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The rope winds from the clouds like the long-dried trail of a giant's tear. It whips in the arid wind, down the birdless sky, and into the open mouth of the ravine that splits the dead land. Down and down it goes, the sky darkening to a pinpoint of light above it. This is the sky that Ivy knows.
Ivy and her sister, Mint, peer further into the ravine. It has been one day since their father stopped moving. A dandelion sprouts from the parched earth like hands clasped together in prayer. It is the only living thing they've seen in this dead world. A growl echoes off the cliff walls. Maybe not the only thing.
Sometimes Ivy dreams of a sky that covers everything. When she awakes, she hates herself for still having the dreams of a child. She's fourteen, now, her sister twelve. The rope stretches up above them, up, up, up, further than young eyes can see.
Features:
-Character-centric storyline
-50+ hours of gameplay
-Challenging boss battles
-Original music
-Different equipment sets that modify the ways characters play
-A crafting system featuring over 100 pieces of unique equipment
-LOTS of side quests
-Puzzles that spice up dungeon design
-Recruit an odd assortment of townspeople and pass legislation to develop your own village
-Raise a pig to compete in the Pig Arena and win prizes
-New game+ feature that includes multiple bonus endings--a mechanic I blatantly stole from Chrono Trigger
Ivy and her sister, Mint, peer further into the ravine. It has been one day since their father stopped moving. A dandelion sprouts from the parched earth like hands clasped together in prayer. It is the only living thing they've seen in this dead world. A growl echoes off the cliff walls. Maybe not the only thing.
Sometimes Ivy dreams of a sky that covers everything. When she awakes, she hates herself for still having the dreams of a child. She's fourteen, now, her sister twelve. The rope stretches up above them, up, up, up, further than young eyes can see.
Features:
-Character-centric storyline
-50+ hours of gameplay
-Challenging boss battles
-Original music
-Different equipment sets that modify the ways characters play
-A crafting system featuring over 100 pieces of unique equipment
-LOTS of side quests
-Puzzles that spice up dungeon design
-Recruit an odd assortment of townspeople and pass legislation to develop your own village
-Raise a pig to compete in the Pig Arena and win prizes
-New game+ feature that includes multiple bonus endings--a mechanic I blatantly stole from Chrono Trigger
Latest Blog
Major Update
Housekeeping
3 post(s)- 06/27/2015 02:35 AM
- 2783 views
I've been hinting here and there about wanting to update A Very Long Rope, and I finally got off my ass and did it. I made quite a few changes, and I'll list them below, but I want to talk about the most major one in depth. When I made A Very Long Rope, my goal was to make a game with a strong story, and a lot of the other aspects got brushed aside. This was going to be my way to segue into the community and hopefully find some other people interested in working together. Since then, I've shifted my perspective and focused more on things like design and aesthetics, which this game doesn't really care much about, unfortunately.
So, the update. The chief annoyance I've been hearing about A Very Long Rope is the dungeon design--mainly, levels are way too big, and the random encounters serve to make things worse. So, this update adds an item to your inventory that toggles enemy encounters. This item was available in the game before, but the only way to get it was to beat the game (players who have done this know I'm talking about the saecelium shield). Now, this item is given to the player at the very beginning, meaning you don't have to fight a single random encounter anymore.
Of course, since bosses exist, you'll still need to gain experience. In order to incentivize getting a good amount of experience before each boss, I've made several treasure chests need a currency called "victory points" in order to open them. Basically, you get a single victory point for every enemy you defeat in a battle (other than bosses). Victory points are dependent based on the dungeon, so the ones you earn in the first dungeon will only work in that dungeon. The cost of opening chests is higher depending on what's inside the chest, so you might need to spend between 2-6 points in order to open each of these special chests.
I've also doubled the experience, gold, and item drops from monsters. The net effect here is that if you open every single locked chest, you'll end up fighting about half of the encounters that you would have if you just left random encounters on. I did a full playthrough and felt that these locked chests provided short-term goals that kept me more interested while exploring; I hope they do that for you, too!
Here's the full list of changes:
-Reduced crit damage from triple to double
-Stat cap increased to 9999 (will mainly affect buff stacking)
-Berserk no longer sucks
-One-touch Sprint
-First agricultural upgrade requires three people instead of five.
-Escape rate now a flat 60%
-Added a way to get out of the Goddess Tower if you don't have a portable transceiver
-Fixed a few typos/graphical glitches/small things I don't remember
-Rare drop rates have been increased significantly
-Gold/XP/Drop Rates doubled
-Findable equipment that could be used in recipes is now sold as recipes in your town along with the regular recipes.
-Saecelium Shield now added at the beginning of the game. Players can use their old data and find a Saeclium Shield in a number of places within a blue chest (such as the entrance to your town, on the world map, or next to the save point in Old Town); the blue chests will disappear upon opening one.
-Most chests are now "locked." Gain Victory Points from defeating random mobs in a dungeon to open locked chests. Victory Points are specific to each dungeon.
-Locked chests are weighted based on how good the item is. 2 VP is a potion, 3 VP is gold, a good potion, or monster mats, 4 VP are great potions and large sums of gold, 5 VP are stat-boosting items or rare monster mats, 6 VP are equipment.
-Chests that aren't near easy grinding spots (e.g. chests in certain puzzles, chests in towns) will never be locked. Several other random chests in dungeons will also not be locked.
-Arena fights now give experience
-Can now use saecelium shield during soul tear scenes
-Only need to find the wolf four times instead of nine (what was I thinking?!) in Marina's soul tear scene.
That's it! Oh, and make sure to subscribe to my new project: Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass.
So, the update. The chief annoyance I've been hearing about A Very Long Rope is the dungeon design--mainly, levels are way too big, and the random encounters serve to make things worse. So, this update adds an item to your inventory that toggles enemy encounters. This item was available in the game before, but the only way to get it was to beat the game (players who have done this know I'm talking about the saecelium shield). Now, this item is given to the player at the very beginning, meaning you don't have to fight a single random encounter anymore.
Of course, since bosses exist, you'll still need to gain experience. In order to incentivize getting a good amount of experience before each boss, I've made several treasure chests need a currency called "victory points" in order to open them. Basically, you get a single victory point for every enemy you defeat in a battle (other than bosses). Victory points are dependent based on the dungeon, so the ones you earn in the first dungeon will only work in that dungeon. The cost of opening chests is higher depending on what's inside the chest, so you might need to spend between 2-6 points in order to open each of these special chests.
I've also doubled the experience, gold, and item drops from monsters. The net effect here is that if you open every single locked chest, you'll end up fighting about half of the encounters that you would have if you just left random encounters on. I did a full playthrough and felt that these locked chests provided short-term goals that kept me more interested while exploring; I hope they do that for you, too!
Here's the full list of changes:
-Reduced crit damage from triple to double
-Stat cap increased to 9999 (will mainly affect buff stacking)
-Berserk no longer sucks
-One-touch Sprint
-First agricultural upgrade requires three people instead of five.
-Escape rate now a flat 60%
-Added a way to get out of the Goddess Tower if you don't have a portable transceiver
-Fixed a few typos/graphical glitches/small things I don't remember
-Rare drop rates have been increased significantly
-Gold/XP/Drop Rates doubled
-Findable equipment that could be used in recipes is now sold as recipes in your town along with the regular recipes.
-Saecelium Shield now added at the beginning of the game. Players can use their old data and find a Saeclium Shield in a number of places within a blue chest (such as the entrance to your town, on the world map, or next to the save point in Old Town); the blue chests will disappear upon opening one.
-Most chests are now "locked." Gain Victory Points from defeating random mobs in a dungeon to open locked chests. Victory Points are specific to each dungeon.
-Locked chests are weighted based on how good the item is. 2 VP is a potion, 3 VP is gold, a good potion, or monster mats, 4 VP are great potions and large sums of gold, 5 VP are stat-boosting items or rare monster mats, 6 VP are equipment.
-Chests that aren't near easy grinding spots (e.g. chests in certain puzzles, chests in towns) will never be locked. Several other random chests in dungeons will also not be locked.
-Arena fights now give experience
-Can now use saecelium shield during soul tear scenes
-Only need to find the wolf four times instead of nine (what was I thinking?!) in Marina's soul tear scene.
That's it! Oh, and make sure to subscribe to my new project: Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass.
- Completed
- Housekeeping
RPG Maker VX- RPG
- 11/26/2013 04:56 PM
- 04/18/2024 04:57 PM
- 12/01/2013
- 536491
- 48
- 5094
Posts 

So, I decided to give it one more try, and had a marathon grinding session...hopefully level 34 before meeting the Bandit King will let me steamroll most things. :D
Haha, looks like it got its hooks into you! You're pretty close to where the game opens up, and when that happens most of the stat progression will occur from gear and skills learned via quests. So, you shouldn't need to grind anymore; I think that my party tends to be around 30 at that point in the game.
Like I said, the story and writing are great, so I definitely want to see where it's heading.
Yeah, I was around 29-30, too. Also I have new characters that aren't as...not so great as the ones prior to that, so that should help too.
Yeah, I was around 29-30, too. Also I have new characters that aren't as...not so great as the ones prior to that, so that should help too.
I'm stuck at Silver Spring, where you have to get a present for Mint. I'm out of money so I can't buy the teddy bear (seems like an oversight, that), so I'm trying to do the fetch quest. I'm stuck at the part where I have to get something sublimely beautiful for Gerad. I've run all around the town but I have no idea what he's talking about. Even the walkthrough just skips over that part. Is it just impossible?
Yeah, that part's pretty obtuse, but you've got two options:
-There's a pink teddy bear in Low Town that you can buy for 20 gold.
-There's also a girl with a red ball in Low Town. You need to buy some potatoes for her, which are five gold in the market in the western section of the town. She'll give you the ball, which you can then return to Gerard. If you're absolutely broke you might need to hawk something.
Mint gives you an item based on which teddy bear you get her; the one you're working on will net the best reward.
-There's also a girl with a red ball in Low Town. You need to buy some potatoes for her, which are five gold in the market in the western section of the town. She'll give you the ball, which you can then return to Gerard. If you're absolutely broke you might need to hawk something.
Mint gives you an item based on which teddy bear you get her; the one you're working on will net the best reward.
Ah, paying attention to NPCs pays off! That is pretty convoluted, though. I get that it's supposed to be vague, but after the very explicit directions in the previous steps it really threw me off.
What might have helped here is if the brother reacted to the presence of potatoes to show you're on the right track, or at least mentioned where his sister was. I bought a potato just to see if it would do something with him, but he still says the same line about needing to steal for his sister.
What might have helped here is if the brother reacted to the presence of potatoes to show you're on the right track, or at least mentioned where his sister was. I bought a potato just to see if it would do something with him, but he still says the same line about needing to steal for his sister.
Hey Housekeeping, great game ^^
But I can't open my Save1.rvdata for some reason. The game recognizes it's there because I can open load when I start the game but the file itself looks empty when I open it in the game.
For reference I was in Silver Spring after The Bandit King's Army left there. I saved in the central district's save point. I also switched my computer off while the game was still open right after I saved
But I can't open my Save1.rvdata for some reason. The game recognizes it's there because I can open load when I start the game but the file itself looks empty when I open it in the game.
For reference I was in Silver Spring after The Bandit King's Army left there. I saved in the central district's save point. I also switched my computer off while the game was still open right after I saved
That's a bit bizarre, citric. So, when you load it's just showing a black screen? If so, can you open up the menu and mess around (it might still be pitch black, but you should hear sound effects like you're scrolling through menu options)? Was the game normal before you saved it?
I can't open the file, sorry for wording it oddly, but the game recognizes the file's there because I can open load, and when I take the file out of the folder, I cannot open load. When I open Load however, File 1 is blank, in spite of Save1.rvdata being in the game's file
I think the game was more or less normal before I saved it.
I think the game was more or less normal before I saved it.
It sounds like your save file got corrupted, but I don't really know how that would happen unless you closed the game before it finished saving, but that would be like a split-second maneuver. I don't think this will work, but you might try to copy your save file, download a new copy of the game (or just re-extract the copy you have), and then move the save file into the new directory. That should isolate the issue so that you know it's just the save file. At that point, though, I don't know how you would repair a damaged save file. I wish there was something I could do--hopefully re-extracting the game and moving the save file over will work, but I'm pretty doubtful.
Yea, it's probably the file, this is rather upsetting, I'll have to do about 30 hours worth of gameplay all over again :/
Is there anyway I could uncorrupt the file, or revert to an earlier time? I tried right clicking -> going to properties, but there was no "restore file to a previous version" option
Edit: I'm just gonna redo it, doesn't hurt to reenjoy the masterpiece <3
Is there anyway I could uncorrupt the file, or revert to an earlier time? I tried right clicking -> going to properties, but there was no "restore file to a previous version" option
Edit: I'm just gonna redo it, doesn't hurt to reenjoy the masterpiece <3
As far as I know, there's not, but you might be able to ask about this in the forums. I'd hate for you to have to play through it all again, but I'm honored that you think it's worth it!
The Ring of the Asp (Prevent DEF down and AGI down) doesn't have that effect in the Frozen Arena (Leif's Arena)... I think... let me go check...
Yep. It says "Leif has gotten slower" and on my next turn, Leif has the AGI Down icon in his status bar.
Although... the Unbreakable Helm may work... when I had Leif wear it, the DEF Down effect was never applied...
Yep. It says "Leif has gotten slower" and on my next turn, Leif has the AGI Down icon in his status bar.
Although... the Unbreakable Helm may work... when I had Leif wear it, the DEF Down effect was never applied...
That makes sense. However, on Standard Arena B, Battle 3, (The Wandering Priest and the of Light) I can try to escape. I failed... but I tried...
Is the escape for if you want to give up? I don't think so, but if it is shouldn't it have auto success? Or is it a way to skip turns so you fail faster?
Also, how is escape chance decided?
Is the escape for if you want to give up? I don't think so, but if it is shouldn't it have auto success? Or is it a way to skip turns so you fail faster?
Also, how is escape chance decided?
If you do escape, it counts as a forfeit. Escape is agility-based and uses VX's default formula, which is terrible, but at the time I made this game I didn't know how to alter it. That might be something I can address in an update, actually. Making the escape rate a high flat rate is probably a better option since enemy agility tends to be around the player's appropriate level.
Ok I just finished my first playthrough of the game, Just gonna type some questions and general thoughts if you don't mind
- Jesus Christ, the ending was so sad, When it looked like Ivy was going to stay at the simulation forever I was so mad at her, it seemed like she was giving up, but then it turned out she wasn't staying there forever and I felt so sad for her, having to give up Mint, Jerrick, Clive, and her childhood all over again
I'll be honest, when I started the game, I wasn't expecting it to be so long, I thought it would end when Ivy and Mint met Rose or something like that, the game really exceeded my expectations
1. I know it's my first playthrough, I don't know what the other endings are like, but I really wanted to see the world after defeating Raccoon, I wanted to see Sanctuary grow as well as all of the continents grow and the Somnians in the Wasteland, I didn't even upgrade all the shops in Sanctuary yet, nor did I get the pressurized fountain, or get all the nifty stuff for Samson
2. How do you unlock upgrades for all the stores every part of Sanctuary, I expanded all the way but I feel like I was missing quite a bit of other stuff
3. I really wanted to see the Somnian village at least once again after they had left it, I really wish they had a villager there that you could recruit to Sanctuary.
4. It would have been nice to see Alan and Toby being aware of Jerrick and Clive's death and reflecting on their time with them.
5. It was jarring to see that some of the npcs portraits after the timeskip didn't change, Deidre, Griff, Margo, Switch, Emil and some others still looked as young as they did 30 years ago, I don't know if you were planning different portraits for them, but that really stuck out to me.
6. I really wished I finished all the Pig competitions with Samson, as well as all the arenas in Terranoire
7. For some reason I see Rutger being voiced by Steve Blum, and Bebop Deluxe having Claptrap's voice (robot from Borderlands)
8. I got 53 people to Sanctuary, is that enough, or are there more?
9. I kind of wanted to see some direct interaction after the timeskip between Ivy and Moira as well as Ivy and Luca, I don't know if I did anything wrong, but they both never talked to Ivy after the timeskip, they only talked to Gainer mostly, it would have been nice if they had directly acknowledged her.
10. Did Luca's dad die?
11. What happened to the orphanage after Dedrie and Gretchen came to Sanctuary? It felt like Dedrie was abandoning the other kids just for Gretchen.
12. Just HOW old are Jarvis and Magnus? It would have been nice to see Magnus's reaction to Jarvis as a senile old man
13. I wanted to see some interaction between Genieve, Prim, and Mag, since Genieve dialogue in Sanctuary's library indicates she believes that withces didn't existed
14. I also wanted to see Prim and Mag interact with Glass after they all had moved to Sanctuary, maybe see them apologize to him or reconcile in some way
15. Why is Death (or whatever that figure is) after Pallance? (if you're willing to tell)
16. I really wanted to see Sylvia bot get shut down so she could be in peace
17. Brunhilde and Phobos were both adorable <3
18. It would have been nice to see Emil and Genieve be all cutesy with each other as well in Sanctuary (I ended up successfully pairing them up)
19. I REALLY wanted to see more of Rose and Gram's time together as well as their time with Mint and Ivy back when they were children
20. Who buried Cyril?
21. I was surprised that Gainer was about 29, I assumed he was in his early twenties at most because of his early idealism, how most people referred to him as "kid" or something similar, and his portrait looked really young.
22. Speaking of Gainer does he have a thing for older women, or just Luca?
23. Having Rose at the end as the post game guide felt gut wrenchingly sad honestly, kind of discouraged me from picking up the game for awhile (don't worry I'll start the new game plus eventually ^^)
24. You are both an amazing composer and writer, I look forward to any future projects you may have!
25. Probably a long shot to ask this, but are you planning any sequels, prequels, spinoffs to the game's universe? You've crafted a beautiful world, and I would love to see more of it
I'll be honest, when I started the game, I wasn't expecting it to be so long, I thought it would end when Ivy and Mint met Rose or something like that, the game really exceeded my expectations
1. I know it's my first playthrough, I don't know what the other endings are like, but I really wanted to see the world after defeating Raccoon, I wanted to see Sanctuary grow as well as all of the continents grow and the Somnians in the Wasteland, I didn't even upgrade all the shops in Sanctuary yet, nor did I get the pressurized fountain, or get all the nifty stuff for Samson
2. How do you unlock upgrades for all the stores every part of Sanctuary, I expanded all the way but I feel like I was missing quite a bit of other stuff
3. I really wanted to see the Somnian village at least once again after they had left it, I really wish they had a villager there that you could recruit to Sanctuary.
4. It would have been nice to see Alan and Toby being aware of Jerrick and Clive's death and reflecting on their time with them.
5. It was jarring to see that some of the npcs portraits after the timeskip didn't change, Deidre, Griff, Margo, Switch, Emil and some others still looked as young as they did 30 years ago, I don't know if you were planning different portraits for them, but that really stuck out to me.
6. I really wished I finished all the Pig competitions with Samson, as well as all the arenas in Terranoire
7. For some reason I see Rutger being voiced by Steve Blum, and Bebop Deluxe having Claptrap's voice (robot from Borderlands)
8. I got 53 people to Sanctuary, is that enough, or are there more?
9. I kind of wanted to see some direct interaction after the timeskip between Ivy and Moira as well as Ivy and Luca, I don't know if I did anything wrong, but they both never talked to Ivy after the timeskip, they only talked to Gainer mostly, it would have been nice if they had directly acknowledged her.
10. Did Luca's dad die?
11. What happened to the orphanage after Dedrie and Gretchen came to Sanctuary? It felt like Dedrie was abandoning the other kids just for Gretchen.
12. Just HOW old are Jarvis and Magnus? It would have been nice to see Magnus's reaction to Jarvis as a senile old man
13. I wanted to see some interaction between Genieve, Prim, and Mag, since Genieve dialogue in Sanctuary's library indicates she believes that withces didn't existed
14. I also wanted to see Prim and Mag interact with Glass after they all had moved to Sanctuary, maybe see them apologize to him or reconcile in some way
15. Why is Death (or whatever that figure is) after Pallance? (if you're willing to tell)
16. I really wanted to see Sylvia bot get shut down so she could be in peace
17. Brunhilde and Phobos were both adorable <3
18. It would have been nice to see Emil and Genieve be all cutesy with each other as well in Sanctuary (I ended up successfully pairing them up)
19. I REALLY wanted to see more of Rose and Gram's time together as well as their time with Mint and Ivy back when they were children
20. Who buried Cyril?
21. I was surprised that Gainer was about 29, I assumed he was in his early twenties at most because of his early idealism, how most people referred to him as "kid" or something similar, and his portrait looked really young.
22. Speaking of Gainer does he have a thing for older women, or just Luca?
23. Having Rose at the end as the post game guide felt gut wrenchingly sad honestly, kind of discouraged me from picking up the game for awhile (don't worry I'll start the new game plus eventually ^^)
24. You are both an amazing composer and writer, I look forward to any future projects you may have!
25. Probably a long shot to ask this, but are you planning any sequels, prequels, spinoffs to the game's universe? You've crafted a beautiful world, and I would love to see more of it
Whew, lots of questions! I'll try my best to answer them--spoilers for those who haven't played:
1. You can continue your current playthrough, so you can still work on the town if you like! The other endings are designed in a Chrono Trigger "what if the party made it to Ubiquity at X part of the story" kind of way, so you're not going to see much of an aftermath in the world post-Raccoon, but you will see why the different parts of the story really mattered to the characters. I tried to focus the main ending on Ivy since the game was primarily her story.
2. Some of the upgrades require having other people besides the shop owners. For example, you need to get Prim and Mag before you can get an item shop upgrade. The new shop upgrades also won't be available until you reach Ubiquity (which you can return to at any time from your town's teleporter). The only really left field upgrade is Miranda's shop; you need to pair her and Jarvis up in the theater before her upgrade becomes available.
3. I was originally going to have the entire wasteland (including the Somnian village) be a big playable area that acts as an exploration-based mini game, but I hit VX's built-in map limit, so I had to scrap it. The idea behind it would be that, in addition to finding items, you would also see little glimpses of the Somnians because of the effects of saecelium fallout. I'm actually kind of glad I had to scrap that, in retrospect, since it would have taken me way too long to implement, haha.
4. That would have been a nice way to develop them a bit more, but I let them be blissfully unaware; Clive and Jerrick had been out of their lives for quite some time, so I didn't push it.
5. I took the easy way out on a lot of the portraits. If I had a character in mind who was in their 20s or so, I would just leave them as they were in order to save time. I cut a lot of corners with this project, and that was one of them.
6. Again, you can continue your current playthrough and complete them. Also, if you start a new game+, when you unlock the town, you get to keep all of your progress--Samson included.
7. I'll have my people call up Steve Blum! (I don't have any people)
8. This is an awful answer, but it sounds like you probably have everyone--or at least you're close. I didn't keep an accurate count of the villagers; there was a discussion of this earlier in the comments, and 53 seems to be right.
9. The idea with leaving Ivy out of those interactions was that most people forgot her as it had been so long.
10. Yeah, Luca's dad died. This was implied briefly in the post-time skip dialogue where it's mentioned that he's sick, and then he's no longer around by the time you get to Silver Spring.
11. There are other adults at the orphanage--including one who vaguely remembers Raccoon if you talk to her after seeing Raccoon's scene in the reflecting pond. So, the orphanage is fine! Although, looking back at the characters there, I should have moved the woman upstairs into Deidre's old position and made her seem frazzled.
12. Magnus would probably be around his 70s-80s, with part of the joke being that he's still 100% spry. Part of the joke with Jarvis is that he has to be older than that since he was Magnus's superior officer, so he's just unspeakably old, haha. I probably could have paired those guys in a church scene, but at the time I really just put Jarvis in Magnus's Soul Tear scene as a little easter egg to give Jarvis some backstory. If I were ever to revist this project, I'd probably expand on their relationship (and on a lot of the town characters in general).
13. That'd be interesting--hadn't thought of that! One of the struggles with the town was giving the townspeople room to interact. That's the main reason why the theater/church events exist, and the council room allows them to do so, too. Again, if I were to revisit this project, I'd introduce the town much earlier, which would give me more room to have lots of interactions like that.
14. I'm not sure Glass would remember them, which would actually make that an interesting scene. Again, hadn't thought of that.
15. Pallance is cheating death, so you can assume that he died, but the reasons why that came about aren't explored in the narrative. If I were obsessed with sounding cool, I would say that it's a mystery and probably type a winking emoticon. Honestly, though, I don't have a background written for him.
16. I'm not sure if you did this, but you can go back to the Sylvia bot after talking to Solomon about the "other" Sylvia, and you can do that very thing! You're also given another option with her, so I'll leave that unsaid if you want to check it out.
17. Thanks! They probably had my favorite skill instructor soul tear scene.
18. Yeah, I probably should have given them some more scenes since their relationship could have gone two different ways. Again, that'd be a cool thing to toy with if I ever revisit this (plus I'd like to have other aspects have pre/post time skip differences based on your early actions--I kept those to a minimum since they required more work).
19. I gave them soul tear scenes, which you've probably already seen. I'm not sure what else I could convey with them, but it definitely would have been fun to gauge out Gram's character a bit more since you don't see much of him.
20. I...don't know who buried Cyril. That might be a neat line to give Mort, though.
21. Gainer's been sheltered a good portion of his life, so his idealism really only starts to get eaten away after Ivy meets him. This might be personal experience, but I just hit 30 and I still have a baby face if I'm clean shaven, and I call everyone younger than me a kid, haha. I probably should have given him some more adult moments, but Yvette does call him out about kind of being a man child when they're in the work camp.
22. Luca's only a bit older than him--she'd be in her mid to late 30s. One of the themes I was focusing on was isolation, and their relationship was a part of that--they're the only two kids in High Town, even if they have a decent gap in their ages, so I thought it was natural that they'd be so close.
23. I didn't think of that! I was thinking it would be nice to see her; she's essentially a meta-character at that point since Ivy has no dialogue with her, but seeing them both in the same room...yeah, didn't think about it like that.
24. Thanks so much! I'm working on another BIG project, but at the moment I'm doing a group contest thing that will hopefully be done in a couple of weeks.
25. I had a few ideas a while back for a couple of short spinoffs--one focusing on Brunhilde and one focusing on Lovie--but I think the direction I'm heading in creatively is towards other areas, so I wouldn't expect anything like that. I will say that if I ever make enough progress in this industry, this is a game that I'd like to go back and do right, which basically means redesigning it from the ground up while keeping the story more or less intact. There's a lot that would have been different if I had more tools at my disposal.
Just a small example: I would have made the chimera follow the kids outside at the beginning of the game and force them to run back into their house for safety, which would have made the danger of staying there feel way more visceral. This isn't something I'd be able to do very well with sprites and a fixed camera, but if I had more dynamic cinematography, this would have been how I handled that scene. That's the kind of thing that makes me want to revisit this project later in my life, but right now I need to focus on the next step in front of me.
2. Some of the upgrades require having other people besides the shop owners. For example, you need to get Prim and Mag before you can get an item shop upgrade. The new shop upgrades also won't be available until you reach Ubiquity (which you can return to at any time from your town's teleporter). The only really left field upgrade is Miranda's shop; you need to pair her and Jarvis up in the theater before her upgrade becomes available.
3. I was originally going to have the entire wasteland (including the Somnian village) be a big playable area that acts as an exploration-based mini game, but I hit VX's built-in map limit, so I had to scrap it. The idea behind it would be that, in addition to finding items, you would also see little glimpses of the Somnians because of the effects of saecelium fallout. I'm actually kind of glad I had to scrap that, in retrospect, since it would have taken me way too long to implement, haha.
4. That would have been a nice way to develop them a bit more, but I let them be blissfully unaware; Clive and Jerrick had been out of their lives for quite some time, so I didn't push it.
5. I took the easy way out on a lot of the portraits. If I had a character in mind who was in their 20s or so, I would just leave them as they were in order to save time. I cut a lot of corners with this project, and that was one of them.
6. Again, you can continue your current playthrough and complete them. Also, if you start a new game+, when you unlock the town, you get to keep all of your progress--Samson included.
7. I'll have my people call up Steve Blum! (I don't have any people)
8. This is an awful answer, but it sounds like you probably have everyone--or at least you're close. I didn't keep an accurate count of the villagers; there was a discussion of this earlier in the comments, and 53 seems to be right.
9. The idea with leaving Ivy out of those interactions was that most people forgot her as it had been so long.
10. Yeah, Luca's dad died. This was implied briefly in the post-time skip dialogue where it's mentioned that he's sick, and then he's no longer around by the time you get to Silver Spring.
11. There are other adults at the orphanage--including one who vaguely remembers Raccoon if you talk to her after seeing Raccoon's scene in the reflecting pond. So, the orphanage is fine! Although, looking back at the characters there, I should have moved the woman upstairs into Deidre's old position and made her seem frazzled.
12. Magnus would probably be around his 70s-80s, with part of the joke being that he's still 100% spry. Part of the joke with Jarvis is that he has to be older than that since he was Magnus's superior officer, so he's just unspeakably old, haha. I probably could have paired those guys in a church scene, but at the time I really just put Jarvis in Magnus's Soul Tear scene as a little easter egg to give Jarvis some backstory. If I were ever to revist this project, I'd probably expand on their relationship (and on a lot of the town characters in general).
13. That'd be interesting--hadn't thought of that! One of the struggles with the town was giving the townspeople room to interact. That's the main reason why the theater/church events exist, and the council room allows them to do so, too. Again, if I were to revisit this project, I'd introduce the town much earlier, which would give me more room to have lots of interactions like that.
14. I'm not sure Glass would remember them, which would actually make that an interesting scene. Again, hadn't thought of that.
15. Pallance is cheating death, so you can assume that he died, but the reasons why that came about aren't explored in the narrative. If I were obsessed with sounding cool, I would say that it's a mystery and probably type a winking emoticon. Honestly, though, I don't have a background written for him.
16. I'm not sure if you did this, but you can go back to the Sylvia bot after talking to Solomon about the "other" Sylvia, and you can do that very thing! You're also given another option with her, so I'll leave that unsaid if you want to check it out.
17. Thanks! They probably had my favorite skill instructor soul tear scene.
18. Yeah, I probably should have given them some more scenes since their relationship could have gone two different ways. Again, that'd be a cool thing to toy with if I ever revisit this (plus I'd like to have other aspects have pre/post time skip differences based on your early actions--I kept those to a minimum since they required more work).
19. I gave them soul tear scenes, which you've probably already seen. I'm not sure what else I could convey with them, but it definitely would have been fun to gauge out Gram's character a bit more since you don't see much of him.
20. I...don't know who buried Cyril. That might be a neat line to give Mort, though.
21. Gainer's been sheltered a good portion of his life, so his idealism really only starts to get eaten away after Ivy meets him. This might be personal experience, but I just hit 30 and I still have a baby face if I'm clean shaven, and I call everyone younger than me a kid, haha. I probably should have given him some more adult moments, but Yvette does call him out about kind of being a man child when they're in the work camp.
22. Luca's only a bit older than him--she'd be in her mid to late 30s. One of the themes I was focusing on was isolation, and their relationship was a part of that--they're the only two kids in High Town, even if they have a decent gap in their ages, so I thought it was natural that they'd be so close.
23. I didn't think of that! I was thinking it would be nice to see her; she's essentially a meta-character at that point since Ivy has no dialogue with her, but seeing them both in the same room...yeah, didn't think about it like that.
24. Thanks so much! I'm working on another BIG project, but at the moment I'm doing a group contest thing that will hopefully be done in a couple of weeks.
25. I had a few ideas a while back for a couple of short spinoffs--one focusing on Brunhilde and one focusing on Lovie--but I think the direction I'm heading in creatively is towards other areas, so I wouldn't expect anything like that. I will say that if I ever make enough progress in this industry, this is a game that I'd like to go back and do right, which basically means redesigning it from the ground up while keeping the story more or less intact. There's a lot that would have been different if I had more tools at my disposal.
Just a small example: I would have made the chimera follow the kids outside at the beginning of the game and force them to run back into their house for safety, which would have made the danger of staying there feel way more visceral. This isn't something I'd be able to do very well with sprites and a fixed camera, but if I had more dynamic cinematography, this would have been how I handled that scene. That's the kind of thing that makes me want to revisit this project later in my life, but right now I need to focus on the next step in front of me.
1. I did go back to Sylvia and instead of shutting her down I chose the other option, it felt like the better choice, for both Sylvia bot and Solomon, given that neither one of them is alone anymore (although I kinda felt sad for imaginary Sylvia).
2. Ahhh, I was kinda hoping for some interaction between Moira and Ivy since Ivy seemed to recall her fondly and she, Mint, and Cyril, all tried to help Moira. A "do you remember me?" would have been nice, though I understand if you gotta cut corners.
3. Do you have a cast in mind, or any voice actors in mind for any of your characters?
4. One of my favorite parts with the Sonminian village was when we could talk to a random female villager and get this (roughly paraphrased) dialogue
Villager: (To Leif) Oh! your wings! May I touch them?
Leif: Uh, okay...
Villager: Oh, they are so soft! I could touch them all day!
Yvette: You know, Leif doesn't have a lady friend ;)
Leif:...
Anyway, if you do decide to expand on the Sonminian area in the remake, I'd be very glad!
5. I assumed Magnus was in his 100s by the Timeskip, since Leif mentioned Magnus being 40 years older than him, and I estimated Leif to be around his 60s (which really makes me wonder how old Jarvis is)
6. When I first saw Rose in the postgame I wanted to hug her, or see Ivy hug her, it sort of felt like they were denied a moment together :/
7. If you want, I could pitch in ideas for Sanctuary Npcs' interactions
8. Would you ever consider adding more Npcs to be recruited to Sanctuary?
9. I don't know what I could do, but if you need help on any future projects, I could try and help! Just ask.
2. Ivy's not the kind of girl to ask people if they remember her. I should have had Moira mention that she looks familiar, though.
3. No, I don't really have any voice actors in mind. Characters tend to have a voice I imagine when I'm writing them, but I never think to pair that with an actual person.
4. I loved writing Yvette a lot in general.
5. Magnus might actually be that old--I forgot about that bit of dialogue and my math was making him 20 years older than Leif, who I would put at around 60.
7. Thanks for the offer, but I think I'm good. Like I said, this version of the game is more or less completed--I'll update if any bugs are reported, but otherwise it's done so I can focus on other projects. I mentioned possibly remaking it, but this is something that would happen years from now (if ever), and by then my plans for it might change pretty radically.
8. I'm not going to add any NPCs in the current version; like I said, this project is done. If I were to remake it, though, yeah, I would probably do that. I would introduce the town much earlier, so that'd make room to expand it further.
9. Thanks for the offer! I think I'm pretty set for now, but I'm very honored that you liked A Very Long Rope enough to even make that offer.
3. No, I don't really have any voice actors in mind. Characters tend to have a voice I imagine when I'm writing them, but I never think to pair that with an actual person.
4. I loved writing Yvette a lot in general.
5. Magnus might actually be that old--I forgot about that bit of dialogue and my math was making him 20 years older than Leif, who I would put at around 60.
7. Thanks for the offer, but I think I'm good. Like I said, this version of the game is more or less completed--I'll update if any bugs are reported, but otherwise it's done so I can focus on other projects. I mentioned possibly remaking it, but this is something that would happen years from now (if ever), and by then my plans for it might change pretty radically.
8. I'm not going to add any NPCs in the current version; like I said, this project is done. If I were to remake it, though, yeah, I would probably do that. I would introduce the town much earlier, so that'd make room to expand it further.
9. Thanks for the offer! I think I'm pretty set for now, but I'm very honored that you liked A Very Long Rope enough to even make that offer.












