Spell and Steel

Inspiration

I take inspiration from many games I have played and enjoyed over the years, like Sally Face and Omori. I really liked the fighting style and play style in Omori. I implemented these features into my project. While creating this project, I could visualise how Omori was built, which motivated me to develop more of my game.

What it does

Spell and Steel is a turn-based RPG game, in which you are the leader of a group of 3, leading your party around the world, slaying enemies, collecting items and getting stronger the more encounters you have.

How we built it

The game was built in RPG Maker MV. This engine is very beginner-friendly and provides premade assets, as well as pre-made code that makes creating the basics of the game much simpler than if I were to use an engine like Unity or PyCharm(which I attempted). Though tutorials were used starting out, I got the hang of the engine quite quickly and managed to create the rest of my game independently.

Challenges we ran into

As mentioned, I initially planned on creating my game in Unity or PyCharm. I had previous proficiency in Unity, and I thought getting back into it would be like riding a bike after years, but unfortunately, that was not the case. Unity had developed quite a bit since I had last created a project in it, and so, doing something as simple as making the player sprite move was quite difficult, as my old, known way of doing so didn't suffice anymore. I had spent the first 2-3 hours of this hackathon trying to figure this out before deciding to scrap the project altogether, as I now knew too little and didn't have enough time to work my way back up from square one.

Apart from Unity and C#, I have decent Python proficiency, and I thought PyCharm and PyGame would be an easier approach, but I have never used these engines, and my morale was already down after my failed Unity attempt, so I decided to settle on RPG Maker, despite not using it at all! It's something I felt enthusiastic enough to give a try, and I plan on using it outside of this challenge. Even though I felt like I should just try again next year at this point, I thought I might as well leave with progress in this game engine, and I am very satisfied with the result!

Another thing I was struggling with is if this was the right idea for this hackathon, as Unity and PyCharm were much more technical compared to RPG Maker MV. I was worried that, by making this choice, my game wouldn't compete technically, due to the help the engine provides.

I also ran into some awkward timing with my game. I had a couple of hours left; however, I was unsure if it would be enough to make a third level or if I should dedicate the rest of my time to polishing and refining. I settled with the latter in the end, thankfully, as there were many small things like mentioning controls that slipped my mind and would've made the gaming experience less than satisfactory.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I am really proud of what I managed to achieve in this time, considering the circumstances. I'm proud that I managed to make good quality progress on a game, and that I managed to commit to a game engine and build momentum on a skill I've always wanted to learn.

What we learned

Making a worldwide RPG game made me realise how many little steps are involved in the components that tie the whole experience together, like map changes, teleportation, and transitions. I also learned a lot about scaling enemy and player stats, which I would say was one of the more tedious, tricky parts of this project. Even with the result, I am not quite sure I've nailed it yet.

Working with this particular game engine also helped me understand how my favourite games were developed, as I noticed similarities in my project as well.

What's next for Spell and Steel

Though I ended up hating my work many times in this event, I plan on continuing to develop this game for my own enjoyment, as well as further developing my game development journey. Without the time constraint, I would love to explore other factors like pixel art and scripting to give my game functions outside of the restraints RPG Maker has.

In the game, I only managed to make a tutorial-type level and one other level. The story in the game alludes to there being more levels, which I'm going to develop and release with time. At the moment, Spell and Steel is just a game, with time, knowledge and effort, I plan on turning this game into a work of art.

Built With

• rpgmakermv