First of all, Divine Dreams is beginning to look more and more like a game that's gonna make all of us sit and play for a quality time. I specifically adore how you're taking the MARDEK "parts" and making something different out of it, the game feels familiar yet also feels like a breath of fresh air. The lore behind MARDEK was well thought behind the humor and "don't take it too serious" nature, and Divine Dreams seems to take that style and expand upon it.
The skill learning system you talked about seems solid, mementos could work pretty well for both lore-wise and mechanical points. Your characters could find mementos and have a dialogue or short-cutscene about it followed by "X learned Y spell". Also, maybe after maxing that skill given from the memento (you mentioned 6 levels to each skill), you can unlock another piece of dialogue that expands upon that memento and the character's past.
I'm indecisive about the "spells that everyone could learn" thing. Characters should feel unique enough so they don't powercreep and just feel like different flavours for different playstyles.
I couldn't help but observe you talking a lot about Pokemon mechanics, so I have to ask something. Ever thought of re-imagining/remaking Beast Signer? I'm a sucker for the genre and played Beast Signer like 3-4 times. I'd like to see how a "Beast Signer" game would look and play like from your perspective now, as your artistic direction became clearer.
4
Tobias 1104~4Y
I'm glad Divine Dreams seems interesting to you!
I like the idea of memento items which remind the player as much as the characters of certain events. Sort of like if you'd got Moric's scythe in MARDEK; just looking at it would remind you of that battle, and a character being able to summon up a skill because of the same memory seems really appealing to me.
I worked on a few monster-catching games. There was one before Beast Signer which is now lost (to my great annoyance), then that, then Miasmon, which I consider a kind of "Beast Signer remake" at least in a spiritual sense. That was way more complete, but obviously wasn't finished either, and it's years old now.
YouTube's algorithm's been suggesting a lot of Pokemon-related videos to me lately, and I always think that it'd be nice to give that genre another go... But I also realise that my biggest mistake in the past was jumping around between projects and never finishing anything, and that I need to focus wholly on one thing if I'm to make this work. I suppose incorporating these taming mechanics into Divine Dreams is a way of partially scratching that itch. It's not exactly the same since you can't keep the monsters, but it's something.
Whether or not I'll ever make another Pokemon clone depends on whether I finish Divine Dreams and it makes money! And whether Pokemon continues to be appealing to people, though it doesn't look like it's going away any time soon!
The skill learning system you talked about seems solid, mementos could work pretty well for both lore-wise and mechanical points. Your characters could find mementos and have a dialogue or short-cutscene about it followed by "X learned Y spell". Also, maybe after maxing that skill given from the memento (you mentioned 6 levels to each skill), you can unlock another piece of dialogue that expands upon that memento and the character's past.
I'm indecisive about the "spells that everyone could learn" thing. Characters should feel unique enough so they don't powercreep and just feel like different flavours for different playstyles.
I couldn't help but observe you talking a lot about Pokemon mechanics, so I have to ask something. Ever thought of re-imagining/remaking Beast Signer? I'm a sucker for the genre and played Beast Signer like 3-4 times. I'd like to see how a "Beast Signer" game would look and play like from your perspective now, as your artistic direction became clearer.
I like the idea of memento items which remind the player as much as the characters of certain events. Sort of like if you'd got Moric's scythe in MARDEK; just looking at it would remind you of that battle, and a character being able to summon up a skill because of the same memory seems really appealing to me.
I worked on a few monster-catching games. There was one before Beast Signer which is now lost (to my great annoyance), then that, then Miasmon, which I consider a kind of "Beast Signer remake" at least in a spiritual sense. That was way more complete, but obviously wasn't finished either, and it's years old now.
YouTube's algorithm's been suggesting a lot of Pokemon-related videos to me lately, and I always think that it'd be nice to give that genre another go... But I also realise that my biggest mistake in the past was jumping around between projects and never finishing anything, and that I need to focus wholly on one thing if I'm to make this work. I suppose incorporating these taming mechanics into Divine Dreams is a way of partially scratching that itch. It's not exactly the same since you can't keep the monsters, but it's something.
Whether or not I'll ever make another Pokemon clone depends on whether I finish Divine Dreams and it makes money! And whether Pokemon continues to be appealing to people, though it doesn't look like it's going away any time soon!