[djtiesto]

Hey, as many of you may or may not have heard - I have decided to remake Kikan... well actually, not remake, but "reimagine". The original is probably the least favorite game I made, filled with ridiculous jokes that reek of trying too hard to offend people, an absense of pacing and a skeletal plot, and lots of bugs (mostly due to a poorly implemented action battle system). So, what I've decided to do, is take the good of that game (graphics, music, and some level designs), and improve it. A fairly lofty goal, I guess.

Some of the new features to be added:
-Completely redone story
-Get 3 more people to aid in your quest
-All new battle system, quick, turn-based RPG combat heavily inspired by Dragon Quest.
-Status ailments in battle
-Levelling up system, where you can put skill points towards various attributes
-Ability to equip weapons/armor/accessories
-More items and spells than the original game
-Dialogue windows, some of which feature branching dialogue trees
-All new World Map
-2 new towns, and one completely overhauled town
-Slightly updated and improved graphics
-Slightly updated dungeon design
-Small adjustments to the soundtrack, a couple new songs added, a couple old ones removed (it's doubtful you will hear the FF7 Bizarro Sephiroth battle song in there, but expect Bombtrack and Beyond to be in there, for instance)
-Re-recorded sound effects
-Tutorial (if you've played an RPG before, you shouldn't need this, though)
-Much less offensive, and much more mature, in a serious way not OMG blood and bewbz!!!
-Puzzle resetting: no more save/reload a game when you mess up a pushblock puzzle. All you need to do is exit the room and re-enter, and everything will reset!

Story wise, the game will be a modern day (2005) tale about a truck driver/meth dealer and addict from Kansas who makes his way to the 5 Boroughs of NYC to take part in a drug deal that goes sour. When he is run down in his car and chased off the road, a young woman going out for a midnight jog finds him in the rubble, barely breathing, and nurses him back to health. This is his tale of revenge against the liaison who bothced the deal, and the underground syndicate who backed the liaison... no, it won't be your typical cliched "epic" storyline chock full of overwrought religious references so common in RPGs, it'll be a more realistic, gritty and down to earth tale. Expect some coarse language, but nothing overbearing like the original. Expect a couple silly, lighthearted moments and those nonsensical Duky Inc inside jokes that you all have grown to love or hate, as well. Just expect less than most of my other games.

Here's some screenshots, some new, some comparison (old being on top, new on bottom):

The title:


The first town, originally called Formosa, now called Co-Op City, old (top) and new (bottom):


The Shoshinkai video game conference, reflecting a more current gaming environment:


A new facade for the Towers of Dub (work in progress!):


New World Map!


Status screen mockup (not yet programmed):


When all is said and done, I want this to be one of the best games I have ever made for MZX, and quite possibly the best 'traditional' RPG for MZX. Remember, Duky Inc's 10 year anniversary is coming up, maybe you'll see a bit more by then

[Dr Lancer-X]

I like the graphics - certainly a notch up from your previous work.

[Castlevania]

Wowsers!

Seems like it's shaping up to be one of your best yet. The engine behind it is what strikes me most, ie. branching dialogue trees, levelling up system and the status ailments. Only thing I would suggest here is that you try and think of something that hasn't been done in a rpg game before, add some of your own ideas if you can, although I know that can be really hard sometimes. Actually, just do what you want, we need more games man, who am I to be fussy.

The screens are amazing, a big improvement. Those buildings in Co-Op city look ferocious.

Good luck with this one Luke, it looks AND sounds pretty fab.

[Razerboy]

This looks amazing, can't WAIT to play it.

And for some reason I <3 the Title Screen

[CJA]

Heh. "56k stay away" put up a red flag, and now I know why =P

The status screen reminds me a lot of FFX for some reason. That's a good thing.

BTW, where is the part of the plot where the guy loses all his memory?

[Superfunk]

Ooh.. Very pretty!

[Koji]

Eh when it comes out I'll probably download it anyway dispite my 56kism.

[djtiesto]

Koji, on Sep 28 2005, 09:09 PM, said:

Eh when it comes out I'll probably download it anyway dispite my 56kism.

Well, the game probably won't be much bigger than however large Kikan is now... Will probably end up 3-4 megs or so. I was just referring the 56k to the lots of screenies in my post.

cja - The guy's not amnesiatic anymore, rather he tells his backstory in bits and pieces as the game progresses.

[Micah]

Looks pretty neat. I didn't really like the original Kikan, but this one seems to have an extra spiff-factor.

[Exophase]

I really like the title screen, overworld map, and status screen. Those are the best parts. Rest looks good too. This is probably too much to ask but is there any chance of us seeing actual player animations in the DQ inspired battle engine? I hope so.

- Exo

[Skylark]

This looks pretty sweet. I would definitely give it a go, considering I have a pretty low opinion of the original Kikan. But it sounds like the remake will be kickass, and the screenshots look awesome, so... um, yeah.

[djtiesto]

Exophase, on Sep 29 2005, 06:47 AM, said:

I really like the title screen, overworld map, and status screen. Those are the best parts. Rest looks good too. This is probably too much to ask but is there any chance of us seeing actual player animations in the DQ inspired battle engine? I hope so.

- Exo

The animations in battle will probably be something similar to FF Mystic Quest - you'll see a behind the view of the players (all 1x1), and they'll just step up, and you'll see a quick sword animation appear over the monster... or they'll step up, raise their hands up, you'll see a couple of stars around them, then the spell animation appears... monsters probably won't be animated because 1) I'm lazy and 2) I am not skilled enough in animation to make them look nice without a LOT of work (their attack and spell effects will probably be animated)

[Goshi]

Thats cool but don't make it like in FFMQ whereas White Mgaic can brutally slaughter monsters despite not being undead >_>;

Anyway this does look awesome, although most people are very grim with the orginal Kikan you can probably change this to be one of your greatest... I guess.

[Dr Lancer-X]

he said the animations were ffmq, but the battle more DQ

besides I thought that cure and its ilk only worked on the dark king.. huh.

[Goshi]

Lancer-X, on Sep 30 2005, 03:03 PM, said:

he said the animations were ffmq, but the battle more DQ

besides I thought that cure and its ilk only worked on the dark king.. huh.

Yeah, I thought so I skim read his post. And yes Heal, Cure, Life do work on enemies other than the Dark King, it works on all enemies and bosses.

[Terryn]

All of this is awesome, but it does beg the question:

Since you're getting accustomed to MZX again, do you have any plans for a new epic tumbling around, feasible or not?

[djtiesto]

Terryn, on Oct 2 2005, 04:07 AM, said:

All of this is awesome, but it does beg the question:

Since you're getting accustomed to MZX again, do you have any plans for a new epic tumbling around, feasible or not?

Honestly... I highly doubt it after this - will move over full time to RPG Maker XP I'm sure. But I'll still be around for DOZs so don't think you'll be getting rid of me

[djtiesto]

With this game, I hope to accomplish the following:

-Make one of the first fully featured RPGs for MZX
-Get people interested in making RPGs in MZX again (this was a big fad that seemed to die out late 90's)
-Get people to concentrate more on story based games again
-Get people to make stories and games about more unique topics than 'save the earth from the demons!'
-Kick ass

[Spectere]

djtiesto, on Oct 13 2005, 07:30 PM, said:

-Get people interested in making RPGs in MZX again (this was a big fad that seemed to die out late 90's)

I would like to see more MZX RPGs as well, but I don't know if this is really going to do more than spark some short-term interest. RPGs can be excellent games, but if their authors don't spend enough time developing the storyline, characters, and items, balancing the battle system, keeping the battles reasonably challenging but not stupid-hard, etc, the game tends to suck.

And about Kikan; I've never played the original -- would you suggest that I wait for the new release or play through the first one?

[djtiesto]

Spectere, on Oct 14 2005, 12:22 AM, said:

djtiesto, on Oct 13 2005, 07:30 PM, said:

-Get people interested in making RPGs in MZX again (this was a big fad that seemed to die out late 90's)

I would like to see more MZX RPGs as well, but I don't know if this is really going to do more than spark some short-term interest. RPGs can be excellent games, but if their authors don't spend enough time developing the storyline, characters, and items, balancing the battle system, keeping the battles reasonably challenging but not stupid-hard, etc, the game tends to suck.

And about Kikan; I've never played the original -- would you suggest that I wait for the new release or play through the first one?

ABSOLUTELY wait for the new one... The old one is, put bluntly, a buggy mess filled with immature jokes and random jabs at MZXers long gone. The new one will be much better =]

[Goshi]

I've actually transferred most of my RPG projects into RM2k3 instead, although if you've been to Gaming World you would relise I'm quite bitter about it too. It would be nice to have more RPG MZX games, but you can't really express a good storyline with ASCII graphics unless you tried really, really hard.

[Nahah]

Quote

(56k stay away?)

Can't be worse then this...

<Nahah> Its diffrent,
<Nahah> just try it.
<CJA> fine
<CJA> uh oh,
<CJA> 1:95:00 REMAINING
<CJA> NOES
<CJA> 195:00 THATS EVEN WORSE
<Nahah> OH DEAR :(

[Dr Lancer-X]

195 hours? PFFT one of my trigun downloads took more than TWICE that. That's only a bit over a week =p.

although with dialup I guess you need to disconnect to free up the phoneline so yeah =p

[Nahah]

Lancer-X, on Oct 14 2005, 03:08 PM, said:

195 hours? PFFT one of my trigun downloads took more than TWICE that. That's only a bit over a week =p.

although with dialup I guess you need to disconnect to free up the phoneline so yeah =p

I cannot imagine life, where it takes a week to download a game.

[Dr Lancer-X]

Patience is a virtue, nahah. =p

[CJA]

Hey foolz, 195:00 is 195 minutes! Puzzle Pirates download lacks an hours column, home dog.

[djtiesto]

I'm bumping this topic just to let you guys know I'm still working on this... it's been a hectic last few months for me - uncle going into surgery, vacationing in Orlando, making a big webpage for my uncle's store, and of course a lot of classwork, among other things. Still chipping away at the status screen, it's very close to being finished and hopefully will be this evening... then it's time to do the battle engine, the biggest hurdle I have. Once that's finally done, the rest of the game should be smooth sailing, as its mostly map/some graphics/dialogue/cinemas/balancing. My goal is to get this out by the end of the year. I'll probably be finished with my masters sometime this summer, so then I'll have a lot more time to work on it.

[weasel]

You have my encouragement. Though they may be old, the screenshots still look fantastic.

[KKairos]

Yes, Luke, the screenshots look awesome.

[Spectere]

djtiesto, on Jan 29 2006, 10:04 AM, said:

I'm bumping this topic just to let you guys know I'm still working on this... it's been a hectic last few months for me - uncle going into surgery, vacationing in Orlando, making a big webpage for my uncle's store, and of course a lot of classwork, among other things.

You know, I think you can be excused for being busy in your personal life.

But yeah, still looks awesome after all of this time. I'm looking forward to its release.