Path to the Showdown Part 2: Why Magical Girls?

So, welcome back! This blogging thing won't get easy quick, sadly, but! I'm trying. The thing right now is 'why magical girls? Why THAT for your game's core identity?'

And honestly? Because they're cool. That's it. I got started on the magical girl train years ago, around 2016 when I ran across online tabletop rpg game that was about magical girls. The name of it is lost to time, but I thought the idea was absolutely fascinating even though I'd had little exposure to magical girls outside of Sailor Moon.

This concept didn't start like this, however. It took several years to decide to make it a game. Initially, it took form as a fellow online tabletop RPG. It proved popular enough in a small circle, and I'd always been into game design and the game industry. So I looked into something more solid. Initial forays had the thinking it could be an open-world game, and so some basics setups were developed in Unreal.

These were about as far as it got.

Something where you'd play a primary character or three and go on player-chosen missions. Even from the start, the 'three-at-a-time' element was always there in one way or another. Eventually, however, the idea shifted to a multiplayer game, mostly out of the desire to see multiple characters playable in all their stylish glory. A large part of the tabletop was the character variety, and I wanted that borne out in gameplay as well. However, the other element to be important was TEAMWORK, much, again, like how the live game had been working. My history with games had me quickly realize that if the game were to be a typical deathmatch focused game, people would be unlikely to work together, instead focusing on kills and personal success at the cost of team success.

At that point, the concept seemed sound. After some initial feedback and gauging if there was indeed an audience for such a thing, which it was determined there was, it was decided to move full on to getting a proper team together.