A Rifts Video (Game) - 5 Minute Animated Short

[Seothen]

My tongue in cheek tribute to my favourite gaming world, Rifts.

You can watch the video on my YouTube page here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS0ZV2ZdkeY.

Tongue-in-cheekiness aside, really hoping one day for a PC game for Rifts. (obviously)

[slade the sniper]

I like Steve! LOL!

-STS

[HWalsh]

My tongue in cheek tribute to my favourite gaming world, Rifts.

You can watch the video on my YouTube page here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS0ZV2ZdkeY.

Tongue-in-cheekiness aside, really hoping one day for a PC game for Rifts. (obviously)

I used to be/am a game designer.

The biggest hurdle with a Rifts video game that I've seen is the sheer cost. Mostly I worked on small indie titles, but a decent, modern day, Rifts game easily sits in the 8 digit range. Way beyond anything I worked on.

You could cut corners by going the Shadowrun Returns route and probably drop it to six digits, but that would significantly alter the scope. There is also the issue with finding balance for the player base.

A Rifts video game wouldn't let you run around as a Godling or anything. You increase the design budget if you let the player make their character also. Then you need to pick a genre, turn-based strategy? Action rpg? FPS?

True story. I once did approach Palladium about this. Got a letter back saying what Palladium would need. Went to my boss and pitched it. Got deep into the design doc to prove to my boss it was viable until I just realized there was no way to afford it as an indie company.

I had a plan out for a turn-based strategy rpg (similar to Shadowrun Returns) where the Player got to (sort of) make a character. They could pick one of 3 OCCs (Cyber-Knight, Glitterboy, Juicer) and team up with NPC companions. It was based around a basic city-hub system.

So basically you'd be in a city (that was your hub) and you'd take quests until you progressed the story and moved onto them next hub.

The story started out with the player getting an intro (unique to each OCC) that ended with them getting a quest as a courier. They'd arrive in the first hub and learn the person they we're waiting for was delayed. They'd get to do some side missions until the person arrived.

They'd go to the meeting, find out it was a trap. They would then be forced to fight their way out and flee with the package. Thus move onto them next hub.

It all revolved around a macguffin that everyone wanted. An encrypted data disk that had some information on it that, if made public, could damage the CS. Only the problem is they believe that you know what's on it, thus they all want you captured and/or killed.

The plan was to never reveal what was on the disk. Just drop a bunch of hints about what it could be. I figured that allowed people to have their own head canon without messing with the lore.

It was just too big, in the end for the company I was with to green light and thus I couldn't get the assets to pitch to Palladium. Would have been a cool game though.

[Ixal]

There was a Rifts game for the NGage. It even got quite good reviews, but sadly the NGage tanked.

I remember that when the Rift MMO was first announced I really hoped that they meant Rifts...

I think that something like Pillars of Eternity/Wasteland 2/Numenera Torment would work for Rifts if they could find a competent development team who would put it on Kickstarter.

[Nightmartree]

A Rifts video game wouldn't let you run around as a Godling or anything .

Is there a design reason for this or are you just saying for balance reasons?

Cause i could totally see a godling showing up in a rifts game as a character, or villian at least

[Seothen]

I like Steve! LOL!

-STS

He saved the day.

[Seothen]

My tongue in cheek tribute to my favourite gaming world, Rifts.

You can watch the video on my YouTube page here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS0ZV2ZdkeY.

Tongue-in-cheekiness aside, really hoping one day for a PC game for Rifts. (obviously)

I used to be/am a game designer.

The biggest hurdle with a Rifts video game that I've seen is the sheer cost. Mostly I worked on small indie titles, but a decent, modern day, Rifts game easily sits in the 8 digit range. Way beyond anything I worked on.

You could cut corners by going the Shadowrun Returns route and probably drop it to six digits, but that would significantly alter the scope. There is also the issue with finding balance for the player base.

A Rifts video game wouldn't let you run around as a Godling or anything. You increase the design budget if you let the player make their character also. Then you need to pick a genre, turn-based strategy? Action rpg? FPS?

True story. I once did approach Palladium about this. Got a letter back saying what Palladium would need. Went to my boss and pitched it. Got deep into the design doc to prove to my boss it was viable until I just realized there was no way to afford it as an indie company.

I had a plan out for a turn-based strategy rpg (similar to Shadowrun Returns) where the Player got to (sort of) make a character. They could pick one of 3 OCCs (Cyber-Knight, Glitterboy, Juicer) and team up with NPC companions. It was based around a basic city-hub system.

So basically you'd be in a city (that was your hub) and you'd take quests until you progressed the story and moved onto them next hub.

The story started out with the player getting an intro (unique to each OCC) that ended with them getting a quest as a courier. They'd arrive in the first hub and learn the person they we're waiting for was delayed. They'd get to do some side missions until the person arrived.

They'd go to the meeting, find out it was a trap. They would then be forced to fight their way out and flee with the package. Thus move onto them next hub.

It all revolved around a macguffin that everyone wanted. An encrypted data disk that had some information on it that, if made public, could damage the CS. Only the problem is they believe that you know what's on it, thus they all want you captured and/or killed.

The plan was to never reveal what was on the disk. Just drop a bunch of hints about what it could be. I figured that allowed people to have their own head canon without messing with the lore.

It was just too big, in the end for the company I was with to green light and thus I couldn't get the assets to pitch to Palladium. Would have been a cool game though.

Very cool to hear your first-hand perspective and unfortunate (but understandable) how it ultimately comes down to economics.

[HWalsh]

A Rifts video game wouldn't let you run around as a Godling or anything .

Is there a design reason for this or are you just saying for balance reasons?

Cause i could totally see a godling showing up in a rifts game as a character, or villian at least

Balance mostly. Video games don't work so well as the, "I can be anything I want and forget balance" market. It could work as a villain or as an NPC, but as a main character? Not really. Overpowered, way too hard to properly implement. So many options. When you make a video game you want the player options to be somewhat balanced. You never want one option to be simply better than all of the rest.

How I was doing that was tweaking the FSM of enemies to have a priority system for how they reacted to what the enemy was targeting and it gave me a pretty big flow chart in the design doc. So, to give an example (because I still have some of this in my HD, and I am simplifying a bit) there was an enemy listed as, "Headhunter_Bounty_Hunter"

Their attack options were: "Laser Rifle" "Vibro Blade" "Body-Flip" "Special: Restrain"
Their defense options were: "Dodge" "Parry" "Entangle"

They had 5 attacks/Round

(Special: Restrain was an attack, when executed in melee stopped an enemy (who was within melee range) from performing movement unless they succeeded on a contested roll.)

The Glitterboy offensive execution was set as follows:

1. Close distance to melee
2. Engage restrain if possible
3. If target is restrained use vibro-blade

For defense the priority was something like:
If in melee range and target uses weapon "Boom Gun" use "Entangle."

The Headhunter had a high PP and was melee focused.

This was *not* the AI I set for vs the Cyber-Knight or Juicer.

Against the CK it prioritized ranged attacks from medium to long range.
Against the Juicer it prioritized ranged attacks from short to medium range.

I had to do this for every single enemy in the game and for the doc I only had about 25 enemies before I stopped. Each one had a behavior sheet. That was the only way to balance the three OCCs I chose to allow. Trying to throw something like a Godling in there would have been a freaking Nightmare.

[HWalsh]

And that was just one problem, specifically the Glitterboy caused me another headache.

The standard mechanic of RPGs is that you upgrade your weapons/armor as the game goes on. Not so with Rifts, at least with GBs. So one of the things I did was, in addition to prioritizing GBs as enemy's favored targets, was that they had to pay for repairs and ammo between missions, everyone did, but theirs tended to be more costly. So the balance there was they had a high constant upkeep that the other OCCs didn't necessarily have.

Throw a high MDC supernatural creature that heals naturally at a rapid rate and you just bypassed another lockout mechanic.

[Nightmartree]

.

Throw a high MDC supernatural creature that heals naturally at a rapid rate and you just bypassed another lockout mechanic.

Gear is still a big deal for most rifts classes, my thoughts on a Godling is that they lose the ability to utilize most gear, for starters they dont need it for seconds why should they want it?use psi or magic for rained attacks that imporve per lvl, and make them a living tank, but theyd start with mdc armor of pantheon and a pantheon weapon...and thats about all theyd get or want. The cool factor for them comes from the other powers they get.

Same if you do a dragon hatchling, they dont get equipment or even many of certain types of skills you often see in the other classes, but in return they heal fast, deal damage without a weapon, have minor psi and can learn magic (but would have to buy all of it unlike a mage)

[Axelmania]

Vid says "Gameplay from the classic Commodore 64 game, Rifts." but closest I could find is a 1985 game called Koronis Rift for the Commodore 64.

Is this a faux history?

Some should make a free Rifts Visual Novel... there's free software for making visual novels.

What are the chances of Palladium trying to sue someone who did that? I can understand them being upset if the person made any money but what if it was a free visual novel just meant to promote the game where nobody made any money?

There are all kinds of unofficial parody VNs out there (Mass Effect for example) on VNDB, would love to see/play Palladium-based VNs as well.

Much easier to design than a combat game.

Only thing of comparable ease would be something made via RPG Maker.

[HWalsh]

.

Throw a high MDC supernatural creature that heals naturally at a rapid rate and you just bypassed another lockout mechanic.

Gear is still a big deal for most rifts classes, my thoughts on a Godling is that they lose the ability to utilize most gear, for starters they dont need it for seconds why should they want it?use psi or magic for rained attacks that imporve per lvl, and make them a living tank, but theyd start with mdc armor of pantheon and a pantheon weapon...and thats about all theyd get or want. The cool factor for them comes from the other powers they get.

Same if you do a dragon hatchling, they dont get equipment or even many of certain types of skills you often see in the other classes, but in return they heal fast, deal damage without a weapon, have minor psi and can learn magic (but would have to buy all of it unlike a mage)

The problems come in with a Dragon in similar. Palladium characters really don't get massively stronger as they level (exception: Cyber-Knights) and mostly gain power by gear/spell purchases. So that is your lockout mechanic. Glitterboys are similar, their primary weapon is the boom gun and upgrading the armor itself isn't really a thing.

So you have a character that doesn't need gear to function, doesn't have an upkeep cost, and so there is no reason to earn credits.

With the GB I solved that with repairs and rearming. They need credits to keep what they have working. The Juicer and Cyber-Knight have this as much less of a problem.

The CK had Psychic Body field, for one, to help mitigate armor damage and repairs of non-chromium armor were cheaper. They used their credits to buy TW items, weapons, and armor as well as e-clip recharging and such. The Juicer bought new armor, weapons, equipment, and such as well. The GB dropped a lot to keep his/her armor going.

I was able to alter various areas too to present challenges. There was an area where the character had to leave their armor and weapons behind to attend a meeting. The meeting is attacked and the character had to fight/sneak their way out. The CK had their Psi-Sword and Cyber-Armor. The Juicer had their harness. The GB had nothing. This offered different paths and options depending on which OCC someone was.

[Nightmartree]

The problems come in with a Dragon in similar. Palladium characters really don't get massively stronger as they level (exception: Cyber-Knights) and mostly gain power by gear/spell purchases. So that is your lockout mechanic. Glitterboys are similar, their primary weapon is the boom gun and upgrading the armor itself isn't really a thing.

So you have a character that doesn't need gear to function, doesn't have an upkeep cost, and so there is no reason to earn credits.

With the GB I solved that with repairs and rearming. They need credits to keep what they have working. The Juicer and Cyber-Knight have this as much less of a problem.

The CK had Psychic Body field, for one, to help mitigate armor damage and repairs of non-chromium armor were cheaper. They used their credits to buy TW items, weapons, and armor as well as e-clip recharging and such. The Juicer bought new armor, weapons, equipment, and such as well. The GB dropped a lot to keep his/her armor going.

I was able to alter various areas too to present challenges. There was an area where the character had to leave their armor and weapons behind to attend a meeting. The meeting is attacked and the character had to fight/sneak their way out. The CK had their Psi-Sword and Cyber-Armor. The Juicer had their harness. The GB had nothing. This offered different paths and options depending on which OCC someone was.

Its true the godling has no gamer reason to earn credits (Aka no need for gear or cash to power deals) but they can trade that off with a lack of ability to use many things and items that other characters would rely on. For instance how would a robotic med kit heal a godling? they're mdc and any medkit that can repair them like a human would probably turn a human into bloody mush. So they'd need special healing (extra credits) or heal slower, and a godling may have a bonus when the meeting turns into an ambush, but wouldn't they suffer a penalty to actually doing a meeting?

note that i'm assuming a godling fresh from Valhalla or Olympus or so on, a place of magic and might, not modern deals and submachineguns. There is always a trade off that can be made, in this case a dragon and godling wouldn't need credits, but would have issues with personal interactions, medkits (which considering this is rifts...they're probably more like a chance to revive a dying character than actually healing now that I think about it), perhaps additional side quests relating to what they are.

now that I've said all that, maybe they won't work for your game, but I wouldn't say its inherently impossible to balance them for a game. Though I doubt any game that's balanced for players to run around in would be entirely rifts canon.

[dreicunan]

A game with a party dynamic would give almost any player a reason to earn credits if the party is set up so that some members need the credits to be upgraded.

A Rifts setting game would also not necessarily also need to be a Rifts system game (and divorcing it from the Rifts system would likely make game design much easier, especially in the realm of progression).

[HWalsh]

A game with a party dynamic would give almost any player a reason to earn credits if the party is set up so that some members need the credits to be upgraded.

A Rifts setting game would also not necessarily also need to be a Rifts system game (and divorcing it from the Rifts system would likely make game design much easier, especially in the realm of progression).

That's a... Personal... Thing.

I'm a strong believer that it is rude and disrespectful to deviate from source material when transferring a third party property to a new medium unless absolutely necessary. It may be harder to do it right, but you're taking someone else's baby, their pride and joy, blood sweat and tears. To take something someone else put that much into and basically say, "I can do this better." To me, just isn't right.

I'd rather work harder and do it right than take the cheap, quick, and easy route.

Heh probably why I never rose higher than I did. I care too much lol.

[Alrik Vas]

I'd be sad if the maker of that video were discouraged from making more.

[dreicunan]

A game with a party dynamic would give almost any player a reason to earn credits if the party is set up so that some members need the credits to be upgraded.

A Rifts setting game would also not necessarily also need to be a Rifts system game (and divorcing it from the Rifts system would likely make game design much easier, especially in the realm of progression).

That's a... Personal... Thing.

I'm a strong believer that it is rude and disrespectful to deviate from source material when transferring a third party property to a new medium unless absolutely necessary. It may be harder to do it right, but you're taking someone else's baby, their pride and joy, blood sweat and tears. To take something someone else put that much into and basically say, "I can do this better." To me, just isn't right.

I'd rather work harder and do it right than take the cheap, quick, and easy route.

Heh probably why I never rose higher than I did. I care too much lol.

When it comes to the Rifts (Palladium) System, pretty much everyone on this board changes the "source material" when they aren't even transferring it to another medium. If you use house rules to play it in its original medium, I would find your position even stranger. In the case of Rifts specifically, given that the creator of the system HOUSERULES HIS OWN SYSTEM to be different than published when he runs it, and that he ENCOURAGES PEOPLE TO CHANGE THINGS UP if they don't like them, I'd say that your position is just plain moot, because it would be at odds with numerous published stances for Kevin S to be offended by a game developer deciding to make changes to the system when translating the setting to a different medium. It would also be at odds with his recent behavior; he was clearly on board with letting other people use his setting in the original medium with someone else's rule set (Savage Rifts).

[Colonel_Tetsuya]

I think of i were to pitch a Rifts game, it would be to the guys who make the Just Cause series.

Limit the player class choices for balance reasons, but basically just update Just Cause 3’s gameplay to Sci-fantasy instead of realistic(ish).

Set it during the Siege, and have the area be the war front. JC3 had a fairly huge world, but all of those gameplay elements would work - the different factions still acting against one another in the background, locations changing ownership, etc.

Would be a lot of fun. And that dev could nail the Rifts aesthetic pretty well, i think.