coyotecraft":xm2kdio1 said:
Congrats
I recently played your Terra New Moon demo. It was in my RM folder and not the "biz" folder. I don't know how long I've had it.
I also played a few other rm games I downloaded forever ago but never got around to. They weren't very good. One was very long winded. And the other was kind of senseless and had a game stopping bug within the first 10 minutes.
I seem to be the only one capable of making a demo decently, albeit- a tad long winded, lmao.
Terra: New Moon has its roots in my early RM days, when I made a whole big game called Terra and I never released a Demo for it, it was a catastrophic failure. This is when i started releasing demo's to test waters on any game i produce before going ahead with the production of the full product. This was where I found my own brand of creativity, which became "Intelligence" and the impetus for my path on barely-notorious success.
But yeah Terra: New Moon as I think the description says, was just a 2 week try out of the MV engine to make a small demo. MV was the first RPGmaker where I actually enjoyed working with the Run-time assets. Kyoshi is one of my older characters, who goes all the way back to my TT_RPG days-- he was a Hero is "Nemesis", as were most of the characters you see in New moon. Although their designs have changed drastically from then and Terra to today.
I've actually drawn all four of the characters, some multiple times. You know how Kyoshi's design is now- Valin is now this oddly attractive monkey boi. Nikki is similar to her old design but her outfit has much more to it. Trixie has had the biggest change.
Both Valin and Trixie are Monkeets, or monkey-people. Traditionally their design was meant to be cute, but now I've stylized their designs more of the jarring look the animations of say, the band Gorillaz have. Given that all life in the Cosmos was generated by Monkeys from the Origin world- Haven, which lead into humans, elves, and all other manner of creature, it's not surprising there's a lot of in-betweens. Half-breeds like the Corporation XVI members, and other's who are much more monkey-sided like Trixie and especially Valin. I mean Valin's name is hebrew for "Monkey King" as I always have gotta be like that with names. Nikki (Nicole) means jewel of the people, and considering Nikki is a revolutionary and a protestor of the people this fits well. Kyoshi means 'Quiet and calm' in Japanese-- meanwhile Trixie means valorous and honest... which suits her to a T, albeit name-meanings don't often include bad annotations. Trixie is a terrible person morally.
Though mythology of all sorts tends to find their way into my games and characters. I mean let's take a look at the Fantasia cast.
Lumi is often purported as the Lunare Hare, which is based on the mythology of the moon rabbit, or Inaba the White hair. Her ENNUI where she has developed a lot of these traits from is called Naamah, which outside of being one of the angels of temptation in the Zohar Kabbalah, it's also derived from Nhaama of FFXIV- who is described briefly as such: Nhaama, The Dusk Mother, is the Auri elder goddess of the moon.
Then Koko, boy oh boy. So she is often called the Solar Monkey, which is a play on her Ennui's influence from Sun Wukong- who literally has sun as their first name. Sun Wukong was also a monkey King like Valin, just from a different mythology, Chinese specifically. Her ENNUI is named Loa Eisheth Zenunim, with Loa being essentially a wild god or spirit of nature, while Eisheth Zenunim is another of the angels of temptation mentioned in the Zohar Kaballah.
Lilac is the first of the characters to have more western influences- like Dracula. She doesn't like to be a vampire, but she was trapped into that by the circumstances of her past. Though granted, this is only a phase- While her outfit is designed from eastern elements, like Koakuma (Touhou)'s color palette and a dress design similar to Koakuma and Remilia Scarlet --who is also a vampire and she is the influence for a lot of Lilac's character, like her pride, speech mannerisms, like beginning sentences where she is making a counterpoint or statement with Ah~ and other such minutia. It's also where her protective nature regarding her sisters comes from) she has a much more western direction. She is rather lazy, has next to no work ethic, quite selfish and just eats whatever she feels like. Her precise aesthetics aside, she is more designed off of western vampires, as in, the older ones who were just bloodsucking shits, not the sparkle vampires like Twilight has. Because hey lets ape Jojo's vampires in the most terrible western way we can??
Fuck twilight, to this day it legit pisses me off.
All of their names have meaningful correlations as well.
Lumi Fuzz:
Limniscent Fuzzy character, like's glitter and shiny stuff, cue Lumi, then she's also based on a critter which is fuzzy, a bunny or rabbit. Of course there's also the take-two in that she's a cop, so Fuzz also factors in there.
Koko Spiral
Koko's first name was taken from that cheeky 90's Coco-Pops mascot, just switched C;s out for C's so it isn't so on the nose. Her last name Spiral infers to two things, one- her lifestyle, which is an endless spiral of curiosity and avarice for the unknown, and 2, the spiral in which a monkey's tail exhibits.
Lilac Grave
There's a fair bit behind this one. Lilac, her first name, is the color of her eyes, I also wanted to make her first name correlate with the last- i.e., something commonly placed on graves or near graves, so Lilac fit well. Her last name speaks a lot for itself- in that she is undead, she avoided the grave, yet lives life beyond it. Lilac was planned as a character of undeath from the start.
Personalities is where it gets really interesting.
Lumi was based of my optimism and happy go lucky mature, i didn't wanna just carbon copy Rolly though, so i gave her the double-life to make her more complicated. Lumi believing in justice was a challenge because while I believe in justice, i knew the flaws of beliving in things like the law, policing, etc. So i figured i could have Lumi start off ignorant and grow more and more to realize justice isn't a game of what goes and what doesn't. The good thing about this was it would dynamo off of Lilac's sense of self-preservation and anti-establishment. She's also the silly sibling who just has fun and loves cheering people up. A lot of her maannerisms and ideologies were pulled from Mabel of gravity Falls, she also treats Koko in a similar way to what Mabel does dipper.
Koko was based on my indifference and anti-socialism, and given that I had a sibling who i respected despite the fatc he was as flawed as i was, made her fun to write, as it could be said I literally based her of my desire to impress my younger brother, the difference isLilac is her older sister.Lilac also has a lot of pride, where as my bro kinda don't. Her whole personality was built around fighting fear, kinda like I ever had to because i was just sorta born fairly fearless and laid back. Koko however, doesn't yet understand that failure is a means to succeed. She's over a decade younger than me, so I'll give her props for getting so far as she has. Koko is based a fair bit off of Dipper, from gravity falls- which is where her enthusiasm for conspiracy-cracking and mysteries comes from.
Lilac was based on my confidence and my pride. Oh and my protective nature a bit. She's also based on the part of me that tries to be edgy and takes herself seriously but often comes off as kinda goofy. Like with the cast of intelligence, characters like this need a 'i'll bring ya down to earth' like tristy is for Pep, and this is how Koko is for Lilac, however, Lilac also is like this for Koko, who often gets lost in a world of grand conspiracy and can forget the world around her.
The Dynamic was that Lilac would support both her sisters, but keep their expectations realistic. Koko would see Lilac as a rival and aspire to make her proud despite the fact her ways of showing this weren't always so clear. Lumi was the one who just kinda did whatever and wanted to see her sister's happy. Koko needs Lilac to be the mystery bag and keep things interesting, Koko needs Lumi as a supportive person who believes in her. Lumi needs Koko and Lilac because Lumi is terrified of being alone. So she tends to be the glue that keeps them together with her in the mix, no matter how tough it may get. Lilac meanwhile, is terrified of losing her sisters due to her loyalty towards them, and that sense of empowerment of them both looking up to her, so to avoid that becoming a negative thing caused by pride overshadowing her morality, she instead endeavors to protect them, no matter how difficult that is. She knows that they're the only two people who have a chance of really understanding her, and wants to be understood.
Yeah, this is the kind of shit I'm dealing with, lmao. Character conception is easy, character dynamics is a whole other ballpark. Each character in a party or team has to have both something they contribute, and something they get out of it. or instance, if you were contributing nothing, but getting everything, you're a parasite, and therefore a pretty unlikeable character. Yet if your contributing everything, but getting nothing- why even stay in that relationship? This is what dynamic is all about. Not why a character is in that group, but why they STAY in that group. Why they are both allowed to be part of that group, and why they want to be in that group.
I discovered most of this when writing the cast for intelligence, and how their dynamic worked. Pep, is a little shit some of the time, but he is entertaining, and tends to leave an impression on people that is hard to not admire. He's charasmatic, but humble. he also is incredibly accepting, he's terrible at holding grudges, even against someone like Esperia who essentially ruined his entire family. He's also got that fearlessness I've kinda got, only he is better than me, hbecause he doesn't work to destroy people who piss him off, he just sorta ignores them. he doesn't have to deal with pesky pride like I do. Pep above all else, fears being alone- which is essentially how he was left after PFC, although Kara was assigned to keep him company (as a Guardian Angel) until he'd found new ground. After he'd made attempts that had failed, he was headed to Mt. Warning, or Mt. Sucide as he calls it, but on his trek there he encounters Rolly, who changes his life forever. Rolly is the compassionate loving non-judgemental bun of fun he needes to give him a reason. he may scold Rolyl for his flaws, but he knows it's all water of a ducks back, because Rolly doesn't give a crap. Verbal scorn means next to nothing for him unless he knows he is in the wrong, at which point he usually apologiezes and shows that he cares in actions and words both.
These two get on famously, to a point of nearing bromance, Rolly was the loving bundle of chaos and playfulness Pep needed to keep life interesting, while Pep was the unpredictable but underneath it all gold-hearted friend Rolly always wanted.
Enter Tristy, who was tired of solitude, and desperately wanted friends but was so socially awkward she had no idea where to start, she makes her entrance in her way and introduces herself, at first pep calls her shiela, she just says 'Tristy will do, thanks' and pep can already appreciate that she aint gonna be pushed around. Something he always admired about both Nola and his mother, they weren't pushovers and wouldn't do what went against their morals and mindset, and would not allow pep to get away with his shit.
Tristy was the ground Pep needed, someone to bring him back to earth when he was going too far. While Rolly was a good friend, pep knew Rolly would let him do almost anything- Rolly was like most doggos, loyal to a fault.
Tristy wasn't. She was independent, strong and sassy- everything Pep admired about the girls previously in his life. At first Tristy is weary of pep, because well- he does seem like a loose canon, but she soon discovered that he was both honest and had a good heart. It didn't take long for these three to make ap act of friendship that would keep them together basically as much as friends can be. "Forever Together." Tristy also wanted to find stuff out about Pep, he was her mystery bag. There's a lot about pep Tristy still doesn't know to this day. Pep and Rolly were flawed, and so is Tristy-- when she admitted to thievery, feeling ashamed, pep nor Rolly really cared much. Pep knew he couldn't judge, given his past. And Rolly was just naturally accepting. Tristy was also solely stealing from mega-corporate stores n' stuff, Pep by this point has no love for coporate sectors and honestly has no issue with it, and Rolly is happy because it cures a large problem of his own- his appetite. While pep can live on red cordial which is both cheap and widely distributed- Rolly is only interested in junk food and unhealthy garbage, one of his favourites being the radioactive truffles which tern him that green color and give him no superpowers whatsoever. His strength is a result of his past in the Mafia back when he was rumrunner and grifter for bad boys of new Jersey. It wasn't his favorite gig but it paid well (so he could continue his appetite), it had access to radioactive truffles which remain illegal in the U.S. as they were essentially seen as an illicit substance and on top of that he didn't have much where else to go. His parents kicked him out when he was only a rugrat. His old boss Catfish trained him up, and that's where he developed his love of brawling, and the capaacity to hurt. I.e. when he gets the face shadow-- that's his dark side.
Limbo himself noted that such a focus in battle could become troublesome.
Limbo meanwhile, functions largely as their teacher and their ally- and becomes fond of them, so decides to became their assistant and promoter- which is why in Act 3 there's posts all over the city with soft drink advertising heroes who had saved the world. This generated a shit ton of revenue. pep was also a very good charismatic speaker, often including everybody in the showboat. Limbo will continue to be their good friend and confidante so long as they continue to surprise and amuse him- which is unlikely to be difficult.
Boy oh golly have I rambled on! I'll put a pause on this here. I gotta go get the Mac and Linux versions of Re-Write done, then finally begin working on Disk 2 a bunch!
