Nana MarfoA student with a passion for game development and all things Japan. 
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March 2020
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Hey all! April has started, and this month we have been asked to come up with a plot to fit within this space game!
This is where it becomes important to tie all the themes we had so far together. So far, we have a space game with a detective protagonist and A.I antagonist. This is also a bit harder as I don't think we can have too many mentions to NPC or external lore. I'm going to try my best with this folks!
So lets moving into the idea that detective is living on the ship because they agreed to stay there in case of criminal activity. As thing begin to go wrong, the detective is forced to step in. They are pretty reluctant at first because the idea of this being in space. Remember, this is the one place not corrupted by politics, so they would want to keep that way. I can't really go into gameplay, but I can say that the detective will have tech that would help scan the system for bugs, gitichs and viruses.
The idea would be that each piece of the puzzle would tie themselves together. For example, the detective would be able to go into one part of the area which would lead into another clue that would he would have to report to the leaders on the ship. Through this, he or she(I think a custom character would fit well here) would have to reflect on the time here, how they are dealing with missing loved ones and what they think is next for them. I also think that something like the Secret Reports would work well here, as these would to serve to expand the content of the game.
"It's been an interesting day. This ship seems to be less and less under the control of the people that own it. Even the creator doesn't know what is going on. I wonder... just what is in control?" 
And that's my summary of the plot in this space age game! This was hard, but also really fun to do! Hopefully I win this one!
But for now, thanks for reading and I will see you guys next time. Written by Nana Marfo Space scenes all from Siamon89
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After nearly winning last month's Question of the Month, March's asks up to come up with the antagonist. Every hero does need a villain, and kudos to Brandon of That Green Dude for coming up with a detective hero. For a villain, I think that the supernatural could work here, if thinking of games like Danganronpa. However, I think personal vendetta really make for more compelling story when it comes to these types of games.
One big thing will be important later on is bringing all these ideas together, to make the story cohesive and flow properly. However, if we stick to the theme here, I think that villain working on the inside would fit well with the games current theme. The detective could be called help with the current epidemic in the space hull, but that's going in too far
Ace Attorney seems to fit well here, after all, this is a detective game now. Maybe I borrow some concepts from there no?
For this I think 2 types of villeins would work well here:
1. A person that hates the evolution of technology on the Space Hull This is a bit stereotypical, but here's what I think could be done with this theme. The person could be not only be sabotaging the new technology, but activity try to make go backwards to the point where survival is near impossible on space hull, forcing them to bring in the detective, in what would be essentially a race against time. A bit cliched, I know, but here's the thing for me: this would interesting because the villain could easily change over time. With lives on the line, everything is possible. This also brings in some interesting opportunities for side charaters, but that's not for this blog. 
It's like with game consoles. While the tech gets better, we are pay £300-£500 every few years, not counting the games themselves.
2. A personal vendetta against the creator of the hull
Space involves one of the most diverse things known to man: science. The villain here would be doing similar things as the one in the first description, but this time, it's about someone that volunteered to help out, who died a tragic death. The person, who was close to this volunteer, wants revenge, but is go about it the wrong way, because they are blinded by both the hate and fear that is held in their hearts. 
After all, in their mind... "A heart is nothing but pain", right?
And that's it! This was a hard month to come up with something, since I really had to think about what the villain would do. Still this was very fun to do!
But for now, thanks for reading, share if you enjoyed it and I will catch you guys later. Written By Nana Marfo All Images used(C) Their respective owners
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And the hero saves the day! - Snow Villars, Final Fantasy XIII.
Firstly, a huge congrats to Luke of Hundstrasse for winning Janauray 2019! I will try and get a bonus post out containing my dream video game ideas, but for let's go with this ideas.
Luke's setting goes to the one place not affected by politics: SPACE! So I think would be fitting for the adventure to be helmed by a person who knows the world of space very well. For a game taking place between the rings of Saturn, you need to have an expert. A person who could survive everything. Or should I say... a robot. 
A Megaman X I drew from a reference! But how does he relate here?
I'm not sure how the hero would play if I'm fully honest, but he would be like Megaman X, who has the ability to think, feel, and make their own decisions. I can't go into the plot for this, but I really want to keep a strong theme of prejudice and emotional relating in this game. In Megaman X, for as much as we didn't see humans, despite being a completely different race to them, he still wanted to protect them from mavericks.
The robot it's self wouldn't look that much different from a human in that setting, just having enhanced strength and speed. This would leave them respected but feared. Also gender is a not-issue here, male, female or gender fluid, the robot would still deal with the prejudice of human, and possibly being taken for granted. Anyways, I'm going to leave you guys with a monologue I came up with for the character. It highlights the robots feeling towards the place she inhabits, and how she can deal with death. To make sure this is used to good effect, I will say thank you guys for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed it, and take care. Here I have been, for my entire life cycle. It's like I was bulit for this ship. Bulit to protect it. I feel a strong connection to this place, it where was bulit. Or born, if you can call it that.
Written By Nana Marfo
Snow Villars belongs to Square Enix Megaman X belongs to Capcom.
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MAKING THE ULTIMATE VIDEO GAME! Kim of the blog Later Levels has decided to change up Question of The Month for 2019. This month we would have to describe the setting and themes. Just one thing I should say; expect a LOT of references to JRPG's here. So, let's begin!
Setting A video game's setting pretty much dictates the story, since the character are mostly likely going to be rooted from that place. For me, I like dealing with younger characters(around 14-19), since I think there is a lot of development that can take with them rather than adult characters. Games such as Kingdom Hearts and Persona 5 show this. Because of this, I think a high school as the main setting would work well, it's where the character and themes would be most prevalent. 
It can be like Lolipop Chainsaw! Expect you know... without the Zombies and over-cursing.
I would my dream game to show off a whole variety of characters and relationship, and a high school setting seems like the best place for that. However, characters are not the focus of this blog post.
Themes
This is a bit more of a head-sracher, as themes to exporle with teenagers are a bit more controversial than anything, and as someone who wants to makes things for people just enjoy, it's a bit hard with certain themes. A theme I would want to explore is love, because of the fact that at a young age, it's so...interesting! Speaking from experience, love a young age is very mindboggeling, since you don't understand those feelings. I would want explore young relationships(both romantic and friendships), just to give teens something to relate to. 
I'll get to this more when I review MHA Season 3, but it's a bit like Uraraka, suffering the sin of not knowing/denial.
Another theme that COULD be explored is the media's influence on people, and how that transfers into how people view certain demographics. Teens here in London, United Kingdom are kinda of viewed as people who always carry knifes and are involved in gangs. I'll go more into this when I get to the story part of this, but I want to show the effects that these labels may have on people. I say could, because this idea is not in a design doc I am taking these ideas from.
Anyways those are my ideas for the setting and themes in my ultimate game! Really like this new Question of the Month format, I'm going to try and do one for everyone month! No promises though... Anyways, that's it for now! Thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed it and take care. Written By Nana Marfo All content mentioned(C)Their respective owners Lollipop Chainsaw(C)SUDA-51/Grasshopper My Hero Academia(C)Funimation/TOHO animation/Shonen Jump
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Time to round off the year with a Question of The Month! This month Brandon from Home Button asks:
“Most of us have been gaming our whole lives, so we’ve had a ton of Christmases that have passed us by filled with plenty of wonderful gaming memories. Whether it’s the best present you’ve ever gotten, or being with your family on Christmas morning while playing Super Smash Bros., we all have warm fuzzy memories of this time. Perhaps it’s because family always comes together or because as kids we’d receive the games we had dreamed of for months; or perhaps this time of year just tends to crystalize these memories that stand out forever.
My favourite holiday gaming memory involves my first gaming console: the Nintendo Wii, and my first MarioKart, MarioKart Wii.
I had my Nintendo Wii since the August of that year, but I didn't have many games on the thing since I was 7 at the time, and my family are not really gamers. But this was my First MarioKart... and I sucked at it, especially with the Wii Wheel, and I needed sometime to get to get used to it.
Still, it was fun, and I played it with my Brother the whole Christmas morning. It was just such a fun experience at the time, and it got me learning about gaming(this was back when I wanted to be a doctor).
Sorry that this was so short, but I did really want to write something for this month's Question! But that's it for now! Thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed and take care. Written by Nana Marfo Mariokart 8(C)Nintendo
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Question of the Month time! This time it comes from A Geeky Gal, who I featured before on the blog! She asks: In honour of Halloween, tell me what video game scared you the most. What is it about the elements, environments, music, or characters in the video game that scared you? I'll be honest, the game that scared me the most was 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider.  I hadn't played a Tomb Raider game before this, but I knew this game was a bit darker than the other. There is a lot of dark themes in this game and this oozes in the game, from the cult themes to the pool of blood scene.  You can really tell that this is a different Lara than before, there is a lot of gore in this game. There are a lot of "do or die" quicktime events. A lot of them with the wolves, which come out of nowhere. However, I don't think this is a bad thing(beside the amount of quick time events), in fact it adds to game experience for me. Helps you learn about the environment, and think I design wise it makes the world feel more real in this game.
Anyway's that's it for now! Sorry for this being really short, but I want to focus on next week's post for obvious reasons. Either way, thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed it and take care. Written by Nana Marfo Tomb Raider(C)SQUARE ENIX
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Hey all! This question of the month this month suits me very well! This month's question was asked by That Green Dude: Many of us say that we would like to live in a video game world but surely we would have a family. My question is, which video game characters would be a part of your family in a gaming world of your choice? Honestly, I sometimes wish I had a video games family, because my real family can be frustrating to live at times. But I have few ideas(some of which are more obvious than others).so let's jump into it! Mother:Aqua from Kingdom Hearts  All the renders are family photos! Like the idea? Anyways, she is pretty much the mother of Ventus and Terra, so why not have her as my mother! I think she fit in perfectly for this role. Kind, caring and very sweet. Father:Ryu from Street Fighter  Who wouldn't like a a fighter as a father! Ryu is very respectable, and also as man on the road of battle, he would be the best at giving life lessons! Secound Mother: Orbea Yung Fang from Fantasy  Didn't expect that huh? My aunt/former tutor is a bit like a second mother, so I thought role would be fit well here. I think of fang a bit like a cool mum. She is very fun to be with, and also a very strong leader. Big Sister: Lightning Farron from Final Fantasy XIII  Being, the oldest in my family, it's sometimes hard to ask for advice. And while Lightning is best Final Fantasy girl, I would love her as my sister. All the stuff she's been through would give me a great adviser. And that's all I got! On a very unrelated note, and this NOT sponsored at all by the devs, please support Echo: Our Voice on KickStarter. While the game is funded, but I really want to see what the devs can do if they reach their stretch goals. I played the demo and almost instantly backed enough to get the early bird digital edition. And yes, I will review the game when it comes out. If you decide to back, or have backed already, on behalf of Nobody Studios, thank you. Anyways, that's it for now! Oh, I almost forgot the big family photo! Just imagine me as Sora!  Thanks for reading, have a great/night. share if you enjoyed it and take care.
Written By NanaMarfo The owner of the Fang model does not wish to be credited. Lightning and Aqua from Chrissy-Tee Sora from KylieStylish Ryu from KSE25 Street Fighter(C)Capcom Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy(C)Square Enix' Echo:Our Voice(C)Nobody Studios
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Hey all! Gaming Diaries came up with a good question of the month: It is coming into wedding season, if the shops and people I know are anything to go by. So in that spirit, you and a plus-one are attending the gaming wedding of the year. Which video game character do you take to the wedding and which character gives you advice on what to wear? I can tell LightningEllen is rubbing off on me because the answer to the second part of the question is Lightning Farron from Final Fantasy XIII. Thought there is some reasoning to it, and that is Lightning Returns.  That's not a watch Lightning, that's a corsage. Model by agekei on DevantArt. She wore a lot of costumes in Lightning Returns (Ignoring the ones that blatantly fan-service), so I think she would work out great here in picking what to wear! As for who I would take... hmmm... Sora! This would be just to get him to realise some feelings...  Are you trying to flirt Sora? Yes, I ship these 2. Anyways, that's it for now! Thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed it and take care.
Written by Nana Marfo Question of the month by TheGamingDiaries (She did a really good piece on Media VS Gaming) Kingdom Hearts/Final Fantasy(C) Square Enix
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I'm back! Exams are over, and during that time, I thought about Pix1001's question of the month: if you could live in any video game settlement (ie a town, village, city, etc), where would you choose to live and why; and what role would you play in it? This took me a while to think about, but I would say Destiny Islands for the Kingdom Hearts series. God damn it, I render this place a lot don't I? Anyways, while I may not have fond memories of KH1(That game is too damn hard), I have fond memories of this place. I love the ending of KH2, and growing up here would be awesome! Plus, I would love to train to be a fighter with my friends!
I also really want to see Aqua and Ventus make this their new home in KH3. Here's a covosation I came up with for both Aqua and Sora(based on the middle pic): Aqua:“A nice place you have here, Sora.” Sora:“Yea, it’s my home.” Aqua:“Then… can I make it my new home? I really want to forget about my old one…” Sora:“Make new memories with us. Aqua, I’m sure you’ll fit right in here.” I really don't have anything else to besides: I'M BACK! Did you miss me? I would have added the Paige clip if I could... Either way, Thanks for Reading, have yourself a great day/night, share it it's not too much trouble for you and take care. Written by Nana Marfo Question by Pix1001(Check her out, she has some great fashion with gaming blogs) Kingdom Hearts(C)Square Enix |
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