getting too many volunteers. Lol. I wonder if people would be more prone to help me with ideas if I paid them?

 

[Jack Lovejoy]

Well, if you work at Nintendo, you can get ideas from other workers that worked on previous games.

 

[Shane]

I'm just going to go through the standard procedures of working as an indie game developer and getting a game on the Nintendo shop. I keep just about everything I make then, except Nintendo's cut of approximately 30% of sales and the cost of the dev kit.

If you know about job openings at Nintendo, fill me in, but I'm not aiming real high here.

 

[Jack Lovejoy]

So this is an indie game, ok then. I am working to be a part of nintendo since I don't know much about working there. So I have to get hired there, tell them about my game, then get the dev kit for the game with a team?

 

[Shane]

I'm a little confused by your post.

Anyway, just about anyone can buy a dev kit, following a few rules from Nintendo and paying $3000-$5000 for the dev kit. If you have a big team, you may also want more than one dev kit.

The real question is, will Nintendo give you a free dev kit or not? I'm going the most realistic route of buying my own dev kit instead of asking Nintendo for a free one. This ensures the greatest chances of getting your game out there, but also costs the most out of pocket.

Then you've got the question of whether you want Nintendo to officially publish your game, Vigilante, likely paying the expenses and taking a greater cut. Or for some other publisher to pay for it. You can technically publish it yourself I believe, and take a greater cut, but cost might be through the roof, as you'll be paying development costs.

I'm both financing and developing my game, though also commissioning the art and sound out of pocket.

 

[Jack Lovejoy]

I see, I am planning on making Vigilante officially published by Nintendo but if that costs money, I will just work extra hard on my college bills. I have mostly A's right now, so if I keep that up until college, I might get good scholarship payment.

 

[Shane]

Okay, I was confused before, I thought you wanted to both work FOR Nintendo, like on their customer service or something, and work WITH Nintendo, like developing a game they publish. I think I can give you better advice now that I understand it....

Don't give up your dreams of having Nintendo publish the game. But there is a small chance they will. If they do, great. But if they turn it down, after all publishing your game is a financial decision, you will have to go the independent route of buying a dev kit. If they publish your game, dev kits will be free.

So as a recap, ignoring anything else I said:

1. You have a small chance of getting published and funded by Nintendo. If they turn you down, there's not much you can do.

2. However, if they do turn you down, you now have to buy a dev kit and fund the game yourself or whatever, typically releasing it on the eShop.

3. If you don't want to do that, then keep pitching it to other Nintendo licensed publishers besides Nintendo.

Those three things are *just about* all your options.

 

[Jack Lovejoy]

ok, thanks for the help

 

[Shane]

The Project Darkma board:

The game has positive spaces worth 2 gold pieces and negative spaces of a lesser amount that take away 2 gold pieces. There are also spaces to boost your ATK, SPD, DEF, etc. These spaces give you the upper hand in minigames. For example, in one minigame, you bat a magic ball back and forth with a sword, trying to trip each other up. Having a higher SPD means the ball picks up more speed when you swat it back than if you had a low SPD. This game will be crazy focused on winning minigames. 1st place in a minigame gains you 15 pieces of gold, and 2nd gains you 5 pieces of gold. 3rd gains you 1.

Landing on a 1-hit kill space means you will automatically win a minigame when this item is used, gaining 10 pieces of gold, while the others gain nothing.

The game ends when you reach the end of the board. First person to reach the end gains 15 pieces of gold, second gains 10, third gains 5, 4th gains 1.

I will update this thread as I come up with more ideas.