Notes On Pulling The Sky Down

[Anglachel]

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa252/TheShadowRaven/notesondreams.png[/IMG]


Story:

The rhythmic sound of the ocean was broken only by harsh cries of hungry gulls. White sand met the soft green on grass and then transformed into the dark grey of rocky cliffs. A light breeze carried the smell of the ocean and a slight chill. Nature was at peace. At least it was, until a young man jollily walking by appeared. He whistled to himself contently enjoying the privacy he had out here. His hair swayed in the breeze and his eyes were lost in thought.

Suddenly his head moved, transfixed, as if seeing something in the distance. He stood there, wondering, and started off in that direction. A slim silhouette of a human body lay washed up on the shore. Realising this he ran towards it. As he approached the figure he could see that it was a young woman who had perhaps not seen 20 years yet, similar to his own age. She appeared lifeless yet beautiful as he gazed at her. He looked in disbelief as he looked upon her face. She was crowned with long dazzling blue hair, such he had never seen.

Eventually his shock and wonder wore off as he realised what he was doing. Quickly he bent down to help her. He felt her heart, still a pulse. Her body, still warm. She was alive. He breathed new life into her. Coughing, spluttering she awoke. He cradled her head In her hands as she coughed up water, still full of wonder at her brilliant blue hair. She gasped for air like it was her first time. They then sat there, staring at each other. No words were spoken but a bond was formed. After an age that seemed to passed quickly, or maybe it was a second that seemed to last forever, no one could know, he spoke.

"...Who are you?"
"I... I... Don't know."

Meanwhile back at his village an old man was pondering. Had he see right? Had he really seen a blue-haired girl fall out of the sky and into the ocean...?

This is but one part of the story. In the west coast a seemingly innocent blue-haired girl is found. To the East a young man embarks on a quest to join the military and fight for his country. Only to be dissapointed... Shocked and in despair he finds a new purpose that will lead him to greater glory than he could have ever imagined. And to the south an experianced mark hunter finds that his past has caught up to him again, and this time there is no more running. Unclear? I know. You will just have to wait a little while. Take a look at the characters :D

Characters:


http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa25 ... n/skye.png[/IMG]
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa25 ... 0blue4.png[/IMG]

Spoiler: Fanart by the amazing Kiearaphoenix

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n225/Kiearaphoenix/NPSDanglachel.png[/img]

She fell out of the sky and into our hearts... leaving all her secrets behind.

"Our memories, those we cherish, and those we regret are taken for granted. Because without them, what else do we have?"

Name: Skye
Gender: Female
Age: Unknown. Young.

PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES

Appearance: Blue hair and blue eyes, most unusual is this country.
Strengths: Appears to have some control over magic.
Weaknesses: Can't remember what she can do.
Weapon: Dagger/Staff

MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS

Current Goal/Purpose: To find out who she is, how she got there and why.
Fears: Who she might really be.
General Personality: Warm, bubbly and friendly. Very open and honest,
Inner Personality: Searching, inquisitive.
Secret: Ahem major plot spoiler.

Present Life: Seeks to find out who she really is and stumbles across two others who could lead her to find the answers.

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa252/TheShadowRaven/mainchar.png[/IMG]
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa25 ... 9brown.png[/IMG]

When our dreams are all we have... What do we do when they are shattered?

"I will die to win because I was born to lose."

Name: Bryce
Gender: Male
Age: 19
Occupation: Dreams of being a soldier

PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES

Appearance: Medium height with a slender build but defined muscles.
Strengths: Excellent swordsmanship.
Weaknesses: Inexperienced and lacks physical conditioning.
Weapon: Sword

MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS

Current Goal/Purpose: Wants to find a way into the army. He does this because he desperately seeks respect and acceptance.
Fears: Not being accepted, being alienated, not being good enough, not being special.
General Personality: Trys to make people like him and therefore is usually talkative and asks a lot of questions. Curious.
Inner Personality: Selfish, insecure. Fears mediocrity. Fascinated by fantasy, tales and adventure. Has a great imagination that often works against him.

Present Life: Up until now lived at home with his parents helping out their restaurant. Most of his friends have rich and powerful parents and this has created a feeling of inadequacy that has burdened him his whole life. Although he has lived a normal life mentally he has imagined all his experiences being greater than they were and so to him he believes he has had many ups and downs. Since he was a child he has dreamed about adventuring and fantasy but it never seemed a reality to him.

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa252/TheShadowRaven/char2-1.png[/IMG]
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa25 ... ven/o2.png[/IMG]

The man that time forgot.

"Our scars remind us that the past is real."

Name: Diego (working name)
Gender: Male
Age: 30+
Occupation: Professional Mark hunter

PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES

Appearance: Very large. Broad shoulders, bulging biceps and blonde hair. A scarred and battle worn face with strong features.
Strengths: Has many years of experience in fighting and hunting beasts. His occupation has forced him to travel around the country giving him a sound knowledge of many places.
Weaknesses: Carrying a lage bulk and worn down by the years his is not nearly as nimble as he used to be (which wasn't very much to begin with). He struggles to work in a team at times.
Weapon: Axe primarily, although... You name it, he can use it.


MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS

Current Goal/Purpose: Travels from place to place seeking out more powerful beasties to slay for greater rewards. Or maybe it is just a distraction from something else?
Fears: Death. But not for himself, he fears that he will be responsible for others dying. Other than that he fears little. He doesn't believe he has anything to lose.
General Personality: Loud and obnoxious. He just doesn't care what people think of him. Despite this he is someone charismatic and usually has a way with people.
Inner Personality: Who knows? He seems strong but only time will tell?.

Present Life: His job has led him to make a lage amount of friends all over the country. This has also made him a lot of enemies. He has a lage reputation but mainly among other hunters. The common person wouldn't even know that he helps keep them safe at night. Going from town to town helping people is what he has been doing for a long time, but it seems like he has a past he can't escape from and a purpose other than hunting.

Screenshots:

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa25 ... creen4.png[/IMG]
Skye wakes up in a strange village.

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa25 ... creen2.png[/IMG]
Bryce shows off his skills.

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa25 ... creen3.png[/IMG]
Skye ponders what her past was and her future will be.

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa25 ... creen5.png[/IMG]
As one path closes a new door opens, and there is a light on the other side.

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa25 ... creen1.png[/IMG]
Bryce gets more than he bargained for, but it is all in a days work for Diego.

Spoiler: On the name

Notes On Pulling The Sky Down:

I know it's a mouthful but I wanted a name that didn't have apocalypse, crystals, sword, demon, soul, dreams, secret, crimson [insert really long cool, fantasy sounding (although usually meaningless) word here]. Well you get the point. Also, it has a meaning to me.

NOPTSD (wow even the abbreviation is long). Incase you dind't realise its a metaphor. Get it? I'll leave it up to you to create your own meaning.

Spoiler: Features

Fast and intense side-view battle system.
Original Job/Class system unique for each character
Mark hunting system.
UMS with emotive facesets for all major characters.
Item trading and synthesis scheme.

Spoiler: Want to help?

Have any special talents? If you are a talented spriter, artist, musician, scripter or anything else, any help would be greatly appreciated. Just post here or send me a PM. Play a part in making this game even better and get your name out there.

Thanks ^^

Credit will be given when a demo comes out.

 

[Pokémaniac]

Uhhh.... Ever heard of word?

Anyway, good luck grouping their stories togethor again... And yeah, the only thing worse then a cliche is when the creator points out it's a cliche with no intention to fix it, instead just hoping it will fix itself :P.

Also, Is there a base storyline for this to all branch out from?

 

[G-man]

Sorry this obviously isn't ready to be made into a project thread. But soon it will be. I just need somewhere to place rough sketches of my thoughs. Trust me, it is a lot better than it looks

y'know this is what the predevelopment project section is for, and rmxp discussion can help you get a name 4 your char, I like title name, unique enough to catch my attention and make me click on the topic.

 

[ccoa]

There's actually nothing wrong with a cliche so long as you do the story well. Its' doing cliches badly that's bad. Although the girl needing rescuing who doesn't remember anything is cliche, if he can do it in such a way that I only care about Sky and what happened to her and what's going to happen next, it doesn't matter.

There isn't much to say about this yet, but I do like the name, although it seems overly long. Perhaps shorten it to Pulling the Sky Down?

 

[Pokémaniac]

I was thinking about the name. Mabye it should be Noptsyd for purposes of talking about it? Or even better, PSD.

 

[Anglachel]

Ok ok I realised my mistake and I prematurely made this topic. I should have planned it all in MS Word. Having this as a designer journal type thing was a stupid idea and I'm going to try making a blog. It is highly unlike me. Normally I have a gazillion word pages detailing characters and stroy before I post anything. Then I take great care to make it all look perfect.

So now I'm desperately writing everything down and redeeming myself :P

I really do see your point ccoa and I noticed it myself, but I can't bear to change the name. I really do like it and it is also the name of a song I wrote. Please feel free to abreviate it, I will be doing the same myself.

I am fully aware it is cliche and I don't plan on changing it. But it is only one part of a very large story and it is only one character. I'm sure some parts will be original. Like ccoa said, I plan on making the player care about Skye and want to find out what happened to her, then no one will care if it has been done beofre.

 

[BunnyKinx]

lol dont worrie... almost every single game on ere is the same as the one before... ONLY you can change that. and I dout you can change it with story you need to have a unique syle...

good luck

 

[Verad]

A bit contrary to popular thought, I tend to really love games like this where you start with a character who is, to use metaphor, a blank page at first. When this type of game is done well, you know it is going to revolve around a personal journey with many subtle internal conflicts, and that you will be sucked into the character's persona. People can better identify with a personal journey than with a story about how a random guy defeated The Great Darkness. I will definately be keeping an eye on this game, as often as I can spare it.

 

[Shizu]

There isn't much to say about this yet, but I do like the name, although it seems overly long. Perhaps shorten it to Pulling the Sky Down?

I have to agree with ccoa here. I actually thought the title of the post meant "notes on 'pulling the skies down'". Pulling the skies down feels a bit a catchy as 'knocking on heaven's door'.

 

[Shizu]

There isn't much to say about this yet, but I do like the name, although it seems overly long. Perhaps shorten it to Pulling the Sky Down?

I'm afraid I have to agree with ccoa here. I actually thought the title of the post meant "notes on 'pulling the skies down'". Pulling the skies down feels a bit a catchy as 'knocking on heaven's door', but assuming with the cliche being discussed, that you're not going for an entirely serious story. :p

 

[JanitorGod]

It sounds more like a short story or a novel and not at all like many formulaic names that crop up here that it's more like walking into a bargain bin of old porno films, at least the pornos have funnier titles.

What I'm trying to say is I hope you stick with the name just to break the monotony of everything else.

 

[Anglachel]

Ok I've cleaned up my main topic a huge amount. Infotmation is still scarce but more will come soon. I've been doing a lot of planning and organising it in a wiki. A lot of work behind the scenes. The main events is the story, characters, twists are all coming together. Unfortunately I care share all of them with you.

The graphics for Shaun and Skye aren't mine but I spent a lot of time editing them to get them how I want. So please tell me what you think of the characters (I'm not a graphic artist). I also whipped up that graphic up the top, which doubles as a title screen. Tell me what you think. I will give credit to everyone as soon as the demo is out!

The story still doesn't look like much as I've barely detailed it, but I have it all planned. Trust me, its there.

I'm glad that people like the name, but if you think its too long than I'm sorry because I don't plan on changing it soon.

Thanks you JanitorGod P), Shizu, Verad (glad you agree), XcuMaSoft and G-man, Pokemaniac and ccoa from before. I gladly await new opinions.

 

[Verad]

I just came by to take another look, and I'm glad to see that things are progressing. The first post looks really clean, and I enjoyed reading through the intro to the story and the character bios. There were a few grammatical errors, though most seemed to be mere typos, but I'm sure that if you take another look at your first post after not looking at it for a while, you should be able to squash them easily. I'm looking forward to seeing more about this game. Please do keep it up.

 

[kaze950]

Nice game, this looks good.

IMO, "Notes on Pulling Down the Sky" sounds better than "Notes on Pulling the Sky Down"

 

[LightAndMagic]

It sounds interesting, and the name itself is sure to catch people's attention. I am inclined to agree with Kaze, his suggestion does sound better in my opinion. Although the amnesia is a bit overused, if developed correctly, it can work greatly. Just please don't give her the mysterious ability to heal, or cast magic or something.

 

[Anglachel]

Thanks for the feedback guys ^^ And yes Verad they are typos, I will try to find and fix them. ^_^

Kaze and L&M: I considered calling my game that. I almost did. In the end I stuck with what I have now. I think it sounds better but it might just be because the name is so ingrained in my mind now. It is probably just a question of opinion.

I am aware amnesia is 'overused' and 'cliche'. However Skye is just one character (I think this may be my fault for putting so much emphasis on her, and I forgot to add that fell out of the sky!). Byce for example - has both his parents still alive, doesn't live on a farm and the game doesn't start with his mother waking him up (usually followed by doing pointless jobs for the villagers before his village is destroyed). Three major cliche killers right there. Not to mention that his motivation isn't revenge. Oh and no light and darkness gods at war either. Nope. Not to mention Diego, who has such a past it is a wonder he isn't an evil overlord. Perhaps I've already given too much away. :P

People tend to see the amnesia as cliche, without giving a thought to why she has it. Maybe that isn't cliche? As long as I hold players long enough for them to want to find out. I hope to add some interesting villains too, which I'm working on now.

In any case I'm glad your speaking your mind. I'm even gladder people are showing an interest in this. I elaborated the story to Diegoale2000, including spoilers, and he really seemed to like it. :D

-Stay tuned for more updates-

 

[Ravenith]

Anglachel, first of all you are a good narrator. :D
Yes, amnesia is a cliche, and there's nothing bad about it. After all, people who complain about cliches are so... cliche.
Although you don't offer much of the story (no problem with this either) it was enough to wake my interest. What I loved were the characters, Diego most of all.
And 2 thumbs up for the nicest title I heard of lately!

 

[Verad]

It all has to do with presentation. The idea of amnesia may be used often (although I haven't played enough games to see it used more than twice), but if the game is presented well, if the reason behind and the solution to the amnesia is proved to be as interesting as it sounds, then I can see a kick-ass story and game here. About the different placements of 'down,' both are grammatically correct, so it really is a matter of personal preference. I like the way it is now, because I think it is 'ear-catching.'

 

[kaze950]

Amnesia may be cliche, but it can be used effectively. For example, the player is playing a game in a world that isn't his own. Therefore, by introducing elements of the world to the person with amnesia , you can introduce the world better to the player. Similar to when you have someone from a different world come to a new one (Like FFX, for example)

 

[Twin Matrix]

Can I steal your game's title? Seriously, though, this is probably the only RMXP game with a catchy title that sticks to me (perhaps Steel Hearts and Nadir's Canon as well, but this one is the catchiest). It sounds fantasy-ish and fun, yet mysterious.