Credit goes to Noizzex of Tumblr for the photos. Credit also goes to our composer for corrupting it.
If you want to do well at a task, you should consider:
Making a big videogame is serious, yet doesn't require you to know what you're doing, which is why it would be so easy for you to not trust us in making a game that wants to stand next to Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door. After all, most indie games are low-quality freeware made by inexperienced hobbyists. Every creative medium has its fair share of *ahem* "lesser works" crowding the market, and I wonder if it is because some people approach creative endeavors more cautiously and self aware than others.
It isn't enough to work on Paper Soul Theater frequently, we need to tackle it with heart. Heart can mean doing careful and considerate research for ideas in world building. "What was the Navajo creation myth? Would it be offensive if we loosely reused creatures from it in our game?" You would need to care about what you're doing to find yourself asking those questions. Some developers would rather ask, "Man were the races used in that other game cool or what?" and "Will the player like that I reused this race from that other universe?"
If you want to do well at a task, you should consider:
- Gathering knowledge on it
- Pondering the task critically, philosophically, and relatively
- Planning your path in the endeavor
- Looking closely at the task for a clear/deeper understanding.
- Maintaining perseverance when advancing
Making a big videogame is serious, yet doesn't require you to know what you're doing, which is why it would be so easy for you to not trust us in making a game that wants to stand next to Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door. After all, most indie games are low-quality freeware made by inexperienced hobbyists. Every creative medium has its fair share of *ahem* "lesser works" crowding the market, and I wonder if it is because some people approach creative endeavors more cautiously and self aware than others.
It isn't enough to work on Paper Soul Theater frequently, we need to tackle it with heart. Heart can mean doing careful and considerate research for ideas in world building. "What was the Navajo creation myth? Would it be offensive if we loosely reused creatures from it in our game?" You would need to care about what you're doing to find yourself asking those questions. Some developers would rather ask, "Man were the races used in that other game cool or what?" and "Will the player like that I reused this race from that other universe?"
# OLD AMERICAN FOLKLORE # ~ ~ ~ Many of the fantasy races in Paper Soul Theater are inspired by folklore from both Native Americans and early lumberjacks / frontiersmen. One races' physique took inspiration from the Fouke Sasquatch and Mothman. The Snosa's ability to control air pressure resembles the myth of the thunderbird. Werewampuses are inspired by the half-woman-wampus tale. Dixinches took minor inspiration from Pukwudgies by having poison glands. Some enemies are also inspired by myth. One enemy resembles a Glawackus. Likewise, The Unfertile Land is inhabited by a few headless Navajo monsters. If you want to know more about the races in our game, I'll likely talk specifically about them next time. |
You could also say putting your heart into a work is accomplished by putting care into ever detail. Here's an example of us trying to do that:
Recently, my team debated whether to abandon the decimal number counting system in favor of octal for Paper Soul Theater. Octal system adds a new digit on the 8th number, rather than 10th making 10 represent 8, 21 represents 17, etc. Using octal would be a very radical change. To put this in perspective, all RPGs use numbers as a major element. How high is your attack damage? How much HP does your character have? Changing the counting system has a massive effect on the entire game and even the player's psyche, which makes it a good element to consider tinkering with. Videogames and tabletop RPGs have been using the decimal system from the beginning which makes sense when 99% of the world counts with decimal in modern times. There's no question why people prefer it; it's used by the player in everyday life and is one less thing needed to learn as a prerequisite to understanding the game. Despite that great reason to keep decimal, octal makes a surprising amount of sense for our game.
The point is, we aren't copying everything from Paper Mario and calling it a day. We want to try new things, branch out, be critical about the games we are most inspired by, and pay attention to how to best make our game. To do something well, we need to care about the details, so we've been looking at the process through a magnifying glass (a convex lens) while we are returning to the planning stage.
So Tell Us: Does any of this information concern or excite you (such as the idea of octal counting)? Let us know in the comments or on twitter!
Recently, my team debated whether to abandon the decimal number counting system in favor of octal for Paper Soul Theater. Octal system adds a new digit on the 8th number, rather than 10th making 10 represent 8, 21 represents 17, etc. Using octal would be a very radical change. To put this in perspective, all RPGs use numbers as a major element. How high is your attack damage? How much HP does your character have? Changing the counting system has a massive effect on the entire game and even the player's psyche, which makes it a good element to consider tinkering with. Videogames and tabletop RPGs have been using the decimal system from the beginning which makes sense when 99% of the world counts with decimal in modern times. There's no question why people prefer it; it's used by the player in everyday life and is one less thing needed to learn as a prerequisite to understanding the game. Despite that great reason to keep decimal, octal makes a surprising amount of sense for our game.
- Aponi's people got their number system from counting the spaces between their fingers (there are 8 gaps between human fingers) which pays tribute to many Native North American and Mesoamerican societies who also counted to 8 for the same reason. This is an easy way for our game to include fading Native American culture in it. Even if it wouldn't be an accurate portrayal, we believe all culture should be preserved because it damages humanity when an entire people's culture and history dies out, and because learning about new cultural ideas is an enriching experience.
- Despite being third person, the world is shown to the player through Aponi. The player is role playing as Aponi, so it makes sense to keep the number system identical to the one that Aponi uses to help the player better "become" Aponi while playing the game. Stepping into someone's shoes also means feeling how they feel. Aponi is new to fighting, and struggles at first to learn it. Even after she battles for some time, battling still doesn't feel quite morally right to her. We need a way to have the player feel that battling is intimidating at the start, and to have the feeling that something isn't quite right about it all, so using octal would be one of the few ways to have the player's feelings be the same as the main character there.
- An octal number system would put a dramatic spin on an RPG experience in a super unique way. You probably never thought part of the challenge of a videogame would be trying to properly interpret it, yet despite how much of a chore that might sound on paper, it could be a fun and easy challenge with the right execution. Many believe having interesting experiences is almost as important as having good pleasant experiences, and having to use a different counting system would be a very interesting experience that only an interactive medium could present to you.
- Octal in particular is great because it makes each individual number feel larger yet is perfect for a game that uses small and easy-to-comprehend numbers. The number 4 is easier to visualize than the number 47 which is one thing people like about Paper Mario in contrast to older turn based RPGs. Mario's attack could do 4 damage, and that is very easy to visualize in your head. The problem is, 4 damage feels weak compared to 47 damage (even when enemy HP is proportional) because the number is so tiny. However, if 4 is two numbers closer to 10, it feels slightly more powerful, likewise if 8 is written as 10, that too feels bigger.
- We would introduce the player to octal through a tutorial woven into the story, and because the game intents for the player to struggle with octal a little bit, the difficult of battling at the start of the game would intentionally feel like low-pressure puzzles, rather than traditional fights to stay alive. (Octal will not be implemented in the main demo of Paper Soul Theater because of how late into the main game the demo takes place. There would be nowhere to build a tutorial into the story)
The point is, we aren't copying everything from Paper Mario and calling it a day. We want to try new things, branch out, be critical about the games we are most inspired by, and pay attention to how to best make our game. To do something well, we need to care about the details, so we've been looking at the process through a magnifying glass (a convex lens) while we are returning to the planning stage.
So Tell Us: Does any of this information concern or excite you (such as the idea of octal counting)? Let us know in the comments or on twitter!