iPhone Patchwork Battle - A new Crafting-Sim / RPG currently In Development

Discussion in 'Upcoming iOS Games' started by jlach, Apr 13, 2011.

  1. jlach

    jlach Well-Known Member

    Mar 12, 2011
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    Sr. Applications Engineer.
    Middletown, CT
    #1 jlach, Apr 13, 2011
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2011
    Hi everyone,

    I had been working on a project called Vilotto which, due to life events, got put on hold (you can read about it here: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=87197). Due to new time constraints I have decided that I would instead work on completing my "other" game idea. So with that said, I'm coming once again to touchArcade to talk about the new game, get some feedback, and generate some discussion around it.

    And there you have it, a brief overview of my new current project. As always, please provide as much feedback and ask as many questions as you'd like. The more I can flesh out the above details with suggestions from the community the more I can assure you guys that the game will be what YOU want, not only what I want.

    I should note that the initial release of Patchwork Battle will be for the iPad only. I hope to follow the release soon afterwards with an update that makes the game universal. I'm currently targeting a December 1, 2011 release date but hoping I can finish it a little quicker than that! :)

    Many thanks for reading!
     
  2. FelixGSTLA

    FelixGSTLA Member

    Sep 11, 2010
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    I really like the idea of the entire party building premise. I just hope there's a large variety of parts available.

    A few questions:
    -Is this game going to be more of a battle-focused game or a more story-focused one?
    -How will battle encounters work in this game? Will the game have a random encounter style battle system, or are you planning a different type of system?
    -What kind of graphics are you planning to use for the game?

    Anyways, I'm looking forward to seeing how this game turns out!
     
  3. jlach

    jlach Well-Known Member

    Mar 12, 2011
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    Sr. Applications Engineer.
    Middletown, CT
    #3 jlach, Apr 14, 2011
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2011
    Thanks for the reply!

    Answering your "I just hope there's a large variety of parts available." comment is a prefect time for me to talk a little more detail about the parts.

    So there's a little more detail on the parts. I hope that helped to answer at least some of your concern on the number of available parts to mess with. Now to answer your other questions -

    - The game is battle focused (after the building of the mimics, that is). That way it plays out is not all that unlike Battleheart, except turn based. You build your party and enter the arena. From there you fight wave after wave of baddie mimics and collect loot. After each wave you can go back to your lab and tweak your party. You can always start off at the beginning of the wave you left at. Of course you can go back to the previous waves as well. I have not set a limit for the number of waves yet but I expect it to be high, maybe endless. Oh yeah, there will eventually be Multiplayer battles as well. This may not make it into V1.0 but def. V2.0.

    - I think the above should have answered your second question as well. If not, let me know and I'll expand on it.

    - The graphics will be 2D. I'm working with an artist to finalize the style. What we do know is that each class will have it's own material. Any part with the Rogue class will be made of brown leather, a Knight will be steel, a Wizard red cloth, etc. When you put your mimic together it will look like a patched together thing where nothing matches (assuming you mix and match classes).

    I should have a small demo of the Build-A-Mimic to show off the next few weeks :)
     
  4. jlach

    jlach Well-Known Member

    Mar 12, 2011
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    Sr. Applications Engineer.
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    #4 jlach, Apr 18, 2011
    Last edited: May 4, 2011
    Just wanted to share the first piece of concept art with everyone. What we see here is the Wizard class, built out of cloth.

    [​IMG]

    As I mentioned earlier - the hat, arms, body, and legs (not visible) of this Wizard can be taken off and mixed and matched with the other classes to create some really crazy looking mimics. The other classes will also be made out of materials fitting for that class, i.e: Metal for Warrior, Leather for Rogue, etc.

    I hope ya'll enjoy the first concept! Brian McDonaugh did a great job on this! =)
     
  5. Bitsandpixeltester

    Bitsandpixeltester Well-Known Member

    Dec 3, 2010
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    As an art instructor I am in love with this. Keep up the amazing work! I really love how this is developing in front of our eyes. Brian did such a great job portraying texture with vibrant colors. Beautiful!
     
  6. jlach

    jlach Well-Known Member

    Mar 12, 2011
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    Sr. Applications Engineer.
    Middletown, CT
    #6 jlach, Apr 20, 2011
    Last edited: May 4, 2011
    And now for some more concepts!

    Priest, made out of Cloth.
    [​IMG]

    Archer, molded with Leather.
    [​IMG]

    Knight, ready to protect your party in his armor made of.... tin foil! rawr!
    [​IMG]
     
  7. jlach

    jlach Well-Known Member

    Mar 12, 2011
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    Sr. Applications Engineer.
    Middletown, CT
    #7 jlach, Apr 20, 2011
    Last edited: May 4, 2011
    And one more.. A taste of what one of YOUR mimics might look like =)

    [​IMG]
     
  8. nao

    nao Well-Known Member

    Jan 26, 2010
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    This all sounds very cool and I love the concept of deep customization in party building. All there is left is to see it in action. I'm curious to see how the animation (attack / skill casting) would look on these characters made out of materials.

    Be sure to add tons of weapons and accessories to further customize the skills of characters, and also make sure the skills provide some kind of a synergy between characters and items. ie. the addictive power of battleheart.

    Anyway I wish you the best of luck in this project and hopefully it would look great. And also a Universal app would be good too :)

    Cheers
     
  9. jlach

    jlach Well-Known Member

    Mar 12, 2011
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    Sr. Applications Engineer.
    Middletown, CT
    I'm in the process of building the Build-A-Mimic system. I should have some early rough demos ready in the next few weeks. It's turning out to be really cool.

    As for part drops.. I'm not going to get into the loot system I created but I will say that there will be PLENTY of drops. While some parts may not be completely unique there will def. be enough variety.

    As for animations, you're going to have to wait and see on that. I have something really neat designed out but I'm not ready to talk about it (or show it) yet. It does, however, play off the strengths of the artwork and really adds to its charm.

    Also, thanks for your suggestions and comments! =)
     
  10. denlor

    denlor Active Member

    Dec 8, 2010
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    system specialist
    Man ! look great and i love the concept ! If you need beta tester i will be in! I am using an Ipad 2 =)
     
  11. jlach

    jlach Well-Known Member

    Mar 12, 2011
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    Sr. Applications Engineer.
    Middletown, CT
    #11 jlach, Apr 23, 2011
    Last edited: May 4, 2011
    Thanks for the comment and offer! I'll keep you in mind when I'm ready to release my alpha and beta versions to testers.

    In the mean time, here's another concept for you guys. This one's a Druid, who specializes in healing over time and buffs. One of my favorites thus far :)

    [​IMG]
     
  12. jlach

    jlach Well-Known Member

    Mar 12, 2011
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    Sr. Applications Engineer.
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    #12 jlach, Apr 26, 2011
    Last edited: May 4, 2011
    One last post to get the final concepts out for everyone to drool over =) Brian did a tremendous job on these, if I do say so myself! I'm so in love with the Sorcerer mimic. It's just.. money =)

    All Classes
    [​IMG]

    All Weapons
    [​IMG]

    My next post (minus replies, of course!) will be a video of the Build-A-Mimic system in early alpha =) Stay tuned for that!!
     
  13. FitzKreiner

    FitzKreiner Member

    Apr 29, 2011
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    Being me. It's hard but someone's got to do it.
    These are gorgeous. If you manage to capture a scintilla of the artworks character were in for a visual treat. The concept sounds rather nifty too: a really interesting twist on the loot drop/equip system.

    My one personal suggestion is that it needs a suitably strong story/campaign mode. Whether serious, or Tongue in cheek would be your decision. Marvellous if you could tie the story in with the visual look though. Medieval Toy Story or some such. Naff idea but the idea of the quest could encompass finding their true origins/owner/overthrowing the overlord. It would certainly fit with the 'Mr Potato Head' loot system.

    But, grandmother, you know how to suck eggs. ;-).

    I'm up for beta testing too. And scripting too, you'd think from the above. ;-). Silly earnest me, just the idea is, well, top! ;-)

    Tom
     
  14. jlach

    jlach Well-Known Member

    Mar 12, 2011
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    Sr. Applications Engineer.
    Middletown, CT
    Thanks for the kind words Tom! The ultimate goal here (of myself, and the artist) is to tie everything into this "hand-made" look. From the story, to the backdrops, down to the UI.

    The UI, while not yet built, has already been conceptualized. We're going to basically be using a construction paper look (once again, using real construction paper) for all the elements. These elements are going to look glued onto the screen. It's going to be rather neat, I think =)

    As for a story, I have sketched out a rough scenario that helps paint the picture of why you're fighting endless wave after wave of Mimics. The basic premise goes like this -

    You are an aspiring Animator. An animator is someone who's been trained in the art of building Mimics (basically, dolls) and bringing them to pseudo-life. Mimics aren't really alive. They have a heart but it doesn't beat. It's only purpose is to provide just enough energy to the Mimic so that it can move (barely!).

    Your Animator mentor has convinced you to compete in the worldwide Mimic tournament named, you guessed it, The Patchwork Battle. The game follows the animator through the rounds in the first portion of the tournament (the Arena, hence why the final game name will be Patchwork Battle: Arena). You will compete against people you don't know, your school bullies, and maybe even your friends.

    The purpose of the Arena? To defeat each and every challenger while trying to come out with the highest score (you get points for wining a wave, lose points for being defeated in a wave.. simple really!). There are no rules about defeat. If you get defeated you must go back to the drawing board and figure out how to defect your current challenger (wave) before you can advance.

    As I said, a simple story. It will be laid out in short dialogs and text cut scenes. It's only here to provide some motivation behind fighting Mimic after Mimic. That is, if the loot isn't enough motivation for you already :D
     
  15. jlach

    jlach Well-Known Member

    Mar 12, 2011
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    Sr. Applications Engineer.
    Middletown, CT
    Just checking in. Development is moving along at a pretty good pace, which is good news :)

    We've taken a slight breather the day to evaluate if maybe a technology switch is in order. We are looking at moving away from cocos2d and into Unity3d (though still using it for 2d). There are various reasons for our consideration of this, the foremost being the ability to easily target multiple platforms (iOS, Mac, Windows, Web, Android, etc). While Patchwork may never get out on any platform other than iOS, it's nice to know there's the ability to take over to almost any other platform.

    I will continue to keep you all posted with progress :)

    In the mean time, here's the Druid as seen in game :D

    [​IMG]
     
  16. ventonburste

    ventonburste Member

    Apr 28, 2011
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    =D

    I'm all giddy with excitement about this. A couple of the replies to this seem to be from people who I think only skimmed your original post about the game. I really hope that you either do make this windows compatible because I only have a iTouch 2g and it doesn't sound like it'll be able to run your game being that your developing it for Ipad. I'm really hopeful that you go more in depth with the story than it sounds like you are because story is what tends to drive me to play all the way through a game. If your afraid of scaring off the more casual players you could consider making the story optional by way of unlockable pages (picture a pop-up book). Also this sounds like something with ALOT of room for expansion content. Lastly I'd say you could really benefit from throwing a page up for this on http://www.kickstarter.com/


    I'm anxiously awaiting more news about this project!!
     
  17. araczynski

    araczynski Well-Known Member

    Oct 5, 2009
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    omaha, ne
    definitely a unique concept, art looks great, especially when enjoyed on the bigger ipad screen.

    can't wait to see some nice crimson red cloth blood spurting out! especially in different cloth styles :)

    definitely will keep an eye out for this one. good luck!
     
  18. Squeaker

    Squeaker Well-Known Member

    May 31, 2009
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    Oh noooo, I'm going to be all over this game when it's out and spending all my time with it. Craft and RPG sound like a wonderful match and have struck a chord with the feminine part of me.
     
  19. DaviddesJ

    DaviddesJ Well-Known Member
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    May 19, 2010
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    Sounds good, the most important/difficult aspect of this sort of game, in my opinion, is how to create the proper level of challenge for very different players. You have casual players who don't want anything very hard, and you have strategy gamers who want a challenge.
     
  20. araczynski

    araczynski Well-Known Member

    Oct 5, 2009
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    omaha, ne
    could be just as simple as tying the difficulty slider to an HP multiplier, and/or health potion drops, or maybe even higher/faster spawns, and/or meaner bosses, or some combination.
     

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