Cross-franchise games a.k.a The Multiverse Discussion

[Mr. TurTur]

Over the past few weeks, I've been reading a lot about game development and creating visual novels and the like.
In the process, I've noticed a recurring warning from experienced people:

DON'T TRY A MULTIVERSE GAME!

Of course, as a newcomer to game development and as a writer, I've had this idea before.
Fortunately, I discarded it.

But I also don't recall having played that many successful cross-franchise games.
I know Camp Pine Wood, Star Chanel 34 and, if it counts, Summertime Saga with its irl characters.


Still, I'm curious why there aren't more of these.
What are important points in development that can go wrong, what is the potential of MV stories?

You know, a general discussion about multiverse games.

I'll just throw a few thoughts of mine into the mix


Art Stile:

It depends on the franchise you're using. Overall I think 3D is less flexible than 2D art in this area.

When you parody series with extremely different styles, what do you do?

Take The Simpsons, The Incredibles, and Game of Thrones, for example.

Use the original artstyles of the series? I can imagine that would look very strange. Or you could just use characters with more appropriate Stiles.

Change the designs. Change small parts of each character with a new design philosophy to make everything look more cohesive. This might upset fans of the cherished franchise. Besides, it's not easy to change every style in this way. It could also go into an uncanny valley and cock block players.

Use your own or a completely different style for everything. Im not sure how i feel about this. This might work. Some parody games do this, so there is probably a Makert.

Story:

How did this come about? I think few players like those (usually) overly complex stories that involve a goddess, a dimensional tech babble and a big quest that changes fate itself.

Having many different characters together is complex enough.

Depending on how you use the characters, you don't even have to make the story about the multiverse.

Make a dating sim where no one questions their existence.

Or make the question "How did we all get here?" the main goal and make a mystery game. Like Lost, but with a real ending in mind.

Does it have to be a harem? That's probably the first thing that comes to mind and the reason to play this game.

Would you use the whole character or just part of it?

If the game is set in a modern world. Would Katara be able to Water bend, would she still have her memory or would she only use her appearance and character traits?

 

[Meaning Less]

Personally I'm not a fan of multiverse stuff, here are a few reasons:

1. Because of the arstyle issues you mentioned, either it becomes a mess with different styles or other styles end up being affected by the selected one making it look like cosplay or something else.
2. The entry bar to your game becomes bigger, lots of people enjoy X show, but add Y to it and suddenly you decrease the number of people invested in both equally, the more variables you add the harder it will be to appeal to everyone without bothering others.
3. Multiverse stories feel less "canon" in general, I mean you never once saw an interaction between characters from different shows, so putting them together is a completely blank state, what's the point? The true benefit of parodies is exploring relationships that already exist between characters.
And sure you might come up with completely new relationships that are interesting but that would be a massive task that I doubt even the original creators could come up with easily, especially when you mix two things that are completely unrelated like simpsons and got.

 

[Sphere42]

Don't forget getting reamed by multiple international corporate entities if against all common sense your project does enjoy some degree of success

Honestly it's hard for me to care about other issues. Even parodies of single fandoms take such jarring liberties with characters and lore most of the time the multiverse can't really make it worse. The few authors who don't I am also willing to trust with a multiverse provided they have some knowledge and interest in each individual fandom.

Of course the large comics brands are a safer bet as they do crossovers all the time anyway.

3. Multiverse stories feel less "canon" in general, I mean you never once saw an interaction between characters from different shows, so putting them together is a completely blank state, what's the point? The true benefit of parodies is exploring relationships that already exist between characters.

It really depends on how the game is structured. Rogue-like for example is mostly just "you date this girl" with some standardised threesome actions and a few, mostly non-sexual, scenes between the girls. Other than a general distaste for "breaking canon" there really is no reason you couldn't squeeze in an aged up Toph via "fell through a portal" or have Ahsoka crash-land in the campus square. Okay the gameplay is already strained beyond breaking with the existing cast of characters but replacing one or two wouldn't break anything either.

 

[Meaning Less]

there really is no reason you couldn't squeeze in an aged up Toph via "fell through a portal" or have Ahsoka crash-land in the campus square.

Well there is reason 2, because let's say I'm a massive x-men fan but have no idea who Toph is, now suddenly I unlock a new character I have no previous knowledge about, so I don't have any of the parody benefits and it won't feel like a parody anymore it will just be a new random character that showed up...

Sure it will work if I'm a fan of both shows, but like I mentioned the more you mix the harder it becomes for everyone to appreciate it.

 

[Sphere42]

Well there is reason 2, because let's say I'm a massive x-men fan but have no idea who Toph is, now suddenly I unlock a new character I have no previous knowledge about, so I don't have any of the parody benefits and it won't feel like a parody anymore it will just be a new random character that showed up...

Sure it will work if I'm a fan of both shows, but like I mentioned the more you mix the harder it becomes for everyone to appreciate it.

Mostly covered under "breaking canon" as the same argument applies to obscure one-off characters in a single fandom. The game already features Gwenpool in a joke scene, for a start. And the player character of course.

I guess it's different with some franchises but most of the time you're used to arc villains and perspective characters coming and going anyway so as long as the specific character choices are somewhat cohesive it's more like a regular single-canon OC fanfic. Toph fits right in next to Storm and Jean, but good luck cramming the Ancient One from Dr. Strange into a young adult campus setting.

 

[Meaning Less]

Toph fits right in next to Storm and Jean

Again I'm not saying it doesn't fit, but for anyone that hasn't watched avatar they will see this new character as nothing more than a random new character out of left field.

In that case wouldn't it be better to just add another character from the same universe? At least to me it feels that way, I much rather two different parody games instead of a single one mixing two disconnected franchises together.

Marvel+dc already feels messy even if both franchises are very similar.

 

[Sphere42]

Again I'm not saying it doesn't fit, but for anyone that hasn't watched avatar they will see this new character as nothing more than a random new character out of left field.

In that case wouldn't it be better to just add another character from the same universe? At least to me it feels that way, I much rather two different parody games instead of a single one mixing two disconnected franchises together.

So how do you tell the difference between a (well-chosen) crossover character from a franchise you don't know and an OC created within the single parody franchise? Google, sure, but if you've only watched the Star Wars movies is Bastila or Mara Jade really a better addition than someone's player avatar from the character creator?

For mass appeal it's less about sticking to one fandom and more about sticking to popular individual characters. A threesome between Tony Stark, Wonder Woman and Princess Leia? Something for everyone, no canon crash course needed. A romance between Sabata and Carmilla from Boktai? Who?

 

[Meaning Less]

So how do you tell the difference between a (well-chosen) crossover character from a franchise you don't know and an OC created within the single parody franchise?

You don't and it doesn't matter because both are equally uninteresting when it comes to parody in my opinion, that was my point.

The only valid reason to add original characters in a parody would be to fill in the gaps that you really can't fill or explain with existing characters alone, but would still be better to avoid unless no other solution was found.