Hi Hakuen, just wanted to thank you for all the plugins you've made! There's a problem with this one, though, as every time I download the MZ version it triggers a (false) alarm with my virus scanner, effectively disallowing the use of the plugin. For some reason, the MV version does not trigger the alarm.
The description of the alarm can be found here. Just thought I'd bring it up.
https://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/trojan-downloader_w32_kavala.shtml
Review for Out School
Okay, so first thing I noticed was that the game title is bugged out and reads #{text.title} which doesn't bode well for the entry. I like the title screen, however I feel like the light particle effects are too much. I am also happy to note that I finally find an entry that has the Synch FPS plugin embedded, so excess frame rates should not prove to be a problem.
The look of the menu reminds me of old SNES classics like Final Fantasy VI or Chrono Trigger. I like that.
In my opinion, having the game use the WASD control scheme and no way to change it is a fatal flaw. Sure, most keyboards allow natural movement via these controls, but I think French keyboards use the AZERTY scheme that becomes inconvient when playing with this scheme. Was there a real reason to move away from the arrow keys or was it just personal preference? If the latter then I hope you can consider re-implementing arrow key movement, and perhaps give the player a chance to rebind the keys as they see fit?
Once the game starts I am already receiving string errors: DANG learned '# {SKILL_ID: 14}!' etc. I also heard that the game suffers from bad grammar, but, honestly, I wasn't aware it was this bad. The game should seriously go through a proper spellcheck by a person that is proficient (or even better if a native speaker) in English. There's also some weird debug-like messages like "Playing footsteps_08_mono" shown briefly.
The main character looks like Kiriyama Rei from Sangatsu no Lion anime, I hope this is just a coincidence. After the short introduction, I enter the menu to see that I'm suddenly accompanied by two others, I think the other is my sister? No idea about this Tuan fellow however. I also noticed that there are no icons for menu categories. (Nevermind, the icons loaded after I closed the menu once and reopened it)
The graphics seem to be a mixture of custom and RTP. The music is somewhat smoothing.
The controls seem to really favor mouse movement. I noticed that you use pixel movement, which is a daring thing to do, but I cannot use the WASD keys to use in anything but cardinal directions. I also noticed that it seems that the mission (quest) log on the left doesn't register mouse clicks below it, rendering mouse movement to the left somewhat moot.
Aha, after talking to some random girl in the courtyard I am familiarized with the game buttons. From there I will finally see an option to change keys. However, my earlier point stands. You should bring this option to the title screen and probably use arrow keys as default.
I entered a fight with a policeman when riding the motorcycle. There I caught a glimpse of the interesting SRPG battle system, however there were issues where my healer could not travel forward as his route was blocked by the tree sprite that had no passability despite logically being so. I also did not find out how to exit the motorcycle and couldn't progress that far into the game. The lack of instructions didn't help either.
Sadly I only noted that the developer acknowledged this in his comment below after trying out the game. Therefore my game time was cut pretty short. In my opinion, having us waiting while playing is a questionable practice and should usually be avoided.
Review for A Witches Heart
The game takes place in a dungeon called the Witchbringers Keep. Your task, it seems, is to clear the puzzles on the two sides of the dungeon, ultimately ridding the land of evil coming from the rift (if I remember this correctly, sorry but I tend to quickly read introductions). After beginning the game you are greeted with instructions on how to play the game, which is always good for newcomers. However, I'd probably move the information on the two crystals to the next screen where they reside to help with the info dump in the beginning. Perhaps this could be considered for the future versions?
The game features custom graphics and music. I am, however, disappointed in the title screen music as it feels like it is cut off from the beginning, the start of that song doesn't feel... natural, for the lack of a better word.
There are some slight mapping and eventing errors in the game, but they are not major. It is possible to teleport on top of an enemy at some points. You can also walk one tile deep into some northern walls, but if nothing else it feels inconsistent. As I mentioned earlier, there is a focus on puzzles, and that is good. While the game features custom skill building, it is done somewhat clunkily and is inconsistent. More on this later, as I will first focus on the puzzle part.
There are your typical "push box to move them" types of puzzles on the right side. While somewhat easy, they are more complex than usually seen on games made in a month, so props to you on that. However, what I would have enjoyed would have been a large puzzle with multiple correct routes to complete. The puzzles, at their current form, take only a few moments to figure out, possibly because of lack of possible solutions and where to push the boxes (or statues as they are). The puzzles on the left side, well... I did not manage to complete the firebird puzzle after thinking about it for a while, so it sadly left me unable to progress. Perhaps I will try again later on.
As for what comes to the combat, well, it feels unfinished. On one hand, the normal enemies are really easy and pose little threat at all, but there was this one enemy with life drain that wiped me out in two hits. When I had all passive defense boosts, normal attacks (Dancing Claw was the attack name) did around 15 to 20 damage. But I wasn't prepared for that Life Drain to hit for about 260 points of damage. Also, why is Attack on the list of skills to learn? Imagine that the player did not learn Attack, I think fighting would be rather difficult in that state. Also having it cost MP was a mistake in my opinion.
The skills, too, are inconsistent. Some attacks I could never use (they were greyed out, without any explanation as to why) and there was this issue with the Evade boost skill that both the Level 1 and Level 2 versions appeared in my skill list, while every other skill that had more than one level only showed the highest in my skills.
There are some spelling mistakes in the game, but they can be easily fixed. My suggestion would be to rethink about the combat and concentrate on the puzzles. With that in mind, and more polish, I could foresee this becoming a nice little game to play in rather small bursts.
Review for Abyss of Oblivion
We are quickly drawn in by the beautiful custom title screen and music. I noticed that there is no options command in the menu, I hope this won't bring any problems later on. The idea to put credits into the beginning sequence was good and very well done. Already I can feel like playing a professional game.
However, due to the fact that there was no option menu in the title, I ran into an issue right after beginning. As I'm writing this review (with the menu screen open) I can see that the game runs on over 60 FPS, which leads in the play time to increase faster than in seconds. This is a recurring issue with projects without Yanfly's Synch Monitor FPS plugin when they are played on a monitor with higher frame rates than 60Hz (I'm playing on a 144Hz gaming monitor). Because the FPS is so high, most animations run too fast. There's even more of a reason to do so in this entry as there is a 30-minute timer each time you enter the Abyss. The time counter runs faster than normal due to a single frame being less than 1/60th of a second. This is easily fixed by applying the plugin, though, so I sincerely hope you consider this.
As I mentioned the menu, I must say I really dig how clear and intuitive it seems to be. I also like that you include a reference for important things, such as status conditions, over there.
After some time spent playing, we learn that the story has us trying to resolve a curse which makes no one remember us. Although the setting is pretty general, it is well played out and the silent moments in our flashbacks put more emphasis on the feelings you're trying to convey.
The combat flow feels natural and it is executed brilliantly. The basic rock-paper-scissors weakness element feels good and somewhat prevents 'press attack to win' situations. Since MP is so important in combat, I liked how you are able to choose what bonuses you gain after battle, however I mostly set it to recover MP and left it there.
There are little to no errors in the game. Brilliant work! The only typo I found was that both blessings of life and mana had the same description when selected after you have obtained four blessings and must use or discard one. The typo was not present (at least I didn't notice it) when using the blessing in battle.
I played the game for two runs of levels 1 - 10. The difficulty felt rather good, although after learning on how to play, I felt like it was a bit on the easy side. I guess I lucked out on the RNG as I got Rain of Pain (the AoE arrow attack) rather early on in both runs (I only learned that you lose unlevelled skills after beating level 10) and most normal combats changed to "take hits, use skill and win, recover HP and MP as result" after that. The bosses were a tad different, but the patterns were a bit too predictable. However, it's all good as this allows for more newcomers to pick up your game and not suffer with balancing issues.
I really enjoyed this game, and for me personally it is already a winner. (although I said the same about LuizCubas' game last year) Great job, hadecynn, and thanks for making this!
Review for Dcay by HilmB
You wake in complete darkness. A figure is in front of you. It seems like you are in an ethereal place of sorts. You can make out a hole on your right. Unsure where it leads, you jump in. The bottom is nowhere in sight. Some memories come to you as you keep falling. Finally, you see light at the bottom.
You land in a lush forest. As you try to get your bearings, you are attacked by a zombie. After a fierce fight, you finally defeat the zombie, but upon more exploration, you encounter another one. This time, your strength fails you and you die. Game over... or is it?
Dcay plays by the idea of progressing little by little between deaths. After you die, you are taken to the save screen and return to the black beginning. You will find Dust from your encounters that is used to purchase gear that will hopefully keep you alive a little bit further next time you enter the dungeon.
The combat is the most polished part of this entry. Depending on your equipment, new options open up. I played with fists and Flurry and Barrage shards for that weapon. As noted by the game, Flurry is a multi-hit attack that is mostly used to build up Charge Points to unleash more powerful attacks on the enemy. Barrage is another multi-hit attack that basically one-shots every enemy if it isn't a boss.
There are currently three weapon types available: The fists, the shield and the gloves. Judging from their descriptions, the fists are for melee attacks, the shield is for mostly defense (along with shield bash) and the gloves allow you to use magic. I did not try them all as I completed the game with the fists equipped.
There's also a world selection via colored dust, but I did not explore that feature very well. Mostly I just did what the NPCs told me to (except for that boss fight where you were supposed to kill an exploding zombie, I ignored that) and the game felt rather railroaded.
The graphics are RTP and there is little music to speak of. Well, it goes along with the theme. Highlighting pickable items in a dark map was useful. However, is there another use for the flowers than to learn the healing skill? If not, it feels like you have missed an opportunity there.
The combat kept me entertained for a while. However, there is a lot of work to be done before the game could be considered finished. I see you have added a number of equipment slots, I hope you can balance the game around that when the time comes. (I learnt this on my previous projects)
Good luck in the competition!
Review for The Last Journey by PVGames
You are Galathan, a captain of the King Alex's guard. Your quest is to gather a group of friends to escort the king to Candle Point (I keep thinking of Candlekeep from Baldur's Gate, maybe because of the graphical style). On your travels you will face a number of dangers, including spike traps in dungeons, kobolds, trolls, chimaera, undead and what have you. There's a variety of enemies to battle, each with their own skill sets that keep you engaged on your travels.
Each character has a unique set of skills available, and it becomes clear quite soon that you cannot fight only by spamming the Attack command which most RPG Maker games suffer from. The idea to balance the combat around buffs and debuffs seems ingenious, however it seems some skills are far more useful than others. Bosses quickly fall victim to Nathan's Mark and Strategist, while Alyssa's Finale sees little use. After the defense of the monster drops to 0, you can just pummel on other attacks instead of caring how much life the opponent has.
The combat is where this title shines, but also somewhat of a downfall. Both the characters and the enemies are beautifully rendered, and come with a variety of animations for waiting and acting. Each buff and debuff is clearly displayed over each character, along with a mouseover caption (which I haven't seen in another game so far). However, the combat tends to lag, and quite a bit, too. The FPS dropped to single digits very often when there were multiple enemies with active buffs, and this caused the game to either miss or lag on a lot of animations. I certainly hope this can be fixed later on, as there is a ton of promise on this game.
As mentioned, the graphics outshine most standard RPG Maker games. Jesse has an artistic style of his own, reminiscent of old Infinity Engine games. The game features those and a custom soundtrack that sets the mood of the game really well.
The difficulty seems to be a bit on the easier side when playing on Normal Difficulty. Not once did I have to stop to grind for EXP and Sovereign (currency unit) and I could purchase everything I needed the second I stepped into town. Granted, I only played the game up to Eoten Mountain Summit.
A quest journal on your current quest (as well as hints you may or may not have gotten from NPCs) would help. While folllowing the road is simple and pretty straightforward, I wonder if I took a break from the game and came back. Would I remember what I was about to do? Even though I think myself as an old-fashioned gamer, I recognize some QoL things from today's games that even I have come to like and want in an RPG.
There are two minor things I'd like to point out. First, is the "Total Saves" fact really necessary on the save screen? Especially since the game autosaves when changing areas, and these saves are added to the counter. I think someone could get confused. Also, Thomas's constant cussing gets on my nerves. It is somewhat hard to take him seriously when he keeps on cursing like that, reminding me of games like Grand Theft Auto. I understand that war can change a person dramatically, but perhaps you should tone down that dialogue a little bit?
Oh yes, and finally, before I forget. This is probably the first RPG Maker game where I find moving with the mouse almost necessary, as the featured 8-direction movement seemed not to register some of my keypresses. Sadly this shows that RPG Maker MV isn't really made out for that, but as mentioned, using the mouse alleviates movement quite a bit. I won't be blaming the lag on this, as I get a constant 90+ FPS on field maps.
Anyways, definitely one of the best games in the competition I've played so far. Thank you so much for making this game, and I certainly hope you continue to finetune it after the competition. Good luck on the contest!
P.S. And thanks for the very detailed review of my game, too!
Review for Dojo Master by LockeCole88
The story begins when you approach an abandoned dojo and take control of it. The place has been unattended for quite some time, yet there is an old man who seems to live there. He acts as your tutorial guide while you go through the basics of the game: managing time, doing (menial) tasks and, of course, combat.
You can completely customize your character (using SumRandomDde's Character Creator plugins) which adds to the immersion somewhat. A preset character would have been nice to have, though.
There is a lot of customization found all around the game. You can (and probably should) tend to the dojo be clearing weeds, breaking rocks and repairing the walls. Your first quest seems to be finding some copper ore from the nearby mountains. However the chances to find that ore aren't that high, and you can encounter wildlife while doing this. My original character died when a wasp attacked and poisoned me, but he was succeeded by a punk named Panko who acted as a tutorial battle in the beginning. I like this feature, it allows for some leeway when you're learning the game to not have your progress completely reset when you ultimately die.
The combat seems to consist of three different actions. You can attack, which opens a minigame of sort where you need to hit a certain area of a circle with a stick that rolls around. Where you hit determines how you strike your enemy, but I honestly did not find much of a difference in the three colored areas (granted, I did not manage to play for that long). You can also block by hitting the action button at the right time when the enemy is striking you. However, I'm not sure if it's because of my 144Hz monitor but this margin of error seems to be too little. I only managed to block once after the tutorial, maybe this can be fixed by using the Synch FPS plugin by Yanfly, I'm not sure. Still, something to look into. Finally, you can use skills, which seem to require you to press designated buttons quickly. The first time I managed this, but the next time I failed, ultimately leading to my doom. Of course, there's an option to use items and escape, but since those are default options, I'm not describing them.
I liked the fact that you are able to name your character (and the dojo) without the clunky RPG Maker MV name input screen that most projects use. Now, if you only could change the font on those screens to the same one you use elsewhere, that would be perfect. Also the picture about keyboard command layout at the beginning of the game was a welcome addition. Most projects tent to approach players as people who already have knowledge on how to play RPG Maker games in general, and this might not always be the case.
The graphics and music were composed of (mostly) RTP assets, which wasn't that bad. The mapping was pretty good, too. However, there was a passability error with the larger tree tiles, allowing you to walk through them.
I sadly encountered a game-breaking bug on my second game. When entering the graveyard, I noticed that the grave of my first character was there. When I went to check it out, well... Let's just say the game wasn't that happy.
Overall, a pretty good entry that gave me enjoyment for a while. I might return to this some day, and I think I'll keep an eye on how the game develops further.
Reviewed for Secret Santa 2018
The game follows three young girls, Angela, Devon and Lia, as they track Lia's lost sister in the Cypress Hills. As expected from the team that brought us Dear Edwin last year, the audiovisual aspect is really great.
However, the game is quite railroaded. You aren't given much of a freedom to explore as your companions constantly remind you if you're about to enter places you're not supposed to. I can understand that somehow because each map is hand-drawn, but it derails from the experience somewhat.
As mentioned, the graphics are beautiful. There are a few exceptions, though, that I hope you will consider paying more attention to when the contest is over. The pipes you find in the city look plain and dull, perhaps because of the lack of any shading on the sprites. The storagehouse in the Cypress station looks dull with grey colours, and I quite honestly disliked the puzzle minigame there.
Speaking of puzzles, the Moonshine puzzle had a bug in my playthrough: I did not notice the buttons (I think there were buttons) for changing the pipes, it was by pure coincidence that I noticed that pressing Esc (cancel) allowed me to try another pipe. And the "turn pipe around" gimmick would work better with curved arrow pictures, in my opinion. Anyhow, after spending about five to ten minutes on that puzzle, I managed to get the thing working and could progress. I'm not sure if I could have gotten the moonshine right away, but the backtracking from Gerdy to that machine and back was unnecessary.
I can see the potential for a full game in this entry, but it still requires some extra polish before it would sell, if you're going that route. I can understand developing the story, hopefully you will consider the other points of this review as well.
Ok, so the game starts with the player dying and being sent to Heaven. However, as there's nothing really to do in Heaven, you decide you'd rather go to Hell instead. In order to move from Heaven to Hell, you decide to do some bad things.
The game could be described as being quite random. In the beginning, it is not exactly clear what you are supposed to do, but the lack of NPCs helps in this aspect. Talking to NPCs mostly advances the story or at least gives you hints on what to do next.
The main strength of this game is probably the somewhat wacky characters. It's probably the first time I've been accompanied by a tree. Too bad the game suffers from misspellings and sometimes unnecessary crude language.
The graphics and sounds are mostly RTP stuff. There are some items I don't recognize, but they go quite well with the chosen style.
The maps are dull, and there is one map that suffers from either bad passability or bad eventing. I'm talking about when you are in Hell and need to push a sleeping angel into a dark pit. The pushing event works alright, but sometimes she just did not move. I'm suspecting there was an invisible event blocking her path.
The ending was somewhat anticlimactic. I'm not sure on how to go on adding to this game, I guess the author is planning on adding some combat or something?
There's certainly some effort put in the game. Too bad the presentation falls a bit short. Might be worth your time if you have thirty minutes to spare with nothing better to do.
Hey PVGames! Thanks for the very detailed review. It certainly helps me to polish the game further.
I probably should add more options to the introduction slogfest (proving your worth) as it is really railroaded right now. Your point on the ridiculous quest stands, but I have to note that the dungeons are planned to be displayed in first person 3D view, so finding that scroll might not be that straightforward in the future. The fact that the cellars are safe is intentional, novices (starting class) aren't supposed to be able to fight.
Speaking of fighting... I admit that the battle balance is a mess. Sorry about that. That's probably one of the first things I'm going to fix after the contest. And those combat choice windows. I'm eventually going to scrap the tiny text and replace them with icons, but my first few attempts resulted in errors (I may have to take another course in JavaScript) but rest assured, they won't stay for long. As for what comes to the loot dropping, I admit I went overboard with the drop rates. Eventually monsters will stop dropping money and drop materials for unlockable items in the shop instead. (That is, you trade your drops to the blacksmith, a new item unlocks in the shop and you get a freebie). But that's something for the future.
Also concerning encounter rate... I might lessen the rate somewhat, but during my own tests they weren't that much of an issue. I think it was about on par with the default RPG Maker MV's encounter rate, but considering it was evented completely, it isn't hard to fix. I will also implement items to increase or to decrease encounter rates for a number of steps, but I didn't have the time to fit it in this version.
The mines are somewhat difficult to navigate in, but that too will (hopefully) be fixed when I implement a minimap function in the future. The game draws much inspiration from the Etrian Odyssey series on the Nintendo DS and 3DS, but unlike those games I won't be implementing a map drawing function. Instead the game will map the visited spots in the dungeons automatically.
I'm happy to hear that there were no real grammatical errors. Much of the dialogue was written in the latter half of the month, and although revised several times, errors can happen.
Finally, concerning the custom art... Well I'm planning to bugger Punamaagi for custom pictures for building interiors in the future.
I'm planning to build far more onto this game, but it takes time. Maybe I can ask you for another review at a later date when these issues are sorted out? I'd really like it.
Once again, thank you very much for your review. Best of luck to you in the contest as well.
Zelgadis85
Reviewed for Secret Santa 2018.
You are Kylus, a champion of your chosen deity that is aiming to become a new pharaoh after the old one died. You are required to pass trials of the six Egyptian gods before you are supposed to tackle the Tomb of the Pharaoh. I chose Anubis as my Deity and started my gameplay at his temple.
The dungeons are randomly generated. I found a bug in one room where you could jump off the floor into the walls, but nothing major came out of it. I couldn't use the trick to take a shortcut or anything, and I could safely jump back into the floor to continue my exploration.
There are puzzles in dungeons. In Anubis' dungeon I was tested of my knowledge of Egyptian gods, which I barely have, so I did not find that exactly enjoyable. Failure to answer the question resulted in a battle. I also played Isis' dungeon, in which the puzzles were more classical 'push switch to progress'.
The game features ATB combat. It is done pretty well, although there are two points I'd like to make:
-You should give the player an option to have the enemies wait while you choose a command. Sometimes I was wondering on which spell to cast while the enemies pounded away whittling my HP.
-The attack "minigame", while an interesting gimmick at first, becomes rather tedious after a while. And while I understand this is just a demo, hitting the marked area resulting in a miss isn't really fun. You should probably try to make these into certain hits, if possible.
Speaking of combat, I found the encounter rate a little high. I ultimately had to stop in the middle of Isis' temple because both my HP and MP were too low to continue. I played around an hour and a half, so I think I caught a good impression on what to expect.
The game featured pretty, vividly coloured graphics, which didn't deter from the experience. The battle backgrounds felt a bit empty. The music was alright, nothing too memorable, but not at a level where I'd turn the music off.
There were two things concerning plugins I'd like you to address: because I play on a 144Hz gaming monitor, having Synch Monitor FPS turned off by default resulted in sped-up gameplay. I suggest you turn that on when you finish the game. Also, I think having Print Screen save screenshots into MapShots folder isn't exactly expected behaviour, and I suggest you turn Hudell's plugin (I think you're using that) off when deploying. Neither of these is a major issue, though.
A solid entry.
Thanks for trying out Our Adventure (prototype)!
I'm aware the balance is pretty messed up right now. It's probably one of the first things I'll be working on after a few days' worth of rest. I basically worked around 16 hours each day for the last week trying to create the game up to a point I'd feel comfortable releasing. Just one week ago the game ended abruptly when you register at the guild and that's like, 5 minutes of gameplay? I had (foolishly) put off creation of the enemies at that point and since I tried to crave them in at the last minute, well... I guess it shows.
You'll probably want to try a thief in the future versions, too. They will have some very useful (and even required, at points) utility skills such as "Find Secret Doors" that will allow you to reach areas in dungeons you won't otherwise be able to enter.
As what comes for the mines being laggy, it's probably because of lots of events here and there. I might consider using a preloader to see if that helps it anyhow.
The busts will be done by Punamaagi sometime in the future, I'm also considering to add some pictures for town inside areas (like the guildhouse or town hall), just like Etrian Odyssey. Gives you lots of immersion, I'd say.
I'll be sure to try your entry some day, too. I'm just going to have a few days' rest before returning to RPG Maker MV.
Below is a direct copy from my post at RPG Maker Forums on what features are and what aren't implemented.
What is done for the IGMC18 version
What will be done after judging
What will be done sometime in the future
Thank you StefanosM for your review on the game! I'm happy to hear that you took another try at it.
I am aware the ending is anti-climactic, it was pretty much nothing short of a toss-away scene that I created for the sole purpose of letting the player know the game had ended. The original plan was to let the other NPCs escape as well, or perish one by one while you explore, but due to time restraints I had to take that option out. I might revisit the idea after the contest is over and we are allowed to edit our games once again.
I'm happy to hear you liked the spike puzzle; I know the representation of the hints was not ideal, I'm still thinking of a better way to represent it to the player. I am also kind of honored to hear that you actually tried out the LEGACY mode as well, although it was not necessarily well-made in any way. I might implement some of the riddles found there over the main game some day, if I find a good place to put them in. The fox-goose-corn puzzle was a pain to implement, and I kinda gave up on some meaningful flavor texts when you did choose wrong, but I will revisit it one day. I'm not aware of a way of representing the puzzle in any better way than it is currently, but I should probably inform the player beforehand that the puzzle is a sequence of answers.
Considering the response of the doors in the LEGACY mode, of course I'd like to create a better response to the player. Your idea is good, albeit a bit cliché. As for the answers, they are case-insensitive, so for example if you wrote "MIRROR" or "mIRRoR", the game will consider them both the same answer. (they are compared to lowercase)
The computer is not necessary at this point, but you might get some bonus points if you manage to answer the password correctly. There is still the off-chance of crashing, as you mentioned, but it seems that it happens only sometimes. I will take a better look at it after the competition ends.
Thank you luizcubas for your review! I'm happy to hear you enjoyed the game, I certainly enjoyed yours! I am also happy to hear that you found my puzzles and their rewards entertaining. I am also aware that my mapping skills need still more work.
I am planning on making more events for the player to interact with. Many of the events in the current game are redundant and do not play a necessary role; this will be addressed in an upgraded version that I will upload sometime after the contest ends.
Sadly, I must dismiss your suggestion for map size reduction. You see, I have a solid image on my mind what the building looks like (it is supposed to feel like it COULD exist out there somewhere, in reality). For this reason, I have created a rough blueprint of the mansion map (which is accessible ingame, if you manage to guess the computer password correctly). I might take it away from there and transfer it somewhere else, though (as the computer has multiple overlapping functions, none of which are necessarily vital for game completion)
I have also had other feedback on the players getting lost, so I might include a helper NPC in that new version that will give you hints on how to progress. I am still thinking about the exact design on how I should do this, but rest assured: it will come in one form or other.
Depending on how many events the next version will have, I might add a visual signal to show the player where to go, but I'm thinking that it might not happen right away (as I prefer to explore on my own first). I might do them on a timer of sorts, maybe after a period of inactivity.
Alright, so I took a shot at your game. I can definitely see you are a Finn :). The basic premise seems good, you are a firefighter and help normal citizens when they are threatened by fires. I liked the fact that Juho took the time to explain the reasoning of your actions, like that normal citizens should run away when confronted with fire and not stay (in the firemens' way).
There were some inconsistencies with mapping, but nothing that jars game play too much. I liked the H2O use instead of MP, but I'd like to have to have another method of attacking, perhaps stomping with boots? (I don't know if this becomes an option, as I could only afford to play for thirty minutes and played to the point where I could recruit the constable). This also would work better against the thief you encounter, as I cannot fathom firemen using the water hose against people.
I liked the references to Finnish culture, and I laughed a little when you could buy either normal bread (heals moderate HP) or rye bread (which heals full HP). I think no other country loves rye bread as we Finns do (yes, I am a Finn as well).
The game definitely shows some promise, and I like the fact that it is educational. Keep up the good work, and congratulations on finishing your game! (so far)
Alright, I took a shot at your game. It was a solid RPG experience, but I have to nitpick on a few things that might or not be just matters of taste and not necessarily design flaws. I'll list my points below, in no particular order:
Despite the "flaws" I mentioned above, I'm going ahead and vote for this entry. I think your effort shows and you should be rewarded for it. Thanks for making this game and please make more games in the future!
Thank you Xenoneo for your review! I admit, I was pressed on time and did not implement any features considering the costume change. I had hoped to fit in some different dialogue options when you are wearing the costume but could not, due to time restraints. I'm glad you liked the spike puzzle!
It seems that the computer ended up being a problem for many players and that is something I will definitely revisit if I make an refined version of this game.
The ending was lackluster, I admit. This too was because of time limits in the competition.
Alright, I took a shot at your game. The basic premise seems good; reminds me of Knights of Pen and Paper on Steam. You have four characters, each with distinctive abilities and personality that you need to utilize in order to solve the puzzle rooms you encounter. You have the Knight, John, who applies a shield, or a barrier, that blocks any incoming projectiles. This is mainly used to safeguard others. Then, you have the Berserker, Shemri. She can jump over 1-square obstacles and voids. You also have the mage, Cherry. She can blast most enemies (and your party members too, if you're feeling evil) away with a single shot. Some enemies are immune to this. Also, her fireballs can trigger switches if nothing else is on the way. Then, you have the Bard, Aubrey. His ability is the one you'll probably end up utilizing the most. His musical notes that he shoots switch placements between Aubrey and anyone they hit.
The puzzles start off as easy, but quickly become progressively more difficult. Most of them are genuinely intelligent. I wasn't too keen on the jumping puzzles later on, read more on that below.
The game shows some real promise, but a few things I feel like I should comment on. For starters, maybe you had a tutorial of sorts ingame, but if so, it was hidden well enough that I did not encounter it. I almost stopped on the first puzzle that required jumping as I did not realize (at that point) that the characters had distinctive abilities. Also, the special abilities are triggered via Shift, which introduces another problem: Windows' default behaviour is that when you rapidly press Shift multiple times in quick succession, you get this annoying pop-up that asks whether or not you want to utilize the StickyKeys feature. This in itself might not propose an issue, but since many puzzles require a lot of jumping (done via Shift), the popup was constanly interrupting my game play. When paired with the fact that some of the puzzles required rather exact timing on their jumps (Stages 10 and 12 come to mind) I had no other choice but to exit the game. If you somehow manage to fix this in future versions of the game, let me know and I'll play it again.
Notice: I played the updated version linked on the main game page, as the author is aware the version linked above is broken.
Alright, I took a shot at your game. The premise was fun, but there was something that irked me about the mapping. I know most people dig PVGames' graphics, and I find them pretty as well, but rather... unfunctional for 2D RPGs. I also hit a couple of invisible walls during gameplay, nothing major but still annoying.
The other nitpick was that the character sheets did not reflect their faces / busts well, if at all.
However, I still enjoyed the game, albeit it was a bit short. (I played for two different endings, not necessarily all of them.) Congratulations on completing the game in time!
I decided to give your game a go, and... WOW! A dungeon crawler that really gets the mood done correctly. I almost felt like I was playing some YS game instead of a one-month jam game, haha. I'm still currently playing, but I decided I needed to get this review out as soon as possible. This game has some real potential, let me tell you that.
The only thing that I have noticed so far is that you might want to lessen the multiple forms of many enemies you meet, I mean most enemies I have to defeat twice or thrice before they fall. I'd probably increase their HP / defenses a bit to compensate but leave transformations to those larger monsters you meet (I'm only at dungeon level 10, watching at that giant blocking my way).
I haven't played many entries yet, but this is the best out of the ones I've yet played. A real winning candidate. Congratulations on bringing this game out! (Maybe I'm biased as I really enjoy GOOD dungeon crawls.)
Alright, I gave this game a shot. I must say, I was impressed! Other than the passability errors mentioned by Jake Sauvage earlier, and the feeling that the final boss fight took a tad too long for my tastes, it left a sweet aftertaste. (Yeah, a story about a cook, and aftertaste, I know, lame pun right). Definitely one of the better entries I've played so far. Congratulations on completing your project! I hope you make more games in the future as well!
Alright, so I took a shot at this game. The game is unoptimized, to say the least. During the intro battle, I first thought the game crashed when the battle aftermath window appeared, as there was nothing happening for at least 10 seconds. I tried the other version, this time spamming ENTER and managed to progress. I returned to the earlier version, ENTER spam managed to get me through. I hit F5 and tried again, this time waiting it out. It seems like the instant level up from 1 to 61 took a longer time than I thought, so progress is possible even when waiting.
However, the next thing that put me off was the mapping. The maps were unnecessarily large, without any distinct landmarks to recognize my current location, and since this was a 'silent' game (which probably meant it had no events with any interaction) I was lost on what to do. I eventually managed to backtrack to the beginning, only to meet an ending that left me wandering what I had just played.
I'm sorry if I turned out harsher than I meant to. It's just that... well, no matter. Congratulations on finishing your game.
Please use this topic to leave a review. You need an itch.io account to do so, though.
Should you find a bug, please report it to the corresponding topic.
V1.02 (November 1)
V1.03 (November 5)
So, the game is finished now. Judges, please download and play the game tagged 'IGMC'. (Version 1.03 is the latest, and hopefully last, version I'll upload to the contest) There seems to be an issue with savegames with the standalone version. I have hidden the standalone download for now, because of said issue. Thank you!
Thanks Amudeus for your comment!
Good catch on that typo. I fixed it on my latest version (which will be put online shortly).
Yes, the project is still in active development and there will be quite a lot of more content coming. I have started to implement another floor of riddles, they should be available in future versions.
I might have been a tad hasty to enter the jam with an incomplete project, but by the time the contest ends I should have a finished product available (I will probably take out the earlier versions then, in order not to confuse people on which version to download).
