CheesiMoon's Dev Talks #3: Hallegen: Starset Glaze's Inspirations

Welcome back to Dev Talks! We are now on a new site, one dedicated for stuff like this! Once again, Dev Talks will be our time to talk about my thoughts on the current game being developed and anything else that's potentially relevant.

Inspirations are everywhere. We are constantly surrounded by the past and the present, and works of arts like games and film are no exception. That being said, what has Hallegen: Starset Glaze been inspired by? This may be obvious to fans of Hallegen's inspirations, but I figured I might as well share for those curious. These are only gonna be the major inspirations, as there are too many minor inspirations to count, but I would love to compile a list of the minor inspirations one day. Anyways...

First up, Kirby! Kirby, Kirby, Kirby, that's the name everyone knows! The fantastical setting, the gameplay style, the character designs, all inspired by Kirby. For those who may not know, I am a huge fan of Kirby, because of how much joy and fun they bring. I personally love the whimsy and wonder these games tend to have, not only in its art style and vibe, but even through its wonderful combat system. All of it makes me feel a ton of joy, and it is such an earnest series of games. I also love how Kirby games seek to make a fun game that's accessible to newcomers, while having depth for those who are more experienced with games. While this game will be somewhat harder than your average Kirby game, I still aim to make a fun game that gets new players to attempt to speed run this game, but really encourage those to look further into the systems of Hallegen, in order to find something truly fun and fulfilling to master. 

Next up, Super Smash Brothers! As Smash Bros. was very much built on Kirby gameplay, this is here for similar reasons to Kirby. But more specifically, I'm talking about Super Smash Bros. Melee, as that was my childhood Smash game, but also I grew extremely enamored with its competitive gameplay. Its freeform mobility, aggressive combo and defensive game, and its roster, despite the obvious power gap between the best and worst characters. Hallegen's control scheme and additional techniques is 90% from this game, stuff like Directional Influence, platform movement, hit mechanics, and a lot more. Yet, Hallegen is more platformer than fighter, so some mechanics will not be transferred over from this game.

Megaman Zero was a bigger influence in the earlier stages of Hallegen, but since then has taken a back seat. Still, the dash and wall jump mechanics that form the universal movement of each character was thanks to this game. Dashing and wall jumping is just so intrinsically enjoyable; these 2 mechanics help the game feel "sandbox-y," where each level feels like a playground for your skills to truly be set free. 

Super Mario 64 really set the ground for what 3D games could achieve, and a big part of its appeal was Mario's freeform movement within open levels. Long jumps, side somersaults, triple jumps, and dives were all terrific additions to his movement. While Hallegen is a 2D game, the movement potential of this game has inspired both me and this game. Stuff like star jumps are due to the desire of having more universal character movement options to open up the game with.

Finally, Keroro Gunso/Sgt. Frog. This might be a weird one to end off the list of major inspirations, but I really love the general aesthetic of this manga/anime. The character designs, while homogenous in body shape, still speak out to me due to their cute proportions and hats, which is a big reason why Hallegen characters look the way they look. This anime also features a lot of cool aliens from mysterious planets, which solidified my love for the "adventures in space" genre. A whole universe of aliens and foreign concepts, that kinda mystery and wonder gets the brain cogs spinning, which is a similar sensation I want to imbue Hallegen with. Traveling between different planets and locales would be really cool to cover in the future now that I think about it...

That will be all for today, thank you very much for reading through to the end! It's cool to have this series of blogs outside of traditional social media sites, as I have a lot more freedom on how many words I can use, alongside it being accessible to those who aren't on the game's specific social media sites, so if for whatever reason you want to read through all of my Dev Talks, through the span of (in the future) multiple games, they will all be nicely organized here! In the future, I want to talk about the ingredients and themes that go into the making of Hallegen: Starset Glaze as this is kinda of a related topic, but we shall see. 

Have a fantastic day everyone!

-CheesiMoon