Mega Man RPG Prototype Game Development

Going through some of very, very old files on my server I came across these early prototypes for what is now the "Mega Man RPG Prototype" game. Most of these are non-interactive, display tests that experimented with different ways of showing information and bringing life to an otherwise static game idea - using HTML to build a fully realized RPG battle system with Mega Man characters. These three prototype scripts are from all the way back in November 2010, and look vastly different than what was finally settled on in early 2011 when the prototype became a playable game.

Prototype #1

This first test dealt with the positioning of battle-related information and commands. I wanted all messages displayed in battle to be visible - like a string of forum posts - but I didn't want the user to have to scroll to see what was currently happening. AS a result, I tried many different arrangements of the three boxes that would contain the canvas animations, the actions panel with buttons, and the event console that displayed all the messages. I liked the idea behind this one, but it was quite ugly and a little too confusing to stick.

Prototype #2

This second test was more about how to display each robot's current status in battle and trying to figure out how many I could fit on-screen at once. Whether or not all of these would always be visible at once was something I was mulling over, but for the sake of the prototyping process I was just messing with different colour combinations and didn't fully consider their size.

Prototype #3

This last experiment combined ideas from the previous two into a battle system that was semi-automated and would play-out like a series of role-play battles on a forum. Each player would select their combination of robots to send into battle and then submit the form and see how it all turns out. I kind of liked how this turned out visually, but the idea of sitting back and letting the game play itself felt a little silly. :P

And that's another inside look into the development process leading up to the game. I hope you enjoy the tour and understand my how much work and thought has gone into this seemingly simplistic fangame. :P