It's over, except not really.

Kind of sad. In the end, I didn't manage to get the level of polish or completion on the game that I wanted. But I'm okay with that - it was a bit ambitious.

That being said, I have no intention of stopping now.

I plan on doing an Independent study Spring quarter and possibly some work on this in Studio II to really polish it up and make it great.


Hopefully this will work out.

It's been fun :)

You can now capture dudes

Making the last major major major feature implemented.

I still have some major features that need in, but they're not nearly as essential as the ABILITY TO CAPTURE DUDES.

So I kind of feel like I won the game.

Yeah!

Mutations and Abilities In

You can now add and remove Mutations from Dudes.

Dudes can gain Mutations via level up or quest.

Each Mutation is as follows:

• Name: the name of the mutation
• Stats: the stats the mutation gives you.
• STR, CON, INT, SPEED, ACC, EVA, and DEF. are the stats.
• Stats may be DECREASED as well as INCREASED by a Mutation.
• All mut. stat modifiers are percentages, thus they scale with level.
• Ability: the ability the mutation allows you to use.

Each Dude may have up to 4 different Mutations ACTIVE at any one time. Toggle mutations on and off through the interface.

Quest structure overhaul

Over the past few days I've been doing a lot of work on stuff that's not really all that visible, which is kind of sad.


But now my quest structure is 500x more robust, allowing me to do things like have multiple outcomes PER CHOICE, PER QUEST, as well as a slew of interesting parameters I can add to a quest now to lock, unlock, etc.


The idea here is that you can mix and match elements to create a huge variety of quests. I'll explain the structure below:


Each quest is structured as follows in an XML document:

<Quest id="" qName="" Picture="undefined" Type="1" Loc="1" Locked="0">;
    <ChainLock cName="name" levelMinReq="" levelMaxReq=""/>
    <Description></Description>
    <Choice cName="" picture="" > <!==traitReq="">
        <Description></Description>
        <RequiredDude type="" levelMin="" levelMax="" quality=""/>
        <RequiredItem type="" quantity=""/>
        <MoneyCost></MoneyCost>
        <Outcome chance="1.0"> <!--ONE OUTCOME MUST ALWAYS HAVE CHANCE = 1.0
            <Text></Text>
            <Mutation></Mutation> 

            <Unlock></Unlock>
            <Permalock></Permalock>
            <UnlockLoc></UnlockLoc>
            <Trait aName="" chance=""/>
            <MoneyReward></MoneyReward>
            <Reward type="" quantity="" chance=""/>
            <RequiredItem type="" quantity=""/>
            <MoneyCost></MoneyCost>
            <ChainReward cName ="" levelMin="0" levelMax="0" increase="0" chanceToIncrease="1.0"/>
            <CombatDude type="" levelMin="" levelMax="" quality="" chance=""/>
            <RequiredDude type="" levelMin="" levelMax="" quality=""/>
            <RewardDude type="" levelMin="" levelMax="" quality="" chance=""/>
            <Heal></Heal>
        </Outcome>
    </Choice>
  </Quest>

Let's go through it line by line. Not because I think anyone will read this, but because I did a ton of work on this and want people to be impressed by it >(

<Quest id="" qName="" Picture="undefined" Type="1" Loc="1" Locked="0">;

• ID = the numerical placement of the quest in the XML document.
• qName = the name of the quest
• Picture = the name of the image that goes along with the quest
• Type = the style of quest - permanent, one-shot, or instant-fire.
• Loc = the location in which the quest appears
• Locked = the "lock points" of the quest. When these reach 0, the quest is now unlocked.

 <ChainLock cName="name" levelMinReq="" levelMaxReq=""/>
 <Description></Description>

• ChainLock: This attribute tells me this quest MAY be locked based on story chain progress.
• cName = The name of the chain in question.
• levelMinReq = The minimum progress the player must have to see the quest.
• levelMaxReq = The maximum progress the player must have to see the quest.
• This element may be repeated as many times as needed.
• Description: The narrative description of the quest.

 

 <Choice cName="" picture="" traitReq="">

        <Description></Description>
        <RequiredDude type="" levelMin=""/>
        <RequiredItem type="" quantity=""/>
        <MoneyCost></MoneyCost>

• Choice: Each quest may have up to 3 of these. 
• cName = the name of the choice
• traitReq = optional. The name of a requisite character trait in order to unlock this option.
•  Description = the Narrative description of the Choice
• RequiredDude: the player must have a dude that meets these specifications in their party to unlock this option.
• type = the type of Dude.
• levelMin = the minimum level of the dude.
• This element may be repeated as many times as needed.
• RequiredItem: the player must have the required items to unlock this option.
• type = the type of Item 
• quantity = the quantity of Item necessary
• This element may be repeated as many times as needed.
• MoneyCost: Holds an integer, the amount of money required to unlock this choice. 

 <Outcome chance="1.0">
            <Text></Text>
            <Mutation></Mutation> 

            <Unlock></Unlock>
            <Permalock></Permalock>
            <UnlockLoc></UnlockLoc>
            <Trait aName="" chance=""/>
            <MoneyReward></MoneyReward>
            <Reward type="" quantity="" chance=""/>
            <RequiredItem type="" quantity=""/>
            <MoneyCost></MoneyCost>
            <ChainReward cName ="" levelMin="0" levelMax="0" increase="0" chanceToIncrease="1.0"/>
            <CombatDude type="" levelMin="" levelMax="" quality="" chance=""/>
            <RequiredDude type="" levelMin="" />
            <RewardDude type="" levelMin="" levelMax="" quality="" chance=""/>
            <Heal></Heal>
 </Outcome>

• Each Choice may have as many Outcomes as needed. 
• Each Outcome has a "chance" - this is the probability that it will be selected. Probabilities are rolled for on an individual cascading basis, which means at least one outcome must always have a chance of 1.0 (the last outcome, usually). 
• Text = the narrative text associated with this particular outcome.
• Mutation = IF the CHOICE has a RequiredDude, this Mutation will be applied to the Dude.
• Unlock = a series of quest IDs separated by comma. Each quest in the list will be subtracted 1 unlock point.
• Permalock = a series of quest IDs separated by comma. Each quest in the list will be permanently locked.
• UnlockLoc = a series of location IDs, separated by comma. Each location in the list will be unlocked.
• Trait = The trait that will be awarded.
• aName = the name of the trait.
• chance = the chance that the trait will be awarded.
• MoneyReward = the amount of money the player will get for this outcome.
• Reward = an item reward.
• type = the type of item being rewarded
• quantity = the quantity of item being rewarded
• chance = the chance that that item will be rewarded
• This element may be repeated as many times as needed.
• RequiredItem: these items are REMOVED from the player's inventory
• type = the type of Item 
• quantity = the quantity of Item necessary
• This element may be repeated as many times as needed.
•  MoneyCost: this money is REMOVED from the player's inventory./
• ChainReward: Progress in a story chain.
• cName = the name of the story chain
• levelMin = the lowest this chain can go due to this particular outcome.
• levelMax = the highest this chain can go due to this particular outcome.
• increase = the amount of progress the player gains towards this chain. Negative progress is allowed.
• chanceToIncrease = the chance that the chain progress will increase.
• This element may be repeated as many times as needed.
• CombatDude: A Dude you may FIGHT in combat upon SELECTION of the Outcome's CHOICE.
• type = the type of Dude you are fighting. -1 means RANDOM type of dude.
• levelMin = the minimum level of the Dude.
• levelMax = the maximum level of the Dude.
• quality = the quality of the dude. -1 is random quality.
• chance = the chance that you will fight the dude.
• This element may be repeated up to 3 times.
  
• RequiredDude: this dude is REMOVED from the player's party.
• type = the type of Dude.
• levelMin = the minimum level of the dude.
• This element may be repeated up to 3 times.
• RewardDude: this dude is GIVEN to the player.
• type = the type of Dude.
• levelMin = the minimum level of the Dude.
• levelMax = the maximum level of the Dude.
• quality = the quality of the Dude.
• chance = the chance that the Dude will be given.
• This element may be repeated as many times as needed. 
  
• Heal: The amount that the player's Dudes will be healed.
  

I have loot tables (also, story structure)

More importantly, I have an excel file for my Dudes now that I can export into the XML that my game reads, so I don't have to do it manually.

I also have a better idea of how story will work. More on this later.

EDIT

Okay, so my narrative structure. I've decided that instead of having single linear storyline with various optional sidequests, I'm going to make the whole game and storyline entirely optional and completely open.

Basically, each "story" is going to be a single thread. Linear or forking or whatever, doesn't matter.

Each thread is separate from the others, though threads may be linked via dependencies.

The "end of the game" isn't a set point. There is no set long-term goal - instead, the game will be comprised of a series of short- and mid-term goals tied together with a goal of "find out what happens next".

The overarching theme of the storylines will be, get out of this mess I've gotten myself into.

I want to break away from the linear story, and I think in this I can. Also, it's easier to handle from a conceptual standpoint, and not TOO much harder to program.

Combat is in (edit: for reals)

I mean, it;s a shell.

But you can enter combat, kill dudes, get your own dudes killed, gain experience points based on WHAT you killed, and yeah, pretty rad.

PRETTY RAD.


Now, I just need to expand. But the basework is in.

Okay that was all a bunch of lies. NOW it's in. We even have some basic user communication so it's not completely confusing.

But yes, I now have an entire infrastructure in place to handle different kinds of abilities, different effects, different targets, etc.

I need to implement energy and implement the abilities themselves (and how they are gained/lost). But for now, I need to set combat aside and begin shelling out my narrative so that the player actually has a game to play.

Phew.

Combat

Man I don't even.

So this morning I knocked out the levelling curve, the monster EXP curve, and implemented all the necessary functions into the Dude class.

I'm getting to the point where I pretty much HAVE TO IMPLEMENT COMBAT because I am running out of things to procrastinate with. %*$#.

My combat, I'm waffling between 2 different kinds, right? Basically, modifying Wild Arms style combat or doing some kind of bizarro FFX/GrandiaII style. The former is WAY EASIER than the latter, but both of them are scary hard anyways. Why so many JRPGs. I feel kind of lame.

Dudes are in

Kind of.

No mutation paths or moves yet, but we do have dynamic stats in place as well as scalability.

Level cap is set to 20.

How stats work:

• There are 4 base stats, STR, CON, MIND, and SPEED. 
• Each type of dude has preset Base Stats of 1 through 4 in each stat, for a total of 11.
• Then, when the game loads, each dude is randomly given a "Quality"
• 3 Qualities are "trash", "good", and "great", with a % chance of 52%, 33%, and 14% respectively. These numbers are HIGHLY subject to change.
• Quality determines the modifier rating on each stat.
• Modifier ratings are 1-5 on each stat, randomly generated out of a total stat pool based on the quality.
• Trash quality dudes get between 10 and 15 extra stat points
• Good quality dudes get between 16 and 19
• Great quality dudes get between 20 and 21.
• The Modifier rating is then adapted and applied to the Base Stats, increasing or decreasing them depending on the rating - 3 is 100% no change, 5 is 125%, and 1 is 75% effectiveness.
• This gives a final Stat Growth Rating, which determines the overall stat growth of the stat as the mob levels.

Next up is implementing basic combat without abilities, as well as levelling up.

Once that's done, I'll begin to has out mutations and abilities. Oh boy.

Last, we now have a quest input tool. Turns this: 

Into this:

Progress Report

Approaching the end of Week 5, and I have the following in place:

• Action infrastructure set up and working.
• Quest infrastructure set up with the following functionality:
• Load quest info from an XML document
• Quest choices and branching working 
• Quest unlocking and prerequisite working 
• Money and Item rewards 
• Inventory system
• Displays properly
• SCROLLING
• Map
• Nothing there yet, but infrastructure in place.

I feel like I'm on schedule, but there's still a ton of work to be done.

I have most all of what I wanted to accomplish by Week 4, and have actually knocked out a lot of the Week 6 stuff too.

What I need to do is shift gears and start working on Combat. By the end of this weekend I want to have the following in place:

• Spreadsheet with stats and stuff all figured out
• Dudes implemented in game and UI

Then the next step is implementing combat itself. I have about a week to do this, so I'm not too stressed.

last but not least, the interface has changed again. Oh well.

i lied

the old UI didn't give me enough space for options, also it was clunky and wasted a lot of space.

this is my new UI

MISSION UNLOCK SYSTEM

I want missions to unlock based on what you've done previously. Pretty standard stuff.

Problem: I want to have a complex unlocking system that not only could require multiple quests to unlock a new one, but also changes based on which CHOICES you made.

Solution: THINK REALLY HARD, CALL DAD.

Solution, for reals: Unlock points.

Each mission has a certain # of unlock points. When you complete prerequisite missions, it fires off a thing that subtracts an unlock point for each mission it affects.

When a mission's unlock points hits 0, then it appears.

GENIUS.

SOMETHING WORKS

IT'S A MIRACLE

INTERFACE

Finally figured something out, took long enough.

Key concept here is that I want to use the same interface for ALL in-game actions, no matter what it is, outside of combat. 

Biggest problem is Flash and the limitations that imposes. I don't have infinite vertical space like all the other spreadsheet games. I have 600 pixels. 

So, I'm stealing Echo Bazaar's "card" system for actions:

Coupled with Elements' intelligent use of Flash to condense things

And came up with this piece of #*%$...

But then thought about it REALLY HARD and ended up here:

Open Question #4: Programming

oh god

edit (10/09/10)

oh hey this isn't as hard as I thought it would be.

actionscript is easy, as long as you're not preoccupied with doing things like making your code legible, or understandable, or elegant in any way shape or form.

awwww yeeeeeahhhh

Open Question #3: Interfacing

I feel like maybe this should come before Open Question #2. Whatever.

So, how does the player interface with the game? This is a pretty heavy question considering that the interface is the game. Yeah my casual roots are showing.

Right now, I know this:

• Limited overworld
• Holy hell, real bullets. Thank you, blogger.
• No walking around, no collision. Too long to program.
• Any graphical representation of where you are is going to be in the form of a single solid image, a la Echo Bazaar, Pirate
• Zoned
• Zoning is really important, there's got to be distinct areas within the map and distinct things to do within those areas.
• I want to have the FEEL of an old school JRPG without having the OVERWORLD of one. 

Thinking about using a ninja saga-esque scheme for the "overworld"

• Zoomed out map showing all areas
• can see only currently unlocked areas 
• and silhouettes/hints of connecting areas? 
• Or maybe you can click on areas you've "seen" but cannot GET TO - trying to get to them results in failure that identifies why you cannot get there. 
• can only unlock areas connected to currently unlocked areas
• In-Area, show graphical mood image but not representative of physical space.
• Have storylet-style--

OH FUCK

WHAT IF

WHAT IF

THE INTERFACE FOR INTERACTING WITH THE ENVIRONMENT AND NPCS IS THE SAME AS THE INTEFACE FOR FIGHTING OH, SHIT.

OH, SHIT

OK SO

First things first, let's just figure out what the hell it is that the player is DOING in my game, yeah? Ok.

• Combat
• Initiate Combat
• ideally, have some semblance of a choice over what I fight, even if it's just the rough level of what I'm fighting.
• Actually have Combat
• Post Combat info (level up, loot gotten, etc)
• Menus - Pip boy style?
• Periodic Table/Pokedex - view dudes I have/have seen
• My Dudes
• names
• abilities
• stats???
• health and atk lol
• team-picker a la tenchi?
•  My Stuff
• Items
• Money
• Key Items
• Status
• 
  
• World
• Overworld - pick a place to go. also = map?
• Inside area
• Talk to person
• Explore area/item
• Opportunity cards.... I really love this, but how can I work it in. 

HUD

• 
  

Limitations:

• Flash means my canvas size is severely limited.
• So
• Like
• Yeah this is gonna be interesting

Open Question #2: Combat

okay apologies in advance for the horrid formatting here. I've been brainstorming in google docs and it's just such a waste of time to do that there and then retype everything lovely here. and since you're not going to read it anyways, then I'm just going to use this blog as a dump site for my brainstorming and such and not worry about making it exceedingly legible.

What's important? SPEED SPEED SPEED SPEED SPEED SPEED SPEED SPEED DO NOT FORGET THIS, OKAY FOR SERIOUS.

Now. List o interesting combat mechanics.

• Elements
• requires use of non combat cards to generate resource which your dudes use.
• limits you to one or two elements, and forces randomness by adding extraneous cards to deck
• binary have/dont: once you hit a certain point, mana is a non issue.
• false gods exploit this to increase difficulty.
• Pokemon: PP
• kind of a shitty limitation - only meaningful in endurance matches or when extremely low. 
• Just adds grind and frustration. 
• meaningless in battle, only important outside of battle. ew?
• Legend of Legaia: geometry
• each move consumes a certain amt of energy - players have max amt of energy per turn
• create interesting combos by stacking things weird
• very easy cost->effect correlation - better moves cost more.
• Tenchi game: Energy
• Gain 2 per turn
• moves use static amt, 1, 2, 3, 4

Okay this isn't gonna work

Moving to the bed

I have cut up a thousand little paper squares on which I am brainstorming


It's working pretty rad but I'm not quite at the point where I want to type it all up yet.


I'll get there, be patient.

Open Question #1: Narrative

First off, would like to extend a thank you to jason yankowski, who keeps reminding me I'm taking myself too seriously.

In that vein, this game cannot take itself seriously. Whatever I do for narrative, I gotta keep it simple and light. No complicated backstory. No racial tension and history and wars and no. This is not one of your novels. This is a game made in 7 weeks based off cloning pokemon. Stop thinking so hard.

Stop thinking so hard. 

Aight, so. What do I have so far:

• Creatures are muta
• 
  

You know what I need to do this with other people. BBL.


ok i am back


Here we go

• Name: Oh man I am so bad at naming things it's unbelievable.
• Setting
• Place
• A world similar to our own, but not in any specified current-world setting
• Scale is not global, not large
• Kind of a microcosm of a modern-day country, distilled into individual elements.
• Time
• The relatively near future, perhaps where we might be right now if we had fewer morals running around getting in the way of science.
• Atmosphere
• A bright, happy, civilized world with a somewhat brutal history of blood sports, the feel I am going for is that of elephant in the room.
• Inspiration: "Fido", a movie set in the 1950s where families keep dead relative zombies as pets. 
• Absurd in its disregard for commonly accepted morals and virtues - basically, poking fun at the implications behind games like pokemon and dragon quest monsters.
• Light hearted and humorous skin with an undercurrent of weird and kind of fucked up. Mocks self and common video game tropes, especially jrpg tropes.
• Characters
• You
• Age: 12 year old
• Gender: Pronoun chosen by player at game start.
• Personality: None, this is a jrpg clone.
• Your Family:
• Mom - Single mom, ostensibly does nothing but sit in the kitchen all day and watch TV. Always asking you for money. May or may not be a gadget junkie.
• Dad - Who knows? You certainly don't, and your mom won't tell you. You suspect it might be because she doesn't know <s>which one it could be</s>.
• Older Sibling - Your half brother. Kind of a douche bag. Had a different dad, a dandy who dabbles in politics and spoils Sibling rotten in order to keep him/her out of your hair. Comes back to troll you repeatedly.
• Plot
• History
• Colosseum-style combat experienced a sort of renaissance roughly a hundred or two years ago.
• After human vs human and human vs animal combat was banned as illegal, animal vs animal fighting increased in popularity.
• Gov't tried to ban, but like Prohibition, it didn't last long. Ban replaced by extremely strict rules for where fights may be held, and the format of fights.
• Also like Prohibition, it set the framework for a multitude of underground organizations who profited off of circumventing law.
• Use of drugs to augment animals begins to become prevalent.
• Major breakthroughs in regeneration and reconstruction allow damaged and even dead creatures to be brought back to life and health, most of the time.
• Drugs and enhancements continue to 1-up each other - the government legalizes the process in order to tax it and try and regulate it.
• Genetic engineering enters the mix.

• Creatures begin to be bred specifically for malleability and trainability. These traits are artificially fabricated and begin to spread like wildfire as a means of subduing potentially dangerous creatures.

• Modern Day
• Creature fighting is a widespread and widely accepted hobby, but the barrier for entry is high. Years of genetic fuckery have made creatures wildly unstable, and many escaped or renegade creatures have mingled and interbred with the wildlife to produce all sorts of weird wild creatures.
• While it's possible to purchase powerful, high quality creatures, they are expensive. Many poor kids simply catch and train their own, at personal risk.
• Creature fighting is seen as a widespread way for lower-income lower-social-class citizens to make it big, though the risks are huge and very few actually make it.
• You, the player, care about
• Money.
• You're 12 years old, congratulations! You're now legally allowed to participate in creature fights. Which is great because your mom is broke and if you want to go to college, you'd best get started now! 
• Lucky for you, your mom knows a guy who recently came into possession of a few very high quality creatures... you can even have one, for a price! I would feel bad extorting money from a 12 year old, so how about we play a game?
• Etc.
  
• Goals
• Immediate: Survival, paying back the money you owe.
• Short term: get out of whatever situation you're in.
• Long term: gain admittance to a formal sponsored team - essentially, go pro.

Pitches, first wave

A summary of my first wave of pitches given during Class 2.

Note: Going into this, my goal is to start and complete a stand alone game, probably in Flash, that has tight gameplay and is fun to play. I see Studio 1 as an opportunity to play with some mechanics that have been rolling around in my head for a while now - I'm not trying to change the world here, just trying to have some fun.


Pitch #1 and #2 are variations on a single theme. They shared some common core characteristics:

• Flash Game - because I know it.
• Raise and train ‘creatures’ - because there's a lot of room to explore here.
• Fight other ‘creatures’ - because I already worked on a virtual pet game, and am not out to make another.
• Full PVE storyline - because narrative is fun, and will make my game stronger.
• [Scope?] PVP/Social functionality - because what's a creature game without PVP? Nothing.
• (perhaps limited to AI version of real opponents)

Pitch #1: Creature-Centric game

Here, your creatures would be in the spotlight. Creatures will grow over time as you train them, and the extent to which a creature can evolve is very deep. You will manage your individual creatures both inside and outside of combat. Probably, you will only be deeply involved in caring for a few creatures at a time.

Inspirations

• Pokémon - bit of a no brainer, this game has shocking depth of gameplay that is never realized outside of the hardcore PVP circles, all because it's a game for kids.
• Dragon Quest Monsters:Joker - this game incorporates creature-fighting with breeding, one of my favorite mechanics ever. However, I strongly disagree with the way this game implements that mechanic, along with a lot of other things.
• Chrono Trigger - so Chrono and Marle and co. aren't creatures, but they could be and the game would still play the same. Combo skills are a really interesting mechanic, and when it comes to story, CT can't be beat.

Pros

• Lots of room to play and explore - for whatever reason, very few clones of these games really exist. 
• Easier to form an emotional investment to the creatures in game.

Cons

• Programming the back end
• Harder to abstract, may require more strenuous graphics work.
• Might seem trite or tired, especially since Pokemon is such a widely known game, and the virtual pet genre is overflowing.

Pitch #2: Collectible Card Game
Here, we zoom out a bit and now your creatures are your cards. CCGs are really fascinating to me for a lot of reasons, but they're also really difficult to make.

Inspirations

• Elements - somewhat of a M:TG "lite", this game took some core concepts from Magic and threw away the rest, leaving behind a superquick easy to pick up card game that manages to be fun AND simple. Regardless of what I do, this game will be on the forefront of my mind.
• Play it at http://elementsthegame.com
• Alteil - an online CCG that goes for strategy instead of speed. This game is deep, complex, and complicated, and has one of the ugliest learning curves I've ever experienced, not helped by an awful tutorial. Offers a lot more strategy than Elements, while showcasing just what CAN be done on a purely online CCG that isn't encumbered by the real world.
• Play it at http://alteil.com
• Tetra Master - the card game from Final Fantasy IX - what I liked most was the way you got the cards - from defeating the monsters themselves! Pretty neat way to track progress in the real game while offering advantages in this side game. Also offered super simple super streamlined mechanics - a real gem.
• Echo Bazaar - the king of spreadsheet games, this features some of the best game writing ever, as well as having a fully visualized immersive world with ALMOST NO GRAPHICS. It can be done!
• Play it at http://echobazaar.failbettergames.com

Pros

• Adds a lot of potential for strategy - deck building, hand building, etc. CCGs are deep and complex.
• Easier to abstract, meaning easier on the art.

Cons

• Programming the back end.
• Need a lot more content.
• All that extra strategy means a lot more complexity while developing - I don't know if I have the time to dedicate to make a fully realized, balanced CCG. 

Pitch #3 - 'Critter Wars' WoW Mod

Everyone who's played WoW knows about critters - the tiny non-combat creatures that follow you around and make you smile. People collect them, there's a total of roughly 150 in game right now. That sounds familiar. What if we can take these creatures and make them fight? Level them up? Play a game-within-a-game.

Inspirations

• Peggle - PopCap released Peggle for WoW and it was a huge hit, proving that players DO have a lot of downtime in this game and want something to do with it.
• Pokemon - let's face it, this is essentially Pokemon for WoW.

Pros

• Already an established userbase with an established desire for something to do during those 15 minute long flights across the entire continent.
• Pre-existing creatures means I don't have to make anything up - also means that people already care about them.
• Game within a game, especially this KIND of game, makes for an interesting design challenge.

Cons

• Programming! My lua is awful, my XML is worse. I've written a WoW mod before and it took way longer than it should have.
• I just dont know if I have the programming skill to pull this one off (yet).

Conclusion

Combine #1 and #2 - use card game elements, but keep it creature-centric. You don't have time to make a CCG, so don't. Leave Pitch #3 for Studio 2, learn how to do this stuff over the break.

This is my blog

Let me tell you what I ate for breakfast.