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DungeonQuest

I made a dungeon crawler. I think I will call it DungeonQuest. You start out by getting gold from a king and visiting a town where you will pick your party of 4 from 16 classes. Then stock up and go dungeon crawling. There are 3 dungeons, 2 towns heaps of weapons, skills, equipment, monsters and diversity. In the world map, there are random battles, but in the dungeons you can avoid enemy NPCs. Some of which will chase you when they see you. There is no plot, just fun. Dodge enemies, fight enemies. Combat makes you think.

This is mostly to demonstrate the combat system from EpiQuest 2, before releasing Epiquest 2. There are a few bugs I'm trying to stomp out, but it doesn't interrupt the fun of playing. There's around 3 hours of content.

Classes
You can always change your character's class by visiting the guild guides. There are certain classes that have both might and magic (Grey, Hero, Mistress). I don't recommend playing half and half. It is better to have a great fighter or a great mage than an OK mage who is an OK fighter. Commit to either one, but you can always change thier bias if you need to.

Hero
The class of the main hero. This class encompasses everything major from every other class. Might, magic, summons, spells, skills and equipment. The hero is tough to beat and eventually learns uber attacks to finish off the toughest bosses with ease. Assuming the battle lasts long enough for the hero to become enraged.

Warrior
Focusd on big killing weapons, the warrior doesn't have much in the way of defense. All of the warrior's skills are given by the weapons and equipment. The warrior can make short work of any enemy that is not magical.

Soldier
The soldier can use the best armor and a good variety of weapons. This class is a tank meant for abuse and charging forward. They might have limited skill diversity, but it will still get the job done against most foes.

Thief
The thief is quick, nimble and can use fast weapons. This class uses poisons and other status ailments to get the job done and can even wear disguises to take on more skill sets. A very diverse fighter.

Hunter
This is a very diverse class. The hunter uses bows, whips, clubs and knives. You can bulk up on attack power or agility for quick kills with a bow & arrow. Most of the hunter's skills are status ailments afflicted from arrows.

Archer
Ah the cunning archer is designed to not get hit. Standing in the background, they use bows, arrows or guns. Very similar to the hunter, only with better equipment and more diverse skills that include elemental attacks and not just status afflictions.

Pilgrim
The pilgrim's magic comes from a staff and or an orb (and or an orb?). A variety of staffs that will give the pilgrim new spells as they level up and a wide selection of orbs too. The pilgrim is definately weak in combat, but they are great with a staff and a wise pilgrim can win any battle with a mere staff.

Mage
A mage gets its power from orbs, rods and wands. They have a small selection of weapons, but their power comes from magic. All of the mage's equipment builds up their spirit and can turn them into a devastating force, especially against elemental and undead enemies.

Grey
The grey is similar to the hero and encompasses both harmful and helpful magic. This class can also use a wide variety of fair weapons. A jack of all trades so to speak.

Mistress
This class uses whips, claws and status affecting orbs. She is a multi faceted fighter and magician. She can be used for either category. To make up for this power, she is very weak against status ailments.

Martial Artist
The martial artist is a simple class. Little in the way of defense and weapons, but every piece of humble equipment builds the class's strength to dismantle most enemies. There are also unique skills to help with this.

Combat Strategy
Like Epiquest, there are enemies wandering on the map. You can avoid them, but when you get caught in for combat, you have to come up with a strategy... for every battle. Every battle is different, because every enemy is random (except for bosses) and the enemies are diverse. They don't just have weak points, but different tactics are needed to defeat each. Birds can't be fought by traditional melee items. You will need bows, magic or a jump attack. Magical enemies are immune to normal attacks, so your fighters will have to use items or be on guard.

Your brain is always thinking. Background characters step up to shine, and traditional roles are broken. Especially when you use certain tactics to make a pilgrim into a master of combat against a tough foe.

Enemies use logic and they will heal each other and remove status ailments. They will try to shut you down like a human player would.

You can even get summon skills to switch up your combat when you call upon Sirens, Saghins, Lamias or even gushers. If you see an ogre that can decimate your party and you don't have a confuse spell to get him on your side, summon a Lamia to confuse the big boy. He will do your bidding and knock out his allies.

There are even friendlies that will fight against other enemies and heal your party for you. It turns into a relief knowing not everything in the world is trying to kill you.

To keep all of the information organized, DungeonQuest has a bestiary and scan skills that will tell you everything. You can learn the scan skill from wearing specs or equipping short bows.

Maps & Traps
As I've mentioned before, you can avoid enemies on the map. Different types of enemies have different patterns. Spirits wander randomly and pretty swift. Sentries pace back and forth, but when they spot you, they'll chase after you pretty quick.

Once you're caught, you go into battle, but after the battle, you have 1 second to plow through enemies on the map with invincibility. You'll hear a quiet chime when your 1 second is up. There are items that will buy you longer time. In a second, you can plow through a lot of map enemies, let alone 2 seconds.

There are standard switches to open shut doors, but there are map traps and blocking obsticles. Map traps that will cast status affecting spells or damage you. The status affecting map traps are all visual, but not quite blatant. So if you walk into them, its your own fault.

The physically damaging map traps like spike floors are very blatant and deadly. You might be able to take one stab from the spikes, but not many more. Some spikes have patterns, inactive for 2 seconds, then active for 2. Other spikes are always active until a flip is switched... you know what I mean.

Treasure Hunting in Light & Shadow
In each dungeon... or area in general, there are treasures scattered around. Some are blatant treasures like a sword or scrolls. Other treasures are tougher to find like shinny objects as if someone had dropped something small. These objects don't shine all the time. That would be too easy.

Speaking of too easy, caves and dungeons are dark... obviously. There are shadows that move. The light can play tricks on you and the shadows can hide something blatant that you may have missed your first way through the passage. There are also X-Ray skills that let you find invisible treasures!

With my Epiquest games, most of the treasures were random. That's still the case, but different. Now with a random treasure, a slot machine appears and gives you the chance to get your desired treasure. Well desired if you know what icon will get you something. This might be more helpful for your second play through. Even if you don't get 3 icons in a row, you still get a default prize. Which might not be much in some cases.

Scripts
There are 50+ scripts and I'm still untangling them. Some cause bugs with others. Its mind bending. The script makers are:
- KGC
- Yanfly
- Modern Angebra
- Dargor
- Shanghai

Screenshots










Latest Blog

Still charging.... Squashing bugs and making it easier to test.

I've programmed 3+ more hours into DungeonQuest. Unfortunately, most of that was squashing bugs with the character select scripts. My first real script that I made from scratch. Everything else was made by someone else... and they have their bugs, I'm just not smart enough to debug them.

It should be easier for me to test the game now, because I've added a command that removes the battles in the game. So what would have taken me an hour is now ten minutes.

3 more pages out of 30+ have been put into the game. I'm also thinking that simple Morrowind style quests might be best for the next game instead of having an actual story. There are movements and things that consume time and need testing.

Now I'm at the bridge (quite literally) between the first quest and second. Good enough of a benchmark to stop. Realistically if it takes 1 page per hour, I still have another 30+ hours before I'm done adding the script into the game. At this rate the minimum time the game would be done is 10 days.

I'm also adding quest status sensitive dialog. Like the townspeople react to where you are currently on your quest.
  • Production
  • ShortStar
  • RPG Maker VX
  • RPG
  • 02/08/2011 06:12 PM
  • 03/26/2018 04:08 AM
  • N/A
  • 135181
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Posts

Thanks Xeil. That's what I'm going for. Now go post a review to counteract the bad one :-)
I actually wanted to do a review sometime now for something, but since college started, I don't have time to play or complete games. However, I just wanted to put that last post in just to let you know how you're doing.

Anyway, don't let that review get you down. I mean, it's not a badly written review itself of course, in which you probably know already. But I guess it's saying a few flaws, which is important. I rather see my game garnering a lot of reviews stating its flaws than no reviews at all.

Overall, I'm glad to see you have fixed those things rather than complain about the review like most people do. That's the attitude that's going to make or break your game and reputation around here.

Presidents' Day is coming up, so then I'll have a good 4-day weekend to take another crack at it.
Nope, I'm not letting the review get to me. The review probably should have been a comment and not concrete with stars. As the game grows and gets further along, that could damage how others percieve a final product. I'll still complain about the review, but I'll fix what needs fixing.
Versalia
must be all that rtp in your diet
1405
If that's how you feel, I'll gladly update my review at a later time. Please feel free to inform me as to when you feel you have made sufficient improvements as to warrant a revisal.
lol. That's true about how the reviews tarnish the final product, which sometime is sad. People should judge for themselves whether to play something or not - if they have the time.

PS: Lucky you, not every reviewer is generous as Versalia ;P
Can you even update a review? I couldn't even get a rejected game approved without making a whole new game page. Chances are, people will review this game for themselves, because of the high subscription to download rate. At some point, it was 1/3rd.
Versalia
must be all that rtp in your diet
1405
Yes, you can.
Well at least I'm getting people to play a VX game.
I was going to lose my VX virginity to Legionwood, but something about it kept me from trying it. So I gave it to this instead.
LEECH
who am i and how did i get in here
2599
author=xeilmach
I was going to lose my VX virginity to Legionwood, but something about it kept me from trying it. So I gave it to this instead.

Legionwood is pretty good, its worth a play.

Ill probobly download this. But yeah, we have very small bandiwidth. So it wont be for a while. Maybe the final version?
I try to like your games, I really do. Your descriptions of them are enticing and tick all the right boxes for me. But, honestly, this game is buggy, unpolished, and bland. The first dialogue box in the game instantly skips, you have stack errors(which are really easy to get rid of, you need to add like 2 words to a bunch of easily searchable lines), the (garish, in my opinion) lighting effects screw up the textboxes/menus, the portraits are very choppy, there's a store that sells nothing, and the first action I did in battle was bugged(Your scan skills says "scans all", but it insisted on me targeting one character, and none of the other character's information updated(and then the character I scanned ran away before I could so much as read it ;( )). You seem to care about making games, so why can't you go that extra mile and make them attractive/appealing(EpiQuest 1 had pretty good maps iirc, but had lots and lots of niggly presentation things as well.)? I'm not saying you have to do anything standout, just bring it to the standard you expect when you play a game(starting with 99.9% of the game actually working and going on to things like nicely flowing dialogues(but we've already fought that one out, haven't we?). Honestly, your games don't feel "retro" to me, they feel amateur, which is wrong, because I don't think you are(well, we're all amateurs here but you know what I mean :|).

Sorry. ;(
Thanks for the thought out criticism Poke.

1. Fixed that dialog box. It now waits a second... before disappearing. I actually had it disappear then wait a second. My bad.
2. Where are these stack errors? You mean stack overflow errors?
3. What are these 2 words to easily searchable lines?
4. I will make something where you can disable the lighting effects... but then, you'll have a really bland game.
4A. The lighting effects are seen with the menus, because that's just what happens. Its a bug that isn't my bug. I live with it.
5. What do you mean the portraits are very chopping?
6. I will look for the store that sells nothing. Is it the crafter at the pawn shop?
7. Um the Scan VI skill says, "Scans Everything" ... I've corrected it to say, "Scans Everything about one enemy." So its not bugged.
8. So you thought scan was about your own characters? Yet you chose an enemy right?
9. If the enemy ran away... did you really expect the scan to work? Its like if I cast a fire spell and the enemy runs away... *sigh*
10. Define "niggy" presentation...
11. I think you are saying I have to do something to stand out. You called this game bland. I think this game does stand out. That's how I could write a novel of a description.
12. I released the game without being 99% because its easier to fix it while making it than it is to go back and fix it when everything is cemented in.
13. I did nicely flowing dialogs before and people complained they just wanted game and it was too much to read. I'll post a link. >> http://rpgmaker.net/games/2503/blog/3507/
14. Perhaps my games would feel more retro if I used 8 Bit graphics and midis.
15. An ameture game that feels ameture? I'm a pro, but for something else and that something else has meetings, staff members and its a slow process of talking about everything... before the work gets dumped on me and I need to do it in a few hours after talking about it for 2x the time.

No need to be sorry. The comment was enlightening Poke. For the next big comment posted anywhere, please put bullet points or line breaks in the wall-o-text.
Even though some of the bugs I fixed weren't even my own bugs... here it is:

V 0 . 3B is up
- Scan's text is now different to clear up some things that didn't seem like they needed clearing up.
- The dialog box that kicks off the game is now fixed (we can all sleep at night now).
- Four instructors to inform players about some basics... even the player that doesn't normally play RPGs.
- A trainer will now teach you certain aspects of combat.
- Added in game descriptions for the final 5 classes.
- Crafting now works instead of being a shop with nothing.
- New brewer at the magic shop.
- New title screen intros.
- New & improved game start sequence.
- 40 new NPCs & dialog to help you through the game.
- 1 new village, because there were too many NPCs in the first and second town (I expect many complaints).
- Lighting is now optional and can be changed in the system menu... but people will complain...
- Fixed the lights appearing over dialog boxes!!! (this was a huge achievement)
- Fuck yeah on that last one! I've tried for a year to make that happen!
Oh no! When I fix all the errors... you guys can dislike the game for what it truely is.
Versalia
must be all that rtp in your diet
1405
author=ShortStar
- Scan's text is now different to clear up some things that didn't seem like they needed clearing up.
- The dialog box that kicks off the game is now fixed (we can all sleep at night now).

Oh no! When I fix all the errors... you guys can dislike the game for what it truely is.


Could you possibly make some changes or updates that aren't phrased in such a way as to shit all over anyone with a criticism for you? You seem like you care by actually updating, but then you include some really petty passive aggression as reasoning. Sorry but not every single aspect of your game is going to be 100% acceptable to everyone who plays it. Stop acting like a bitter child.
I posted this big long rant, but after a breather. I just want to make a good game to be worth my time to make it after days and weeks of work.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
Karsu and I (granted, we have lives) have spent over a month ironing out ten characters of unique actions, a setting, drafting the mission-based gameplay of our game and coding a battle system/those ten characters.

Making two dungeons and a town in one day is probably not the key to success for anything that isn't sloppy as hell. I probably won't be trying this because I felt that EpiQuest 1 was pretty bad and, well, horribly sloppy - what Pokemaniac said.
The dungeon and town weren't done in a day. They were finished on... that day. I've got several incomplete dungeons and towns. I can work on this stuff for 8 - 10 hours a day when I don't have anything else going on..

Chances are that Epiquest was indeed sloppy. It was my 1st game. No matter how sloppy it was, I still get people writing me to say they completed the game. Yet those people never post comments People play the game for 8 - 20 hours, yet never post. I need to rely on a glitch in the game for people to give me feedback. When they write me,

And that's sad in a way.
I am downloading this now it looks awesome you don't find many people who make games like this anymore :D
The download appears to be gone. Darn, and I was looking forward to trying this.
Thanks Amerkevicius (hard name to spell). Put a subscription. The game will be up again in a minimum of a week. I'm squashing all bugs and they're giant glaring ones, so I have my sword. I'm also making battlers too! But that might be too ambitious.