Sidequests are fun.

In a few spots in the game, there are more than one way to solve one particular obstacle, some involving sidequests, some not. One of the side quests that's nearly completed is a dungeon for the thief that will grant you access to a thief only item.

Rather than be a traditional dungeon with monsters, treasure, etc., it is filled with various skill games and timing events more akin to the deftness of a thief.


Stop the cursor in the circles, and Mr. Thief is safe. Stop the cursor on an X, and Mr. Thief becomes Mr. Splat!


Look out below!


Once this is complete, there are only a couple more locations to finish up before the next continent is completed. Next I will be putting together the resort island that houses all of the casino type minigames. This will mostly consist of mapping since all of the minigames are already coded. I figure at this point the game will be about half done, which is not where I had hoped to be when the project was started one year ago, but is great all things considered (job, school, girlfriend, hockey, etc. are all such selfish time sinks).

Doing it all and doing it well.

So I have decided to go all out and make all the minigames I was deciding whether or not to make. As I was thinking, and so many people have pointed out... if a game's focus is on game play, then minigames only add to it and it's a no brainer. So yes, it will delay the completed release considerably, but it will definitely add more to the finished product than it will hinder it by a delay of release.

So, the first of three minigames is nearly done! Drumroll please...



Yay blackjack! I've got the system to recognize when there's an ace in play and gives a display on what number you would have if you were to count it as an ace or a one.

In addition to this, there's a card counter at the bottom of the screen that if you are able to draw five cards without busting, you win 8 to 1 on your bet! The only thing left to finish is the dealer's programming (hitting and standing).

The system can already count the value of the cards to see who wins, and the real bitch to code was making sure that the same card won't show up on the table more than once. That took ridiculously long to get working properly.

So next up as far as minigames are concerned is the racing game. I have a plan in place and I think it will go pretty well, but before work starts on that I will be making some more maps on the third continent.

More updates later!

Are minigames worth the effort?

Just a quickie post here today:

I'm considering putting more minigames into Reminiscence, namely a blackjack game, racing/betting game and a one on one arena game. The opinions I've gathered thus far are people saying "why not just do all three?" The problem is that takes an awful lot of work and it would delay the final product considerably.

So I you, dear readers, do you think it's worth a fairly large delay in order to put in more minigames?

Over 150 downloads!

So, when observing the fact that I am not a big name studio with lots of money to spend on advertising, I would say over 150 downloads (153 to as of 5 minutes ago) across the couple sites where the game is available is a decent success.

Thank you to all who provided feedback and reported the (surpringly few!) bugs. Most of the reviews in general were pretty positive, with the only minor quirks being the aforementioned couple of bugs, and a groan or two from some of the goatse talk (haha).

As far as the game progress is concerned, I really haven't gotten much of a chance to work on it at all thanks to working midnights (which destroys any semblance of a life one may have), classes (which take up a lot of my free time with homework), and my (lack of) social life. Having a girlfriend is a full time job in itself some... times... oops, hi Alice! <3

In addition to all these things, I just upgraded to Windows 7, so now I get to reinstall all my apps and all that other wonderful stuff. Not having all my programs readily available when I did catch some free time was also a put off. I'll be a normal human being again here for at least a short while, however, so progress can begin again! Look for progress related updates soon!

PS. Which minigame would people like to see more? Some sort of racing/betting game, Blackjack, or a 1 on 1 arena style minigame? Let me know in the comments section!

New title screen, new minigame, new demo.

Working midnights sucks. I'm sure midnight shifts were invented by terrorists to make those of us who work them easier to explode. That, and the shift is a pretty effective life killer. However, I've still found time to work on the game some, so let's get to that!

First off, you will notice on the side bar there is a poll option. I'm going to be taking a poll on what the new title screen of the game should be. There are three options, and the first will be the main title screen while the second will be used in some other fashion. The title screens are as follows:

In the poll they will be listed in the order you see here, but just to avoid any confusion, the top one will be called Sword, the middle Mimic (which is that treasure chest monster you see in the middle, for those who may be unaware of what a mimic is), and Dragon/Knight. I will be running this poll here, in addition to a few forums and I'll take the total votes from each and tally them together to determine the winner. The poll will close on the 21st.

Onto the next subject - minigames!

I just can't seem to resist the temptation of making small minigames. While they are a lot of work, I think the life they add to games increases the overall value, setting some games apart from others. With that said, what's the new minigame?

Dice!

It's just a simple little minigame you can play against this shady character to earn that small amount of extra gold you may need for that one great weapon. The basic way it works is if your roll is higher than the man's, you can either take your 2 to 1 winnings, or use the value of that roll to play higher or lower. As it sounds, you guess whether or not the next roll will be higher or lower relative to your previous score. You win, you win big. You lose, you lose your previous winnings that round in addition to the gambling fee. A simple game, but fun enough. Even more so when you win and can afford that shiny new weapon!

Onto the final topic, a new demo.

Yes, that's right, a new demo. As much as I wish it were a full game release, there's still a long way to go for that. However, due to the amount of feedback I've gotten from the previous demo, in addition to the balancing issues, I feel that the game really could use a new demo to showcase the progress made, in addition to show what to expect from the final product in terms of balance, character personalities (quite often depending on who you're using in your party and when, they'll have 2 cents to add... sometimes 3), and the new soundtrack.

Your old saves will unfortunately be incompatible with the new demo, so you will have to start over. This is for the better, however, as there are new things to explore, updates to old content, and the game is just more fun now. The new demo will be out after the winner of the title screen battle is chosen, so look forward to more after the 21st! ... of April.

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!