UNITY'S PROFILE

author=ShortStar
Thanks for the kind words.

I just make my own games to have fun with. My ego can't take bad reviews when I post incomplete games. Kind of like I made my remix to Super RMN Bros 1... no one liked it But I sure have fun playing it.

I'm not sure about anything else as I've only seen your maps, but your mapwork is fantastic! I would be very grateful to have any help you'd be willing to provide on this project :D

author=Sooz
I don't think there needs to be much narrative; my impression from the start was that this is similar to a lot of early NES games, where the story is basically, "There's the Bad Guy over there. Sic 'em!" but with the option to pick from a huge-ass team of people hanging around in one area. (Kind of like FF6's airship after you recruit everyone.)

Not that I am necessarily opposed to narrative, but I think focusing on getting a gam mad is more important.

(Heck, we could extend the NES thing further and have all the narrative and other flavor in an enclosed manual. XD)

Yeah, the NES-like narrative is probably the best way to go, with the added snippets of dialog for when new characters join you. As for character-switching, Craze has that already set up; it's all done from the menu so you can try new characters out easily. Also I think I might have said that there are four characters as the party size previously. I made a mistake, it's actually set up for five.

author=Arandomgamemaker
So I think we should start dividing up the areas into 3 categories.

1. Early Game
Places to visit very early on. Enemies here are really easy.
2. Mid Game
Places to visit when you reach around the halfway point. Enemies here are considerably tougher. There should be at least one boss to give people trouble at this point.
3. Late Game
A place to visit very late in the game, when the characters have the airship/whatever plot thing. This should also be where most of the optional content is. Enemies here will be giving their all.

Once we do that we can start designing the story around the areas.

I'm not sure I like the idea of the heroes being the thing needed to get to the Wyrm Wizard. That would eventually devolve into a fetch quest with characters. Then again, it's a lot better idea then "gather the 8 crystals because I told you to".

Yeah, I'll start working on splitting up content into sections like that. As for the heroes being needed to progress, I'm still open to suggestions.

author=Gourd_Clae
I like the idea of the characters being what you need to collect for the adventure.

The later characters could be just more significant to make up for being obtained for only a short amount of time. I'd also be completely willing to help implement my idea for characterization for all of the characters.

I'd be really grateful for the help! ^_^ We'll discuss that more when we get to that part in the development.

There were two skills that raised it by one, but Natalie's ultimate TP move would give her all 5 of them.

Yeah, my initial idea was to just plop the starting six characters in the Keep of Legend where the Butler of Prophesy tells them to gather the other 24 heroes and defeat the Wyrm Wizard (though the King of Aremen might be cooler :D). There wouldn't be a viewpoint character, and things would be simply conveyed to the player like early Final Fantasies/Dragon Quests.

Other ideas are allowing the player to pick one of a handful of characters to represent "them" throughout the game, and get their creators to write dialog for their reactions to things in the game. That'd be more work but would allow the game to show off more personality, but we couldn't do it for all thirty characters and would probably have to vote on favorites.

The "make a new character for a hero" or "make the player herself/himself the hero" are also possible, but that would mean making yet another character and making them balanced and work will all the other 30 characters.

author=Marrend
How about: The first character is a cool knight that is told by and old geezer that the Wyrm Wizard is out there, and needs to die. The character journeys to these vast and wondrous locations to rally people to the cause of defeating it. Since unity's taken the helm, I'm thinking this first character would be Leigh, or Maricela. That's just me thinking out loud, though.

author=Arandomgamemaker
That could work! I would pick Maricela. Leigh looks too serious for the main/first character.

I'm flattered at this idea. But while I'd totally love to make this a magical adventure starting Maricela, I don't think that'd be fair to everyone else. I'd totally do it, but I'd feel like I was being a total selfish so-and-so. Craze had two of his own characters made for the game, and it didn't feel like they had starring roles, for example.

I think ARG and Gourd_Clae are right with the Chrono Cross idea, as long as no one's hidden and you can find everyone as long as you visit everywhere. Hell, on the subject of collecting something to access the Wyrm Wizard's Lair, the thirty heroes could be that something you need to collect. On the other hand, that would mean some of the characters would be coming in real close to the end of the adventure, and that wouldn't be as cool for them.

As for how the game goes in general, the basic idea I had is "You're in the first region. Here are the towns, locations and characters open to you. A dungeon blocks you off from the next region. You beat the dungeon, characters level up, and if you managed your resources really well, you get bonuses. Then the next region is unlocked. Rinse and repeat."

EDIT:

author=CashmereCat
In Crazegames characters often introduce themselves in a single line. We could do that.

Yeah, that would work perfectly. And we'll just ask each character creator to come up with a line they'd say. ...After we figure out where they'd be located, so it'd all make sense, of course :D

Yeah, but it also eliminates the question of "should I save or should I spend" and allows the player to just enjoy their reward. ^_^

Hahaha, maybe? :P Let me just say that while I want to keep this in the spirit of Craze's vision, I'm not saying this must play 100% like a Craze game. ...Because I don't think anyone but Craze himself can replicate that XD