If i could make a Mobile/Android game...

[Bells]

sadly i hardly a coder or a programmer, i'm far faaaaaaaar away of ever being able to make games, i can hardly make RPG maker to work the way i want it... the best i could ever do on game design is writing, voice acting and music/sound effects...

But if i WERE to make an android game, to make something i would want to play and share, it would be something like this:

The idea/goal: To make a game that is addictive, fun and that you can enjoy in short bursts or long periods (so, small set pieces and avoiding repetition). Also very simplistic (easy to make, easy to play, easy on the device) but with it's own charm (high production values)

My Game: NPF - Nuklear Power Force (Patent Pending place holder name ad nominem etc)

a Hex Grided Strategy RPG with a top down vie (maybe isometric), in 2D.

The entire game runs in 3 instances:

1 Story parts. These are just cutscenes. Some static art background with characters portraits placed over and text boxes, so you can follow the narration.

2 Overworld. Here you can tackle a randomized battle (just picks a bunch of Hexes and enemies around your level) , but XP and Loot is yours. Continue the story, or Manage your team/item/Skills.

3 Battle Parts. That's the Hex Grid where all gameplay takes place. Just a map floating in a skybox. It has Different elevations that work like so:

Base : The mid level of the map. the Horizontal center.
High Ground: Anything above Base.
Low Ground: Anything below base.

Action Taker ->Against-> Action Receiver:

Base -> High : Atk Down (1.5x) / Hit Normal (1.5x)
Base -> low : Atk Up (1.5x) / Hit up (1.5x)
High -> Base : Atk Up (1.5x) / Hit up (1.5x)
High -> Low : Atk Up (2x) / Hit Down (1.5x)
Low -> Base : Atk Down (1.5x) / Hit Up (1.5x)
Low -> High : Atk Down (1.5x) / Hit Down (1.5x)

For simplicity, Terrain types won't matter. Except for Water that reduces Movement by 2.

The gameplay mechanic os standard fare. You click your character, Pick Move or Skill (more on that in a second), move to the target Hex within rage, or select a skill and target Ally/Enemy. When you click a character a "Pokemon Like" box shows on the bottom with the character portrait, name, level and action points (more on that next) and class where you can pick "Skill" "Item" or "Defense"

The entire "currency" of gameplay is Action Points. You get those as you level up. When you Move or Attack or Buff or Heal, you use Action points. You restore a set number of those per turn and you can use as many as you want at once, stringing attacks and skills to form combos. Even pick multiple targets. And the enemy does the same thing. So maybe you want to barrage the enemy with 3 Lightining spells in a row, or you just want to shoot 2 and heal a nearby ally that was being pummeled the previous turn... you can! As long as you have the AP to bank that... remember that moving also consumes AP and it consumes PER HEX MOVED.

The challenge is in the strategy of the map itself. You control a team of up to 3/5 Characters at a time (depends on it being too much for the android or not) against usually 1.5x that of enemies. So you need to know how to use your AP's well so the AI won't make you into a punching bag.

Speaking of characters they are made of the Following:

Level
HP Points (base + per level)
AP Points (Base + per level)
Class (explained below)

Atk - Your base attack for any skill
Def - your base defense for any skill
Speed - Base for your movement range

And you can equip 3 itens
And you can equip 5 Skills

So, about skills...
Any actions you can use in this game are based on skills. Even a simple attack. These are like Cards, so, Skill Cards. That you can equip on your character. They are like "Fireball" or "Sword Slash" or even "Heal" and "Atk Buff" each has it's own range and Power (a attack skill Adds to your Atk status to define damage, a Defensive skill takes your Defense status, Healing goes by your Level), and they all have their own Ap Cost, of course.

So, as your character levels, the skills get more powerful, and maybe you have a Thunderbolt spell that costs 5 Ap and has 15 Dmg, but the Lighting spell only costs 2 Ap and causes 5 Dmg... but you can cast it 3 times in a row against 3 targets, softening them all up at once...

So, instead of having some silly level cap, maybe you CAN find a super doom spell early on.. but it's Ap cost will be really high and early on you can't regenerate much Ap, so it becomes unusable.

Here is the thing about skills though, and where developing an Android game gets trickier...

For me, if i could code that, i would 100% sure make take a page out of a few other games and let My game create content based on the other stuff i have. So, i get a skill crystal... it lets me acquire a new Skill Card. When i use it (outside of battle) the Skill card lets me pick one of my other Android apps or maybe a music file or photo i have, it then analyzes it and generates a unique code based on that analyzes and THAT code generates my new Skill Card, Defining it's attributes.

And i would do the same for my Equipment, because, really... it's all about the loot. And instead of creating a huge list of items... i would simply create a list of Attributes and Go Diablo-Style. Every item is made of 3 parts

Base + Modifier 1 + Modifier 2

And it's randomized or uses the same basic system i mentioned above. But itens are more tied to Level. There is a 70% Change it will pick something On your level or 3 levels below. and 30% change it will pick something on your level or 3 levels above. You can still equip stuff regardless of your level

Base defines what the item is (A sword, a Hat, etc... it's basic status) and each modifier after that, gives and takes something while also adding ridiculous Adjectives and Latin/German/Greek words on it.

So, now you already have the entire structure of a fun, little and adctive game. All it needs is a good story and some production value to grab attention... how you do that second one?

My money goes into Music (a no brainer) and voice clips. The story is not voiced (to not bloat the game file) but in battle, you can add all these mini voice clips for battle, to make things fresh and less monotone. Like, 15 Cheesy one lines each character spouts at random when attacking or getting healed or being hit. And Flashy, colorful visual effects for every Skill...

There, you have Mobile game to drain hours and hours...

Too bad i can't code for shit though