Heroes on a Budget - Development Back on Track

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Heroes on a Budget - An RPG where the heroes get fat off of healing items

Here is the current demo for the game: Heroes on a Budget by failmuseum

Mega Mirror: 173.08 MB file on MEGA

Before I get into the weight gain mechanics, the premise for the story and general set up is that an initially vague eldritch being is threatening the land and is going to appear soon and three prophesized heroes need to fight it (over the course of the game the main threat and the prophecy stuff gets a bit more depth to become a bit less generic, but the plot isn’t the main focus of the idea). The heroes are found, put together, and sent on there way to where the battle is going to take place in a matter of weeks. Every chapter you visit a new location on your way to the battle location, spending two weeks in each area until you move onto the next. Each area has a local problem that needs to be solved (usually involving food or gluttony), but it is possible to skip/fail to complete that quest by running out of time in the chapter. The game would have multiple endings depending on the weight of all of the characters, if you completed every chapter’s local problems, and a few other misc. decisions.

The main gameplay mechanic is that due to the wide spread knowledge of the impending eldritch being has caused a massive shortage of potions available for sale making them extremely expensive to purchase. So our heroes come up with the idea to use food as their main source of healing items due to it’s cost effectiveness. This of course results in the party getting fatter the more often they need to heal. It wouldn’t be the only way to gain weight in the game, but it would likely be the most common (depending on playstyle).

As the characters start to gain weight, there would be events and different dialogue to reflect that. Each character’s weight would be tracked separately from each other. Higher weights would lower every character’s agility stat and raise each character’s physical defense. If a character gets too fat, that character will not be able to go into the adventure field anymore (I’ll get to that), with the exception of the mage character (she would lose a lot of max MP, justification is that she has an increase agility spell that she would constantly be casting on herself to keep going. This is so that you always can get a decent ending even if the others being absent makes it a bit harder.). When there are less party members, the remaining party gets more xp to compensate. To prevent players from getting soft locked, the game will always move onto the next chapter at the end of every two weeks so the player will get an ending regardless of what happens. As the characters gain weight they will also gain new combat moves related to their size, extra frost resistance, as well as take extra fire damage.

Every chapter you’d have 14 days to level up, do quests, partake in local activities, and try to do that area’s main quest in the town. Each day is broken up into three sections: morning, day, and night. Each character gets their own section of the day to play: Morning is played by the Mage, Day is played by the fighter, and Night is played by the Rogue. Different things to do in town would be available based on the time of day and what chapter/town you are in. At any point during the day, you would be able to go out into the “Adventure Field”, where the party is gathered, and everyone goes into the area where all of the monsters and dungeons are for the chapter. Even if a character has gotten too fat to go on adventures, you will still play their section of every day. If you run out of time during a chapter, the party will move onto the next chapter, even if you didn’t finish your work there. As a safe guard for those that didn’t level up enough, there will be a mage in every chapter after the first one that, for a fee, will create and illusionary dungeon that has earlier chapter’s monsters in it. I’m thinking of having 7 normal chapters and one additional chapter if you finished every previous chapter’s story.

I want the game to be fairly short, but also provide a challenge so that players don’t have to finesse their way into getting a specific ending or event by deliberately playing like trash.

Thoughts?

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Will level of mobility raise as the characters level up? Getting immobile and losing teammates would be a little upsetting. Giving a mediocre raise of it should suffice the criteria of short and challenging game i think.

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I like the idea and concept it seems really interesting. The problem I was thinking of " provide a challenge so that players don’t have to finesse their way into getting a specific ending or event by deliberately playing like trash." Would maybe moving away from healing items and instead moving to the idea of the buff and debuff potions of the world have had to be replaced by food work for that better. This would allow you to not have healing items be abused but could also make the buff items and presumably the ways to make more powerful potions and how to obtain their ingredients more tied to player power and maybe not abusing incoming damage. I was thinking maybe a style of system similar to vale city or other games that use that kind of food provides more power to players but too much becomes a detriment within battles maybe having an overfed state that would not allow you to move until you digest etc. Since you want to have multiple endings and weight limits of the characters you probably won’t want to make the healing items more bound to story checks as far as weight gain. Something like the buff system would allow you to have the character gain weight within battles becoming larger or more stuffed and have the over all weight levels determined by more story or event locked triggers similar to Elfas hambrientas (Hungry elves). All in all I really like the concept you seem to have a cool idea.

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I think I see what you’re saying, but I was kind of thinking of making healing to be a sort of trade off for what is essentially attrition (kind of). I didn’t mention it in the other post, but I was thinking also having the ability to spend time in town to have the characters get back up to full condition vs healing using items to save time, but it changes how that character plays over time if you do it too much. Its another reason I’m also considering removing critical hits from everyone except for the rogue party member. Since I want this to be an equal part RPG and resource management game at the same time. I kind of want the performance of the player over the course of the whole game to have an impact on the ending as well, even if it’s not necessarily good vs bad endings (the only real bad ending would be losing to the final boss, but if that happens the player could always load). I was thinking of having some food items also give buffs as well as healing, so its not just going to be 20 different flavors of healing item.

@Baton It was going to be a simple weight threshold that prevented party members from coming along, but I could make something that allows them to join if the player is willing to pay for it/find some most likely magical artifact that allows them to come back into the party. Maybe something that takes up an accessory equipment slot. From a development perspective, the real goal for me is make sure that characters leaving the party doesn’t happen every playthrough, unless someone is doing it on purpose.

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That totally makes sense I think the healing pots idea is a better flavor idea then the buff pots anyways but of course my concern was balance or abuse, but I can see what your going for. It would be interesting to see some kind of eldritch/old god story within a weight gain game imo and the idea of losing party members or having the weights impact the story is interesting. Obviously would be a complex design to keep things balanced. If you chose to do something with this further than the idea phase at some point I wish you luck.

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For the accessory thing. Instead of that there could be a collectible scattered across the maps that would increase that, so basically mobility increase would be optional.

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Really love this idea :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

It might be a bit early to be talking about this sort of thing, but I think a New Game+ feature could be a good inclusion. That way players can go through the game once ‘properly’, then speed through it on subsequent playthroughs to see all the endings they missed.

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I’ll have to see how to do that, although it might just be best to have a place to input cheat codes in chapter 1 for a ton of gold and xp, since by my estimate, quite a few endings will be easier to achieve when starting a fresh game (with the exception of the ending where everyone is thin at the end of the bonus chapter). If I can figure it out, I’ll add it in in addition to the cheat codes.

I think I know how to I’m going to do this, at least for now. I’ll see if I can quickly put together a demo of sorts by making a scuffed version of chapter 1 and see if people like the core gameplay loop. There will likely be bugs, spelling errors, bland writing, and a kind of ugly map, but I’d go back and clean all of those issues up if the gameplay is well received.

I’ve already added the first activity for chapter 1, the inn the party is staying at in this chapter is a bed and breakfast and as such has a small dining area in the morning. So the mage character can spend money and time eating there. She can eat either alone or with the whole party (it doesn’t take the rest of the party’s time, only the mage’s). There are three meal sizes and they all have different effects. The small meal restores 100 hp to the person who ate it and increases their maximum hp by 1 permanently. The medium option fully restores hp to the people who eat it as well as increasing max hp by 5 and weight by 2. The largest meal fully restores hp and mp, increases max HP by 10 and weight by 4. The meals are fairly expensive, and if you invite everyone the price is tripled since you are buying 3 meals essentially. Currently it’s 100g per meal size (so everyone getting the largest meal costs 900G). I’ll readjust these stat payouts as needed.

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This sounds like a good time, and reminds me of a couple Japanese games I’ve played. I like the way you incorporate the weight mechanics in a way that makes sense, and the way you made progression tied to days as well.

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Sounds goods and the idea maybe fun to try out you Mechanic, also maybe you can set setup a gym in the town and you can work off the weight but as you get bigger it cost WAY more and if a Teammates get to big they are crated back to town and at the end of the chapter you find them at the gym back to normal but this is just a idea it is your game do what ever you want and I hope to play it.

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So for how the weight system is going to work, it’s going to be pretty simple. I have decided to remove critical hits from the game and made the luck stat the weight stat (the rouge’s abilities will occasionally give her a large attack and magic attack buff for the next turn to replace critical hits). I’m 'murcian, so I have opted to measure in pounds since its what I’m comfortable with and because of how I’m doing it, a unit of measurement that weighs less than another is easier to work with (I know I could pick a different metric unit that is less than kg, but that would be kind of strange to measure people’s weight with that). The weight thresholds for when the character goes up a weight level (chubby → fat for example) will be relative to that character’s starting weight. So the mage character weighs 112 pounds at the start (about 51 Kg) and needs, let’s say, 20 pounds to go from normal weight to pudgy. So she would be 132 pounds when she becomes pudgy, but the fighter’s starting weight is 126 (extra weight from muscle). For the fighter to get to pudgy, she needs to weigh 146 pounds. So the while the weight itself is different, everyone needs to gain the same amount to go up a weight size. The thresholds are:
20 weight to become pudgy (no sprite change), 40 to become chubby (sprite change for this and everyone after), 100 to become fat, 150 to become very fat, 200 to become obese, 300 to become morbidly obese, 400 to become extremely obese, and 500 to be removed from party without putting in the effort to allow them to join the party again (except mage, they just lose max MP).

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Sounds like a very fun idea!

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so, about pounds, if you accept and rpgmaker can, you can use KG = P * 0.453592 as a command of some sort to automatically convert it. i just don’t know if it is possible as i never touched rpgmaker. if there is no easy way and you don’t want to, just forget about it.

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or either just turn weight stat to points of some sort. points are simple to understand for everyone as a bald measurement, at least i think so.

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I got the first chapter’s local problem sorted out, and for those that don’t mind spoilers I would like to go into detail about it. If you don’t want spoilers, I give a barebones summary from a purely mechanical point of view first. For those that want to see all of it (of what I am willing to share) skip the following unblurred paragraph or so.

Non Spoiler version: Basically, the local issue will start through a cutscene when the chapter begins. The tasks you will be given for the chapter that must be finished in order to get to the bonus chapter will always be revealed in the chapter’s opening first. This particular chapter I want to have 3 different solutions depending the player’s choice (and four outcomes if the player goes out of their way during option 2). Option 1 will be a simple violent solution to the problem, Option 2 doesn’t require violence but it comes with what is likely a game long detriment to the player if they chose it (can become violent if the player takes extra steps after finishing the quest). Option 3 will be a hidden solution if the player can work it out (pay attention to the dialogue, its not going to be super cryptic). For the overview of what I want to do with these after the chapter is over, skip the blurred spoiler paragraph and continue reading.

Spoiler Version: Basically, the local issue will start through a cutscene when the chapter begins. The tasks you will be given for the chapter that must be finished in order to get to the bonus chapter will always be revealed in the chapter’s opening first. The story is that the local mayor’s adult daughter went walking in the woods and managed to come back cursed. She has a near endless hunger and is spending her days pretty much only eating. Your task is to find the person responsible. After completing some of the other tasks I haven’t worked out yet in the adventure field and town church, you discover that a lone cultist in the woods is responsible for her being put in that position. They worship a separate (but in the end related) Eldritch being that you are going up against in the main plot. The party demands that the cultist cures the mayor’s daughter, but they refuse to undo work for their god. They won’t fight you unless you strike first, since they are the only one who can fix the mayor’s daughter with the information that you know. You can choose to fight and kill the cultist regardless of the warning or they give you another option. If someone where to take the place of daughter (being cursed I mean) then they would cure the mayor’s daughter. The warrior will volunteer should the party ultimately go down that route, but it only will be an option if the fighter is able to go into the adventure field (if you somehow manage to make her unable to fight this early). If you take it, the warrior will gain two weight every day, you may also get some additional cutscenes. You are given either of those two options or you can back out to think about it. There is a third solution though that is hidden to the player, but I’d rather let players discover it on their own. The only hint I’m going to say is to pay attention to what the characters are saying, and hang onto it.

I’m thinking of doing an epilogue for each of the towns you visit in most endings of the game (barring bad endings from losing boss fights, with the exception of the true final boss at the end of the bonus chapter). I’m also going to probably have a hidden code that fully unlocks certain endings, since if I don’t, the minor twist at the end will be spoiled for someone who didn’t at least get to the the bonus chapter first. To get the code, I’m thinking of giving out the code in two places, first will be at the end of any ending you get while in the bonus chapter, and the other will just be right here but blurred out. That way, those that don’t care about a twist being spoiled can see the full endings if they want to. That or I could just have a pop up menu that asks this before the game begins.

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I also decided to add two additional sizes larger than the one that removes them from the party. I picked out some template sprites from the unammed stuffing project’s discord to use. The rest of the sprites I will be making myself. To get to these sizes, you will need to gain 600 pounds from that character’s start for the first size, and 700 from the start for the second size. The mage being the exception for the second size, since that one will be completely immobile. She will only be able to get to that size if the fighter and the rouge have already gotten to that size. This is because the sprite is too big use to play with, so if the mage gets to that size before the others it will cause issues since she is needed to play the game. I also don’t want to add even more to the work load of having to account for scenarios where the mage can’t participate but the others can.

I also edited the template a bit to better match how I’m going make my other sprites (I removed alot of the flab’s detail). Here’s the Rogue’s sprite for the immobile size.
Huge Blob Showoff

Also, I am open to suggestions for things to do while in town. I’m not necessarily looking for fetish related content (but feel free to suggest that too), but rather things like small jobs for the player to do to spend time.

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About jobs in town. Heroes are asked to build a fence for a person, but a drunken lumberjack brought the heroes living wood, and now they must deal with not the fence, but the hostile sticks. lol

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Not sure if I could use that for a job, since the heroes are separated while in town for the most part, but I can use that for a small side quest since I do intend to still have houses and people living outside of the town in the adventure fields.

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oh, will keep in mind.

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It’ll probably be in chapter 1 as well, since that is the forest chapter.

Seems as good a time as any to mention that I will be making (assuming I take it on as a full project) each chapter have its own biome/theme to make them distinct from each other. I already have them planned out:

Chapter 1: Forest

Chapter 2: Plains/farmland
Chapter 3: Desert
Chapter 4: Mountain Base
Chapter 5: Mountain Top (Snow Level)
Chapter 6: Beach/Port Town
Chapter 7: Big City
Chapter 8 Not telling

I also kind of want to have gimmicks for a few of the chapters, to change up the rules a little bit. I will only say the least exciting one though since I don’t want to spoil everything. Chapter 5 will have quite a lot of areas that do damage to characters with lower weights from the cold, but fatter characters won’t have to worry about those locations.

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