One and Indivisible [Turn-Based Strategy][Historical][VN]

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Verlax
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One and Indivisible [Turn-Based Strategy][Historical][VN]

#1 Post by Verlax »

Premise (or simply - TL’DR):

“One and Indivisible” is Visual Novel with gameplay of turn-based strategy set in the universe similar to the period of I World War, telling the story of inner collapse of Ursuat Empire and desperate fight between the loyalist forces of former tsardom against revolutionary equalists and their Red Army. Player takes control of colonel Pyotr Karmazov, the youngest of tsar Aleksei IV’s sons who is caught in the middle of civil war. With loyal troops and leaders under his command he need to restore the peace to his motherland.

General Concept:

When it comes to gameplay, the biggest inspiration for “One and Indivisible” is Sunrider series by Love In Space studio, especially in terms of overall “theme” of it - dialogues, construction of story and some parts of battle gameplay, however in terms of battle gameplay and overall setup of it, the game leans towards Panzer General series. I’m personally also big fan of Advance War, which I played maniacally back when I possessed Game Boy.

Therefore, the gameplay will consist of:

1. Typical VN stuff - dialogues, choices, romance

2. Preparing your army - mostly by upgrading troops, managing your resources and buying more equipment from abroad

3. Missions that progress the story, done by using turn-based strategy gameplay.

When it comes to the story itself and the lore of the game, ‘One and Indivisible” uses mostly the history of Russian Civil War (1918-1921) as a reference material. However, while many characters from the game itself may be easy to compare to real characters, overall “One and Indivisible” do not copy the real history of Russian Civil War and is not “historically correct” view of it. In same way, some historical context from Chinese Civil War (1927-1950) will also appear. What we try to do with One and Indivisible, is basically, creating a game that “feels historical”, gives you good feeling by engulging you into a deep and complex world with clever references and winks to actual history.

We want to do it not just for the story, but for overall character design and all the details of the game. For example - the sketch of Cossack commander. Note how close it resembles the historical original.

Image

Besides “story reasons”, the world of Tyrm (alternate Earth) is quite different. The magic and spiritual powers exists in the world, mechs are deployed in the world of Great War rifle weaponry and poverty and alternate version of paganism is still strong, holding out in many parts of the world. If I may summarise the overall “feel” of the universe, I would use one of many great concept arts by Jakub Różalski:

Image

Also, because both lead writer and lead programmer are big fans of Legends of the Galactic Heroes, it is very likely we will try to make several references to this greatest anime created in the history.

More About Story:

The main character that player takes charge in is colonel Pyotr Karmazov, the youngest of Tsar Aleksei’s sons. Despite being part of the highest class of Ursuat, Pyotr was mostly sidelined. As a youngest son wasn’t destined for greatness - always living in the shadow of his older brothers. In the end, after finishing military academy he was sent to the Far East near the border with nomadic tribes of Bayar. Meanwhile, his older brother - Heir Tsarevitch Nikolai Karmazov became chief-commander of Stavka and entire military.

At first, Pyotr watched from the afar the struggle of Ursuat Empire and Republic of Touleisa against their common enemy - Denailand Federation. However, the tide of war turned against them and soon after Ursuat was on the brink of defeat. During that time, in capital city of Kerograd the uprising began, led by charismatic leader of Equalist Alliance party.

Image
Nadia Fiodorovna Postayevna
leader of Equalist Alliance and main antagonist of One and Indivisible

Now, the Ursuat Empire is in middle of complete inner collapse. The border regions are in open separatist revolt. The country is thrown into chaos as Equalists rule is disputed by many generals of Imperial Army scattered across the continent. Meanwhile - anarchists, Cossacks, nomad people of Bayar and other figures stir the pot even harder, turning land of Ursua into the field of battle. And in the middle of it, there is colonel Pyotr Karmazov. And his story and fate of entire country, is all up to the player...

Structure of Turn-Based Strategy:

Let’s be honest, this is the most important part that will likely make or destroy the game. I played many turn-based strategy games and I had a big problem with overall idea what exactly would fit the game set in period of I World War. As a big fan of Advance War, I was tempted to op for incredibly simple system of units having one way of attack, clear paper-cut-scissors interaction and in general - overall simplicity. However, in the end what we have written up in GDD turned out to be quite different.

The overall concept goes as follows:
- Map is divided into hexes, one unit = one hex
- The movement is restricted, units cannot move through each other
- Each unit has “Direction” value indicating in which direction it’s looking. It means that it is possible to attack units from flanks dealing bonus damage and in general, careful maneuvers are crucial
- Units have both HP and Morale (or EdC as I like to call) - which means sometimes the victory can be achieved not necessarily by eliminating all units, but by forcing mass route. If you inflict critical damage and EdC falls low enough, the unit may run from the battlefield, and other units may join turning a single squad running into mass hysteria.
- Absolute lack of RNG in battles. Not one value is determined randomly. All is up to player.

For now, while we finished concept itself and we started on setting up concrete values (like how hard it is for units to move from forest tile, river tile or any other) we did not finished even the demo of such battle. For now, the only thing we have is complete write down of first battle (which serves as tutorial). You can find it - https://docs.google.com/document/d/13Zg ... oJ5LE/edit.

Progress of the Game:

Okay. I want to deeply apologise, because you may got hyped for the game. But now I need to speak ugly truth.

Our “team”, that creates OaI consists of three people. We are all university students from Poland, not even living in the same region. Not only that, only one of us actually has any idea how to program anything. Basically, it’s:

- me, as a Lead Writer and author of entire of GDD
- “Ghatorr”, my dear friend who is trying to actually program it and create this game and is the only one that has any knowledge of Renpy
- “Gandzia”, my second dear friend who is mostly an assistant that helps us by suggesting tweaks in the story

So we have no one to actually draw necessary art or create music. The sketches of characters you saw earlier was not done by any of us - we had to buy commision from artist that is not part of our team. “Ghatorr”, the only one of us who actually knows how to program is also very overwhelmed by his study and complexity of it, so the progress is… terrible.

According to Google Drive history, the Game Developer Document for OaI was created on 5 November 2016. We “worked” on it for more than a year, and what we achieved was only a 50 page of GDD and nothing really else, not even the demo.

Recently, the project was almost dead and to be honest, we lost almost all motivation to finish even working demo - mostly due to the pressure we got from university studies. However, I was unable to truly dig the grave for this game, so I came up with the idea to publish here what we came up with and what we want to do.

The honest truth is, we are in desperate need of help. However, I don’t mean exactly “we are searching for artist/another programmer/musician” or anything like that. It’s true we need helping hand. However, what is the most important is the fact that recently we lost motivation to continue working on it, the creative spark that moved us back in 2016 to actually try to do something.

Therefore, the biggest help you can give right now is simple feedback.

- What do you think of the story premise?
- What do you think of turned-based gameplay idea we have?
- Do you think we should continue this project despite the fact it is clearly too ambitious and time consuming for us? If you are sceptical of our ability to finish it (we are too), do you have any suggestion what to do with it without abandoning the idea all together?

I simply hope that with getting some crucial feedback, we can regain creative spark and sense of commitment so we can actually try to work on it yet again.

Thank you in advance

- Verlax

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Re: One and Indivisible [Turn-Based Strategy][Historical][VN]

#2 Post by Neeka »

- What do you think of the story premise?

I find it incredibly intriguing! I would love to play this game :)

- What do you think of turned-based gameplay idea we have?

I think it is a great addition. The game as a visual novel by itself would be fine, but this adds more depth and visible action to the story. Personally I know nothing about it but I looked at your link at the map and it seemed pretty straight-forward. I'm sure players who don't know much about that aspect could pick it up easily.

- Do you think we should continue this project despite the fact it is clearly too ambitious and time consuming for us? If you are sceptical of our ability to finish it (we are too), do you have any suggestion what to do with it without abandoning the idea all together?

I think you should definitely continue it. I understand how you feel. I can be ambitious and I make games by myself and commission others to do the rest haha. If it's something you all incredibly care about and want to see completed don't give up. You can make a general end goal, and make smaller easier goals in the meantime like:

Finish X-amount of words for the script in _days/weeks/months
Save $_ for promotion art or add an artist to the team
Etc.

If you want others to be interested in the game you can try making a Devblog for it (though I haven't personally had any success with that yet lol :/). And could try Kickstarter to raise funds if that is a problem. It seems like your biggest issue is finding time for it. The best way for this is to look at everyone's schedules and assign little bits of work at a time. It may take quite awhile for the game to be finished but I'm sure it will all be worth it ^-^

Good luck!

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Re: One and Indivisible [Turn-Based Strategy][Historical][VN]

#3 Post by Ertal77 »

I think the idea is really, really good. I'm not much into turn-based system, but I'd definitely play this one. We need more historical games, and you have chosen one of my favourite periods ever!

So I really hope you can find an artist who is willing to work with you guys, and that you find again the spark of inspiration for this. This game really needs to be finished!
Do you like BL games? Then join Ertal Games' Discord!

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Re: One and Indivisible [Turn-Based Strategy][Historical][VN]

#4 Post by Verlax »

I wanted to thank you kindly for your comments. It is really nice to receive such feedback and both me and my team are really proud that initial premise sounds good to you.

Recently, I was working mostly on fixing mechanics and establishing formulas for battles, such as how exactly units should be defined and what values should they have. The topic is quite interesting, but for now I think it would be better to tell you a bit more about the story. And to be precise - to tell you about the main protagonist, played by You. Similar to Paradox and their way of writing Dev Diaries, I invite you for first one. Today’s topic:

Our Main Protagonist and His World
Image
Colonel Pyotr Alekseivicz Karmazov
commander of 134th Infantry Regiment, Far East Corps

(first sketch)

House of Karmazov is second ruling dynasty of Ursuat Empire. Its rulers were leading the country for more than three hundred years. Their reputation varied, some were remembered as great reformators, and some as evil tyrants. Land of Ursua were always the poorest region of Tyrm continent and specific ruling culture was established, centered around the concept of samoderzhaviye, meaning that no matter if tsar was a good ruler or not, his rule was absolutely uncontested, had no balance-checks and had absolute authority above his subjects. However, the new modern times gave birth to new democratic, socialists and liberal movements. The old fundaments of absolutism were dying out. Other countries, such as Denailand Federation, Republic of Toulesia or Kingdom of Loegria were adopting to a new age of progress. Meanwhile Ursua remained stagnant, with House of Karmazov leading this vast, but yet so backward country.

Pyotr Karmazov, the hero of our story, is the youngest son of tsar Aleksei IV Karmazov. Just like any member of Imperial House he received superior education of finest teachers, with goal in mind that Pyotr Karmazov will take one of important government seats in the Empire. However, when he was closing to his eighteen, Okhrana, the secret service of Ursuat Empire launched an investigation against him. Investigation in the end couldn’t prove anything and its results were indecisive. To be safe, Pyotr Karmazov was allowed to finish education, but after finishing studies in Kerograd Military Academy instead of receiving any important position in government he got a rank of colonel and was promoted to be commander of one of infantry regiments in the Far East, the fate most similar to banishment.

The reason for launching this investigation was kept secret and Pyotr himself wasn’t told what was investigation about. He had only a few guesses and no real clue why it happened. Its results were however obvious. There was no harm in ostracizing him, so Imperial House had no contraindication to do so. In the end, he was the youngest.

Meanwhile, right before “promotion” of our protagonist, Great War began. Denailand Federation, known popularly as Reich was emerging as new superpower, destroying balance between the nations of Tyrm. Triple Alliance of Kingdom of Loegria, Republic of Toulesia and Ursuat Empire was established to counter their growing adversary. Denailand Federation rallied other smaller countries to his cause and Erkizstan Empire, the sick man of Tyrm. Great War, known also as Weltkrieg turned out to be the most devastating conflict in continent history.

During that time, Pyotr was mostly watching empty taiga. The true leader was not him, but rather his older brother - Heir Tsarevitch Nikolai Karmazov. He was Chief of Army and it was him who was leading the country against the Denailand. However, the campaign itself turned out to be a failure. During three years of constant warfare, despite some initial successes, a few victories and one great offensive campaign in Drasilov Offensive the eastern front was lost and major important cities of Ursua were captured by advancing enemy. Backward country of Ursua was simply no match to modernized army corps of heavily industrialized Reich. However, ruling elite of Ursuat Empire was stubborn and refused to give in, supporting its allies in the West. Meanwhile, the country suffered because of immeasurable war weariness. Pyotr himself knew of these tragedies only from newspapers read in between of patrols of great steppes of Bayar in Far East.

Inner crisis of Ursuat Empire led finally to disarray and tsar Aleksei was forced to abdicate. New temporary government of president Mierniensky was established to contain crisis. However, there was still no agreement for separate peace. Disastrous war with Denailand Federation was continued. Out of member of Karmazov dynasty only two avoided house arrest: Nikolai Karmazov as a chief of army was too important for structure of tsarist army and Pyotr Karmazov, because in the administrative chaos he was forgotten and deemed completely insignificant. However, the winds of the history were on the move.

The day now is 26 October 1817. Mayor Katerina Rejevskaya, one of former staff officer in Stavka have arrived to visit you. She carries the new orders of Ursuat command for general Brylevsky, your superior and commander of Far East Corps. While both you and her know nothing of their contains, you already suspect what they mean. Far East Corps were mobilized to join the front with Denailand Federation. With that in mind You, Pyotr Karmazov, know that after all those years, you will finally be able to prove something.
From Lead Writer
Image
Colonel Pyotr Alekseivicz Karmazov
commander of 134th Infantry Regiment, Far East Corps

(second sketch + version without winter coat)

Sisters are overrated.

- Gandzia, member of our team




Now that you know what you need to know about the character, I would like to expand this more, but this time from perspective of author, why we decided to create our protagonist in such way.

The first problem we faced was the initial concept and deadly tropes of visual novel genre. There is often a strong temptation towards creating characters that are bland for saking of being bland (because then it’s easier for players to “roleplay” them). I both read some VN’s and watched some animes, and some of those tropes are more often problems and flaws, rather than helping tool in creating a good story. Therefore, I decided to approach our main protagonist differently.

The most important pivotal point of Pyotr character is his relation with his oldest brother. That is relation between Pyotr, and Heir Tsarevitch to Imperial Throne - Nikolai. Both characters are both very similar, and yet so different. They are both sons of tsar, they had the same education, finished the same academy, and yet their characters differ a lot. The reason is obvious - Nikolai is destined for greatness and inheriting the throne, while Pyotr was sidelined from the inner circle of Ursuat elite.

The biggest problem and flaw of Pyotr Karmazov remains inferiority complex. It is not only because as older brother Nikolai is next to the throne. Far older Nikolai as chief commander of tsardom army remains key figure and hero of Ursua. While failures on western front are obvious, it is also clear that it’s not fully his fault. Meanwhile the propaganda machine of tsardom makes him the next obvious hero of fatherland. During that time, Pyotr is forced to patrol taiga with his troops, while reading of his brothers great successes.

Relationships in families tends to be toxic in truly peculiar way. Very often it happens because of tradition, bonds of blood and obvious moral rules. It is very hard to criticize older member of family, especially with lack of self esteem, even if you are right. This is of course, the problem from Pyotr who is unable to have healthy relations with his brother and rest of his family.

During the game, the Player (as Pyotr Karmazov) will often have to choose between accepting humility and bossy orders of Nikolai or revolt against them. No matter what you choose, you are likely to feel bad in the end. Just as any character struggling with toxic relations in the family. The honest truth is, you simply can’t choose your own family, sometimes you are forced to live with them, no matter how painful it is.

By now, you should also have realised the reference hidden behind imperial family surname - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brothers_Karamazov.

As the result, Pyotr Karmazov remains as a character with very low self-esteem, but also a great humility. In the eye of common soldier Pyotr is the most “humanized” member of Imperial Family. Indeed, because of suspicion of his dubious ancestry Pyotr actually doesn’t like to refer himself by his family name and likes to treat himself as a common soldier - a move that makes him actually popular among his subordinates. A few years of garrison duty in Far East made him also very stoic and rather reserved. While he remains sad and melancholic, he doesn’t like to talk about it and leaves it all to himself.

All in all, as a writer I aimed to create a character that actually felt more natural and deep, rather than typical bland VN protagonist, focusing on creating the inner conflict in character more in line of classical Dostoyevsky’s novel rather than typical visual novel protagonist. I hope I will manage to actually acomplish creating such character, because in my opinion, it would serve the story better.

Gameplay

We talked about role of Pyotr Karmazov in One and Indivisible story. However, the game we are planning to create and we are working on also contains a huge section of gameplay element. That is - turn based strategy. To finish description of our main protagonist I will also briefly talk about what role he will have during battles.

I have played a lot of strategies and some of them will be quite clearly referenced in the game. One of them in particular, Advance Wars is truly a remarkable series and worth every penny. It is absolutely great mechanics that are both simple and yet can get really complex, in the best possible way. One of their core mechanics is CO concept. Every commander you can choose to command has both passive traits (worse units X, better units Y, different ranges of artillery etc.) and one special active ability called CO power. The reason this concept is so great is not only it adds extra dimension to the gameplay, but it also helps in characterization of your commanders. If Eagle has CO power that allows to move and attack with all your units again called Lighting Strike it tells a lot about him - he is a man that is quick, eager to fight and always prefer offense rather than defence. It also helps that all his airforce is better, giving this characterization additional edge. Analyzing other CO from Advance Wars series can lead to similar conclusions.

Image
CO Colin uses his Super Power (Advance Wars 2)

When it comes to battles, Player controls several units. The most important one is HQ which contains chief commander colonel Pyotr Karmazov, first adiutant mayor Katerina and other staff officers. HQ unit can move like any other unit but is incapable of direct fight. Instead, HQ passes orders to other Commanders-in-Field and directives that grants various buffs to your dedicate combat units.

Pyotr himself, similar to CO from Advance Wars will be able to use special command that can impact the battlefield in a huge way, turning the tide of battle. The difference is, during campaign your special command may change. Depending on your choices and way you want to learn tactics with Pyotr Karmazov, he may upgrade his special command or change it all together.

While in Advance Wars campaign you could play a huge variety of commanders, in general in One and Indivisible you will play almost exclusively as your protagonist with a few expections that feels more like bonus missions rather than actual main story battles. That’s why it will be possible for your protagonist to change your special command mid-game.

That concludes everything you should know about protagonist of One and Indivisible and his role in the game, both story and gameplay-wise. I hope you enjoy it. Please leave the comments - what do you think about the overall concept?

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