itch.io

Thanks for the feedback! Sorry for the late reply. I seem to be in an info-dump mood, so the short story is: I'm happy you had an enjoyable experience and the shortcomings you pointed out are there due to me trying to conform to the jam's parameters. If you want the full, behind-the-scenes documentary, then read on!

I'm glad you found the story and conversations amusing. They were originally pretty stock interactions, but my beta tester (a.k.a. my girlfriend) advised me to take it a step further, so I did! :-D

You were spot-on with the Pokemon vibe: Pokemon captured my imagination from the moment I first learned about the franchise, and has been a big influence on how I view RPGs ever since. When I learned that RMMV could emulate that mechanic, I wanted to incorporate it into my own game!

I share your feelings about the fire/lightning relationship. You see, there originally were 4 elements in this game, with the missing one being Earth. Fire was going to be strong against Earth, and Earth was going to be strong against Lightning. I cut Earth out to ensure I would be able to meet the under-30-minute playtime requirement, and make it easier to balance the battle system. Good to see that the sacrifice was not in vain! I will definitely be including a more-fleshed out version of the mechanic in a future game.

The easy fights and avoidable minion battles were also decisions made to ensure an under-30 minute playtime. My thinking was: if you don't have to fight the minions and just want to go straight for the objective, you can do so without penalty, and fighting the minions just makes things easier. I had started to make a more-robust battle system, complete with multiple enemy types and lots of custom skills, but it soon became clear that it would have taken way too long to polish and extend play time far beyond the playtime limit, so I cut it down to what you see now.

Distilling big ideas down to a small, focused experience is more challenging than one may think. This jam challenged me to keep my ideas small and concise, which ultimately led to a finished product - a goal I have been striving for for over a year. I am grateful for the challenge, and even more grateful that you took the time to play the game.