Final submit and future

The final build for GR is finally up! I tweaked a few things (mainly combat related things) and some minor aesthetic tweaks. Now with the IGMC submission out of the way, I can actually talk about what I want to envision for Guilty Red. This may be a bit of a long-winded post, but please bear with me! ^^

Ever since I was introduced to mobile games sometime in 2017, I’ve been fascinated by mobile jRPG design. I’ve loved everything from the gameplay to the story to the UI of some of these games (Arknights by HyperGlyph and published by Yostar heavily influenced GR’s character design). So I started thinking to myself: how can I make a mobile-ish game, a good quality one, in RPGMaker MZ? But without the biggest con tied to these games?

Cleanest design I’ve ever seen (inventory from Arknights). It’s a bit sterile but it works for the setting.

Aka the monetisation.

Most mobile games (referred to as gacha games from here-on) are essentially mini slot-machines, where you’d need to spend real world currency in order to get the latest characters, armour or outfit tied to a random chance. The drop rates for the most powerful characters or equipment is criminally low (it can be anything from 3% to as as low 0.5%. That’s HALF A PERCENT 0_o) But these games continue to make billions each year (Genshin Impact for example, does something like $200 million every couple of months).

So the idea for GR was born and I summed it up like this:

“What if *GBF was a single-player jRPG with Arknight’s aesthetic?”

*Granblue Fantasy, a hit mobile game in Japan that I played for almost five years. It’s also infamously known as Grindblue Fantasy.

The main gameplay loop involves combat and character unlocks. After clearing the story boss, its “*Raid version” will unlock, which drops materials required for forging certain weapons. Each story boss gets progressively harder and harder, requiring Raid Boss weapons to further the plot. Bosses will also drop stat boosters and other rare loot such as skill scrolls. There are no maps. Exploration is done via nodes on the screen.

*Raid bosses in mobile games tend to involve several players at once but because GR is designed as a single-player RPG, it’s just a stronger version meant to be solo’ed by the player.

I figured that if I could design cool characters and make the combat neat and fast, I could have a real fun game on my hands that respects the player’s time: aka a low maintenance title that ultimately feels rewarding.

As for the story, I’ve been fascinated with late 19^th century Japan (and England to an extent) and drew most of the story beats from the Bakumatsu, a period of massive social and economic upheaval that took place in Japan between 1853 and 1867. Apart from being one of the bloodiest conflicts in history, it signified the end of the samurai class and brought an end to the centuries long rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate. I was hooked and before I knew it, I had close to twenty books on the subject.

I’ve had these ideas living rent-free in my head for the last six months or so but never had the energy to turn them into a game until I saw that the IGMC was back. Which galvanised me into action after a very long hiatus. For the record, GR-ReBirth was not created specifically for the IGMC as the project only commenced on July 5, the same day I bought the Humble Bundle.

Though it’s due to another game that I came to love foxgirls and call them Floofs xD. I’m more partial to them due to their large ears and fluffy tails :3

F LOOOOOOOOOF (Amagi and Shinano from Azur Lane) AL is definitely known more for its ah... lewd fanservice than gameplay. The writing is definitely iffy though due the localisation being outsourced...

Also, I was growing tired of human protagonists. My main heroine Rina is a Kitsu, a humanoid race based off the fox. They have strong ties to the Watcher and their clans oversee the seven skystones (aka your McGuffin that kicks off the plot). Rather than portraying Rina as a demure foxgirl, she’s a former *hitokiri with a violent past, whose sword cut open a path to a brighter future. Or so she had hoped... Her story involves tracking the people responsible for her mother’s death but it leads her deeper and deeper into a terrible conspiracy.

*literally Man-Cutter. During the Bakumatsu, they were killers for hire, hired by the Shogun’s enemies.

I also wanted to design a strong female lead without the fanservice associated with foxgirls or kemonomimi.

Revamped Rina design and her sister Ran.

I could go on and on about my plans for Guilty Red, but here’s a tl;dr:

Create a high quality game inspired by hit mobile/gacha games without the monetisation, with a story influenced by late 19^th century Japan, awesome gameplay and cool characters!

Next time on UdonFloof’s blog: Behind the characters #1: Rina “Redwing” Seiko

“A Kitsu who bloodied her blade on a hundred battlefields in her never-ending quest for peace and salvation, she disappeared towards the end of Kurozaki’s large major civil war which saw the Imperialists emerge as the victors.”