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Hey again, thanks for sticking around to see another entry in the Designer's Journal!
Of course, you guys know I want to be a game designer but what exactly am I working on?
Before I decided to go full-on with my game design dream, I thought of a lot of concept stories and one-shots, a few that I discarded, others that I expounded on.
In the third grade, I remember being bored in class with a few other people so I thought we should draw comics. My one-shot was based off an Ed, Edd n Eddy episode, where the Ed boys are trying to find a four-leaf clover and probably get lucky. The episode ended on a sour note when they discard the clover, which is picked up by a nearby Jonny 2x4 and almost immediately, he finds a 20 dollar bill on the pavement. My comic followed the guideline, but I re-worked the idea to a somewhat happy ending, in other words: my character (Lucky Clover) found a four-leaf clover, finds a discarded lottery ticket which is dated for the day after its discovery and ultimately wins the jackpot. It was called Lucky Boy and being my brainchild, I stuck with it for a couple of years before shuttering it in the vault. Lucky Boy kept transforming, using ideas from the Justice League (I called that arc "The League of Heroes"), Danny Phantom (subtitled "Ghostly Grapples") and a somewhat original ploy called Lucky Boy X which had the now-teenage Lucky Clover mirroring the Batman. In other words, a wealthy mogul by day, crime fighter by night.
I got tired of Lucky Boy in the middle of drawing panels for X, so I made a spin-off called X-Factor, trying to create a new character to focus on. It never got further than 2 episodes and was quietly put down. Since then, I had a long writer's block because I was leeching too much off of already innovative ideas.
I began to watch more obscure/slightly unknown anime around 2008 and soon enough, I began to write a new story, called Omega Factor, which was my outpouring of my then-obsessive otaku state of mind onto paper. I had a few friends read it, and it was a hit. i worked on two arcs, then quietly retired it to try other projects. I used ideas from current cartoons/TV shows and began eliminating ones that were too obvious.
The winner was an original tale, loosely using Naturo-style elements, called Mizuna: Ninja in Training. The story circulates across a 16-year old female named Mizuna Kobayashi and her best friend, Setsuna Katou, as they embark to learn the ways of the ninja in order to save a sacred artifact which is a staple of Mizuna's family heritage, namely the secret Kobayashi clan. I was able to produce five chapters, then I slowed down for school's sake. Soon enough, I began to wonder if I could re-work it into an actual video game. I enlisted the help of my closest friends, one who was an adept programmer and another who was a great mangaka (manga author) in the making. At first, I was looking to make it a Javascript platformer, then I shifted gears to a platformer with RPG elements, like Super Paper Mario for instance.
I haven't completed started on Mizuna yet, as I am continuing to fix up the story, adding more nods to Japanese history, making it loosely non-fictional. For now, my friend and I are both advising each other on our own separate projects, my friend's project being a manga called YuMaKoMaSHi (that was deliberate) and of course, mine being Mizuna. I do have a separate project from Mizuna: Ninja in Training which is slowly gathering momentum. The main topic of interest is auras, something I've taken a heavy interest in since watching the anime Psychic Academy. As a nod to the anime, it is called Project Gaza, since Gaza means "foresight".
Anyways, I will continue work on Mizuna: Ninja in Training by the beginning of August, maybe being able to nail the entire story down by the end of 2010 or earlier. That's it for this entry, stick around for more witty entries from the mind of Sylverstone Khandr!
