Miasma Story - Miasma Screenshots

Last post I mentioned that Miasma Story is a tribute to old school RPGs, but I guess that is only half true. For starters, zero pixel art. I adore pixel art, every now and then I browse the portfolios of my favourite pixel artists (does anyone else have favourite pixel artists? No? Just me then.) and wish I had that particular skill. But no, Miasma Story's art is hand-drawn and painted in Photoshop. Miasma Story isn't 40 hours long either. It'll probably be between one and two hours, but a fun two hours nonetheless. In those respects Miasma Story perhaps is perhaps not all that similar. However, there is one game mechanic in which I am undeniably, as the kids say, kicking it old school.

'Magic' in the game is very traditional, despite being instead named Miasma. Most RPGs tend not to offer an explanation for magic (which is not surprising, after all, it's magic) but I felt the need to tie it to the plot. But yes, traditional. As in all good little JRPGs, there are three levels of each spell, each doing slightly more damage than the one before. I'm purposely not rocking the boat with my selection of Miasma, Fire, Ice, Cure, Life, Blind... all our old favourites. It was during some early play testing that I realised that although I could be traditional in the naming, I could make use of the game's grid, or board, to switch things up a bit. For example, the Ice miasma hits one enemy in one square. Righto. But the second level of the Ice spell, what if instead of just bumping up the damage and the MP (Miasma Points) cost, I changed the pattern that the damage falls? I immediately declared myself a genius and got to implementing. Did Final Fantasy Tactics do this? I don't know. For someone being inspired by that game, I sure didn't play it very much. So here's what the second level of the Ice spell looks like. The player selects Martin (the man in the armour with the sword) and moves him forward. Those enemies are deliciously lined up, ready for some Ice Miasma.

The Miasma has the disadvantage that it can't fire in diagonals, but it can hit more than one enemy at once, provided they are lined up and within range. Tactical! The player breathes deep, eyes gleaming with the anticipation of inflicting medium Ice damage... and clicks on a highlighted tile.

Ice erupts from the ground, encasing each of the player's victims in an icy prison in turn, which shatters. And that's Miasma! My favourite one so far is 'Confuse', a status effect Miasma that causes the inflicted to wander around the map quite randomly, attacking anyone it happens to meet, friend or foe.

posted by Matt on 23/6/2011 at 9:8 Return to blog