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Finding a book that was not meant to be found, Adelai is thrust into the deep end of a cult's activities as she tries to protect herself and find out what exactly is going on.
Hallucinations of monsters, disappearing people, and now traces of magic? What is really happening in this quiet little hamlet of Insmouth?


A Swap in the Middle with You event by:
1st Half: pianotm
2nd Half: Rhyme
about a scary little game with a small twist in the battle system!



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  • Completed
  • Rhyme
    pianotm
  • RPG Maker VX Ace
  • RPG
  • 03/16/2016 09:23 AM
  • 07/06/2022 10:48 AM
  • 03/16/2016
  • 27045
  • 8
  • 344

Posts

Pages: first 12 next last
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Wow, this looks amazing! Love me some Lovecraftian horror every now and then :DDDDD
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
Oh, I can't wait to see how this turned out!
Rhyme
Tear Harvester Rhyme
7582
I'm really bad with stories though!
I was kinda thinking this was a tough fit : D
I will look forward to this one!
So much on the list, haha
Jeroen_Sol
Nothing reveals Humanity so well as the games it plays. A game of betrayal, where the most suspicious person is brutally murdered? How savage.
3885
This is really cool! I really like the mechanic of selecting runes in battle to cast various spells.

However, the fact that enemies have the debilitate spell and will happily spam it is making me want to rip something in half. So does the fact that fighting three enemies at once can get you killed in two turns, and that the ninja boss uses a magic attack that deals more damage than my maxHP. >.<
Rhyme
Tear Harvester Rhyme
7582
author=Jeroen_Sol
the ninja boss uses a magic attack that deals more damage than my maxHP. >.<


Hints:
He always uses Charge before it
It's a Magic attack

good luck!
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
Ooookay I'm really confused.

I got the math book from my desk and there was something that drew the protagonist's attention, I got the old book, and when I try to leave, she still says there is something interesting on the shelf. There is nothing left there for me to interact with. Help?

E: TO be more specific, I was able to pull off the cutscene where the shelf would flash twice, upon inspecting the middle desk in the classroom.
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
That should be all you have to do. On my initial play through before handing it over to the event, I didn't have any broken cutscenes, and I don't have any broken cutscenes in the finished product, so if it's working on my end, I'm not sure how to help.
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
author=pianotm
That should be all you have to do. On my initial play through before handing it over to the event, I didn't have any broken cutscenes, and I don't have any broken cutscenes in the finished product, so if it's working on my end, I'm not sure how to help.

Were you able to pull off the same cutscene (the one where the student talks about her math book, then suddenly notice the thing on the shelf) twice? Like, I'm trying to exit the room through the door right now and nothing is happening. Maybe that's how I broke it?
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
The half I made was too short to be worth making a save file. I went through it every single time I wanted to test something. It's a simple switch scene. The math book meant nothing, but as long as you check both the desk and the bookshelf, the door should open. Yeah, I just checked my version. I've also played through Rhyme's version without any trouble. All he did was an add an animation to the desk. Admittedly, I was so familiar with my half that when I played Rhyme's version, I just blew right through. Hmm...I'll open it up and take a look.
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
Oh man, that was my fault. When you enter the room, switch 7 is on. That's what keeps you from leaving. When you go to the middle desk and check it, it flashes the animation at the bookshelf. When you go to the book shelf, it turns switch 7 off.

Rhyme added a line of text telling you to go get the math book...except I tied the desk event to the same switch, and a different switch turns off the bookshelf.
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
nvm. I kind of figured it out myself, but it is a major bug:

1) Trigger the cutscenes with the desk and the shelf as normal.

2) If you leave at this point, the game will continue. Instead, go back to that same middle desk and hit enter to retrigger the cutscene, as if nothing happened.

3) The animation will flash again, but upon examining the same shelf it will only say that there is nothing else here but brandy.

4) You won't be able to leave, because the character will still inquire about the shelf.

At least I know how to make the game playable now, but that is kind of serious.

EDIT: Ah,you got it. xD
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
Yeah, there's not much I can do about it at the moment. That's why I never caught the glitch. Without that extra bit of text telling you to go back to the desk, would you have?
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
I probably would've gotten lost if it weren't there, so it was a good inclusion, it just needed to be cleaned of bugs.

Moving onward with the game, it does get pretty interesting with its story, but what ultimately killed my experience was the gameplay.

Here are my thoughts:

First, I think you need to work on conveying direction, both in terms of "text telling you where you need to go" and map/level design. The main character suggested to "meet with the professor" to see what the book was all about, but the "professor" is a completely new character we're being introduced to, and there were no clues as to where to find him. When I first heard it, I thought he was back at the school since that was where I found the book (and she could have been talking about professors as "college professors" but yeah I know it's a public school), so I was kind of left wandering aimlessly until I started to head left. It didn't really encourage any kind of exploration more than it felt like my time was being wasted. What didn't help was that the entry road for the girl's home and the professor's home looked exactly the same, and a couple of times I was teleported to the same spot that lead to the same house, which made navigation even more confusing.

Second, the battles. They could have worked if you warmed the player up to the combat system a bit better, but even at the first fight, you see this big block of things that's placed slap-dabbed right in the center of the screen and you have very little time to actually make anything out of it before your turn ends. Even though some of the fights were tame, it felt like an overwhelming infodump.

It gets worse when you face against those two monsters and the game finally starts talking about it. I played on "normal" difficulty, but I feel as if the reasons I kept losing were due to luck rather than a flaw in playstyle. This is because the second monster you come across can INTERRUPT your cast sequences by simply taking a turn, no matter how fast or how accurately you input the combinations for a spell. In one playthrough, the monster just outright out-speed me (when it usually doesn't) and finished me off when I was at low health. Considering how early it is in the game, this is beyond brutal.

Though I doubt the game is going to receive much in terms of updates given what it is, here are my suggestions:

> Don't even give the player the option to perform those combos at the start. Your first battle is merely there to teach the player about basic fighting mechanics of "press a button, and you can attack", correct? If that's so, then you don't need to show the additional bells and whistles since it kind of makes the game come across as being more complicated than it really is.

> I'd even restrict some skills to certain levels or something, too. The way it's setup right now is bloated, and at the early stages of the game, you want to make sure the player can master basic actions before moving on to advanced ones, to prevent instances where players feel like they have way too much information at once.

> Nerf all enemy's AGI to one or even ditch the AGI stat as a whole. In a game dependent on inputting action commands, getting your commands "interrupted" for arbitrary reasons, especially when you nail the right combo, feels incredibly dissatisfying, because you are putting an extra effort (using muscle memory) to perform an action that in most games would be basic. Alternatively, you could treat the actions inputted as a single "turn" as oppose to each action constituting one turn in battle, or bleh I don't know how this game is programmed nor do I know if RPG Maker will allow it.

> Always be conscience what tiles you are putting on the screen and what they say subliminally to players. Don't not put a single transfer event on the side of the screen when there is a transfer event within the same proximity right next to it (you might want to use parallel processes or region IDs for screen-edge transfers because of this). Similarly, don't put an extra road when it leads to nowhere, and make sure that spots where you could perform actions like jumps and whatnot are very clearly indicated. I added that "very" just to emphasize how clear you should be. I know it's bad grammar. :P
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
Ratty524
I probably would've gotten lost if it weren't there...


But there is no math book. It's just an excuse to get you into the room and get the other book.

It's not my combat system (I only had two fights whose sole purpose as to add to the story) and I had the same complaints about it, but all I heard back was how that only meant I was doing it wrong. Scroll a few comments up, and you'll see Jeroen_sol run into the same wall with Rhyme.

As for direction, I agree. I was mostly focused on getting something put out in time. As for transfers going to the wrong places, trust me, I had lot more before I finally handed my half over to whoever was going to get it.
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
author=pianotm
It's not my combat system (I only had two fights whose sole purpose as to add to the story) and I had the same complaints about it, but all I heard back was how that only meant I was doing it wrong. Scroll a few comments up, and you'll see Jeroen_sol run into the same wall with Rhyme.

I see.

I saw those, but I didn't even get up to the point Jeroen was describing before quitting. :V
Rhyme
Tear Harvester Rhyme
7582
author=Ratty524
This is because the second monster you come across can INTERRUPT your cast sequences by simply taking a turn, no matter how fast or how accurately you input the combinations for a spell.

Enemies will never interrupt your Rune casting. Combos will fail if you lack the required Stamina (shown as the number in the brackets next to the rune names), and that is likely the case.

author=Ratty524
Don't even give the player the option to perform those combos at the start. Your first battle is merely there to teach the player about basic fighting mechanics of "press a button, and you can attack", correct? If that's so, then you don't need to show the additional bells and whistles since it kind of makes the game come across as being more complicated than it really is.

I wanted to remove/hide the combo window for the first 2 battles, but I couldn't figure it out without breaking things ahaha

author=Ratty524
I'd even restrict some skills to certain levels or something, too. The way it's setup right now is bloated, and at the early stages of the game, you want to make sure the player can master basic actions before moving on to advanced ones, to prevent instances where players feel like they have way too much information at once.

There's a lot of things I wanted to try but couldn't, and one of them was starting the player with 2 chainable Runes, then moving to 3, and then 4. Due to how the combo skills script is coded however, once 2 are input, 3 and onwards will not be accepted, so I ditched it because I wouldn't be able to re-code it to perform as I wanted it to in time.

I do agree that I should've eased the battle system in, but I couldn't do it well enough due to the loss of time I could work on it ;w;
There's a lot of other rough edges I couldn't really fix up as well, such as enemy actions and ability variants. That said, due to the nature of this game I don't think I will revisit the game to improve upon it, but all this will definitely be a consideration if I make a similar system in the future!
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
Thanks, Rhyme! I actually forgot about that stamina system until you brought it up. My bad. Do different skills have different stamina costs?
Rhyme
Tear Harvester Rhyme
7582
author=Ratty524
Thanks, Rhyme! I actually forgot about that stamina system until you brought it up. My bad. Do different skills have different stamina costs?

The combo results themselves do not, but the Runes required to perform the combo spells do. Once you cast 3 Runes, the spell is guaranteed!
Pianotm may I do a Let's Play for this game?
Pages: first 12 next last