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Flatwoods is a small adventure game with two endings, built in the RPG Maker MV engine. You are Lemon, a small child that feels a great need to uncover the mystery of the "shooting star" that has just flown over your home and landed somewhere in the woods nearby. Loosely based on the story of The Flatwoods Monster.

This is my first game (and only game to be released under my Visitors From Dreams animation label) designed to be a quaint experience for the player, and an educational experience for myself.

Mac OSX version requires Mac OS X 10.10 or better.

The game can also be found over on itch.io:
https://visitorsfromdreams.itch.io/flatwoods

You can follow the progress on this game over on its dedicated development blog:
http://flatwoodsgame.tumblr.com

You can also follow me on Twitter here:
https://twitter.com/visitorsdreams

Flatwoods features an original soundtrack by Jake Tracey:
https://soundcloud.com/kungfukid

Latest Blog

Flatwoods - A Post-mortem Pt01



Well, its been a little over a week since Flatwoods was released, and for the most part I couldn’t be happier with how things turned out. Things didn’t go perfectly, and I definitely had some things pointed out to me that I will take on board in future projects, but on the whole I feel like Flatwoods release (more so than its development in a lot of ways) was a great experience.

That being the case, I thought it was time to do a Post-mortem on the game, and the experience of actually making the game. This would be one hell of a huge post, so instead I will be releasing it in small chunks over the next… however many days it takes to write it…

So where to begin. Well, I guess the best place to start would be the games development itself.

DEVELOPMENT Pt01 - Seeds of an Idea
Flatwoods was originally intended to be a short film, but I think its origins go back further than that. Back in 2012 I had started work on preproduction on an animated series called “Shooty and the Catfish” for the youtube channel Happy Hour, this was eventually dropped and picked up by Cartoon Hangover who developed it for a number of months with me before the whole thing was dropped due to changes in the Youtube landscape. You might be wondering what that has to do with a game like Flatwoods, but in essence, the project had an episode dedicated to the Flatwoods Monster. Not just as a tribute to the cryptid, but it also dealt with similar themes to the sequence in The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask which also happened to feature the Flatwoods Monster (or something very much inspired by it). I wouldn’t say it was intended to be a parody so much as a homage or tribute, as the monsters design is iconic and has been referenced in a tonne of media over the years.

Fast forward to 2015 and I am trying to work a lot of these Flatwoods Monster ideas from Shooty and the Catfish into a standalone short, and thus Flatwoods was born.

Not long after work had started on the short RPG Maker MV was announced, not only that BUT it was coming out soon, and for Mac OSX as well! I had dabbled with running RPG Maker VX Ace in wineskin but it had always been a nightmare. Now however, with MV heading to OSX I could finally make games as I had always wanted. I dabbled in RPG Maker back in 2003 when I was in high school, but had not really good the chance to experiment with it since.

The timing of starting Flatwoods as a short film and RPG Maker MV hitting at the same time was what eventually lead to a merge of the two passions of mine, animation, and game development. As I was new to game development (I spend a lot of time watching videos on breaking down gameplay and game design elements but I don’t believe that’s the same as putting that information into practice) I wanted to make something small. I know a lot of indie developers (especially in the RPG Maker community) want to start with a big Final Fantasy tribute, but having the experience of over 10 years animation behind me, I knew that scale is the key to the success of any project. Making a game was new to me, and no amount of passion would save it if I bit off more than I could chew, and so it was decided, Flatwoods would be my first game project, I would aim to make it an hour long, and I would have it out by Halloween. Its only a short game, so that would be easy right? Wrong…

Posts

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Frogge
I wanna marry ALL the boys!! And Donna is a meanc
18536
Cartoon network called they want their awesomeness back
author=Frogge
Cartoon network called they want their awesomeness back


Ha ha, I don't think I could imagine higher praise. <3
This looks really charming, love the graphic style. I'm a sucker for game boy color style graphics. Godspeed my friend.
author=Ljink
This looks really charming, love the graphic style. I'm a sucker for game boy color style graphics. Godspeed my friend.


Im glad people here are digging it so far (the community on rpgmakerweb haven't been too keen on it). The game itself is finished, only animating the cut scenes remain. I cant wait to take what I have learned on this project and use those skills on the next one!
This looks great, the art fits the whole scene very well, I'll be waiting for it, good luck!
author=Balthasar02
This looks great, the art fits the whole scene very well, I'll be waiting for it, good luck!


Thanks! I appreciate the kind words. ^^
I'm just as excited as the guy in the trailer!
author=SgtMettool
I'm just as excited as the guy in the trailer!


I hope it lives up to your expectations. :)
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
Aw nice! Subbing.
author=Ratty524
Aw nice! Subbing.


Awww thanks. Should have a blog update today. :)
Is it possible to love a character before they've spoken a word? Methinks so.
Subbed, look really great. Art style is a big plus for me
author=WheelmanZero
Is it possible to love a character before they've spoken a word? Methinks so.


Awww, im glad you like them. ^^

author=semiconman
Subbed, look really great. Art style is a big plus for me


Cheers! Its not an aesthetic I have seen a lot of developers use in recent years, so I hope it works well as a point of difference to other similar games.
Just played through this over the course of the afternoon. Absolutely lovied the animated cutscenes; as short as the game may be, there is a heartwarming amount of love put into this. Awesome work.

Got both endings in about ~20 minutes.
author=SgtMettool
Just played through this over the course of the afternoon. Absolutely lovied the animated cutscenes; as short as the game may be, there is a heartwarming amount of love put into this. Awesome work.

Got both endings in about ~20 minutes.


Hey! Im glad you enjoyed it! 20 minutes ain't too bad, I know some of the test plays took 30 - 40 minutes to get through it on the first playthrough, but they probably got caught up reading turnip facts. I really hope my next game feels a lot more deep in terms of gameplay. :)
Frogge
I wanna marry ALL the boys!! And Donna is a meanc
18536
Congrats on completion!! I'll be giving it a spin when i can :D
author=Frogge
Congrats on completion!! I'll be giving it a spin when i can :D


Hey thanks! I know its a little different to most games on here, I guess Wither would be the closest comparison, so I hope you like it. ^^
That was really charming!! The short animated segments really help set this apart from a lot of other RPG Maker games, even if it's a bit short.

...not to mention it taught me a plethora of riveting Turnip Facts™
This was cool, awesome job!
author=Hogwash
That was really charming!! The short animated segments really help set this apart from a lot of other RPG Maker games, even if it's a bit short.

...not to mention it taught me a plethora of riveting Turnip Facts™
This was cool, awesome job!


I'm glad you enjoyed it, being my first game I wanted to make sure I kept the scope small and somewhat achievable (seen far too many developers first games go unfinished thanks to trying to make something too big). As much as im glad the animated cut-scenes separate the game from other similar games out there I feel like the time it took to make them (the game took about 2 months, animation took 6 thanks to my work load) its not something I think I will be implementing into future games, although I will still be using animation a lot of trailer's etc.

Thanks again for playing and I am glad you learnt some new things about turnips ha ha.
I just played through and got both endings and this was such a delight to play. The pixel graphics and sound design really add to the "child going on a self-appointed quest" type of story. I'm also stupidly excited that each of the trees gives a different reaction when you inspect them.

This was short but sweet and I can't wait to see what other games you'll make. And to echo everyone else, I'm absolutely amazed by your animation work!
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