Refer back to the Design Licenses: Simpsons article for the foundations of this game idea.
When I wrote about the Simpsons game idea last time, it seemed a little unfocused. Well, moreso than usual. This is an effort to expand on that idea. This article is keeping the ideas that A) the entire town of Springfield is obsessed with a new electronic game fad, which kind of half resembles Pokemon and half resembles Megaman Battle Network [I'm sorry it resembles anything, really, but comparisons always help illustrate an idea better] and B) that it involves 1-on-1 battles with various citizens of the town.
You play as Homer, Bart and Lisa in alternating shifts, challenging people at the new craze that's sweeping the town: BattleBlitz, an excessively violent competitive video game that stages versus battles between two players in a turn-based RPG style. You follow each of the three Simpson family member's days as they find friends, co-workers and other Springfieldians to battle with their own unique characters, which grow develop as they win matches.
Homer is the Kwyjibo, a burly ape-like monster that focuses on strength and a lack of any kind of subtlety. Bart plays as Bartman, the hero he made up to enter a comic-con for a discount price, whom focuses on speed and Batman-esque techniques and gadgets. Lisa is the Blues Mage, a magician that uses a saxophone to cast all manner of spells and therefore relies primarily on intelligence.
On any given day, you can choose to follow one, two or all three characters on a pre-determined series of events. So, for example, Bart would spend the day going to school on the school bus, having recess and trying to sneak in a few matches in the middle of class then going home after completing his blackboard punishment for being caught playing the game - each of these events have their own opportunities to challenge various opponents. During each "stage" of that character's day, you have a selection of opponents to play before moving onto the next "stage" (you can choose to skip the current stage if you've already defeated the opponents available). Whether you win or lose against an opponent during this stage, in either case you cannot play them again until you either meet them again in a later stage of that day or meet them the day after. Characters like Milhouse you'll meet several times if you're Bart (and occasionally as Lisa) since they're best friends. However, characters like Mrs Krabappel or Martin Prince are rarer, since Bart tries to avoid them as often as possible.
Beating a character in a duel nets you not only XP (which you need to level up your characters and get strong enough for more difficult opponents) but also "medals", which give a permanent boost to your character's fighter. These range from simple stat-augmentations to new special moves and other bonuses (the ability to always attack first for example, or an immunity to the poison status). Collecting as many medals as possible is the main focus of the narrative, as the Simpsons are attempting to become the regional champions of whichever state they live in.
At the end of the day, if you've finished playing as either Bart, Homer or Lisa or a combination of the three, you can swap medals (a medal won by Homer, therefore, can simply be given to Bart and Lisa without them needing to earn it themselves), train (if you use one family member more often than the others, you can fight amongst each other to raise XP for the weaker characters' fighters) and save the game. After which, the day ends and a new one begins. The game will use an in-game calendar, so that you'll occasionally have weekends come up allowing a "free-form" day of challenges; i.e. you can choose any family member and let them wander around town challenging anyone from the other two characters' sets of regular opponents, and even some special rare ones that are only accessible on weekends. This is a good opportunity to get medals from story characters that the usual family member that faces them finds them challenging to beat; for example, if one of Homer's opponents (say, Karl) is resistant against physical attacks, that opponent would be tough for Homer's purely-physical fighter but far easier for Lisa's magic-based fighter.
As the Simpsons' combined medal collection increases, you'll become far too overpowered for most of your regular opponents (though they level up as you do, to a degree) and so the game unlocks stronger opponents as you increase in ability, which had at that point had been hidden. An example would be Bart beating Nelson, who has a very strong fighter, and attracting the attention of Jimbo Jones for the first time, unlocking him as an opponent. After defeating the higher level opponents, the Simpsons will be able to fight in leagues with various Springfield personnel, eventually becoming the regional champions. And then I figure it'll be revealed that the whole scheme was a "Last Starfighter"-esque charade from Kodos & Kang. Or something. I'll iron out an end-game later.
Each of the opponents (and there are many, comprised of various classic Simpsons characters) has a unique fighter character styled on them, sometimes based on an in-joke, or on their personality or even from some kind of non-canonical dream sequence or Halloween appearance in the series. The idea of the game is that you need all three of your characters to face the unique opponents they individually meet, pooling the medals and becoming strong enough to defeat any challenger. Simply concentrating on Homer, for instance, won't allow you to defeat many of the opponents that come his way. Even if you level up on weaker opponents, the short supply of medals that Homer will have won't be enough to defeat stronger opponents.
Sharing even the most mundane or effortlessly won medals can be vitally important to another Simpson in particular, since each medal will have a different effect on each of the three characters: Lenny's medal may only give Homer's fighter a measly HP boost, but it could give Lisa's fighter a whole new special attack, for example. The reason for this is because BattleBlitz is configured to give bigger bonuses from medals earned from opponents that would be very hard for that style of fighter to defeat: Since Lenny's fighter could easily overcome Lisa's magician (maybe Lenny's fighter is immune to some forms of magic), Lenny's medal is more valuable to Lisa. Since the Simpsons members are sharing medals between their three very different fighters, a difficult opponent for one Simpson is "defeated" (by another Simpson) far more easily than they should be.
The original goal of my old game idea for the Simpsons was to create an idea for a Simpsons license game that allows, fully, the humor of "The Simpsons" to be showcased, and an in-universe competitive RPG game seems like a pretty open-ended way to give those characters a chance to shine, as opposed to making them trivial tertiary characters or cameos in the background. I'm hoping for a chance to squeeze in a lot of in-jokes and references too, since - like many fans of the show - I can't stop quoting them. Don't judge me, dammit.
