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Wanderer
a game by max mcgee
Wanderer resembles a traditional RPG in terms of its mechanical gameplay (although its systems are heavily customized from the default RMVX systems) but its setting is everything but traditional. It is almost impossible to reveal any info about Wanderer's story without risking the possibility of spoilers. Wanderer is an atmospheric and introspective fantasy adventure and character study, looking at the effects of a reality storm- an idea pilched from Neil Gaiman- on a very old and very powerful being known as a Wanderer, and exploring the effects of that Wanderer's proximity on more finite beings (your party members).
Previous projects I have made have focused on challenging and unique gameplay, complex mechanical systems, and dense story telling. Wanderer focuses almost exclusively on graphical presentation and accessibility to players who have not been able to get into my previous games. For this reason and to increase the chance of completion, it is also one of my least ambitious projects.
As I mentioned in the capsule description, Wanderer takes a traditional fantasy setting and throws it in a blender. The game's scope does not involve the sound and fury of the blenderizing itself: instead, we are looking at the quiet aftermath of a reality quake on an entire multiverse. The fantastic world of Wanderer has become populated by lost souls from other realities, adding elements of historical fiction, science fiction and modern horror into the game. Wanderer is not a sequel or prequel to any of my games, and no knowledge of any of my previous projects is required to enjoy it. The connections are tenuous at best, but if you do happen to have played my other games enough to remember certain obscure characters and side plots, or dangling loose ends, that will eventually inform your experience with Wanderer and should enhance your enjoyment. The game is meant to work on two levels, so that a simple character introduction for new players could be an "oh shit" moment for fans.
Wanderer began development in mid-June of 2009, and was meant to be completed in one month. This did not happen, and its new release date is: when it is done. Like all of my projects, there are only two things that can sway its development rate: my whims, and your level of interest. The latter is more important than the former.
Inspirations for Wanderer were primarily Neil Gaiman's The Sandman and Stephen King's Dark Tower series. On a level of aesthetics and atmosphere, Visions and Voices was also somewhat of an influence on this project.
As always, feedback is actively solicited. I am all but begging.
a game by max mcgee
Wanderer resembles a traditional RPG in terms of its mechanical gameplay (although its systems are heavily customized from the default RMVX systems) but its setting is everything but traditional. It is almost impossible to reveal any info about Wanderer's story without risking the possibility of spoilers. Wanderer is an atmospheric and introspective fantasy adventure and character study, looking at the effects of a reality storm- an idea pilched from Neil Gaiman- on a very old and very powerful being known as a Wanderer, and exploring the effects of that Wanderer's proximity on more finite beings (your party members).
Previous projects I have made have focused on challenging and unique gameplay, complex mechanical systems, and dense story telling. Wanderer focuses almost exclusively on graphical presentation and accessibility to players who have not been able to get into my previous games. For this reason and to increase the chance of completion, it is also one of my least ambitious projects.
As I mentioned in the capsule description, Wanderer takes a traditional fantasy setting and throws it in a blender. The game's scope does not involve the sound and fury of the blenderizing itself: instead, we are looking at the quiet aftermath of a reality quake on an entire multiverse. The fantastic world of Wanderer has become populated by lost souls from other realities, adding elements of historical fiction, science fiction and modern horror into the game. Wanderer is not a sequel or prequel to any of my games, and no knowledge of any of my previous projects is required to enjoy it. The connections are tenuous at best, but if you do happen to have played my other games enough to remember certain obscure characters and side plots, or dangling loose ends, that will eventually inform your experience with Wanderer and should enhance your enjoyment. The game is meant to work on two levels, so that a simple character introduction for new players could be an "oh shit" moment for fans.
Wanderer began development in mid-June of 2009, and was meant to be completed in one month. This did not happen, and its new release date is: when it is done. Like all of my projects, there are only two things that can sway its development rate: my whims, and your level of interest. The latter is more important than the former.
Inspirations for Wanderer were primarily Neil Gaiman's The Sandman and Stephen King's Dark Tower series. On a level of aesthetics and atmosphere, Visions and Voices was also somewhat of an influence on this project.
As always, feedback is actively solicited. I am all but begging.
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Dezz
1252
i have played all of your games so far. i refuse to stop! your game making skills are immense and i know im thoroughly gonna enjoy this. good job
Thank you so much dezz. Hunt147, dezz123 you should consider submitting reviews after finishing the game. As I said, feedback is always solicited. : )
SegNin
41
Cambria only comes with Vista, Win7 & MS Office 2007.
So, a lot of people won't have it on their systems.
To get Cambria legally, download and install this:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=048DC840-14E1-467D-8DCA-19D2A8FD7485&displaylang=en
Otherwise, google for "cambria.ttf" and you'll find it soon enough.
Oh and Max, if you're worried in the least about the legality, then don't include the Cambria font with your game, 'cause it's not freely distributable.
(And yet, you can get it for free if you install that PowerPoint Viewer, which is free. Go figure.)
So, a lot of people won't have it on their systems.
To get Cambria legally, download and install this:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=048DC840-14E1-467D-8DCA-19D2A8FD7485&displaylang=en
Otherwise, google for "cambria.ttf" and you'll find it soon enough.
Oh and Max, if you're worried in the least about the legality, then don't include the Cambria font with your game, 'cause it's not freely distributable.
(And yet, you can get it for free if you install that PowerPoint Viewer, which is free. Go figure.)
SegNin, thank you very very much for that helpful info!
I think there are other reasons why Wanderer is probably legally questionable and the font which is not freely distributable but can be gotten for free legally is probably the least of my worries, legal-wise.
For the sake of convenience I will probably include Cambria with future packages of the game until such a time as I remove things like the Lost Odyssey music.
I think there are other reasons why Wanderer is probably legally questionable and the font which is not freely distributable but can be gotten for free legally is probably the least of my worries, legal-wise.
For the sake of convenience I will probably include Cambria with future packages of the game until such a time as I remove things like the Lost Odyssey music.
Dezz
1252
I will be happy to provide a review. I'm gonna download it now, but I'll probably be able to submit the review in a few days...
Dezz
1252
Oh crap, sorry Max... I've been VERY busy with school and I've had loads of problems along with working on my own game and beta testing others, so I forgot all about the feedback. I'm going to do it RIGHT now.
And yes, the game was awesome. Expect a great review.
EDIT: Posted the review, it's just Pending.
And yes, the game was awesome. Expect a great review.
EDIT: Posted the review, it's just Pending.
What? Were you given a reason why?
I know as a former RMN staff member that things are denied only VERY RARELY and then only if they are SUPER AWFUL. So I am kind of baffled (unless your review was like really terrible, in which case I understand).
Basically, I agree with:
: /
I know as a former RMN staff member that things are denied only VERY RARELY and then only if they are SUPER AWFUL. So I am kind of baffled (unless your review was like really terrible, in which case I understand).
Basically, I agree with:
: /
Dezz
1252
Yeah, I had 4 things I rated, storyline, characters, audio and graphical. I did around 5 lines(ish) about each one of them, along with a rating of them out of 5.
Ah well, I'll make another one, but make it better.
Ah well, I'll make another one, but make it better.
Yeah I don't know why they rejected that, based on your description it sounds adequate. It is a little disconcerting.
Anyway good luck with that and thanks for your perseverance, lol.
Anyway good luck with that and thanks for your perseverance, lol.
kumada
3917
I know this thing is unlikely to see development again, but I just finished playing it and figured I should give some feedback anyway.
-On a basic level, this reminded me a lot of The Way. The game literally follows a branching path, and the player is compelling to move forward along it. The Dark Tower is also obviously an influence, which I am kind of indifferent on. I liked the earlier books quite a bit, but the end-is-the-beginning-is-the-end-is-the-beginning-is-the-end thing that it eventually devolved into felt more like King had cornered himself with a narrative he didn't know how to finish than an actual stylistic choice. As soon as I started seeing references to 'the clearing at the end of the road', I found myself hoping that this would go a different route.
-Wanderer is a big ol' blender full of narratives and ideas, and while I certainly like some of these elements (Armor for Sleep over the opening credits? Choice,) I wish they'd been pureed a little more. There were times when the Sandman or Dark Tower bits showed a little too clearly through, and I felt like they were intruding on the story.
-Mapping was good and well paced. Item acquisition was slow enough to encourage rationing without being crippling.
-I liked the characters rather a lot, with the possible exception of Orpheus. I've seen the poncy-immortal-looking-to-be-humanized trope before, and while I think he was written just fine, I didn't actually like him. Jack and Shar were a lot more relatable.
-Although not fully implemented, the Gnosis system seemed like an interesting idea, a reward for interacting in meaningful ways with the environment and other characters. The fact that it ran side to side with a (much slower) exp system kept it from being gimmicky.
-Combats felt a little long, but I'm impressed that Max managed not to make the huge power differential between Orpheus and the rest of his party feel unfair. Everyone was valid, given varying definitions of the word 'valid' (I didn't much like Shar's autopilot, and he wasn't strong enough to make up for being an AI controlled liability.)
-One-shot save crystals, while not a design element I particularly like, kept the pacing even and discouraged grinding. Rest spots felt like a better idea overall, but I can still see the necessity for save spots that don't heal the player.
-Overall, I think I'm kind of indifferent to this one. I would've certainly kept playing it for the plot (the tie-in to Backstage did not go unnoticed,) but nothing else leapt out and grabbed me by the collar.
-On a basic level, this reminded me a lot of The Way. The game literally follows a branching path, and the player is compelling to move forward along it. The Dark Tower is also obviously an influence, which I am kind of indifferent on. I liked the earlier books quite a bit, but the end-is-the-beginning-is-the-end-is-the-beginning-is-the-end thing that it eventually devolved into felt more like King had cornered himself with a narrative he didn't know how to finish than an actual stylistic choice. As soon as I started seeing references to 'the clearing at the end of the road', I found myself hoping that this would go a different route.
-Wanderer is a big ol' blender full of narratives and ideas, and while I certainly like some of these elements (Armor for Sleep over the opening credits? Choice,) I wish they'd been pureed a little more. There were times when the Sandman or Dark Tower bits showed a little too clearly through, and I felt like they were intruding on the story.
-Mapping was good and well paced. Item acquisition was slow enough to encourage rationing without being crippling.
-I liked the characters rather a lot, with the possible exception of Orpheus. I've seen the poncy-immortal-looking-to-be-humanized trope before, and while I think he was written just fine, I didn't actually like him. Jack and Shar were a lot more relatable.
-Although not fully implemented, the Gnosis system seemed like an interesting idea, a reward for interacting in meaningful ways with the environment and other characters. The fact that it ran side to side with a (much slower) exp system kept it from being gimmicky.
-Combats felt a little long, but I'm impressed that Max managed not to make the huge power differential between Orpheus and the rest of his party feel unfair. Everyone was valid, given varying definitions of the word 'valid' (I didn't much like Shar's autopilot, and he wasn't strong enough to make up for being an AI controlled liability.)
-One-shot save crystals, while not a design element I particularly like, kept the pacing even and discouraged grinding. Rest spots felt like a better idea overall, but I can still see the necessity for save spots that don't heal the player.
-Overall, I think I'm kind of indifferent to this one. I would've certainly kept playing it for the plot (the tie-in to Backstage did not go unnoticed,) but nothing else leapt out and grabbed me by the collar.
