We are currently in the pre-production phase for the development of Tale of Ronin and making sure we nail down the main game systems and mechanics is one of our targets during this phase.
What helps us define and select the proper mechanics are the main pillars that we wanted the game to be based on from the concept stage. Tale of Ronin will be a game that lets you experience a tiny part of the life of a masterless Samurai, also knows as a Ronin. The experience starts from the point the Samurai actually becomes a Ronin. A free soul wandering the lands and looking for some answers, following a mission or just trying to survive and often times trying to hide his inner shame of being alive. Your decisions will matter and there is no way of going back.
The game world needs to support exploring and adventuring and the player needs to feel free to chose his own destiny.
Teaming up with other Ronin and going on missions together is another important aspect and for this, interacting with other believable Ronin is another main pillar. Focusing on the human aspect, emotions and camaraderie bonds. Letting the other computer controlled characters have their unique characters.
No Samurai story will be near complete without proper attention to the art of the sword, Katana. Another main pillar in Tale of Ronin will be proper attention to the details of Samurai combat. For this, a unique simultaneous turn-based combat is being worked on with proper attention to the depths of sword fights.
Another main goal is to maintain a simplistic sumi-e style visual for the whole game which is being done with minimalistic brush art and reduced colors.
The pillars should always be our guidelines and they’ll help us make all other design decisions for the game. To sum the up, here they are one more time:
1 — Freedom to adventure and choose your destiny.
2 — Teaming up and interacting with other believable Ronin.
3 — Detailed turn-based combat, tailored for the art of Katana.
4 — Unique minimalistic ink paint visuals.
We feel that making sure we base everything else on top of these pillars will help us achieve the vision for Tale of Ronin.