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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

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TehGuy
Resident Nonexistence
1827
Oh boy, now I get to play it in full

time to rev up Shadowplay/OBS
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Congrats on getting featured. I've been meaning to play this game; I'll try and check it out tonight :D
thonx guys!!! :D :D :D
Please do so! <3
I'm eager for feedback as well! <3 Hope you have a good time with it.

And thanks for featuring me on the front page! *w*)/ <3 <3 <3

I'm releasing it for free on Steam, so as soon as it gets greenlit it will receive its 1.0 treatment :D
It's underway but since the greenlight campaign froze dead I'm first focusing on finishing that huge monster pack >v> ahah

hey i actually did more progress with it than what i'd normally have done. while i still consider myself slow 2015 seems to be the year where i learnt how to give up on my life and sacrifice my soul in order to finish things.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
I finished this game! It was really beautiful, and gave a strong SaGa and Legend of Mana feel to it, but SaGa Frontier most of all. It's all fantastically done, from the really beautiful backgrounds to the battles to the awesome animations. It's all so good! I really enjoyed this! ^_^
I'm so so so glad!!! <3
I poured all my heart in it, despite having tripped a lot heheh! <3 I'm glad it turned out to be an enjoyable game in the end *u*
This is the beginning of an universe >:^3 <3333
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Just finished the game a few minutes ago. Great job on this one, Jo! The atmosphere and overall presentation were top notch, and gameplay itself had some interesting moments.

What movement scripts did you use? I've seen diagonal movement, but an RM game with pixel movements instead of tiles? That's a new one for me. I also really appreciated how the characters dialogue changes at certain scenes depending on if you completed their levels or not. You deserve mad props for that level of attention to detail!

The boss fights were really interesting. Giving them abilities that actually healed allies isn't something I would have thought about, but it did make for some cool moments during fights.

That being said, the dialogue itself felt a bit unnatural at times. None of it was particularly wrong, but sometimes an odd word choice or sentence structure would break the flow of the conversation and come off as a bit forced. It wasn't until the last third of the game and the ending scene that I really started to notice.

That artwork was stellar, too. The zones, enemies, and characters all looked and felt unique. And the designs of the enemies were incredible! My only real complaint was the last cutscene were it took a sudden shift into what looked like concept art. I'm aware that it was the real world and isn't supposed to look surreal or imaginative, but to me it just looked unfinished. Was that just a time constraint? Or am I making an ass of myself and the look was intentional?

Either way, congrats on completing such a beautiful looking game! I hope you're proud of yourself for this, because you should be.

i'm so happyyyy
i'm glad you played it and your comment made me very happy!
I really like paying attention to little details as I think it brings a game to life hahahah, it helps build the world! You know, I feel like replaying the game now, lololol.
A shame, though, is that the current build has a slippery difficulty curve and the bosses were easy (I'm not sure you agree perhaps, maybe you've had a hard time? I tend to go hardcore with stuff I make >_>)
In any case, I'm glad you like it! Really-eally!
the end was really hushed lol. I did it in like the last 2hrs of the deadline
lollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

a similar thing happened here:


with the added bonus that the game is so broken it is literally impossible to reach this scene lollll
in any case thanks for playing! Really! Hopefully 1.0 will perfect what I have! <3

Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
I didn't find it hard, at least not frustratingly so. There were a couple of cheap shots bosses took, like the one time the Spider Queen attacked Agni twice and killing him despite being at full health, then killing him again the next turn right after I revived him, but I attributed that more to RNG than to boss difficulty. The only time I remember having to reset was during the Lich boss, and that was just an equipment reshuffle before I took it down.

When version 1.0 is released, I'll be sure to give it another go!
dragonheartman
Developer, Starless Umbra / Heroes of Umbra
2966
I saw your menu revamp on twitter. I'm impressed; this game has a lot of style.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Congrats on the featured game, Jo!
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Hooray! :DDDD Congrats, Jo! ^_^
Hey, wait a minute - it’s not even March yet! :P

But congratulations anyway, JosephSeraph. You deserve it.
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
Congrats on getting featured, Jo!
G-G-GEESE GUYS <3 ITS THE PLURAL OF GOOSE WHICH ARE BEAUTIFUL BIRDS THAT REPRESENT MY HAPPINESS THANK YOU <3 `

GOD NOW I NEED TO MAKE SOMETHING COOL WITH RESONATE like making the steam version already I FEEL INSPIRED TO but yesterday a rain fucked over my house`s electricity stuff so i am using my shitty shitty laptop at mom`s work BUT IT OK IT GUNNA WORK <3
Having completed Resonate today, I feel I owe you my thoughts on the game. I'm gonna keep this brief and not spiral into a ridiculous amount of depth and analyzing. I'll break things down into three categories; Things I liked, Disliked and am neutral towards as well as sprinkle ideas about.

++++ Positive
+ Vibrant colorful storybook style graphics
+ Enjoyable music that fit the mood and ambiance of the environments
+ Large amount of customizing each character via "card" equips that grant spells
+ Interesting premise/concept and a world I wanted to explore and learn more about

---- Negative
- Enemies are strangely balanced, some are no threat at all and others two shot you
- Map zone boundaries are wonky. One map wouldn't even allow me to enter as it would instantly warp me backwards if I moved
- While the narrative had a unique setup, the writing of the character dialogue I found to be very amateur in structure and vocabulary usage
- Boss AI was again like enemies questionable. I am unsure if this was on purpose or not. Some turns they would perform no actions while other turns nearly wipe me out.

~~~~ Neutral / Random Thoughts
~ Game gave me what are in my opinion very strong spells very early on such as Healing Rain which trivialized random encounters and the first couple bosses.
~ I would have preferred an overall higher difficulty for the game, if of course the balancing could be improved.
~ I feel the tree at the beginning should have provided a free party heal.
~ The crystals should have been warpable between each other, not just back to the main shop hub.
~ While I do enjoy seeing enemy encounters on screen in RPGs, I dislike when they respawn instantly after changing screens. My suggestion would have incorporated a system where they respawn when you move 3-4 screens away instead, which would have reduced some headache I had when exploring and becoming annoyed when the (fairly swift) enemies would catch me ad nausea despite not needing the levels.
~ Loved the main menu look. Loved the amount of accessory slots per character. LOVED the in battle background. (felt like dragon quest x earthbound x paladins quest like)
~ I'm not a huge fan of short RPGs. I think it defeats the purpose since you don't have enough time to care about the characters or world/story. To get fully engrossed if you know what I mean. Of course if the themes and mechanics are unique enough such as games like OFF or Lisa then they can get a pass.

Final playtime: 5 Hrs. 23 Minutes
Probably an hour-hour and a half more than I needed to complete this, but I spent a lot of time backtracking and checking nook and crannies.

Thanks for the experience. I hope you continue to make games as I did enjoy Resonate despite it's flaws. You have potential to create something even more wonderful and I'm not just saying that to be nice. Cheers.
Professor_Q
"Life is a riddle I wish I had the answer for..."
3237
Outstanding. I've put up a review, I hope it gets approved soon! ^_^
Terrific work.

Also,
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there seems to be a bug: after beating the final boss (the Lich King), you can go back and fight him again. Doing so causes the game to blank out when you return to the overworld. Why did I try doing that? Because I'm absent-minded and forgot if I'd beaten him on that save file. D'oh!!! ^_^
Thank you so much for the review Professor_Q! It was so appreciated!
An d also thank you Andrew!
This feedback is all very much appreciated and will help me in my future creations, as well as my being glad that you enjoyed it! ^v^
I'm getting a very strong Legend of Mana vibe from the scenery, and that excites me a lot. Definitely looking forward to playing this game!
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