The RPG Maker MV MMORPG @ www.Afar.ws
What is Witches & Wyverns?
W&W is an MMORPG created in RPG Maker MV. It is a box-breaking project, with many features unique to this project that have never been attempted elsewhere.
Set in the world of Afar, a world which I have built up over 16 years of game making, this is a new game that incorporates everything I have learned over all this time.
W&W uses PVGames 2.5D graphics and QSprite.
Scope
Initially the plan is to have a small but complete game that can be used as a test-bed to build from. This means there can be a testing release quite early on, to allow a small group to play the game and build from their feedback.
www.Afar.ws
When will this be playable?
There are a list of key features and content that have to be created before the game is released. This includes balancing, a good variety of content, and systems such as trading, guilds and shops.
The Battle System
The battle system in W&W is unapologetically best described as a "Guild Wars Clone" - that is the game that the battle system aims to emulate.
The player chooses their weapon and six abilities. Their weapon gives them an attack ability. These seven abilities are then used to decide what "class" the player has, which gives them an eighth, elite ability.
For example, the Thief class might look like this:
Battles are on the map scene, and are entirely focused on choice of abilities.
Like in Guild Wars many abilities invoke conditions, which can have an affect on the ambient HP stream:
This generally sits at 0, but if you idle it starts to creep up so as to heal you outside of battles. Conditions normally have an amount of time or distance before they disappear:
They do not stack themselves but they do compound with other conditions so you could have a mixture of positive and negative conditions all affecting your HP stream.
Character Customisation
To begin with there are 19 hair styles in 8 colours, with 6 skin tones. This will be very easily expandable in future, but may be implemented as special rare items such as hair dyes to boost the economy.
Vertical Playstyle
W&W is unique in that it is designed to be played vertically. This is a personal preference, and is how I always play MMOs, in a small window to the side of the screen while other things are going on. This lends itself well to Mobile play, although that is something that is going to take a lot of testing as it is not somewhere I have experience with.
The game scales in every way, always keeping the same aspect ratio. For example, smaller:
The player can scroll to zoom to their preferred level.
Crafting and Merchant Skills
As the player journeys around the world they interact with their scenery to gather materials used in the crafting system.
This is used to level 12 Merchant Skills, to allow you to produce better items and to enter special areas of the game.
The World
W&W is set in the world of Afar, but currently only a small part of it. At the minute play is limited to the Township of Stonewood Keep, a test-bed map.
Interiors in this game collapse rather like The Sims, allowing you to seamlessly enter buildings.
As you roam the world you encounter two types of NPC. One type, active, give you quests or sell you items. The other, ambient, are rather like those in FFVII-Remake, and have dynamic conversations as you walk by.
The wider world will be revealed in future content updates, but is not presently the focus of development. Therefore we have this dummy world map for now.
Quests and Adventures
Storyline is given through quests, however these quests are far more complex than those seen in Guild Wars.
Quests must be more than simple go-and-fetch tasks. They have to invoke storyline and they should introduce the player to some kind of new content, as well as developing characters.
Quests chain together to provide the storyline of the game, in a non-linear way.
Wildlife
Enemies in the initial game are largely drawn from wildlife or livestock. This gives flavour to forest maps and such.
In-Game User-Guide
We have an in-game wiki-style user-guide, which I can edit while in the game.
This is linked to by scenes such as the quest list or bestiary.
Currently Implemented Features
All of the above, plus:
- In-game forums
- Global chat
- Private messaging
- Login via Discord, Twitter, Facebook or Google
- Paperdoll visual equipment
- Server-based saving of variables and switches
Appendix - Further Screenshots
