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Dust to Dust 2.0 is in the works.
It should be noted that the contest version / current download (1.0) is
quite underdeveloped and, although it is a complete story,
may be seen as more of a rough draft.


"Dust to Dust" is a short dystopian RPG created for the 2014 Indie Game Maker Contest.
That means it was created from start to finish within the month of June.
Bonus content and features may be added after the contest.


- P L O T -

From dust born, to dust someday return.

There are two kinds of people in the world--those of Real flesh and bone--
and those of sloughed off Dust. A deadly flu has made a huge dent in the Real
population. Although they are mere memories, shadows of the past, the Dust people
now vastly outnumber them. They have even driven them out of most of their cities.

Sira and Ty, two children who were born into this world and lost their parents to
it, begin a journey with a simple goal in mind--find a doctor. Ty is sick and
fading fast, but doctors are few and far between. However, a simple task is not
always achieved by simple means, and the two are swept into a complex web of events
involving magic, conspiracy, death, and rebirth.



- F E A T U R E S -

  • Custom graphics

  • Player choice driven story

  • Charming characters with unique abilities




Latest Blog

Download Up!

After some last minute struggling to find replacement beta-testers, I finally snagged a couple and got this thing done.

One known bug still remains, since I can't seem to find the cause.
Bit of a spoiler.
When you're in the Base with only Sira in your party after the others are
arrested, you will see one of the boys instead when you open the main menu.


This was actually the first time I've made an RPG, and I've decided they are not my strength (at least not for solo work). = u = Back to adventure games for me. I hope you guys still like it though, despite it's flaws.


Report any bugs you find to me.
gamergoatboy@live.com
  • Cancelled
  • GoatBoy
  • RPG Maker VX Ace
  • Adventure RPG
  • 06/17/2014 02:23 AM
  • 07/15/2022 03:42 AM
  • N/A
  • 34678
  • 30
  • 407

Posts

Pages: 1
nhubi
Liberté, égalité, fraternité
11099
This is gorgeous, and I really like the world you've envisaged. Looking forward to the end of June to give this one a go.

also, subbed :)
@nhubi & TungerManU -
Ohey. Thanks for the support! > v o b
I hope not to disappoint. I'm a bit behind schedule, ahaha. ;;
//gets back to work
Hey, gave this a play. There were some cool aspects to this game and some not-so-cool aspects, so it was a bit of a mixed success for me. Here's some detailed feedback:

First, there were a few bugs. I wasn't able to switch characters at some point very soon after the tutorial for it. So, while the magey guy's larger skill set looked like it made him pretty overpowered, I wasn't able to use him, unfortunately. I also don't know if leaving the "to dust we will return" (or whatever it was specifically) text was meant to be on the screen for the entire game; I assume not. If it was, I found it a little irritating. There might have been a few more bugs that I let slip since they didn't impact the gameplay much.

Now, the meat and potatoes:
-The graphics were lovely--some of the better stuff I've seen in this competition, and I would stack it up against games like Painted Heart and Unraveled. Everything fit beautifully.
-Your music choices were fitting but generally forgettable. I saw that you used some music packs, so that's about what you can expect from them.
-That alarm sound will haunt my nightmares.
-I remember reading somewhere that you tend to do adventure games, and that shows here. The more adventurey segments, such as collecting money in the safe town, were the strong parts of the gameplay. Honestly, that part was probably the most engaging section for me. The only problem is that it looked like that section could have been skipped altogether with little impact on the game. I would have liked those choices to matter, and I would have liked stealing especially to have consequences.
-Your game had a lot of systems that felt unnecessary. Forgive me for not remembering the name of the 18 year old guy that you get in your party early on, but, what's the point of giving him a field ability to knock things over when you only use it once? Likewise, Jian's technical knowledge seemed like it wasn't used at all in hindsight. I think those are good ideas for an adventure game (or a hybrid rpg/adventure like this), but you needed to get more out of those mechanics.
-The rpg battles needed way more tuning and should have been a bigger portion of the game, or they should have been simply removed in favor of more adventure game solutions. Regular physical attacks seemed better than skills in a lot of cases, and enemies went down like they were nothing. Dust soldiers, for example, could have used some kind of balancing factor to offset their low health. I liked the low health part since it coincided with the story, but maybe high speed and attack would have introduced a priority factor to the combat. I never even got to use the ultimate attacks because the fights were over long before the meters filled.
-The story had an interesting setting and ground situation, but once you distill it down to its basic elements, it got a little by-the-numbers.
-This could have been offset by interesting characters, but the game focused more on conveying the plot than developing characters beyond their introductions. There was an emotional core to the story with the little brother, but that didn't get much emphasis after the initial portion of the game. I would have much rather played a game about the sister and her brother trying to make it in this horrible world (even though the dangers of this world were downplayed) than a game about overthrowing a government plot. It would have been a different direction, but when I was playing, I thought that THAT'S where the real story and conflict that the audience can connect to was, and it just kind of sucked that it was so downplayed.

Overall, this is still a gorgeous game, but some tighter writing and more concentrated gameplay would have made it worked much better for me. Good luck on the contest!
author=Housekeeping
Hey, gave this a play. There were some cool aspects to this game and some not-so-cool aspects, so it was a bit of a mixed success for me. Here's some detailed feedback:

First, there were a few bugs. I wasn't able to switch characters at some point very soon after the tutorial for it. So, while the magey guy's larger skill set looked like it made him pretty overpowered, I wasn't able to use him, unfortunately. I also don't know if leaving the "to dust we will return" (or whatever it was specifically) text was meant to be on the screen for the entire game; I assume not. If it was, I found it a little irritating. There might have been a few more bugs that I let slip since they didn't impact the gameplay much.

Now, the meat and potatoes:
-The graphics were lovely--some of the better stuff I've seen in this competition, and I would stack it up against games like Painted Heart and Unraveled. Everything fit beautifully.
-Your music choices were fitting but generally forgettable. I saw that you used some music packs, so that's about what you can expect from them.
-That alarm sound will haunt my nightmares.
-I remember reading somewhere that you tend to do adventure games, and that shows here. The more adventurey segments, such as collecting money in the safe town, were the strong parts of the gameplay. Honestly, that part was probably the most engaging section for me. The only problem is that it looked like that section could have been skipped altogether with little impact on the game. I would have liked those choices to matter, and I would have liked stealing especially to have consequences.
-Your game had a lot of systems that felt unnecessary. Forgive me for not remembering the name of the 18 year old guy that you get in your party early on, but, what's the point of giving him a field ability to knock things over when you only use it once? Likewise, Jian's technical knowledge seemed like it wasn't used at all in hindsight. I think those are good ideas for an adventure game (or a hybrid rpg/adventure like this), but you needed to get more out of those mechanics.
-The rpg battles needed way more tuning and should have been a bigger portion of the game, or they should have been simply removed in favor of more adventure game solutions. Regular physical attacks seemed better than skills in a lot of cases, and enemies went down like they were nothing. Dust soldiers, for example, could have used some kind of balancing factor to offset their low health. I liked the low health part since it coincided with the story, but maybe high speed and attack would have introduced a priority factor to the combat. I never even got to use the ultimate attacks because the fights were over long before the meters filled.
-The story had an interesting setting and ground situation, but once you distill it down to its basic elements, it got a little by-the-numbers.
-This could have been offset by interesting characters, but the game focused more on conveying the plot than developing characters beyond their introductions. There was an emotional core to the story with the little brother, but that didn't get much emphasis after the initial portion of the game. I would have much rather played a game about the sister and her brother trying to make it in this horrible world (even though the dangers of this world were downplayed) than a game about overthrowing a government plot. It would have been a different direction, but when I was playing, I thought that THAT'S where the real story and conflict that the audience can connect to was, and it just kind of sucked that it was so downplayed.

Overall, this is still a gorgeous game, but some tighter writing and more concentrated gameplay would have made it worked much better for me. Good luck on the contest!
I agree with you on pretty much everything.

Responses:

- Bugs: None of my testers encountered those, but they sound really annoying. I'll definitely look into it.
- Music: Yeahhh I have never used the music packs before this, but searching for gems just didn't make it high on my priority list.
- The only consequences to the barter game are that the more money you borrow from Rakota, the less likely he is to have enough to bribe the pilot later. It also hurts your relationship with him, which can alter the ending. Not much, I know.
- I was aware of Rakota's useless skill, but in the rush to get done in time, adding more obstacles slipped by me. Jian's skill actually is used twice, once to get into the Base (if you don't use him, you have to find another way in), and once when shutting down the factory (although the other characters accomplish the same thing, so that's pointless xD Didn't really get to finish working on that system.) Oh, and his government position enables you to avoid a potential battle upon entering the factory.
- Yeah, the battles and balancing were my least favorite part. :T I can't really say much for that other than it needs a serious makeover. The Dust soldiers were supposed to be like cannon fodder, but since the battles were already too easy that's unnecessary, isn't it?
- About the story and characters: It didn't really go in the direction I intended. I had to cut so many scenes and dump info here and there. The plot WAS going to be about Sira and Ty's journey, with the government crap in the background, but the way it was structured wouldn't have been doable for a month long contest.

There's a lot that needs to be fixed up, and I'm sure I'll have the motivation to do so after the contest. I have no delusions about placing, but I'm glad that some people enjoyed the game, and I'm glad to have it under my belt. Thanks for your honest feedback. c:
author=TungerManU
Has this been adressed before? Excuse my tl;dr attitude =_=

10 minutes into the game, just before the first battle I get this:


On a different note, this game wins the award for best visuals of the contest for me (even though I've only seen, like, 3 maps). Stunning.
Nope, no one has reported that error yet. Guess the testing phase wasn't as thorough as I thought. I'll look into it. For now, try triggering that battle with a different character as party leader.

And thank you! :"D Hopefully when I get 2.0 out, the rest of the game will be brought up to par too.
Just finished it. Not bad, certainly room up, but not bad at all.
Review will be up soon.
shayoko
We do not condone harassing other members by PM.
515
random thoughts

the text style is really nice and feels different then what is common
yet easy to read

battles are gonna be a lil complicated :( still nice to see something different,even tho
may not like it

there's some seriously lovable dialog in this XD

expected it to be short,kind of wanted it not to be long to due the battle system
:3


Overall
I enjoyed this game

Gameplay

takes 2- hours to finish
has likable characters
sometimes amusing dialog
a somewhat rock paper scissors system with damage types
and a open ending
your skills are based on what weapon you have equipped
its a turn based battle system


Closing
not a lot to say about it due to its length really,but id recommend it if you want a shorter game and/or something w/o grinding
author=shayoko
random thoughts

the text style is really nice and feels different then what is common
yet easy to read

battles are gonna be a lil complicated :( still nice to see something different,even tho
may not like it

there's some seriously lovable dialog in this XD

expected it to be short,kind of wanted it not to be long to due the battle system
:3


Overall
I enjoyed this game

Gameplay

takes 2- hours to finish
has likable characters
sometimes amusing dialog
a somewhat rock paper scissors system with damage types
and a open ending
your skills are based on what weapon you have equipped
its a turn based battle system


Closing
not a lot to say about it due to its length really,but id recommend it if you want a shorter game and/or something w/o grinding

Hey there! Thanks for playing and leaving your impressions, I appreciate it!
I'm glad you enjoyed it. c:

This battle system won't be in the new version, and it'll also be longer and choices will have more impact on the story.
I found it cute as hell. I was like "NO IS TY GONNA DIE?!" and "Sira, do you have a crush?"
first of all I really like the option/pause menu and the battle thing whith the "A" button.
In the beginning I was a bit confused of who Ty was, I thought he was an imaginary friend but later found out it was Sira´s brother that she was carrying on her back XD
Great Game! :)
Pages: 1