• Add Review
  • Subscribe
  • Nominate
  • Submit Media
  • RSS


Introduction

I'm Jeffrey Nordin and over the past year I made this game, The Logomancer. I've always wanted to make video games, so I finally decided to do it. I quit my job and moved to Seattle after completing the game in the hopes that it can be used as a resume to get me a job in game development. The Logomancer ended up being very a personal story and a lot of my own neuroses, insecurities, hopes, and philosophies are in the game. Write what you know, as they say.

The game should take around 10 hours to complete.

Download Link

The Logomancer can be downloaded here!

It can also be downloaded from IndieDB here!

Game Overview and Plot Outline

The Logomancer is a JRPG without killing. Conflicts are resolved through argumentation, logical discourse and persuasive speech. Mastering the elements of rhetoric will allow you to make your point to even the most stubborn audience. The people you meet are your 'weapons' and the skills they teach your 'magic'. Why not befriend an old editor and learn about the power of Proofreading? Or assist a schizophasic blacksmith to learn how to Doublespeak?

In the world of the Logomancer, everyone is connected to a communal dreamworld known as the Mindscape. During sleep, everyone interacts together inside this strange mental world. The mind is a powerful tool in the world of dreams and the few exceptional individuals with the ability to build dreamworlds for others to participate in are called Logomancers.

Ardus Sheridan and his apprentice John Marrow are negotiators for the dream commodities company Powell-Mercer and have been sent to the seaside city of Ordolus in order to finalize a contract with the region's most recently discovered logomancer, Glenton Dahl. The story starts there as the duo reaches the city limits. What is the nature of the dreamworld that everyone is connected to? What is the true nature of logomancy? Is the emotion felt for a fictional character different from the emotion felt for a real person? Did the ancient peoples of Callosum like slow-roasted brisket? Play the game to find out the answers!

Using the classical elements of persuasion, social interactions become rhetorical battles. A 'boss fight' could just be trying to convince a store owner to give you a new suit free of charge. This means that stats like 'persuasion', 'confidence', and 'elocution' are much more important than 'strength', 'dexterity', or 'magic attack'. If you've ever wanted to play a Final Fantasy 6-styled JRPG wherein you could improve your characters' Perspicacity, then this game is probably for you.

Influences

The Logomancer draws inspiration from the following sources, so if any of these pique your interest, there's a good chance there's something for you in this game: The Lost Room, Inception, Dark Souls, Final Fantasy 6, Persona 4, House of Leaves, Silent Hill 2, and the music of two DTs - Dream Theater and Dark Tranquillity.

Official Website

www.thelogomancer.com

Official Steam Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muaSBCGh6Dw

Pay-What-You-Want Soundtrack Download

Visit the Logomancer Official Soundtrack Bandcamp page in order to download the game's soundtrack. The soundtrack is pay-what-you-want, which means you can get it for free, but paying more than zero is always appreciated!

Steam Store Page

Logomancer is now available on Steam!

Latest Blog

New website launched for the Logomancer!

A brand new website for The Logomancer has been launched!

To launch with the new site, I've also made an official Steam trailer here!
  • Completed
  • Commercial
  • EdoAnimus
  • RPG Maker VX Ace
  • RPG
  • 09/06/2013 12:02 AM
  • 04/10/2018 09:13 PM
  • 09/03/2013
  • 170046
  • 47
  • 2809

Tags

Posts

author=mellytan
how is this game 400mb? did you accidentally include an episode of friends in the exe package?


So this is where that tagline came from.
I was caught into this game by a little slogan on the RMN page "If you like games with big vocabulary check this out". I love big words and use the often in speech, and yes I know every word that tumbles out of my mouth. I hate it when someone uses a word and obviously does not know what it means. So far the game looks well and good so I will go ahead and play it some time.
Glad to see this on the front page! I still think it's one of the best games made with RPG Maker, and it definitely deserves any attention it gets.
Okay, I think I need help. So I made it to the ending.

1. I've been wandering around the forgotten plantation for hours looking for whatever it is I'm supposed to be looking for. Can I have a hint? 2. Has anyone had any luck with the hats puzzle? I need a hint for that as well.



EDIT: I've found what I've needed to find in the plantation.
by looking at the way the monsters move.

author=Addit
author=mellytan
how is this game 400mb? did you accidentally include an episode of friends in the exe package?
So this is where that tagline came from.


i demand royalties

the funny thing is i think i did end up trying it out and lo, there was joey_best_of.mov in the main folder

nah i kid, i dont remember being particularly enthralled by the game but im sure it's ok
I only started participating in the RPGMaker community fairly recently, and I'm still pretty puzzled at what apparently constitutes a "large" file size within it. I've played a fair number of visual novels that are over ten times that file size. I don't have a particularly new or powerful computer, but the idea of a file of a few hundred megabytes being a big deal to download is positively weird to me.
I just started this and it seems pretty neat! It's nice to see intelligent, educated characters who aren't Hollywood strawmen. My main complaint so far is that, like with a lot of sandbox RPGs, it's really easy to stumble into areas that way out of your depth. Like Eve being a level 15 boss out of nowhere. Or, when I was doing Harlan's sidequest, I avoided all the monsters then at the end said "oh, let me try one of the encounters" and level 15 monstrosities that murdered me good. I know there's no game over but I've learned to be wary of mysterious variables the game is coy about so accumulating regret is possibly even worse.

I do feel like you cheated a bit by just switching some labels around on a standard jRPG, but creating something totally new is a lot to ask for. There certainly seem like a lot of unique skills and I'm interested in seeing the flavor text for them. The concept of inducing elemental strengths/weaknesses instead of them being innate isn't one I've seen much before, so that's interesting. I don't feel like your rocks-paper-scissors format makes perfect sense - aren't most people most amenable to an argument that matches their emotional state? Emotional people are most easily manipulated by emotional rhetoric, whereas trying to moralize them could backfire if they don't agree with your ethics. Just making everything weak to itself would be pretty boring though.

(The file size is pretty large; it took me 2 hours to download I think. I didn't mind, but I can definitely see it bothering some people.)

Edit: Oh and there's a bug with the platinum ring quest. If you talk to the guy immediately afterward it'll act like you sold the ring. I presume the game just checks for the presence of the item? Maybe try setting a flag for selling it, if you can. Also there's a typo in the compass rose description.

Edit edit: More bugs! I seem to have triggered the "we're done in Ordolus" conversation even though I didn't complete all the quests. Also, talking with Udumo is a little buggy; if you talk to him again, the exact same conversation plays out, including the "new quest" message.

Addendum: Just finished! It was fun. I'm apparently still missing one treasure chest (that one on the isolated island in Winthgraden Tower 3F) and I have absolutely no idea how to get it. I'm also missing enemies 39-41.

Addendum edit: Nevermind, found it. Depressingly obvious in hindsight; I just wasn't attacking it from the, ah, right angle. Does it actually do anything? For those in similar circumstances:


On the fourth floor, pay close attention to the walls, but go from the side, not head-on.


And the completion screen seems buggy. It's not registering me as having any equipment, it no longer says I completed the final quest, and there's apparently a twelfth lesson somewhere I can't find for the life of me.
Desertopa--I've kind of thought the same thing about file size. Most indie games are something like 500mb minimum; and any visual novel or game on Steam will be 3gb+. (I mean like, my copy of Witcher 2 is 23gb, though I know that's extreme since it's a very high end game.) I've been wondering if the idea is Rpgmaker games aren't "worth" the space, but that seems like a really unpleasant idea for me. Download speeds are maybe a better possibility, since I know internationally internet speeds can vary quite a bit.

So glad to see this game get featured though.
Hey, congrats on getting featured! You deserve it.

It's unfortunate that you seem to be running into some trouble on Greenlight. I think one problem might be the way you're marketing the game. When people hear "an RPG without killing based on rhetorical battles", I think they expect something more unique than a literal JRPG with a different coat of paint (I certainly did). The Logomancer is a perfectly good RPG but the description is a bit confusing and misleading, depending on peoples' expectations and reactions to certain buzzwords. I think being more upfront about what the game is (maybe focus more on the elements that are more unique, like the mindscape and the wRPG-style exploration) might help on that front.

Edit: I've been replaying the game to do things in a different order and I discovered that if you finish "Edited For Content" before getting Cynthia, she still has lines in the final cutscene and joins your party afterwards. Might want to fix that. (And who's playing Sylvanne if she's not there...?) Speaking of that, is there a plot twist about Cynthia that was cut? She points out that Sylvanne looks and acts exactly like her and that's really weird, but it never comes up again.
i tried downloading logomancer twice now
the game wouldn't start, something about runtime error :'(

Could I please get some hints for the puzzle in the water cave? The one with the journal for the armorer? I know there are enough clues in the books around the place, but I just am not intelligent enough to crack the. ..... Also, why is there no walkthrough, that would help a LOT.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinary

I don't think a full walkthrough would be necessary, but some of the puzzles are pretty esoteric, yeah. There are a few hints (including actual solutions) under "That One Sidequest" here.
Still can't figure it out.... Those pictures mean something, but darn if I can figure it out...

I HAVE figured out how to replicate the picture ractice chest, and I found the eye in there by accident,


Coul I have some help on converting that picture?

Tried 1324, but that makes a number WAY too big, so I must be interpreting it incorrectly....
Okay, more hints:


The picture is code for a base-5 number. Decoding it can be tricky because the "test chest" only allows four digits and the code is 5 digits. You can get a close approximation of the number that should allow you to extrapolate, however; do simple numbers first, and pay attention to how place values are represented. Also remember that the digits are in reverse order.


If you're really stumped, the first number (flipped) is

41023

which can be converted to the final passcode, which is

2638


...I think. I might have reversed the first number, my notes are a bit hard to follow.
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
but but but violence is ALWAYS the answer!!!!
Well, I am about 2 hours into the game, and like the madman that I am, have been too busy trying to complete all of the sidequests.
Now this is not a review, I will review it once I have beaten Logomancer, but so far without even touching the entire "main" quest line yet, I have one very simple complaint: The grind. I'll explain via spoiler tag:
Now, I know this is most likely my fault, because I finished the map maker's quest and am now working through the editor's proofreading of Ardus's "tower of ideals", and so far every two battles on the tower have me operating like this:
Buy items to fix guys, use all of them every 2 fights, and then in the most painful fashion, exit the mindscape, back to the inn, back to the editor's mindscape, rinse and repeat. I cannot be the only one whom after the third bout of this, have finally reached a near raison d'etre of pointlessness. I am most likely just going to abandon the quest for the main, but good lord man! Literary symbolism, this is a cosmic jazz man, gameplay wise however? It simply feels as good as a lawsuit that says you cannot open your front door; Both redundant and frustrating.
You really, really want to do the main quest first. There aren't really any other good "starting points" (even the bazaar merchants and basic mindscape enemies are tough for a first-level party), and experience is relative so you'll waste the automatic level up if you just do the puzzle-based ones at level 1. (That one quest you're stuck on, in particular, has a pretty high challenge rating. Have you looked at the quest ledger? That tells you what level you should be before attempting quests.)
author=argh
You really, really want to do the main quest first. There aren't really any other good "starting points" (even the bazaar merchants and basic mindscape enemies are tough for a first-level party), and experience is relative so you'll waste the automatic level up if you just do the puzzle-based ones at level 1. (That one quest you're stuck on, in particular, has a pretty high challenge rating. Have you looked at the quest ledger? That tells you what level you should be before attempting quests.)

Aha~ That was what I was missing. Indeed, I failed to notice the quest level indicator, and now I feel much more satisfied for the moment. Thank ye verily for bringing this to my attention; I had originally just felt the difficulty wall was absurd, but the developer took that into account as well. My hat off to you.
Oh, is there a way to back out of a quest once you start it? Because I think there was one level 10 quest that I accidentally stumbled upon when I was level 1 (the one which you turn into chibi figures in a tower) and I can't seem to get out...
author=eplipswich
Oh, is there a way to back out of a quest once you start it? Because I think there was one level 10 quest that I accidentally stumbled upon when I was level 1 (the one which you turn into chibi figures in a tower) and I can't seem to get out...

Actually, yes. The book that your chibi guys appear next to is a way back to the editor's room, and then all you need to do is go to the bed to wake up.


Well, I finished the game, or let me correct that: I have completed what it says is 20% of the game, and have bit by bit grown fustrated with a secondary horror themed quest that rely's on pure and utter repetition.
Not going to lie, at first it was amusing narritive wise. But now, that I have spent the last 2 hours repeating the same walk back and fro, only to find myself in the timeout room, forced to wait another bloody 5 seconds. I have basically tried everything the diary suggested, even entered the inception dream, got the eye, managed to open the door to nowhere, looked at the picture, but I am fed up with how there is no right way to open the yellow door. At all. And that is not even bringing up the sometimes where it teleports you back to the beginning of a level randomly. Frustrating.