Hey, Veeky Forums. I came to ask a question about the board's infamous vaporware.
Who exactly owns this title or idea? Suppose that some video game dev team wants to undertake the project? Are there any rights or liberties we would have to worry about if we wanted to take it commercial?
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Forgot to add the scales there.
If its Broquest we're talking about, art assets and concepts probably belong to Shwig. Not 100% sure due to the muddiness of laws, but pretty sure he owns the rights to his work in general.
In terms of written design/world design though, no one really owns it. None of the documents went live and everything was idea-guy tier, so if any of the content got leaked there's no real basis for theft of intellectual property.
Doesn't matter worth a damn, but I was the "writer" for both the Orc and the Devil. Neither went anywhere due to the mass amount of writers not coming to an accord whatsoever. Nowadays I use the Devil's personality and general design as two separate characters in my current D&D setting. Orc was boring as shit in retrospect.
Well, what we want to do is basically make this game into a party-based roguelike with quick gameplay, witty one-line remarks, and the ability to use both violence and social skills to get through encounters. If your entire party dies, it's game over and you have to reroll.
This will keep the development time down, the cost down, and will make it accessible. It's meant to be a pick up and play kind of game, at least that's what we feel would work the best if we undertake the project.
But we need to be sure that we won't be stealing someone else's property. Last I remember of BQ back in the day, the idea came together based off a lot of people's sketches and collaboration, so I assumed it was open source.
I will say the Devil is one of my favorite character designs.
>that chart
I always hated how bloated the roster got. Half of that glut is either gag designs from Shwig, alternate NPCs or just awful ideas in general. You can really see where the original idea begin vs where the overdesign begins.
Anyways, you would have to focus on making original character designs first and foremost. Which is going to be tricky, since Rank & File soldier and the Mage are so basic that you'd be losing the original charm once you deviate from the design. Right now if you want to make it a rogue-like, you have to make your designs completely alien to Shwigs whilst still evoking the original design. Hopefully you have a good artist or three on your team.
As for a rogue-like, I can see that being a great idea for the game. Reminds me a little of Dungeons of Dredmor with how versatile the character can be. Is this going to be plot-driven or mega-dungeon driven? If its the latter, then things will be much easier since you can drop these guys in any setting and they'll get by okay. If its the former, the setting will be tricky since if you use the original BQ map you may have anons coming out of the woodworks claiming it was their idea. I doubt the "head writers" would do that though, I know 2/3 were cool.
I can definetly see it working, but its going to be a trial to your artists more than anything because you have to make B-skins for purified trope ideas.
The way we want it to work, at least as far as I've thought of it, is to make it where you choose your four team members, a setting/ scenario, and a villain. The player will also be able to set either of these to randomize if they want even a more variable adventure.
I feel like it'll work more as a dungeon sort of design, except not always inside an interior, but things like wilderness come into play, too. Since a lot of the designs were based on skills other than battle, town encounters would be incorporated, too. The plot will be sort of whatever the player writes it to be, kind of like Dwarf Fortress. The game's events and the player's actions will take an implict story.
Dialogue would be made generic for adding basic phrases or character names in to keep writing at minimum. Items will be randomized similar to the Diablo system, so each player will have a different experience. Menus are going to be kept at minimum, and the way I'll do this is to limit an inventory of items between each character, make item buying and selling a one click process. It's going to be a game similar to Pool of Radiance, but on steroids.
>Dialogue would be made generic for adding basic phrases or character names in to keep writing at minimum.
You can do it like Sims does its stuff - emoticons, gibberish and player's imagination.
That's not a bad idea.
Definitely has potential there. I like the "Build-a-story workshop" mindset, and it would keep the game fresh which is something rogue-likes need.
For writing, I like 's idea of very basic stuff. I mentioned Dredmor a while ago and I feel like that model of quip-writing would work well in your instance. Emoticons would also work well, as seen in Heart Forth Alicia if you ever heard of that kickstarter project.
I know I keep harping on about it, but if you are going with this model then this will even further stress your artists since now you're gonna have to make assets for a huge cast of heroes/villains along with environmental assets for medieval/renissance/wuxia/volcanic/etc settings as well.
Probably shoulda mentioned this first, but also make sure you have good coders. Make sure you get the engine going first and foremost before going balls-deep into everything else. That was the big reason why BQ died initially, we had one coder and it was going to be made in fucking RPG maker of all things.
Finally, make sure you have a solid idea of where things stand in terms of legality. Shwig has a history with both this game and that Breeder game, but there was also some animosity among the writer moshpit back during the game's death throes. Knowing who owns what can help with conflicts and clear up situations like what we're discussing now. Also, be sure to hang out with your team. No one in BQ .01 hung out and it was really awkward. Another good way to avoid animosity.
We won't have a team or coding problem
I'll be programming it with a data driven design in a much better engine
A lot of the assets will mostly be static art. Hardly any animations other than particle effects from spells and weather, so the workload won't be as big as one would think. Probably an atlas of 100 or so characters and just as many terrain tiles isn't that bad at 64x64 (unless we decide to go with 32 x 32).
I've heard of schwig and seen his stuff, but yeah I'm not sure on the legality of this all. I guess we can wait tomorrow for other people to post to this thread with their own answers.
This looks an interesting project
Where do i sign up?
I already have a inhouse team, unfortunately, so we're not accepting anyone right now.
Ok
I understand
>I always hated how bloated the roster got
I feel the opposite, but then one of my favorite CRPG's is Chrono Cross so I love a large cast of oddballs and weirdos
I think what bugged me is that a lot of the latter designs didn't feel like tropes at all, and some of them even retreaded ground previously covered. Like, why two gunners? Why two druids and a shaman which is effectively the same thing spoiler alert: that first "druid" was the female MC design. Prince and Princess trope could've just been "royalty."
I don't mind a large cast, but having several copies of a single trope was a bit hypocritical imo. Doesn't matter either way, BQ has evolved way beyond what I remember apparently.
>Are there any rights or liberties we would have to worry about if we wanted to take it commercial?
If you're actually serious about this is talk to Shwig. shwigityshwonshwei.deviantart.com
There were other points of contact for the project, and it's a bit of a sore spot for him, but I don't know who else to point you to.
I'm getting a Darkest Dungeon vibe, am I close?
or where you think a bit more like dungeon crawl?
as far as I know, Broquest is such a mash of authors It'd be quite trixy to nail down who owns what.
but I'm sure the artist has a claim to his pics.
If I where you I'd make a my own Broquest inspired assets and cite Veeky Forums in the credits
>I'm getting a Darkest Dungeon vibe, am I close?
Not at all.
>A lot of the assets will be static art.
Hmm. Is this including sprites for characters 'on the board'?
I don't want to tell you how to make your game; you know the limits of your artists and software better than I do. But it seems like it'd be a struggle to impart any kind of personality to the roster with just static art. Even a two-frame 'bounce' can bring out a bit more character.
This is why you never let artists have full rights to their work when you hire them for a project. It kills games dead.
Well that brings the question if they signed any legal paper about it to begin with. If you make art for a game, normally the artist has to sign a document stating that they are either giving up rights or retaining rights. Under normal rights, the art would still belong to this shwig persona, but if he was creating it for a game that didn't take off, he may or may not still have ownership over it in a legal sense. It's complicated.
Well in the case of Breeding Season, Schwig retained all the rights and the game went up in flames when he decided to take his money and assets to make his own version
This is getting more confusing by the second. So are you saying there's a possibility this guy will keep Broquest from happening with the original looks? Like the user said before, I would have to inevitably go with knock off designs to avoid any legality? Well, that's going to be slightly a bummer, but it'll probably be our route to get the game actually going.
>This is getting more confusing by the second.
Welcome to an anonymous imageboard only loosely connected by a general culture and hobby, where pretty much everyone is a fucking idiot, fucking douche, or both.
When a bunch of randos with no experience in anything get together to make a project with people they don't know, someone always ends up fucking someone over and it always goes up in flames.
You're literally the dozenth person to tread this "BroQuest" ground, it's been beaten to death, shit on, and spit out a by a hundred failed groups before.
Fair enough.
We'll probably make our own designs based off the main archetypes, but the first thing we'll need to do is just choose a select few and do some prototypes. There's many routes this game can go as far as gameplay in concerned, but I'll need to make a few demos to figure out what's the most fun.
There is no legal paperwork. All assets were assigned to a creative commons license, which belonged to Idea Guys Studio. Idea Guys dissolved, so any claim to Broquest has no leg to stand on.
Shwig still owns his designs, most likely, and he will want control or money to use them. Do not even approach them, just make your own designs. Start from the old versions. Tweak designs enough to be a distinct thing. He only has a very tenuous claim to the design, and has no claim to the character concepts, especially because they aren't even his, and are in most cases just tropes.
Don't even approach him about this, he'll try to fuck you over.
I was the lead writer of the first project, and I can tell you to steer the fuck clear of him or PresidentLurker.
Shwig has no more claim to Broquest than any of the other people who worked on it. Just don't use any designs he invented and you'll be fine.
If you want any advice (even on what not to do), or need help, let me know.
Also, I have a .rar of all the resources and notes of you would like it. Definitely get in touch with the music guys, they were all on the ball and cool in general.
Basically anyone could cobble together a Unity based game with that stuff.
Hell, there's probably some shitty thing using those assets already on steam.
>Breeding Season
Oh, was archive with files from unfinished game actually distributed? Unofficially.
We've been using the notes from previous archived broquest threads. We got the gist of what's trying to be accomplished. And we'll probably end up having to chart up a lot of stuff from our own style.
Here, have some pre-Shwig designs. Or at least I'm very certain Shwig has no claim to these.
Suave Devil redesign is terrible compared to this one and I'll never understand why people liked it.
Sad not to see RAFS on that list. We'll try to keep faithful to his "normal" archetype
>caring about some conman kike
Hownewru
>didn't read the OP post lol
Dude who designed RAFS and Undead Knight here. RAFS wasnt actually that far apart from that version of the roster and it was pre-shwig too. I dont have it either sorry.
That sounds...an awful lot like Elona. I wish you luck OP, though needless to say you are far from the first to try and revive Bro. Quest. I think Shwig is currently busy drawing for furries or something, but we'd all be happy if you could at last bring NRFS and co. to the playing field.
>Elona
I looked it up. That game sounds just like what a roguelike would be. Also sounds like something I should try out.
My only obstacle right now is finding a way to make a party-based gameplay fun. I may have to go the FF route.
And what I mean by this is that a roguelike is crowned for its jump in and play gameplay. When you add three more units to control, it suddenly slows down.
Perhaps don't make it party based, use the bros as characters?
I did think about that alternative, but doesn't that ruin the purpose of going on a quest with your bros?
Unless we take it something like Broforce where you choose a select number of people and go through one at a time. But that doesn't feel very rpg-ey at that point.
true. Perhaps do something like the banner saga, where the players and monsters alternate turns?
Based on what you've said, I'd play it.
But I do have one question.
Are you guys a bunch of first-timers, or do you have some experience under your belt?
I think that would be the best thing. It'll basically be a roguelike, except you don't share turns with your own PCs. And it keeps to the rhythm of a roguelike. So really just a tactics-like game in the end.
We have experience. Before we made our company, we both worked on the side at other companies or for other groups. We're both programmers, but you're currently talking to the programmer who will actually be programming the game. Right now, I'm wearing the producer / manager hat to see if this project will be commercially viable for us.
I was thinking a Patreon would make this project smoother, but I'm not sure who all would be enthusiastic about a Broquest. It seems there's a lot of burned bridges around it already.
Patreon might work for you, considering it's popularity. Hell, just being on the platform would probably draw in people who know nothing about the source material.
Also, what games have you worked on? Just as a sort of gauge of the quality we can expect.
Well, for the moment, as a company, we have worked on mostly kid games. This is mainly to gain us some capital and library so we can have more credentials to publishers. Before that, my colleague was a board game designer, while I was basically just making games on free sites back in the early 2000s. Other stuff was mostly just hobby things lost in time, and non gaming work with other companies. I'm sort of like other programmers who go indie, where we worked for a company, got bored, and started up our own. I can't exactly promise you we'll be the best, but we've played and developed games long enough to know how to make something fun.
Alright, alright.
If you do end up putting up a Patreon or something similar, I think I might contribute. It would be nice for there to finally be a game, even if it's not mind-blowing.
Why don't you give this Shwig dude a call and see if he'll join your team? Can't hurt to have one more pair of hands drawing with a character roster this large. It's got to be better than drawing furry commissions or whatever, he'd probably jump onboard.
Artists are a dime a dozen and we have one on our team, too. I would have considered it if this guy was the soul of the project, but he isnt.
You don't want to do business with Schwig. He has had a very bad track record with broquest and breeding season.
Wasn't your entire dev team made up of Shwig, one programmer, and like a dozen Idea Guys?
I mean, it didn't take a genius to see that it was going to crash and burn in a nuclear firestorm. Shwig is a well-known tosspot and Idea Guys are almost always superfluous beyond the first two or three.
:^)
>focus on making original character designs first and foremost.
Going to highly recommend doing this.
I don't have any professional experience to cite, but you definitely want to start with original designs.
It frees you up legally and doesn't tie you down to preexisting ideas.
It might be hard to design characters with the same charm as Broquest, but far from impossible.
As it's been said, most of the characters are simple tropes anyway.
If you're looking to garner interest of those already familiar with Broquest, just design a character roster page with a similar layout, even if it's not part of the game proper.
The layout is too simple to be copyrighted and yet is instantly reminiscent of Broquest.
BTW, your pixel art rafs would be look fairly different and more original with relatively minor differences.
I was working on a game with Bro-quest inspired elements a while back and none of the characters ended up resembling the bros.
I shelved it as it was ambitious and I decided a smaller project was better to start with, but that's stagnant until I can find an engine I can use without forcing square pegs in round holes or re-encoding the wheel.
>Project leader is trying to get with his room-mates wife while they're breaking up
>Goes on long internet tirades how he bought a piano with game-funds with the goal of learning it and playing it to her
>Puts in a day of work a few times a month
>Asks one of the other artists to work two jobs plus PR
>General emotional mess who has no idea how to lead
Like 25% of it was Shwig's fault at most. He put the final cap on the project because it wasn't going anywhere.
Devilman here, That's exactly what it was. I kept badgering the team to hire better coders but they kept insisting that RPG maker is enough.
I shoulda known better when the writing team was 40 people.
it's a shame about the issues surrounding Shwig, cause he can come up with some neat stuff
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>40 people
Jesus christ
>Marble Knight vs Titan Knight
Who wins in endurance?
If you guys dont mind throwing some armor references my way, I'm going to try to sprite up a new concept for the Rank and File Soldier. Just something to kill some evening time
I feel like this could make a good grunt design if you tone it down a bit. Ab-plates and plate-sneakers have to stay though.
>those sneakers
I laughed a little
there's always the most common one
Draft 1 of NRFS. Feels a bit too busy. Going to try a simpler look.
Pretty good alt actually, though I have two recommendations.
-Helmet is a bit too detailed compared to the rest. Needs to be a jobber helmet, not an actual knight's helmet like DeS' signature helmet
-On the shoulder pads, I feel it should be the same color setup as the chest. Feels odd to me, though that's more personal than anything.
I noticed the coloring thing, too. Fixed it. Alright. Time to find an appropriate helmet.
This fits, but I feel like not having any human features visible contributes too much to his character.
Original concept had a sort of face mask covering it, along with the eyes being blacked out.
You can also go the Darkest Dungeon route and use the BH style of helmet & veil. That might be too prominent though.
It was 13 people or so. The first lead writer hired pretty much anybody who applied, left a few weeks later, and left me to try and steer it.
Some of the writers had talent, but there were also plenty who should have never been hired. Combine that with Shwig drawing whatever he felt like, and never any usable resources, the Project Lead dictating that music, art, coding, and writing should all be done independently with no communication between departments, and a coder who stopped in once a month, didn't know what an RPG was, and wanted to code it in a 3d game studio, and it's not hard to see where things went wrong.
found the original. Looks like my second draft was right on the mark
I didn't want to color the exposed face cause then that means I determined what race the person is beneath it, when it's really up to the player's imagination. Or maybe it's okay to give an ambiguous tan
more old designs
For a team based roguelike traditional enough for the actual roguelike general over at Veeky Forums (which is full of purists) to accept it, see Demon
demon.ferretdev.org
It has a rather steep learning curve even for roguelikes, and unlike most other roguelikes with steep learning curves it's not because of a shit interface. The difficulty stays roughly the same throghout the game unless you use really gimmicky builds, too
Yeah, I've heard of it. Basically pokemon and shin megami tensei having a child and then finding out that child is a soul sucking demon.
Skin tone's a bit tricky, hence why I recommended a shawl/scarf/mask.
Also, looking pretty good honestly. Helmet's a bit close but I don't think it'll raise any alarms. One thing that bugs me though is the leather patches on the underside of his upper arm. I don't really know what purpose they serve, and in terms of design they kinda equate to excess belts. You don't need to take this to heart mind you, but its something that kinda stood out to me.
you're right, dont need it.
he's busy stealing furry porn money
Also One Way Heroics. It's nice and simple when a party member mainly serves to fill a specific function without you actually controlling them.
>Cover your back/sides to prevent being surrounded
>Helps ranged burst
>heals and food
>skill monkey's chests/traps while you fight
Here me out here.
Like Dungeons of Dredmore, you pick 6-10 traits that are set for the entire adventure. Each serves as your venues for progression.
Each of your 3 supporting members favor certain traits, gaining buffs either immediately or at certain level milestones in those traits.
Most supporting members don't directly fight, although some can start doing so if you reached said favored skill milestone.
This actually makes a lot more sense. Also lines up with the Demon game's gameplay. Don't control the other people. They're there just to give you extra traits/ power. They'll do things themselves, but you can also invoke special abilities of theirs. Kinda like pets.
Alright, I'm feeling good about this now.
If I may suggest a compromise.
may work
What IS this. Looks interesting.
We have more about this armies? Would like to read more about the last one.
It started in flames and never really stopped. Hbomb was a fucking abysmal manager who did no work and generally acted like train wreck of a human being. Shwig isn't blameless, but all he really did was stop doing half his job forcing Vanilly to pick up the slack (dick move) and eventually take the game off life support (probably a good thing).
Hopefully he has a competent manager this time so he doesn't just get bored and stop trying halfway like a little asshole.
Did somebody say NRFS?
Because i think somebody said NRFS
I also have a bunch of broquest art if anyone wants it
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post pls sempai
Will do! I love nostaga'ing over Broquest
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I have a ton of rosters so sorry if there's any duplicates
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>KING PAULDRON
fuck thats old
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Have a dark haired version i shooped for an user a few years ago
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