SSGX's BYOND website

So today I got the urge to make another DBZ game... DBTC is a style of game that doesn't appeal to the masses (turn-based, singleplayer-focused, not flashy, etc.), and I decided I'd like to make a second DBZ game that follows the more popular mold...

It won't happen for quite some time (if ever), because I've got a nice list of projects and jobs ahead of it (including actually upgrading DBTC itself at some point; I wouldn't abandon my baby for this project), but I'm putting it at the end of my List...

The trouble is, I don't want to invest a lot of time into another huge project (which this would quickly become), I don't want to re-use DBTC resources (or even mimic their style, which I'm not sure I can get away from), and I don't want to even try to compete with some of the truly original and amazing DBZ games out there (both released and in development)

So...

I want to become a ripper...lol

I want to grab up some popular source (or maybe as many of them as I can find) and hammer them into a decent game... Sort of show the rippers how to really do it...lol

How would I go about this? Well, a lot of my focus tends towards the artistic/aesthetic side, so a major part of the work would be graphical... Every icon (ripped or otherwise) would have to be edited into a coherent style (I'd dump the most glaring offenders... no icons would remain that were taken from commercial games, and I'd try to weed out any that aren't now more or less in BYOND's "public domain") Too many DBZ games around here are a jumbled, mismatched, hodge-podge of icons from wildly varying sources and styles (and they look like garbage because of it) I'd pick one style that I like the best (and/or can emulate the best) out of the lot and dump or edit everything else to match it...

Along with visuals would come mapping... I see too many games (not just DBZ games, mind you) with terrible mapping jobs... Just plopping turfs down to make stuff that looks like buildings, or having huge expanses of nothing but empty water or grass for the sake of making the map look big, or having layouts that don't make sense, or maps that don't even resemble the places they're supposed to represent are all huge sins in my eyes... I'd have to rectify these common issues in my rip...

And of course, the programming... This one will be tough, but I think I'm up to the challenge... Aside from cleaning it up to my current standards of simplification, universalization, organization, etc., I'd have to gut most of it and rebuild from the scrap...lol But I'd try to retain all of the various commonplace elements that DBZ players on BYOND come to expect...

Of course, for much of the ubiquitous (and ultimately pointless) systems (like "Meditate" or P-bags) I'd try to find some way to make them actually worthwhile and entertaining... Perhaps a great undertaking in itself, but to stay true to the spirit of the project and its roots, I wouldn't want to just tear them all out...

So yeah, someday, I'll become a ripper (unless the "Warning of the Day" hits me because of this post)

Will everyone still love me? lol

Of course, I wouldn't try to pass the game off as original (kind of hard, since it'll likely still scream "rip", plus, y'know, there's now this blog post), and it and/or its hub entry would be very clear about its origins (maybe even with a little sermon about the evils of ripping, unless that might seem too hypocritical)