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DISCLAIMER: THIS GAME IS COMPLETELY FREE TO PLAY AND NOT TO BE SOLD, BORROWED, OR MODIFIED ANYWHERE OR FROM ANYONE!!






SYNOPSIS:

Estes was just fourteen years old and dealing with the loss of his father when The Calamity occurred. Objects of unknown origin had struck near Ignarosa, the capital of Autenon, with the force so great the dust blotted the sky out and led to three months of freezing and unrelenting snow. People died of cold and starvation, and only a few isolated enclaves lived to see the Months of Blizzard end as suddenly as they started. During this time, many plants and animals were also decimated or driven to extinction. In their place, new and dangerous creatures to fill the void, many with a mysterious link to The Calamity itself...

Ten years later, Estes and his friend Nikolai are sent out from their home town of Jupa to make contact with survivors further north, and learn what they know of Calamity. Estes also hopes to see Makal, his formerly beautiful birthplace, while Nikolai is searching for the man who betrayed his father. Their journey will take them halfway across the barren lands of Autenon and grow more complex than anyone had imagined...



Winner of 4 Misao awards, 2021:
"Eye Candy" Award

The "How Did They Do That?" Award

Star Stealing Prince Award

Most Promising Demo Award



Nominated for 9 Misao awards, 2021:
Best Game Profile Award

Summoner of Sounds Award

Excellence in Narrative Award

Not Dead Yet Award

Game of the Year Award




FEATURES:

- Completely fleshed out Custom Menu System w/upgradable gear, custom character stat modifier, current objective, optional quests, enemy intel, ammunition and explosives crafting, and much more -





- Heavily modified DBS (CTB) with entirely animated monsters, a unique limit break system, and thoroughly thought out battles that require strategic thinking-





- Heavy immersion, explorable objects and locations -




- A rich soundtrack with original and modified scores -




Latest Blog

Hiatus & Plans

Hello all, for anyone not aware, I have been working closely alongside Blind on his game Beloved Rapture, an awesome SNES inspired game in the works planned to release very soon! This has unfortunately taken much of my time away from working on Nihilo, but on a positive note has also made me reconsider the future of the game!

Beloved Rapture is a commercial project made in Rm2k3 v1.12 modified heavily with BigShan's Maniacs Patch. We've been able to achieve so many things using this patch that break the boundaries of the engine including modifying the battle system's UI and fully animating enemies, easily and conveniently putting together a modern style CMS, and converting the project to a 16:9 ratio. Widescreen support for a 2k3 game, who would've thought? It's barely recognizable as a game created in 2k3 anymore.

All of this work has made me realize the desire I have to take Nihilo to that next level and put that passion into a game that can be commercialized as well, whether it be using 2k3 or another engine entirely! (We'll cross that bridge when we get to it)

Long story short, Nihilo is currently on hiatus until we wrap up with Beloved Rapture, but once that's done, expect some very exciting news! I hope I can garner enough attention for Nihilo to start a Kickstarter and raise enough funds to hire a really great team!

Stick around for more updates and please let me know your feelings here on the topic as well.

-Giz

P.S.
Go check out Beloved Rapture and wishlist it on Steam now!
Blind has been pouring his heart and soul into this project since before 2007 and his vision is finally coming to fruition! Not to mention the sleepless nights of work I've put into it as well! ;)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2017620/Beloved_Rapture/

Posts

author=Megollyen
author=goji
See you sunday!
What time are you planning on steaming on Sunday?


I actually ran out of time to do so because of a game jam, but I'm playing this game and Fragments by codapill (out Thursday) tonight at 7:30 PM EST! Would love to see you there! www.twitch.tv/riggy2k3
Color me impressed; this looks pretty good. I'll play this.
Yesss! Downloading the demo RIGHT NOW!
Currently playing through the demo and made it past the second big baddie and some thoughts:

  • Battle fields with pipe work in the mapping tend to obscure damage dealt to the party - while not a huge problem for mob encounters, the obstruction is noticeable.


  • Maybe I missed how but is there a way to get my characters energy back up in longer fights? There likely is and I missed it, though it hasn't been an issue.


  • The text box can be hard to read depending on what map you're on - the first few maps had me squinting because it was white text against lighter background outdoors, meanwhile in caves and buildings it wasn't an issue.


I'm going to outright praise this demo for it's art, detail in mapping, and the UI and sprite work. Seeing how upgrading and crafting are going to be a bigger part of the game moving forward, definitely excites me to know the power-creep for the characters is going to be more of a natural drip vs it being a grind-fest. Crazy good work, thoroughly impressed!
author=Ashes of Emerald
OFFICIAL DEMO! WOOOOOOO!
author=Nightblade
Color me impressed; this looks pretty good. I'll play this.
author=Megollyen
Yesss! Downloading the demo RIGHT NOW!


Thanks fellas! I really appreciate the support and I hope the demo is enjoyable!


author=Punk_Kricket
Currently playing through the demo and made it past the second big baddie and some thoughts:

  • Battle fields with pipe work in the mapping tend to obscure damage dealt to the party - while not a huge problem for mob encounters, the obstruction is noticeable.

  • Maybe I missed how but is there a way to get my characters energy back up in longer fights? There likely is and I missed it, though it hasn't been an issue.

  • The text box can be hard to read depending on what map you're on - the first few maps had me squinting because it was white text against lighter background outdoors, meanwhile in caves and buildings it wasn't an issue.

I'm going to outright praise this demo for it's art, detail in mapping, and the UI and sprite work. Seeing how upgrading and crafting are going to be a bigger part of the game moving forward, definitely excites me to know the power-creep for the characters is going to be more of a natural drip vs it being a grind-fest. Crazy good work, thoroughly impressed!



  • Yeah, the piping overlays, that's something I kind of second guessed myself about before releasing the demo, but I wanted to get something out!

  • Yes! In the first battle, (the tutorial fight) that... very long drawn out explanation of battle, it does refer to how to build each character's fortitude gauge. You can also refer back to every tutorial learned in-game in the logbook menu. (logbook>tutorial) One good way to build both Estes's and Nikolai's fortitude (especially in boss battles) is to use the "Provoke" skill with Nikolai as he has more defense and builds fort when being attacked and loses fort when acting, and have Estes hammer away at enemies as he builds fort performing commands and loses fort when being attacked. I think the real problem is asking players to go through such a drawn out tutorial for their first fight. This is something I should look into.

  • Hmm, first time I've actually gotten this one. I could probably simply tweak the transparency a little to fix.

I've jotted all of this down and will implement fixes accordingly!
Thank you so much for your kind words valuable feedback, I very much appreciate you taking the time to point these things out!
author=Giznads
author=Ashes of Emerald
OFFICIAL DEMO! WOOOOOOO!
author=Nightblade
Color me impressed; this looks pretty good. I'll play this.
author=Megollyen
Yesss! Downloading the demo RIGHT NOW!
Thanks fellas! I really appreciate the support and I hope the demo is enjoyable!


author=Punk_Kricket
Currently playing through the demo and made it past the second big baddie and some thoughts:

  • Battle fields with pipe work in the mapping tend to obscure damage dealt to the party - while not a huge problem for mob encounters, the obstruction is noticeable.


  • Maybe I missed how but is there a way to get my characters energy back up in longer fights? There likely is and I missed it, though it hasn't been an issue.


  • The text box can be hard to read depending on what map you're on - the first few maps had me squinting because it was white text against lighter background outdoors, meanwhile in caves and buildings it wasn't an issue.


I'm going to outright praise this demo for it's art, detail in mapping, and the UI and sprite work. Seeing how upgrading and crafting are going to be a bigger part of the game moving forward, definitely excites me to know the power-creep for the characters is going to be more of a natural drip vs it being a grind-fest. Crazy good work, thoroughly impressed!




  • Yeah, the piping overlays, that's something I kind of second guessed myself about before releasing the demo, but I wanted to get something out!


  • Yes! In the first battle, (the tutorial fight) that... very long drawn out explanation of battle, it does refer to how to build each character's fortitude gauge. You can also refer back to every tutorial learned in-game in the logbook menu. (logbook>tutorial) One good way to build both Estes's and Nikolai's fortitude (especially in boss battles) is to use the "Provoke" skill with Nikolai as he has more defense and builds fort when being attacked and loses fort when acting, and have Estes hammer away at enemies as he builds fort performing commands and loses fort when being attacked. I think the real problem is asking players to go through such a drawn out tutorial for their first fight. This is something I should look into.


  • Hmm, first time I've actually gotten this one. I could probably simply tweak the transparency a little to fix.


I've jotted all of this down and will implement fixes accordingly!
Thank you so much for your kind words valuable feedback, I very much appreciate you taking the time to point these things out!


It was definitely my pleasure! The text box is really more my eyesight being the problem and not so much the game being at fault, so I'd consider that one a subjective point at best.

And I thought I noticed Nikolai losing fortitude when he acted! I thought I was imagining it but now that I know, another playthrough is going to be easier.

After finishing the optional quest in the demo, I'm definitely appreciative of how you've built this so far! Tutorials are straight, to the point, and having the ability to go back is handy (despite me not realizing the fortitude building with Nikolai - that was an oversight on my behalf and I'll admit that lol)

Too, if other side quests are like the one in the demo, I'm excited to see the backstory and lore play out through them.
author=Punk_Kricket
It was definitely my pleasure! The text box is really more my eyesight being the problem and not so much the game being at fault, so I'd consider that one a subjective point at best.

And I thought I noticed Nikolai losing fortitude when he acted! I thought I was imagining it but now that I know, another playthrough is going to be easier.

After finishing the optional quest in the demo, I'm definitely appreciative of how you've built this so far! Tutorials are straight, to the point, and having the ability to go back is handy (despite me not realizing the fortitude building with Nikolai - that was an oversight on my behalf and I'll admit that lol)

Too, if other side quests are like the one in the demo, I'm excited to see the backstory and lore play out through them.


Still, these are all valid points, and I really appreciate them. I'm only one person and things can get a little hectic to take on alone, but I want to pick through everyone's criticisms and fix as many things as possible! So again, thanks so much for the feedback!

I'm glad you liked the side quest! I put more time into that than I'd originally planned, but I'm glad I did. It's definitely a great way to add much more details on the lore of the story and characters!
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
WOOOOOO Nihilo is a great game. <3
Okay, so I just finished the demo. First of all, it's much longer than I anticipated and that's a good thing because I really enjoyed what I played. It reminded me a lot of SNES/PS1 era JRPGs while also having a really unique feel and aesthetic. Visually it's a really cool looking game. The way you blended assets works really well. The environments are very detailed with cool lighting and tone. However, it sometimes felt kind of hard to navigate because there was so much going on.

Speaking of navigation, while I think the 8 directional movement is really cool from a technical standpoint for the engine, I honestly found it to feel kind of cumbersome and awkward at times. I mainly played the game as if it was 4 directions and just found the 8 directions would sometimes take me off course with where I'm trying to go. I just can't help but think the game would actually FEEL better to play if you stuck with the 4 directions. Not a deal breaker by any means, just something I'd point out, I suppose.

The combat and puzzles were really fun and engaging. Though, I do wonder if there's better ways to introduce some of the mechanics since I would often find myself not really sure what was going on with some stuff in the combat. But having the tutorials in the menu is a nice feature. Speaking of nice feature, the auto save is a really welcomed addition to a 2k3 game for sure. It would be nice to have more than one slot of the manual save, though.

I should also mention that the boss battle animations were so on point and I can't even begin to imagine how much time you've put into everything in this demo.

Overall it was a very pleasant and nostalgic experience for me and exactly what I was hoping it would be. Great work on this so far, Giznads! I'm really excited to play the finished game! :)
author=Megollyen
Speaking of navigation, while I think the 8 directional movement is really cool from a technical standpoint for the engine, I honestly found it to feel kind of cumbersome and awkward at times.

It would be nice to have more than one slot of the manual save, though.


Finished too and I agree with these two points very much. Well maybe the movement is not a big issue but since someone mentioned that...

As I wrote before it is also a pity that the dialogue box cover half portrait...

Puzzles and combat encounters were cool and not too hard and I enjoyed a lot the story so far.
It is early, but I'd give 4/5. At least.

Now I'm looking forward playing a complete version.
TFT
WHOA wow wow. two tails? that is a sexy idea...
445
I finished the demo and I felt like it was very immersive. I think the tone is very good. I like how the game starts off very subtle. Like, the entire world is dead, and thats pretty interesting.

The entire game is very expertly crafted. There are a bunch of really small touches that immerse you into the game. People do notice, and I'm glad you took the time to add all of it.

I think the only criticism I have is I didn't find the secondary character that interesting. If you merged the two and the main hero just bounces his thoughts off the robot it would feel more interesting, just my opinion.

the mechanics and custom systems are all well done.

I'm surprised more people aren't discussing this game. I think you did a great job, man.



author=TFT
I think the only criticism I have is I didn't find the secondary character that interesting. If you merged the two and the main hero just bounces his thoughts off the robot it would feel more interesting, just my opinion.


I agree with this. Would make it feel more unique and intriguing
author=Megollyen
Okay, so I just finished the demo. First of all, it's much longer than I anticipated and that's a good thing because I really enjoyed what I played. It reminded me a lot of SNES/PS1 era JRPGs while also having a really unique feel and aesthetic. Visually it's a really cool looking game. The way you blended assets works really well. The environments are very detailed with cool lighting and tone. However, it sometimes felt kind of hard to navigate because there was so much going on.

Speaking of navigation, while I think the 8 directional movement is really cool from a technical standpoint for the engine, I honestly found it to feel kind of cumbersome and awkward at times. I mainly played the game as if it was 4 directions and just found the 8 directions would sometimes take me off course with where I'm trying to go. I just can't help but think the game would actually FEEL better to play if you stuck with the 4 directions. Not a deal breaker by any means, just something I'd point out, I suppose.

The combat and puzzles were really fun and engaging. Though, I do wonder if there's better ways to introduce some of the mechanics since I would often find myself not really sure what was going on with some stuff in the combat. But having the tutorials in the menu is a nice feature. Speaking of nice feature, the auto save is a really welcomed addition to a 2k3 game for sure. It would be nice to have more than one slot of the manual save, though.

I should also mention that the boss battle animations were so on point and I can't even begin to imagine how much time you've put into everything in this demo.

Overall it was a very pleasant and nostalgic experience for me and exactly what I was hoping it would be. Great work on this so far, Giznads! I'm really excited to play the finished game! :)


Yo! Wanna start off by saying thank you so much for taking the time to point these things out for me!

Glad you enjoyed the length of the game! There were many times I was pushing to get the game out ending it at different locations, but I wanted to give players a little more! Glad you enjoyed the atmosphere, and I'm sorry it was hard to navigate.
Can you give me some examples maybe in a PM where things were hard to navigate? Also, did you have way points turned on?

Got a few people that have said the same thing about the 8-way movement so far!
I'm thinking of making this an optional feature that you can turn off or on.
I personally perfer the 8way movement, but maybe I'm just so use to it now, BUT I can totally understand the fact the rm2k3 isn't based on pixel movement can lead to some odd feeling controls for people.

I'm going to find a new way to introduce battle mechanics as throwing the majority of the battle basics into ONE battle like I did was probably a bad idea. I'm sure people didn't want to read all of that in one go. I'm hoping that will clear up things a little more for players. Just a matter of figuring out how to implement it in-game.
Glad you liked the auto save feature, I'm currently working on a system to have multiple save slots and keep the auto save!
The 1 manual slot feature was strictly for demo purposes as I just never got the chance to put the fully planned features into the demo.

I'm really glad you appreciate the battle animations!
I did spend a great deal of time getting things looking as right as I could for battle. :D It was worth it in the end though.

Thanks for playing, my man. Compiling a list of fixes to implement into the full game itself.
author=TheRpgmakerAddict
author=Megollyen
Speaking of navigation, while I think the 8 directional movement is really cool from a technical standpoint for the engine, I honestly found it to feel kind of cumbersome and awkward at times.

It would be nice to have more than one slot of the manual save, though.
Finished too and I agree with these two points very much. Well maybe the movement is not a big issue but since someone mentioned that...

As I wrote before it is also a pity that the dialogue box cover half portrait...

Puzzles and combat encounters were cool and not too hard and I enjoyed a lot the story so far.
It is early, but I'd give 4/5. At least.

Now I'm looking forward playing a complete version.


Thank you for taking the time to mention these things!

Moving forward, the 8-way movement feature will be optional, and multiple save slots will available for the full release!

A 4/5?! I'll take that any day of the week! I'm humbled!
I'm really glad you enjoyed what's been released so far, and hope to make more improvements based on valuable player feedback such as what you have given!

author=TFT
I finished the demo and I felt like it was very immersive. I think the tone is very good. I like how the game starts off very subtle. Like, the entire world is dead, and thats pretty interesting.

The entire game is very expertly crafted. There are a bunch of really small touches that immerse you into the game. People do notice, and I'm glad you took the time to add all of it.

I think the only criticism I have is I didn't find the secondary character that interesting. If you merged the two and the main hero just bounces his thoughts off the robot it would feel more interesting, just my opinion.

the mechanics and custom systems are all well done.

I'm surprised more people aren't discussing this game. I think you did a great job, man.



author=Ashes of Emerald
author=TFT
I think the only criticism I have is I didn't find the secondary character that interesting. If you merged the two and the main hero just bounces his thoughts off the robot it would feel more interesting, just my opinion.
I agree with this. Would make it feel more unique and intriguing



Thank you both for the feedback!
I'm glad you enjoyed what you've played of it!

By secondary character, I'm assuming you mean Nikolai.
I was a little bummed to not have Nikolai really shine so far in this early version of the game, but I do hope you'll stick around to play the final release as I plan to give him and all of the characters an in-depth back story eventually. Already, Nikolai is scheduled to play a bigger role in the second chapter, and there will be a pretty good chunk of time spent playing only as Nikolai possibly with the help of a temporary character or two.
This section of the game will delve into his backstory and hopefully make the player click more with him as one of the main protagonist of Nihilo.

Thank you for the kind words and valuable feedback, they mean a lot to me!
Hey giznads I gave this demo a rip. Really good job my man. The game looks great. Although I haven't completed the play through yet there was something I noticed, I only noticed it due to also using 8 directional movement in my project so I'm pretty aware of some of the obstacles I dealt with while eventing it within my own project. There are times during game play that I would walk up to something and press the action key, a message would pop up at the bottom of the screen, something like "just an old rusty pipe." now while the message is displayed the hero's movement is locked, you can't move up, down, left or right, however, before dismissing the message if the player presses both up and right lets say, the diagonal movement is still active and the player can still move around the screen in diagonal directions. I noticed it in multiple places so I just thought I'd give you a heads up. I am very impressed with your diagonal movement. It feels really good for tile based movement. I would like to know how you adjusted the player speed so well (dyn plugin perhaps, which one?) it's something I tried implementing but couldn't get just right. especially with the diagonal movement. Really great job man I can tell a lot of love went into it. All the hard work you've done over the years has paid off for sure. Cheers man.

edit: I just opened the game to finish the demo and I'm in the sewer, if I walk up to a piece of machinery it shows the message and I can't use any movement commands. If I walk up to a cocoon larva and press the action key, I get the message but my diagonal movement is still active. I just thought I'd give you an exact spot to check out.
author=dreadpirate
Hey giznads I gave this demo a rip. Really good job my man. The game looks great. Although I haven't completed the play through yet there was something I noticed, I only noticed it due to also using 8 directional movement in my project so I'm pretty aware of some of the obstacles I dealt with while eventing it within my own project. There are times during game play that I would walk up to something and press the action key, a message would pop up at the bottom of the screen, something like "just an old rusty pipe." now while the message is displayed the hero's movement is locked, you can't move up, down, left or right, however, before dismissing the message if the player presses both up and right lets say, the diagonal movement is still active and the player can still move around the screen in diagonal directions. I noticed it in multiple places so I just thought I'd give you a heads up. I am very impressed with your diagonal movement. It feels really good for tile based movement. I would like to know how you adjusted the player speed so well (dyn plugin perhaps, which one?) it's something I tried implementing but couldn't get just right. especially with the diagonal movement. Really great job man I can tell a lot of love went into it. All the hard work you've done over the years has paid off for sure. Cheers man.

edit: I just opened the game to finish the demo and I'm in the sewer, if I walk up to a piece of machinery it shows the message and I can't use any movement commands. If I walk up to a cocoon larva and press the action key, I get the message but my diagonal movement is still active. I just thought I'd give you an exact spot to check out.

Yo!
Thanks for the kind words, much appreciated!

I actually played Onyx Rift not too long ago! Loving what you're doing, VERY Secrt Of Mana! <3
Yeah, 8-way movement gets a little tricky. There's some spots in my game, where you can definitely keep moving diagonally while text is being read.
There IS HOWEVER a REALLY easy fix for that, I just didn't deem necessary enough to fix.
To solve this, create a common event, call it "Halt Hero" or whatever you wish, set it to "Auto Start" and tie it to a switch. No code actually has to go into the common event, just need the "auto-event" to stop everything for a moment while you're reading.
Next, when you create an event where you read dialogue, turn the switch you tied to that common event on before the message display, turn your 8-Way movement switch off, and then turn both the Auto Switch off and 8-way movement back on when the message is over. Boom, no 8-way movement during text.

I should probably go back through my game and add that to all the text, just for consistency's sake.

Thank you for bringing this up actually! It's now on my list of fixes.
author=Giznads
author=dreadpirate
Hey giznads I gave this demo a rip. Really good job my man. The game looks great. Although I haven't completed the play through yet there was something I noticed, I only noticed it due to also using 8 directional movement in my project so I'm pretty aware of some of the obstacles I dealt with while eventing it within my own project. There are times during game play that I would walk up to something and press the action key, a message would pop up at the bottom of the screen, something like "just an old rusty pipe." now while the message is displayed the hero's movement is locked, you can't move up, down, left or right, however, before dismissing the message if the player presses both up and right lets say, the diagonal movement is still active and the player can still move around the screen in diagonal directions. I noticed it in multiple places so I just thought I'd give you a heads up. I am very impressed with your diagonal movement. It feels really good for tile based movement. I would like to know how you adjusted the player speed so well (dyn plugin perhaps, which one?) it's something I tried implementing but couldn't get just right. especially with the diagonal movement. Really great job man I can tell a lot of love went into it. All the hard work you've done over the years has paid off for sure. Cheers man.

edit: I just opened the game to finish the demo and I'm in the sewer, if I walk up to a piece of machinery it shows the message and I can't use any movement commands. If I walk up to a cocoon larva and press the action key, I get the message but my diagonal movement is still active. I just thought I'd give you an exact spot to check out.
Yo!
Thanks for the kind words, much appreciated!

I actually played Onyx Rift not too long ago! Loving what you're doing, VERY Secrt Of Mana! <3
Yeah, 8-way movement gets a little tricky. There's some spots in my game, where you can definitely keep moving diagonally while text is being read.
There IS HOWEVER a REALLY easy fix for that, I just didn't deem necessary enough to fix.
To solve this, create a common event, call it "Halt Hero" or whatever you wish, set it to "Auto Start" and tie it to a switch. No code actually has to go into the common event, just need the "auto-event" to stop everything for a moment while you're reading.
Next, when you create an event where you read dialogue, turn the switch you tied to that common event on before the message display, and then turn it off when the message is over. Boom, no 8-way movement during text.

I should probably go back through my game and add that to all the text, just for consistency's sake.

Thank you for bringing this up actually! It's now on my list of fixes.

wouldn't it be better to turn off the switch (s) that handle the eight-way movement in the dialogue and turn them back on when they are finished?
author=kaine87
wouldn't it be better to turn off the switch (s) that handle the eight-way movement in the dialogue and turn them back on when they are finished?


Typo in the comment.
I forgot to add turning the 8-way movement switch on and off.