Good evening everybody! Today I’m going to talk about a hypothetical video game concept! Much like Blueberry’s similar threads, I’d appreciate any feedback you might have! Let’s talk some game design! [b]Story[/b] [spoiler]Our tale begins with a small ball of blue light. He is lost, and scared, and doesn’t seem to remember who he is. Just that his name is Ado, and that should anything ever go wrong, he should head to the Mana Shrines; ancient temples associated with the four elements; Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Soul. He’s rather wimpy at fighting, and many monsters bar his path. Thankfully, he meets a HUUYUUUMAN named Leine, and shares his magic with her. While her motivations only go so far as to sell our little Mana Spark in town, the tables soon turn, when said town winds up destroyed by a mysterious evil. That evil it seems, has also corrupted the Mana Temples (because when are evil temples ever not corrupted). As told by an ancient spooky ghost, all Mana Sparks are named Ado, and their Spark-Wielders are known as “Ado-(name)”. Thus, our hero takes up the name Adeleine (Ado-Leine), and heads out to destroy the corruption, and save the temples! Woo![/spoiler] [b]Basic gameplay[/b] The game will be played from a top down perspective, though preferably still with 3D models. At almost any point, the player can switch between controlling Ado—our little fairy buddy—and Leine, a human. When playing as Leine, Ado follows her, but when playing as Ado, Leine sits still. They both share a mana bar, and while only Leine can get hit, Ado has a much lower damage-to-mana ratio, and leaves Leine wide open to attack. Thus, Ado should be used mainly as support. Ado’s gameplay; [spoiler]Ado can drop mines, which can then be detonated by charging for a few seconds, hurting everything nearby (including Leine?). The mines can be detonated even when playing as Leine, but can only be placed when playing as Ado. Maybe a player 2 could also control Ado? Regardless, you can’t go too far ahead as Ado, or you’ll automatically switch back to Leine. Since Ado is invincible, he’s best used for sneaky first strikes, or a quick hit & run. This can also be used for puzzles, though, hitting multiple targets simultaneously. Example button map; LS - Move A - Place Mine LT - Detonate (4 sec charge) RT - Swap[/spoiler] Leine’s gameplay [spoiler]You will be playing as Leine for most of your playtime. Leine will have 3 main actions; 1. Basic spell. These will always be cast the same way; hold down a button to summon a targeting ring, and move it around with LS. Release for an explosion. 2. Melee attack. This will be slow, unwieldy, and do 0 damage. Its sole purpose is to restore mana on hit (like the Dream Nail in Hollow Knight). 3. Secondary spell. This will be more varied in what they can do. One might charge up a steadily growing aura around you, and then damage everything within. One might cause Ado to drop several homing mines. Then standard stuff like heals. You can probably have multiple eauipped, chosen from some sort of action bar. Each Element would have a different loadout. (more on that in a sec). Example controller map: LS - Move A (hold) - Cast LS (holding A) - Move Cast ring A (release) - Detonate Cast X - Melee attack Y - Secondary Spell LB/RB - Cycle Secondary LT - Detonate Mines RT - Swap If this sounds familiar, it is based on Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles’ magic system, though more in depth.[/spoiler] [b]The Good Stuff[/b] Alright, now this is where things get interesting. It’s time to talk about Elements, and Mana Rocks! Elements first! [spoiler]As mentioned previously, each of the Mana Shrines is associated with one of the four elements; Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Soul. When you clear one of these Shrines (which serve as the game’s dungeons), a few things happen. 1. Monsters of that element will begin spawning in the world (as opposed to only within the Shrine). 2. Mana Rocks of said element will be obtainable (more on that later). 3. The player will obtain that element’s “Elemental Form”. Elemental Forms will be accessed by pressing a direction on the D-Pad, and doing so will change all of your attacks. While your basic spell will remain more or less unchanged, aside from gaining that elemental affinity, your other attacks change more drastically. -Your melee will now use a different weapon, and while it still won’t do damage, it will inflict that element’s debuff. -Your selection of Secondary Spells changes entirely. Each element will have its own selection of Secondaries. For both the player, and enemies, each element would have 3 traits to them: 1. Weakness/Resistance. Deal more or less damage depending on the foe’s resistances. 2. A debuff. Each would be unique (no 2 DoTs, or 2 stuns). 3. An associated trait. Ex: Mana regen for Lightning, Defense for Ice. That trait is enhanced while in that Elemental Form.[/spoiler] Mana Rocks [spoiler]Now, once you start getting all these fancy Elemental Forms, most games would deem your Basic Form inferior, but that’s not the case here! See, in your Basic Form, and [i]only[/i] your Basic Form, you can enhance your skills by eauipping Mana Rocks. Each skill can have 2 Mana Rocks equipped, and they essentially tie that skill to that element, raising its “Affiliation”. Ex: Fire Form’s basic spell is essentially a Cast with Fire Affiliation 2. You could recreate that attack by equipping 2 Fire Rocks to your basic Cast. However, you don’t need to assign all your skills the same element. You could mix & match them to, say, have a Fire basic spell, but a Lightning secondary. That said, Fire Form would give a buff to Fire spells, so a given Elemental Form is still better with its Element, than a Basic Form with that Elemental Affiliation. But, Basic has one more trick up its sleeve to make it relevant! It can mix & match Mana Rocks on the same skill, creating entirely new elements! For example: Putting a Fire Rock, and an Ice Rock on the same skill would give it a Water element! It’d be something like; Fire + Ice = Water Fire + Lightning = Light Fire + Soul = Spooky Ghost Fire(?) Lightning + Soul = Dark Lightning + Ice = Earth Ice + Soul = Necromancy(?) And while some Secondaries wouldn’t change much when their Element shifts, others might become completely different, allowing for a ton of fun customization! Mana Rocks could also be combined at a smith to make more powerful versions, or possibly spent to upgrade spells of their Elemental Form.[/spoiler] Now, ideally, clearing the Shrines would only be the first half of the game, and so you’d still have a whole half a game to mess around with elements. If development issues ever made that too hard, though, NG+ baybay! (also, endgame bosses & junk. Cave of 100 trials, maybe?) [b][u]Tl;dr? Here’s my point![/b][/u] Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles magic system, but heavily expanded, and with some fun elemental shenanigans. I was actually making this on Project Spark, but I know my Koding skills will never reach my ambitions, so I thought I’d share here, too. But that’s all for now folks! Jambuhbye!