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Journeyman is a simulation/RPG about starting with nothing and crafting EVERYTHING. The project's intent is to focus on the fun, addictive, and deep crafting systems in games like recent blockbuster The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and indie masterpiece Dwarf Fortress, crafting systems that in the former case were so addictive they made you want to ignore the rest of the game, or in the latter case that were so deep they comprised the entire game. The idea is to expand this into such a massive and deep crafting system that it can serve as the centerpiece of an entire game.
Journeyman is bright, whimsical, funny, and cute, at least in places, which might be considered quite a departure for a developer of my doom and gloom pedigree. I guess I say this as much to warn my fans (as few, far between, and silent as they may be) as in hopes of giving pause to some small fraction of my many detractors.
Although this is a fantasy RPG with sidequests, it's nothing like Final Fantasy.
The most important thing to understand is that Journeyman is not an RPG with optional logging, mining, gathering, farming, fishing, hunting, woodworking, smelting, threshing, weaving, cleaning, tanning, cooking, alchemy, smithing, and enchanting minigames. It's a logging, mining, gathering, farming, fishing, hunting, woodworking, smelting, thresing, weaving, cleaning, tanning, cooking, alchemy, smithing, and enchanting game with an optional combat minigame.
-NOTICE OF CREDIT-
98% of the maps used in this project were made by ShortStar and then donated to me for my use. Out of that 98% I'd say all of them have undergone slight changes by my hand--not all to the good, aesthetics wise, but many were functionally necessary to support the underlying mechanics and systems.
Journeyman is bright, whimsical, funny, and cute, at least in places, which might be considered quite a departure for a developer of my doom and gloom pedigree. I guess I say this as much to warn my fans (as few, far between, and silent as they may be) as in hopes of giving pause to some small fraction of my many detractors.
Although this is a fantasy RPG with sidequests, it's nothing like Final Fantasy.
The most important thing to understand is that Journeyman is not an RPG with optional logging, mining, gathering, farming, fishing, hunting, woodworking, smelting, threshing, weaving, cleaning, tanning, cooking, alchemy, smithing, and enchanting minigames. It's a logging, mining, gathering, farming, fishing, hunting, woodworking, smelting, thresing, weaving, cleaning, tanning, cooking, alchemy, smithing, and enchanting game with an optional combat minigame.
-NOTICE OF CREDIT-
98% of the maps used in this project were made by ShortStar and then donated to me for my use. Out of that 98% I'd say all of them have undergone slight changes by my hand--not all to the good, aesthetics wise, but many were functionally necessary to support the underlying mechanics and systems.
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Persistence
Max McGee
11 post(s) 
- 07/25/2012 02:23 AM
- 4675 views
- Cancelled
- Max McGee
- ShortStar
- kumada
Anaryu
Gourd_Clae
aprilschild
railgun545 
RPG Maker VX- Simulation RPG
- 12/02/2011 06:40 AM
- 08/22/2018 01:00 AM
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CloseKentona explained what happened. It is essentially a problem with RMN's code.
Anyway, I have blogged about this.
Anyway, I have blogged about this.
two games buzzing at once, max?! attention whoring success
I do want to see this - damn, I should gotten the leaked version while I had the chance
I do want to see this - damn, I should gotten the leaked version while I had the chance
Soon, child. The time grows NIGH. In fact I'm tempted to go so far as actually setting a release date....but that's never a good idea. I would expect this will be publically available in the next few days though.
Anyway, to be attention-whoring you need subscribers. This game has 15. A project I just looked at has 127 in spite of being rated at two stars. O.o (But that's what you get if you put Final Fantasy: on the front of your title.)
Mage Duel Extreme has...very few downloads, and more people should download. idk what else to say. It's nice that it's on the front page and all but the only purpose of that is for it to get more downloads and right now it has only a tiny handful which makes me cry, just a little, on the inside. But these things come with time, so...yeah, I'll be patient.
In any case, this project is going to be...significantly more polished and substantial. (I almost said "substantially more polished and significant".)
Anyway, to be attention-whoring you need subscribers. This game has 15. A project I just looked at has 127 in spite of being rated at two stars. O.o (But that's what you get if you put Final Fantasy: on the front of your title.)
Mage Duel Extreme has...very few downloads, and more people should download. idk what else to say. It's nice that it's on the front page and all but the only purpose of that is for it to get more downloads and right now it has only a tiny handful which makes me cry, just a little, on the inside. But these things come with time, so...yeah, I'll be patient.
In any case, this project is going to be...significantly more polished and substantial. (I almost said "substantially more polished and significant".)
Fun Little Update:
I just legitimately beat this (the short game, that is) for the very first time.
It was really close.
I just legitimately beat this (the short game, that is) for the very first time.
It was really close.
author=Max McGee
Fun Little Update:I just legitimately beat this (the short game, that is) for the very first time.
It was really close.
If you beat it and it was close, that means it's WAY TOO HARD. General rule: the game is always much easier to the person who made it than to anybody else.
calunioMax McGeeIf you beat it and it was close, that means it's WAY TOO HARD. General rule: the game is always much easier to the person who made it than to anybody else.
Fun Little Update:I just legitimately beat this (the short game, that is) for the very first time.
It was really close.
I agree entirely, except for when it comes to me. I'm terrible at videogames, so if I can barely beat it, that becomes the normal difficulty.
Still think that you have an incredibly important point, though.
Now that you mention it, I suck at games too, and I had people report that they found my game way too easy... I had actually people telling me they hacked the database to make the monsters STRONGER. :P
But in case of this specific game, I think if it's hard for Max, it's probably TOO hard for other players.
But in case of this specific game, I think if it's hard for Max, it's probably TOO hard for other players.
Cozzer
0
Well, in this case it could even be the opposite: maybe Max uses his system in the "proper" way, while other players will find a lot of exploits.
Only testers will tell.
Only testers will tell.
I think, generally speaking, that you guys are totally right; however, I intentionally made kind of a half-assed attempt, sort of fucking around and whatnot. I mean, if I had sold off EVERYTHING my character owned rather than stubbornly keeping somethings out of sentimental value I think I could have hit 12k-15k easy.
Still; yes, you are ALWAYS better at your own games, almost UNFAILINGLY so, at EVERY level. That's a major lesson I've learned over the past few years.
So I think I might decrease the goal amount by about 30%, I'm not sure. I worry that if I lower it to 7,000 people will get there way before the deadline and have nothing to do (but play in free form mode and explore, which might not be that bad) for the last few days. I mean, as long as you don't miss the existence of systems because I explained them badly, Journeyman is not a game where it's easy to run out of things to do. And I've already had one player hit the goal (with the goal at 10k, not 7k) WAY ahead of schedule.
This is tricky! I have never balanced something like this before.
But by "barely won" you have to understand I don't mean "after a million gameovers I finally beat it" I mean that after lots of enjoyable time spent playing the game I just barely got the good end. (When Day 9 started, I had just over 10,000 Royals.)
So I mean, worst case scenario, someone plays the game for x hours and sees a different cutscene. Idk, am I making any sense? Playing the game and then "losing" is or should be just as fun, and after one COMPLETE playthrough in which you get the bad end, it should be TOTALLY clear how to prevail on your next playthrough. By spending eight days in Ilandria you should be really easily able to formulate a winning strategy for next time.
This is a game that honestly needs a lot of advice for playing on a few levels...there's really no going around that. I am going to have to publish hints and/or a manual.
Still; yes, you are ALWAYS better at your own games, almost UNFAILINGLY so, at EVERY level. That's a major lesson I've learned over the past few years.
So I think I might decrease the goal amount by about 30%, I'm not sure. I worry that if I lower it to 7,000 people will get there way before the deadline and have nothing to do (but play in free form mode and explore, which might not be that bad) for the last few days. I mean, as long as you don't miss the existence of systems because I explained them badly, Journeyman is not a game where it's easy to run out of things to do. And I've already had one player hit the goal (with the goal at 10k, not 7k) WAY ahead of schedule.
This is tricky! I have never balanced something like this before.
But by "barely won" you have to understand I don't mean "after a million gameovers I finally beat it" I mean that after lots of enjoyable time spent playing the game I just barely got the good end. (When Day 9 started, I had just over 10,000 Royals.)
So I mean, worst case scenario, someone plays the game for x hours and sees a different cutscene. Idk, am I making any sense? Playing the game and then "losing" is or should be just as fun, and after one COMPLETE playthrough in which you get the bad end, it should be TOTALLY clear how to prevail on your next playthrough. By spending eight days in Ilandria you should be really easily able to formulate a winning strategy for next time.
This is a game that honestly needs a lot of advice for playing on a few levels...there's really no going around that. I am going to have to publish hints and/or a manual.
Some sort of NG+ or "continued soul ~ " feature would be great. I know that NG+ scripts exist, although I've never used one (I coded my own a while ago, but lost it). That way, for people that "lose" you could play again on slightly-easier mode.
Hopefully the act of losing itself will make the game slightly easier, because you will have learned so much about how to make money. Does that make any sense?
I mean the act of actually playing all the way through up to actually viewing the losing cutscene--if you play the first three days and quit/retry because you appear to be doing badly, you're sort of guaranteeing yourself a miserable time.
Basically you can't expect to make the money at a smooth even curve over the eight days. Because of how the systems converge, you kind of make the vast majority of money on the last few days. Like I went from under 1,000 to the full amount just on Days 5-7.
I mean the act of actually playing all the way through up to actually viewing the losing cutscene--if you play the first three days and quit/retry because you appear to be doing badly, you're sort of guaranteeing yourself a miserable time.
Basically you can't expect to make the money at a smooth even curve over the eight days. Because of how the systems converge, you kind of make the vast majority of money on the last few days. Like I went from under 1,000 to the full amount just on Days 5-7.
This difficulty in the case of this specific game worries me for one reason... I imagine I'm playing it, doing all those stuff on the short mode, trying to get 10k, working for 8 days, etc, etc... And when the week ends, I have 9k. You fail, game over.
Mmmm... and?
It's like playing a regular RPG and dying on the last boss with no chance of retrying (because basically, if you don't have 10k by the last day, loading your save just before it won't help). It's like dying on the last boss and having to play the entire game again to get a chance at beating him. Does that make sense?
Mmmm... and?
It's like playing a regular RPG and dying on the last boss with no chance of retrying (because basically, if you don't have 10k by the last day, loading your save just before it won't help). It's like dying on the last boss and having to play the entire game again to get a chance at beating him. Does that make sense?
I guess but I mean, it's not like there's a gameover screen. You see a different cutscene and get the title. It's more like a "bad end" than a game over. Although I kind of hope that after losing the player will actually WANT to start again from the beginning after "losing" in this way. But even if they don't and decide to quit...they still played the entire game. There is no part of the game they missed except the "you have won" cutscene and splash screen.
(For what it's worth, the game does its part to lampshade the fact that you might be really, really close to 10k in the bad ending which actually can play out four different ways depending on your choices.)
I don't know, can people still enjoy something with the knowledge that they lost? It's a good question and I don't know the answer. A player who loses has experienced much or all of the same content as a player who wins. But will the knowledge that the game has labeled them a "loser" somehow sour that?
That said, people might want to split their save around Day 4 as that's the point from which your actions really start making a MAJOR difference towards your chance to win.
This has effectively happened to me before; my only save in FFIX is just before the final boss and my characters are just too weak and underleveled to have a chance of beating him. Basically, I lost the game forever. But FFIX is a 40 hour game in which it is totally unclear what you can do differently to be able to win at the end, besides I guess grind a lot more which is horrifically tedious. Journeyman is a 1.5 to 3-hour game and the difference between winning and losing should be obvious after one winning playthrough.)
(For what it's worth, the game does its part to lampshade the fact that you might be really, really close to 10k in the bad ending which actually can play out four different ways depending on your choices.)
I don't know, can people still enjoy something with the knowledge that they lost? It's a good question and I don't know the answer. A player who loses has experienced much or all of the same content as a player who wins. But will the knowledge that the game has labeled them a "loser" somehow sour that?
That said, people might want to split their save around Day 4 as that's the point from which your actions really start making a MAJOR difference towards your chance to win.
It's like dying on the last boss and having to play the entire game again to get a chance at beating him. Does that make sense?
This has effectively happened to me before; my only save in FFIX is just before the final boss and my characters are just too weak and underleveled to have a chance of beating him. Basically, I lost the game forever. But FFIX is a 40 hour game in which it is totally unclear what you can do differently to be able to win at the end, besides I guess grind a lot more which is horrifically tedious. Journeyman is a 1.5 to 3-hour game and the difference between winning and losing should be obvious after one winning playthrough.)
Unrelated to this really fascinating discussion, I just updated the Magic! page with a brief description of the Ilandrian pantheon.
Anaryu
8848
Too bad RM bugs aren't more like physics bugs in games like Skyrim, then it'd almost be more fun to release with them.
author=Max McGee
Fucking buggggsssssss
I'm going to guess that you're attempting(and failing) at squashing some bugs.
Good luck with that!
Right now I have one that is preventing the game from starting at all when I encrypt the project folder; looks like unless someone knows a solution I have no choices except "release open source" and "don't release at all".
(Skyrim has no lack of the REALLY BAD kind of bugs too, you know. Game is freezy/crashy as shit.)
(Skyrim has no lack of the REALLY BAD kind of bugs too, you know. Game is freezy/crashy as shit.)
kumada
3917
RE: Journeyman Difficulty
I'm the tester that beat the game effectively (although not easily) on my first playthrough. I went into things blind, with nothing but my experience with other McGee games to draw on, and not only won but also cleared an optional boss the dev was having problems with.
I think Journeyman may be one of the few systems where lateral thinking can trump dev knowledge. I did save/load a lot, but it was the boggling wealth of items that gave me the tools I needed to win.
TL;DR: game is balls hard, but fun. I think I'm going to stick with my initial assessment and say that it's like a plot-centric, masocore minecraft.
Max, you could certainly tone down things to make it more accessible to casual players (especially if there's a lot of feedback to that effect,) but I did not have an issue with the game's difficulty in its alpha release state.
I'm the tester that beat the game effectively (although not easily) on my first playthrough. I went into things blind, with nothing but my experience with other McGee games to draw on, and not only won but also cleared an optional boss the dev was having problems with.
I think Journeyman may be one of the few systems where lateral thinking can trump dev knowledge. I did save/load a lot, but it was the boggling wealth of items that gave me the tools I needed to win.
TL;DR: game is balls hard, but fun. I think I'm going to stick with my initial assessment and say that it's like a plot-centric, masocore minecraft.
Max, you could certainly tone down things to make it more accessible to casual players (especially if there's a lot of feedback to that effect,) but I did not have an issue with the game's difficulty in its alpha release state.
