Well, just something new from the little guy. As it says in my intro thread, I like playing strategy games. And couple of weeks ago, an idea just hit me. Why not try and play a Magical Girl RTS?
I hit Google, and found nothing. In fact, the most relevant search for that particular keyword, was a forum thread about a new (way back in '06) RTS. Someone complained about how the settings are always grim and sci-fi-ey. That was soon followed with a joking suggestion of 'lets make a Magical Girl RTS'.
After that, there have been no other relevant hits. Now, Magical Girls are a pretty popular genre, I guess. They've spawned everything from RPG's to visual novels to fighting games, and some time ago, a Super Robot Wars-esque TBS based on Nanoha.
Personally, I'm not really into that genre in particular, having only seen Sailor Moon when I was a kid (then having no preconceived notions of what guys considered to be 'icky girly stuff'), and Nanoha a couple years back (solely because it's Saiyans/Gundams/Shounen disguised as Magical Girls).
I do, however find it rather intriguing. I find just as intriguing, if not vexing, the fact that nobody has ever considered doing such a venture before, despite Japan's tendencies to come up with such... unusual... concepts. So, as is with one such as myself, I decided to do my research on what writing conventions are considered typical of the genre. And then I started Worldbuilding.
The end result is a little thing I call Lambda, which is basically a multi-front Web Original Project meant to culminate in the creation of a Magical Girl RTS. After the basic Worldbuilding is completed, (which I think it is), the first aim will be to launch a Web Serial, in order to give it more depth. So far, it's been an effort between myself and an acquaintance, along with a lot of input from a couple other friends.
The setting itself is not really something new. Most of the world is pretty done already, culturally speaking, and whatnot. Lots of derivative stuff, although we've been working hard to make it interesting despite being derivative in nature. There's a Roman culture, a vaguely Japanese culture, etc.
Again, I'm not really aiming for total originality. I doubt something like that happens any more nowadays. Six and a half billion minds, six and a half billion possible ideas every second of the day... yeah, the odds are pretty astronomical. But what I want is something engaging, which we've been building around the main concept, and that is, Magical Girls are a common everyday thing, to the point that they also act as soldiers.
But yeah, enough exposition about the project, it's probably best if I just link the project itself. The site isn't officially open yet. I'm still working on the infrastructure and some various other things. But if you do have anything to say about it, please, feel free to reply.