Never Knows Best RPG

An indie jrpg in development

[neverknowsbestrpg]

“Never Knows Best” takes place in an office building. This is the office bathroom where our heroes meet Cake, a urinal cake who’s job, of course, is to be peed on all day. You can see a concept sketch of Cake in an earlier post.

My process here is a mixture of digital painting, using textures, and photo manipulation. The style is very hodge podgey or almost collage-like.

[neverknowsbestrpg]

Added Abby’s bust image in the UI.

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Dev Entry #009

Chooks’ walk cycle added. Just have to do Ray’s once I actually get to designing him.

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Dev Entry #008

Finally getting somewhere with the UI. I still have to design Ray’s and Abby’s bust graphic, but the basic setup and style is there. Because my rpg is a short game, I’m not planning on having a leveling system and so the stats will be fixed. Instead I would like to force the player to utilize each characters’ strengths and skills along with finite item usage. Because of this I was able to make custom graphics for the stats (they are not dynamic).

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Dev Entry#007

I’ve settled on a title for my game: “Never Knows Best”. It’s an homage to FLCL from which my game’s surreal nature takes inspiration. The phrase was written on Mamimi’s cigarette and has been a mystery to fans as to what it actually means. 

It’s one of my favorite lines because although the meaning is unknown, the moment in which it was revealed felt beautifully depressing. One of my favorite things about FLCL was the emotion made real in vague contexts.

The fact that the meaning is unknown plays to my advantage, because now I can inject my own meaning to a nonsensical, yet weirdly poetic, phrase.

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Dev Entry #006

Abby’s walk cycle

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Dev Entry #0004

This is Abby. Abby is spontaneous, strong, and audacious. She loves ramen, fried food, and mecha anime. She wholeheartedly believes in unicorns and sings the Dawson’s Creek theme song whenever she sees people making out.

Abby represents Ray's wants and desires (Ray is going to be the main protagonist of this story). She is everything he wishes he could be and he CAN be, but like all of us, he holds himself back from the things he truly wants out of life because he feels caged by others' expectations, what he thinks are others' expectations, and the fear of failing and looking foolish.

I was trying to think of what could motivate someone to actually pursue a desire and take a chance. Then I thought, what if a beautiful stranger - charming and charismatic; insanely attractive - just walked up to you one day and said in Aladdin fashion, "Do you trust me? Come with me on an adventure. Let's go and get what you've always wanted. Let's do everything you've always wanted to do." I think a lot of people would follow that person.

If people thought of their true wants and desires as this beautiful thing that was worth following and paying attention to instead of this ugly and selfish personality trait, I believe that person would be more secure in who they are. So that's how Abby came about. She is Ray's reason to run TO something fulfilling and real.

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Dev Entry #0003

I’m changing gears a bit. I’ve settled on a story for my rpg. It’s going to be about a guy who hates his desk job. He meets a strange girl and her robot friend who help him on a journey to finding his way out. In my head it’s pretty wacky and surreal which is probably more my style anyway. Here are some character concepts that I came up with. Not sure if they will be enemies or NPCs.

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Dev Entry #0002

It’s almost been a year since my first entry, but I lost focus since then and now I’m back on track. I decided to go with RPG Maker in the end because I have no programming experience and feel like it would take me too long to learn what I need to do in order to do what I want...or something like that. I understand there are a lot of limitations in RPG Maker, but as this is the first game I’ve made on my own, I think it’s a good place to start.

In any case, here is a background test that I made to see whether I can use the art style that I want in RPG Maker. Surprise! It turns out I can (with a few limitations I may need to work out)! The character and sky are just default graphics in RPG Maker. 

I don’t want to take too long on this project. I would like to finish the game in a year if not sooner. This all depends on how well I can scale the project. My first entry was overly optimistic with a 10-15 hour rpg. At this point I’m thinking anywhere from 1-5 hours of gameplay. My ultimate goal is to merely finish the game -- good or bad, so stick with me. It could get interesting from here.

[neverknowsbestrpg]

Dev Entry #0001

So I decided to make my own JRPG. I’m not sure how long it will take or if I will even finish it. I’ve never worked on a project this big before and currently I don’t know how to program, but hey, life is short.

I would like it to be 10 - 15 hrs of gameplay, isometric, and turn-based. The vision is blurry at the moment, but hopefully I’ll learn some things along the way and maybe I’ll even finish it. Above is one of the shops I want to have in the main town inspired by a magical childhood game console. Since I’m just starting, everything is subject and most likely to change. 

So here I go! Feel free to walk along.