((Obligatory Advisory Notice: The game contains suggestive material and allusions to sensitive topics. Nothing explicit. Please proceed accordingly))
About
Black Crystals is a lovingly hand drawn JRPG.
Expected release of the first episode is Fall 2018. (Beta testing to start in Summer 2018)
Story driven with many many characters and deep world history and lore.
It has turn based combat with point and click elements
Use the environment to your advantage in battle. Devise an escape route. No one needs to get hurt.
It has a dynamic skill learn where skills are learned and executed in the midst of combat.
It has and even more dynamic combo system where skills are combo’ed like jigsaw pieces.
EMOTIONS MATTER – Your characters’ State of Mind determines their effectiveness in battle and lets you in on their inner thoughts and motivations.
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The Story So Far
This synopsis covers the portion of the game that I am currently working on and plan to release as a demo. This can be considered as a “Prelude” or “Chapter 0” to the game:
Starsio, a mild mannered occasionally sarcastic street performer, finds himself in the stickiest of situations. Starsio was kidnapped off the streets of his home town and brought to the raunchy brothel Paprika where he is forced to become a “performer” . One rainy night, Starsio gathers his courage and wits and plans an escape. He convinces Arthur, an apprehensive and fidgety new found friend, to accompany him. Starsio sets his escape plan in motion with one last song…
Features
1) Interact and Talk
The main feature of the battle system in Black Crystals is that you have the option of winning the battle by means other than fighting. Either talk your way out of battle, or Interact with your environment and devise an escape route.
Interact: Interact with objects within your battle environment to alter the flow and outcome of battle. Push objects in the way of your adversary, hide behind boulders to reduce damage, play with stray cats. Every battle has a set of different Interact options that affect the battle and all participants. It is entirely possible to win a battle by only Interacting to your environment.
The main idea behind Interact is the ability to use the battle environment to your advantage while in battle. Using Interact, you will be able to climb objects, hide behind things, or use items around you to your advantage. In the example above, you will need to to stand on top of the box in order to further interact with the flying cockroach.
Every battle has multiple ways of concluding the conflict without the need to engage in actual combat. Certain skills will become available in each battle, and it is up to you to determine how to utilize these skills in order to win!
To make the Interact scenarios more dynamic, I added a timed input mini game for all Interact skills. You’ll need to hit the target area in order to successfully carry out the skill.
Talk: Consult your teammates or beg your enemy to let you go. Every battle has a set of different Talk options.
Coordinate Interact and Talk: Sometimes, you will have to utilize both Interact and Talk skills to be able to make the most of out non-fighting options.
2) Skill Potential
This mechanics is based on the fact that in Black Crystals you learn skills by
using skills.
There are no specific skills that are learned depending on your characters’ level, rather, skill usage is what determines what skills your characters learn.
I chose this design because it allows for good flexibility and diversity when building the character, and because, in conjunction with “Skill Potentials”, essentially no skill will be rendered useless as all skills have the potential to becomes something much more powerful.
Skill Potential
is basically all the cool new skills you can learn by using a single or multiple skills enough times. Sometimes the potential of a skill is hidden, and you’ll have to find Inspiration to be able to find and unlock that potential. Inspiration can be found throughout the world of Black Crystals by means of items, conversation, dialogue choices and some plot points.
Here’s a snippet of the skills menu, showing the potential window.
3) Spontaneous Learning
Spontaneous Learning
relates to how the skill potential is actually realized.
You learn and execute new skills in the middle of battle.
This design choice is largely inspired by the learn system in Saga Frontier. I want players to experience the thrill of learning a new skill and unleashing its wrath on the enemies on the spot.
Here is an example of the spontaneous learning system. Starsio’s “Strike” evolves to “Double Strike” mid battle. Learning a new skill is signified by the “lightbulb”. I still would like to add some bold lettering showing off the skill name for the first time so that its more dramatic.
4) Jigsaw Chain Coop
To fully understand the jigsaw chain coop system, let’s start by talking about the Skill Jigsaw Imprint.
Skills are the building blocks of a coop skill. Each and every skill in the game has a jigsaw imprint. This imprint is basically a jigsaw puzzle shaped piece with a receiving end, a transmitting end and crux limiters. I will talk in depth about the Crux System in a future post, but crux limiters are basically the elements a skill can connect with. Some skills can connect with all elements, some with more than one while others are limited to one only. If skills with compatible jigsaw imprints are used in the correct order, a jigsaw chain forms and a coop skill is triggered.
There are a number of rules that surround coop skills. To avoid abusing them, they are dependent on a coop counter which regenerates based actions taken throughout battle. They’re also limited by a rule that you can use a certain coop skill only once in the same battle.
There are also other rules that govern the jigsaw chain system. For example, if two consecutive jigsaw pieces have the same crux color, a crux link forms. A crux link increases the effectiveness of the skill by a percentage proportionate to the length of the crux link.
5) State of Mind (SOM)
There are two types of SOMs, Flourish and Destruct.
Flourish SOMs are positive emotions. These SOMs result in boosting the character’s stats making them more effective in battle.
Destruct SOMs on the other hand are negative emotions. As you’ve probably guessed by now, these detract from a character’s stats, reducing their effectiveness in battle.
In Black Crystals you’ll find that your characters accumulate various Flourish and Destruct SOMs. The accumulation of SOMs and their overall impact on a character’s stats is shown in the menu/battle menu like this
How long do SOMs last? That depends on a very important character state called the Retain.
There are two retain stats per character, a Flourish Retain, and a Destruct Retain. Some characters retain Flourish SOMs longer than Destruct SOMs. Some are the opposite. Retains can be modified, but that is a story for another time!
A cool thing about SOMs is that their importance is not only related to battles and fighting and stats, but they also add to the character’s personalities. You’ll get to learn more about the characters by the SOMs they obtain during specific situations.
There are a few more surprises I have in store, so this post will be updated in the near future 🙂
6) Crystals Skills
AP (Attuned Points) are a character parameter that decides how attuned a character is with the Crystals. When AP reach their max, the character becomes in an attuned state.
While in this state:
The character’s stats increase immensely, making them more powerful in combat.
The character gets access to Crystal skills.
Crystal Skills are special skills that are only available when in an attuned state. They cause massive damage or provide higher levels of support to the team, be it healing or improving states of mind.
What Crystals skills are available and how do characters access them?
That’s dependent on the character’s selected Octagon
There are 8 Octagon types, based on their color. You collect Octagons as you progress throughout the game. Octagons are basically instruments that alter one’s ability to attune to the Crystals. Each Octagon determines how your character gains AP. A red or amber octagon for instance allows you to gain AP when using Offence skills. A blue or green octagon allows you to gain AP when using Defence skills.
So an Octagon dictates how attuned points are gained, and each octagon releases a different set of Crystal skills.
