Totem Force [Released!]

Okay; I didn’t realise that. I’ll see if there’s somewhere else I can put an extra boost in that path, then.

2 Likes

I guess that could have worked too, maybe even better as it would have allowed their personalities to shine more, though for my mc while it is easy to see him having that friendly rivalry with Chi centered around who is the better actor/leading man I can’t see him having a really hateful rivalry with Anara and I struggle to see what a friendly rivalry between those two could be based around.

Hmmm…I suppose to alleviate his boredom he could be deliberately “challenging” miss perfect student intellectually, provoking her and some of the teacher’s with some of the more controversial scholarship of the day on certain topics.

Still take it as a sign of how much you’ve grown as a writer, which is, again, readily apparent to anyone around here who has also read your other, later, WIP. :+1:

Or you could try to return to the original vision, though it would mean less Chi time. But the too much competition part is definitely true, even absent Phil, who I still like most of the guys, yay! My mc would have romanced, or at least gone for friend with benefits with Sammy instead.

Anara’s father definitely would have been awkward for my mc, meeting the mayor is more fascinating than awkward for my mc though.
Besides my mc here always has a snarky comeback! Always! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

5 Likes

I like the way Chi is so I honestly don’t see him as boring or anything. He’s like the only guy I like as in romance. :astonished: Or should I say the only person that I would romance in the game :slightly_smiling_face:

4 Likes

You could just look at the code you know…

2 Likes

Yeah… some of us don’t know how to do that exactly…

1 Like
3 Likes

I think soothing the savage beast in an early interaction foreshadows the revelation that they were human very effectively, and works well. A nice way to integrate it might be to have it unlock the option to do that with monsters in the future (though there aren’t very many of those afterward and I don’t think it would always be effective, especially with the later versions that appeared in the takeover). Mainly the immediate reaction is what threw me off, though acknowledging it later would be great.

As for Kay getting shot, the biggest payoff I could think of with that is showcasing that as a power the MC has (since it hasn’t appeared again, this isn’t strictly necessary), and the dream, demonstrating what the world might have been like if the MC never awakened their powers. This could be swapped for something like MC being quick enough to take a bullet for her with their armor instead of her getting shot, and in the dream,
they can’t manage that and she dies as a result.
Either way, I do think it would be easier for you to write it and maintain an escalation in drama and severity without something as extreme as a near-death so early on. It feels out of place in the narrative right now, so I would be in favor of cutting or altering it to fit the tone better.

I feel that the story would benefit from being mapped out. It sounds like you’re doing that now, but it might be good to go back through the early episodes, map those out, and really carefully examine how they compare to later ones and how they work structurally. Figure out what scenes have payoff and what don’t, and where you could add more intrigue to lead up to revelations later.

I think Chi and Anara being separate options is interesting; I do feel that you would be able to write less and write the characters more effectively if you took away that option, but it seems a lot of people really enjoy that option, and I kinda think more control over the character’s personality and life is better. Though I do think it’d be best if they weren’t strictly interchangeable because they do feel kind of like they can be swapped out and it doesn’t really matter ultimately, which makes them less engaging than Ryu, Akira, etc., in my opinion.

Cheater! I like putting in the work and actually experiencing the game (e.g. I went through and played up to episode 3 several times to beat Ryu because I wanted to figure out how to do it myself). Also I didn’t know how to do it… But shhh.

5 Likes

Well, at least he has a fan… :sweat_smile:

:scream: CHEATER! Nah, I don’t care. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: It’s what I do with the games I beta test.

I was thinking I might give you at least the opportunity to try with the later “monsters”. (It may or may not work…)

Actually, it has been used a little down some paths (just not very much), but I certainly need to rewrite the scene, even if I keep it.

As I said, I was about at Episode Four or Five before I actually started mapping it out. It’s fluctuated a little since then, but within a far stricter framework.

Plus I’ve already written most of the story, and I don’t really want to delete large chunks of it… :sweat:

5 Likes

Ah, empathy my good ole dump stat, which means my mc is quite the little killer by now, isn’t he? :sweat_smile:

1 Like

Congrats on taking one more step towards being a game developer as well as writer :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Okay, so thus far I’ve had the following names submitted:

@Bluestar2.0: Super Awesome Mega Tubular Teens with Attitude Power Ludicrous Flamboyant Multicolour Explosive Cool Mystic Overpowered Ninja Samurai Space Brave Spirit Wizard Rangers Patrol Force

@Lizzy: Sapphic Force

@idonotlikeusernames: Crazy Cats

@Sammysam: ${heroname}'s Lackeys, New Daitoshi City Help Squad

@Alexandra: First Defenders

@Ylva: Viri Sanguinum

@Terriermon50: BATTLE BUDDIES FOREVER!!

@TSSL: The Tentacled Monstrosities, Amazing Aliens, Daring Dragons

@SeventhJackel: Eidelon Echelon

@Disciple: Spectrum, Rebel Experimental Soldiers, Reckoning, Fallen Knights of Avalon,
The Amazing Boytoys of Lani

I’m afraid I’ve removed the names which imply a team size (Magnificent Seven, QuadSquad), and the one I feel would probably be a little copyrighted. If anyone has any more suggestions (or anyone already on the list doesn’t want their team name potentially in the game), please let me know. I should note that I probably won’t be using more than a handful of these names.

8 Likes

…The Spanish Inquisition? shrugs

12 Likes

Nobody would expect that :thinking:

14 Likes

I normally use Totem Force for the sake of laziness consistency with the game’s title, but if I’m feeling fancy I go with something like Eidolic Force or Eidolic Strikers instead.

If you don’t want to give each player more than three or four choices, maybe make Totem Force one, something related to eidolons because that’s what Anara nicknamed the TOT3Ms, something related to the type of TOT3M the MC chose (cat, alien, skull, etc.,) and something randomly selected from a short list of extra names?

Plus the mandatory “I’ll type it myself” option, of course.

3 Likes

No way I’m gonna read through this whole thread. But it looks like you’re taking suggestions for team names? The name I put in was Totemic. It’s simple, symbolic and relevant.

2 Likes

I’m about to crash for the night, so pardon me if this is very abbreviated/doesn’t all make sense, but I wanted to get the bulk of it written out so I don’t forget! Chi characterization suggestions:

  • very outgoing, leader-like personality, tries to inspire others to work hard and keep their chins up
  • tends to take charge in terms of rallying and morale and making teams feel like teams
  • during day off, maybe have it so he invited the other team members too, because he wanted everyone to have something relaxing to do and maybe bond and have fun together outside of superhero stuff, plus wanted to help the city return to something more normal despite the situation
  • probably takes after his mom in terms of being very charismatic and a good leader, and he also genuinely cares about the people who look up to him (as his mom does, or as he believes she does, regardless of if that’s true)

All this would also reinforce the way he and Anara are introduced as kind of opposites; she’s very intellectual and scientific, he’s much more people-oriented and charismatic. Emphasizing things like that instead of worrying about the sports and stuff might make him easier and more fun to write for you. I’m sort of thinking of him as like, team dad, or team cool big brother who kind of brings up everybody’s spirits and boosts morale and is generally the emotional glue of the team (and Kay, of course, but Kay is more one to fuss about wellbeing than to give pep talks). I also can picture him arranging some sort of impromptu theater performance for the public, since both sports and theater kind of serve to bring communities together, and the city could really use something like that in the wake of the military takeover.

Feel free to take or leave any or all of that, I don’t really mind either way – I’m just hoping to help get the wheels turning on what might make him a more engaging character for you to write (and therefore for the player to get to know). I may or may not throw more suggestions this way at a later date.

6 Likes

Can someone give me some new words to make my already large team name larger in words :confused:

1 Like

That would significantly change the dream sequence, wouldn’t it? :thinking: Since that kicks it off…
But, yeah, I can see it’s not really as connected with everything else, unless that group of people has some involvement with the shady villain stuff that we don’t yet know about.

But, I mean, also sort of an origin story :thinking:

:relaxed:

Well, the alliterative ones I mentioned were supposed to be extending @idonotlikeusernames’s suggestion so as to have a special themed one for each totem. In which case, a skull and an angel name would complete the set, and then potentially you could have it so only one of those displays for any given playthrough… let’s see, “Amazing Angels” works just as well as “Amazing Aliens,”… or you could be a weirdo and call them the “Angellic Angels” or something :innocent:
And you could have the… “Scary Skulls?” :confused: maybe…

Oh, yeah, that would really make sense to include.

Maybe a reference to SAMABT, too? :thinking:

1 Like

I have been playing Totem force for about 11 months now… I even had my first reply/comment/post/whatever here 11 months ago and this thread still lives

4 Likes

That a good thing right? :smile:

2 Likes