Re-evaluating my Proposal

On Friday 16th October, I had a meeting with one of my lecturers, Chris Janes, to discuss my final project proposal, and the concerns I had about it. I explained that I was concerned I was potentially over-scoping by trying to work on both coding and design aspects, which was agreed with. I was recommended instead to focus on creating an SRPGs combat mechanics, using placeholder models and ignoring the narrative aspect.

With this in mind, I have decided that my proposal will be based around creating at least one mission/level of an SRPG. Some of the constraints I have considered are:

• No more than 3 player units, each with a unique class
• No more than 5 enemy units, with 3 classes between them
• No focus on modelling, placeholder objects only
• No narrative or character design

While I believe that I will have to consider more constraints as I find more research, I feel my current constraints allow me to focus on the coding aspects of the project, which was set to be my main area of focus in the final project.

My aim is to code my final project in C#. While I have a basic understanding of C#, there are many areas that I must do further research into, and experiment with, to create my final artifact. These areas include:

• Grid-based movement
• As I plan to design a mission based on classic SRPG design, player unit movement will all be grid-based. I must research into SRPG, or more broadly, grid based games map designs, and how to implement movement using grids.
• Enemy AI
• I will need the enemy AI to act in more ways than charging the player head on, instead taking player unit movement allowance into account, and trying to tactically position based around how the player could move. While I have some very basic understanding of enemy AI, this is another area I need to do more research on, attempting to look more specifically at how AI can be implemented in a turn based game, and examining player unit variables to decide the best way to approach.
• Combat
• For combat, my initial idea is to use a rock-paper-scissors system, so Weapon A will always do better against Weapon B, but worse against Weapon C.
• While I do not believe that coding the actual combat will be too difficult, I will have to focus a lot on number balancing, to make sure that no weapon or class can dominate over all, or becomes useless. I will also need to do further research into turn based combat, to make sure my assumptions are not incorrect, otherwise I could be vastly under-planning for combat mechanics.
• Stats and Levels
• I must look into the balancing of stats in mainly JRPGs, as this is the key genre SRPGs draw influence from for the stats and level aspects of the game. This, as with combat, focuses a lot on number balancing. I must also decide on which stats player units will have, and how these will effect the units in-game. Leveling is an important aspect of SRPGs, but as I am focusing on one mission, I shall research further into leveling mechanics employed in SRPGs and JRPGs, before deciding if leveling should be included and aimed for, or constrained so that it can be focused on after the initial artifact is completed.

With the above taken into consideration, my next steps to take are:

• Look into jobs, focusing on the coding aspects I hope to take away from this project. I also plan to look into developer companies that are known for their turn-based strategies (e.g. Firaxis) and companies known for SRPGs or JRPGs (e.g. Atlus, Intelligent Systems).
• Find further readings and research focused on the list above, taking Grid-based movement as a focus point, as it would be one of the key initial elements implemented into the final artifact.
• Create a paper-prototype of the grid-based movement once the above research has been done.