Castle Paradox

[Eclipse]

I would like to announce the production of a new game, called Cruel Destinies. I'd just like to know what the general community thinks of my idea. First of all, I'd just like to point out that this game takes place in a sort of technological era. To strengthen your characters and develop their magic skills, you need to learn to use the Infusion System to your advantage. In addition, battles are made all the more exciting and realistic using the Active Environment System. It's not just the enemies you must defeat, but you must overcome the battle environment itself! Now, I'd like to give a short summary of the story.

Story:

In an age of high technology, the idea of being governed by a living government seems rather primitive. Years ago, control of all political matters was handed over to the AI entity, a complex system of programming and mechaneural technology. This AI, called the Ascenscion of Jenda version 1.35 (or simply Jenda, as he was known to friends and closer associates), maintained order throughout the country and kept the MPN (a network of power plants), on-line and running safely. He often manifested himself through holographic emitters, enabling him to meet people and build relationships with the general population of Jenda. However, not all is as it seems.

The Ascenscion of Jenda AI has acted strangely the last few weeks. He had suddenly ordered the arrest of all Regressors within the country. Regressors are a moderate percentage of the population who choose to abstain from using the higher forms of technology (computers, Microwave Energy, etc.), and also refuse to accept an AI as a true leader. Locking these Regressors away in Prison City, a dank and musty sewer-turned-city located beneath the Artificial Continent Plating, Jenda has turned his back on the Regressors and left them to fend for themselves.

In Prison City, it is always dark, other than the artificial light given off by the lamps hung from the roof of the city. Most of the Regressors living in this gloomy city resort to thieving to support themselves, and their malnourished families. Due to the lack of sunlight in Prison City, there are hardly any plants, making it extremely difficult to breed livestock. Some have attempted escape, but none have made it past the Shield; a fortified barrier which Jenda demanded built to contain the Regressors. It is here, in Prison City, that a dark and malevolent force from the past has returned for revenge against an unspoken foe. A group of thieves and escape-hungry men and women are swept away into a struggle to save themselves from this evil, and to find a way through the "unpenetrable" Shield, to escape Jenda and once again taste freedom.

They have no idea that escaping Prison City is only the beginning of their challenge. Jenda's corruption is not limited to the arrest of the Regressors, and he must be stopped. But, with the support of the entire country behind the Jenda AI, can a team of Regressors and misfit heroes really take out the computer program from hell... and the evil behind it?

It would be greatly appreciated if you could constructively critisize this preliminary story outline.
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President Jaros,
Eclipse Computer Entertainment

Questions or comments? Send an e-mail to
eclipsoftproductions@hotmail.com today.

[Iblis]

You should know that there's already a game in production called "Destiny's Cruelty." This isn't a huge problem, but in case you want your title to be unique (well, if you wanted that you'd have to leave out 'Destiny' altogether) just thought you'd wanna know.

the only complaint I have about the story is that it sounds to me basically like Terminator + Matrix.
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Locked
OHR Piano

[Eclipse]

The name will just have to be changed then, I guess...

I'll keep the name as it is for the meantime, until I get a bit farther into production. By then, I hope I will have thought of a new name. Thanks for the tip.
_________________
President Jaros,
Eclipse Computer Entertainment

Questions or comments? Send an e-mail to
eclipsoftproductions@hotmail.com today.

[Iblis]

...I hate to mention this, but you're also using the same avatar as someone who already comes here (luckily not the creator of Destiny's Cruelty, lol).
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Locked
OHR Piano

[Eclipse]

Guess I'm just not having a good day, lol.

Edit: Actually, I just replace my avatar. I've been working on this weird little creature since yesterday, when I found out the avatar I had had already been chosen, but... yeah, so, my new avatar! Some strange bunny-eared guy. MS-Paint drives me insane!

[Aethereal]

Sharing avatars is no big deal, especially if they come from the avatar gallery.

I like how the game is sounding so far, but you didn't explain the gameplay systems; you merely gave us their names. Can you enlighten us a bit on that?
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[Eclipse]

Gameplay systems introduced in this game are the Infusion System and the Active Environment System. But, with my luck so far with this game, these systems have probably been introduced in another game before mine... the title, the avatar, what's next, lol?

Anyway, the Infusion System is where you equip an infusion of a magic substance (not yet named), which enables useful and powerful magic spells. You can use these spells as often as you want (assuming you have enough MP, or this game's equivelant, Memory), unless you decide to remove the infusion. If you do in fact decide to remove the infusion, the spells that the character had learned because of the infusion will begin to disappear after a few battle without the infusion equipped. However, there is more to this system than just learning magic spells. Some infusions, called Support Infusions, offer special abilities that can be used in and out of battle. For example, the Speed Infusion increases your character's speed in battle and also enables the player to make the character run on the Field, which is useful for saving time.

The Active Environment System is a special system which shall be implemented during battles. With this system in place, it's not only the enemies you need to worry about, but the environment itself. For example, during a battle, you may be fighting three or four Mots (enemies introduced in Fate's Compass) in a volcano. Now, because the volcano is a fire-elemental battleground (indicated by an elemental icon to appear in the lower-left hand corner of the Battle Screen), anyone equipped with a Fire Infusion will have their Strength and Vitality increased for the duration of the battle. This system is a double-edged sword, because anyone equipped with an Ice Infusion will have their Strength and Vitality cut in half throughout the battle. However, the effect of this system does not end here. During a battle, random events can occur (for example, if the current battleground is in a jungle, a random event such as "Stepped in a pit of quicksand!" can occur, which temporarily disables one of your characters. Some random events can be beneficial, however, so look out for these!).

Please tell me what you think of these system when you critique the story~
_________________
President Jaros,
Eclipse Computer Entertainment

Questions or comments? Send an e-mail to
eclipsoftproductions@hotmail.com today.

[Iblis]

Infusion system: Kinda reminds me of materia, but it gets 10 points cause memory is a cool name for MP.

Active Environment System: I've seen something like this before, but I'm not sure where. It wasn't an OHR game though, so you're fine there.

I say if you're actually capable of doing these things, then go for it. They sound like they'd make an interesting game.
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Locked
OHR Piano

[Setu_Firestorm]

[Blazes Battles Inc.]

You can keep the first title. I don't think anyone would get your game confused with mine, unless you named it something like Destiny's Cruelness. That was a funny coincidence, though...
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Preserve OHR history! Do it for the children!

[Shadowiii]

Show me some screenshots!
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But enough talk, have at you!

[Eclipse]

I'll try and have some screenshots ready in the coming weeks. I want the best of my graphics to be in the first wave of screenshots, lol... first impressions can be very important!

By the way, what do you think of my new avatar?

[DobyGillis]

it's not as personalized as my avatar
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-Ain't no gettin' offa this train we're on

-Barret, FFVII

Doby.

[msw188]

I like your idea about battle backgrounds mattering. I originally wanted to have a character in my game that would call on his/her surroundings (and then Breath of Fire STOLE my idea for Spar! Bastards!!!), so his/her special attacks would depend on the place of battle. I gave up on it when it became clear that a plotscripted custom battle engine would be needed (although now that I am becoming more familiar with the engine, I may try to do it in my next game; I'd very much like a custom battle engine that is turn-based, not meter-based). Plus, I would have had to actually draw battle-backgrounds, which I don't intend on doing until perhaps the last update (since I find them a horribly unneeded part of RPG video-gaming, but that's just me).

[Eclipse]

I uploaded the titlescreen along with a summary of my game to the gamelist (sorry, no demo quite yet!). Anyway, it sort of looks ugly now, lol... when I saved it as a .jpg file so that it could go on the site, it sorta blurred a lot. Anyway, hope you like the compass, since I had to draw it with Microsoft Paint... but now it looks like crap anyway as .jpg, lol.

Click here.

I say it again, MS Paint is the ROOT OF ALL EVIL! AARGH!

Update: I have actually replaced the .jpg version of the titlescreen with a .gif copy (thanks for the advice, Aethereal!). Now, while the image is a lot more clear (it was very blurry before), there is apparently a loss of color information. So, the colors are a bit messed, lol. Oh well, it looks better in the OHR than it does in the uploaded screenshot...
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President Jaros,
Eclipse Computer Entertainment

Questions or comments? Send an e-mail to
eclipsoftproductions@hotmail.com today.