Excellent, I really liked this.
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Day Dreams - A Harold Story's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Fun | #4 | 4.116 | 4.235 |
| Overall | #5 | 4.116 | 4.235 |
| Harold | #8 | 4.287 | 4.412 |
| Creativity | #12 | 3.944 | 4.059 |
Ranked from 17 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Comments
I must say I was not expecting to enjoy this game as much as I did. There's a fair bit of polish in here, including lighting effects, custom message boxes, and a custom combat system. I do have some criticisms about the battle system:
- Some of the attack sounds seemed to be either missing or lacking (like certain hits not having any sound at all, and sword impacts sounding like punches).
- It's kind of strange that you have to select an enemy to use Recharge.
- Bandage immediately healed the user; I thought it was supposed to be the item that could be used on any ally?
- There's an attack that supposedly does 4 punches, but the action sequence only shows 2.
That said, there are good points to the battle system:
- There are action sequences!
- Attacks happen immediately.
- There are enough choices that you can strategize but not be overwhelmed.
- The follow-up skills mechanic is not seen frequently and is used rather well here.
I felt like this game could be expanded into an even longer story if desired. Nice job!
Submitted
Sand TrapAnd this folks is why you don't beta test your own game.
Recharge - yep, I feel dumb. I just pulled up the project and don't know why it's set to target Enemy and not user.
Same with Bandages - they were supposed to be usable on other characters. Two dumb moves on my part, especially after making a point of putting it in the book.
I did turn the volume way down on a lot of the skills because RPG Maker sounds are just so loud, so some may have gone too quiet. I'd have to go through various sounds used again, after going through those battles so many times to try to have a semblance of balance, I started getting numb to the sound effects. Now that it's pointed out, I'll try to make sure to be more aware of them in the future.
I supposed that skill really did need a different action sequence. I got lazy so each animated hit did 2 hits of damage.
Thanks for playing, and really thanks for the feedback.
One of the standout entries without a doubt. Absolutely loved the concept, especially the way each daydream feels like a different game yet ties back to the main story. The main theme and sub-theme were very apparent throughout and executed incredibly well. My one gripe is I wish I knew what attacks enemies were using, but that's hardly a deal since the fights didn't feel skewed against my favor. Wonderful, wonderful entry and deserving of a top 4 placement.
Thank you, I'm glad that you enjoyed it. I'm particularly happy to hear that the idea for it has gone over well since story is why I don't publish any games.
I agree about knowing what enemies used, but enemy skills were a casualty of jam timing. I stopped them from showing in the last published update because enemies were using generic skills called "Melee -> Combo1" or "Holy -> Combo2" that controlled their follow-ups and AI rather than unique skills with names flavored to their class or weapons, so looked tacky to me.
And thank you for playing.
Damn, your game was awesome. Really inventive concept, well executed, and the maps looked fantastic. The battle them was on point.
Submitted
Harold: OriginsThe story was pretty interesting in this, and the conclusion with Reid was nice, even though I would've left him to die. I picked all the carrots because I thought I could sell them later, then Harold's mum got upset. I felt bad about that, nice you added that detail though.
Good job, hope to see more from you in the future.
I quite enjoyed this one. A very down-to-earth and less comedic entry than a lot of the Haroldverse entries, but it is polished to its absolute best. With an interesting mechanic and the story itself has a decent premise, build up and payoff.
Truly, I can see great promise in you as a developer considering the maps are decently made and the game isn't too hard in retrospect.
I don't think I got a game over in any of the fights you give, so you did a pretty good job on that front at least. The skills use can be a puzzle in and of itself, so I'll admit that may be part of the issue. The options you give for the follow-up skills were the key factor to victory, which I try to apply. That being said, other players might see it differently. Balancing is difficult to come from only one perspective due to the different gaming skill experiences of different players.
WOW! This game was very good, what we have here is almost a complete package all in this short time frame.
Gameplay: This games uses that speed bar battle system, apologies I don't know what it's called. (You can see it in the screenshots!) I felt the speed was very good and I could plan my moves using it very well which some games do get wonky with that. I felt most of the skills had a use expect for the smoke type skills that raised you evasion, I didn't notice any improvement in my evasion.
Story: Oh that was wonderful, a lot of the story is told through daydreams hence the name. That's a very interesting way of telling a single narrative! The writing was hit or miss, I wanted to punch Reid in the face, all is well!
Overall superb! I really hope to see more of your work someday if this is what you brought to the table! Great job!
Submitted
Harold's QuestThanks for playing, I'm glad that you liked it. Sounds like I should not have nerfed the smoke bombs on the last day. I feel like I could have spent a couple more weeks balancing the battle system. If it seems to go over well here, I'll keep working on it since I'd like to develop it further for use in a real project.
I'm not surprise to hear the writing had misses, that is definitely my weak point. It's why I have never actually released any kind of game before.
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