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Hello

I'm making a RPG-style interactive story based around the works of Lord Dunsany, and his character that inspired Lovecraft's Cthulhu, Mana-Yood-Sushai. I'm a journalist by day, and I want to create a game that can have the lasting effect of a good book, and reads like poetry.

"Beyond the Sea of Dreams" will have no combat, lots of dialogue and scripted events, and maybe a few adventure game-style sidequests. Again, it's meant to be more of an animated book.

Background

Skarl beats his drums in a dimension beyond our own. Next to him sleeps Mana-Yood-Sushai, whose dreams create the minor gods, who then get bored and create all the galaxies, worlds, and creatures. If Skarl stops his drumming, Mana-Yood-Sushai will awake and all the worlds created by his dreams come to an end.

This is the story that Cthulhu is based on, only Lord Dunsany's version was more poetic and was meant to instill a sense of wonder. Dunsany (Edward Plunkett) was one of the leading authors and playwrites of the early 1900s, and was a key inspiration to a long list of authors including J.R.R. Tolkien, Arthur C. Clark, and H.P. Lovecraft.

Unfortunately, he is now regarded as a forgotten author, and his works, including "Time and the Gods," which is where Cthulhu came from, are also mostly forgotten (although many are available in the public domain http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8183 (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8183), http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8129 (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8129)).

His stories are wonderful, and I thought it would be interesting to see a game based in the worlds he imagined.

The Story

"Beyond the Sea of Dreams" begins with Skarl and Mana-Yood-Sushai, and is based on a small story in one of the worlds created by the dreams of Mana-Yood-Sushai.

It takes place in a land where three kingdoms live in peace, guarded by magic and geography. There is a large mountain to the north that prevents them from seeing what's on the other side, and every time someone goes to look and report back, that person never returns.

Legends have it that on the other side is the Sea, which is a massive river that all the worlds flow down, and on whose banks walk gods among massive trees. If a world gets trapped on the banks, it becomes a land that has no destiny.

The kings gather and decide they need to find someone they can send who will come back, so they choose a great warrior and tell him if he comes back, he can marry one of the king's daughters (who is particularly beautiful, and who he fell in love with).

So begins the journey.

The Game

The game will be around 2 hours long. I plan to release it for free, and I'm developing it within RPG Maker VX Ace.

This is my first game, so any feedback or pointers are appreciated  :)

It's based on two different stories from Lord Dunsany ("Time and the Gods," and "Poltarnees, Beholder of Ocean," which is a story within "A Dreamer's Tales"), although I'm changing it up a bit, to make it work better as a game.

Here are a few screenshots (all of them are only partially complete):

(http://techzwn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/BeyondTheSeaOfDreams_1.png)

(http://techzwn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/BeyondTheSeaOfDreams_2.png)

(http://techzwn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/BeyondTheSeaOfDreams_3.png)

(http://techzwn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/BeyondTheSeaOfDreams_4.png)

(http://techzwn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/BeyondTheSeaOfDreams_5.png)

Looks nice, But your mapping needs a bit of work, heres some tips:
1) Make your indoor maps smaller instead of filling them with random junk.
2) Fill empty grass areas with a ton of doodads. Like sticks and leaves and that untrimmed grass tile.

- Thekill

Thanks for the tip. I went back and looked at some maps from Chrono Trigger (my favorite RPG), and I think mine are a bit bland. This is valuable feedback.

The concept is great. I love Lord Dunsany and although a jrpg-style presentation isn't an obvious choice, I can really see it working in a very interesting way.

Please say there will be gibbelins.  :)

Thanks! It's nice meeting another Dunsany fan also. The JRPG graphics are more a personal flaw. I'm not so great with pixel art, so I'm using what RPG Maker VX Pro has to offer. I'm looking for an artist though, and I'm also looking through some of the Creative Commons sprites and terrains.