Unreal Engine Mahou Shoujo Hack & Slash game with Dating Sim Elements

[paperbag]

I was going to wait until the demo is done to post this, but decided that the game could benefit from the feedback earlier.

Mahou Arms has two parts: In the Missions, you deploy and play as the magical girls who are fighting magical aliens to reclaim earth. In Headquarters, you're building your base, leveling up the girls, and building relationships with them (similar to Persona)

I like to describe it roughly as a mix between Nier:Automata (or bayonetta), XCOM, and Persona, but I'm still trying to figure out how to describe it.

All the content in MA is custom, code included. It's being built in UE4.

Media:

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[9thCrux]

Seems interesting, I like the girl design she is cute. She seems very Asian but with Elf features.

But what about the story? What are the genre tags for the story?
What tropes are you gonna have in the game? Is some kind of harem game or the player can focus on a specific girl?

I hope is not gonna be another beat-them-up rape game with bestiality or yet another game with some cheesy NTR "story" trying to force sympathy towards some dumb and wimpy loser...

But we can just hope right? XD

 

[paperbag]

Seems interesting, I like the girl design she is cute. She seems very Asian but with Elf features.

But what about the story? What are the genre tags for the story?
What tropes are you gonna have in the game? Is some kind of harem game or the player can focus on a specific girl?

I hope is not gonna be another beat-them-up rape game with bestiality or yet another game with some cheesy NTR "story" trying to force sympathy towards some dumb and wimpy loser...

But we can just hope right? XD

Right now, the design of the relationships works like Persona, that means there's a main thread but each girl also has a social link which is their thread that runs alongside the main story. The game won't stop you from having a harem, and I want to include some scenes for players of both types - special scenes you only get if you play the harem, and special scenes you only get if you pursue one girl and she is your one true waifu.

Neither of those things in the second paragraph. Originally, I thought that's what players would want (rapey stuff), but as the design evolved, I thought characters you could grow attached to would be more engaging. I want the characters to be ones you really want to root for, since they're on a desperate struggle to reclaim earth from the aliens, a major city at a time. My bounds for the story of the game and characters (which is in the hands of my partner at the moment) is that nothing that happens should be a disservice to the characters in the game. That doesn't mean I don't think they should go through some difficult shit as the fate of humanity rests on their fight, but it does mean rape / beastality / anything degrading is a no-no.

Keep in mind though, that game development doesn't happen like traditional waterfall software development. I've mentioned earlier that the initial design changed from the beginning, so specifics of the story will change as development occurs for various reasons. The thing about doing nothing that is a disservice to the characters in the game is there to stay though.

That said, battle damage (clothing damage) is currently at 25% implementation, and I totally expect some girls to want to do some kinky magical girl sex stuff with the commander.

 

[r3ck5]

That said, battle damage (clothing damage) is currently at 25% implementation

Well, you got me with that single line. Can't wait to see this progress.

 

[paperbag]

Just wanted to give a quick update on this. The demo is nearly done- only a couple of items, then it's a final playtest before it goes public. Over the past 3 weeks, I've added the following gameplay systems I considered critical for demo001:

• sex minigame
• dialogue system (ADV visual novel style, but a heavy rain style is coming in the future)

A bunch of code had to be created for those two main systems, including:

• QTEs
• animation system for Hscenes and dialogue. Unreal's cinematics system is best used for cutscenes where there is no user input. There's input during the Hscenes in MA, so I had to build something to substitute the cinematics system for the Hscenes since I wanted input during them.
• updates to the skin shader for better fluids and blush blending support (clothes and hair coming later) sample here:
  
• a small ADV-style visual novel engine inside Unreal and a pipeline for writing dialogue. (The pipeline includes some templates in articy:draft and then a conversion script in ruby to convert the exported JSONs into unreal-friendly, importable data)

Those code fragments also means the rest of the game can and has already benefited from the added functionality. (conversations can now happen during combat, and combat can have QTEs, for example.)

In addition, for the above systems, a bunch of content was required, including but not limited to:

• a new non-action gameplay environment
• a male character
• all the associated UI art assets and code for the additional systems as well as the unskinned UI from the action game mode
• around 40 animations, for Hscenes and ADV.

On top of that, a bunch of balancing and gameplay tweaks has occurred, after a couple playtests. Thanks for your patience!

 

[paperbag]

trailer: patreon:

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demo is live! I'll get it posted in the games section soon.

EDIT: Thanks to Bloo for posting it in Games section!

 

[paperbag]

So ... we will never see rape, bestiality or anything like that, right? No matter how much the game and the development advanced, right?

I don't think this fits well into the dating sim part of this game, so no. I'm sorry if you enjoy those fetishes! I'll try to include some kinky magical girl consentual sex stuff down the line, though.

Also, I've been reading your feedback. Sex minigame will be easier in the next version, and the flying backwards during the backflip bug has been moved to a high priority item on my todo list!

 

[paperbag]

Battle damage and a rudimentary gallery mode just got implemented!

 

[MenmaYu]

Nice, I never knew you had an account here.

 

[Psylen]

Hmm sorry to pour cold water on you but, this is a thread that has been dead for 2 years already. Last post was Jan 13, 2018.

 

[Dever12]

Nice, I never knew you had an account here.

iam leving the game here (4) [Unreal Engine] - Mahou Arms [v.0.3.1146 Cracked] [Paperbag] | F95zone