What Phantasmal is all about
Posted: June 22, 2009 Filed under: Game stuffs, Phantasmal 12 Comments »Ok, so in the last post I briefly described phantasmal as a ‘SHMUPRPG’ and that leaves a really wide range of possibilities of what it could be, so I’ll get down to how the game will actually work (though if it sucks I’ll change it of course 🙂 )
The RPG part:
Underwater cities are always cool
The first and easiest part to explain is the RPG part, in phantasmal like many RPGs you will be given a pretty big fantasy world to run around, and there will be a fairly hefty story to go with it. in fact the story in phantasmal is just as important as the rest of the game to me (if not more so).
To get around you will mostly be on foot, running and jumping your way through forests, mountains, underwater cities and your standard RPG fare. sorry but no airships planned as yet =p
I also want to point out there will be no leveling up, and no grindingfor experiance. Its not that I dont think they always make for bad gameplay, I just dont think they fit phantasmal, I’ll totally make a mini-grindfest game at some point but this wont be it.
The SHMUP part:
heres a screeny shortly after coding in basic bullet patterns
Now to explain the SHMUP part, the main character will actually do no shooting at all. “what the heck, its not a shmup then!” I hear you scream down the internets, but you would be wrong!
You see in the majority of SHMUPs shooting is done by pressing a button at the start of the game and letting go of it when you win or when you die, the real fun actually comes from bullet dodging, and if you like shmups you will iknow I’m right.
nothing can make you feel more like a ninja than weaving through hundreds of fiery balls of death without getting singed, and its this aspect of shmups I want to bring to combat in Phantasmal.
So How does it fit?
Well instead of shooting enemies, you will have to beat them up, but you need to stun them to stop their attacks first, and thats something I’ll be going into more detail in another post, because otherwise this wall of text will be insanely huge and I want to make a little storyboard or something to demonstrate it too 🙂
Do you guys have any reservations about me mixing the two genres like this? are you pissed I’m not letting the player shoot anything? was this update just waffle or do you feel like you have a better idea of what the game is about now?
As a fan of R-Type and Ikaruga, I’d like to say that I appreciate shooting done well in a SHMUP. 😛
It’s looking good though! How are you planning to manage time spent creating assets for the game?
John Nesky » at the moment I have nothing set in stone, but I am constantly thinking of ways to optimise my time, for example there will only be a few unique npc models, and they will all use the same rig and animations as the player character. but I can mix it up by modifying their textures, or making quick tweaks to the model to give a decent amount of variety. I must admit though that its modeling the locations and enemies that is pretty daunting, as they are pretty unique.
I am already learning tips and tricks that are making me significantly more efficiant. I’m sorry this isnt a good ‘time management’ response, but I’m spending pretty much all my time working on the game lol.
If there are no levels, then what makes it an RPG?
Vezquex » You will be able to customise your characters attacks, equip various things to boost your stats and there will be elemental attacks.
and even if it didnt have that, its a game where you play a role =p
I guess that when the player goes Matrix-with-no-guns then Slomotion-kickass-Uber-moves are somewhat of a requirement! =D
Sounds Awesome! I’d love to hear more about the stunning aspect! ^^
Good luck and thumbs up! =D
I am continuously impressed with your work, Sophie! I hope one day to be half as talented! Until that day comes, keep up the good work! I can’t wait to see more 🙂
-Taylor
Hi,
Do you plan to release this as freeware?
I was reluctant to install yet another plugin ( Unity ) just in order to play 3D games on my browser but I finally did it and lately I have been checking up games made with Unity, it’s actually pretty nice.
MrPocolo » This game wont be freeware, but I promise I’ll be releasing plenty of free stuff to justify installing the unity plugin =p
I think its only a matter of time before the web is flooded with unity games tbh, its about as easy to use as flash, but much more powerful when it comes to the 3D and physics. plus its a crapload cheaper for indies 🙂
since it won’t be free, could you put out a demo so we can see what its like before we buy it?
John » there will indeed be a demo, but it wont be out until the game is much closer to release, I want to include a sizable chunk of the game in the demo, but as yet I havent made a sizable chunk of the game 😉
Make it affordable and maybe I will afford it 😀
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