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Under the sickly green sky, through the dust of the wastelands, two mages leave their footprints in the sand. Their poor equipment shows they must be illegal Magic producers. They lack the uniforms and the wealth of the official City mages.
But they are not heading for the black markets of the City either. They are not going to sell their Magic to the ordinary people in the lower districts. These two, known as Zilla and Ciss - what are they doing here?


An entry for the McBacon Jam #1, Disparity features original art and music, an experimental action battle system and a dark story set in a dystopian, pseudo-modern fantasy world.

Latest Blog

New Beginning, Untimely End

First, the good news:
Even if it may have seemed that way, we haven't forgotten about Disparity after the McBacon Jam ended. In fact, right at this moment, a new, revised and improved version is being uploaded. Thanks to the enormous amount of feedback we received after the Jam, a number of major flaws of the game could be identified and hopefully ironed out. Combat has undergone some significant changes while keeping the original idea of "indirect battles" - in fact, the way it works now, it might fit the game's themes even better. Tutorials have also been heavily revised, dialogue and cutscenes were updated and some other small improvements added.


Now, here's the less good news:
Our dear team member and artist Suzy very suddenly disappeared about two months ago. We haven't heard anything from her since. For a while, we kept hoping she would return again, but at some point we had to face the facts. Right now, all we can do is hope Suzy is all right and nothing bad has happened.
This also forced us to take a decision: Unfortunately, there is simply no way we'll be able to finish Disparity without Suzy. There's still a number of art assets we would definitely need to create the complete game as we envisioned it. As it is now, that is impossible.
So we have no choice to make the sad announcement: With the uploading of the new demo, Disparity has to be officially cancelled. I'm very sorry about this development and want to apologise very much to you, the players. None of us liked having to take this decision, but there simply is no other solution. Still, we do hope you'll like what we've done with the improved version of the demo.

Also, our composer TungerManU has released some really nice soundtracks that were originally planned to feature in the full game.
You can find them here.

Lastly, I just want to thank everyone who took the time to play and comment on the first demo, and thank the rest of the team for the good work! Who knows, maybe we'll tackle another project together again one day in the future...

Again, my apologies for cancelling this project.
Take care, everybody!

Posts

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This looks really great, guys!
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
Thanks for accepting this gamepage so quickly, Liberty! We'll try not to disappoint.
Yellow Magic
Could I BE any more Chandler Bing from Friends (TM)?
3154
I wish we were allowed to autoplay music on game pages so we could blare this

Ebeth
always up for cute art and spicy gay romance
4390
Wow the art looks amazing! And the battle system looks very interesting too.
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
Thanks, Ebeth! Suzy has been incredibly productive with her art, and it's even more impressive considering she had never worked in the XP formats before.

Just wait until you hear TungerManU's awesome soundtracks.
@Ebeth, Thanks! (And I said it elsewhere, but thanks again, NeverSilent!)

So cool to have a gamepage up.

Played a little:
Wow, those are some facesets you guys have got going on.
Original graphics are cool. I think it would be best if you didn't have any hard outlines at all. Maybe anti-alias the lines on the cracked cliff walls
Skipped the battle tutorial because I'm chill like that. Immediately perplexed by what's going on on the battlefield. Eventually figured out that bouncing the ball twice is best for max explosions. Felt rather limited by the small area in which you could place those reflectors. I hope that area expands as you progress through the game. Anyways, it's a little awkward as far as battle systems go. Props for creativity and trying such a system out though. Kinda wish I had more control over my character (was there an option for this?)
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
Thanks for trying it out, Neok. I agree that Suzy did an admirable job with those graphics.

I hope I don't come across as rude if I say I don't entirely understand the logic behind skipping the instructions for an unfamiliar battle system. But well, that's your decision.
I agree that it is a bit of an awkward battle system, though. Which is why I thought it would be well suited for a short game like this, so it doesn't lose its novelty before the game ends. Currently, I don't plan on expanding the area for the reflectors, since it would not only mess with the "AI", but there's not much reason for it since you can't place that many reflectors at once anyway.

Since the whole point of the battle system was that the player (as Zilla) has to make up for Ciss' lack of control in combat, there intentionally is no real way to directly control Ciss. However, after the second fight, options become available to customize her behaviour in battle to a certain degree. This should allow for some more thought-out playstyles. Additionally, there's also items that can be used as kind of a last resort.

Anyway, thanks again for your feedback, and I hope you'll want to play the full version once it's done.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
This was an interesting little game! A few bugs, though. The game seemed to skip over the final battle entirely (To wit, the combat engine started, but, the game jumped out of it almost immediately, and it proceeded as if I won), and the screen went black (but I could still control the character) after leaving the shack in the upper-right corner. Though, the screen restored itself after returning to that shack, so, I presume this is some kind of tinting error.
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
Thanks a lot for playing and giving your feedback, Marrend!
That was a nasty (and really stupid - what was I thinking?!) bug you found there. Especially since it does not occur under certain cirumstances, which is why I must have missed it when testplaying.
I've fixed the error and am putting up the hopefully-not-buggy download right now.

Thanks again, you've been a big help!
Indra
YOU ARE BEING TOO AGGRO
11514
Sorry, I could absolutely not get past the “combat” system. It's an absolute deal breaker for me, and I can't operate it with any kind of efficiency to even get past regular combat without throwing the desk out the window in frustration. (I will say this is mainly due to my taste and not necessarily a pure fact).
I do believe the system is a bit too obtuse. For example, having to first select the type of reflect and then place is an extra step that's a hassle, why not simply push the selected reflect to place it?
The explanation is also quite quick and goes by without explaining anything past “be smart”. I'm not smart at all, coz I can't do shit and I couldn't see past my frustrated rage at how THIS DIPSHIT WON'T STAY STILL AND THE GIRL HAS THE AIM OF A HEDGEGOG RIDING A ROLLING ORANGE AHHHH!

Kudos for the custom art, tho. It was not the prettiest ever but in its own way it was cohesive (except maybe the sprites were a tiny bit shoddy, but in the time limit of the jam I'm not gonna bitch about it that much).
I got no real story coz I could not get past the second enemy (I got too frustrated, I told you I'm dumb), but the concept of magic as an exploited everyday thing was interesting, even though I could not see much of it.

Even through all that, congrats on getting something out for the jam. I streamed my (frustrated) Let's Try of the game, it's over here (but if you watch be ready to hear me pretty much just bitch all the time. I can't deal with the combat at all ;-;) I didn't upload it here coz...well, it's pretty negative and I get in trouble when I post those short "GAH I QUIT" vids here XD
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
Hey, thanks for the feedback, Indra! When I found you had done a stream of this game, I expected your comment to be much more angry. So I'm extra happy about the constructive criticism in your post.

I'm sorry to hear the battle system frustrated you so much. It was kind of an experimental idea which I probably could have pulled off in a better way. The thought behind it was to expand on the concept of Ciss' lack of control over her magic and her dependence on Zilla "directing" her.
It's probably not helping your frustration that after the second fight, options to get a little more control over Ciss' movement become available.

You are probably right that the possibilities the player has in battle should have been explained better. I'll try to make the system more accessible and easier to understand in the full version.
Your point that it's stupid to make the player select a reflector type first and then press another button to place it is also a very good one. I think I'm going to take your idea of combining both steps into one, and do exactly what you suggested.

Anyway, thanks for trying out the game, and sorry again that you had so much trouble with it. While I have to admit I'm not much of a fan of your rather "aggressive" style of Let's Playing, I'm grateful to you for taking the time to try the game and give your feedback. Rest assured that I see your points and will keep them in mind when working on the game in the future.
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
Hmm. I've finished this and I was going to write a review but I didn't manage to. But it definitely doesn't deserve a 2.5 star average rating. This is a decent game.
nhubi
Liberté, égalité, fraternité
11099
author=CashmereCat
Hmm. I've finished this and I was going to write a review but I didn't manage to. But it definitely doesn't deserve a 2.5 star average rating. This is a decent game.

Now that's a weird glitch, none of the reviews have star ratings anymore since Liberty removed hers at the request of the devs, but the rating at the top of the page still holds on to the older score.

Methinks that one should be reported to Anky in the bugs thread, or it may revert to no stars once the day rolls over, a happens with things like Makerscore and other items.
I think it's a case of waiting until the refresh occurs. Scores and such (like MS) refresh after a day or so (depending on when the changes were made). If it still persists in 20 hours, then bring it to anky's attention.


And I feel it did deserve 2.5 stars due to the gameplay issues. Others think differently, that's fine. To me, 2.5 is average. I never give 5 stars because no game is perfect.
nhubi
Liberté, égalité, fraternité
11099
author=Liberty
. And I feel it did deserve 2.5 stars due to the gameplay issues. Others think differently, that's fine. To me, 2.5 is average. I never give 5 stars because no game is perfect.

Exactly the way I think, and indeed a reflection of my scoring system. I've never played a perfect game and unless the technology available for game playing changes radically, I do not believe I ever will. In my records I also gave this a 2.5 because it has enough positive and negative notes to bring it to that score, but as with all things it is subjective.

Edit: there you go, the day's rolled over and the score has reset.

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