Journal #3: Inspiration news

I hate TFS.

Not actually, but I refuse to watch it. I never have, and never will. I don't like the idea too much that Dragon Ball has become a symbol of parody over these years, because if I believe that, then I may lose my faith in it. And that's the hardest thing for me; keeping faith. Particularly in myself, but also in the Dragon Ball/Z franchise(s).

Don't try to convince me, because it won't happen. I have to keep Dragon Ball Z in all seriousness within my mind, otherwise I won't be able to take my own project seriously, and then boom. No more ZWC. Which can not and will not happen. Of course there's only the slight chance that TFS will demotivate me, but it's not one I see worth taking.

So where does inspiration come from? For me, particularly re-watching the series and playing the games from time to time. The older games like Infinite World/Budokai 3, Tenkaichi 3, and Sagas. Not that shit stain, Ultimate Tenkaichi. God, what a mess.

I can see what they did though, and with little respect for them, the developers/producers at Spike are smart bastards. Ultimate Tenkaichi was made just to score them some cash, it's obvious. They marketed it as this insane Dragon Ball Z game, but what we got was this broken mess with little to no gameplay what so ever.

On the surface, the new generation sees the graphics and attacks and think that it will be great. But the veterans can see right through it to the cold, sheer, truth of a core which is desperation.

Honestly, there isn't any gameplay. The entire thing is a mash-mash of QTEs (quick time events) which creates this routinely, repetitive, system where the victor is decided on the results of a fucking dice roll. Dragon Ball Z is about increasing your strength and overpowering your enemy, to an extent. Not a freaking board game. Except Budokai 2's, because that shit was fun.

Sure, ZWC is like that too at times with the Shock Exchanges and Grab Struggles. But those are miniscule portions of the game which hardly reflect the core gameplay. Ultimate Tenkaichi is built around it. And there was a 4/5 part interview with the developers where the interviewers asked if the QTEs could be disabled, to which the developers replied saying something along the lines of "other games don't let you turn it off, so why should we? derp."

Honestly? You're justifying your poor lack of creativity by basing your entire philosophies off of other game company's? That is so pathetic. They just don't care anymore, and they're using the DBZ franchise as a slave to whip and extrude revenue from. And Namco is behind this glutton of a mess, funding it. Namco, the people who have a patent on god damn minigame loading screens. What a joke.

I've probably just murdered any chance I have of working on main stream DBZ games, but if that's the environment than it can fuck right off because they're out of their minds if they think they deserve and are allowed to be proud of such a mess. People actually paid over $60.00 for that game. At that point, it's essentially stealing. There's a rumour that Spike is going to stop making DBZ games, and if that isn't true and I see one announced later this spring, then I may just slit my own throat. Twice.

Anyway, about that game I'm developing. Things are going good. This week was all about bug smashing, insect decapitating, forceful removal of glitches, which paid off. As I said, that Speed Melee update was a complete mess, and I am going to hopefully redeem it with the next update, which I'll give in a week or two - maybe a wee bit more.

When I said it will be packed, I didn't necessarily mean with Story elements, but more so focusing on gameplay and zero tolerance for bugs. Plus some nifty graphical affects which you can see in the Images section.

One of the things I am trying to do is create a 'style' of gameplay for ZWC. Style in the sense that the game has it's own feel when you're playing it, and you notice certain things happening in fights that happen for no particular reason, but feel awesome when they're happening. An excellent example being in Budokai 3.

In Budokai 3, you would enter these quick trade offs between the two fighters, chopping down health as you go, and then back off and both of you would begin charging. This was awesome because as you did it, the sounds and effects merged and you prepared for the next battle. I want ZWC to be like that, to an extent, minus the stopping.

Essentially, when the gameplay is finished, ZWC's fights will be based on sustainability with each fight, where you have to last long enough to progress. One fresh new system added this week was a 'Ki Surge' which will happen when you press 'Q' twice in a row. What it does is converts any dormant multiplier you have to Energy, so you can keep on staying aggressive without having to always back off and charge.

There's only a few things left to do before I'll be able to invest my time in the story, but I am getting there. I've dreamed of a state where it's like modding a Pokemon game - you never stop working on story, and just keep plowing through. Yeah, I quit that Pokemon game because that method got tedious, but I feel as with ZWC that won't happen because there's for one, more to work with, and two, it's fucking Dragon Ball.

There's one system which everyone who lives on Earth will love, but I won't spoil yet. If you want an idea of what it is, just watch the Goku vs. Vegeta fight (1), and Vegeta vs. Recoome. The way I have it planned out, it will be amazing.

So I guess that wraps up this update. A little shorter, I know. But I am writing it at 11:31pm on Friday just to get it out there, so apologies if it's not up until Saturday.

For the people giving me ideas all around, don't worry if I don't respond. I'm not trying to be arrogant about it, but I don't really have too much time to respond to each of them (despite me barely having anyone sending them out), but I do read each and every one of them.

A few shout outs I forgot to give last week were to Acaryus who has done some sweet models for ZWC, which I won't spoil. TRL for that grass texture and teaching my some modeling essentials. And the newcomer aipash20/Ashlee Long for making that Shenron, and man, is it a sexy Shenron. Many balls will be collected for the sole purpose of seeing it time and time again.

Anyway, that's this week's rant/philosophy/bullshit/novel/speech/praise. Next week I'll do it again!