What would a "Fire Emblem Maker" be like?

[Alastor15243]

So ever since Wargroove came out with not just a map editor, but a campaign editor, I've been thinking about how cool it would be if there were a Mario Maker for Fire Emblem. A game that let you build your own full Fire Emblem game out of customizable assets the game provides. I, personally, would be more excited for this than I think I've ever been for an actual real Fire Emblem game, I love the concept so much. But it's certainly a tall order to imagine a realistic way such an undertaking could be done in a satisfying way.

Personally I think the way to go would be to stick with a more retro 2D look, with graphics just a little bit beyond the GBA/SNES era of Fire Emblem. This would not only make the map editor a lot simpler and easier to make look good if they don't have to worry about making 3D tiles, but it would also probably help the budget in general and help the player more readily accept the lack of voice acting, since that would be pretty much impossible.

I figure character creation would be accomplished with a much more in-depth and robust version of the avatar maker, where you have way more build options and also can change the outfit their portraits are wearing to better match their sprites.

Beyond that, I imagine a wide selection of classes and skills, but with no specific skills tied to any specific class, so that you can have a lot more freedom making your own specific skill tree feel unique. Failing that, however, they could just make their own core gameplay, making all the classes and the like themselves and then just giving the player to make their own story and maps around them, but that obviously runs the risk of them doing something unpopular or stifling with the class balance itself of course. More importantly, it would be far easier to make fully customizable weapons. That's just an issue of taking one of a bunch of weapon sprites and then just slapping some stats and maybe a special effect on it. That could easily be fully customizable.

Honestly though, the biggest concern I have with this is that framing it primarily around campaigns might be... okay totally would be, intimidating to all but the most hardcore of fans, while most of us would really just want to play other people's custom content rather than make whole campaigns ourselves. So there would have to be either:

1: A wealth of worthwhile pre-made content the player can enjoy while they wait for the truly dedicated to make the custom content,

2: A greater emphasis placed on smaller projects. Single maps or a handful of maps, things that anyone can make reasonably easily and then share around. Stuff that wouldn't take much longer than making a Mario Maker level.

Honestly, the more I think about this, the more excited I get, but the more it feels like a totally impossible pipe dream. Does anyone think it could be realistically done? How would you go about it?

Edited September 26, 2019 by Alastor15243

[Etrurian emperor]

I think giving you several styles like with Mario Maker would be very interesting but if such a thing were to be done I suspect that some styles won't be included. It likely will be the GBA style, the 3ds style and the SNES style. The Three Houses and Tellius models would likely be too advanced to release as tools that everyone can play around with. 

[Mukmuk]

Yeah, Fire Emblem maker would be awesome. Hell, fans can come together and create entire games, not just levels. That would be cool. The Last Promise was decent, but with Fire Emblem Maker there's so much more potential. 

[GlitchWarrior]

Just imagining it now. I can see GBA style, Awakening style, and DS styles all working quite nicely. As for a SNES style, whether to base it off of Judgral or Archanea would purely be a dev thing, but I can see the FE4 style working out.

 

Naturally, the SNES style (based on FE4) would put a big emphasis on larger maps, and the ability to traverse them as quickly as possible. As such, mounted units would be very much key. However, it would be entirely possible to make a standard FE campaign in it using the footsoldier classes. Mechanically, it would play a little dated, as MAG acts as RES in Judgral. I think. That might just be FE5. And the Holy Blood system could just give anyone PRF weapons.

The GBA style would be my preferred style, I imagine, but its campaigns could feature a branching campaign trigger. All of the GBA games have certain maps with multiple variants, and in the case of FE6 and FE8, even seperate storylines (Sacae/Ilia, Jehanna/Grado). In addition, it would be the one with stuff like affinities, without a split between STR and MAG, and the one with support that can happen on the battlefield. The last unique thing to this one would be specific promotion items, but the Master Seal would indeed be included as well.

The DS style would put an emphasis on gameplay and combat. It would likely be the most straightforward style. Makes sense, as Archanea is straightforward. Reclassing in between battles would certainly be permitted, though. It would allow players to create a large roster.

The Awakening style would put an aesthetic emphasis, a focus on story and and design. It would look nice, even if it were slightly tough to play. There would be a world map with supports between battle, and players could set two Second Seal classes for each unit.

The biggest issue I see for younger fans is writing cutscenes. But that wouldn't even be necessary. Players could use a "default" plot for individual maps or campaigns, or write their own, deeper stories.

[NinjaMonkey]

The reason Super Mario Maker is so popular is due to Mario levels being so easy to make, something that wouldn't apply to Fire Emblem.

[Gregster101]

A Fire Emblem Maker would be cool, but it probably would be too ambitious

[Arachnofiend]

A Fire Emblem Maker would be a map-making tool and nothing else, I'd think. Likely an add on to an existing game where you can create "paralogues" that people can put their save file characters into. Being able to do all the work necessary for a complete game would be way too ambitious.

[Alastor15243]

27 minutes ago, Arachnofiend said:

A Fire Emblem Maker would be a map-making tool and nothing else, I'd think. Likely an add on to an existing game where you can create "paralogues" that people can put their save file characters into. Being able to do all the work necessary for a complete game would be way too ambitious.

That is an interesting concept actually. Maybe customizable endgame content maps, assuming you've got an endgame team?

[Arachnofiend]

That's what I was thinking, yeah. It's possible that you could make maps with level brackets and the game would adjust the power of your characters to fit it (so like you can say this map is intended to be used by ~level 5 parties and everyone would be leveled down to match).

[Von Ithipathachai]

C'mon, guys.  Don't you know SRPG Studio is a thing?

Probably the closest you're ever going to get to a proper Fire Emblem Maker.

[Garlyle]

Making a tool and an engine would be fun thing to do, one time I actually tried that using some libraries.

Now it'd take some consideration, should it create the game for pc platforms, web browsers, or mobiles?

Also it requires some resources, like audio: music, sound effects, etc. or graphics like: tilesets for maps, portraits and chraracter sprites & animations. I'm not good in drawing or making audio, but programming can be fun. As you already guessed, I prefer 2D games over 3D.

I'd imagine it somewhat like RPG Maker. It can have a database of heroes, classes, items and skills, while it also has it's internal map editor and some form of event editor.

[dragonlordsd]

SRPG studio is amazing, and it functionally is a Fire Emblem maker. I've been really impressed by its tool set.

[GlitchWarrior]

Well, it IS scary expensive though...

[Von Ithipathachai]

On 9/27/2019 at 11:57 AM, GlitchGabe said:

Well, it IS scary expensive though...

If you're looking to make significant deviations from the GBA formula, such as adding Daggers or Gauntlets, giant FE4-size maps, or having a Tellius-style Base, then it is absolutely worth the $60.  It can do all of those with varying amounts of work needed.

Are things for giving hacks a Str/Mag split or neutral factions publicly available yet?  SRPG Studio can do both of those too.  The former is what it uses by default, and a custom plugin is available for the latter.

Edited September 29, 2019 by Von Ithipathachai

[Alastor15243]

On 9/27/2019 at 12:50 PM, Von Ithipathachai said:

If you're looking to make significant deviations from the GBA formula, such as adding Daggers or Gauntlets, giant FE4-size maps, or having a Tellius-style Base, then it is absolutely worth the $60.  It can do all of those with varying amounts of work needed.

Are things for giving hacks neutral factions or a Str/Mag split publicly available yet?  SRPG Studio can do both of those too.  The former is what it uses by default, and a custom plugin is available for the latter.

Jesus Christ, I've been looking at it and it's so much like Fire Emblem that I'm amazed there wasn't a lawsuit.

[Von Ithipathachai]

6 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Jesus Christ, I've been looking at it and it's so much like Fire Emblem that I'm amazed there wasn't a lawsuit.

SRPG Studio is not limited solely to Fire Emblem clones, though it is tailor made for those.  There has also been interest from the Super Robot Wars community in the software.  I think I've seen at least one project on the /r/SRPGStudio Discord server trying to replicate its gameplay.

[Arachnofiend]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Jesus Christ, I've been looking at it and it's so much like Fire Emblem that I'm amazed there wasn't a lawsuit.

Can't copyright game mechanics, to my understanding. Would be a pretty horrific rabbit hole if you could (imagine if someone could trademark the concept of dodge rolling).