of a YALitRPG that is very reminiscent of Earthbound/Mother, but I think it might be too obscure for the target audience. Any Earthbound fans want to chime in?
Earthbound is.... was pretty obscure due to poor marketing. Then you have litrpg that is on it's own a very niche market. That said I think it is possible to pull it off if your style targets adults through appealing to their inner child. Kinda what Earthbound or Mother does. I would also recommend playing undertale as research. It's about 6 hours to complete a run through and might be helpful as it was inspired by earthbound and contains a very unique take on the traditional rpg genre.
[QUOTE="I would also recommend playing undertale as research. It's about 6 hours to complete a run through and might be helpful as it was inspired by earthbound and contains a very unique take on the traditional rpg genre.[/QUOTE] Yeah, Undertale is a blast. I might give the book a shot. What's the worst that can happen
Don't insult their fanbase, or you'll see. Personally, I don't know an 80-90s RPG lover that DOESN'T know Earthbound. I'd say give it a try.
Oh yeah, Undertale's fanbase is toxic! I once made some cross over art of undertales and DDLC and got torn a new one! Like how dare I.... Shivers. I was into rpgs during that time but earthbound was marketed so badly that we never got it! I guess it comes down to your target audience. Most retro gamers (over 30) will get it and might even LOVE it. If you target horny 14 year old that think saying f**k over and over is the height of sophistication then no. I had a bad experience with the avengers movie, FORK TEENAGERS!
Oh god, Those two fan bases can be dangerous when mixed! I will say that I love the hidden agendas for DDLC and the fact it was all just advertising for their next game. Oh, and Temmi. I liked the Temmi character.
I've found that the DDLC fanbase to be... odd. But they are supportive regardless. The undertale one is freakin scary! It's like I was insulting them personally and the piece was pretty neutral. Didn't dare make another undertale piece after that.
Earthbound had scratch and sniff ads in every Nintendo Power ever. They didn't market poorly, at least to any kid who read a video game magazine. Visibility wise anyway. It's a good game, it's a silly premise, but it might be hard to model a LitRPG after aside from talents or text box. You can't really capture the teleport skills right in text format. Writing a paragraph that says "he ran around in a circle wildly then wooshed into the air" ....well it's funny but hard to even think about in a full novel.
I do remember the price was huge. Like...$40 or something back then. Here's the oldest ad I can find. Dunno if that link will work. I'd have to play the other Earthbounds/Mother games to see if they had the same vibe.
I haven't played Earthbound, but it's actually a pretty cute idea! I could definitely see it being appealing if done nicely. It would probably be a little silly but that could be a good thing. Nothing wrong with fun, comedic writing after all. Just look at things like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe.
Of course I couldn't market it it as Earthbound. Would just have to make it recognizable. And yeah, no teleporting. I was thinking Augmented Reality. I have a thing for AR.
AR sounds fun to write. I want to do one eventually, but have to make it through some of my other projects first. Either way, good luck!
