Cool game, reminds me of the good old RPGmaker horror games. I'm not sure when I'll have time to finish it so I'll write something now (currently in the second part)
Why does the rake insta-kill you? It's not a big deal, sure, but it feels kind of annoying to make the player reload. I've played RPGmaker games with tons of insta-kills (Misao) but in that game it was established pretty early on that everything is dangerous and that you should be careful. Here, this is the only thing that kills you (as far as I can tell) and it doesn't even look that dangerous. You might condition the players to avoid everything that looks suspicious after that. Or you can go the other way and make everything kill you. I saw some beartraps that only did a little damage when you stepped on them.
Sometimes I selected a dialogue option by accident and I wasn't even skipping the text. It's usually not a big deal but it seems like your choices actually matter here and it would be bad if it changed how the game progresses without the player knowing what he picked. I think there was an option in RPGmaker to not select any dialogue options by default and you have to move 1 down to pick the first one. Might be worth considering for this game.
The soundtrack is really good.
Not much I can say about the gameplay, typical RPGmaker stuff. I do like that there is actual combat and not just story.
Some of the art is a little rough around the edges to me but it lends itself well to the style of the game. The unique style and environment definitely pull you into the game, which is what RPG maker style games are about for me since IMO its hard to do much with the combat systems (renaming health/mana and the equipment system are novel and do big favors for the game's art direction but don't change the underyling formula). Not to say that's a bad thing, for this game I think keeping the combat aligned with regular RPG expectations is a good idea and pouring the rest of the focus into the world, characters, and narrative is the right approach. And this game definitely draws you in with its aesthetic, nice work!
Gonna watch through your video properly later : D. What conversation softlocked you? To kill Euthanasia easily, get a level or two at the lake and make sure to equip the Jack of the Torpid card you got just before meeting her.
That sounds incredibly weird, either you are mistaken or you have encountered one insane bug. Could you open the equipment screen, open cards and take a screenshot?
I think everyone has said this already, but this game’s aesthetic is seriously on point. The music is great, the story immediately sucks you in, it’s really compelling stuff. You need a unique hook to sell a JRPG and it’s pretty clear you’ve got one.
A minor issue: I had the menu cut off during name entry so I just guessed that confirm was in the bottom right corner.
Gamepad controls work, although on my PS3 controller dash was with square rather than circle, and the rebinding menu is in numbers rather than the button symbols. Otherwise it worked find on linux with proton.
Another bug: I went up north to fetch Sarah after Billy butchered the carcass but before talking to him again and he disappeared when I came back. He showed up again if I came into the camp from the south so it wasn’t game breaking.
I only played for about half an hour because I have more demos I want to play today, but this is really good stuff.
Recently acquired a new plugin to implement better keybinding, have not had time to test it out just yet. That naming sequence have for different reasons been a headache for a long time, maybe I should just remove it.
Good info with the sequence breaking after the butchering scene, these are the kinds of things that are hard to find on your own. Thank you!
I like the style of the game straight away. Not horror (I've not encountered jump-scares yet) But thoughtful and suspenseful. Everything is consistent with that theme too. The artwork, dialogue, music and sounds effects.
The UI has a good design, it was easy to find the section of the UI to equip the cards, use the potions etc.
Its actually difficult to suggest any improvements apart from to continue with the good work with the next chapter. Having said that I haven't yet finished chapter 1, but its late for me now and wanted to leave some initial feedback.
Some of the music was very loud. I did turn the BGM down in the options to 20%. However the music that played when speaking to Infoboy (after Billy spoke about his wife) started playing very loud.
Either the option for BGM got reset or that particular music is very loud.
Thank you for the kind words and the good input. I will take a look at that particular song, any other audio balancing stuff you encounter is very good information too. Thank you o/.
Chapter 1 features 4 acts, 2 alternate versions of act 3 and 3 alternating versions of act 4. Cheating room can be used to jump ahead but is messy.
Bugreports, spelling errors, balancing tips or feature/item requests are greatly appreciated.
Content wise Chapter 1 is more or less done, though I will still polish it a bit more and add some more additional extra stuff. A little thing here and there.
If you are a maniac who get to the end of chapter one, take a few screenshots of the evaluation, show me that it works well.
The filesize of the game will get a lot larger, a lot. It is pointless to complain about it.
Comments
Cool game, reminds me of the good old RPGmaker horror games. I'm not sure when I'll have time to finish it so I'll write something now (currently in the second part)
Why does the rake insta-kill you? It's not a big deal, sure, but it feels kind of annoying to make the player reload. I've played RPGmaker games with tons of insta-kills (Misao) but in that game it was established pretty early on that everything is dangerous and that you should be careful. Here, this is the only thing that kills you (as far as I can tell) and it doesn't even look that dangerous. You might condition the players to avoid everything that looks suspicious after that. Or you can go the other way and make everything kill you. I saw some beartraps that only did a little damage when you stepped on them.
Sometimes I selected a dialogue option by accident and I wasn't even skipping the text. It's usually not a big deal but it seems like your choices actually matter here and it would be bad if it changed how the game progresses without the player knowing what he picked. I think there was an option in RPGmaker to not select any dialogue options by default and you have to move 1 down to pick the first one. Might be worth considering for this game.
The soundtrack is really good.
Not much I can say about the gameplay, typical RPGmaker stuff. I do like that there is actual combat and not just story.
Some of the art is a little rough around the edges to me but it lends itself well to the style of the game. The unique style and environment definitely pull you into the game, which is what RPG maker style games are about for me since IMO its hard to do much with the combat systems (renaming health/mana and the equipment system are novel and do big favors for the game's art direction but don't change the underyling formula). Not to say that's a bad thing, for this game I think keeping the combat aligned with regular RPG expectations is a good idea and pouring the rest of the focus into the world, characters, and narrative is the right approach. And this game definitely draws you in with its aesthetic, nice work!
There's some feelings about your thumbnail that really stands out to me. I love i t!
kino (i'm stuck)
Also I'm pretty sure it's a glitch that the game softlocked during a dialogue sequence
Gonna watch through your video properly later : D. What conversation softlocked you? To kill Euthanasia easily, get a level or two at the lake and make sure to equip the Jack of the Torpid card you got just before meeting her.
>What conversation softlocked you?
One that happens just outside the hospital room door.
>To kill Euthanasia easily, get a level or two at the lake and make sure to equip the Jack of the Torpid card you got just before meeting her.
I got that card much earlier on. I'm guessing it was consumed at some point because I didn't have it in my inventory by the time I got stuck.
Cards are not consumables, they are equipment.
I know. I equipped it when I found it, but later on it wasn't anywhere to be found
That sounds incredibly weird, either you are mistaken or you have encountered one insane bug. Could you open the equipment screen, open cards and take a screenshot?
My entire playthrough is in the video, including the softlock. You can see my card inventory from later on at around 53:57
Thank you o/
I think everyone has said this already, but this game’s aesthetic is seriously on point. The music is great, the story immediately sucks you in, it’s really compelling stuff. You need a unique hook to sell a JRPG and it’s pretty clear you’ve got one.
A minor issue: I had the menu cut off during name entry so I just guessed that confirm was in the bottom right corner.
Gamepad controls work, although on my PS3 controller dash was with square rather than circle, and the rebinding menu is in numbers rather than the button symbols. Otherwise it worked find on linux with proton.
Another bug: I went up north to fetch Sarah after Billy butchered the carcass but before talking to him again and he disappeared when I came back. He showed up again if I came into the camp from the south so it wasn’t game breaking.
I only played for about half an hour because I have more demos I want to play today, but this is really good stuff.
Recently acquired a new plugin to implement better keybinding, have not had time to test it out just yet. That naming sequence have for different reasons been a headache for a long time, maybe I should just remove it.
Good info with the sequence breaking after the butchering scene, these are the kinds of things that are hard to find on your own. Thank you!
I like the style of the game straight away. Not horror (I've not encountered jump-scares yet) But thoughtful and suspenseful. Everything is consistent with that theme too. The artwork, dialogue, music and sounds effects.
The UI has a good design, it was easy to find the section of the UI to equip the cards, use the potions etc.
Its actually difficult to suggest any improvements apart from to continue with the good work with the next chapter. Having said that I haven't yet finished chapter 1, but its late for me now and wanted to leave some initial feedback.
Some of the music was very loud. I did turn the BGM down in the options to 20%. However the music that played when speaking to Infoboy (after Billy spoke about his wife) started playing very loud.
Either the option for BGM got reset or that particular music is very loud.
Thank you for the kind words and the good input. I will take a look at that particular song, any other audio balancing stuff you encounter is very good information too. Thank you o/.
Chapter 1 features 4 acts, 2 alternate versions of act 3 and 3 alternating versions of act 4. Cheating room can be used to jump ahead but is messy.
Bugreports, spelling errors, balancing tips or feature/item requests are greatly appreciated.
Content wise Chapter 1 is more or less done, though I will still polish it a bit more and add some more additional extra stuff. A little thing here and there.
If you are a maniac who get to the end of chapter one, take a few screenshots of the evaluation, show me that it works well.
The filesize of the game will get a lot larger, a lot. It is pointless to complain about it.