New Year Goals

Long read inbound. Hey guys! It's the first day of the new year, and new years resolutions are officially in effect. For me, there are some obvious goals to reach, like getting more comfortable and efficient with Koikatsu, improving the look of my content, etc. But a big goal I want to accomplish this year is cleaning up the timeline and canon of the E.S.M.C. I made a little disclaimer up top to mitigate the damage I've done, but there are still some things that just don't make sense. Hinata Hyuga and Rias Gremory, just to point out the big offenses. They both come from stories with power levels way beyond the E.S.M.C., and the fact that I put them into the story without any real forethought has kinda come back to bite me. So, I've been thinking about rewriting the stories that don't make any sense. To start, My Hero Academia. Obviously, the existence of quirks, something that almost everybody has, doesn't mesh with the Dollhouse world. During this year, I'll be reworking the story to better fit into the E.S.M.C.'s canon. Also, if you've noticed any big discrepancies within the canon I've poorly constructed, please let me know. It helps me out a bunch. Okay, that's that out of the way. Onto the next big goal of the year: . This may sound obvious, but I want Dollhouse Rising to be good. The problem with that is that I'm not very good with RPG maker. So here's how I'll handle the development of Dollhouse Rising: Right now, I'm constructing a COMBAT demo of the game. Just a combat demo. The plan is to divide the development of game mechanics up, and release consistent monthly (and potentially sub- monthly) updates to effectively receive feedback from you guys. I'm making sure I take my time with this, lest another disaster like Dollhouse District. So how's development gonna be divided up? I'm planning on dedicating several months to 3 main categories: Combat, Exploration, and Cutscenes. Each of these categories will be further subdivided into relevant mechanics. This isn't a 100% comprehensive list, and timeslots are subject to change, but this is what I'm planning: January, February: Combat - Elements: A variety of magical elements that have varying interactions with each other. - In-depth Enemies: More interesting opponents, with element resistances, weaknesses, and skills. - Items: A general upgrade to the loot and equipment systems, making each item a little more interesting. - Crafting: The usage of mob loot and purchases to create better items. - Skill tree: This one is a big one. Allows characters to spec into different classes, each with their own playstyle and capabilities. March, April, May, June: Exploration - Larger Maps: Instead of divided locales, I want to create maps that span a vast chunk of land. - Custom tilesets: The base tilesets of RPG Maker aren't great for making the kind of cities and locations I want, so I'll be dedicating a big chunk of time to making my own tilesets. Wish me luck. - In-depth Buildings: In The Dollhouse District, a lot of houses and buildings were just... there. In Dollhouse Rising, you'll be playing as a dead-man walking, an unregistered off grid anti-hero who needs to do anything he can to survive. Thus, every building will be enterable, including private homes. You will do this by- - Dexterity, Charisma, Engineering: Not an easy to understand title, and also another big promise. This concept is easiest to explain with examples. To break into a house, you'll need, say, 2 dexterity. To smooth-talk your way into getting information out of a person, you'll need 3 charisma. To deactivate a thermal camera, you'll need 5 engineering. Stuff like that. This will tie into the skill tree, too. - Interactive NPC's: Most NPC's in Dollhouse District were just kinda there. Some of them say something mildly entertaining, but that's about it. While it would be impossible to make EVERY NPC interesting, I want to try and make it so that talking to the odd stranger here and there will be rewarded. - Puzzles: Shorter, easier, and if possible, optional. I don't really like puzzles, but some people do, and I want to make it so that the more clever players will be rewarded. - Directions Log: This is an important one. Simply put, I don't want people to ever feel lost, or get to a point where they can't remember what they're doing. This will be a good way to keep that in check. July, August: Cutscenes - More expressive characters: In Dollhouse District, most characters would remain in one, singular pose, and then just change their face. In Rising, I'll try to make it so that characters can express body language as well. - Dialogue choices: This will be a fun one to play with, an annoying one to implement. This will also tie in to the aforementioned charisma. - Vidoes: I'm gonna be honest with you, I have no clue why videos freeze during gameplay. So I'll just make a choice before every animation to skip it. Sorry. - H-Stuff: Ha ha. Don't you think it's kinda funny that in a porn game, I'm talking about H-scenes LAST? Anyway, I want to include features such as different clothing, different poses, and the like. And that's about it. Again, this list may vary as time goes on. Things may be added, things may be removed, and timeslots may be changed depending on how things play out. At the end of the day, though, this will be a cooperative effort. Not in the sense that I have a team (I don't) but in the sense that you guys need to let me know what you think. This game is for you guys, after all. If you've reached the bottom of this essay, I thank you for your time, and I hope you'll continue to stick with me. Cheers. P.S.: This isn't today's post. Stay tuned.