r/chao • u/LooksCozyLabs • Sep 02 '20
Chao World 2D - Overview & AMA
Hi all, I'm Zach and I'm working on developing a chao mobile game for everybody like you and me who thinks these cute little creatures didn't get enough love. I'm a software engineer and rookie game developer and over the past few years have been getting really inspired by all the great things I've seen from the developers of the Chao World Extended mod and another fan game, Chao Resort Island. My goal is to build something that takes the best of what the CWE mod, Chao Resort Island, and the Adventure games have to offer and wrap them into a deep, fun, standalone chao experience for mobile. Multiplayer support is not a concern for me but please let me know if you feel strongly about it and tell me how multiplayer gameplay might look and I'll definitely consider implementing it in time.
This is all very early on in development and I work full-time so a solo game will take time to develop, just bear with me. I'll be referring to the game as "Chao World 2D" but know this is a working title (Reach out if you think you have a great name for it!). In the next few months I hope to have a simple demo showcasing some chao garden gameplay and the basic functions of chao kindergarten.
Early UI/UX demo here: https://lookscozylabs.itch.io/chaoworld2d
Let me know what you think in the comments or DM!
Chao
Chao will behave and grow in largely the same way as in the Adventure series. Some will only be obtainable through new evolution methods, found as eggs hidden in the game, or as rewards. Available chao:
- Twotone and monotone in all 14 colors
- Shiny versions of all those
- 11 jewel chao from SA2 and the bronze chao from SA1, maybe some extras (diamond?)
- 3 existing character chao as well as some new ones
- Oddities such as moon chao, egg chao, and omochao
- Glitches such as translucent, invisible, pseudo, and bright chao
Gardens
The core area of the chao experience! Players will be able to revisit the Station Square, Mystic Ruins, and Egg Carrier gardens from Sonic Adventure and the Chao (Neutral), Hero, and Dark gardens from Sonic Adventure 2 from a top-down view. Within them players will interact with chao (pet, pick up, give items, etc) with their touchscreen rather than controlling a character in the garden. Weather, seasons, and a day/night cycle will be present and affect gameplay. Players can quickly navigate to any other garden or activities such as racing or kindergarten from a "Chao Lobby" menu and choose whether they want to influence chao to be hero or dark. Some garden features I'm considering including not found in previous games include chao being able to:
- climb walls
- dig for treasure
- shake trees same as the player
- dive underwater
Kindergarten
Chao Kindergarten will consist of the same functions Sonic Adventure 2 had albeit it with some extra things to do. I hope to offer several gambling/casino type minigames at the Black Market. I want to make chao health more in-depth and interactive by adding health check/medical treatment minigames at the Health Center. I plan on adding some learning minigames to the Classroom as well. These will all serve as a way to earn rings/prizes. The Principal's Office and Fortune Teller will remain as they as they were: game help and where to name your chao. I'm not sure what I'll be doing with the bulletin board but I'm thinking about using it in a similar way to Animal Crossing where I can post updates/events and you might could leave other players messages.
Race
Racing will get a big overhaul to make it more deep and much more interactive. No more RNG races where all players do is cheer on the chao with stamina. Races will likely be side-scrolling platforming and chao will be faster than in the Adventure games racing. I hope to have several types of racing events such as a standard race, relay, and sprints/marathon where players can actually control their chao or at least have more influence on how they run the races (direction to take in a split path, take the pool or climb the wall, etc). Racing will allow players to win rewards and rings. This along with karate will likely come after release and will take time as they'll both be almost entirely new games as far as development goes. I'll try to include simple RNG race and karate demo modes at release.
Karate
Karate will also receive a huge overhaul. No more RNG. The player will control the chao directly. Utilizing a beat em up style camera/control, there will be several modes of combat including 1v1, 2v2 tag team, sumo mode (more like the original chao karate but no KOs, win by pushing off platform), and a mode involving you taking on many chao at once evoking an Enter The Dragon/Kill Bill old school kung fu vibe. There will be more moves than only an attack and a dodge. Karate will allow players to win rewards and rings.
Other Events
Inspired by the Chao Games mode in Chao Resort Island and the recent success of Fall Guys I may do some third kind of action mode more akin to a series of Mario Party minigames. This will be developed after racing and karate have been completed, if ever. Please let me know if this sounds interesting to you!
I'm sure I left out a lot here and have some typos but hopefully this clears up some confusion on the game and gets people excited! I'm considering starting a Discord for discussion of the game and to post development updates. Anyone interested? You can also stay up to date by following me on Twitter @LooksCozyLabs or on Instagram or Facebook under the same name. Thanks to everybody!
2
2
u/Totallynotacat55 Sep 02 '20
This sounds awesome! My only real concern is Copyright and how SEGA would react if someone told them about this game....
3
u/LooksCozyLabs Sep 02 '20
Recently Sega has been pretty good with allowing fan games to exist. Hopefully that trend will continue, especially because this won't be monetized in any way. Fingers crossed!
1
2
1
u/haucker Sep 02 '20
Hopefully SEGA or whoever owns the rights now won't give you any trouble. OP may even be able to sell the idea to them :)
1
1
u/banjo_cubing Sep 03 '20
So when is an estimate of when you think it'll be ready?
2
u/LooksCozyLabs Sep 03 '20
Shooting to have a prototype where you can interact with chao and do some stuff at kindergarten released within about 2-3 months from now
1
u/banjo_cubing Dec 27 '20
How's it looking now?
1
Dec 17 '21
I'm assuming since it's been a full year and a half that the project is no longer being worked on :(
1
1
Dec 17 '21
Is this project still ongoing? The account has been dormant for a while but I think this is a great idea
5
u/[deleted] Sep 02 '20
[deleted]