Watch Da Birdie
I buy cakes for myself on my birthday it's not weird lots of people do it I bet
Do we have an official "name" for the type of game both Splatoon and ARMS are? I don't mean one's a shooter, the other's a fighter, I mean both games seem to follow this new "formula" Nintendo has crafted in delivering a fun multiplayer experience featuring colorful characters, kid-friendly settings that have a surprising amount of depth beneath their saccharine exterior, twists on genre-cliches, and a business model involving an initial game continuously supported with free DLC.
Anyway, I enjoy both Splatoon and ARMS, and it got me to thinking---say Nintendo asked you to take a popular genre and give it that Nintendo-spin, with an original setting, gimmick, and style to set it apart from the rest of the batch. What kind of game would you create? What would be the big gimmick, gameplay or flavor-wise?
My idea? Well, a Musou/Hero Shooter/Tower Defense/MOBA game starring birdmen wearing bug armor...I call it...
Flight Knights!
Setting
The world of Flight Knights is a fantasy-inspired setting, not necessarily high fantasy but with familiar tropes associated with the genre, populated by birdmen who are the dominant sapient species.
There are no humans. Mammals are depicted as normal animals, as are fish. There are no regular bugs (and I'm counting scorpions, spiders, crabs, and other common "bugs) on the other hand, instead giant variants are an extinct species---their shells and such litter the environment, and have been turned into various structures the birdmen use including armor and weapons. Amphibians and reptiles on the other hand are enormous monsters that roam around threatening to eat everything in their path, and are responsible for the depletion of bugs.
There are various kingdoms (using that term loosely to also refer to say a tribe or empire) established throughout the land---at least 12---and each of them have a Flight Knight, a "champion" hero. These Flight Knights wear bug shells as specialized armor, and wield specialized weapons also created from bugs. Furthermore, through the use of specialized helmets, they're able to loosely control special "drone bugs" that serve as their expendable foot soldiers.
Flight Knights have two tasks...A) they compete with other Flight Knights in territorial disputes, each kingdom seeking to expand their land. These disputes are somewhat friendly, though an accidental casualty has occurred in the past, with the use of drone bugs cutting down on the loss of life. B) they guard their territory against invading reptiles/amphibians who seek to break through and devour the populace beyond, and in such instances they will unite with rival Flight Knights.
Gameplay
To sum it up, Flight Knights would be Nintendo's take on four genres basically blended together---Musou, Tower Defense, MOBA, and the Hero Shooter. Well, that's how my vision sort of goes.
The player directly controls a Flight Knight, who functions as a Musou/Hero Shooter character. They can move around the map freely, even flying which would be the big gimmick and the stages would have vertical elements to take advantage of this, and each character has a unique close-combat and ranged-weapon in addition to simple combos, plus passive abilities and the like.
There are many different Bug Drones you select for each battle, each with various abilities---there are ones that move forward and basically serve as fodder doing small damage, there are larger ones that provide an actual challenge to the opponent and can do serious damage if they aren't taken care of, there are support ones that can perform a variety of functions including repairing structures, etc. The Flight Knight using their special helmets can issue basic commands to each group during the course of battle, though they mainly function off of A.I., using them to aid the player while they do the heavy lifting. Unlike ARMS and Splatoon, I think in this case all the Bug Drones would be selectable from the get-go for every player to provide a level playing field.
There'd be various structures you'd defend and such---I was thinking unlike some Tower Defense games the structures would be nothing more than "points", they don't have any additional effects beyond being something you need to protect. The biggest focus would be on the abilities of the Flight Knight and Bug Drones. For flavor, the structures you'd defend at the very least be unique looking.
You can go 1 vs. 1, or team up with up to two other Flight Knights for 3 vs. 3. With each Flight Knight representing a Kingdom, I'm thinking a key component of the online scene would be a score-system keeping track of which Kingdom is currently controlling the most areas. There's also a 4 vs. Horde mode, where you and three other players would face off against CPU-controlled giant reptiles.
There would be a single-player campaign, in which there would be two modes---an "Arcade Mode" where you take on the other eleven kingdoms as your chosen Flight Knight, and a "Story Mode", where you go up against the reptiles as you attempt to save all twelve kingdoms from destruction and are joined by other Flight Knights as you progress. And then additional modes via free DLC.
Style
Unlike ARMS and Splatoon, this game would be a tad "darker" and less silly, but with enough levity to still feel Nintendo-ish and have an E-rating. I was thinking the style would be less western-influenced in terms of character designs, and go for an 80's anime aesthetic---I'm thinking like NES Fire Emblem box-art? You'd get some really nice "high-fantasy" orchestrated music, but since the characters are birds I'm thinking you'd totally need to incorporate actual bird chirping into the music. Think the Rito Village music from Breath of the Wild once you have all the bird girls chirping along. In fact, I kind of picture this game basically being "what if you made a BOTW Rito game?".
As for the characters, I'm thinking the initial roster of Flight Knights would be 12, divided into fast types, skill types, and power types with 4 in each. Each character would be a bird human wearing bug-style armor, making them almost look like bird-bug hybrids, and their style would perhaps reflect a different real-world culture? So, like there'd be a cool samurai bird wearing kabuto-mushi armor naturally.
For the main character, my idea was a canary + ladybug + classic European-armor, probably Joan of Arc-looking. She'd be the most basic character and represent your usual fantasy European-style kingdom, armed with a weapon that transforms from a small sword into a crossbow, and also functions as a shield. Her name? Lady Byrd. That came to me right away and was like, "fuck that's perfect".
As for how the game would differentiate itself from the rest of the pack, well, I kind of went with flavor first and then slowly though about how the game would actually play---I don't have much experience with those genres except for Musou in experiencing them firsthand, but what immediately comes to mind would be to make a simple enough game that anyone can get into fairly easily and hopefully curb that "toxic" platform that most MOBA and Hero Shooters I read about tend to develop? Because, as far as I know, Splatoon and ARMS are rather drama-free for better or worse.
So, yeah, I guess you don't have to go as in-depth but I was feeling creative!
Anyway, I enjoy both Splatoon and ARMS, and it got me to thinking---say Nintendo asked you to take a popular genre and give it that Nintendo-spin, with an original setting, gimmick, and style to set it apart from the rest of the batch. What kind of game would you create? What would be the big gimmick, gameplay or flavor-wise?
My idea? Well, a Musou/Hero Shooter/Tower Defense/MOBA game starring birdmen wearing bug armor...I call it...
Flight Knights!
Setting
The world of Flight Knights is a fantasy-inspired setting, not necessarily high fantasy but with familiar tropes associated with the genre, populated by birdmen who are the dominant sapient species.
There are no humans. Mammals are depicted as normal animals, as are fish. There are no regular bugs (and I'm counting scorpions, spiders, crabs, and other common "bugs) on the other hand, instead giant variants are an extinct species---their shells and such litter the environment, and have been turned into various structures the birdmen use including armor and weapons. Amphibians and reptiles on the other hand are enormous monsters that roam around threatening to eat everything in their path, and are responsible for the depletion of bugs.
There are various kingdoms (using that term loosely to also refer to say a tribe or empire) established throughout the land---at least 12---and each of them have a Flight Knight, a "champion" hero. These Flight Knights wear bug shells as specialized armor, and wield specialized weapons also created from bugs. Furthermore, through the use of specialized helmets, they're able to loosely control special "drone bugs" that serve as their expendable foot soldiers.
Flight Knights have two tasks...A) they compete with other Flight Knights in territorial disputes, each kingdom seeking to expand their land. These disputes are somewhat friendly, though an accidental casualty has occurred in the past, with the use of drone bugs cutting down on the loss of life. B) they guard their territory against invading reptiles/amphibians who seek to break through and devour the populace beyond, and in such instances they will unite with rival Flight Knights.
Gameplay
To sum it up, Flight Knights would be Nintendo's take on four genres basically blended together---Musou, Tower Defense, MOBA, and the Hero Shooter. Well, that's how my vision sort of goes.
The player directly controls a Flight Knight, who functions as a Musou/Hero Shooter character. They can move around the map freely, even flying which would be the big gimmick and the stages would have vertical elements to take advantage of this, and each character has a unique close-combat and ranged-weapon in addition to simple combos, plus passive abilities and the like.
There are many different Bug Drones you select for each battle, each with various abilities---there are ones that move forward and basically serve as fodder doing small damage, there are larger ones that provide an actual challenge to the opponent and can do serious damage if they aren't taken care of, there are support ones that can perform a variety of functions including repairing structures, etc. The Flight Knight using their special helmets can issue basic commands to each group during the course of battle, though they mainly function off of A.I., using them to aid the player while they do the heavy lifting. Unlike ARMS and Splatoon, I think in this case all the Bug Drones would be selectable from the get-go for every player to provide a level playing field.
There'd be various structures you'd defend and such---I was thinking unlike some Tower Defense games the structures would be nothing more than "points", they don't have any additional effects beyond being something you need to protect. The biggest focus would be on the abilities of the Flight Knight and Bug Drones. For flavor, the structures you'd defend at the very least be unique looking.
You can go 1 vs. 1, or team up with up to two other Flight Knights for 3 vs. 3. With each Flight Knight representing a Kingdom, I'm thinking a key component of the online scene would be a score-system keeping track of which Kingdom is currently controlling the most areas. There's also a 4 vs. Horde mode, where you and three other players would face off against CPU-controlled giant reptiles.
There would be a single-player campaign, in which there would be two modes---an "Arcade Mode" where you take on the other eleven kingdoms as your chosen Flight Knight, and a "Story Mode", where you go up against the reptiles as you attempt to save all twelve kingdoms from destruction and are joined by other Flight Knights as you progress. And then additional modes via free DLC.
Style
Unlike ARMS and Splatoon, this game would be a tad "darker" and less silly, but with enough levity to still feel Nintendo-ish and have an E-rating. I was thinking the style would be less western-influenced in terms of character designs, and go for an 80's anime aesthetic---I'm thinking like NES Fire Emblem box-art? You'd get some really nice "high-fantasy" orchestrated music, but since the characters are birds I'm thinking you'd totally need to incorporate actual bird chirping into the music. Think the Rito Village music from Breath of the Wild once you have all the bird girls chirping along. In fact, I kind of picture this game basically being "what if you made a BOTW Rito game?".
As for the characters, I'm thinking the initial roster of Flight Knights would be 12, divided into fast types, skill types, and power types with 4 in each. Each character would be a bird human wearing bug-style armor, making them almost look like bird-bug hybrids, and their style would perhaps reflect a different real-world culture? So, like there'd be a cool samurai bird wearing kabuto-mushi armor naturally.
For the main character, my idea was a canary + ladybug + classic European-armor, probably Joan of Arc-looking. She'd be the most basic character and represent your usual fantasy European-style kingdom, armed with a weapon that transforms from a small sword into a crossbow, and also functions as a shield. Her name? Lady Byrd. That came to me right away and was like, "fuck that's perfect".
As for how the game would differentiate itself from the rest of the pack, well, I kind of went with flavor first and then slowly though about how the game would actually play---I don't have much experience with those genres except for Musou in experiencing them firsthand, but what immediately comes to mind would be to make a simple enough game that anyone can get into fairly easily and hopefully curb that "toxic" platform that most MOBA and Hero Shooters I read about tend to develop? Because, as far as I know, Splatoon and ARMS are rather drama-free for better or worse.
So, yeah, I guess you don't have to go as in-depth but I was feeling creative!