So, most of my game design experience is from Stencyl, which uses a sort of pseudocode block language. Which was fine for most of the games that I had been working on, but a while ago I started on a pretty large project which I do not want to abandon, but may not be able to complete on the Stencyl Platform due to a lack of support for features that I need to make constant use of.
The game it’s self is a turn based RPG, with the main story playing out like a visual novel; with lots of dialogue options and branching paths that a single conversation can take.
As I have it so far, there are two main sections of the game; one which you navigate like a Visual Novel, clicking arrows to go to other rooms, and clicking on character icons to start conversations with other characters. During the other part, you explore a dungeon in a top down style maze, where items, stairs, or other events are hidden until you stumble upon them.
During the second part, you also have random encounters that pop up, which play out similarly to a time-action style turn based system; with it pausing during the player’s turn while they select a spell to cast. There is a heavy emphasis on the use of magic, and especially careful use of status ailments and buffs.
I am just not spouting off about the great game I wish I could make, though; All of what I have described functions to an extent in the Stencyl version, for the most part, but during bug testing with friends I have found that for some testers, variables will start off at the wrong values, or change spontaneously As well, dialogue has no support within Stencyl and has to be written line by line, with no special effects, and with word wrapping done manually. This makes it difficult to give dialogue; something that you will spend 3/4ths of the game looking at, a really polished look.
Additionally, the game is getting to be too large for the Flash Format to really handle; already at 17 Megabytes when I’m less than a tenth of the way through making all the data heavy content that will appear in the game. (I got the core mechanics down first, but the filesize of the game will skyrocket as I add new monsters, characters, and animations beyond the first couple dungeon floors and starting cast) when it’s recommended for flash games not to exceed 10 Megabytes according to what I’ve read.
So now, I’m considering if I should switch to Unity to finish the game with, but I don’t want to take the risk of the game dropping off into development hell while I learn an entirely different language to program in. So, before making the switch, I was wondering if it would be feasible to quickly get back to programming something like what I have described in Unity, and if so, what tutorials would be best for making games centered around RPG elements and complex dialogue trees within Unity’s systems.