Just a bit of fiddling around with the ol' blogger and here we are!
I'm sure many of you have questions, such is understandable, I've kept this project pretty quiet, leaking small hints and the logo you see above here and there, some of the more loyal adherents know stuff about it, but I've kept it pretty quiet.
I'll field as many questions as I can in this initial response, you're free to ask your own questions, too!
WHAT IS FANTASIA?
Fantasia is a game I first imagined about half a year ago, not long after finishing Intelligence I knew I was done with RPG Maker, and that no new IP that I wasn't creating just for fun should be subject to the rather limited properties of the engine, it was time to move up... and Fantasia filled a good niche, as it's gameplay as I imagine it is quite simple, not having the multi-switching hectic clusterfuck of systems that a game like Perseverance sports, this was something I thought of that should be easy enough to approach with an engine like game maker, I didn't want to make any announcement of it until school was finished, but as of the 18th, it is. I am hoping to have this game ready for at least demo preview by one of those big dates the CCC glorifies, so in other words, 12/12/2016 or 3/14/2017, that's nothing concrete, we've much to do.
WOAH, ARE THESE THREE WEIRD GIRLS THE MAIN CHARACTERS??
The ones in the background? Yes. I actually concepted them years ago for a project, Codename: Triforce, that name was overruled firstly because it's a bit too on the nose and I don't want people thinking this is a weird Zelda knock off, secondly because Fantasia ties in a lot better to the plot elements.
SETTING? WORLDS, SPACE TRAVEL, GO!?
Whoa, settle there pardner! Right, so Fantasia is set briefly (and also slightly before) the finale of Intelligence 314th Clash, on a World in the Sunless Sector, a world that actually has a sun is home to the three girls shown around, whom are the most different to each other, but are great friends, Lumi is the Cop by night, student by day workaholic happy-go-lucky tries not to dwell on things Pollyanna, Koko is the conspiracy theorist who reads a lot of books, particularly she's always trying to avert the end of the world and thus her house is littered with books that highlight all kinds of 'end of the world' scenarios, finally Lilac is the carefree, shrewd and rather insidious blood drinker who kills people on a daily basis, yeah, a cop (Lumi) has to live with this burden, as does an existentially tormented bookworm, like I said, a trio made in heaven, am I right?
However, the Sunless Sector, in the chance it does have a sun, doesn't for long, and Koko notices the sun has been getting noticably smaller each day, one night she has a disturbing dream that sends off all her alert signals and she probably flips the fuck out, or would have but Lilac calls her before she has a chance, she asks if she can come over, Lilac happily obliges, stating she needs someone to explain how weekends and weekdays are seperate.
Arriving-- Koko sees Lilac roughing Lumi up (she's ferociously tickling her) for waking her up early on a Sunday, she's also hog-tied and it's hard to tell if she's screaming or laughing or a horrific twist of both. Eventually Lilac stops, Lumi says she's got to go home and sleep, Lilac says she's welcome to sleep over, and confesses after the tickle-torture she may not be in the best state, Lumi obliges and nods off instantly, Koko then tells Lilac of the dream, and Lilac says she knows that's why she came, as she, and Lumi had it as well, which she reasons is probably why Lumi rushed to someone she knew was strong and scarier than any big bad sun blowing up. Koko tries to rationalize the situation, but Lilac insists that her dumb bookworming may have not been for naught, after a bunch more exposition and some events they end up at the place the dream foretold, where they meet an Insidious Messenger, who challenges them to a hectic battle, stating that her defeat or victory will change nothing, but she wants to feel like 'we may be challenged once more'.
Win or lose, the figure teleports out, and the sun rises as a bright red blast, however-- despite the seeming assuredness of it, the three girls are alive, they look around, all is still, and after a conversation, all goes black, 1's and 0's appear, before Sacreblu beams in, and teleports them to the STARSHIP Y.H.W.H
Here, they are given a destiny three-fold, Murders are happening, of the global scale, and no one knows why, Sacreblu states that the three are special in ways they do not yet know, but they will discover in time. From here, their quest begins, the sleuths three.
WOAH OKAY, THAT'S A LOT OF PLOT, SO WHAT ABOUT GAMEPLAY?? GENRE?
I think one of the best comparisons I could make for raw gameplay is a mix of Binding of Isaac and Touhou. Unlike in Isaac you can shoot in any direction (mouse controlled), and unlike in Touhou, you don't fight waves of mobs and then a boss.
It's a big boss rush, divided by atmospheric exploration.
THIS
SOUNDTRACK WITHOUT A NAME, THIS IS THE ONE, ISN'T IT? THE FANTASIA OST!!!
Ohoho, busted is me!
And there's more music where that came from, more on that in the following week. My composer should be back in action on the 20th, one can only hope!
HEY, YOU KNOW HOW YOU WENT INTO
UNIVERSAL MATRIX THEORY ON
YO TWITTER?? DID THAT HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THIS.
Hmm, I could weave a big fib about how everything I've done lately has related to this project somewhat, heck, the fact it's codename was PROJECT: TRIFORCE and this
symbology is similar sorta goes hand in hand, but it'd be a fib, that was a spontaneous realization I had after watching all 40 episodes of Gravity Falls. it certainly does help when dealing with cosmic events of such a scale, but in all likelyhood, most of this game will be contained within Dimension XII.
However, while we're at it, the mamix would be shattered, so the map you see there would now be more like this...
Some things have definitely been done publicly in preparation for this game, though, the
six-winged definition of Fyori being probably one of the most notable.
It's branding has been one of the few things I've let slip publically, subluminally transmitting the logo in people's minds so that when I can actually make an announcement, it's already sort of like 'OH ITS THAT THING!!! WOW IT WASN'T A RED HERRING AFTER ALL!`
The Characters have been known only as images to the public until now, or by their placeholder names: Bunnygirl (Lumi), Bookshrew (Koko), Batgoth (Lilac).
OKAY, PRICING! YOU'RE GONNA CHARGE FOR THIS ONE, RIGHT??
...I don't know, to be honest I'd love not too. But it's gonna get hairy in the future, so maybe I'll charge a small fee for the full game, and have the demo version entirely free.
That said it might be free, depends how much I feel like dealing with politics of legalization.
TWO PLAYER SUPPORT??
I hope so, boss against boss would be pretty cool, but I'll have to see how it pans out. Keeping in mind my knowledge of multiplayer support is zero, but I'm gonna have to learn a lot very quick, consider the two player a second thought at this stage though, I wanna make the single player campaign as fulfilling and epic as it can be, 2P integration is something I can see as a mode I'll patch in post release. I might include a limited version of it in a demo, we'll see!
CHARACTER ROSTER, GO!
Well, the list is more or less complete, but it might be destructive to go blurting the whole lot out, let's just say that of the bosses you fight, Tristy Heals, Fyori Felicee, Esperia Frostwhisper, Zardari Zitei and Pep Cookiedoe are among.
SO THIS IS BASICALLY SMASH??
Oh my god. Did you read any of the question about genre, no, it's not even a fighting game, let alone a competitive one (yet), it's a bullet-curtain / visual novel sorta mashup. It's a boss rush with plot between. This isn't difficult to understand, is it?
SO, WHAT MAKES THIS GAME UNIQUE, WHAT DO YOU THINK STANDS OUT GAMEPLAY WISE?
To be honest, I'm not really sure yet, but probably something you can pull from its title, see like Intelligence, that game requires you to have a brain, Menagerie, you had to make a bunch of odd things to get to end game, Perseverance, the game's name is it's style too, you keep pushing forward.
Fantasia will probably be one of the first games in a long time to utilize 'boss rush' as its core gimmick, but then having explorable atmospheric foreign worlds which house those bosses, too. Yeah, I think it's a good idea, fantastical, even!
Some may think I'm making a mockery of Disney's animated epic, but I'm not, the title is what I consider the beautiful portmanteau of
Fantasy and
Ambro
sia.
Also If I have any say in it, it's going to look really nice. And considering I'm the head of the CCC which has a host of talented artists, it's off to an optimistic start.
The music, as you may have concluded already, is going to be fantastic.
OH, HEY YOU SAID "MY COMPOSER", DO YOU MEAN JAKE?
Oh dear, no not this time! (Believe me, he's already got enough work on his plate!) This time Max M. Dominora, a fairly recent addition to the CCC (though not-recent enough to go and compose a swathe of songs under all yo silly noses) and he's learning hard and fast, his motherboard decided to commit sudoku, ending it's life as a result because it really SUCKS AT SUDOKU, and so he's been ordering the parts to replace it from newegg, i'm told he should be back in business on the 20th, but it may be a bit later.
ALRIGHT, if you have any more questions, drop me a comment and I'll answer. :D
