What would happen if you became a member of an adventurer's guild in isekai?
For seasoned otaku, the blend of Japanese-style fantasy and Western themes is nothing new, with anime series like "KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!" and "Overlord" paving the way, and countless game titles exploring this genre. These works often delve deeply into the profession of "adventurers," with many protagonists embarking on their stories as such.
Yet, beneath the adventurer's cloak lies a subtle backdrop often overlooked—the Adventurers' Guild. Typically serving as a backdrop, this guild acts as a hub for mission handovers, respite, and intelligence sharing among adventurers. Imagine stepping into this world not as an adventurer venturing forth but as a guild staff member, supporting adventurers from behind the scenes. It's an intriguing concept explored in "Welcome to the Adventurers' Guild," where you embody a Japanese-style, fantasy-infused guild staff in an otherworldly setting, experiencing the "adventure" from a unique perspective.
Core Concept:
As a guild staff, your primary objective is to maximize the success of adventurers' missions through your expertise, diligence, judgment, and actions. The Adventurers' Guild, being a melting pot, exposes you not only to diverse adventurers but also to clients from various factions, classes, and regions, as well as representatives from other guilds and non-adventurer professions (smiths, healers, chefs, etc.). Engage with them, listen to their grievances or inquiries related to adventurers, and offer assistance where possible.
The game unfolds day by day, with you encountering a myriad of NPCs and handling a variety of tasks. Here's a glimpse into the player's actionable aspects:
Handling Client Requests: Ensure the accuracy of mission details and boost the chances of success by adding supplementary information or leveraging your intelligence. Be prepared to decline inappropriate requests, such as assassination jobs, upholding the guild's ethical standards.
Matching Missions to Adventurers: Carefully assign missions based on adventurers' capabilities. Reject unsuitable requests and offer alternative suggestions to ensure both the adventurer's safety and the mission's success.
Advisory Interactions: Encounter individuals seeking information or advice. Your responses, whether from preset options or tailored inputs, can subtly influence subsequent events or stats.
Dialogue & Incidents: Engage in dialogues and respond to unexpected events, keeping a keen eye for crucial information that could unravel new connections or alter the course of events.
Your actions and decisions ultimately impact key metrics:
-Monetary Gain
-Client Reputation
-Adventurer Reputation
-Guild Reputation
-Adventurer Attributes
While the specific implications of these metrics are self-explanatory, I'll elaborate further as the concept matures.
Growth Potential:
Expect unlockable advancements that grant new "functions" or "abilities," streamlining later-game decision-making. However, the integration of these elements into the overall gameplay flow remains a work in progress.
Origin:
I've always had a soft spot for isekai (otherworld) narratives, be it anime or games. What truly captivates me is the intricate world-building—the fantasy races, magic systems, and meticulously crafted settings that evoke a sense of wonder. Layered atop these foundations are diverse storylines, ranging from the whimsical (like Konosuba) to the heartfelt (like Frieren: Beyond Journey's End) to the gritty (like Overlord). Crafting a long, intricately woven tale with countless callbacks and foreshadowing is daunting for most. Yet, breaking down these inspirations into bite-sized, standalone stories within the unique "Adventurers' Guild staff" perspective feels both manageable and refreshing, offering a narrative advantage that feels natural and cohesive.
If you've made it this far, you've likely discerned that while the game's framework draws inspiration from titles like "Papers, Please" and "VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action," it aims to carve its own path, offering a vastly different experience.
The primary objective of the game revolves around collecting and participating in the stories of various characters. These characters may appear upon fulfilling certain conditions, and players need to meet specific requirements to trigger their subsequent events, thereby completing their individual storylines. Depending on the player's actions, the narrative trajectories and endings of certain NPCs may diverge. Nevertheless, not all NPCs in the game will possess intricate stories or experience plot changes; there will still be randomly generated quests or adventurers intermixed.
Ultimately, the game's overarching goal is to "cultivate adventurers" as much as possible, enhancing their attributes to tackle the final challenge at the end of the game. The specifics, however, are intertwined with the storyline and various game settings, which I will not elaborate on here.
Art Direction:
Pixel art, in my view, embodies a captivating style that aligns perfectly with our niche theme and positioning. Moreover, given my lack of extensive artistic training, pixel art presents a more accessible entry point (though I acknowledge that mastering pixel art can be just as challenging as traditional hand-drawn sketches). It also tends to attract a dedicated audience.
Recently, I've delved into AI-assisted painting applications, exploring how they could streamline our workflow by rapidly prototyping ideas, followed by manual refinement. Since we're still in the early stages of functional development and iteration, there's no urgency to incorporate polished graphics yet. Even working with solid color blocks suffices for now. Consequently, only a limited number of screenshots from our ongoing development can be preliminarily showcased, and they have not undergone any translation to match the context. You can view the game development screenshots attached to this post. Please note that since some parts of the game are still in development and do not yet feature official artwork, we have temporarily used materials from other sources for demonstration purposes. I am not the copyright holder of these materials and have used them solely for the purpose of showcasing the game's progress.
Development Progress:
We're using Unity for development, coupled with Aseprite for crafting the most fundamental sprite assets. So far, we've successfully implemented features such as day transitions, a framework for character events (appearance, event execution, departure), dialogue systems, and quest log viewing.
Next on our agenda is to develop the gameplay mechanic for "verifying quest documents." Players will consult their Adventurer's Handbook to cross-check information against quest requirements, stamping different seals based on the quest type (e.g., elimination, investigation, gathering). Optionally, players can gather additional intelligence to boost success rates. The outcome of these actions will result in numerical adjustments and other feedback.
Early-stage development moves swiftly, with most time invested in conceptualizing "how" rather than executing. However, debugging tends to consume more time.
Previously, my experimental projects were solo endeavors. Now, I'm considering sharing development logs, hoping even if few see them, someone might offer valuable feedback or inspire new ideas. I'll endeavor to keep updating regularly.