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MML3 Bonne Mecha Proposal Event
On 2010/11/09 the second Devroom event was announced, in which participants had to come up with design proposals for a new Bonne mecha. The developers shared the minutes of their meeting on the subject, to give people a general idea of the kind of robot and battle they were looking for.
After the entry period closed, members of the Japanese and North American Devrooms got to vote on their respective entries. Japan used a system that let voters repeatedly choose their favorite between two randomly selected entries. NA voters rated individual entries with a 1-5 star system. After cheaters were dealt with, each Devroom ended up with five top choices, giving the developers ten finalists from which to choose.
Incidentally, the Seeteufel created by Dashe and a team of Legends Station members, was awarded honorable mention as the very close runner up by Director Eguchi, but in the end the winner announced on 2010/12/13 was CAP Kobun's Donner Wels from the Japanese side. Planning Director Ozaki summed it up as follows, "Ultimately, it came down to expandability of concept this time. The combination of water, electricity, tremors, and a catfish with Director Eguchi's own vision seemed to have the most potential!!"
Battle Situation
Player reaches their destination deep inside a ruin. Just when their senses, made keen from their experience as a lifelong digger, tells them, "This ruin is dangerous," a Bonne Mecha bursts through the ceiling.
***Rough sketch by Director Eguchi
Apparently this is the location of some amazing treasure. That is what the player is after. That is until hearing about how dangerous the ruin is. Just when the player is about to pull back, the Bonne Family appears and attacks the player, who stands between them and the treasure.
Player reaches their destination deep inside a ruin. Just when their senses, made keen from their experience as a lifelong digger, tells them, "This ruin is dangerous," a Bonne Mecha bursts through the ceiling.
***Rough sketch by Director Eguchi
Apparently this is the location of some amazing treasure. That is what the player is after. That is until hearing about how dangerous the ruin is. Just when the player is about to pull back, the Bonne Family appears and attacks the player, who stands between them and the treasure.
Discussion Between Director Eguchi and Assistant Director Ishihara
Eguchi: This is kinda how I imagine the ruin for this stage will look like.
***Diagram of the ruin viewed from above.
Enter from the right and the treasure is below. Above is a door.
I imagine a water source is nearby, and the whole ruin is damp. Maye there's a pool of water in the area.
Ishihara: OK, so I guess what you want is something like the sub-gate of Jyun Lake in Legends 1...
OK, how's this? There is water flowing out from both the left and right, and water can be seen underneath the metal grating on the floor.
Eguchi: Yes, that's nice. Also, the Bonne Mecha will drill a hole in the ceiling and fall in. That will trigger the ruin's booby trap and cause the ceiling to start caving in.
Ishihara: Are you serious?! In that case maybe we should lose that indentation at the top.
Eguchi: Well, I'll leave it to you to think about how to address that. We're always free to change it later. You know, it might be cool if the floor buckles upward all of a sudden.
Ishihara: And that buckled floor could be used to climb up on top of the Bonne Mecha. There could even be a hatch on top of the Bonne Mecha that gets kicked open, and Tron could be inside.
Eguchi: Yeah, and Tron could be like, "Hurry up and shut that hatch!" and slams it shut.
Ishihara: OK, so that wouldn't be an attack.
Eguchi: No, no. Being able to attack Tron directly would be unthinkable... Then again, having close quarters combat could be a good idea. We've never had anything like that before.
Ishihara: Maybe we could have the Bonne Mecha attack using water. Water could pour in from the ceiling and... What are you drawing?
Eguchi: Since we have water, these Servbots could sync up somehow...
Never mind, now I'm just rambling.
Ishihara: What the...? Anyway, whether or not they're directly involved in combat, it's important to have Servbots do SOMETHING. By the way, should we think of player actions being somewhat like they were in Legends 2?
Eguchi: Basically yes. But I think totally new actions and controls are a possibility as well. Let's ask our exceptional team members to create some new and interesting landscapes and gimmicks, and see what they come up with.
Ishihara: That's casting a pretty wide net. But I suppose there won't be anything like, "Let's launch the rocket!" all of a sudden. Finally, shouldn't we get advice from the fans themselves? That seems to be a good approach.
Eguchi: Yes, it is important to find out from players what kind of experience they want to have. And I think it would be easiest to have them come up with ideas thinking about it in terms of a Bonne Family battle. Of course people who have trouble explaining their idea in text can use illustrations instead.
Ishihara: And when you think about what makes the Bonne Family cool, you can't not say it's the Bonne Mecha, right?
Eguchi: I'm looking forward to seeing some impressive work from the fans!
Eguchi: This is kinda how I imagine the ruin for this stage will look like.
***Diagram of the ruin viewed from above.
Enter from the right and the treasure is below. Above is a door.
I imagine a water source is nearby, and the whole ruin is damp. Maye there's a pool of water in the area.
Ishihara: OK, so I guess what you want is something like the sub-gate of Jyun Lake in Legends 1...
OK, how's this? There is water flowing out from both the left and right, and water can be seen underneath the metal grating on the floor.
Eguchi: Yes, that's nice. Also, the Bonne Mecha will drill a hole in the ceiling and fall in. That will trigger the ruin's booby trap and cause the ceiling to start caving in.
Ishihara: Are you serious?! In that case maybe we should lose that indentation at the top.
Eguchi: Well, I'll leave it to you to think about how to address that. We're always free to change it later. You know, it might be cool if the floor buckles upward all of a sudden.
Ishihara: And that buckled floor could be used to climb up on top of the Bonne Mecha. There could even be a hatch on top of the Bonne Mecha that gets kicked open, and Tron could be inside.
Eguchi: Yeah, and Tron could be like, "Hurry up and shut that hatch!" and slams it shut.
Ishihara: OK, so that wouldn't be an attack.
Eguchi: No, no. Being able to attack Tron directly would be unthinkable... Then again, having close quarters combat could be a good idea. We've never had anything like that before.
Ishihara: Maybe we could have the Bonne Mecha attack using water. Water could pour in from the ceiling and... What are you drawing?
Eguchi: Since we have water, these Servbots could sync up somehow...
Never mind, now I'm just rambling.
Ishihara: What the...? Anyway, whether or not they're directly involved in combat, it's important to have Servbots do SOMETHING. By the way, should we think of player actions being somewhat like they were in Legends 2?
Eguchi: Basically yes. But I think totally new actions and controls are a possibility as well. Let's ask our exceptional team members to create some new and interesting landscapes and gimmicks, and see what they come up with.
Ishihara: That's casting a pretty wide net. But I suppose there won't be anything like, "Let's launch the rocket!" all of a sudden. Finally, shouldn't we get advice from the fans themselves? That seems to be a good approach.
Eguchi: Yes, it is important to find out from players what kind of experience they want to have. And I think it would be easiest to have them come up with ideas thinking about it in terms of a Bonne Family battle. Of course people who have trouble explaining their idea in text can use illustrations instead.
Ishihara: And when you think about what makes the Bonne Family cool, you can't not say it's the Bonne Mecha, right?
Eguchi: I'm looking forward to seeing some impressive work from the fans!
After the entry period closed, members of the Japanese and North American Devrooms got to vote on their respective entries. Japan used a system that let voters repeatedly choose their favorite between two randomly selected entries. NA voters rated individual entries with a 1-5 star system. After cheaters were dealt with, each Devroom ended up with five top choices, giving the developers ten finalists from which to choose.
Incidentally, the Seeteufel created by Dashe and a team of Legends Station members, was awarded honorable mention as the very close runner up by Director Eguchi, but in the end the winner announced on 2010/12/13 was CAP Kobun's Donner Wels from the Japanese side. Planning Director Ozaki summed it up as follows, "Ultimately, it came down to expandability of concept this time. The combination of water, electricity, tremors, and a catfish with Director Eguchi's own vision seemed to have the most potential!!"