The landscapes don't necessarily have to be anything we usually find on Earth. Mega Man is visiting planets far, far away from our solar system. I'll want to include some alien landscapes: Fire storms, floating forests, upsidedown waterfalls, acid rain, sky cities, methane oceans, extremely high gravity, Ice Jungles (could go well with Arcturus, as suggested) and electrified caves.
Those are the first few things that came into head just now. I could go on and on. Frankly, I wanna have locations that you'd never see on Earth. We need to use our imaginations... Things like normal deserts, jungles and stuff are too obvious.
Posted on: January 13, 2013, 03:49:48 AM
Update: I have finished a written proposal for the project. I wanted to put everything into perspective and put across clearly what I hoped to achieve with this game. I've added this proposal to the first post in this thread and its also now a note on my Yoku Man page too (
http://www.facebook.com/notes/yoku-man/the-mega-man-starbound-proposal/428288773908945). Soon I'll also be adding my research into "Previous relevant story points" which connect the dots between various events in Mega Man lore with outer space and aliens.
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Here is my proposal for my upcoming fangame project.
- StarsimsUniverse.The Inspiration. What was the inspiration? The amazing, game changing Mega Man V for Gameboy! A totally new approach to a Mega Man game; no robot masters, a new and dangerous threat from outerspace, a tougher game, a special "Super Gameboy" pallete that made it stand out from the previous games and a totally new and original soundtrack that kicked ass! The story was alot darker too and the stakes were higher, you finally felt as if Mega Man had met his match.
Years later, I discovered there had been plans to re-release the Gameboy Mega Man games in a collection for the GBA. "Mega Man Mania" would have been a remastered collection with new GBA colour graphics and improved physics for all the games. All of the Gameboy games have become a sort of lost gem, totally under appreciated in video game history. Re-releasing them in the GBA Collection may have given them the recognition they finally deserved, but alas, the collection was cancelled, apparently due to losing the source code to the most important game in the collection: Mega Man V!
I dearly wanted to treat the fans to what they missed out on. A fangame engine that featured all the cool things promised in the "Mega Man Mania" Collection. An authentic Gameboy experience that featured the true platforming physics, feel and sounds of the original games... Not many fangames had tried to take the Gameboy approach yet, so I thought it'd be a unique project to try out. I also wanted to explore the cool storyline introduced in Mega Man V. What if not all the Stardroids were destroyed? Where did they come from? This was the beginning of my project to create a spiritual successor to Mega Man V...
But to begin with I'd need to make the engine, to make a sort of template game before I even attempted my sequel idea... Step right up NMario, my good friend!
The Template.Mega Man World!
NMario was delighted to try out my vision. Using his old Multimedia Fusion 2 Engine as a guide, we began to remake a fangame from scratch using the Gameboy physics, gimmicks and rules as closely as we can.
I wanted this to be the most authentic engine for a fangame ever. I trully wanted MM World to feel like a Gameboy Mega Man game. It has the first four robot masters and it'll have 2 Wily castle stages, just like the original "Mega Man: Dr Wily's Revenge." But not only that, I wanted authentic Gameboy stereo music and the original Gameboy sound fx.
NMario then had the awesome idea of multiple pallete settings. What if we display it with GBA colours by default and also added the options to play in "Super Gameboy" and B/W "Gameboy" style? That was an awesome idea that would make this fangame project even more unique. Also adding the GBA border would help to sell the idea of it being GBA inspired. (Plus that would help with fans capturing their Lets Plays in widescreen format)
By having this template game of NMario's (with its own unique story and characters) we would have a practice game for what would later come down the line. With the game finished we could also then make it free for fans to use to make their own games, using "Mega Man World" as a starting point.
Creating Mega Man World is a logical first step. Not often do fangame makers focus on creating their engine first before making their desired fangame, they usually make their fangame from scratch developing the engine as they go.
For Mega Man World, I wanted to make use of existing materials from the old Mega Man games and simply recreate levels, this would help to sell the accuracy of the engine. If we make MM World right, then it would make "Mega Man Starbound" so much easier down the line, as most of the coding would all be complete (Plus the fans would have a free fangame engine for them to make their own games with as well!). All that would need doing was coming up with plot, new sprites, new sound fx and new gameboy style music.
The Pitch.Because of the current development of "Mega Man World" my true fangame idea is still in the pre-production stages, with plot and concepts. As of now I have a lot of jumbled ideas mixed up in the my head regarding story, concepts, abilities, weapons and bosses, etc. So far there are only a few sketches and ideas from me and my fans from the various community forums. They too have contributed to the ongoing plot development and overall premise of the game.
Mega Man Starbound - Galaxy's Champion!
What I am proposing is a new type of fangame, done in the style of the unreleased Game Boy Advance "Mega Man Mania" Collection. The concept of the game will be very similar in style to Mega Man V (Rockman World 5) for Gameboy. It will include the physics, the fancy vibrant Gameboy Advance colour pallete, an all-new awesome original soundtrack (similar in style to its predecessor, Mega Man V), and an epic space saga storyline that could potentially span across multiple sequels and expand the Mega Man series and mythos into a whole new direction.
There will also be an expansion to the traditional gameplay elements, new gimmicks: such as collectable items, upgrades, roleplay elements, mazes, puzzles, interactive terrain, weather, gravity, and more.