welcome! it's time to Funpost.

hi everyone!! welcome to A More Lighthearted One. i've gotten up to a lil bit of personal project shenanigans since last we spoke, but im gonna try n spread info out over a few posts so it's not, Too Much All At Once. so this post'll just be an intro to my two current personal projects!

『PLANET YUUFO』

~a ufo catcher roguelike~

i love ufo catchers!! yknow, claw machines. crane games. i got super into 'em when i lived in japan. not even the allure of winning delightful Soft Prize's, but just... the gameplay??? for those unfamiliar, a lot of jp ufo catchers  are Extremely Winnable, which is uncommon in the US. they're still rigged to some extent to guarantee profitability but there's usually some kind of strategy or tactic you can exploit to work toward winning over the course of a few plays. they're also usually less about gripping objects and more about, like... moving them around the space by looping through bits or using the closing motion of the claw to shove and spin things around. anyway. it's cool and fun.

so, i've really wanted to make a ufo catcher game for a while, since i feel like there's a lot you could do with that sort of gameplay in a virtual space, especially one where the primary gameplay mechanism is designed less around Taking Your Real Human Money With Each Play. there are a few games with ufo catcher components... the yakuza series, for instance. but usually it's just there as a side activity. i think the only game i know of where it's the main mechanic is part-time ufo by hal labs, a mobile game that got localized just recently... and that game Owns, but it's still a very different idea from what i wanna do. i want that ufo catcher FEEL, y'know?? i want flashing lights and a big Machine and gaudy colors. i wanna collect Toys. and, because i'm me, i want just a fully uncalled for and unnecessary amount of world development, lore, and flavortext.

so, i've been pickin away at that idea. here's the basic gist of the setting...

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it takes place in the distant future, in a faraway galaxy. spacemans are the predominant species out here. they're little alien guys. i'll do a post on them and their unique physiology later, but here's one for reference!

that's fobis! they're our protagonist.

a popular profession among spacemans is "Catcher". it's... well, imagine a bounty hunter, but for chores. it's like spaceship fiverr. catchers specialize in operating Clawships, which are like spaceships but compact and modular. many catchers enter into the biz because they focus on the glamor of the "bounty hunter" part. they do occasionally get hired to explore ancient ruins and hunt for treasure or whatever, but it's honestly a lot more construction and cleanup than anything. that's the stuff that always pays.

anyway, something fun has happened. seemingly out of nowhere, near a spaceman homeworld, a giant mechanical planet has appeared. a digital marquee spins around it like a ring. "PLANET YUUFO," it reads, repeating. perched atop the planet, seemingly bursting out from it is a giant temple of sorts.

The Machine.

the catcher's association puts out a call to all active catchers: Get In There And Figure Out What It Is, And If There's Anything Cool Inside.

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so, that's how it starts. you play as fobis, a meek catcher who's actually pretty into chores. they're supported by their feisty childhood friend prill, who acts as their spotter. if you've played mega man legends, you're probably familiar with the digger/spotter kind of relationship.

that's them!!! for ref, fobis is they/them and prill is she/her. spacemans don't have biological gender and pronouns are just part of personal preference

the gameplay loop is thus... you begin each run in a ramshackle "town" at the top level of the machine. each floor beyond contains a Keystone, which you have to grab and drop into that floor's Prize Gate. once you've dropped that in, the barrier over the gate opens up and you can descend to the next floor. movement is performed in Turns: one Turn = one movement left to right, and one movement back to front. each Turn costs a Credit. credits can be earned via Redemption. it's sort of a kirby's dream course tomato counter situation!

each floor is constructed randomly from various chunks, and populated with Prizes, Toys, and Tricks, as well as the Keystone.

Prizes: fun objects. worth credits when Redeemed. collect them all and admire them back at your ship.

Toys: malicious (???) clockwork denizens of the Machine. if there are Toys present on a floor, your Turns will alternate with theirs. they'll menace the environment, mostly.

Tricks: other obstacles that are part of the floor. moving parts, weird geometry, switches and levers.

you can also find Tools and Claws in capsules around the Machine.

Tools: items that can be used before movement to change the environment a bit. examples: remotely attaching a hook to a prize you want to grab, detonating a remote bomb to knock a bunch of prizes around, using an orbital laser to vaporize all toys and prizes in a column, magnetizing a prize, dropping a weight on a switch, etc.

Claws: different claws with specialized advantages. you start with a Basic claw that you can always swap back to. examples: drill, magnet crane, cartoon glove, construction crane, tractor beam.

once you run out of Credits, you're transported back to the town at the top. the town is an area where you can run around and talk to other catchers. check out what happened while you were away, or admire your prize hoard! maybe trade away some of your extra prizes, even...

anyway. that's kinda the gist of that thing. it's currently in early prototyping!! i have the basic ufo catcher stuff running and i've been experimenting with different styles of setting up discrete hitboxes in unity to allow for looping through objects in ways that feel natural, as well with a lil bit of level generation and asset creation on the side. there's a lot more to the story and characters that i'm excited to get to, but we'll leave that for future posts!

i've been working on yuufo little by little since october of last year, and hopefully by the end of this year i'll have the resources to get a lot more done with it!!

『DUNGEON B2 (working title)』

~a 2001 f2p mmorpg friendship simulator~

this idea's a lot less fleshed out and much more recent! it's basically all writing, so far. but... i've been thinking a lot about ragnarok online lately, yknow, as you do, and about the effect it had on me when i was younger. and i think i wanna make a small lil game based on the stuff about RO that's important to me, while making the gameplay, uhhh, actually fun,, or playable,

the main feeling i wanna capture w this is like... i have really fond memories of having a limited time to play RO each day. hangin out on specific maps, like a level of a dungeon that's a LITTLE deep but not too deep, grinding the same monsters for hours n hours trying to get some specific cosmetic drop. meeting new people and seeing em on that map every day. chatting while your hp/sp refills. seeing advanced class characters waltz through the floor making mincemeat of monsters that take you 20 seconds to take down. partying up and making friends... that kinda stuff.

so! this game would take place on a single floor of a dungeon. it looks ro-ish, with 3d areas and billboard sprite characters.  it's not REALLY an mmorpg, but there are a lot of implied mechanics outside of what you as the player get to see and interact with.

i'm thinking the basic gameplay loop is... you as the player have a limited amount of time to play each day after school. you run around and fight monsters hunting for a specific headgear drop you really want. there's other player characters in the dungeon up to their own stuff, and you can interact with them via emotes to do things like build recognition with them or request buffs, heals, and tanks. whenever you get low on hp/sp, you have to sit and regen.

now, whenever you sit to regen, a unit of time passes. depending on where you sit, a few diff things will happen! if you sit down next to another player character, you enter into a Chat, which is a sort of visual novel segment where you get to know them better. if you sit down alone, another player character might come to sit with you, or you might witness a special event of some kind.

after so many regen sits, your time for the day is up and you'll move to the next. i haven't really decided on how many days this goes on for yet, and i think it's probably a multiple endings situation: nothing too ambitious, just a few different paths to aim for and player chars to get close to. and hopefully, you find that headgear you're hunting for!

combat will be RO inspired, but with the advantage of Not Actually Being Online so it can be a lot more responsive. i'm thinking it's gonna be controller/wasd+mouse based so it's actually fun to move around in, rather than RO's mouse-only navigation... i'll be looking to ffxiv for controls inspiration.

anyway. besides the most basic pathfinding and gfx tests, this one's mostly just written ideas. allow me to introduce you to the playable First Classes in our game-within-a-game "Vision of the Sleeper Online," a faux early-00's free-to-play mmorpg. ("vots" for short!)

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Advocate (colloquially: "advo")

Type: Support/Flex

they can be your angle... Or your devil. have a skill that lets them "perch" on a player and provide passive buffs as well as powerful heals/attacks.

can specialize in Angel, Devil, or Faery style. (heal, dps, flex)

Potioneer (colloquially: "potter")

Type: dps/support

ranged dps class. throws potions. have a "mixology" system that allows for extra effects depending on potions thrown in succession.

can specialize in Anesthetic (support) or Solvent (dps).

Ardent (colloquially: "ard")

Type: tank/dps

tank class. has a big shield and shotgun. excels at mitigating and stopping damage.

can specialize in Unstoppable (shield, mobile, dps leaning) or Immovable (gun, tank leaning).

Heavy Dagger (colloquially: "hd")

Type: tank/dps

tank class. two-handed big dagger. attacks generate Willpower which functions both as a temp shield and expendable resource for attacks.

can specialize in Tenaciter (tank) or Blader (dps).

Palm Sencer (colloquially: "sencer")

Type: dps/support

dps class. fights with enchanted hands. can trigger auto-cast spells with their melee attacks. can buff self and others.

can specialize in Enhancer (dps, dodge style, support) or Grappler (dps, durability style, crowd control)

Salvager (colloquially: "salv")

Type: dps/support

ranged dps and utility class. can open shops to sell to other players. transforms things into other things. able to "sell" loot anywhere by changing it into valuables.

can specialize in Remodel (dps, support) or Arbitrage (dps, glass cannon)

Choicer (colloquially: "why did you pick choicer")

Type: full flex

complete all-rounder. can use any gear. can do a little bit of everything. unpopular because they don't do anything nearly as well as a "real" class. basically Super Novices.

cannot specialize in the same way as other classes. can pick a few "signature moves" from other jobs to add to their repertoire of basic choicer skills.

this is the protagonist's class.

SECOND JOBS

nobody on this floor of the dungeon knows how these work. they just got added to the game this month. they're rarely seen and they seem like they can do anything and everything. legendary

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anyway!! that's all for this one. i don't have any fun art or anything but i DO have this gif

its just ragnarok online at this point though.

ANYWAY THATS ALL FOR TODAY!!! thanks for checkin, out, some ideas,