BYOND Anime; Deviation from the Norm

ID:100106
 
Aug 10 2010, 10:52 am
I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure,
which is - trying to please everybody.”- Herbert Bayard Swope


Naruto, Bleach, and Dragon Ball Z.. a noticeable pattern when it comes to development of games in BYOND Anime by Programmers and Pixel Artists. Developers that take an interest to the BYOND Anime Guild tend to be hypnotized by popular mainstream Anime’s such as the ones mentioned earlier. This leaves the Guild with barely any variety of games to offer to the BYOND player base. Why do people take on such projects, when there lays a staggering amount of untapped resource of Anime’s to base a game upon? It’s because we lack the concept of Deviation; trying something different and Limitation; knowing what we our capable of. Undermining the fact that the Success Rate of a Naruto, Bleach or DBZ Game going into production and actually being released overtime is an astounding 4-5%, the issue here is Game Variety, the Achilles’ heel of BYOND Anime.

N.B.D (Naruto, Bleach, Dragon Ball Z) Games itself require reliable and experienced staff, capable of creating such content-heavy projects and they can be considered as a “Sensitive Project” since games like these need to be well developed in order for any sought of success. Novice Programmers and Pixel Artists who are new to DM should avoid making a N.B.D Game as their first project. This is an important fact most Development Team’s overlook. Most people also assume players will be more attracted to the current Anime trend over classics and other great Anime’s, thus, leading to the production of countless N.B.D games that never make it past the creation of its HUB Page. The few projects that actually make it into the development stage end up becoming a shabby, un-polished game with no content because the team lacks the knowledge required to create it, which leads to them taking short-cuts such as the use of “ripped” icons or other game source’s . The use of “ripped” material itself causes the game by default to being denied Submission into the BYOND Anime Guild.

I took the time to ask our loyal BYOND Anime players questions to see their perspective on the subject;

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AllanJ™ says:
When you think of BYOND Anime, what games come to mind?

Renji_R_I says:
Naruto and Bleach

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AllanJ™ says:
BYOND Anime, what is the first thought that popped into your mind?

Jon says:
Games that will never be released

**Side Note** That was a low-blow, that even hurt me a little

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AllanJ™ says:
Why do you think Developers work on Projects such as; Naruto, Bleach and Dragon Ball Z, when there is such a large variety of Anime's to base a game on?

Gon Goon: Booty Warrior Elite says:
I believe there are multiple reasons why most developers center their projects around those anime.

* Most popular. Majority of developers want to reach out to the largest crowd possible, which happens to be through those 3 anime.
* They have so much potential, yet honestly, from my perspective, there hasn't been an anime game that's been beyond decent. None of them offer as much uniqueness/versitality as the anime themselves do.

Child Prodigy says:
They're the main anime's 10-16 year olds watch
And most of BYOND's players are 10-16

John(Rasen) says:
What I think is that new comers always see the vast varieties of naruto , bleach and dragonball Z in the Anime section. Which makes them strive harder to create a game much more better than the ones they currently see, this is only my opinion , I know there are many other reason's ,but this is what I truly think.

Kr says:
Its the most popular at the moment and its easy to attract people.

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Fortunately, all hope isn’t lost. New and promising games such as Champloo Ikou Era by AllSmiles and Pokémon Z by Zete should be used as an example for Development Teams.


Champloo Ikou Era is an RPG based on the Samurai Champloo anime. A fun and exciting game, revolving around combat with a variety of weapons and the freedom to live the life of a samurai.


Pokémon Z is an Online Pokémon Turn-Based Strategy RPG, the first of its kind in BYOND Anime, making an astonishing impact in the community.


The list of possibilities for an Anime Game goes on;

Afro Samurai – An Action/RP Anime Game with simple sword combat variations and a decent plot behind it.

High School of the Dead – A “Shoot ‘Em Up and Kill ‘Em” Style Action/RP Anime Game

Gundam, Digimon, etc - Turn-Based Strategy Games

Etc..


The process of “Deviating from the Norm” is the hardest part for today’s Development Teams. Once that has been overcome, the variety of Anime Game’s Developers can create will be uncanny.



Thank You for taking the time to read this.

Sincerely, AllanJ
Aug 10 2010, 11:11 am
Most of the Dragon Ball games on BYOND are rips and are nothing like the franchise.

Naruto, Bleach and DB can be made into great games, provided the ideals for the game's conception are innovative and fun (and the execution is done correctly).
Aug 10 2010, 1:55 pm
A game being based on Naruto or Bleach is not the reason why it probably won't get released. The reason is those kind of games tend to be RPGs. Let's just say RPGs are the number one thing people avoid over at gamedev.

Also, you should really go over your posts a few times before submitting. Some of the sentences were almost indecipherable.
Aug 10 2010, 5:37 pm
While i for the most part agree with alot of what was said here, one thing i do not agree with is the implication that the dbz naruto and bleach games currently out are satisfying.

The reason there are so many of those three anime games is simply because those are the sources most available. That, and because those sources dont do the series abit of justice. Pokemon Games are like this too.
Aug 10 2010, 7:55 pm
High school of the dead has very few episodes to be really considered looking at. Gundam is good and there have been a few digimon games out there before. While i do agree a little to parts of this post, in the end, if you have the ability and talent required to make a game. Make what YOU want, not what someone else wants you to make.
Aug 10 2010, 10:13 pm
I would agree with Pmitch, your reason is backwards. If they do not have the knowledge to create a game and don't have the endurance or desire to learn the language, the only choice is to resort to the shortcut of using a pre-made engine. As the amount and variety of these leaked source codes that people use to build and (even worse) 'learn' from are limited, it does build up a vicious circle.
Aug 11 2010, 2:05 am
no the issue here is reliable staff to help make the production go faster thats the problem me and many other developers have great ideas but if your like me and a fail programmer theres not much you can do and besides lazy alot of people cant be trusted with anything -_-
Aug 11 2010, 2:39 am
Tac wrote:
many other developers have great ideas

Care to prove that you're willing to pull through the effort of designing a game as well and show us your full fledged, worked out functional specifications?
Aug 11 2010, 3:29 am
Tac wrote:
no the issue here is reliable staff to help make the production go faster thats the problem me and many other developers have great ideas but if your like me and a fail programmer theres not much you can do and besides lazy alot of people cant be trusted with anything -_-

This is a horrible attitude, unless you are the next Romero, Newell, or Garriott, you can't complain if good programmers/artists don't just come crawling to you.

Also calling other people lazy when they presumably took the time to learn a skill that you haven't learned yet is pretty funny to me.
Aug 11 2010, 4:45 am
I don't actually feel like this post brought anything we didn't already know to the playing field.
There's nothing exciting and it's rather redundant. Also, where do you get the 4-5% figure?

Also also, your interviewees aren't really that much of figure heads to strengthen this article.
Aug 11 2010, 5:38 am (Edited on Aug 11 2010, 5:44 am)
@ IcewarriorX

True. Also, High School of the Dead is rather new but it has potential, Game Design wise it's very similar to any Resident Evil game on BYOND. Thus, people could use that as a reference.

@ Schnitzelnagler

The term Limitation once again comes to mind, "Know what you are capable of". The idea is to begin of with Small Projects to get you started in the DM World. Making a N.B.D Game as your first project when you have no experience using DM will lead to a bad end. My point is that people shouldn't resort to short-cuts, when they can create small, imaginative games with ease by knowing the basics of the DM Language.

I'll use Ninjafro as an example, the first project he worked on was SmackZ which was a game consisting of a plain black map with a rectangle box as the Player's base and the purpose of the game was to bump into each other. That my friend is a realistic project for someone just learning DM. Once he got the basics down he didn't need source codes or any short-cuts to begin development of his new game, Anime Universe.

@ Maximus_Alex2003

My purpose was just to write an article on a subject that people discuss, but don't really do anything about it and at the same time to show my perspective on the subject. My last article was the same, BYOND Anime games lacking content isn't something new, it's a subject that's been talked about. The 4-5% was a random figure I threw out there, to be honest it's probably lower. As for my "interviewees", I could have asked figure heads but I prefer asking regular players to see their view on the subject. I don't see how the responses would be any different. Also, since the article is about BYOND Anime games the obvious thing would be to ask the developers of the most popular/played anime games, which leaves only GOA, and BLN and maybe few other's.. not really many "figure heads" there.

Aug 11 2010, 6:53 am
What people should do to succeed in creating a decent polished game and what people feel like doing to get close enough to their desire of having a 'game' with their name as 'owner' with minimal effort are (unfortunately) different entities. I do not disagree with you on the advice, I just do not agree on the reason that your recommendation is being disregard.
Aug 11 2010, 12:07 pm
AllanJ wrote:

The 4-5% was a random figure I threw out there, to be honest it's probably lower.


Lol what. That totally kills any kind of seriousness this post was meant to have.
Aug 11 2010, 1:12 pm (Edited on Aug 11 2010, 4:21 pm)
Sorry, about that. I'll correct myself. I meant rough figure, not "random" and as I stated the figure is lower than that. Also the point of the article isn't about the percentage of N.B.D Games being produced and released into BYOND Anime; it's the fact that Developers are sticking to making games based on these mainstream anime's when they should be exploring more options.
Aug 11 2010, 3:32 pm
Honestly, no matter how much you post this shit. It'll never be successful. You need to actually take a course of action to stop the anime guild from allowing such "pathetic" games into the guild. Anyone can make games, but the ranking system became inactive after awhile. The only reason "Dan" allows this shit to be placed on there is because his game is the best. Something needs to be done!~
Aug 11 2010, 4:20 pm
@ Zewo

....What were you reading? Not only are you way off-topic but your facts are wrong too, rofl. BYOND Anime has Submission Guidelines now, we don't just allow any game in the Guild. Dan isn't really as active as he used to be in BYOND Anime; Stephen001 manages BYOND Anime now alongside IcewarriorX and Pmitch.
Aug 12 2010, 6:54 am
Sorry to advertise, but I'm working on an FMA-based project, and we're always looking for more talented pixel artists, post on my members page if you wanna! :D
Nov 24 2010, 4:58 am
AllanJ wrote:
@ IcewarriorX

True. Also, High School of the Dead is rather new but it has potential, Game Design wise it's very similar to any Resident Evil game on BYOND. Thus, people could use that as a reference.

@ Schnitzelnagler

The term Limitation once again comes to mind, "Know what you are capable of". The idea is to begin of with Small Projects to get you started in the DM World. Making a N.B.D Game as your first project when you have no experience using DM will lead to a bad end. My point is that people shouldn't resort to short-cuts, when they can create small, imaginative games with ease by knowing the basics of the DM Language.

I'll use Ninjafro as an example, the first project he worked on was SmackZ which was a game consisting of a plain black map with a rectangle box as the Player's base and the purpose of the game was to bump into each other. That my friend is a realistic project for someone just learning DM. Once he got the basics down he didn't need source codes or any short-cuts to begin development of his new game, Anime Universe.

@ Maximus_Alex2003

My purpose was just to write an article on a subject that people discuss, but don't really do anything about it and at the same time to show my perspective on the subject. My last article was the same, BYOND Anime games lacking content isn't something new, it's a subject that's been talked about. The 4-5% was a random figure I threw out there, to be honest it's probably lower. As for my "interviewees", I could have asked figure heads but I prefer asking regular players to see their view on the subject. I don't see how the responses would be any different. Also, since the article is about BYOND Anime games the obvious thing would be to ask the developers of the most popular/played anime games, which leaves only GOA, and BLN and maybe few other's.. not really many "figure heads" there.






Something that caught my eye... The part where you talked about working on a smaller project first. That was probably the only thing I agreed with on here. It's actually the one thing that talked to me.... I feel like this is something I should do first.

No, this is something I WILL do first. My current project, Bleach Breeze will be on hold now. I won't be quitting it, just putting it's production on hold. Until I can get more team experience on another game.

Working with another team, could very well help me gain some staff for my true project. In a way.. I should say thank you AllanJ :). I guess I should start looking for a small project to work on lol.