Not much to say, so I won't bother with the front paging nonsense, as this is largely for anyone who's weird enough to wonder if I'm still alive. Or if the RPG thinger is, in any case.
i worked out a Phantom-Brave style "keep the pointer in the ellipse" deal for the battle system, and made some action icons so that if I ever feel like sinking a few minutes into it at random again I can get the bare bones of battle started (finally). It's a bit pointless without anywhere to test it, so expect some of the ugliest early version art ever seen on the internet because if I want to make crap work *I just want to make crap work,* and have determined I can make it pretty later.Also there's a new WIP song on my Newgrounds, which I can't be bothered to link to because it's a WIP and I'm lazy to boot.For non-RPG stuff: finalizing some stuff for the Redux print version and working on Matt Matter slowly but surely for all you non-furries out there.I believe that is all. Hopefully soon I'll have something a smidgen more substancial. Meanwhile, go play DeathSpank, it's awesome.
You're never going to make a character that doesn't fall into some archetype or trope at least partially, Kilin. What I do is make a character who follows an archetype or trope to a point, but then expand on or change certain aspects in an unusual way, to make a character that is familiar yet interesting.
That's like trying to make a story without any tropes.
What I'm saying is try not to make them fall entirely into the archetype. With the number of archetypes out there, of course your character can be categorized into one of those, but that's not what I'm trying to disprove.
@Erik: THE LEGENDARY TROPELESS TALE?
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheTropelessTaleI think a character who's just cast permanently into a verbatim archetype isn't so much a foul epidemic as it is an outright lack of creativity and sign you shouldn't be writing. :/ I wasn't aware it was even a problem, but I tend to shy away from a lot of things that don't strike me as potentially amazing.
I guess RPGs do kinda drown in the same cast on repeat, though, don't they? :/Look at JRPG Tropes. I'd like to see some more interesting, lovable characters in RPGs though. Few games can pull it off.
Oh, and tropes aren't necessarily a bad thing, now that you bring that up.Few games can pull off not sucking in the first place, for that matter.
Especially indie games, such as the very kind WE MAKE.
I kinda hope my characters pull it off better than most, as I'm banking on them more than the actual plot of things. :x Then again, I tend to sway that direction in general…
Heh, that's my problem too. I spend way more time with the characters than the plot. Though I should probably fix that, take books like Harry Potter. To be honest, the plot was very generic, but the characters were why I read the book. That goes for a lot of other books, actually.