Devlog #1- What's this about?

Introduction: About me

Hi! First of all, thank you for your interest in my project. I hope to continuously update these devlogs so I hope you’ll follow my progress!
I go by the name Yozoraki when I do game dev stuff. I live in South Australia and I’m in my final year at university studying general IT (software development) and Japanese.

I’ve been using GameMaker Studio 2 to learn game making on and off for the last few years and started entering game jams last year. My entry into the 2021 Nokia Game Jam received a lot of praise and ended up placing 4^th place out of over 300 entries, inspiring a sequel of sorts through my current project. I spent a long time building on various projects that I hoped would become larger projects over the years, but I would always get stuck on one of two things: a major roadblock in programming ability, or general self-doubt about the project. With this project it is the first time I can look ahead and not see these problems stopping me, so I have decided to go all in and start a public devlog. I really appreciate all feedback, constructive criticism and support for the project!  

The Game

Nai Nai Nights takes place in a Japanese-themed town in the mountaintops of a land covered in eternal darkness. The game’s story is a direct continuation of my Nokia game jam entry of the same name, featuring the same town and characters now in a higher resolution with colour. Similarly to the Nokia edition, this game will be a combination of two genres; a combination of a farming/city builder game with an RPG/adventure game. For the nokia edition I took a lot of inspiration from early Legend of Zelda games, whereas for this project my main inspiration is the EarthBound/Mother series. 

Here is a rough sketch I drew of the town, updated for the new game. I'm trying to keep it as faithful to the original as possible. If you've played the Nokia edition, there are some interesting changes planned for the new game if you look closely.

 The colour palette I'm using is  this one by @_unsettled_, with some slight changes

Game Loop

The game will play through a calendar of events, similar to games like Stardew Valley and Persona 5. While it is always night, the townsfolk still run on a schedule that allows them to sync up body clocks, so in-game "days" are divided up into 3 portions:

"Morning": Explore the town, plant and harvest crops, rebuild the town to your liking, talk with characters, advance their stories, witness events. (no time limit, go at your own pace)

"Afternoon": Recruit any three characters to take with you on a scout mission below the mountains. Explore ruins and strange locations, battle against ghosts that dwell in the darkness, find and help surviving humans to recruit them back to your town, find new crops and items to expand your town. (time limited, only a certain amount you can do before you must return)

"Evening": The whole town gathers for a communal supper. Here characters will interact with each other and you can choose who you wish to spend time with. Adding crops to the communal soup can apply boosts to your party for the following day. (Once a character is chosen to spend time with, it will progress to the next "day").

*The time limited sections will not run by real world time, I don’t ever want to rush the player or punish them for exploring. Rather, it will advance a certain amount of in-game time per major action taken.

Game-play

I’m currently overhauling the battle system so it is very likely to change in some ways.

I will be taking a similar approach to an RPG as the Paper Mario series/ Undertale with a lot more interaction than just pressing buttons. It supports anywhere from 1v1 battles to 4v4 (the most common) with characters and enemies taking turns in order, based on a speed value (think Octopath Traveler). Enemy turns will trigger a short minigame-style defense, and player turns allow the player to choose from three battle choices (ATK, SUB, POW) or RUN (which  triggers a run minigame)

There are (as of now) 6 classes and each recruit can be assigned any two of them. A player’s ATK and SUB attacks change depending on these classes, along with the corresponding minigame-style attacks. POW attacks (character powers) require charging from ATK and SUB attacks before use, and are individual to each character and are designed to be more spectacular, like a finishing move.

I want players to choose characters based on the personalities and stories they connect with most instead of who is most powerful, so I am designing the system around the ability to make any character any class.

Another feature you may have noticed is no items! I want to keep the combat simple, straight forward and fun and I don’t think items bring much value and often end up doing more harm than good. Healing, buffs and debuffs are all achievable through character moves.

I’m still working on the combat now, so more about this including visuals will be highlighted in the next devlog!

Town Building/ Farming

Just as I aim to create simplified combat, I also hope to create a fun, simplified version of customisation. For this I will be doing away with the large inventory filled with materials that is often found in these types of games. This means no wood, no stone, no iridium bars or monster parts. Just money, placeable items and the crops you grow.

Players can use their space for whatever they wish; plant crops or decorate. Access to development in different parts of town will also unlock as the game progresses. Recruited characters get assigned rooms in the old school building in town and you can place furniture in their rooms based on their requests to build friendships with them.   

Characters

The game will feature a large cast of interesting characters all with their own stories that intersect with the overarching plot. Some will join during the main story, however the majority will be optional and require some exploration by the player. I hope to give players a stronger connection to the characters that they decide to recruit by adding secret characters and characters that require some planning by the player.  

Ayumu and Rina:

Just as in the Nokia edition, here they are also the main characters. This time however, both are playable and can be swapped between. They play as separate characters and have their own stats and levels as well as unique stories and interactions with other characters, so there is an advantage to playing as both. At least one of the siblings must be in your party at all times and is the character that the player will interact with the world through.

Their designs are taken directly from the Nokia edition:

PICTURE

Mac:

A new character I designed for this game. Mac is a ghost that will fill the sidekick role and will accompany you throughout the game. He is in-fact a ghost himself, but unlike the ghosts you fight below the mountains he strikes a deal with you that allows you to interact with the ghost world, allowing you to fight them. He is very eccentric and has an extensive knowledge of the ghosts and their world.

Ghosts often take the form of objects in the world, so expect similar designs for the ghosts you’ll be fighting. (If you couldn’t tell, he takes the form of a microphone)

These sprites were created with previous size restrictions in mind so they may change, however his design will be the same.

Thanks for Reading!

That’s all for my first devlog! If you would be interested in playing this game, I would love to know why and if there’s anything else you’d want to see as a feature. If you got to the end of this and thought “sounds garbage!”, I would also love to hear why and any features you’d rather see!