Bonders

Design, Scripting, Level Building

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Bonders is a solo project that I created in 2018 in RPG Maker MV as a part of my portfolio for Sheridan’s Game Design program. The game is inspired by creature capture games such as Shin Megami Tensei and Pokemon, and revolves around a group of 4 women who have the power to “bond” to monsters found in the world.

Other than the “Bond” mechanic, there’s a few other things that makes Bonders unique. Bonders adopts a “partial random” encounter system used in games like Shin Megami Tensei III, where players are informed of how long they have until their next random encounter. Boss fights are inspired by “The Reaper” in Persona 3 – they are extremely powerful, roaming enemies that are not required for the final completion of the game. Instead, each dungeon in the game has a goal (such as rescuing a captured prince), and players will have to dodge the boss as they try to achieve it.

The game was borne simultaneously out of my love of creature capture RPG games, and also out of my feelings that the genre is underdeveloped. The game seeks to provide an experience similar to other creature capture games with the unique thematic twist that “bonding” provides. It was also in part inspired by my love of the Magical Girl genre of fiction, and my love of stories that follow heroic women.

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