Several protagonists? you plan to go with the final fantasy 6 route? plan to add C&C on top of that? thats interesting enough.
Yes, similar to that - we plan to have 3 protagonists with their own parties you will play for (so 1st chapter you play for the first character, second one - for the second one, and so on). But we are also really invested into creating meaningful C&C and continuity - we're trying to avoid using the "Game Over" screen by any means - so the player should be able to lose a whole party (in combat or via "wrong" choices) but the playthrough will continue for the 2 other parties (though they are much more likely to fail in their quest in this scenario). Here's a sample dialogue tree where you can see various choices:
Of course, there are some limitations to the scope of the C&C and we still want to tell the story we have in mind, but rogue-style permadeath in combat and extensive plot tree should give enough variety for multiple playthroughs.
Isnt only having 3 stats a bit too simplistic?
On one hand - we want to go for something easy to grasp but hard to master, so the 3 parameters are nor overwhelming in this way.
On the other hand - they are not static but are constantly changing during the battle. For example, a warrior's "Rush" cost 1xAT of HP, deals 2xAT of damage (either to opponent's HP or MP as you choose), increases the AT by 1 and pushes the opponent 2 tiles away. So you can use it several times (healing the warrior after each turn) and turn him into a one-shot damage-dealer.
It does have good tactical and RPG depth and is quiet fun, in my opinion. You can also read more on the thought process behind it on our website
here, or play it yourself using the prototype
here (there is no AI yet, so either open in in 2 tabs, get a friend to play against you or PM me so we can arrange a time for it).
does that mean there wont be character building?
This is a tricky one - we want to have archetypes that are pretty traditional (i.e. warrior, guard, archer, etc.) so the player knows what to expect from each character. At the same time, we want to give the player an opportunity to adjust each character to his style/party build. So, the guard can be a pure tank that stacks HP and decreases incoming damage, or he can be stacking AT and go from a tank to a damage dealer over the course of the battle.
As for the way the player will build the character - that's open to discussion. It might be via a character sheet or a skill tree, with experience points and leveling up or via getting the points right away (more in an old school way). If you have any thoughts on this aspect - fell free to share.
