Some RPG Game Ideas

I have been wanting to put my Flash and ActionScript knowledge to better use, so I have decided to build a role-playing game, in the spirit of the GBA games I grew up with — Pokémon, Zelda, Final Fantasy and the like.

The engine is mostly in place and I even have a playable character ready. What I am still figuring out is the story and the world. I have two concepts in mind so far, and I would love to hear what people think of them. If an idea of yours makes it in, you will of course get the credit.

A young man visits a library and stumbles upon an old, worn-out book. In it, he reads about an event from a million years ago, and decides to set out on an expedition. (There is a lot of world-building and detail still to fill in here.)

He goes in search of a katana that, according to the book, was sealed away in a chest. The moment he draws it, the blade glows and a vivid aura pours out and enters his body — the soul of an evil wizard, exactly as the old scriptures warned. He fights to resist it, a constant tug of war between his own will and the wizard's.

But drawing the katana does more than that. The surrounding region begins to collapse, because removing the blade breaks a long-held balance and brings a curse down on him and on all of humanity.

The seventh soul now inside him craves the power of the first six. Those souls had been sealed in six chambers across the world, but the black katana's power releases them, and each takes hold of its chamber's guardian. Every guardian embodies an element — fire, water, lightning, ice, earth, dark, and so on. The protagonist's goal is to claim all six powers. But once he does, the seventh soul splits away from him, somehow without the six elements in its grasp, and the final battle begins.

That is just the gist of it; the full story runs much longer. I am very open to ideas here.

I have also been mocking up the interface for this one. Here is the login screen I put together in Photoshop CS3:

I might rename the game to "The Lost Debris", though I have not decided yet.

This one is lighter in tone. It is set in a world made entirely of stationery, where everything is alive. I really like the concept, though I am finding the sprite work for the characters to be a challenge.

The main character is Cyril, a pencil, who lives with his family — mama, papa and granny pencil — in a town called Penciltown. He has a circle of friends too, like Sharpy the sharpener, Rubby the rubber and Scaley the scale.

My favourite part is the level-up system. Instead of ordinary numbered levels, the protagonist progresses through pencil grades, starting at 7H and working up to 7B, the darkest shade. The final tiers are CP (charcoal pencil) and PP (permanent pencil, where nothing can be erased). It is a small, silly idea, but I think it fits the world nicely.

I have not worked out the monsters or bosses yet, so suggestions there would be especially helpful.

There is plenty more to flesh out, but that is the state of things for now. If you have thoughts on either idea — or an entirely different one — I would love to hear it in the comments.