Privately? NDAs? Wouldn't you have a Portfolio for this kinds of things? I'm sure they allow you to have Portfolio (pieces) of the games you've made, easy as that, like Strike said, we've seen lots of kids claiming to be part of the gaming-industry with their 'high-graphic-game-engine' that can't be run on regular consoles.
Yes, it's true, normally if I'd use my own name and surname I could, but since I can't because it's not an official project and because it seems that in rpgmaker is not even considered a dev tool by pros, maybe it's because of the youngsters and kids... you can understand why I can't. As I explained above for now, since it's not an official proj. I don't feel I wanna say that.
I think you don't get it . . . here's the problem;
I work as a writer in the videogame field with indie companies, though I must say that my first love is Rpgmaker, the first gamedev tool I learnt to deal with, and in two weeks I started using a trial version of Ace and created a brand new project. The provisional title is Urban Fantasy.
That's like me going around and posting some Illustrations of mines, and I claim to be a "Famous well known ilustrator in the Japanese gaming community, I worked in some Indie games as an Illustrator and also in some well known companies" and when I'm ask for who I am, I reply with "Oh, I can't do that, because X or Y reason".
People would only see me as either some Con-artist or some kid boasting for attention.
It's not about understanding why you can't do it, the problem is, you Claiming to be something, and then, when ask for proof, you deny it. Sincerely, your post was asking for it. And what makes me question even more is, If your a "writer" and in this case, Professional as you say you worked in the Indie Game field, You can't 'reveal' who you are or what projects you worked on, then you shouldn't have written that in the first place, as you'll loose credibility from your audience.
Some Elements are missing in your first post. Your trying to add western elements, which is good and all but, the way you said Persona is too "Nipponcentric" and "limited on a geographical side", I'm worried you don't quite know what it is.
Their mostly made in Asia, Hence their "Nipponcentric & limited geographical side" are you living in Asia? So I'm guessing you work on the Asian Indie Gaming industry? Since calling your project a JRPG experiment, gave me a chill in my spine;
I think you misunderstood what I wanted to say, in particular Persona generally reproduces the school-drama anime series and in some way the common city life in an anonymous Japanese city. Still the game just focuses on the characters who live in the city, not about the city and the way things work in town, but it's kinda normal: Persona's world was created for that thing. And for many ways is something we can see in a lot of mangas and animes, Persona doesn't need to show us what's outside of that world and it's perfect as it is. While Final Fantasy and other rpgs try to show us what's beside that place in which characters live and how they work.
I do need to confront myself with the Asian market. It's an important market, but you surely don't want to give a Japanese a Jrpg made by a foreigner, to say the stupidest thing (and perhaps a cliché), it's like for a foreigner to teach Karate to a Japanese. It's something they somehow grow up with and especially if we need to talk about the keiretsu mindset, it's really hard to penetrate such a menthality and Microsoft with XBOX created a good example of what I'm talking about. So I hope you understand what I mean.
Persona is an 'Expansion' or a 'spin-off', however you wanna call it of "Shin Megami Tensei" Series, Persona is an expansion of the Serie's World & Mythology, However, it's School-drama cliche is due that it's what sells in the market, that type of cliche, not that it's anything bad. And it has reasons to be, it's what, sadly, sells, just like the Whole "Moe" & Slice-of-Life Anime sells like wildfire over there. Because it's part of their Culture. I hope you have that in mind. To which, you mention Final Fantasy, It's a JRPG too, however, if you know, the FF13 didn't sell well in Japan, yet in Western Countries it Did well. It has to do with Culture and their way of thinking as you said. And it was the reason why Microsoft's XBox market fails in it.
It's not about a foreigner teaching Karate to a Japanese, or that they grew up with it, it's understanding it. the Asian market, and well, the Gaming Market as a whole has it's formulas, and their sensitive to change, one has to be careful and know the audience your trying to sell the product to.
I don't see no story synapses about it, no resume of it nor promise of it, All I see here, is images of the Battle-system, promise of urban environment, social problems, thrill and fantasy elements but, where's that Dating-Sim-Romance-Affection-Element? JRPGs nowadays have the 'Dating-Sim/affection' gameplay common lately on most if not majority of JRPGs, where the player raises the affection level of a Certain Character, giving gameplay replay-value (which, Persona has).
What's the theme of it? Is it a Detective-murder-like kind of JRPG like Persona? It's what I'm guessing from your reply to Strike's post. Or is it a Slice-of-Life game fantasy type?
You say urban elements, so, exacty what am I to expect it to be like, aside from Persona, What Anime/Manga?
At the moment I'm focusing mainly on creating an efficient system, however if you take a look at the trailer and see some of the visual novel mechanics you can have an Idea of how the final product will contain certain features
Umm, no, the first thing people will look at as always is the images of the product immediately, all you have are images of the Battlesystem. Nothing more, nothing else, I watched your video, and all I see is a Battlesystem, that's it. There's no 'Visual Novel Mechanics' as I was hoping, and as you just wrote. I don't have any idea of what the product will have as you claim. I wasted 2:37 minutes watching it, and another 5 minutes analyzing and trying to understand what you meant. I don't see any Certain Features aside from a Battlesystem, which doesn't expand much.
And if I'm getting this right, your focus is on Gameplay at the moment. Then you'll at least have a Few Concept Ideas posted of what could appear, even if you don't have images of it, because every idea starts with a Concept, a Sketch, and I'm not seen that, all I'm seen is a Battlesystem. And it's command, and the use of skills that I've seen on any other rpg game.
Also, What geography are you going for? Male Oriented? or Female Oriented? Both?
I think I don't understand this one, can you explain? [/quote]
Your audience . . . you know, gaming indus-no, marketing as a whole, you target an Audience, and you sell that product to the audience, in the JRPG, or in this case, the Asian Gaming market, is your product targeted to the Female audience or to the male audience, is the target children, teens; I'm asking out of curiosity.
Are there going to be CGs? Do you have an Artist who's doing the CGs? Who is she/he or who are you planning to get? I see the art your using for your main character, I'm guessing is edited from the RPG Maker's graphic itself, are these the ones to be used or are they temporary?
The CGs are a common important factor, since your making them in rpg maker, and if it's a JRPG, I'm sure hoping it's in Anime/Manga style (Wether its Bishounen or Bishoujo) if you want to attract a Japanese audience too.
Hope to have them definitively
Ok, this was kinda answered with you working first on gameplay.
I read there's a 'psychic mechanic' which deals with the characters emotions, so I'm guessing there is an Affection Gameplay mechanic in it, So, how many heroines/heros are in it? I imagine they each have their own story arc, and a different ending for each of them? Will your game have Replay value then? Is the Main character the Silent Type or does he gets involved in both conversations & what's happening in the game?
Too early to tell, code down before the pen.
Too early to tell? Ermm, I'm sure that before any idea, you write it down before working on it. <shrugs>. I dunno, I found that responce, umm, strange, since you replied to Yuyu on how you would pull the idea off, brought my interest on said gameplay mechanic, So I expected you had it written down, now I'm not sure.
I have to tell you something friend, I think you need to 'play' more 'JRPGs', because I don't think you don't quite know what they are.
I'm telling you this, because I think you screwed up on the part to bring attention to the Eastern/Japanese audience.
As said before I want also to bring attention of these cultures over a different environment, though they're not my first focus also because not so many companies managed to enter in markets totally controlled by Japanese and you can take a look but not even Apple, one of the biggest brands which seduced the world (a brand I don't like personally), had a big success in Japan, the same goes for Microsoft, Cars and many other things.
Because where others failed had to do with alienating the audience? Other's success was with them knowing to who their selling?
But wait, so, let me get this straight, what I understand is that you're main target isn't the
Otakus themselves, because how hard it is to suceed in the market and you say your product, your game is a JRPG, something that, targets the Otaku audience . . . . Otakus been either Japanese, or foreigners who like Anime & Manga and JRPGs. You say you want to bring a new environment to a culture, that is picky and get insulted with the mere idea of something different they'd rage about it to be your target yet it's not . . .
What I understood was, "I'm selling Sushi, when in reality I'm going to give you a roasted hamburger" And say they aren't your target audience, when the product your selling specifically targets that audience . . . What kind of Logic is that!? Of course you'll fail in the Asian Gaming Marketing world, with that kind of plan, your screwing up with the Customer, and loose credibility!!!
That would be as if I say I'm drawing realistic portraits, and instead I sell them Cartoons, and tell the customer that they're not the people I'm instered in selling my artwork to, because I want to bring a new type of idea into an already established formula, separating from the norm completely.
The same thing happens with JRPGs that come to the Western Audience, and tend not to do good, because the western Audience is already comfortable with their Western Formula, they feel alinieated, They'll find it strange been a skinny teenager/or a skimpy cute almost-illegal-pre-teengirl saving the world or doing 'cute things', when their used to playing as Well-built, Adult, Valkyre-Like Man with their Guns and/or Swords beating the crap out of the Enemy with combo & violence in an action-packed-video-game. The same goes for the Eastern Audience vice-versa.
But, why am I saying all this, if you work in the industry, I'm sure you know this, why do I have to tell you this? Isn't it the norm to investigate and learn of an Idea to expand on it? You seem to have done your research on the market, to which I retreat and say sorry for thinking you didn't know anything about JRPGs, but then, I get this answer. And I'm left confuse, because it just creates a Hole with more questions.
But enough about that. Let me ask you; Why would you go so far as to say your game falls in the JRPG genre (wether it's an experiment on it or not) when the genre's target audience isn't your main concern? What is this "New Environment" that you speak of?"