[GAME] [IN DEVELOPMENT] Unstable

[lonely_cubone]

Unstable is a role-playing game that follows the adventures of a group of interdimensional travelers on a quest to do something they’re not quite sure about. It spans over half a dozen worlds (or universes, or dimensions, or whatever you want to call them) and three years, and shows part of how the single most important event in the history of the multiverse came to occur.

Spoiler

An Alien without a name crash lands on a planet called Earth, in a world dubbed the “Nothing World.” The Alien knows his objective – the planet, for some mysterious reason, has been subject to many rips in the dimensional fabric. If these are left unchecked, they may grow bigger and bigger until they are no longer repairable. The Alien’s home, a moon by the name of Charon, had previously sent multiple convoys to the planet in an effort to investigate the interdimensional mishaps and ultimately repair them if possible. However no more than a few months prior, all convoys had ceased communications and most were thought to be destroyed. One signal, however, remained, and it was within this glimmer of hope that the Alien was sent to find the location of the signal and finish the mission.

Unfortunately, as stated, the landing was not a trouble-free one. Because of a malfunction in the shuttle’s command unit intelligence, the spring-jointed fuel displacer actually worked as intended and consequently displaced all of the fuel into an adjacent waste compartment where it was instantly rendered completely useless. Or something. Without fuel, the Alien could not properly control its decent into Earth’s atmosphere, and so when its spaceship landed, it did so in eighteen pieces too many.

The Alien survived, and most of the things that broke were simple novelties. Not all, though. For example, because the Alien was physically so different from the native species on Earth, it had designed a “robot suit” as a means of a disguise. The Alien could fit in a capsule in the torso of this robot, which closely resembled an earth-native human. It was from here that it would conduct its business, not only beyond the knowledge of earth’s inhabitants, but also with the abilities of any additional features built into the suit such as its Invisibility Belt or Fire Boots. That was the plan, anyways. While the exterior of the suit remained fairly intact, its wiring and software had reached a level of malfuctionality that had previously only been thought to be possible in the Immoderate Chaos Fields of Gabba Snee.

All was well though, as realistically those features were only perks. Earth was home to a relatively civilized society, and the Alien didn’t imagine he would need most of the weapons he installed on there anyways. The disguise was what was important, and for the most part it worked fairly well. That is, until the Alien met the Wizard.

It started when the Alien accidently applied itself for a job at The Kidd’s Family Restaurant. Due to a malfunction in the suit’s English/Charonian Translator, the Alien found itself working as a dishwasher. There it met a young human male who was trying to raise money to pay for a medical procedure or something. The Alien and the human never really talked to each other at that time. As it turned out, this human knew a secret that allowed him to remember all of his past lives. Every time he died, his spirit was reincarnated into another being somewhere in the universe, retaining all memories of earlier lives. Somehow, though, he had forgotten quite a bit about some of his previous lives in this incarnation. He remembered hearing from someone that he had a very important job to do in this life, but he could not remember what that job was. He was trying to pay for a hypnotist, in the hopes that she could restore his memories.

Naturally, the Alien’s mission to save the structural integrity of the multiverse and the Wizard’s mission to remember his mission became hopelessly intertwined as the Wizard, who was somewhat suspicious of the Alien, accidentally chased the Alien, who was somewhat suspicious of the Wizard, through one of the interdimensional rips to a place called the Thunder Hill World.

The two of them end up separated immediately. Before the Wizard even comes through the rip, the Alien and a panda named Dapan are captured by some tiny people in orange jumpsuits and taken to a jail on the other side of the mountain they’re on. When the Wizard comes through, he meets a kangaroo named Roo, who is friends with Dapan. Roo convinces the Wizard to help him save Dapan, and they also head towards an uncertain future within the mysterious jail.


Note: At the beginning of the game, you can select to play as either the Alien or the Wizard, and select the gender of both characters. The Alien’s suit physically resembles a human of the same gender as the Wizard, although the gender identity of the Alien itself is uncertain. You also choose a name for the character you’re playing as.

Note: The Alien and the Wizard are the only player characters who must select certain skills to use. All other PCs, like Roo and Dapan, can eventually learn all of their skills.

Spoiler

The Alien has a variety of different equipment at his disposal in battle. The Alien can have two of each type of equipment, except for weapons, which he can have five of. Once he has the maximum number of different equipment pieces, he cannot learn the skills that allow him to use new pieces of equipment.

Dual Wield is a very important skill for the Alien. Putting one rank in it allows him or her to wield two weapons at once, but the off-hand weapon is significantly weakened. Increasing the ranks in Dual Wield increases the power of off-hand attacks, until both hands are equal. Arm Shield is a skill the Alien can use when he has no weapons equipped. It allows him to block incoming attacks.

All of the Alien’s weapons do direct damage to enemies. The Wrench Club is a basic melee weapon. The Wrist Knife is more powerful (in many cases), but it has a longer cooldown and less knockback. The Volt Stick does little damage and no knockback, but it stuns the target. The Earthquake Sword has a longer range, and can also be used to create a shockwave along the ground. The Laser Gun is a basic, extremely fast ranged weapon. The Frostthrower creates many tiny snowflakes, each of which has a small chance of slowing the opponent down. The Grenado is a thrown explosive that creates a giant gust of wind when it explodes. Finally, the Gatling Fingers shoot a spray of tiny bullets.

The Alien’s four hats all confer passive abilities. The LifeScan Visor allows you to roughly gauge the health of your opponents, using a health bar. The more ranks put into LifeScan Visor, the more powerful enemies can be scanned. The Emergency Helmet has a chance of resisting attacks against the Alien when he or she is at low health. The Propeller Beanie creates lift, allowing for higher, floatier jumps. The Refund Helmet gives you a slight chance of regaining any single-use item after using it.

The Alien’s belts are used for utility. The Extendo-Claw grabs faraway enemies and pulls them in closer. The Sentry Belt drops a small kit that automatically builds a Sentry. The Sentry will attack enemies that come near it, and if it is between you and the nearest enemy, it will push that enemy away. The Sonic Belt pushes enemies away with a pulse of sound. The Invisibelt slowly turns the Alien invisible, allowing him to avoid attacks and attack once from the shadows.

Finally, the Alien’s boots provide additional passive benefits. The Roller Skates increase the Alien’s movement speed, and the Spring Boots increase his or her jump strength. The Suction Boots do not allow jumping, but greatly increase knockback resistance. Last but not least, the Fire Boots do damage to enemies when the Alien jumps on them.

Controls:
Z – Use main-hand weapon
X – Use off-hand weapon
V – Use belt
Z + Down Arrow – Switch main-hand weapon
X + Down Arrow – Switch off-hand weapon
C + Down Arrow – Switch helmet
V + Down Arrow – Switch belt
B + Down Arrow – Switch boots

Spoiler

The Wizard essentially has a single ability, but it is extremely versatile. He or she can project his memories of past lives into the minds of others, essentially making them think they are being attacked by strange creatures. These imagined creatures have very real effects on those who are imagining them.

Knee is the one skill the Wizard can use that physically does anything. It is just a basic melee attack. All of the Wizard’s other skills either grant him a new form, or give him new abilities to use in that form. The Wizard does not really change into these forms, but just makes enemies think he is, very convincingly.

Mind Projection is the prerequisite for all of the Wizard’s forms. He or she cannot have more forms than ranks in Mind Projection, and the maximum number of ranks in Mind Projection is three. Therefore, the Wizard can only ever have access to three of the six forms.

The first of these forms is called a Tik-Chat’chtka. It is a large, red, fly-like insect that lives inside of an asteroid. Their entire lives take about thirty seconds, so they reproduce very quickly. It is capable of flight and hovering, and has the best aerial maneuverability of any playable character. The Tik-Chat’chtka’s skills include Sting, which allows it to charge into enemies and damage them, and Latch On, which lets it grab onto an enemy and continuously do damage until it gets knocked off. While Latched On, it can use Lay Eggs and Rake. Rake does an extra burst of damage on top of the continuous damage of Latch On. Lay Eggs allows the Tik-Chat’chtka to lay eggs inside of an enemy. The Tik-Chat’chtka operates on a 30-second timer. When this timer expires, the player dies, unless there are eggs laid inside an enemy. This causes a new Tik-Chat’chtka to hatch, replacing the old one and doing damage to the host. When the new animal is born, if the Wizard took damage as the Tik-Chat’chtka without switching to another form, some or all of that damage will be healed.

Another form is the Crizzle, an armoured slug-like creature with a lance. It originates from a lush, forested world where they have reached medieval-level technology (or had when the Wizard was one of them). Its two attacking skills are Lance, which can only be used while moving and has quite a long range, and Execute, which does extra damage and can only be used when the enemy is at low health. It also has Battle Horn, which briefly increases the damage done by its attacks, and Squishy, a passive ability that gives the Crizzle a chance to take less damage from attacks.

The Thorb is the Wizard’s next form. It is a massive organism the size of a small planet. There are many other species living inside the Thorb, including the Narwalrus, which (not surprisingly) is like a Narwhal combined with a Walrus. When the Wizard takes on the form of the Thorb, he or she surrounds the enemies, which end up inside the Thorb. The player then takes control of a resident Narwalrus. This Narwalrus has one attack, called Incapacitate, a melee attack that does a small amount of damage and stuns the target. The rest of the attacks in this form come directly from the Thorb, and affect all enemies on the screen (barring certain circumstances, like enemies that are immune to damage for some reason). These attacks are Stomach Acid, Deadly Moss, and Bodily Purge. Stomach Acid coats all enemies in a strong acid, doing damage to them over a long period of time. Deadly Moss appears underneath every enemy when used, and slows anything that tries to move through it down substantially. Bodily Purge does a fairly large amount of damage to all enemies, and throws them all around in random directions.

Next is the Riordan form, which is a small, boney, almost rodent-like humanoid. It has a very large head and empty-looking eyes, giving it a nearly skeletal appearance. Its most commonly-used ability is Deadly Aura. This creates a dark circle around the Riordan, protecting it and damaging enemies. Any enemy that comes in contact with the Aura takes damage and is knocked back. It only lasts for a short time, however, and it will break under sustained pressure. It both destroys and is destroyed by projectiles. Bone Density is a passive ability that increases the Riordan’s knockback resistance. Head Smash is a melee attack that does damage and stuns the target. Parry allows the Riordan to block an enemy attack and counter it.

The fifth Wizard form is the Aixodue. It is a large green creature that looks like a cross between a lizard and a large feline. It lives and hunts in a shadowy jungle under perpetual gloom. Fade allows it to blend into the scenery, so that enemies cannot see it. This gives the Aixodue the opportunity to make a single, powerful strike from the shadows. Pounce causes it to jump onto the nearest enemy, dealing a significant amount of damage. Maul is an unbelievably fast attack that can be used several times per second, but does a tiny amount of damage. Agility is a passive ability that increases the Aixodue’s base movement speed.

Finally, there’s the Incorporeal Blob of Nothing Stuff, or IBNS. The INBS comes from somewhere in our world, but from a place that’s so strange that it can barely even be comprehended by the Wizard, who lived there as an IBNS. Basically, the IBNS is a large collection of floating balls. Snipity Snipe is its only direct attack, and involves shooting one of the balls that make up its body at the opponent. Envelop is a passive ability that does damage to any enemy that is directly touching the IBNS. Vacuum sucks enemies closer towards it, and Materialize causes it to reappear somewhere else on the screen.

Controls (Human):
Z – Knee
X – Form 1
V – Form 2
B – Form 3

Controls (Tik-Chat’chtka):
Z – Latch On
X – Sting
C – Rake (while Latched On)
V – Lay Eggs (while Latched On)
B – Human Form

Controls (Chizzle):
Z – Lance
X – Battle Horn
V – Execute
B – Human Form

Controls (Thorb):
Z – Deadly Moss
X – Stomach Acid
C – Bodily Purge
V – Incapacitate
B – Human Form

Controls (Riordan):
Z – Parry
X – Head Smash
V – Deadly Aura
B – Human Form

Controls (Aixodue):
Z – Ambush
X – Fade
C – Maul
B – Human Form

Controls (IBNS):
Z – Snipity Snipe
C – Vacuum
V – Materialize
B – Human Form

Spoiler

Roo is a kangaroo native to the Thunder Hill World. He lives with his friend Dapan in a small house on Thunder Hill, which is actually a colossal mountain. The two of them live generally peaceful lives, training in the martial arts with Kowail, a koala, and socializing with the Warthog of Warthogs Village (Warthogs in the singular form of the species’ name, Warthog is the plural).

In combat, Roo specializes in changing between three different combat stances. In Mobile Stance, he can move and jump quite freely, and can also attack fairly well. In Power Stance, he cannot move or jump very well, but he automatically attacks enemies within range and gains the ability to use more powerful attacks. In Defensive Stance, he cannot move, jump or directly attack at all, but he is more resistant to knockback, and becomes able to use various defensive abilities.

In Mobile Stance, Roo can use a variety of different abilities. Jab is a basic melee attack that does a bit of damage, and Thigh Kick does less damage but stuns the target. Super Jump allows Roo to jump extremely high up.

In Power Stance, Roo loses a lot of mobility and gains an auto-attack ability. Whenever he is facing an enemy that’s within range, he will begin to rapidly punch it, doing small amounts of damage and holding the enemy in place. While he is doing this, Roo can use one of three powerful attacks that will knock the enemy out of range. Uppercut knocks the enemy upwards, Push Kick knocks it forwards, and Hammerfist knocks it downwards.

In Defensive Stance, Roo cannot move at all but becomes more resistant to knockback. He can use Perfect Block to briefly block incoming attacks, and Counter to hit enemies as they’re hitting him.

Controls (Mobile Stance):
Z – Power Stance
X – Defensive Stance
C – Jab
V – Thigh Kick
B – Super Jump

Controls (Power Stance):
Z – Mobile Stance
X – Defensive Stance
C – Hammerfist
V – Uppercut
B – Push Kick

Controls (Defensive Stance):
Z – Power Stance
X – Mobile Stance
C – Counter
B – Perfect Block

Spoiler

Dapan lives with his friend Roo in the Thunder Hill World. While Roo trains mostly in the art of Kung Roo, Dapan prefers to focus on elements of Pan-Do, which involves a lot of movement and manipulation of opponents.

Dapan’s combat style is based around his dodges and finishers. As Dapan dodges melee attacks, the enemies that attack him gain Disorient Points. These points represent the confusion that most things would feel when a panda is jumping all over the place around them, doing weird stuff and not getting hit by anything. Dapan’s finishers do damage based on the number of disorient points on the target.

The most basic attacks at Dapan’s disposal are Palm Strike and Laser Eyeball. Palm Strike is a simple melee attack, and Laser Eyeball is a quick ranged attack. Both can be used regardless of Disorient Points.

Dapan has three dodges: Monkey Roll, Flip, and Sidestep. The dodge he uses is based on the direction he’s moving relative to the target. If he moves towards the target, he’ll use Monkey Roll. If he is not moving, he’ll use Flip. If he moves away from the target, he’ll use Sidestep. All of these dodges add one Disorient Point to the target and remove all Disorient Points from every other enemy.

There are also three finishers that Dapan can use. These are Hip Toss, Shoulder Check, and Heavy Landing. The finisher used depends on the last dodge that Dapan used. After using Monkey Roll, he’ll use Hip Toss. After using Flip, he’ll use Shoulder Check. After using Sidestep, he’ll use Heavy Landing. All of these skills do damage based on the number of Disorient Points on the target, and remove all Disorient Points from it.

Feint and Deflect Arrows are two other skills that Dapan can use. Feint increases the damage of finishers even further, if they’re used right after Feint is used. Deflect Arrows allows Dapan to dodge projectile attacks, since his regular dodges do not function on them. Dapan does not have a way of dodging explosions (other than moving out of the way like everyone else).

Controls:
Z – Palm Strike (at close range) or Laser Eyeball (at a distance)
X – Dodge
C – Finisher
V – Feint
B – Deflect Arrows

Spoiler

Soon after they arrive in the Thunder Hill World, the Alien and the Wizard, along with Roo and Dapan, find themselves in a large dungeon. This dungeon is apparently run by Betty Mole and her legions of little guys called Attackers.

Attackers are short humanoids with fairly large heads, fangs, and no arms. They always appear wearing orange jumpsuits. Their mouths can open infinitely wide, allowing them to eat literally anything. They also seem to be quite technologically inclined, although they might just be using equipment built by others. They use devices like welding equipment, a giant gun that takes three of them to even lift, and a big metal foot that crushes people. They also seem to be performing research on some of the prisoners in the dungeon.

Betty Mole is a young woman with a gigantic mole on her face. The mole is very strong; so much so, in fact, that its mole-arms can actually pick Betty Mole up, allowing her to fly in an extremely confusing way. She seems to be the ruler of the Attackers, and for the most part they listen to her. She fights you using her gargantuan mole to her best advantage.

There are a few other beings working for Betty Mole, most of which are intelligent animals like Roo and Dapan. There are quite a few guard dogs, as well as some birds that carry bombs. These are vastly outnumbered by the Attackers, though.

Spoiler

The overworld system for Unstable is fairly straightforward for an RPG. When not in a battle, the player walks around between many different maps, talking to people and interacting with objects. The main in-game menu features most of the standard RPG menu elements, like items, characters, and saving.

Battles are done in a side-view style, kind of like a platformer without platforms. The player and enemies move and jump around each other, using different attacks and abilities to defeat each other. There are many playable characters, each with completely different abilities, and a wide variety of different enemies, including many threatening bosses and minibosses.

Player skills are learned by trading certain items for ranks in different skills in a certain location. For example, the Alien must take Spare Parts to the remains of his crashed spaceship and trade them in for ranks in different skills. Every enemy in the game drops these Skill Items (unless the player is much more powerful than them), and the items dropped are always random. Skills are arranged in trees, so that certain skills are prerequisites for other skills. One cannot put ranks in a skill until its prerequisites have at least the same ratio of skill points. For example, if you have 6/10 ranks in Skill A, which is a prerequisite for Skill B, and the maximum number of ranks you can place in Skill B is 5, then you can raise Skill B up to 3/5 (the same ratio) before needing to put more ranks in Skill A.

In battle, skills operate on a cooldown system, so after using a skill, you can’t use it again for a set amount of time. Some skills must be used, while others are passive and provide a constant or situational benefit. All skills are used by pressing the letter keys on the keyboard from “Z” to “B”, although some features of some skills also require arrow keys to be pressed.

Items can also be used in battle. They are equipped to three different item slots from the menu. To use these items in a battle, hold the Shift key and press the appropriate arrow key. These items include projectiles that can be thrown at enemies and cheese that can restore health. There is also a fourth item slot reserved for items that are gained during a battle, and can only be used for that one battle.

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Many other features are planned for future implementation, including a much wider variety of items. Specimon are one example. They are plant creatures created by blending the properties of different plants together. These plants can be harvested from all of the worlds, and mixed together to form thousands of combinations of different Specimon, each with different traits and abilities.

There are also many more characters and worlds than have currently been made. There are ten player characters, including the four mentioned here, and seven worlds. In addition to the “Real World” or “Nothing World” (the world we live in) and the Thunder Hill World, there’s the Ditital World (yes, that’s how it’s spelled, nobody knows why), the Dino World, and many more.

Each of these worlds has a distinctly different art style. The Thunder Hill World is in a cartoonish style with thick outlines and solid colours. The Real World (our world) will be kind of a similar style to RPG Maker XP or 2003. The Ditital World will be in 8-bit (yes, real 8-bit colour, not just something old-looking that we’ll call 8-bit) and low-resolution. The Dino World will be all hand-made art, either drawn, painted, or something like that. We haven’t decided yet because we don’t have an artist for that yet.
There will also be ways to customize the appearance of the characters as well. At the moment, we are planning to have capes that can be worn by all of the characters. These capes can be found through sidequests and by completing major objectives, and can serve as both a visual customization of the characters and a status symbol for those who have achieved some pretty difficult feats to get their capes.

Finally, there will be more powerful skills for each character that are much more limited in use. Once a character has full ranks in all of his or her skills (or the maximum number of skills, in the cases of the Alien and the Wizard), he or she can use Ultimate Skills. These skills cost one Skill Item to use, and can only be used once per battle. For example, Roo’s Ultimate Skill is Zimbabwe Stance, which gives him enhanced speed, power, and defense, channeling the intense power of Zimbabwe. In addition to Ultimate Skills, there are skills that are granted by mysterious candies called Power Pop Pellets. These skills, called PPP Skills for now, are not specially designed for each character. At the start of the game, each character is assigned one of twenty or so PPP Skills, which can be used by eating Power Pop Pellets in a battle. These skills include Hamster Dance, Alchemy, and Hurricane.

Spoiler

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Overworld

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Skill Tree

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Wrench and Laser Gun

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Wrist Knife

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Extendo-Claw

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Tik-Chat'chtka

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Thorb

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Knee

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IBNS

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Character Select

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Monkey Roll

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Sidestep

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Flip

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Item Menu

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Shoulder Check

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Power Stance Auto-Attack

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Uppercut

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Defensive Stance

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Super Jump

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Inside House

This music is all from the first part of the game, in the Thunder Hill World. There is more music written than this, but it should stay as a surprise until the point in the game where you can actually hear it. If you’re curious, the music was all written with Guitar Pro 6.

All of the music is on this Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/NarwalrusStudios/videos


This demo is not actually a part of the game. The characters, skills, items, and Attackers are going to be in the real game. This particular map, with these NPCs, will not be in the game, nor will the Deadtacker. Most of these things are designed to make it easier to appreciate the features that will actually be in the game.

This is the link to the demo: http://adf.ly/61yVS


20/04/2012 (1.2) - Added Tutorial Mode and more battle noises. Fixed a bunch of glitches.
25/03/2012 (1.1) - Added snowfall, footprints, shadows, bird enemy, and battle noises for the male Alien and Wizard. Fixed a bunch of glitches.
23/03/2012 (1.0) - Released Demo


lonely_cubone, for the majority of the battle engine and a lot of the music
King_Ooga_TonTon, for the majority of the overworld engine, basically all of the graphics, and some of the music

[SmithyGCN]

I'm interested - I'll work for it.

[lonely_cubone]

We've updated to version 1.2 of the demo! Now there's a highly-requested Tutorial Mode to explain the basics of combat and such, as well as some fixed glitches and new battle sounds. Of course, we've also done a lot of work on stuff that won't ever be in the demo.