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Old 06-27-2015, 08:18 PM   #1
Sparkbeat
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Smash! Project

Smash!

Smash! is a project I am hoping to work on for a long time from this point. Whether it will remain a personal endeavor for me and some friends, or whether I'll try to make it a legitimate product remains to be seen, but regardless, my long term goal is to have a complete story. At the moment, the story is still very much up in the air, with very few things finalized and many possibilities still being tossed around. What isn't up in the air, however, is my need to actually create this, which is a big reason for me making this thread. On my own, I run the risk of losing motivation entirely for long periods of time, possibly running the risk of dropping the project entirely. However, by going public (yeah yeah small Pokemon forum, but whatever, better than nothing) with what I have and will be doing, I'm hoping that it will be enough to keep me motivated to continue this project until completion. So yeah, I want to chronicle this possible journey here, and who knows, we might get a completed product in a few years. Only time will tell.

What is Smash! Project?

Well, that dates back not too long, but long enough for me to have already experienced a motivation drop I don't want to happen again. Back in March or April of this year, don't remember which, Sw!ft and I were just texting, or maybe one of us had thought of it earlier a brought it up then, but whatever, that's not too important. I had been dragging him down into the inescapable anime trap, and both of us are pretty into Super Smash Bros. Melee. So naturally, we started talking about how awesome it'd be if there were a SSBM anime with all the top players and commentators in it, kind of like the documentary The Smash Brothers (watch if you haven't. It's super well done and will make you really appreciate the game and community) but you know, with plot instead of being a doc. So I took that idea back then and kind of changed it into a more slice of life setting with the concept of a group of high school kids playing the game competitively, doing something about them growing closer as they practiced and hung out while living their lives, pretty basic SoL stuff but with a different focus from most. The farthest we got back then was that broad concept, characters names, and barebones outlines for 5 main characters. Then we just kinda let it fade out into "oh yeah this was hype when we thought of it but it just...kinda didn't go anywhere.

Flash forward to earlier this week, when I was riding in the car on my way back from Boston listening to random Nano songs on Youtube. For some reason, the idea just returned to my head with some sort of new passion for wanting to do a project like this. So on that ride back to where I'm staying in NJ, I revamped everything, and found the base and goal I want to achieve in making this project.

---

Smash! Project is the story of a group of teenagers whom normally would never have spoken to each other being brought together by their enjoyment of a massively popular competitive fighting game, becoming closer and improving in the game throughout their time together as they live their lives in high school. The genres I plan for it to fall into are Slice of Life, School, Action, and more likely than not Comedy. It will be based in a reality very similar to our own, though set a few years in the future to allow the existence of the game. I do not plan to add any supernatural elements to any of the characters or the world around them. The reason for this is honestly nothing other than the fact I general prefer stories with those elements, but it will be my first time attempting to write / create anything of this magnitude.

What medium is Smash! Project?

As it stands, I have no concrete plans for what the medium of the project would be. Ideally, animation with a heavy anime style would be the choice, but that obviously requires things out of my reach at the moment. A step down from that is as a Web Comic or Manga. They're still good options, but I personally prefer animation more, and I feel the planned fight scenes that occur in the game would be much better animated. And finally, simply writing it will probably be what I do first since it's the only thing I can do with my skill set, despite it being the option I would prefer the least, simply because I plan for watching / reading the fights at competitions to be a fair part of the appeal, and it's pretty difficult to write a good, intense, fast paced fight scene. It'll be one of the big hurdles I have to overcome.

So, About that Game...

In the past year, I've expanded my friends group and gotten closer to many people I was already kinda friends with through Super Smash Bros. Melee. It's provided me with great friends, and so, one of my goals is to show just that. How a game can bring people who seemingly would never mix together. Now, original Sw!ft wanted to just base it around Melee, but obviously, outside of just a small fan work, that'd never be feasible because of copyright. So, I spent a while brainstorming recently, and Smash! was born in my head. Calling it Smash! for now just as a reminder to how it's come about.

The game is a virtual reality fighting game, where you are in complete control of your characters body as if it were your own. However, this isn't an RPG, so in actual, non-online competitions where all the players are in the same building, you're just loading immediately into whatever arena you'll be fighting in. Theoretically, the arena can be anything from a simple arena with nothing in it to a wide open tundra. Some are technically ever expanding and open world, while some are regulated to a certain area. Player characters are, as you would expect, much more durable than actual people. While gravity is normal in the game, their jumping abilities are higher than normal to allow for more creativity. In the game, there are 4 major stats: Speed (how fast you can both run and attack. Also effects things like reloading for characters where it is relevant to them), Power (Physical strength, deal more damage with attacks, effects jumping height), Stability (Ability to not be phased by attacks. While players don't experience pain, they still receive the effects of being struck, such as being momentarily stunned [hitstun] and things like blurred vision if they take a hard strike to the face. This stat decreases the potency of things like this), Stamina (this is more or less the health bar, but with a twist. The bar, even for those with little investment, is pretty hefty, allowing games to last around 3-5 minutes rather than only 1 or so. The bar depletes slowly as moves are performed, however, taking an unblocked shot from the opponent will cause a more dramatic increase, as will constant attack without allowing a moment or so to catch your breath. Think of it as a Stamina bar that also takes punishment from being hit). Players also get a specific number of points they can distribute amongst their stats to increase them, similar to EV's in Pokemon.

When a player signs up for the game, they are put through a series of 3 matches against opponents specializing in Speed, Power, and Stability. After these 3 battles, the game determines the players Strength and Weakness, one stat receiving a general boost (unrelated to the points system) and one other being reduced a bit, similar to Natures in Pokemon. The game determines these after observing the players natural fighting style in these first 3 matches. It is also at this time the game generates the player's main weapon that fits their fighting style, which is unique in some way to each player (might be as small as a slight size or color difference). In addition, there are two slots for support items, which are available by choice and can be swapped between matches. Players can design their character's appearance in more or less anyway they want, however no drastic changes to size or height can be made, unless fitting of the class (ie one could have a heftier figure if their Strength is Power and they have points dedicated to raising it even further). However, most of this is for aesthetics, and mostly has no effect on gameplay, the height differences not being drastic enough to.

Winning is simple: don't allow your Stamina bar to run dry before you opponents! In the event of a tie, a Sudden Death occurs. Each combatant is given 3 orbs of different colors, and must destroy their opponents before all of theirs are broken. Yes, it's extremely similar to Mikagura, but it's hardly a super unique idea (protecting an item during a fight while getting your opponents item, I even tossed it around a few times before Mikagura aired), but it makes for a really cool fight, so yeah, Sudden Death rules.

Since it's release, the game has received massive popularity all over the world, helping to bring esports to a larger spotlight. The game is played by putting on a simple piece of headgear. If removed, you simply wake up, back in control of your normal body, no risk of going into shock or anything of the short. None of that bullshit here. Tournaments are held locally and nationally, with large sums of money going to the winners. There are many casual players, and many competitive players, as well as fans of the previous game in the series, simply titled Smash, who swear by playing the older game with simply a controller.


For now, it's just going to be Super Smash Bros. Melee. If I need to in the future, I'll tackle developing an original game then. Going for a much more down to earth approach for now.

Characters

WIP

---

So, that's all I'm able to write for now. Yesterday, I drafted a pilot outline of sorts for a theoretical first episode, focusing more on the setup of the story than anything else, since I was able to do it with just the skeleton characters. But like I said earlier, this thread is more to keep me on track than anything else. I really want this to be something I can work on and refine for years to come, throughout the rest of high school and probably into college. In the end, I want to make something that can, at the very least, entertain some of you guys here at UPN, and in a perfect world, show up on some people's Netflix "recommended for you" lists and be worth downloading illegally off the internet by some fans unable to spend money on it. If anyone wants to help, or even just chat about it, feel free to contact me on Skype or here any time you want. I'll probably use this thread for updates on the project as a whole, things like character descriptions and maybe some scenes written out. I'll hopefully be able to kick that off with a Pilot / 1st Episode story of sorts sometime within the next few weeks. Feel free to post comments and questions in this thread too. Well, that's it for now, so I hope some of you are as excited for Smash! as I am!
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Last edited by Sparkbeat; 08-13-2016 at 07:24 PM.
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