Nightmare

Greetings! Feel free to download the full game right here.

This is to serve as both an announcement, because the game is now released, as well as a brief Q&A about the game itself!



What is Nightmare?

Nightmare is an RPG created with a theme of 9's: 9 characters, 9 weapons, 9 items, 9 enemies, 9 maps all 9x9, and made in 9 hours (kind of). It is rather short, and shouldn't take you more than a couple hours to beat, tops.


Is this a horror game?

Despite its name and dark atmosphere, it is not a horror game. It is an RPG.


Are you SURE this isn't a horror game?

Pretty sure.


Where did you get the idea for this?

Uh... don't ask. I actually wasn't supposed to make this, but it's too late.


Nine hours of development time?

Yes! Kind of. See, I couldn't finish the game nine hours straight due to several appointments and other business along the way, so I split it up. I used a stopwatch on my phone, and would start it and stop it every time I wanted to make progress on the game.

The only downside is, I reset my phone halfway through, not remembering that it would clear the stopwatch data. Before that, my memory is foggy. "Was that 4 hours and thirty minutes, or 3 hours and forty minutes?" This means that I either finished the game in 9 hours, or perhaps I added an hour and some change onto the length of development. So, despite my best attempts to keep to a strict 9 hour development time, I most likely went a bit. Once I realized that I likely went over the 9 limit, I took a little time to do some brief editing to dialogue and events.


Where's the tutorial/instruction?

Due to time constraints, there are none. Which means the instructions will be found on the main game page instead, explaining the mana regen and weapon-ability system.


What was the best way to streamline development?

Common events! I used several. They drastically reduced the time it took to make a game like this.


Hey, I keep running into random battles while traveling!

Sorry buddy, you're rolling snake eyes: the chance encounters while traveling are random yet unlikely.


What was the most difficult part of development?

The Hunt system I implemented. It was painful to try and quickly squash bugs near the end of development. The code isn't really clean for it: I had to come up with something that would stop the event from permanently looping once a chest was opened, and I couldn't seem to find where the loop was taking place (one condition checks if the "chest" switch is on, then shuts it down, then jumps to a label for an extra item, but then it would loop around and act as if the "chest" switch was still on). This became a pain, but I think I got the bugs ironed out.


How many endings are in this game?

Due to time constraints, there is just one.


What about 9 different endings?

You're killing me.


Will you be continuing development on this game?

If feedback is positive and people enjoy what's here, I may continue development through an un-restricted version of the game (exceeding the self-imposed limit of 9).


Is there anything you wish could have been added?

Yes, quite a bit, but development time made me pick and choose. For example, I wanted to add a bit more to the segments between maps, such as when you're traveling: I wanted to add NPC's that could be encountered, as well as different random events that took place depending on where the player was going. The remnants of this system is found in the Look Around command between town: it only shows a text description of the area.