Armed Fantasia May 2024 Kickstarter Update Breakdown

It’s a new month, so we have a new update for Armed Fantasia. As with the recent updates over the last few months, this one has a general topic focus. So, for this update, they wanted to focus on the gadgets in the game. After a short greeting from Chief Director Ishii, we get a step-by-step description of how gadgets are implemented in the game. So, let’s get into it.

Armed Fantasia Project Update

In a brief project update, Ishii talks about the focus of the overall Armed Fantasia update. This is what Chief Director Ishii said:

Chief Director Ishii here.

May has come. We also just finished Golden Week, one of the longer vacation periods in Japan. How have you all been spending your days? Now, it’s time for us to snap back into focus mode and work hard at our school and work activities. (what a perfect student would say) Our theme this month is gadgets. However, I don’t want to give out too much information ahead of time and take away from the fun of actually playing the game, so I’m going to keep the details of each gadget confidential. Instead, I’ll explain how we implement each gadget into Armed Fantasia.

Step 1: Beginning Gadget Thoughts

In this first step, we have the beginning process of figuring out how many gadgets we will have and the initial thought processes surrounding them. This was step one for Armed Fantasia’s gadgets:

The first things we had to consider were: How many gadgets will we have from a framework perspective? Will that number be excessive or insufficient for a spiritual successor? Will each character have an equal number of gadgets? Then there’s the “mature” topic of how many man-hours we’ll need to do the work. (Which is actually the most important part…)

We considered all the different angles and discussed things among ourselves. Since it was already decided that there would be six party characters in this game, we decided to make each character have an equal number of gadgets, thus increasing the number of gadgets to six.

Step 2: How Gadgets Work

In the second step, the team had to decide how gadgets would work in the game. Ishii explains the thought process on how gadgets would work in Armed Fantasia:

Once the total number was determined, the next step was to consider how the gadgets would work. At this stage, we stopped thinking about the total number of gadgets and piled up as many interesting ideas as we could, while trying to connect them with all the objects that could be placed on the field. Based on the rule that gadgets would not interfere with each other, we prepared three or more ways to use a single gadget: normal use, applied use, and clever use.

The “gadgets don’t interfere with each other” rule means that using one gadget on another will have no effect. For example, if you throw a “Slow Knife” at a “Set Bomb,” the knife will just pass through it. If we allowed gadgets to interfere with each other, we could do much more, but it would also make solving puzzles more complicated and require fast reflexes in terms of controls, which would make things feel more like an action game than an RPG. But we set that rule in place because we’re prioritizing the fact that this is an RPG and a spiritual successor above all else.

In this step, we came up with as many ideas as we could to create gadget elements filled with surprise and fun that will directly connect to puzzle-solving while also giving players some fun action to enjoy at the same time.

Step 3: Gadget Content and Gameplay

Step 3 provides a short explanation of the framework of how they interact with the content and gameplay. This is what Ishii explained:

Once a sufficient number of ideas have been gathered, we compare and consider the content of the gameplay and fit it into the framework described above. The truth is, before we launched the Kickstarter campaign, we were only planning to implement one gadget per character. But thanks to the support of our backers, we reached a stretch goal that let us implement three gadgets per character as we had originally imagined. We would like to thank you again for your support.

If you have ever done this kind of idea-sharing work, you may know what I’m talking about here. If you try to put them together in a stoic manner, the ideas often overlap with each other and are not enough to fill the framework. It forces you to set aside more time for coming up with and considering ideas even though you’re already exhausted from coming up with ideas in the first place. This is where planners need to work hard.

It is interesting to note that every now and then, a miraculous idea will pop out during a “dried-up” period. Speaking of interesting ideas, some staff members who had worked on Wild Arms in the past assumed that gadgets would only be usable in dungeons and towns…but then someone from BEE tribe suggested making it so that they could be used on the world map as well, and their eyes went wide as they had finally seen the light. So in Armed Fantasia, gadgets will be usable on the world map as well. One of the great things about this project is how these unexpected chemical reactions keep happening.

Step 4: Which Character Gets What?

Step 4 talks a small amount about which characters get what gadget in Armed Fantasia. Ishii said this:

Now that we’ve accumulated the number of gadgets we originally planned for, the next step is to decide which character will use each gadget. The gadgets will be allocated according to the character’s image and the story progression, how they’re used on objects in dungeons, (new ideas may be introduced here), and so on. All of this will help us nail down the image of each gadget in even more detail.

Step 5: Gadget Behavior

This step provides some insight into the behaviors of the gadgets and how they determine how they work. This is what he said:

To visualize the actual behavior, we temporarily implement white models. We make the size of the gadget as close as possible, but we’re using temporary assets here in order to try and get an idea for the atmosphere without thinking too hard about the actual shape. Since it allows us to actually touch and understand the movements of the character and the gadgets, we can use this to analyze how they actually feel, then make recommendations such as speeding up the process of setting a “Set Bomb” or making “Slow Knives” fly faster.

Step 6: Gadget Design Work

In step 6 they go back to talk about their design work of gadgets, and they provide an image for us. Ishii wanted to share this:

In this step, we move back to the design work for each gadget. Since we usually have a shape in mind when we think of the gameplay, this doesn’t usually become a bottleneck. Once we’ve decided on the shape, we send the necessary text documents to the art team along with the design order. Then, the team creates a wonderful design image as you see below.

This is the Aqua Rod, one of Euclid’s gadgets. It can send orbs of water into the air and make them explode, store water in a container, and wash the surrounding area clean. Seems like it would be a convenient gadget for use in the bathtub or for washing your car.

Step 7: 3D Model

Step 7 is a short step about creating the 3D model of the weapon in the Armed Fantasia world. This is what was said:

In this step, we use the design image to create the actual 3D model. We also create the character animations and the sound effects for when they use the gadget in this stage. Once all the resources are in place, we finally assemble and implement them.

Step 8: Final Adjustments

The final step in this update talks about putting the finishing touches on gadgets for Armed Fantasia. Chief Director Ishii explained it like this:

In this step, we perform the final adjustments. We adjust the behavior that was created in the white model stage so that it matches the graphics, adjust the timing at which the gadget’s effect activates, and make it feel even better to use. We continue this step until the very end, for as long as the schedule permits.

That concludes this rough overview of how we implement gadgets. And that’s it for this month’s update.

See you next month!

Wrap-Up

Now I know this is a different type of update from the team. It’s not very often we kind of get a step-by-step detail of the development process of something for a game. I do think the Aqua Rod looks cool, especially in the image with the “water ball” in the weapon. It will be interesting to see what they focus on in future updates. More updates for Armed Fantasia can be found on their Kickstarter page here in the future.