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The world is dead, ravaged by the misdeeds of a long-forgotten era. Towering ruins dotting the lands exist as monuments of fallen civilizations. Humanity is divided, sheltered in isolated colonies few and far between. A mysterious energy ravages the world, spawning horrific monstrosities heralding the nigh-extinction of all life on the planet.

Goatchild is a supernaturally-gifted woman with no true name nor any idea of how she came to be. Among the few beings with the power to single-handedly drive back the eternal scourge, her only desire is to survive as long as possible against a threat she can see no end to... until the emergence of a spawn more self-aware than all of its peers.

Goatchild: Advent of Vantelieth is an action game that attempts to blend engaging, bleak storytelling with in-depth combat and plenty of optional content in between. Challenge yourself against imposing foes and unravel the mystery to a never-ending struggle!

Gameplay Features:

  • A 100% original battle system designed for fast-paced action, light stealth mechanics and numerous options in dealing with your enemies. Goatchild: Advent of Vantelieth allows players to teleport around the environment at their leisure as they confront quick enemies face-to-face or with a selection of firearms, each unique in their own way, which can freely be switched on the fly. Hardcore gamers will enjoy the addition of advanced mechanics such as parrying and just-frame actions that are tricky to consistently perform, but by no means a necessity.

    A deliberately cryptic storyline that urges players to think.

    Plenty of optional content, including secret bosses, conditional cutscenes, player achievement badges, and more!

    Multiple difficulty levels.

    Pseudo-nonlinear exploration.

    A profound atmosphere made possible with carefully woven graphical effects.

Latest Blog

Secret's Out Ch. I

With the recent release of patch 1.4 of Goatchild: Nightmare, as well as finally having written an outline of Advent of Vantelieth's story from beginning to end, I've given myself a much clearer direction of how the game should progress in terms of both story and gameplay. This will definitely help me to release updates far more frequently than before once I've finished quite a long list of character sprites to be done. Fingers crossed!

With that said, I intend to speed up the development of Chapter 2 for a release later this year or sometime early next year, if I can manage it with my rather hectic schedule... so I figured now would be a good time to reveal the numerous secrets hidden within the first chapter! Note that this does not cover all minor details and MASSIVE SPOILERS will follow from here; read this at your own peril.

Badges

As mentioned previously, badges are achievements awarded to players for accomplishing a difficult task or discovering a well-hidden secret. Some badges are difficult to obtain even should a player know how to obtain it. The six badges hidden in the first chapter are obtained as follows:

Badge of Madcow's Bane (Easy/Normal/Hard):
See Secret Boss section.

Badge of the Squirrel Hunter:
Kill ALL of the Squirrels hidden in the woods during the hunting segment, before encountering the Garden of Mercy. Badge will be acquired after entering the cave.

Badge of Desperation:
Shoot Watcher during the chase sequence. This is the only instance in which Watcher can be shot without causing a game over.

Badge of the Golden Rat:
DO NOT kill the rat holding the Messenger's Key to obtain said key—interact with it instead. If the rat was spared, a golden rat will immediately spawn in the giant hallway leading to the Garden of Mercy. Kill the rat before it despawns to obtain the badge.

Badge of Garden Silence:
Kill the Garden of Mercy before it finishes its flowery diatribe.

Badge of (????)-in-Hiding: Look around the grassland while fighting the Garden of Mercy. Shoot the hidden enemy to obtain the badge. Note that the Garden of Mercy will teleport the player in front of it should they wander off too far.

Watcher's Affinity

Watcher's disposition towards Cygna will change depending on two factors: whether or not the player interacted with the Garden of Mercy in the settlement and whether or not the player exhausted all of Watcher's dialogue during the hunting segment. If the player interacted with the Garden of Mercy and didn't exhaust all of her dialogue, Watcher will behave noticeably more distant. Should the player earn Watcher's friendship by exhausting all of her dialogue regardless of whether or not the Garden of Mercy was examined, certain dialogue will be altered in this chapter and in future chapters.

An Unforeseen Encounter
There is a hidden cutscene involving a major character in future chapters which takes place in the isolated prison containing the Warden's Key. To trigger it, enter this room BEFORE pushing the button on the dragon statue located in the upper floor.

The Secret Boss

And finally, the hidden boss. To spawn this boss, first be sure to keep the Keeper's Bell in your inventory after ringing all of the bells. After killing all of the Garden of Mercy's minions, look for the Painted Woman in the room located upstairs in the right corner. Give her the Keeper's Bell to obtain Madcow's Regalia. Use the regalia in front of the bars located in the room you obtain the Deliverer's Key. After this, the boss will spawn in the dark room located beyond the left door downstairs of the lowest floor past the library. Stealth is key to winning this battle. Victory will award the player with three Great Essences and a badge depending on the selected difficultly (all of them count towards the same badge).

Stay tuned for additional updates regarding progress of the second chapter and what to expect!
  • Production
  • ExodusTribute
  • RPG Maker VX
  • Action Adventure
  • 11/09/2016 06:19 AM
  • 03/16/2018 04:24 AM
  • N/A
  • 52271
  • 34
  • 660

Posts

Pages: first 12 next last
Dragnfly
Beta testers!? No, this game needs a goddamn exorcist!
1809
My subscription list is getting long.

Sounds good, like a solid evolution to the previous entry.
author=Dragnfly
My subscription list is getting long.

Sounds good, like a solid evolution to the previous entry.


Many thanks for your continued support!
Aw, my post got eaten.

Basically said that this is a cool looking and sounding game and to keep up the great work. Also that people saying RTP can't look gritty and edgy are wrong.

>.<)b
Dragnfly
Beta testers!? No, this game needs a goddamn exorcist!
1809
author=Liberty
Basically said that this is a cool looking and sounding game and to keep up the great work. Also that people saying RTP can't look gritty and edgy are wrong.


They were so wrong. Palettes, lighting and fog change much. I've played a few that had such great atmosphere despite using RTP. Actually, when I played Afterlife: The Second Dimension I didn't recognize it as RTP immediately (largely just from being unfamiliar with the VXA RTP) and thought it looked good. The first Goatchild game completely sucked me in on atmosphere alone. It's not about putting everything in darkness, it's just about using colour well.
This is looking good, really like the quality of the maps. It may be a little bit before I get the chance to test it out but it for sure looks good.
Dragnfly
Beta testers!? No, this game needs a goddamn exorcist!
1809
So I just started playing this, finally. TLDR: a lot got in the way.

Anyway, I'll give my impressions in a few hours. Sorry for the lack of screenshots to support the bug reports.

-house
1) I don't think we have a Misao award for the best way to open a game but if we did this would get my vote. Excellent idea and writing for a simple start screen. I'll go back later and look for secrets.

2) The controls tutorial mentions Enter to interact. Just saying, I use Z (force of habit) and it works so I guess Enter/Z would be more accurate.

3) Since hitting a wall puts you into strafe mode you can do the moonwalk back and forth in your room. It's fun. If I had wanted to put in the effort I'd put a short clip from Billie Jean to a video of it. Still, though, allowing strafe after hitting a wall will no doubt be very useful during combat since enemies aren't likely to be coming from the wall you just hit.

4) Nice cover for why the tub is still full of water. Also, I'm reminded of one of the first signs that I'm getting old. I don't think I've woken up and not had to use the bathroom in years.

5) Man Alden is creepy. Staring at a black TV and then sprinting over to me. Also, if you check the case next to the TV it's the same text as if you check the TV. Kudos on the different floor sounds, though. I've gotta look into how to do that. Likely a region + common event thing.


-on the way to work
6) Typo in the intro. "...my first day as a operative of Reverentia." -> "...my first day as an operative". Your English is solid so the only thing that will get you are little derps like that which happen to us all. I recommend putting all the game text through a word processor, or even your web browser if you have free Grammarly installed.

7) You can walk through the front and back of the cars. Passability on groups of boxes, 2x2 puddles with entry on only one side, and couches are going to be be evil too. The only way I've seen to get around most of this is to make a whole new tilesheet and edit it manually. http://i.imgur.com/5kc4Lzf.png for example, you can walk on some of the puddle but not all.

8) About the guy blocking the elevator at HQ- If you talk to him from the sides he flashes in your direction for a few frames, then goes back to facing down and doesn't say anything.


-settlement
9) Talking to the guy who's sorting everyone's shit for the 2nd time, after he calls me out on being a new recruit the line isn't split when Cygna replies speaker changes.

10) LOL@ orange-haired NPC in the blue dress and brown vest. ! and shy:)

11) Two steps up from that girl is a tile you can't walk on although it looks like a regular path and you can walk on all the tiles around it. I found out later that it's due to the event.

12) The bald guy and the blue-eyed guy outside the base camp also turn to face you for a split second before turning back to facing down if you talk to them from the sides.

-after the cutscene showing the tower (I think that's what it is)
13) Right in front of you is a campfire. Checking it makes it flash for a few frames, like the dudes from before.

14) http://i.imgur.com/JnzDyZz.png we'll -> we're

15) Talking to... Watcher, there's another typo. outselves -> ourselves
*I accidentally triggered hunting early, I think. I'll go back and verify.

-hunting
16) I'm totally going to want to use a controller for this next time. Needing CTRL and S while still needing Shift and D, both of which also needing the arrows keys cramped up my hand a lot.

17) kudos on this entire scene being creepy as hell. Excellent job!

-tower
18) With my back against a wall, I tried to see how quickly I could shoot. Are the explosions that come up when you rapidly shoot the rifle signifying anything? I was worried that the ammo was exploding in the barrel or something. Still, though, it sounds and feels awesome.

19) A freakin mouse blocked the exit in the room with the books and wouldn't move more than 2 spaces so I could get by. Murder was my only option. I was trying to be nice but some dumb animals just wanna be jerks to a human with a high-powered magical rifle.

20) When reading the book of stuff to do, 1). and 2. are written differently. Intentional? It looks weird.

21) In the room to the left of the dragon statue button you enter from the right but arrive at the bottom. Just a little disorienting. EDIT: Actually this turned out to be a common problem, which is a terrible shame because the dungeon design and atmosphere is soooooooo good but these little bits drag it down. Unless you have a cutscene showing that more travel was done than was shown, entering a door on the north wall should always put you on a south wall in the next room. Or to put it another way, always perserve the orientation of the dungeon rooms. Otherwise mapping becomes a huge mess and it really takes away from an otherwise awesome dungeon.

22) http://i.imgur.com/42wwWmO.png so if you don't talk to... Watcher before coming here then you get this weird scene. Possible solutions include blocking the exits from the room she's in until you talk to her, or just switch off playing this scene unless you've already switched on having talked to her. EDIT: Ok, so I guess she is in the room but since you don't see her it looked like a bug. However, in the other room with all the doors that are sealed with an unseen force, she's still standing there and I can't interact with her. I figure it might be because I came here before talking to her there.

Also, this scene doesn't break up the dialogue lines between characters either.


EDIT: 23) I had a bit more time so I played more but I really have to go after this comment. In the flashlight room, is there supposed to be an event or something? Like, an enemy? Because I didn't get one. If so, then check to see if that thing I mentioned in 22 might have switches that are to blame. If so, then it's a game-breaking bug:(

(more to come. I have to take care of irl stuff for a bit)
Oh man, this is gonna be long. xD

author=Dragnfly
You can walk through the front and back of the cars. Passability on groups of boxes, 2x2 puddles with entry on only one side, and couches are going to be be evil too. The only way I've seen to get around most of this is to make a whole new tilesheet and edit it manually. http://i.imgur.com/5kc4Lzf.png for example, you can walk on some of the puddle but not all.

Probably gonna fix this with impassible events on either side.

author=Dragnfly
About the guy blocking the elevator at HQ- If you talk to him from the sides he flashes in your direction for a few frames, then goes back to facing down and doesn't say anything.

Fixed. Tyvm.

author=Dragnfly
Right in front of you is a campfire. Checking it makes it flash for a few frames, like the dudes from before.

Fixed. Tyvm.

author=Dragnfly
The bald guy and the blue-eyed guy outside the base camp also turn to face you for a split second before turning back to facing down if you talk to them from the sides.

Now this shouldn't be happening... Did you happen to activate them before they stopped moving?

author=Dragnfly
Talking to the guy who's sorting everyone's shit for the 2nd time, after he calls me out on being a new recruit the line isn't split when Cygna replies speaker changes.

Intentional.

author=Dragnfly
With my back against a wall, I tried to see how quickly I could shoot. Are the explosions that come up when you rapidly shoot the rifle signifying anything? I was worried that the ammo was exploding in the barrel or something. Still, though, it sounds and feels awesome.

That indicates the player has successfully fired immediately after the recovery period, which doubles damage. Not sure I mentioned that in the game, heh.

author=Dragnfly
A freakin mouse blocked the exit in the room with the books and wouldn't move more than 2 spaces so I could get by. Murder was my only option. I was trying to be nice but some dumb animals just wanna be jerks to a human with a high-powered magical rifle.

Had the same problem. My solution was to space them away from doors, but apparently I failed. xD Edit: Actually, I'll fix this by lowering their priority type.

author=Dragnfly
When reading the book of stuff to do, 1). and 2. are written differently. Intentional? It looks weird.

Fixed. Tyvm.

author=Dragnfly
In the room to the left of the dragon statue button you enter from the right but arrive at the bottom. Just a little disorienting. EDIT: Actually this turned out to be a common problem, which is a terrible shame because the dungeon design and atmosphere is soooooooo good but these little bits drag it down. Unless you have a cutscene showing that more travel was done than was shown, entering a door on the north wall should always put you on a south wall in the next room. Or to put it another way, always perserve the orientation of the dungeon rooms. Otherwise mapping becomes a huge mess and it really takes away from an otherwise awesome dungeon.

The problem I have here is with the direction of the tilesets as well as the layout of the tower itself (in the example you provided... for example, I couldn't have the player enter from the right because the room above it is a giant hallway extending toward the left, though in that particular case changing the direction of that hallway would have sufficed), but this is still something I avoid doing when not necessary, unless I have some preemptive idea of how I want the map to look. Edit: There was actually two unmissable instances of this prior to the one in question; I'm surprised you only then noticed it. I could "fix" this by adding arrows indicating the player's direction during the transition, but are you certain it wouldn't just take a bit of getting used to?

author=dragnfly
http://i.imgur.com/42wwWmO.pngso if you don't talk to... Watcher before coming here then you get this weird scene. Possible solutions include blocking the exits from the room she's in until you talk to her, or just switch off playing this scene unless you've already switched on having talked to her. EDIT: Ok, so I guess she is in the room but since you don't see her it looked like a bug. However, in the other room with all the doors that are sealed with an unseen force, she's still standing there and I can't interact with her. I figure it might be because I came here before talking to her there.

A known bug (Watcher isn't supposed to appear in the middle floor at that moment). This was hotfixed in a later download.

author=Dragnfly
Also, this scene doesn't break up the dialogue lines between characters either.

This is always intentional if the dialogue is repeatable or not treated as a cutscene.

author=Dragnfly
I had a bit more time so I played more but I really have to go after this comment. In the flashlight room, is there supposed to be an event or something? Like, an enemy? Because I didn't get one. If so, then check to see if that thing I mentioned in 22 might have switches that are to blame. If so, then it's a game-breaking bug:(

Without spoiling anything... that's not a bug. Although the room in question isn't essential to completing the chapter.

And I see I have quite a few typos to fix. How embarrassing... Anywho, thanks for the heads-up!
Ok, now I know what I will do when I'll be back home... Playing this!!
The best thing to do after a day of school: playing horror (indie) games :)
Dragnfly
Beta testers!? No, this game needs a goddamn exorcist!
1809
(answering your comments.)
-settlement
12) I scoped out the entire town before going to be base camp. I'm one of those players who anticipates what will move the story forward and tries to check everything else first. So they were stationary before I talked to them. If they were moving into position, I hadn't left the area with the cars or the very bottom left part of the map yet, as I was looking for... whatever there was to find LOL.

-tower
18) Wow, I got really good at doing that then. When I do face real enemies, they're freakin dead.

21) (sorry, this will get long) I hear you about the tilesets not supporting all 4 directions. I recently played one and I was like "is that a sideways-facing door? OMFG is that a sideways facing desk lamp!?". That's a really valid reason. It's a pain in the butt that they don't just make everything face all 4 directions.

I likely noticed the other instances too but didn't physically note them down. I do still try to enjoy games while going through them so I often just make a mental note since I play fullscreen on a big display and have to alt-tab out to make notes. Immersion and all that LOL. Most times, if I forget to note things as they happen then it just means the game really sucked me in so it's a compliment in its own way.

Now, by saying I couldn't have the player enter from the right because the room above it is a giant hallway extending toward the left, do you mean in the map editor itself or do you just mean in the logic of the structure? I'll try to explain better.

Assume you have a hotel lobby with a blue police box in it.... ok that's the worst example possible. Starting over...

a) I guess what I'm meaning to say is that if all the maps for one floor are on the same map in the editor, you're using Transfer Player events on doors anyway so the rooms don't have to be laid out perfectly in the editor. In fact the order they're in is purely for organizational purposes. The editor doesn't care.

b) If you mean from a logic standpoint, the player won't notice 99% of the time. They'll for sure notice the change in orientation like you currently have it because it's so discombobulating, fools with the right/left-hand rule most players use and, for really complex dungeons it prevents the player from easily making their own map to find their way. It also doesn't hold up from a structural logic standpoint because changing orientation is far more illogical. If this is the case, then the bad points far outweigh the good.

22) Oh, I thought I had the latest version. Cool.

For typos and stuff, I do always recommend a word processor or just Gmail and Grammarly. Sadly Grammarly doesn't work with Google Docs or I'd just use that. It'll find a crazy number of false problems (even more if you're not writing in USA English. Actually, I see now that they fixed their borderline racist explanation for that) but that's why we always need the human element.

Anyway, I'm going back in. I've got a few more keys to find yet. Some players will no doubt want the doors to say what key goes to them or even just hint when you check it and don't have the key. It will reduce backtracking if the player can go "Oh, I just got the Warden Key. The Warden Door was a few rooms back."

EDIT: Oh yeah, not being able to go left or right when you're on stairs and the footstep sounds not playing in any form when you're walking behind a south wall.

EDIT2: In the room where you first meet the hostile, if you check the gate it says it's too dark to see. We know she has a flashlight so maybe some other reason would be better.

Also,
DAMN that entire bit and the following one were both great. You're really good at suspense and atmosphere and knowing just when to throw in some scares. And you even thought to add a convo with Watcher about it. Good stuff.


EDIT3: The ball part of the blue orb pillars do that few-frames-flicker thing when you action on them too. (clear sign that I'm searching really hard for a missing item: I'm even checking the orbs). Torches too.
author=Dragnfly
Oh yeah, not being able to go left or right when you're on stairs and the footstep sounds not playing in any form when you're walking behind a south wall.

Because of the way the scripts work, I could only assign a single footstep sound to every wall, so this is basically intentional.

author=Dragnfly
In the room where you first meet the hostile, if you check the gate it says it's too dark to see. We know she has a flashlight so maybe some other reason would be better.

The idea is that her flashlight has limited range (as per the gameplay itself), but I might make it a point to mention that.

author=Dragnfly
The ball part of the blue orb pillars do that few-frames-flicker thing when you action on them too. (clear sign that I'm searching really hard for a missing item: I'm even checking the orbs). Torches too.

Fixed.

And regarding the keys, because it isn't required to find one bell key to obtain another, I *strongly* recommend worrying about the doors only after finding all eight keys. This not only reduces backtracking, but prevents confusion as to which doors you've already unlocked.

Edit: In case you're missing the Messenger's Key, there's a rat by the window on the lowest floor that just stands there looking at you. Either kill it or interact with it to obtain the key. Figured a lot of people would miss that one.
Dragnfly
Beta testers!? No, this game needs a goddamn exorcist!
1809
Footsteps and scripts - Ah. Nothing can be done about it then. I've seen ones that assign events to regions, so I figured that's what you were using.

Flashlight - Easy enough to just say that even the flashlight can't pierce far enough to see anything.

Doors - Yeah, I was unsure if there would be switches or locked doors that I needed to handle before accessing other keys.

Messenger's Key - GODDAMNIT. Yeah, it was that one. Geez, I totally didn't notice that rat was different from all the others. That's likely going to get a lot of people unless they're the type to try to murder every rat.

End results - Imgur is being a jerk and hangs on "creating your image" when I try to post my screenshot:( Anyway, all of the boss' text was practically impossible to read because it was black with black dropshadow. I'm thinking it's something on my end though because this happened in another game and the font name is familiar so I think I at least looked into it before.

-
When the painted woman appeared, I guess I was jittery because I unloaded my gun... in the wrong direction. so I essentially got the cutscene because of recoil:)


That was really, really good. Everything with atmosphere and presentation is top-tier. The story is very interesting. You often account for the player going back and talking to people after scenes changes. I'd fault it on controls but a controller would fix that. I just didn't bother setting mine up. I'd say the biggest problem is map orientation but for what it's worth I did eventually get used to it. The dungeon design itself is fantastic. It's delightfully huge and pretty open-ended yet although the visuals are consistent throughout, zones are distinct enough from one another that you can easily divide it up in your head. I did do a lot of unnecessary running around but that was mostly all for the last key. Might be worth having Watcher give hint if other players complain.

I'll go back in for the extra stuff but it'll be a while since I'm up to my neck in the eternal suffering of my own project. Good work though, and thanks for being cool and mature with the feedback.
Looking at your text, it does seem rather different from mine. That's odd...

I'm thinking of doing a little tradition where I directly reveal all of the secrets and badges in a particular chapter only after the one proceeding it is released, assuming no one discovers them beforehand. It'll probably be another year before I release the next chapter since I'd like to get back to writing and drawing for now, so we'll see how that turns out.

And thanks for pointing out so many errors! I tend to be very thorough when it comes to testing out my projects, but as a solo developer, it's only inevitable I'd miss a few despite my best efforts. I'm especially relieved there were no game-breaking bugs with the keys; managing so many at once was a pain in the ass.
Dragnfly
Beta testers!? No, this game needs a goddamn exorcist!
1809
likely something wrong on my end. I do indeed have the Australian Sunrise *whip crack* font installed. I'm sure there was another game recently that I played which used Australian Sunrise *whip crack* but I think now it was ok, since the last time I had this font problem was, I guess, ages ago.

-badges
How about a free contest among players. The first one to find all your badges in a chapter gets to try your next chapter early or gets a wallpaper or something? Get that motivation out there or whatever.

I really respect solo devs who are making an effort. It's so freakin hard. It really is. I've used Google Docs/Word, Google Sheets/Excel, yEd, Homestyler, Photoshop and even Minecraft to keep my puzzles and maps organized and there's still always issues. Then there's just applying the good ideas well, rather than just using good ideas. Yeah, solo is rough but developing in a team has it's own set of problems and no guarantee of eliminating the ones from solo development. We have to just work with thatever we feel best with.
I found a bug:
After receiving the delivery key and going to back to the first room where you should meet the hostile, the same event will start, when taking the right door instead the north one, and going right again. The event works (without seeing the hostile) until Candy runs away and get stuck at the golem statue.

Edit:
And where do I finde the last key (the one for the far right statue). The warden key won't fit and there is still a gate left to open.
Assuming you mean the Catalyst's Key, it's located in one of the bookshelves in the upper left room of the top floor's main hall.

And fixed the bug. Thanks for pointing it out!
Dragnfly
Beta testers!? No, this game needs a goddamn exorcist!
1809
If the key you're missing is the Messenger key, then ExodusTribute answered that one a few posts back so just search for thet word.
author=ExodusTribute
Assuming you mean the Catalyst's Key, it's located in one of the bookshelves in the upper left room of the top floor's main hall.

And fixed the bug. Thanks for pointing it out!

Thanks, I now found it. But the battles are nothing for my nonexistent reflexes.
Since this is the introductory chapter, combat is deliberately simplistic. Wait until the next one. :p
author=ExodusTribute
Since this is the introductory chapter, combat is deliberately simplistic. Wait until the next one. :p

No, you missunderstood me.
I got killed very fast. I'm handycapped and have less to none reflexes.
game says it can't find RGSS202E.dll. I already installed RTP100, so what else am I missing?
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