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Urgent Notice: Can anyone who's planning on playing the demo include this harmony.dll in the game folder (i.e. that contains RPG_RT.exe). If that doesn't work, try downloading the Disharmony audio patch! Thanks!

"I am codenamed B12. At this point in time my real name is unknown, but irrelevant. All that matters is that I instruct to the best of my ability."

Story
Mindac Inc. is an organisation responsible for many of the world's great mysteries.

Employees are known as Accessors, highly-trained individuals who have learned how to possess (or Access) bodies from anywhere on the planet.

Join B12, one such Accessor, as he infiltrates a rebel movement in the small yet technologically advanced nation of Fyldera.

Loosely based on the novel Transition by Iain Banks.

Features
- Almost entirely linear gameplay. Those fond of 'sandbox' games, stay away!
- Music from a variety of artists, ranging from Japanese legend Haruomi 'Harry' Hosono to the hip-hop stylings of The Pnuma Trio.
- YM is actually making something (serious).

Latest Blog

Concerning the Future

Never thought I'd ever make a blog on a video game project, but, by God, it's happening!

Anyway, my exams are finally over which means I have three months of nothing to look forward to (...well, besides looking for a summer job...and driving lessons...and a citizenship test..wonderful). Guess I should be working on Character, right? I'm not too sure, actually.

For better or for worse, my 1st year of studying Chemical Engineering has been a disaster (I am still kicking myself for not thinking things through during the application process. I was WAY too interested in university life, which hasn't even been that great to be honest! Go me.). As a result I am 99% sure of transferring to a different university next year...for Computer Science. Hurray! (..or not, seeing as it's quite a fall-from-grace, dropping out of a top 10 world uni. ...meh, I'll get over it. I hope.)

Obviously this means that a career in the video games industry is a very viable (and certainly very interesting!) option. As a result I'm probably going to take amateur game making a lot more seriously, and thus I'm not too sure about using an antiquated development program such as RPG Maker 2000 anymore.

So, what now? I guess I could wait until my exams come out on the 8th of July to be 100% certain of my destination in October, but there's still quite a bit of time left and I'd rather not waste a minute. I think it'd be a better idea to revisit programming so I'm probably going to be messing around with Python alot. If, as I predict, I get shitty results I'm going to switch to either XP or VX (most likely the former, due to graphical issues) so I can utilise RGSS (I might even go a completely different direction and instead opt for creating smaller non-RPGs. Something to think about). On the other hand, if I decide to stay at my current uni (either through fear of looking like a failure or getting incredible exam results - looking increasingly unlikely by the day, honestly), I'll keep RPG Maker as a hobby and continue using 2k because, well, it's just so much easier.

Either way, my original idea for Character's going to get a HUGE makeover, at least in terms of gameplay. I'm quite keen on designing a unique battle system, either by massively spicing up the DBS (in 2k's case) or creating one from scratch (in VX/XP's case). Only time will tell which path I take...here's hoping it all works out.

P.S. If there are any budding Python programmers out there (or any programmers, really), How to Think Like a Computer Scientist is proving to be a great read. Recommend it wholeheartedly.
  • Production
  • Yellow Magic
  • RPG Tsukuru 2000
  • RPG
  • 04/09/2011 03:14 PM
  • 12/20/2023 08:23 PM
  • N/A
  • 31303
  • 10
  • 203

Posts

Pages: 1
Interesting. Nice concept, nice screenshots. How will it play? Traditional RPG with DBS battles?
when you become a rich and famous game dev with a cult following, remember that i was your first subscriber ok
"Almost entirely linear gameplay. Those fond of 'sandbox' games, stay away!"

thank you based god
InfectionFiles
the world ends in whatever my makerscore currently is
4622
Looks like a cool project, the concept is really interesting. I'd like to see where you take it.
Are you planning on making it very long?
Yellow Magic
Could I BE any more Chandler Bing from Friends (TM)?
3154
Heh I'm liking this Game Profile thing already

author=calunio
Interesting. Nice concept, nice screenshots. How will it play? Traditional RPG with DBS battles?
Pretty much. Hence why I chose 2k over everything else.

author=Darken
So no ninja wizards? ):
no. although I'll stick in a brief Kavinsky cameo somehow

author=InfectionFiles
Looks like a cool project, the concept is really interesting. I'd like to see where you take it.
Are you planning on making it very long?
Cheers.
I'm aiming for about 4-5 hours, but seeing as I have very little time to spare outside of holidays I may either cut down on the length or take a couple of years to release a full version. This is all assuming I don't quit midway or something which is more likely than not.
this seems pretty cool, however I implore you to either find some different graphics or raid Solar Tears resource-folders :)
The story sounds quite dark and complicated...I'm looking forward to it!
So I played through what you just uploaded. Since it was kinda short, a full-sized review seems a bit excessive so I'll just post it here in the comments.

Character: prequel to Chip

This game seems like an interesting concept; the setting is totally my flavour and kind of reminds med of some stuff I've worked on with a previous project (although that kinda got out of hand quickly).

The dialouge is competently written (found a typo when talking to james, bluehaired dude in the bar) although I'd say that it's a bit more long-winded than necessary; it feels like the information conveyed via the npcs you talk to could've been cut by two dialouge boxes. I get that this is early and establishing the setting to the player is important and all, but I feel like since this is infact a game, information should try to be more to the-point; not excessively brief but neither be too long and disrupt the flow. But then again, maybe I am an impatient individual.

Graphic-wise, as I've understood, some of the stuff is just left-overs from older projects and thus can be classified as placeholders. That being said, the mapping is competent, and there is at least death-animations in the beginning; meaning that even though there's nothing outstanding about the visual side of things, neither is it sloppy (I'd say the exact opposite of the street-walking sceen but as mentioned, it's all placeholders). I really do hope you manage to find some cool-looking surroundings and whatnot (if not, I stand by my previous post in the comments!)

There were... what like 4 battles thus far? Yeah, they work. It might have to do with the balancing, but it's no space-button masher (I actually used all of my characters skills in every battle, except the blade/slash/knife skill, since intimidate was soo much more useful and cheaper). all in all, as with everyhting else, too early to judge but for now it works.

Another thing is that I downloaded this so fast when I saw a download was up that I didn't get the harmony.dll file at first, which meant that I played the game without the music (and played it through twice). This is where I should say that the music was pretty cool but the sound effects were really dull. I like being consistent but having all guns make the same sounds kinda grated on my ears (although this was more apparent when I didn't have the music).

as it seems, I had alot more to write than I thought but these are my general impressions. I hope you find it useful.
Yellow Magic
Could I BE any more Chandler Bing from Friends (TM)?
3154
I'll take your thoughts into consideration when I resume work on this in the summer, Nemo. Cheers~
if you need any help, just ask. im down with beta-testing when the time arrives
This game is going to be really great, maybe awesome. The writing is one of the very best i've seen in a RM game yet, and only the first 2 or 3 dialogs (including the optional ones with the NPCs in the first room) may have seemed somewhat long-winded to me, which is fine for an introduction.
I think I haven't been that hooked by a demo since the original A Blurred Line, which is actually quite close to the highest compliment I can think of. I sincerely hope yours will be completed someday, though.

The only sad thing could be the DBS, which I've grown to hate sincerely. Yet it *is* very well used as far as I can tell from the few battles (clearly not a no-brainer Attack-fest), and I love it when tidbits of narration are inserted into the gameplay like you did through the skills and battle messages (which again reminds me of Lys86's style, and that is good). So maybe you can manage a good gameplay even with this handicap ; most of my favourite RM games managed it to some extent. This one may very well join that list when it's finished.
Yellow Magic
Could I BE any more Chandler Bing from Friends (TM)?
3154
Aw, man, as flattered as I am that you compared my 5 minute demo to A Blurred Line, it really is...just 5 minutes. I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up with such a standard, but I'll try my best. Will also take your comments about the long-winded dialogue on board, and see what I can do to make the DBS more interesting. Cheers!
Honestly the comparison to ABL came quite naturally : great writing, pretty original setting, and an intriguing story. Even stylistically, there are some similarities - I mean, they may turn out quite different, but both belong to some genres that are quite rare among RM games (and among other good things, they're on the more literate end of the spectrum).

Now of course it's only an intro, but as intros go, I'm sincerely impressed. If you manage to keep it as original and plot-twisty as it could be from this short glimpse, I see no reason why it shouldn't become a truly great game. I would have written a full review if this demo had been a bit longer, because I feel that some projects around here receive much less attention than they deserve, and yours is clearly one of those. I hope you'll be able to work in the shadows and come up with a longer release some day.

By the way, I for one have no problem with long dialogues, on the contrary, and it would be a shame to cut them too much ! (although if you plan on being really verbose later on, it could be a good idea to give players an option for skipping text or at least displaying it instantly, as much as I did appreciate your use of the text speed e.g. for Alastair's lines)
A game based on Ian Banks' stuff? I do hope this is still in development.
Yellow Magic
Could I BE any more Chandler Bing from Friends (TM)?
3154
Whoops, sorry I didn't see this earlier.

As the description says, it's an idea loosely based on a single Iain Banks book; one which I didn't even finish, in fact (too much switching between character narrations/unnecessary sex descriptions).
I haven't worked on this project for almost a year now, but I may decide to pick it up again this summer if I'm incredibly bored.

Thanks for the interest!
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