Matsumori Days

I've been getting some PMs about the puzzle in the Wind Trial of late. While I could post the long-version-solution and the deviousness of it all as a separate tab, I'm wondering how useful it could be to have a walkthrough of some kind? If I go the walkthrough route, I doubt I would put every little bit of information about the game in it, but I figure it would be fairly comprehensive, covering as many options as I think are available to the player at any given time.

Anyway, this isn't as-so-much a traditional "I need help yesterday!" request blog, but more of a "I could use some opinions on whether or not I should mess with this idea, so let's have a poll!" request blog.

Now I watch, as nobody responds to this blog.

I've got to face the facts: Matsumori Days, as it stands, leaves out a lot of information. That there's no real sense of closure doesn't help matters either. That I decided to do these things on purpose is, perhaps, the most grievous offense to players.

What does this have to do with the Summer Games Event? Well, I was playing Aetherion last night. While I was doing so, I got this odd sensation that the school in that game is what Matsumori High wanted to be. Not in the whole "We teach magic!" bit, but the layout. It also doesn't help (or maybe it does) that the first moments of Arbiters From Another World resides a magic-learning facility.

What's Arbiters From Another World? Well, suffice it to say, it's a prequel to Matsumori Days that was one of my early (read: before I visited RMN) games made in VX. Even if I do present this sequel to the RMN community, there is still the matter of the lack of closure that Matsumori Days has. Which is supposed to be where Konae Detective Agency comes into play. As for Konae it is, you guessed it, a sequel I made during my pre-RMN days.

However, before I re-tackle Arbiters From Another World or Konae Decetcive Agency, with any amount of seriousness, I want to grow as a developer. Take on small jobs, so to speak, in hopes that I will learn the skills I need to make my games closer to the vision I have for them.

Funny thing is, I'm not sure where to start, as the other early projects I have, are, of course, waaay to ambitious for their own good (I can be such a "newb" like that). Consider:

Nakaishi Wars
This game predates Matsumori Days, actually. Anyway, this game wants be a tactical strategy game with a science fiction flavor (Mechanized combat armor!). If you're thinking something along the lines of the Super Robot Wars, or perhaps Fire Emblem in space, we're probably on a similar page. To say the least, the amount of scripting/coding knowledge to pull this off is not something I currently have. Not to mention what graphics this would need.

Uchioniko
While this is being semi-resurrected with the custom content options of Heartache 101 - Sour Into Sweet, it was never meant to be a dating-sim. It was supposed to be a personal take on "magical girl" anime. I wanted players to have the feeling that they were interacting with an anime movie/TV show/whatever, but my graphic skills are not up to this task.

Oracle of Askigaga
This game was mostly made as a means to unleash certain emotions. The idea was to cause players to share in them. However, I think the emotions cannot be properly relayed unless the player understands the context of these emotions. To be frank, I have no idea if this would ever work.

What does this mean for what the next "Marrend game" is, or when it will be seen on RMN? Both queries can be answered the same way: I have no clue!

After going through the motions of implementing/testing Chapter 3 content and optional tasks, the time came to play test the game from the beginning to end. The game flowed slightly worse at some points, slightly better at others.

Regardless of how happy this makes me, or others for that matter, I've decided to call this game done. Finished. No more blogs. No more development (outside of random bug fixes I didn't catch earlier). Time to take a step back, and perform a self-evaluation (You knew this was coming, right?).


This game isn't being well-received at all. Sure, it might have to do with my lack of marketing the game, but there's also the sense fact that the game brings absolutely nothing new to the table to use as a marketing ploy. Of course, Hero's Realm does well because it brings nothing new to the table. However, it does so in such a way (the nostalgia factor, mostly) that people can't bring themselves to hate on it. Can the same be said of Matsumori Days? Probably not.

I'm a writer first, and a game-maker second. This game probably reflects that fact. Indeed, if ever there comes a review for this game (which, in itself would be a miracle), I'm half-expecting one that would cause a "Not Recommended" or "1/5 Stars", or "Terrible", or whatever system is going to be in place. This is because the game's audience is so incredibly narrow, it's not even funny. Not that I wouldn't mind seeing a "Recommended"/"5/5 Stars"/"Awesome" review, but I'm not expecting one.

I'm not seeing this game being an RMN featured game. Or be a featured game anywhere. Ever. I would be mightily surprised if it does, though. It would be quite ironic if this game suddenly became the center of attention, after having so little attention before-hand. Not holding my breath, though.

I always thought it would be cool to re-write the manual (that nobody reads, or admits to reading) to read like a school pamphlet. Kind of like how the manual of Bully worked, only with a different flavor. However, as that sounds like too much effort for too little return, I guess it won't really happen.

I have no clue what my next project will be. It's not as if I don't still have old projects that desperately need working on (Legacy Reborn among them), but I think I want do to something simple, quick, and easy. Though, what that would mean as far as quality is concerned is questionable at best.

Now that has been the game's main plot of Chapter 3 is in and tested 'n stuff, the time has come for me to think about my lame excuses for optional tasks. While it's certainly possible to beat the game without doing any of them, albeit with a bit of grinding on the player's part, what the optional tasks aim to do is give the player a little extra help, be it in bonus items, experience, or money.

Chapter 2 tasks won't be as advantageous as Chapter 3 tasks, obviously, but they should still provide some benefit that would otherwise not be available until Chapter 3. At least give an experience/money boost to help with the grind factor a bit.

Chapter 2 tasks are available right at the start of Chapter 2. Note that ones the player chooses to leave the campus of the "real" Matsumori High, any tasks left undone basically become unavailable until Chapter 3 begins. Then again, since I'm only really planning two tasks for Chapter 2, I guess it's a moot point.

Chapter 3's tasks are centered around the party-able characters. Which ones are available depends on who's leading the party at the time. The initial bonus for completing these tasks wouldn't be much, but, if the player visits a certain NPC in the "dream" world, and the character is in the party, the player will receive the character's best weapon. As an added bonus, reporting all six character-related quests in this fashion will unlock the game's item database in Ichiro's shop.

Half the time, the game takes control away, and you're stuck in the event until the task resolves in some way. The other half of the time, that game allows the player to resume the game as he or she sees fit. While some people would prefer more free-roaming based tasks, I personally prefer to have this split.

As another notable change, two students at the front of the school have become something of rumormaesters. They have something different to say each chapter. For Chapter 2, they give hints to players looking for optional tasks available in that Chapter. For Chapter 3, they mention the various optional tasks that are available in that Chapter. The female student gives hints as to what Masako can do, while the male student offers hints on what Goho can do.

Once these things get implemented, I've got the bad feeling that I'll pick up from an old end-of-Chapter 2 save, check to see how the Chapter 2 stuff works (since those should be available at the star of Chapter 3 anyway), move on to Chapter 3 stuff, check to see if that works, then call this done. Not exactly the professional approach, but I'm starting to feel stretched by this game. I'm totally open for volunteers to playtest this monstrosity, though. It'll still be a while from now, but any takers?

We already know that there's a difference between player knowledge and developer knowledge. Sometimes, as developers, we loose sight of what the players are supposed to know at any given time. But what about player knowledge versus character knowledge? If the player knows something that the character's don't, that's one thing. The player may laugh off how stupid the characters are for getting themselves into the situation that the player knew that was there. Alternatively, the player may be frustrated at not being able to steer the characters away from the situation that he or she thought could have been avoided. There may be more possibilities than this but I'm too lazy to think any more up.

So there's a spectrum of possibilities for when characters have less knowledge than players. What about characters that have more knowledge than players? There's plenty of examples of characters, controlled by players or otherwise, that have knowledge that the players don't. If the character is an ally, that person generally chooses to share his or her knowledge with the other party members usually via a long, boring blat. If it is an enemy, that person generally makes some kind of commentary about his or her plans to kill off the party and world domination. In that order.

However, this is a game where information is specifically held back by both friend and foe alike. As far as the sequences where the antagonists have their blattage, they could seriously be talking about anything. Players may well think that killing off the party and global domination can't be too far from their minds. If they think that, and that's fine by me. But what about Mina? She's an ally, right? She probably knows a good chunk of the behind-the-scenes details. Shouldn't she have given a blat about what she knows in Chapter 1? Didn't happen! Does she give one in Chapter 2? Nope! Chapter 3? Hard to say right now!

As part of the epilogue of Chapter 2, Masako talks with Mina. As part of their conversation, Mina decides to share her story with Masako. The game switches off to the antagonists before anything substantial gets served. The player is left with the assumption that Masako knows a ton more stuff than she did before. Even if Mina didn't tell Masako absolutely everything she knows, Masako still gets into a position of greater knowledge that any of the other player-controlled characters. Or the player controlling those characters, for that matter!

As of the current writing, Masako does tell the other party members (and thereby the player) a few things that she knows at the near-outset of Chapter 3. Does she tell the other party members everything she knows? Probably not. Will she have internal monologues that trail off to prevent information from being spilled too early? That's the current plan, but I'm not sure how well it will be appreciated.

My ultimate aim to to cause players to have a moment where everything the game has thrown at the player, story-wise, finally makes sense. Perhaps that aim is a bit high for what is essentially a "first game" project, and my writing might not be up to snuff to relay the sense of absolute understanding that I'm aiming for that I've gotten from other games (I'm looking at you, specifically, Might and Magic V - Darkside of Xeen!).

In any event, I'm still quite far from implementing any amount of story elements of Chapter 3 into the game proper. I'm sure something else up the line will cause me to make yet another blog.