Luigi Quest: A Chapter 1 RetrospectiveA "Chapter" in Luigi Quest is a pretty big thing. This was the shortest chapter that Luigi Quest will probably ever have, but the next one will be absolutely massive. So before I start on Chapter 2, I wanted to do a little retrospective here on the things I've learned from running my first successful Interactive Suggestion Game.
It may seem early to write a retrospective, but we're nearing two hundred images here. At about 2 pictures per update on average, that's a lot of effort on my part. And I rarely finish story arcs so now is as good a time as ever.
Part I: The storyLet's not mince words here: this story is completely extrapolated from the background and foreground plot of Mushroom Kingdom Wars, which I will finish the next turn of sometime when college is low on my priorities. Mushroom Kingdom Wars is the biggest story I've ever written, even if less than half of it has even been shown yet. When I started this ISG, I wanted it to be sort of unclear that that's where this whole thing was coming from. But as I was writing the Bowser's Castle part, I also realized I wanted this to be independent of MKW. I didn't want it to be required reading or anything. So I've avoided plot points of things that have happened in MKW as much as I can.
In terms of the story in Luigi Quest independent of MKW, I originally struggled with where to drop Luigi and Link off once they left the castle. I didn't want it to be anywhere close to the Mushroom Kingdom, as Oomph, Bradley, etc. are exploring that themselves. So I tried to remember the Mario games I've played in the past and hit an epiphany: Superstar Saga! Ah, yes, the game where the designers too avoided showing the Mushroom Kingdom. It didn't really make sense for Bowser to have an instant teleport into the Stardust Fields, but from an in-story perspective it was wise as it trained the players on combat and logical thinking.
Why Link? Really?I was out of silent protagonists from the Mario games that made sense. I wasn't thinking of L or green when I popped him in, but I knew the players would try to join him. I was right, of course.
ORIGINAL CHARACTERS WAAAAAAAThere are very few major canon characters in the Mario series. When you consider that three of them - Mario, Peach, and Bowser - are hanging out in Bowser's Castle for most of this story, you realize I have to make some exceptions. And I didn't want to pull too many minor characters from, say, the Paper Mario games because they each have their little roles where they live, just as the OCs do. The important thing is none of the OCs command the plot, as ultimately this is Luigi's story.
Where'd Waluigi go?We'll be seeing more of him soon. The story isn't going to be completely dramatic.
Why the sudden shift to a darker story?It was always dark, but having the main character be a bumbling pseudo-Italian hero who never made the same choice twice put a light spin on it. I also wanted to show the reasoning behind having a presumably robotic villain right out of nowhere in a medieval fantasy world. Of course, it still doesn't make sense why there would be robots in the far past but not now, but we'll be getting to that later. At least you know he wasn't a robot.
So is the robot Mario from powersuit-Luigi's time?If you couldn't tell that from his final speech, yes. No clues on the other parts of the speech.
Part 2: The artI'm at the point in my art career where I am visibly terrible at drawing people (and everything else, really), so having just about every frame contain a humanoid seemed to be a recipe for disaster. Art-wise, I think it came pretty close. You guys have been very lenient on that, and I appreciate it.
Why the hard-edged, simplistic style? Why sprites?I went over it in my head for a while until I remember the reason Andrew Hussie can pump out seven Homestuck updates a day is for most of Homestuck he used sprites, reducing his need to draw something new each frame greatly. The vibrant, hard-edged style I use for both my regular panels and the fancier ones were the logical means to illustrating, for example, the entire boss fight at the end of Stardust Fields in a single day.
How do you animate/draw effects like that?I use Photoshop, which is really fast for animating things like this. As for the effects, they're most some splotches of color that get lighter in the center with a bajillion different blur filters run over them. I don't really use other filters for the most part. Often I'll use feathered/bordered selections for the effects, too.
Part 3: As a forum game itselfI've been stunned by the level of support this has received. It seems to be pretty standard for illustrated games, though. And having recognizable characters from famous video games be interspersed throughout has made it far more accessible.
What happened to "I hate making ISGs"?I don't know. I think basing an ISG off of something I had both made and was extremely familiar with - as well as basing it off of one of my favorite game series - was what encouraged me to continue on. Being well thought out was also a good move, as that let me focus on telling the story and not on making it up.
Why'd you do RPG mechanics?The RPG mechanics - albeit inadvertently - made it a little easier to get into just because it provided the readers with something to think about before suggesting actions. Same with having the Power Star: I absolutely loved the back-and-forth between the readers and Taric/Darvi, who both were part of MKW around the time Taric got the Starlance. Ultimately I was just going to ignore the Power Star suggestions anyway unless there was like overwhelming support for using it, which there wasn't, just a few people who were dying to see what it would do.
So what's next?I'm not completely sure yet, but I know there will be a large quest all over creation for the Glacier Star. The details will be worked out in time, as with everything in this game. I'm probably going to go back and replay Superstar Saga just to have the travel locations in my head.
This brings me to...
Part 4: Your turnI'm taking a little break from this. Near the end, the full-size, non-sprite images and nonstop dramatic storytelling got exhausting, so it's time for me to do other things for a little while. In the meantime, I'd like you as readers, if you've read through this post to this point, or even if you just skipped to the end, to fill this out so I can improve Chapter 2 before it even starts:
What have you liked best about this adventure?
What have you liked least?
Any questions? Comments? Concerns?
Would you prefer to focus a little more on dramatic narrative, or more on silly shenanigans in the future?
If you could suggest an NPC to be used in the game - any NPC you can think up, provided they're humanoid, describe them here (DO NOT describe their backstory or motivations. Even if you do, I'll be making those up. No walls of text please):
I'll probably pick the best 1-2 to somehow include in the story. Try not to make the physical description too complicated, I'm trying to keep the art simple here
I'm not fishing for compliments with this form. I really do want to improve this thing, so player input outside of suggestions would be incredible. I'll be answering any questions that aren't major spoilers at this point until the end of my break.
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Topic: Re: Luigi Quest: TAKEOVER BY THE FFSCC! Create a new game! See last page (Read 127651 times)