From here on, we'll be providing you with regular development updates for BREAK ARTS II.
This time we're going to talk about BREAK ARTS II's customization system.
◆ The path of development
Originally, customization involved assembling a robot from 5 interchangeable parts: body, legs, back, left arm and right arm.
(Basically like the Armored Core series.)
But for BREAK ARTS II on PC, we came to a wall, in the way of development, that had to be broken through.
Please take a look at this image.
This is a comparison of a robot from the old and new BREAK ARTS.
This is the level of quality we wanted to achieve if we were going to make a new game for PC. If it was only a minor improvement over the original, the visual impact would not be strong enough.
And this is where we hit a wall in the way of development: the first BREAK ARTS has 23 different robots. Even if we were to cut that down to 20, to achieve the level of quality we want for a single robot takes 1-2 months...
That would mean 2 years just to have all the robots in the game; add the weapons and system on top of that and the game would unlikely be finished even after 3 years.
Well, that was a long introduction, but that is what it will take to break down that wall, while providing a large amount of freedom in customization.
◆ Customization: the basics
Please take a look at this image.
It shows the basic framework of a customizable robot.
The robot has 38 connectors on its body, to which modules (parts) can be attached, in what I call "Module-type Customization"
There are 2 types of connectors: large (Connectors) and small (S Connectors).
(In the image, they are the circular green areas).
Each module shows you whether it fits to a Connector or an S Connector.
There's no advantage to having many Connectors vs having many S Connectors.
It only affects how the robot will end up looking.
Next time, we'll go into more detail about the types of modules available!