I'm working on a game

[ztribes]

I'm in the process of developing an app and creating a fantasy/hero universe. I grew up loving Pokemon, DBZ, comic book heroes, and more recently Avatar and Legend of Korra. I'm a huge fan of character development and I love making deeper storyline and lives for my characters so that people can truly connect with them on different levels. With that said the production of my universe has sort of stopped due to lack of support from an audience so I'm very appreciative of fan sites such as distant horizons where people with the same kinds of interests can meet and exchange ideas.

If you think Alpha Ztribes, the first installment of the Ztribes multiverse, is something you'd be interested in seeing come to fruition, please let me know by liking the facebook page and signing up for the newsletter at ztribes.com. I already have some of the characters done and ready for show but I don't want to release them all at once until I know that people really care for this project.

Thank you for your time! Let me know what you'd like to see in a game/universe like ZTribes, if you could fix any or all of the little annoyances of our most beloved franchises what would you change?

PS: My avatar is one of the game heroes, his name is Jet!

[Musogato]

Hi there, welcome and interesting app idea. I'm curious about how the game would work -- is it like WoW-type games where it's a big social MMO with individual characters/users, or a smaller, linear-like game with specific pre-created characters and stories/plots? It kinda seems like maybe the latter with Jet, but it's hard to tell with such limited info and a lack of Facebook on my part.

As for what I would like to see in character-driven games/universes, I really like it when characters and the choices they make surprise me. I'm tired of the same old archetypes and the same old reactions. I want characters that are funny and flawed in all sorts of different ways; that get called out on their mistakes, and either learn from them or blow up and say 'this is how I am', and see how that fluctuates as time goes on. And I want actual variety in the characters; gender, appearances, motives, beliefs.... I don't want a bunch of clones and then one or two token diversity characters. And for all that is good in the world, let there be more dynamic, interesting women characters. And also more meaningful sidequests that make you glad you took the time to complete them because of the characters you interacted with, instead of being like, 'Oh, more useless loot, woo-hoo.'

.....Sorry, it's been a stressful week, haha. Anyway, best of luck with your app, I hope it works out well for you.

[ztribes]

Thank you for your feedback I'd like to address your concerns. First off, I completely agree with the lack of female characters and heroes, I already have the first 4 characters completely finished, 1 of which is a female character and I have plans for the next set of characters which are largely diverse.

I'll explain my journey with ZTribes. The game began as a quick small project at first, it was going to be a quick free 4 level 2D side scroller (hence Jet's form factor) largely because I don't have the budget to go all out. I figured if I introduced the characters in a free ad-supported game, I might get some finds to build out the next bigger and better game. You can see a preview of the early prototype character sketches here:

thetundraghost.deviantart.com/art/CO-Alpha-ZTribes-Rough-concept-sketches-395557434

Like I said earlier, I'm holding back from releasing all characters at once, so that once there's a fan base established I have a way of building anticipation :](PS: this is a link I haven't even shared within the FB or mailing list)

As I began developing the characters and plot, I knew that I wasn't doing my characters enough justice for this or worth. I look at games like angry birds which are do addicting but so lacking in character development that I ask myself, "What would be the response to an easily accessible game (Free? Running on popular devices?) that's not only highly addicting, but is filled with a complex set of characters and universe. Pokemon for example has so much more to offer than an entertainment for kids, the level of intricate natures and power types creates an entire system of advantages and disadvantages that players must take into consideration in order to succeed. Hence the lack of info on the game, I plan on releasing a few comics that focus on the origins, story and conflict within ZTribes, hopefully it'll be a fun and exciting way to build support for the universe.

Here's my thought process: instead of building a game that I want, I want to get as much feedback, layout a framework, and give the options on a kick starter project. There're would be a direct correlation between the levels of budget goals and the complexity of the game. But I can't start the kick starter till I get enough buzz around this concept I'll be going around several fan sites and forums to get a better understanding of my target audience I'd love to build out an entire complex MMO, but that would require expert coding, servers, debugging, monitoring, etc, that realistically might not be financially feasible on the first go, but I can certainly build towards that!

Lastly, other than my artist, who is AWESOME, I'm a one man team, she's been a huge help in brining my ideas and concepts to life and you can check out more of her work on her deviant page: thetundraghost.deviantart.com
I haven't been able to establish a team of people who actually care to see this project finalized and come to life. I'm also a keyboard player, so I've been tackling the soundtrack too! So you can imagine how overwhelming it can become at times, having a full time graphic design company to run as well... But I believe in ZTribes and I know it will come through to completion, even if that means taking several small steps to reach the end goal.

Thank you!!