Easy Type demo released!

Just a quickie.

I've uploaded an easy type version of the game for those of you having trouble staying alive in the normal version. Monsters will be much easier now, but you should still watch out for those guarding treasures! They will still be a challenge.

Easy type demo can be found on the links to the right or here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5SN8698Y

Easy Type version and more.

So, while myself and quite a few others have played the game through and have only seen the above screen a couple times, I've had quite a bit of feedback regarding the difficulty level of the game. Some people say it's just right, others are saying it's way too hard. The game is difficult in the early going, but that's because your party are a bunch of brand new adventurers. One comment left by a person on RMN pretty much sums up what I think the issue is here:

"You should probably warn people that your game is hard though. I've been babied in so many games now, I've totally forgotten how to play properly. I died something like 10 times just because a bunch of slimes beat me up. Then I actually started using skillz and it all worked out."

Unfortunately, a lot of players don't seem to want to take it upon themselves to sharpen their gaming skills, instead just wanting an easier game. So, request and you shall receive! I'll be putting up a separate demo of the game labeled easy type. While I personally think that such a mode detracts from the game as a whole, I'm just the developer, not a player! So the more options people have, the more likely they are to play the game, and the more people that enjoy the game, the happier I'll be.

In other news, I'm currently creating a small minigame that can be played in one of the towns you can reach after gaining access to your rowboat.

War! (With a graphical twist.)


It works pretty much just like the real life card game of War, but rather than collect all the cards and add them to your deck, you just play in a best of 7 series. It also has a neat graphical overlay that real life War does not, and depending on how much you wager to play, you can win some pretty neat stuff!

Update - Naming Contest:

I've received some pretty good submissions for names, and so far the front runner is Reminiscence as not only does it sound like a good title for a game, it works to define the type of game this is as well. There's still 5 more days to submit entries, and I'll be taking them until then, so if you come up with something good (even if you've already submitted something), let me know!

Naming contest!

Girlfriend: "You probably need a new title for your game. It's a really fun game, but the title is probably making people not want to try it. You should hold a naming contest!"

Well, it turns out after the Release Something! event, she was not the only one with this opinion. So now it's time for a help me name my game contest! I'm going to take suggestions via the topic comment function through the blog. Comments can be made anonymously, so there's no need to register. The winner will get an npc named after them in the game saying whatever lines of dialogue they wish (within reason, of course). The easiest thing to do is to choose a name for the game world as a whole, and make that the title (as the game world is still unnamed as well), but I'll leave it up to you to decide.

In progress related news, I've just started working on the third major dungeon in the game. Progress is coming along nicely, and it's always fun coming up with new puzzles. I should probably have it done within a week, so here's to hoping!

The contest will end at the end of the month (1 week!) on 09/30/09.

Demo Released!

Well, in a rather exciting (and nerve wracking) time for me, a demo of my first public video game project is available for download!

You can get it at www.rpgmaker.net or here!

All comments, criticism, and feedback is greatly appreciated!

Quick news: A demo!

I've decided to release a demo on 09/22/09, for www.rpgmaker.net's "Release Something!" event. The demo will be about an hour or two long, depending on your play style, and your saved games will transfer over to the full version.

In other progress related news, I've gotten more maps fleshed out that belong to the main quest, and a couple maps of side content completed. Mapping is a very long, very tedious process in general so there's not much to update that won't spoil parts of the game. I can tell you, however, that I've gotten the teleport shrines that transport the player between continents working (these are needed to get around before the player has access to a ship).

Slot machine is finally finished.

FINALLY. It's done, and I'm relatively pleased with the result. Everything works correctly, the display, the animations, and the payouts. One of the biggest challenges, believe it or not, was to get a window displaying the player's coins in the upper right hand corner of the screen and have it update while the player uses the slot machine. That was the last hurdle I had to overcome in order to get it set up to my liking, and now it's done!

As I said before, the player will exchange their gold for coins which can be used in the slot machine. They can bet a maximum of 10 coins per pull, with the jackpot paying out at a *2000 multiplier. It's highly unlikely that a player will hit the jackpot, but if they do at a full bet, they can expect to land themselves some rather nice gear!

Screenshots of the slot machine in action:







The other casino minigames will be worked on later, as I'm waiting on the remainder of a set of playing card resources.

Next up is working on the next set of towns and explorable areas the player can access after getting the rowboat (which can only travel in shallow water). Look for more updates soon!

I hate slot machines!

So the slot machine is coming along. Background graphics are done, slot machine overlay is done, the slots are animated, now it's just time to piece it all together and make it work. I've got the coin system done, though!

Explanation needed:

I've decided that rather than bet the player's actual gold for winnings, the player will purchase coins to use in all of the casino games, and exchange those coins for prizes. This prevents the player from getting insane amounts of gold which would trivialize the game for quite awhile because the player would be able to purchase all of the best equipment much sooner than I would like them to. I've settled on the exchange rate being 1 coin per 10 gold when purchased from the coin vendor in casino areas.

Screenshot time!








In non-minigame related news, I've finally figured out a way to work in a skill for the thief upon reaching level 10 that allows him to find bonus gold after a battle! It took some script (ruby) writing which I am totally noobish at, but I got it done and the results are great! The party is awarded the normal amount of gold, then the thief will notify the party of the extra gold he has found, which finally gets added to the player's gold total. Very happy with the result!





Hopefully the slot machine will be completed by the next post.

World Map!

Ladies and gentlemen, I have, for the first time in my life, actually completed an entire world map! Most people may be thinking, "What's the big deal? That's probably easy!" They may be right, but it's not as easy as most would think. It's a challenge making a world map that doesn't feel completely bland. I've gotten the whole thing fleshed out, and all locations marked (but not nearly complete with maps), but only one island is fully complete with all location maps done.

Now it's time for a screenshot! Note that this view of the map is very zoomed out so it's very difficult (impossible) to see all of the smaller locations:







Now that the world map is out of the way, I think I'm going to start on something I've been putting off for awhile now, which is making the slot machine minigame. I'm going to include a casino type area in the game with slots, blackjack, slime races, and an arena event where the player will choose a party member to fight in a series of battles.

The slot machine is going to be a nightmare, along with blackjack. I've been putting the slot machine off because it will be hard to do, and I'm putting the blackjack minigame off because I don't have the graphics for the playing cards yet. Look for slot machine progress in the next update.

Party selection window, fast travel option.

The party selection subscreen is now complete! MILES better than the original placeholder I had. It makes the game look much more professional, and makes party selection less confusing in general. The old ones are above, the new look is below!































It took a lot of eventing, around 30 variables, and a decent amount of switches as well, but was it ever worth it! With this setup, the player can choose any characters and the party can have between one and four members. If the player chooses to bring four party members, the EXP from monsters will be split accordingly. Conversely, if the player decides to brave the wilds with a solo character, that character will get ALL the EXP!

Now, onto the warp ring. I've decided that having to walk everywhere would be really annoying, so I incorporated a Warp Ring into the game. This ring is accessible via the menu, and will let you instantly warp back to any town you've previously visited (gotta love Yanfly, huh?). This of course is disabled in any maps that are not towns or the world map (which is currently very very small... I think I know what I'm working on next). Screenshots of the warp ring below.






Next up, world map!

Steal command complete!

After quite a bit of work, I have a complete (and very well functioning) steal command for the thief in combat!

Each monster has a chance for one of two items that a player can steal from them, normal steal and a rare steal. The standard formula is a little over 20% chance at a normal item steal and a 3% chance at a rare steal. Rare items are usually pretty high caliber and make the game a bit easier if you can net one, hence the 3% chance.

Now for the coolest part. I've created the system to check if the thief is wearing a special accessory that can be upgraded during the game (by up to three levels) that will improve his chance to steal! The final upgrade will ultimately put the thief's normal steal chance at 50% and the rare item at 20%! It was a lot of work, but it was worth it! Hopefully this work won't go to waste, and people will actually want to put the thief in their party.

I currently have a party selection system in place that is clunky where the player chooses what party members they want to use via a string of choices from the normal message window. It's ugly, but functional. I think this will be worked on next.

First post!

First post on my first blog! Yay!

So, I've finally got enough of the project done to where it will be worthwhile to track via blog now. This is my third time making a game with the RPG Maker series, but the first time a project actually seems feasible to complete. Just about all of the core components are taken care of. The characters are all set with all stats, classes made, skills assigned and animated, damage formula perfected (going for a low number format... damage in the thousands eventually gets unmanageable), and scripts imported and modified to suit my needs.

Next up, working out a steal system for a thief class in combat. Fun!