SKYE

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Anamei Productions, 2008


What is SkyE?

SkyE is our newest entry for a contest, the one for the RPGM Miniature Project Contest. Development time was 1 and a half months.
Play length: Around an hour (per playthrough)

What is SkyE about?

SkyE is a short and light sim-like game where you play the role of Celeste, a graduate Sky Knight who is taken on her final ranking assignment with her teacher, Knight Commander Svarus. You will be investigating the Rayth outbreak that has only begun at the newest Chromadus Academy for Raye Engineers and Directors. The game heavily centers around real-time shmup style side-scrolling combat.

Cast of Characters


The protagonist and your character, Celeste is a gifted Sky Knight who matches her halo type of "Serenity," radiating a calm aura that has yet to be shaken. Can Celeste puzzle out the problem the new Academy is facing?


"Master" Svarus is one of the most powerful Sky Knights in service. He acts as your advisor and teacher, he's kind and wise but sticks to his guns and won't be helping you unless the lives of innocents are on the line... and that doesn't count yours!


Headmaster Illiyana of the Chromadus Elite Academy is acting headmaster of the school you'll be investigating. She's a kindly, motherly woman who almost everyone respects.


An arrogant Director in training, Helios isn't satisfied unless he feels in complete control of a situation. People have no value to him except as tools.


The younger sister of the headmaster, Zavia is a self-proclaimed trouble-maker. She doesn't seem to be fond of the future her parents have decided for her.


The youngest student at the Academy, Theodore is unsure of himself and sometimes tries too hard. He still hasn't learned to think for himself and takes 'rules' to the extreme.


Phineas is a Raye Engineering with an especially strong raye sense and especially weak capacity. He's a dedicated flirt, but no one seemed to like him much.


An earthy Raye Directory Alcina is the second professor at the Academy and seems to have an agenda of her own.


A bookworm through and through Mia still loves to read and manage books even in this new digital era. She's very shy around people.

What's unique about SkyE?

SkyE plays something like a sim, you'll be able to choose which locations to investigate at certain times of the day, uncovering the plot that haunts the new school. As you play you'll be thrown into a side-scrolling action system that mixes a brawler with a shooter to create a new unique style of gameplay. (Buzzword BINGO!)

Once you finish the game you'll find yourself able to play it over again; it will take a few times through to uncover all the different secrets and see the real answers to what's going on.

SkyE is developed entirely in RPG Maker VX from scratch starting from September 10th!

The combat system features pixel-checking collision for bullets, so moving your character around and flying forward through a wave of bullets is actually pretty fun!

What does the game look like?

* Here's a released-state video showing the Titlescreen, the menu system, a short scene, and some actual combat:
Game Preview Video: Intro, Menu, Text, and Combat

Here's a newer demo showing off how enemy bullets become health, experience, shield, and power bonuses (stealing a page from hima's amazing shooters Hello Panda and USG!):
Combat system Alpha 2.0!

You can see an early combat demo here:
Alpha 1.0, with the basic movement and shooting.

Please note that both Alpha videos used cut-out temp backgrounds.

Give me Screenshots or go home!














Who is responsible for this?

Beta Team and Testers:
Adalwulf (primary beta tester)
Iceplosion
GubiD
Zeriab (OMG fixed the evil bug!)

Graphics additions:
Whitecat (Icons)
Stephanie Shimerdla (Paintshop Brushes)

Music:
Sewind
Danman87
ColdCity
Anamei Productions

Base Costume Designs:
Rye

Characters, Original Tilesets, and Art:
Yaoumei
LouisCyphre
can't make a bad game if you don't finish any games
4523
Looks interesting. I might give this a shot.
Finally you made a VX game ... I would have downloaded your XP one, but I just don't like XP tall characters (Unless it's the Mirror Lied)

I will give this a shot sooner or later, but where did you get those character arts? Or did you make them yourself?
author=VerifyedRasta link=topic=2367.msg41331#msg41331 date=1225597602
Finally you made a VX game ... I would have downloaded your XP one, but I just don't like XP tall characters (Unless it's the Mirror Lied)

I will give this a shot sooner or later, but where did you get those character arts? Or did you make them yourself?

Characters, Original Tilesets, and Art:
Yaoumei

That's my wife, half of the Anamei Productions team (ANAryu + yaouMEI = Anamei).
Looks fantastic! Good job.
Downloading now.
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
That last screenshot is fucking insane. How is that even in rpg maker?

This is a pretty interesting project. I might play it one day when I have some time.
author=Anaryu link=topic=2367.msg41376#msg41376 date=1225612687
Check out the video listed right under the download (YouTube), the screenshot will make more sense then.

Yeah I watched the video it's awesome! I left a comment and I'm going to download sometime this week :D
Check out the video listed right under the download (YouTube), the screenshot will make more sense then.
Looks good, i'll give it a download, even though i've never been a great fan of side-scrollers :P
Downloading know ...
or later............
Nobody made a review yet?

This game is very well made. For an hour or so, you get a great deal of variety, level-building aspects, and that socialization factor common amongst sims. The presentation is fresh and stands out amongst most RPG Maker games. I felt, though, that having to pick an area to explore was like taking a shot in the dark, and as a result it didn't feel all that rewarding, especially those moments when you found nothing but got launched into combat anyways.

Also, It didn't take rocket science for me to realize, after looking at how focus increases, that those red orb shields those specific enemies emit at times could jack up my focus really high if I just sat there with my shield up. And unfortunately they did, so I already had max focus after the second fight. ;_;

Still, great job. I was entertained, and that's important. =)
author=AeroGP link=topic=2367.msg44010#msg44010 date=1226732576
Nobody made a review yet?

This game is very well made. For an hour or so, you get a great deal of variety, level-building aspects, and that socialization factor common amongst sims. The presentation is fresh and stands out amongst most RPG Maker games. I felt, though, that having to pick an area to explore was like taking a shot in the dark, and as a result it didn't feel all that rewarding, especially those moments when you found nothing but got launched into combat anyways.

Also, It didn't take rocket science for me to realize, after looking at how focus increases, that those red orb shields those specific enemies emit at times could jack up my focus really high if I just sat there with my shield up. And unfortunately they did, so I already had max focus after the second fight. ;_;

Still, great job. I was entertained, and that's important. =)

Those things didn't tear your shield apart? I'll need to look into that. :( The 4 stats that go up during combat don't affect your actual performance outside of the items you get for them, so you weren't overpowered at all, just had access to a a few more items early on, most require 2-3 stats be at a certain level anyway.

On a side note if you found the spot where you get in a fight even if nothing happened, you found the only one out of all the events, I only left it there to balance out the order of events/fights. :)
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
This is a pretty remarkable game that really deserves more attention. I'll get around to playing it one of these days.
I was starting to get into the storyline but i got my ass handed real bad in the third stage, is there a chance you could implement a difficulty setting :P? it's still a great game anyhow...
@secretseeker
There is an option for you to choose the game difficulty. There are four difficulties, I think :)
Hmmm somehow i feel i had a memory leak when wrote that post, i think it was a nother side-scroller game that didn't have difficulty setting O_O. Kay, i'll try again with the easy setting, thanks :)
By the way guys this is going to be the Featured Game and we are recording the podcast tonight so . . . I recommend it!
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
Is it just me or is this game kinda a little freaking HARD? I have died four five six times now on the third battle, the one in the laboratory on day 1, which I recognized while it isn't impossible, is just soooo much exponentially harder than the first two battles, which were short, pathetically easy cakewalks while this one is pretty epic.

I am playing on normal, by the way, and my abilities as a twitch gamer are pretty much average. So I really don't think I should be having this much trouble with the third stage/battle/whatever.

Anyway, I am really, really, really impressed with this battle system. More thoughts later.

Okay, I played through most of the game but now I am really, really stuck on the basically impossible boss of Day 4 Morning. Any sane person would probably have lowered their difficulty to easy by now, but let's just say I'm stubborn.

Any tips? Oh, btw, my build is very uh, aggressive. It's primarily vibrance/harmony so my focus is on doing damage, I move fairly quick and my defense is okay but everything shield related is really terrible. I have high power and health and decent move speed but crap shields. I'm using tri-ring and beam crest.
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
I have completed this. The battle that was giving me trouble was bypassable. Hurray.

While in terms of style, mood, and tone it is not at all my thing, SkyE is probably the most polished, professional, and original (in terms of assets) RPG Maker game I have ever played in my 8+ year "career" and certainly has the most unique battle system I've ever seen in any RPG Maker game. Full review to follow.

But in short, this game is a treasure! Anaryu, yaomei, I implore you: please release an open source version of this game! Your programming is so light years ahead of anything I've seen with RMVX before, it is criminal not to let your fellow game makers open up the hood and try and figure out just HOW you did it. I am speaking specifically of your battle system, which is by far the smoothest ABS I've ever seen in RM. Come on guys, you're giving the game away for free anyway, why not make it something players can learn from, as well as enjoy? I'm sure that the contribution of some futuristic tiles for RMVX, even just a handful, would be hugely appreciated.

Please?

EDIT: Reviewed.
author=Max McGee link=topic=2367.msg47266#msg47266 date=1227738989
I have completed this. The battle that was giving me trouble was bypassable. Hurray.

While in terms of style, mood, and tone it is not at all my thing, SkyE is probably the most polished, professional, and original (in terms of assets) RPG Maker game I have ever played in my 8+ year "career" and certainly has the most unique battle system I've ever seen in any RPG Maker game. Full review to follow.

But in short, this game is a treasure! Anaryu, yaomei, I implore you: please release an open source version of this game! Your programming is so light years ahead of anything I've seen with RMVX before, it is criminal not to let your fellow game makers open up the hood and try and figure out just HOW you did it. I am speaking specifically of your battle system, which is by far the smoothest ABS I've ever seen in RM. Come on guys, you're giving the game away for free anyway, why not make it something players can learn from, as well as enjoy? I'm sure that the contribution of some futuristic tiles for RMVX, even just a handful, would be hugely appreciated.

Please?

EDIT: Reviewed.

Wow! That's an insanely positive review, thanks! :O

The music is 'kind' of original; any music contributed to us was done in a music editor called MusicShake, which includes some vocal tracks that can be manipulated and added (hence why they're so vague in their wording), we did all of the music not attributed to others in that editor. This is the first time we've had so many original music sources, though as you noticed immediately there was a J-POPy feel to it (which was intentional for the style we went with.)

It's kind of funny that in terms of actual complexity this system was much easier to do than two that I've done for RMXP projects (World Outside and Cast Aside), but as a lesson I learned from hima that proved 100% true in this project: originality and presentation are more impressive and important. :)

I don't post my stuff unencrypted by default, but I have yet to say no to anyone who asked for an unencrypted version of anything, I just add one caveat:

I don't support any scripts or systems you pull from the project! (Script support takes so much time and effort, and I build all my systems for my own person use.)

So if you or anyone wants to see the insides, here you go:

http://anamei.net/files/Skye.project.zip

I'm glad this project impressed; it was our first go at "Doing more with less." The tileset changes can be pulled from there too, due to some issues we didn't get to use the character sets and do actual map events, and instead fell-back on just waist-up art talking. :)

The difficulty I did as normal: I designed it so I could just BARELY beat it (many deaths) on the difficulty one down from the top (Hard in this case). I've heard a couple of people think that Normal might be a bit tough, so I'll look at knocking that down a bit perhaps.

It's worth noting that there are actually 3 seperate endings, one for each time you play through, and you won't have all the equipment in the game until you've gotten full bars on all of the "Stats" (not Halos).

Thanks for trying it out and I'm really glad to hear you liked it!
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