Resonate ~call out my angel~

Happy birthdayyy!!! Excuse my half assed excuse for a sketch, for some reason I couldn't get the composition right, but I wanted to celebrate!

So thank y'all for having played the game, enjoyed it and given feedback.

I'm still slowly working on the definite, steam version of Resonate.
So I'd like to talk a bit about what's going to change.

First thing, as you probably know: I've wiped out the entire database. I still haven't rebuilt it because I want to redo several maps and the game flow before I think about doing the database. But I didn't like the balance, nor how the battles were playing out, therefore I did away with the database in favour of an all new balancing!

I've also added Luna Engine to the project and redesigned all the menus. I am still having trouble with the Equip scene as it doesn't seem to want to behave properly, but other than that the menus are all pretty much done. Oh, I'm also not happy with the battle damage display, but I'll figure it out.

The next main thing that's happening is that not only each world is being expanded slightly (especially the latter two), I'll be able to do as planned and make the game NON-LINEAR! I'm still thinking whether I'll do away with levels, minimize the effect of level progression, add an enemy scaling system, or whatever I'll do to make the game work on that sense, but any of the three main dungeons will now be able to be beat in any order and will be longer. Monsters also will have different movement patterns, and I'm considering the possibility of allowing you to clear a dungeon of monsters after a certain number of battles (save for a couple' on specific screens if you want to grind). I've wanted to add puzzles in the original version of the game, but since doing anything with events is a bit hard due to Quasi's movement script I couldn't implement your typical block pushing puzzles nor anything that needed collisions. Now I'm considering a picture-based puzzle.

Another thing will now be the mini-worlds, new mini-stones close to the three main stones in Triple Gate which offer small diversions to the story, as well as interesting new sights. They consist of a handful of maps at most but they're meant to break down the game flow a little.

And to end the dungeon changes, there shall be two new dungeons: A true final dungeon once you beat the body of the quest, and a new game+ exclusive dungeon where you put your mastery of the game's mechanics to test. For I to be able to pull off a fun New Game+ dungeon and this game overall, i'll have to really work hard on making concise mechanics and a good databasing work.

Some areas are going to be redrawn as well, as well as new illustrated cutscenes (they were meant to be much more plentiful to begin with but TIME so I wound up making only two.) and that's about it.

Now what I was thinking is about the possibility of making this a commercial game. I know I've said I'd be releasing this on steam for free, and trust me, I will, but I still need to eat and shower and pay the bills which I have been able to do only barely and by not dedicating time to my artistic projects at all. I want to be able to dedicate time these projects, live just-barely-its-ok but more importantly be able to invest some money in studying art -- there's this super amazing art school in the capital of my state, Quanta, and I absolutely feel like I MUST study there when possible as I feel this will allow my art to really develop.

So for these reasons I've been considering making a paid version of Resonate (and hoping people like it) so I can further invest on my art and you know live. Perhaps I could make the extra content (mini-worlds with a monster arena type thing, the new game + dungeon, etc.) available only in the commercial version, while having the free version be short in gameplay time yet allowing you to fully experience the story. I don't know yet.

Oh, just as a reminder, if you wanna see more of my games happen (or wanna see me releasing more free resources) please consider supporting me on Patreon! It's a tremendous help!

So your opinions on this matter are welcome! Thank you for reading this blog post and accompanying Resonate and my art through this year! <3

Have a nice day y'all!

So for Resonate 1.0 as you may know i have DELETED THE DATABASE and i'm making the gameplay from ground up.
Last time I feel the Elements were really unsubstantial and tacked in, no enemies had elemental resistances/weaknesses and attacks basically and I felt it was overall kinda stupid.
While in the future I'd like to have spell schools like Astrology, Space magic, Time magic, Tarot etc. for Resonate, as a short game, it is unfeasible, so I decided to divide the spells into elemental categories.
(the Spell Cards system will persist, and each spell card is now tied to an element and it will balance your elemental resistances / weaknesses accordingly.)
Each elemental category (of the 5) has 8 spells divided by level.
The elements are:

<> White(Holy) <> Black(Darkness)
>>> Red(Fire, heat, intensity) > Green(wind, thunder, nature) > Blue(Water, cleanliness, healing)

Each enemy can have up to two elements, which will (hopefully, lol) be shown next to their name when selecting them.

The (work in progress) spell list is:












Additionally I'm thinking on each element combination having a secondary spell list, the only spells in this category that exist right now are:




This might, however, not be wise. To be honest I'm not sure if I should even be making so many spells -- I want to have a lot of variation so the player can choose spells and break the system as they wish, and 1.0 will be considerably bigger than the current version since I'm changing and expanding dungeon layouts so they flow better + adding a new final dungeon + adding a post game dungeon + newgame+, and many of these spells actually can't easily be found (or at least not multiple copies of them) so you're likely to only see about half the existing spells through a gameplay (unless you grind)
I'll make sure most gimmicky and important spells are handed to the player very clearly, such as Prism (arguably THE most important spell on the original Resonate) and etc. being at very obvious treasute chests.

Another thing I'm thinking about; not only having Spell Cards like you do on Resonate, but also having Grimoires that offer all spells of a specific element up to a particular level as well. You'll never be able to get the high level spells through grimoires but you can potentially have 5 lv.4 grimoires for 20 spells brought to battle (that's actually not as useful as it sounds) or, more importantly, having a single grimoire with a set of useful spells + nice acessories on the other slots.
I'm still thinking on it, though.



BTW what I hope the length of the new Resonate will be:

1st 'chapter':
1hr

2nd 'chapter':
1hr

3rd 'chapter':
30min

final 'chapter':
1h30min

bonus dungeon:
3hrs

+

monster arena:
a fuckload of time

+ new game+ modes = lots of replay value

so welp the game may benefit from this.

Yo! I put Resonate on Steam Greenlight! It's a freeware game as always, but hopefully it's quality enough to get there and get its scope / reach enhanced! :D
Check it out and give me a yes if you feel the game's worthy of it! :D


Also, have a screen of a possible, but not certain, Resonate spiritual sequel.

The following bugfixes were done, with special thanks to Firefly84' who reported most of them:

-teleportation issues
-a random crash on the map engine
-sequence breaking issues
-skills not functioning properly

Additionally, a number of skills and monsters have been rebalanced to offer a more overall enjoyable experience. A map has been detailed.

There are many maps whose illustrations are still visibly work in progress. These will be drawn in the eventual 1.0 non-contest build of the game.

I hope you have fun! If you have any questions or run into any problems, type down below!

I HOPE THERE ISN'T ANY MORE BUGS LEFT T__________________________________T

Gibe texters ploxx

If you're interested in testing comment here / send me a messeji

Bugs in 0.2

-> don't touch the first crystal in front of the shop; it's a sequence breaker
-> a few maps teleport you to off-edges and one doesn't have collisions on. Ctrl + move your way through the maps.
-> The final boss of the demo has a really stupid Regen move I shouldn't have given. Press f8/f9 (don't remember which one) on test mode to finish the battle quickly.
This sometimes bugs the system though.


I'll send the link to the download to my testplayers via PM!