Set Discrepancy

author=Hasvers
After having lost some progress due to a crash (I hadn't used the super-dev-mode-cheat-code to save everywhere, alas), I took ten days to recover, but I finally reached the end of this demo.

Right now this game is just like a lunar rover : futuristic, awesome, and oh so very buggy. With the notable difference that it takes us into a heavy (and nicely crafted) atmosphere. The pure, "hypnotic" immersion may be somewhat disrupted by the turn-based mechanics, the fact that there's time for planning and strategic thinking and everything, but it really got me tense a few times. Usually not too long before a game over screen. Actually I like the fact that there are some quieter moments, as I have a hard time enjoying very stressful games (I couldn't stand the likes of Half-life or Bioshock more than an hour, although I like games where you need to be cautious like Thief - but there's a gap between cautious and downright anxious).

However if your intended audience are the survival-horror fans, maybe you should boost the difficulty a bit, especially by making ressources scarcer. It would be less pleasant for me, but I guess I would survive (anyway they were already getting less available in the second area, so the game is probably following this trend smoothly enough that players like me can follow, which would really be a feat if you manage the slope properly). Maybe someday a difficulty slider could do the trick for those who want some extra challenge - although I for one didn't find your game lacking in this respect.

How long did you plan this game to be in the end, actually ? I'll be sure to review it in due form when it is finished, but I intend to force everyone I know to play this demo already, as soon as you publish fixes for the major bugs.

Getting to the main points of this pre-review :

1) I really, really like your choices in terms of game mechanics. Even the more unusual aspects, such as the exploration system, become quite natural (and interesting whenever the team gets separated and different things happen at once), and I felt they worked very well. I could hardly be more pleased, as I tend to be a sucker for originality (over gigantism or polish) in videogames.

2) However this game is obviously not lacking in the polish department. It has poles aplenty, and very attractive ones at that. (I should stop trying to make lame sci-fi puns.) Even without the bugs it could easily pass for a commercial game. Your graphic talents are put to an excellent use (the beauty and number of facesets is extremely impressive), the audio does a great job in thickening the atmosphere, and the interface is neater than almost anything of its kind that's ever been done with RPG Maker. This feels like a labour of love, and both the quality and the quantity of effort involved are stunning.

3) The setting and story thus far are not the least cliché ever but the obvious inspirations are well worth taking inspiration from, and good amateur sci-fi RPGs are almost unheard of (as for the commercial ones, we all know of one or maybe two good series, but they're standing in the middle of a thematic and/or qualitative desert), which makes it even easier to shine - although you really didn't need it in the first place.

Overall, I'm far more than impressed. This could easily become one of the greatest RM games around, and a brillant "game game" as well, to paraphrase melly-tan, even without taking into account the conditions of its making (especially the single-handedness of it all).

You and Deltree have successively blown my mind. You seem to have a surprising number of traits in common, from the originality of your game design styles to your attention to details and aesthetics, and I adhere almost unanimously to what both of you are doing with your current games*. This is potentially zeitgeist-defining material - I can imagine a new generation of amateur (or "indie", since that's the current buzzword) RPGs headed by the likes of IMTS and Set Discrepancy. Honestly, I would love that. Now if only another mysterious overtalented meister-gamemaker from the shadows would take some interest in the third significant subgenre of sci-fi, the one with all the "-punks" in it, and fill the void left by Lys86, then my life would be perfect.

(* a single less fanboyesque comment : in both cases I would like to find a narrative as original as your game mechanics, and while your writing is very good, the plot in itself isn't what's keeping me on the edge of my seat. But this is far from being enough to turn me away from your games.)

One last comment : if you're worried about the possibility of earning some money from your games, I really think you could. I'm quite fond of the ethics and aesthetics of distributing your creations for free, but I would gladly contribute from my purse for the final version of Set Discrepancy if that could help you in any way, and I'm quite sure that I wouldn't be the only one. This is clearly the kind of games you could sell, or use to sell yourself. Or at least set a donation account for while distributing it freely - this actually works quite well sometimes, and I wouldn't hesitate a second to thank you in a slightly less immaterial way for those hours of entertainement.



(Edit : Okay I've just realised that I've been somewhat longer than I thought. I could edit part of this comment and post it as a preliminary review if you think that would be helpful in drawing some attention to your game.)