First of all, thank you all for the positive feedback!
We've been receiving a few questions about our design decisions so I'll try to address them here.
"The Deromantization of RPGs"
This one is pretty simple. Our goal is to make No Place for Bravery the opposite of a power fantasy. That's why we decided to remove some classic RPG conventions. The characters are only human, not invincible super heroes.
We want the player to be afraid. We want him to treat every single enemy with respect, because even the weakest enemy is a serious threat.
This is our high concept and will guide every design and artistic decision.
The Progression SystemOur big inspiration here is Spelunky. There is no levelling up, your characters aren't going to get more hit points (the game doesn't even have hit points), they won't improve their DPS. The only one who's going to become better over time is the player himself.
There is some progression in the game. You'll find new characters, items and even new skills along the way, but each will introduce a new mechanic and will force the player to make strategic considerations.
The perfect example here is Spelunky, think of the teleporter or the jetpack, they both represent progression in the game, but instead of just adding +1 to your speed they both add new mechanics that demand skill to be used.
No NumbersI'm a huge FIFA fan (don't judge me) and FIFA uses stats to differentiate each player. And that's fair. There are a lot of attributes, to determine how good a player is at dribbling, for example, there are four attributes: dribbling, ball control, agility and balance. What dazzles me is why the hell do they show these attributes to the player? There is no need for it. Just say that a player is fast, you don't need to say that the player has a sprint speed of 91, you can easily keep these numbers under the hood.
It even create some odd statements from the game. As you may know, the biggest debate in modern football is Messi vs Ronaldo. Every year FIFA tries to settle this debate by making one have an overall of 93 and the other 94. This is wrong and really arbitrary, who are they to determine who's better? If they kept these numbers under the hood this would be avoided.
Of course, there are a lot of games where the numbers are a big part of the strategy. I've been playing Hearthstone lately and it is obviously a game that needs to show it's numbers.
But Bravery is primarily an action game and we really think that the players don't need to see any numbers. They should make their decisions based on what "they feel", not on the numbers we show them. We think that this will make the strategic part of the game feel way more organic.
By hiding the numbers, the players won't know exactly how the game works. And that's a good thing, it creates a sense of mystery, it makes the players speculate how the systems really work.
The Combat SystemWould love to see more about this time manipulation thing. I really liked Super Time Force mechanic, but it sometimes felt a little bit clunky. I'm really interested about playing around with this mechanic into a game more strategy skill based.
You nailed it. That's exactly how I feel about Super Time Force.
I always wanted to make a simultaneous turn based game like Frozen Synapse and Star Wars X-Wing (the board game). I think it is a really clever mechanic and adds a lot of depth to strategy games.
When I saw Super Time Force I thought that their time manipulation mechanic would be even better than simultaneous turns for a strategy game. And that's how the idea that led to No Place for Bravery was born.
In No Place for Bravery, the combat is divided in 10 second "turns". You select a character and play with him for ten seconds, at the end of the turn the game will rewind 10s and you will select another character to play beside the first one.
Very similar to Super Time Force, but we wanted the pace of the combat to be way slower and more strategic.
The controls are going to be very minimal. Only four buttons - attack, defense (dodge, shield or parry, depending on the character), special attack 1 and special attack 2 (which you don't start with, that's the only upgrade you can get to your character). The game's combat system is all about positioning, strategy, precision and synchrony.
There are no hit points, every playable character and every enemy (except for bosses) dies with one hit. Regular enemies aren't exposed at all times, some will require timing to kill.
Of course, everything that I said can and probably will change. Keep in mind that we're still early in development.
I think this will make the game's mechanics a little bit clearer. If you have any doubts feel free to ask and I'll try to answer them as quickly as I can!
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