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NOMINATED "MOST PROMISING DEMO", 2010 MISAOS
NOMINATED "BEST INTERFACE", 2010 MISAOS
What People Are Saying
"Ever played an RM2003 game where you almost forgot you were playing an RM2003 game? Sore Losers - Riot Grrrl accomplishes just that" - acknowledge101
"Notice how I'm saying unique a lot? That's probably because Riot Grrrl isn't like any RM2k3 game I've ever played. It takes a lot of chances with most of the custom systems and the emphasis of gameplay (and minigames!) over story, but I feel that the game faired pretty well." - Xanedil
"It has it's own unique play style that is very well thought out and balanced and great in a survival/sandbox/exploration kind of way." - Orphansmith
The Setting
"They said that they had everything under control in that little complex of theirs. That everything would be okay because the military was there. That the riots would soon be over and that future generations could laugh at the effort the rebels had put into their ploy. And we all believed them, sat happily in our houses as the curfews and blockades dragged on and on and on, because we did not think anything would come of it. After all, we had the most powerful military in the world protecting us!
It did not help that the rebel's propaganda, their so-called "evidence" of genetic brainwashing, sounded like another cheap trick to try and incite anarchy from which only the rebels could benefit. They had tried it all before and, frankly, it sounded like a desperate ploy in their final days of existance. Although I had read their words and heard their broadcasts I just could not take any of it seriously. It sounded like one, big joke.
But the joke was on us.
As soon as one company of the military realised it was their Captain, the "infamous" Captain Alexis, that the "evidence" was based on, it stopped being nonsense. It stopped being comedic, it stopped being propaganda and, instead, it became a new set of orders; orders to fight against a system they believed had warped them and their Captain into killing machines. As the mutiny spread and the military was divided down the middle, the Condemned, criminal bastards that they are, followed the trail of violence out of Central Ferusia until chaos ruled over everything.
I have to get out. I do not care what the television says about Ferusian victories anymore: I can't keep sleeping next to this knife as I wait for someone else to break down my barricaded door. I already have too much blood on my hands!"
~ Diary of Cheska Frederick.
Blarb
This is a game that is going to be highly interactive in terms of field-map gameplay because - much like Sore Losers - it is going to be crammed with minigames. In fact, this game is going to have far more minigame sequences than Sore Losers managed to have. Minigames will be present for everything; from searching areas for items to lockpicking doors; from hotwiring electrical equipment to dodging rioters; from arguing with NPCs to hacking into computer systems. In fact, nearly everything you do is going to involve some kind of minigame mechanism. Why? Because I want to make an RPG where ability doesn't rely on the stats of the characters. I'm going to try and bring player skill more to the forefront and hopefully the excessive use of minigame sequences is going to achieve just that.
Of course, battles are also going to be interactive. I'm not heavily reliant on stats so having normal battles would be extremely redundant. In Sore Losers: Riot Grrrl you'll be able to knock the weapons out of your opponent's hands, kick bookcases over onto people, throw your enemies into electric fences, use trashcans to stop enemies from being able to attack you and generally use the environment to fuck people up. Why settle for just the weapon in your hand? Use everything to your advantage!
This game won't be convuluted in terms of plot, character development or other such things because I know I am not a master of words; instead I just hope that this will be a game that's fun to play because having fun is the whole point of playing games in the first place!
Features
A soundtrack comprised of tracks by Brand New, Be Your Own Pet, The Postal Service, The Sleeping and more!
>90% custom graphics.
Custom item/menu system: With only 6 item slots, correctly choosing what to take with you becomes a vital skill!
Innovative ConvoBattles offer a viable alternative to violent conflict.
The search minigame means you won't have to mash Enter near a bookcase ever again.
Lockpicking and Hacking return from Sore Losers, revamped.
Hotwiring is introduced as another way to get around Ferusia.
Use the environment to your advantage and disarm enemies in the new Environment-ATB system
NOMINATED "BEST INTERFACE", 2010 MISAOS
What People Are Saying
"Ever played an RM2003 game where you almost forgot you were playing an RM2003 game? Sore Losers - Riot Grrrl accomplishes just that" - acknowledge101
"Notice how I'm saying unique a lot? That's probably because Riot Grrrl isn't like any RM2k3 game I've ever played. It takes a lot of chances with most of the custom systems and the emphasis of gameplay (and minigames!) over story, but I feel that the game faired pretty well." - Xanedil
"It has it's own unique play style that is very well thought out and balanced and great in a survival/sandbox/exploration kind of way." - Orphansmith
The Setting
"They said that they had everything under control in that little complex of theirs. That everything would be okay because the military was there. That the riots would soon be over and that future generations could laugh at the effort the rebels had put into their ploy. And we all believed them, sat happily in our houses as the curfews and blockades dragged on and on and on, because we did not think anything would come of it. After all, we had the most powerful military in the world protecting us!
It did not help that the rebel's propaganda, their so-called "evidence" of genetic brainwashing, sounded like another cheap trick to try and incite anarchy from which only the rebels could benefit. They had tried it all before and, frankly, it sounded like a desperate ploy in their final days of existance. Although I had read their words and heard their broadcasts I just could not take any of it seriously. It sounded like one, big joke.
But the joke was on us.
As soon as one company of the military realised it was their Captain, the "infamous" Captain Alexis, that the "evidence" was based on, it stopped being nonsense. It stopped being comedic, it stopped being propaganda and, instead, it became a new set of orders; orders to fight against a system they believed had warped them and their Captain into killing machines. As the mutiny spread and the military was divided down the middle, the Condemned, criminal bastards that they are, followed the trail of violence out of Central Ferusia until chaos ruled over everything.
I have to get out. I do not care what the television says about Ferusian victories anymore: I can't keep sleeping next to this knife as I wait for someone else to break down my barricaded door. I already have too much blood on my hands!"
~ Diary of Cheska Frederick.
Blarb
This is a game that is going to be highly interactive in terms of field-map gameplay because - much like Sore Losers - it is going to be crammed with minigames. In fact, this game is going to have far more minigame sequences than Sore Losers managed to have. Minigames will be present for everything; from searching areas for items to lockpicking doors; from hotwiring electrical equipment to dodging rioters; from arguing with NPCs to hacking into computer systems. In fact, nearly everything you do is going to involve some kind of minigame mechanism. Why? Because I want to make an RPG where ability doesn't rely on the stats of the characters. I'm going to try and bring player skill more to the forefront and hopefully the excessive use of minigame sequences is going to achieve just that.
Of course, battles are also going to be interactive. I'm not heavily reliant on stats so having normal battles would be extremely redundant. In Sore Losers: Riot Grrrl you'll be able to knock the weapons out of your opponent's hands, kick bookcases over onto people, throw your enemies into electric fences, use trashcans to stop enemies from being able to attack you and generally use the environment to fuck people up. Why settle for just the weapon in your hand? Use everything to your advantage!
This game won't be convuluted in terms of plot, character development or other such things because I know I am not a master of words; instead I just hope that this will be a game that's fun to play because having fun is the whole point of playing games in the first place!
Features
A soundtrack comprised of tracks by Brand New, Be Your Own Pet, The Postal Service, The Sleeping and more!
>90% custom graphics.
Custom item/menu system: With only 6 item slots, correctly choosing what to take with you becomes a vital skill!
Innovative ConvoBattles offer a viable alternative to violent conflict.
The search minigame means you won't have to mash Enter near a bookcase ever again.
Lockpicking and Hacking return from Sore Losers, revamped.
Hotwiring is introduced as another way to get around Ferusia.
Use the environment to your advantage and disarm enemies in the new Environment-ATB system
Latest Blog
Getting Out Of Riot Grrrl's Development Hell
SatedThis is a cross-post from my general gaming blog, Sore Losers Gaming...
Sore Losers: Riot Grrrl is a game that I've been working on for a very long time. Originally intended as a short project into which I could dump ideas that didn't fit the JRPG formula I used in Sore Losers, it soon sprawled into a much larger project than I had intended. Unfortunately, real life eventually managed to get in the way and I wasn't able, nor willing, to work on the game for over a year. That's obviously a long time, and so getting back into the flow of things has been very difficult... but there's nothing I can do about that other than to work hard. I've promised myself, and the friends who've helped me out, that this game is eventually going to get finished and so finishing it is what I'm going to do.
So, where am I up to? I returned to the game to find that three out of the planned five levels were complete (which had been the situation for longer than my hiatus had lasted), and that I was in the middle of bug testing those levels. This meant that I spent the first couple of months or so bug testing, fixing bugs, and then bug testing over again. Fortunately, I didn't find as many bugs as I'd found when I was making the original Sore Losers, so I'm obviously getting better at this game development thing!
Admittedly, bug testing can sometimes be a very annoying process because it usually ends up feeling like you're taking away from the game rather than adding to it, but in this case it was actually a very therapeutic process. This is as it as it allowed me to familiarise myself with how many of the game's most important systems worked and how they were linked into one another, which in turn made it much on me when I eventually started creating new levels and content.
After finishing the bug testing, it was time to get on with making the fourth level, and that's actually going well so far. Several stages are already complete, and I have a well developed plan for how the rest of the level is going to pan out. All I really need to do is turn my plans into both code (which is actually the easy part because of the clever, modular system I've set-up for generating new levels) and sprites (which is by far the more difficult part because I'm so slow when it comes to drawing out all the level backgrounds, monsters and characters I need).
Overall, it's good to be making progress, so I'll leave you with some screenshots and continue my work!
The final level takes place in a government building, throughout which stand many militaristic statues such as this one (I'm still not sold on the shading; probably needs a touch up).
Given that government in this game are a very paranoid group of people, there are lots of secret passages and security measures to deal with in this particular level!
Sore Losers: Riot Grrrl is a game that I've been working on for a very long time. Originally intended as a short project into which I could dump ideas that didn't fit the JRPG formula I used in Sore Losers, it soon sprawled into a much larger project than I had intended. Unfortunately, real life eventually managed to get in the way and I wasn't able, nor willing, to work on the game for over a year. That's obviously a long time, and so getting back into the flow of things has been very difficult... but there's nothing I can do about that other than to work hard. I've promised myself, and the friends who've helped me out, that this game is eventually going to get finished and so finishing it is what I'm going to do.
So, where am I up to? I returned to the game to find that three out of the planned five levels were complete (which had been the situation for longer than my hiatus had lasted), and that I was in the middle of bug testing those levels. This meant that I spent the first couple of months or so bug testing, fixing bugs, and then bug testing over again. Fortunately, I didn't find as many bugs as I'd found when I was making the original Sore Losers, so I'm obviously getting better at this game development thing!
Admittedly, bug testing can sometimes be a very annoying process because it usually ends up feeling like you're taking away from the game rather than adding to it, but in this case it was actually a very therapeutic process. This is as it as it allowed me to familiarise myself with how many of the game's most important systems worked and how they were linked into one another, which in turn made it much on me when I eventually started creating new levels and content.
After finishing the bug testing, it was time to get on with making the fourth level, and that's actually going well so far. Several stages are already complete, and I have a well developed plan for how the rest of the level is going to pan out. All I really need to do is turn my plans into both code (which is actually the easy part because of the clever, modular system I've set-up for generating new levels) and sprites (which is by far the more difficult part because I'm so slow when it comes to drawing out all the level backgrounds, monsters and characters I need).
Overall, it's good to be making progress, so I'll leave you with some screenshots and continue my work!
The final level takes place in a government building, throughout which stand many militaristic statues such as this one (I'm still not sold on the shading; probably needs a touch up).
Given that government in this game are a very paranoid group of people, there are lots of secret passages and security measures to deal with in this particular level!
- Production
- Sated
RPG Maker 2003- RPG
- 05/20/2009 01:46 PM
- 05/03/2013 01:18 PM
- N/A
- 77760
- 45
- 415
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edchuy
965
I am downloading the the tech-demo and hopefully will be able to give you some feedback later. I know you mentioned it on the RS! X post. I was hoping to be able to add it to my list had it been released a lot earlier, but I am currently writing the wrap-up article. I'm still giving it a whirl.
I did mean to get something ready by the Release Something! date but it didn't happen. I didn't want to force it since that would've just ended up making the game worse.
Your effort to get all the releases reviewed is brilliant - can't wait for the round-up.
Your effort to get all the releases reviewed is brilliant - can't wait for the round-up.
edchuy
965
I just finished the demo. Everything seems to work as intended and well explained, which I suspected it would be, since you probably spent a bit of extra time on it (that, I suspect, was the reason it wasn't ready for RS! X). Definitely a different type of gameplay than I'm used to. Kind of reminds me of some early adventure PC games. Did catch a spelling/typing mistake: "parliament".
Regarding the arguments (you need to update your corresponding screenshot to show your new options as well as your title screen), I was able to avoid the first one, but not the second. Regarding battles, I could have done better had I figured that you could bring you a menu to change fighting to passive ATB. A certain animal as well as a paranoid weapon wielding person almost had their way with me (I somehow avoided seeing the game over screen). Also, I like the idea of having environment dependent options both in and out of fights to make it interesting. Finally, nice choice of music and colors. All those things more than make up for not being able to move your character around ...
I'll eventually try out the original Sore Losers! In the meantime, I'm hoping to post my round-up by tomorrow.
Regarding the arguments (you need to update your corresponding screenshot to show your new options as well as your title screen), I was able to avoid the first one, but not the second. Regarding battles, I could have done better had I figured that you could bring you a menu to change fighting to passive ATB. A certain animal as well as a paranoid weapon wielding person almost had their way with me (I somehow avoided seeing the game over screen). Also, I like the idea of having environment dependent options both in and out of fights to make it interesting. Finally, nice choice of music and colors. All those things more than make up for not being able to move your character around ...
I'll eventually try out the original Sore Losers! In the meantime, I'm hoping to post my round-up by tomorrow.
Sounds like you liked it, which is good! I'll sort out the spelling mistake, that is a pretty silly one to miss.
GOOD!
I thought some of my dungeons in the original Sore Losers were too straight-forward and I hope I can make the player think a little more throughout the course of this game. I'm glad you noticed the influence from adventure games as those point-and-click style of games were one of my major inspirations when it came to the area-map gameplay. The other influences were games like Resident Evil and Fear Effect: I loved the way those games mixed puzzles with combat and I am trying to do the same here (albeit with RPG-style combat).
Yes, the screenshots do need updating, thanks for reminding me. It shouldn't take too long to get that sorted out. As for the arguments, they are basically there because too many arguments in too many games are simply scripted and I want the player to have more influence over them. In Sore Losers there is branched dialogue that lets you choose what the main character says in order to influence the dialogue (although not the outcome. It is faux decision making, really). I thought I would take that a step further in this game by turning it into a minigame.
Besides, everyone loved the rock-paper-scissors bosses in Alex Kidd in Miracle World , right? (I am slightly biased because I adore that game).
Using the passive ATB does make things a little easier, but I think that is true of all games. Each battle is supposed to be challenging enough that it will threaten you as you get fully-healed between battles - it would be pointless having battles being too easy as then there'd be no challenge at all.
I can't wait for the round-up. I didn't have time to play too many of the releases so hopefully I can use your round-up to see what I should really look to be playing out of all the releases. And you should definately play the first game - the contrast between that (a fairly traditional RPG) and this should be pretty obvious.
Kind of reminds me of some early adventure PC games.
GOOD!
I thought some of my dungeons in the original Sore Losers were too straight-forward and I hope I can make the player think a little more throughout the course of this game. I'm glad you noticed the influence from adventure games as those point-and-click style of games were one of my major inspirations when it came to the area-map gameplay. The other influences were games like Resident Evil and Fear Effect: I loved the way those games mixed puzzles with combat and I am trying to do the same here (albeit with RPG-style combat).
Regarding the arguments (you need to update your corresponding screenshot to show your new options as well as your title screen), I was able to avoid the first one, but not the second.
Yes, the screenshots do need updating, thanks for reminding me. It shouldn't take too long to get that sorted out. As for the arguments, they are basically there because too many arguments in too many games are simply scripted and I want the player to have more influence over them. In Sore Losers there is branched dialogue that lets you choose what the main character says in order to influence the dialogue (although not the outcome. It is faux decision making, really). I thought I would take that a step further in this game by turning it into a minigame.
Besides, everyone loved the rock-paper-scissors bosses in Alex Kidd in Miracle World , right? (I am slightly biased because I adore that game).
Regarding battles, I could have done better had I figured that you could bring you a menu to change fighting to passive ATB. A certain animal as well as a paranoid weapon wielding person almost had their way with me
Using the passive ATB does make things a little easier, but I think that is true of all games. Each battle is supposed to be challenging enough that it will threaten you as you get fully-healed between battles - it would be pointless having battles being too easy as then there'd be no challenge at all.
I'll eventually try out the original Sore Losers! In the meantime, I'm hoping to post my round-up by tomorrow.
I can't wait for the round-up. I didn't have time to play too many of the releases so hopefully I can use your round-up to see what I should really look to be playing out of all the releases. And you should definately play the first game - the contrast between that (a fairly traditional RPG) and this should be pretty obvious.
I don't like games that start with a long and hard-to-understand dialog, followed by an extremely difficult battle. But it looks great, it's worth another shot... and probably another, and another...
---edit---
Sorry, just found out that the first battle is actually easy. I didn't understand the isntructions the first time.
---edit after playing---
I like this a lot. I'm not big fan of this sort of setting, but I like what I see from this game... like the graphics, love the soundtrack, like the custom systems, like not having to wander around on maps. Only recommendations I'd make is making maps more busy, and having LESS text. I don't like having to confirm every movement action, and there's just too much instructions for everything. There should be a INSTRUCTIONS OFF option, because people might actually want to replay the game.
And please, don't import the entire RTP into your game's folders. :P
Also, this kind of game would do well with a save anywhere option.
---edit---
Sorry, just found out that the first battle is actually easy. I didn't understand the isntructions the first time.
---edit after playing---
I like this a lot. I'm not big fan of this sort of setting, but I like what I see from this game... like the graphics, love the soundtrack, like the custom systems, like not having to wander around on maps. Only recommendations I'd make is making maps more busy, and having LESS text. I don't like having to confirm every movement action, and there's just too much instructions for everything. There should be a INSTRUCTIONS OFF option, because people might actually want to replay the game.
And please, don't import the entire RTP into your game's folders. :P
Also, this kind of game would do well with a save anywhere option.
Sorry, just found out that the first battle is actually easy. I didn't understand the isntructions the first time.
Yep. You just have to use the "Interact" option the tutorial suggests. Glad you worked it out because you can't actually win that first battle any other way.
making maps more busy
Do you mean graphically? I know the interior maps need some more stuff put into them (like I said above). Or do you mean in terms of gameplay because I think they're quite busy as it is.
I don't like having to confirm every movement action
I supose that could get annoying when you're back-tracking but I didn't really notice. I'll take a look into turning the options off and having it be a direct transition. Unless there actually are multiple choices, obviously!
There should be a INSTRUCTIONS OFF option
I'll put an option dialogue before each tutorial. No big deal.
And please, don't import the entire RTP into your game's folders. :P
It's for people who don't usually play RPGMaker games or who don't have the RM2K3 RTP installed natively. I prefer this over having to release two different downloads. If the filesize gets too big I'll make a non-RTP version as well but, as it is, I don't see the filesize being an issue.
Also, this kind of game would do well with a save anywhere option.
The way the overlays work makes save-anywhere a dangerous option, unfortunately. It took me a while to make it so the overlay reappeared after you load the game from the save room - where I get to choose whether you save or not - so not having control over where the player saves could bring up some interesting issues I don't want bringing up. Come to think of it, the first two save rooms might still be broken in this aspect! I think I forgot to check them!
Also, I want to discourage people from abusing save/load considering there are a lot of optional branches that affect the way you get AP, how many battles you fight, what items you get etc. I don't want people reloading the game over and over until they get the results they want. Having sporadic save-points instead of save-anywhere allows me to stop people doing this (to a degree).
-Yes, I mean busy graphically. System-wise it's fine. I like the search thing a lot.
-About the RTP, you can import just the files you use. I know it's somewhat annoying, and you run the risk of forgetting a file and breaking your game. But that saves you the trouble of having 20MB+ of useless files in your folders.
-I understand your problem with save anywhere. But at least consider having more savepoints. Cheating is more a question of ethics than possibility. It's an rm2k3 game, people might as well hack the game, so you shouldn't worry about constant reloading that much. I just hate it when I want to stop playing the game, but I'm far from a saving moment.
-About the RTP, you can import just the files you use. I know it's somewhat annoying, and you run the risk of forgetting a file and breaking your game. But that saves you the trouble of having 20MB+ of useless files in your folders.
-I understand your problem with save anywhere. But at least consider having more savepoints. Cheating is more a question of ethics than possibility. It's an rm2k3 game, people might as well hack the game, so you shouldn't worry about constant reloading that much. I just hate it when I want to stop playing the game, but I'm far from a saving moment.
About the RTP, you can import just the files you use.
I think there is a program I can use to do this for me. Should be fine. I'll do that next time.
SegNin
41
comment=26605About the RTP, you can import just the files you use.I think there is a program I can use to do this for me. Should be fine. I'll do that next time.
You're right. There is such a program and you can get it here:
http://whoopanetwork.com/rmtool/
Thanks for that!
Saves me a lot of time since I couldn't remember the name of the program (but I am sure a Google search would've brought it up).
Saves me a lot of time since I couldn't remember the name of the program (but I am sure a Google search would've brought it up).
I am really fucking bored so I'm going to comment on this as I play it.
Comment #0: I fucking love the music. That's the good news. The bad news is, based on this, I assume most people won't like it. Also the reuse of tracks and looping of tracks is a little weird/jarring, but probably necessary for space reasons.
Comment #1 (NOT REALLY): Contractions. Please use contractions. People talk and think in contractions. The absence of contractions in the introductory dialogue was extremely offputting. This is an issue throughout the whole demo. Especially with dialogue like:
"I am not gonna gonna leave, I did nothing! I am not a criminal."
If you're going to use "gonna" than please use "I'm". Even "I'm not going to" is preferable to "I am not gonna". This might seem really arbitrary and nitpicky but...honestly, it isn't...
Comment #2: Early fights feel a little TOO close. One or two unlucky misses or criticals might lead to a frustrating early game over. I can talk about this more if you like.
Comment #3: You are really using rm2k3 in a way it does NOT want to be used. Don't worry, I love these kinds of "abuses" of the engine. And unlike making a tile-based ABS, it's not innately impossible to make this kind of game in rm2k3. Just very counterintuitive. I could talk about what a weird genre-mutt your game is for hours but for now, let me just say that some of the 'show text' commands seem a little bit extraneous. Your game has graphics (even if it has very little animation)...do I really need a text summary of every move I make? Also, I am thinking that maybe mapping building entrances to different numbers might be more efficient than having a second show-choice menu after hitting 3: Buildings.
Comment #4: You are really good at minigames. Could you help me with some?
Comment #5: Continuing comment #2 I did everything "right" and still died during the fight with the drunk in the tavern. Conclusion: I think that defending should restore health too. Also the '99999' to everything at the end of a fight is a bit jarring, but I guess there's no workaround for it.
Comment #6: Oh no, a Rock Paper Scissors based CBS. I am flashing back to The Way. BTW: comments can be "Vicious" but only oil can be "Viscous". And I don't think this is a King's English vs. American English thing, either. The difference here of course from the way is that this isn't a pure guess...but you're going to have to be VERY CONSISTENT with your dialogue to make it possible for the player to guess which dialogue lines are what. In other words, you've created a battle system that requires you to be a good writer.
Comment #7: Shouldn't there be some incentive for succeeding a search on the first try? Perhaps a better item? Because there's no disincentive for failing.
Comment #8: In spite of what it says in the tutorial, the "Previous" command doesn't seem to let you enter the leftmost building.
Comment #9: Fight with dog takes too long. If I can kill a human with one hit with a bottle, I should be able to one-hit a dog with a sledgehammer. Sledgehammer should cost more SP to use than the bottle but do significantly more damage. They were way too comparable. Also, last time I checked, dogs weren't venomous.
Comment #10: Nice of the rioters not to destroy the computer. : )
Comment #11: Emphasizing Comment #0. I am really starting to hate this Brand New song. And this is one of my favorite bands. Time for a change, please!
Comment #12: Hotwiring minigame is the first out of...five? That I have found annoying, rather than fun. Too much guesswork.
Comment #13: Continuing Comment #6....Viscious beats Timid, right? Isn't someone who is stuttering being TIMID? So how come when I respond to game clerk's second stutter with "Viscious", I lose? This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about.
Comment #14: Level of RMN references/second is overloading my delight meter.
Comment #15: Want to take a break. Where is the damn save point.
Comment #16: Oh, there it is. Good timing. Need a break from this fucking Brand New song.
Comment #0: I fucking love the music. That's the good news. The bad news is, based on this, I assume most people won't like it. Also the reuse of tracks and looping of tracks is a little weird/jarring, but probably necessary for space reasons.
Comment #1 (NOT REALLY): Contractions. Please use contractions. People talk and think in contractions. The absence of contractions in the introductory dialogue was extremely offputting. This is an issue throughout the whole demo. Especially with dialogue like:
"I am not gonna gonna leave, I did nothing! I am not a criminal."
If you're going to use "gonna" than please use "I'm". Even "I'm not going to" is preferable to "I am not gonna". This might seem really arbitrary and nitpicky but...honestly, it isn't...
Comment #2: Early fights feel a little TOO close. One or two unlucky misses or criticals might lead to a frustrating early game over. I can talk about this more if you like.
Comment #3: You are really using rm2k3 in a way it does NOT want to be used. Don't worry, I love these kinds of "abuses" of the engine. And unlike making a tile-based ABS, it's not innately impossible to make this kind of game in rm2k3. Just very counterintuitive. I could talk about what a weird genre-mutt your game is for hours but for now, let me just say that some of the 'show text' commands seem a little bit extraneous. Your game has graphics (even if it has very little animation)...do I really need a text summary of every move I make? Also, I am thinking that maybe mapping building entrances to different numbers might be more efficient than having a second show-choice menu after hitting 3: Buildings.
Comment #4: You are really good at minigames. Could you help me with some?
Comment #5: Continuing comment #2 I did everything "right" and still died during the fight with the drunk in the tavern. Conclusion: I think that defending should restore health too. Also the '99999' to everything at the end of a fight is a bit jarring, but I guess there's no workaround for it.
Comment #6: Oh no, a Rock Paper Scissors based CBS. I am flashing back to The Way. BTW: comments can be "Vicious" but only oil can be "Viscous". And I don't think this is a King's English vs. American English thing, either. The difference here of course from the way is that this isn't a pure guess...but you're going to have to be VERY CONSISTENT with your dialogue to make it possible for the player to guess which dialogue lines are what. In other words, you've created a battle system that requires you to be a good writer.
Comment #7: Shouldn't there be some incentive for succeeding a search on the first try? Perhaps a better item? Because there's no disincentive for failing.
Comment #8: In spite of what it says in the tutorial, the "Previous" command doesn't seem to let you enter the leftmost building.
Comment #9: Fight with dog takes too long. If I can kill a human with one hit with a bottle, I should be able to one-hit a dog with a sledgehammer. Sledgehammer should cost more SP to use than the bottle but do significantly more damage. They were way too comparable. Also, last time I checked, dogs weren't venomous.
Comment #10: Nice of the rioters not to destroy the computer. : )
Comment #11: Emphasizing Comment #0. I am really starting to hate this Brand New song. And this is one of my favorite bands. Time for a change, please!
Comment #12: Hotwiring minigame is the first out of...five? That I have found annoying, rather than fun. Too much guesswork.
Comment #13: Continuing Comment #6....Viscious beats Timid, right? Isn't someone who is stuttering being TIMID? So how come when I respond to game clerk's second stutter with "Viscious", I lose? This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about.
Comment #14: Level of RMN references/second is overloading my delight meter.
Comment #15: Want to take a break. Where is the damn save point.
Comment #16: Oh, there it is. Good timing. Need a break from this fucking Brand New song.
I forgot to ask... is this a single-character game?
There will be temporary party-members you can obtain for a set-amount of time later in the game, but for the most part Cheska will be the only character - this is why she spends so much time talking to herself.
@Max: That is a lot of comments. Right, lemme see here:
Comment #1 (NOT REALLY): Contractions. Please use contractions. People talk and think in contractions. The absence of contractions in the introductory dialogue was extremely offputting. This is an issue throughout the whole demo. Especially with dialogue like:
Cheska is supposed to speak without any contractions so I will have to go and change that "gonna" to "going to". I keep slipping into the way I would say things rather than the way I want her to say things and the same can probably be said for a couple of the NPCs you meet. I'll go back through and see what needs changing.
Comment #2: Early fights feel a little TOO close. One or two unlucky misses or criticals might lead to a frustrating early game over. I can talk about this more if you like.
Every fight is supposed to be challenging. I'm going to be adding another save-point earlier into the game to try and make any deaths less jarring. The second tutorial fight could do with a little bit of a change because two misses will lead to you dying and that could probably put people off. I'll look into it.
let me just say that some of the 'show text' commands seem a little bit extraneous. Your game has graphics (even if it has very little animation)...do I really need a text summary of every move I make?
This has already been (partially) worked out. I have added doors to the inside of buildings so you know when you are entering/exiting so there is no longer any need to confirm everything all the time. I am also going to take a little bit of your advice and change the "3: Buildings" command to "3: Tavern" etc. if there is only one building you can enter on a specific map. However, I am afraid the dialogue options are going to be sticking around for the cases when you have more than one building you can enter.
Comment #6: Oh no, a Rock Paper Scissors based CBS. I am flashing back to The Way. BTW: comments can be "Vicious" but only oil can be "Viscous". And I don't think this is a King's English vs. American English thing, either.
Eep. Bad spelling is bad. I write "viscous" a lot as a chemist so I shouldn't be making a mistake like that.
The difference here of course from the way is that this isn't a pure guess...but you're going to have to be VERY CONSISTENT with your dialogue to make it possible for the player to guess which dialogue lines are what. In other words, you've created a battle system that requires you to be a good writer.
Yep, which as you point out later probably hasn't quite worked out for the best! I'd like to think that I can write consistent responses for a battle-system that is relatively simple, though. I don't think I am that bad a writer.
Comment #7: Shouldn't there be some incentive for succeeding a search on the first try? Perhaps a better item? Because there's no disincentive for failing.
Hmmm. Perhaps. I'll have a think about it, but there aren't really that many items in the database to work with. Perhaps an AP-bonus for getting it right the first time around?
Comment #8: In spite of what it says in the tutorial, the "Previous" command doesn't seem to let you enter the leftmost building.
I simply forgot to change the dialogue in the tutorial. I'll sort that out.
Comment #9: Fight with dog takes too long. If I can kill a human with one hit with a bottle, I should be able to one-hit a dog with a sledgehammer. Sledgehammer should cost more SP to use than the bottle but do significantly more damage. They were way too comparable. Also, last time I checked, dogs weren't venomous.
Every time I have fought that thing it has taken me a handful of turns. I will look into reducing the dogs HP. Dogs may not be venomous but... *shrug*
Comment #10: Nice of the rioters not to destroy the computer. : )
Convenient, isn't it.
Comment #11: Emphasizing Comment #0. I am really starting to hate this Brand New song. And this is one of my favorite bands. Time for a change, please!
The next area has a change in music (both area-map and battle music). The demo only shows you the very first area of the game (the end of the demo is the end of the first area - the very next map has new music).
Comment #12: Hotwiring minigame is the first out of...five? That I have found annoying, rather than fun. Too much guesswork.
There is a logical way to go about it, but the early exchanges are pure guess-work. I'll cut-back on my use of that minigame in the future since that is the second time someone has said it is tedious.
Comment #13: Continuing Comment #6....Viscious beats Timid, right? Isn't someone who is stuttering being TIMID? So how come when I respond to game clerk's second stutter with "Viscious", I lose? This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about.
I took a while deciding whether or not to leave the stutter in, I guess I made the wrong decision. I will take it out.
Comment #14: Level of RMN references/second is overloading my delight meter.
:)
Cheska is supposed to speak without any contractions
Then please make sure EVERYONE ELSE uses contractions normally so as to indicate this is characterization. (The soldiers/punks/drunks/rioters also didn't seem to be using any !!)
Perhaps an AP-bonus for getting it right the first time around?
That'd be about perfect.
Also: Do you lose the talking minigame for "tying" the other person? I was unclear on that. (i.e. rock v. rock, scissors v. scissors, paper v. paper).
Final Also: I have some music suggestions.
Then please make sure EVERYONE ELSE uses contractions normally so as to indicate this is characterization. (The soldiers/punks/drunks/rioters also didn't seem to be using any !!)
I'll check. I think most of the other characters do use them, although other characters who work for the Government (like Cheska) will most likely speak the same way she does.
Also: Do you lose the talking minigame for "tying" the other person? I was unclear on that. (i.e. rock v. rock, scissors v. scissors, paper v. paper).
It currently depends who you are against - I need to either explain this or standardise it. In the two fights in the demo, tying in the alley ConvoBattle will cause you to lose but tying against the Clerk will spawn more dialogue. The Clerk was originally going to be an optional, temporary party member but I decided to introduce those on the second level.
Final Also: I have some music suggestions.
Go ahead. I already have music planned for the next couple of areas but I don't have anything chosen musically after those.
Well for starters, failure to include this song (not a great recording or whatever, but I couldn't find a really good-version on you-tube) will cause me to be a sad panda, and murder your unborn children, in that order.
In other words, a sad panda will be devouring your unborn children.
(Seriously, this song is your game.)
In other words, a sad panda will be devouring your unborn children.
(Seriously, this song is your game.)
