Okay, first I want to thank you for going through all my games, it's been an amazing experience watching that journey!
I guess there's a lot to explain regarding this game hahahaha
The original Automagoria was released in 2021. I was gifted Rpg Maker 2003 while I was going through chemo, I did many experiments (the typical RTP games) but I didn't really want to make an RPG, I wanted to make an action/sci-fi/horror game with platformer sections, bosses and puzzles. Originally, the story was very different: you were told to kill monsters but it would be revealed that the monsters were actually human and your creator was insane and wanted to kill humanity. Also, the original Automaton looked really different and was pretty creepy. I eventually settled for this plot and these designs and I went with that.
The original Automagoria was pretty much an instakill fest. Those spikes everywhere? They were instakills. And insane mode was even harder (I only managed to complete insane mode once). I had a loooooooooot to learn regarding difficulty and game design. Considering this was the first game I wanted to release, I guess the scope and project themselves were just too ambitious for my own good. Anyway, so I released this thing into the world and while it mostly went under the radar, two youtubers played it and managed to finish it. And I mean the original one with instakills everywhere. The giant robot boss? Those spikes were instakill. You literally had to memorize the pattern. IT WAS ABSOLUTE SUFFERING, AN ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE. Some people even called this one the Dark Souls of Rpg Maker Games. But I reckon this has a looot of artificial difficulty and that's straight down bad game design.
A sequel was in the works. In the sequel, Kate's daugther was a teen, Kate was older and they all lived in a cabin near a town. The gameplay was a mix between a top down rpg and a metroidvania, with many different weapons, stats, crafting system, etc. It was really ambitious and I was really passionate about it...until I lost all interest in the project. Then, I made Oddrietta in 5 days for a jam, and I although I always wanted to make a proper sequel to this one, it never happened.
At one point, there was an Automagoria Remastered and it was avaiable for some time, but I removed it from everywhere. It had improved graphics and you could use a shootgun, but it didn't feel like Automagoria anymore.
2 years later, 2023. I went back to Automagoria and tried to make it playable/less frustrating. This is the result: Automagoria Definitive Edition. It obviously wasn't a complete success, since some of the frustrating mechanics from the original version remained (that second reptile boss you encountered? I actually forgot to remove it hahahah, sorry about that, it's awful game design). Also, I remastered some of the tracks, reworked some sprites and backgrounds and added some secrets (there are actually many secrets pathway that make the game shorter but pretty much no one has ever discovered them. Okay, you actually discovered the sewers one, good job on that one). I also messed up some of the tiles and you can walk on air at some points.
The carnival was supposed to have clown enemies and a clown boss, but it didn't happen. I guess I was too lazy for that.
Also, Megaman was definitely a huge influence, since I'm a huge Megaman fan, but I was also inspired by Bioshock Infinite, Metroid and Resident Evil. However, I was also heavily influenced by Shingeki no Kyojin.
The Automaton is my favorite character created by me, I tend to self insert as the automaton or use it as an avatar, he usually has hidden cameos in my games (he's even in A House for Alesa, one of the posters in Greta's room). And he's coming back, real soon, in a certain third part of a certain trilogy about a social worker.
If I have to be honest, I think I had good ideas for this game but they were implemented poorly in terms of gameplay. However, I'm really happy with the atmosphere, the graphics and the music, so I'm glad you were able to appreciate that aspect. Building this post apocalyptic world a really fun experience. While some bosses and tilesets were modified from public domain resources/RTP; pretty much everything else was made from scratch (I actually made concept sketches and have images of the evolution of the sprites).
Wow, that was a long comment lmao. Anyway
Thank you so much Moriko, this has been an amazing journey and I'm really grateful you took the time to look at my other games. I know some of them were bad or frustrating, but watching your gameplays has actually helped me, since I' ve been taking down notes and I'll surely take them into account for future projects. And this obviously isn't the end, since I have many more games planned for the future hahahhaha
A House for Alesa 3 will be released (hopefully) during the first week of october, and I think it's going to be amazing. Also, it will have boss battles similar to the ones in the Sakabashira game (and why not Automagoria). And then I have to finally finish The Grotesque and Pixelesque 2 hahahhaa