Nathaniel Marshall

• 1 Player

• DigiPen Student Project

• Solo Project Made in Unity3D, C# via VS

 

Mana Flow is a proof-of-concept prototype of a RPG Battle system where the Mana/Magic Points (MP) move around the battlefield instead of being removed from play whenever a Magic Spell is used.

 

It was originally inspired by JRPG's such as Final Fantasy VII and Chrono Trigger.

 

In the battle, there are three Pools of Magic, one for each Team and one in the middle, the Neutral Pool. In this Prototype, this is represented by the size and number of Clouds above each side's team.

 

MP used by the four Fighters in the battle is removed from their Team Pool and placed into the Neutral Pool in the Center. This Neutral Pool grows and shrinks depending on how much MP is within it.

 

The third character on each side is the Support, while it has less Health Points, the Supports cast their Magic using the MP of the Neutral Pool. They are also the only means of retrieving MP to the Neutral Pool and replenishing their respective Team's Pool.

 

Finally, Support Characters can Consume the Neutral Pool's MP (removing it from play) to Heal their Team or Directly Damage the other.

 

The user had feedback in how the Magic in this system was moving. Particle systems moving from a Magic Pool to where they were going to greatly aided the messege and provided visual feedback to what the Computer-controled enemies were doing.

 

The Goal of this Project was to experiment with the Game Loop of a standard JRPG-style Combat System, mainly to keep the Player more actively involved in what was happening on-screen.

 

There is a point in every RPG where the player ulimately just uses a certain attack or certain magic because it just works. In this game, I wanted to challenge that sort of mentality.

 

MP is not just a Resource to use for one's own team, it was a Resource to deny from the other's. What was in Team 1's Magic Pool was not usable by the other's. And using Magic would enable the other team to gather the Resource again.

 

In the end, the game had more of a Fighting-game sort of feel than an RPG. In running Paper Prototypes, Player-verses-Player combat seemed to be more enjoyable than the combat against the Computer (a random number genorator for this Prototype).

 

There were various complications to prevent PvP in the Prototype, such as the question of how to hide Information from the other Player.

 

The game also already suffered from an overflow of Information, which was its most glaring flaw. However, Paper Prototypes of the User Interface for two Players inputing and having feedback from the game proved too complex. With how far the game was in the Project Cycle, the PvP idea was deemed overscoped and shelved for now.

 

Personally, I feel the PvP would work wonders for the game when the basic idea is altered slightly. If it was to be a RPG-Fighter game, it would have to be greatly simplified and embrace it's Fighter Aspects, possibly dropping down to a single fighter, plus the support.

 

It would still use the FInal Fantasy VII-style Action Bar to determine Action-times and Magic Charge, but it would be tuned so that each fill of the bar was a Beat of the Gameplay, long enough to allow for tactical planning but short enough to keep the action quick and engaging.