• Add Review
  • Subscribe
  • Nominate
  • Submit Media
  • RSS
Game created for the IGMC 2015.
Please vote for it if you like it! ^-^)b
so im not even guilty of abandoning project sophia for a while

A girl wakes alone in a forest, a voice telling her to nurture The Tree in order to regain her memories and return home. She and her 2 newfound friends are set to do so, as none of them have even the slightest idea of not only who they are and where they came from, but especially where they're going.

Resonate is a short, linear rpg inspired by the 32 bit era of gaming.
Explore 3 dungeons in order to find the so called Miracle Water, the only thing that can bring The Tree to growth.

Latest Blog

Happy Birthday, Resonate! (And y'all IGMC games! :D )



Happy birthdayyy!!! Excuse my half assed excuse for a sketch, for some reason I couldn't get the composition right, but I wanted to celebrate!

So thank y'all for having played the game, enjoyed it and given feedback.

I'm still slowly working on the definite, steam version of Resonate.
So I'd like to talk a bit about what's going to change.

First thing, as you probably know: I've wiped out the entire database. I still haven't rebuilt it because I want to redo several maps and the game flow before I think about doing the database. But I didn't like the balance, nor how the battles were playing out, therefore I did away with the database in favour of an all new balancing!

I've also added Luna Engine to the project and redesigned all the menus. I am still having trouble with the Equip scene as it doesn't seem to want to behave properly, but other than that the menus are all pretty much done. Oh, I'm also not happy with the battle damage display, but I'll figure it out.

The next main thing that's happening is that not only each world is being expanded slightly (especially the latter two), I'll be able to do as planned and make the game NON-LINEAR! I'm still thinking whether I'll do away with levels, minimize the effect of level progression, add an enemy scaling system, or whatever I'll do to make the game work on that sense, but any of the three main dungeons will now be able to be beat in any order and will be longer. Monsters also will have different movement patterns, and I'm considering the possibility of allowing you to clear a dungeon of monsters after a certain number of battles (save for a couple' on specific screens if you want to grind). I've wanted to add puzzles in the original version of the game, but since doing anything with events is a bit hard due to Quasi's movement script I couldn't implement your typical block pushing puzzles nor anything that needed collisions. Now I'm considering a picture-based puzzle.

Another thing will now be the mini-worlds, new mini-stones close to the three main stones in Triple Gate which offer small diversions to the story, as well as interesting new sights. They consist of a handful of maps at most but they're meant to break down the game flow a little.

And to end the dungeon changes, there shall be two new dungeons: A true final dungeon once you beat the body of the quest, and a new game+ exclusive dungeon where you put your mastery of the game's mechanics to test. For I to be able to pull off a fun New Game+ dungeon and this game overall, i'll have to really work hard on making concise mechanics and a good databasing work.

Some areas are going to be redrawn as well, as well as new illustrated cutscenes (they were meant to be much more plentiful to begin with but TIME so I wound up making only two.) and that's about it.

Now what I was thinking is about the possibility of making this a commercial game. I know I've said I'd be releasing this on steam for free, and trust me, I will, but I still need to eat and shower and pay the bills which I have been able to do only barely and by not dedicating time to my artistic projects at all. I want to be able to dedicate time these projects, live just-barely-its-ok but more importantly be able to invest some money in studying art -- there's this super amazing art school in the capital of my state, Quanta, and I absolutely feel like I MUST study there when possible as I feel this will allow my art to really develop.

So for these reasons I've been considering making a paid version of Resonate (and hoping people like it) so I can further invest on my art and you know live. Perhaps I could make the extra content (mini-worlds with a monster arena type thing, the new game + dungeon, etc.) available only in the commercial version, while having the free version be short in gameplay time yet allowing you to fully experience the story. I don't know yet.

Oh, just as a reminder, if you wanna see more of my games happen (or wanna see me releasing more free resources) please consider supporting me on Patreon! It's a tremendous help!

So your opinions on this matter are welcome! Thank you for reading this blog post and accompanying Resonate and my art through this year! <3

Have a nice day y'all!

Posts

Pages: first prev 123 next last
Just beat the final boss - no more bugs, but I needed multiple tries.

Question: Shouldn't the shop sell stronger weapons after each rock?
Gliche: Monche in the event after the final boss: She speaks of "Myselt"

Spoiler:
I'm curious who the other two characters were in the real life. Could be in the ending...
I wanted to do something else with the shop, but balancing made it tough! I'll see if I can do something now but I'll likely not touch it =/

I'm glad it was tough, did you feel satisfied when you beat it? :D

Also

Mega-Super-Spoiler:
All the three characters are the person in the intro/ending. They are facets of childhood sentiments, Bell = the distrust of other people/fear of strangers, Monche = the fear of being alone and not being loved, Agni = the lack of control over one's emotions. They're problems we need to deal with when we grow from teenagers to full fledged adults, and that's the real way I chose to tackle the theme :D


edit: thank you very much by the way. Already fixed 80% of what you brought up, replaying it just to make shure ~
I love your game thus far!
I'm only half an hour in but I thought I'd throw out a suggestion.
I think your gazer looks great!
I don't like the chicken sound when it confuses my party.
With how original this game is, it seems out of place.
I suggest you change the sound effect.
Thanks for the wonderful game!
I'll give more feedback.
Aaaahahah >w<)/
Thank you for the compliments and for playing it! And I agree the chicken sounds really off there, though finding proper sounds is so hard too! I was going to avoid using RTP sounds but I couldn't help it, even. But that's on the list of things to change on a future release =)

That is a beauty of an intro <3. Would've liked to actually have played in that setting, but then again I am more of a modern/futuristic setting fan.
Thank you! When I finished it and played it for the first time I immediately thought of you lol
I wanna make a scifi game eventually, I have plans for a free scenario space rpg drawing from FFX-2, SaGa Frontier and Star Ocean :D
shayoko
We do not condone harassing other members by PM.
515
Ver 0.9.1
Random thoughts

Beautiful!

the scene where your character says something like..."i think ,ill think" should edit that (ill think about it)
^shadow realm scene 2

what was going on with bell??? was she just being stupid in the shadow realm area or was she being influenced?

anyone else find the solo boss battle hard? or did i just play wrong XD

cheesy lines for the win! "i think im falling asleep" i would like to meet someone that would ever say that lol...

or a mom being worried that someone passed out. is sleeping not normal???

what about the angel/fairy? :3


Breakdown!
Plot-ok (the idea was good but the execution could of been better)
Characters-My mind is blown in this category (i don't know what to say about them or even explain there personality's)
Gameplayok-good
Graphics-Great! the absolute best part of this!
Ending- O.O???


General 1H 20+M
hmm i enjoyed this game but if i were to name what i consider the weakest part.
it would be the writing.
i feel it lacked a bit of depth and natural communication between people or should i saw somewhat awkward ways of wording things.
like as a example of depth
theres discrimination going on here but it is not remotely clear why. what race are they? why do they dislike you so much? how does the fairy fit in with this world? why is the shop keeper nice to you? why do monsters exist here and what is there purpose/goal?

also a free full heal spot would of been appreciated.


Overall
Despite my complaints (which honestly i will almost always have) i liked this and would recommend it
about the ending



I admit it's a kind of a gainax ending... But it should explain all the weird happenings of the game. All 3 characters are reflections of childhood weights the real protagonist (the character in the intro) is going through, and the game is a metaphor to growing from a teenager to an adult.
The three characters embody things we normally have to overcome, bell = the fear/distrust of others, monche = the fear of being alone and unloved, agni = lack of emotional control
All of the game actually happens inside of the protagonist's mind and the monsters represent the struggles of going through with it, the "fighting" one has to do to break free of these chains -- and ultimately realize it's ok to be flawed, and that no adult is 100% an adult.
The fairy is a guiding voice of the consciousness, parallel to that inner voice you have like "I should do this.... but how?" and the "magic fairy" at the intro is a metaphor for the time the protagonist actually falls into a desperation-induced coma. (see? Call Out My Angel)

About the discrimination, that also represents things that anger you and the social pressure to be a "grown up" and a "normal person".


I was pretty firm with my ideas, buttttttttttt I'm a terrible writer. And it shows. Besides, I got sick and it really hampened the development process, it's kind of like when you're stirring pudding and stop to answer the phone -- when you return it is all lumpy )':

Well, I got to work on that on my next games!
And yeah, that battle is very hard if you don't figure the exact trick to it lol hahaha
It's the easiest of the bunch once you figure it out though! ^-^


A lot of the game was carefully placed and thought of but it failed in delivering, especially in the writing, just as you pointed out. I'll take it as a lesson... I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you so very much for playing this! And sorry for writing such a huge text LOL
I'm having a horribly hard time making a proper download for this. Whenever I fix a bug, another one appears in the process of building the file (ie. i forget to manually import some important graphics file that the compiler doesn't recognize by default or something like that)

It's being a pain. At least I'm learning a lot of thins, such as that I should have made the game RTP independent very early in the development since it basically doesn't use the rtp.

:(


edit: bingo! When I made the game rtp independent I had some issues with tilesets. Figures I messed out passabilities. Luckily, however, all maps use only one of the very same tile so it's an easy fix. Thanks for warning me!
I'm trying to figure out what's causing the freezing but it beats me. Hm.
Ok, I'm uploading 0.9.1.1, which is a... fix of the fix.... =_=
At least now I seem to have gotten the hang of compiling the game Q______________Q
gosh

It shall be up in 10 minutes. I'm awfully sorry for all the bugfixes and stuff and me being dumb and not knowing how to compile the game Dx
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
Just finished playing Resonate. The scenes are beautifully drawn, especially the beginning scene which Neok is talking about - the modern-day setting scene. I am also a great fan of such a setting, but once you get into the worlds, it's still a very cute and vibrant experience.

Firstly, the graphics are beautiful. This game feels complete, and even if the story could have gone into more depth in certain areas, the characters each have things to learn throughout, and provide a mostly uniformly engaging experience.

Equipment is very important in this game, and the acquisition of such makes battles interesting, especially towards the end where more strategies are being learnt. The current format of the game could work great for a longer game.

Each character is given a chance to explore themselves by having their own themed zones. I'm with shayoko in that there could've been more explanation as to why the first zone people were the way they were, however, I don't agree with certain complaints about the dialogue, because I thought the dialogue, while at times more sentimental than needed, provided the characters with personality traits each their own. Garudas in particular are an enemy I'd rather avoid.

What stops me from writing a full-fledged review is that I know Joseph on a very personal level and I understand the motivations behind each of his design choices. I can feel the very personal nature of the game, and how he feels about each aspect of the story presented here.

Some areas are more graphically detailed than others. In particular, the underground dungeons in zone 1 are beautifully detailed, whereas the underground portions in zone 3 are less so. The second zone was probably my favourite, due to being the most balanced zone gameplay-wise, and the one where I felt I identified with the character's struggle the most. I would've swapped zones 2 and 3, for impact.

Each character undergoes a miracle, providing them with Miracle Water, and a transformation of their personal skills and abilities. Each person learns something, although delving into what each character learns would be spoiler territory. The second zone was the scariest and also I believe it had the best executed atmosphere, although the third zone's boss was the one that required the most genius strategy.

Enemies could be balanced, as sometimes they deal very small damage, and then all of a sudden they almost kill you in one hit. However, some enemies, especially in the second and third zones, required prioritization as to who to take out first, which lended to strategy and provided more opportunity for interesting decisions.

For explanations of my interpretations for each zone, see the spoiler below:
The first zone I saw as rather external pressures of the environment you're in. Systematic hatred. Agni had to overcome these pressures, and his righteous anger, by coming to peace with himself.

The second zone I saw as the internal pressures that Bell felt. She had dark thoughts in her mind that she couldn't unravel, but at the end decided that going down that path was unhealthy and she regained her humour and sarcasm through skills.

The third zone was the overcoming of one's personal demons. He had a facade of cuteness and he is a peacemaker, but this is a coping mechanism for him to find out what it really means to have sadness and loneliness inside yourself and see those concepts as valid. So in a sense, he was allowed to become darker, even despite his cute puppy-like appearance.

In the end, when the brown-haired depressed man wakes up, he realizes he is loved, and that there are people that care about him. The coma experience has shifted his mindset, and he's been able to heal his internal wounds through introspection. He isn't completely cured, but instead of life being a downhill spiral, now things are looking up.


So, in a sense, even though my view of the game is flavoured by my knowledge of Joseph's artistic passions, I still believe that Resonate, despite its flaws, is a triumph of creativity. The storytelling is affecting, and feels complete. Good job, Joseph, and I'm looking forward to what new creations you have for us in the future.
Thank you oh~so~very~much Cash!
I'm honored you feel this way about this game, and I'm glad you can, well, resonate with my ideas~ :D

You really understood things on a conscious level I( didn't even understand myself, being as much of an impulsive, unconsciousness-bound and irrational artist as I am :D

I'm this game was given the thought it was meant to. I'm definitely keeping it up! Expect moar and moar from me, always :> <3

I have to say that making games is a bit scary, but well worth it nonetheless...

In the first area with enemies, I crashed the game trying to figure out if there was another area off the right side of the screen. Hitting enter while facing the edge of the area consistently produces the following error:
Script 'Quasi Movement' line 587: NoMethodError occurred.
undefined method '' for nil:NilClass

This is in version 0.9.1.1
That's awfully odd. I'm gonna check it out, that's an easy fix but I'm pretty sure I had fixed it... At any rate, go through the upper path! It'll lead to the same place eventually, and you'll be able to open up even another path back to that screen xD

I'm gonna look into it and release it coupled with a lil' balancing on 0.9.2 :)
Just started playing your game... WOW... the intro with that poor girl is so heart-warming...

;....(
I had fun!

Graphics - Refreshingly original. I dig the houses anything that shows a unique culture is cool to me. I like the battle field being a painting on tope and that wavy checkered pattern on the ground.

Muisc - Beautiful. I might listen to the soundtrack on my own time.

Gameplay - Fun and challenging at certain points especially boss fights and certain enemy encounters. Although some enemy encounters were pretty simple spam attack to win but it happens in a lot of RPGs so it's not a huge deal.

Story - Well my back has been killing me lately and I've got tons of things on my mind so I couldn't focus on the story as much as I should have but from what I could gather it seemed good but probably could use a bit more development.

Anyway, good game Joseph. :D
This is so beautiful, the story and graphics are great!
The art reminds me of Moon remix RPG.

I'm playing it and i'm loving it.
author=JosephSeraph
Thank you! I'm going to address those (very grave lol) bugs and upload right now.
It might take one or two hours to upload though.

2 non bugs there:

-Wonder Swing deals higher damage when HP is high (I'm rebalancing to make the effect noticeably stronger) so if your hp is low, the skill's useless.

-The Cavern boss is beatable. (That's why the loop is there. I might put a Try Again / Game Over option though.) Even though it uses an attack that's almost 10 times your max hp and you're alone, check your skills and you'll see why it is beatable.
Also, make sure to use the spells the enemies / bosses dropped! Ignoring these can make battles considerably longer.

The key to beating the cavern boss:

The stalwart skill reduces damage to 1/20th for 1 turn. Using it right before it uses its Solar Flare will protect you from it. Abyss Servant will make the battle much easier by allowing you to use Stalwart and attack in the same turn. Blood Link helps too, because even with stalwarts, it's 2 solar flares and you're as good as gone.



Anyway thanks for playing it and the feedback was oh so much appreciated!


ALSO
I need to know in which map(s) you triggered the Quasi Movement error, this is a bug related to event placement and it's very important that you report to me the map, please. It's a really hard bug to solve without extensive testplaying.


I'm having trouble moving out of the first screen in the Shadow Realm. I see where the exit should be, but it isn't working.
Thanks guys!
Oh, now since the IGMC is over, I should update the main download. I set the contest version as the main download as I was bound to it, but you were unfortunately greeted by the contest version bug. Please download the latest version in the downloads page, which isn't struck by this awful bug. Sorry for making you go through the hurdle! I hope you at least enjoyed dungoen 1.
Pages: first prev 123 next last