ANARYU'S PROFILE

author=VerifyedRasta link=topic=2367.msg41331#msg41331 date=1225597602
Finally you made a VX game ... I would have downloaded your XP one, but I just don't like XP tall characters (Unless it's the Mirror Lied)

I will give this a shot sooner or later, but where did you get those character arts? Or did you make them yourself?

Characters, Original Tilesets, and Art:
Yaoumei

That's my wife, half of the Anamei Productions team (ANAryu + yaouMEI = Anamei).

author=secretseeker link=topic=80.msg41229#msg41229 date=1225561540
Big n' bad crashing bug at the first battle :/:/:/

Wow, never seen that one before.

Regardless I changed that around a little to catch it!

The download in the main thread is updated, along with some other minor fixes and changes.

author=Feldschlacht IV link=topic=80.msg36952#msg36952 date=1223660787
If you've reworked your game, you may want to edit your original post to reflect that if you already haven't. As an aside, from what I can see your game looks pretty rad and refreshing.

Yes, the original post has been completely redone, wanted to be sure it was accurate and updated before I "necroposted". :)

author=prexus link=topic=80.msg1180#msg1180 date=1182967457
You really need to tone down the first fight, or skip the escaping of the second fight. It's far too difficult for a complicated system like that. For something like that you need to give the player a chance to learn it.

Also, maybe add it so when you press L and R, it switches through your characters in combat, letting you skip over having to run around the map to find the next character to control? Or even using the number keys to select your party member.

Maybe I'll revisit the difficulty in the escape portion of the first fight, I had thought it toned down quite a bit already.

The L/R to cycle through characters is a really good idea, I should be able to do that pretty easily I think, I'll add that as a feature with the new release.

Hey, nice to see you here. I never got the chance to play this game, though I wanted to. Glad to have something to download.

Is this set in the same world as Outlaw City and other games of yours?

The story for this game is actually from the first RTP Contest on RMXP.org that I saw; I started on it but never got to finish it as the contest bombed out. I liked the story and characters and angles so I wanted to do something with it. This project is mostly me getting more experience and polishing a game as much as I can before I move on to the project I really want to do.

Speaking of projects I'm happy to finally see Sandfall again, looks like its moving along and I like the new sprite style; can't wait to see how the new battle system plays too!

It's not just pure length and story, what tends to be overlooked is the feeling of accomplishment.

Many times a long game can feel so long because you're really just spending the entire game doing one thing. Take Chrono Trigger as an example, you don't even learn about Lavos until probably 1/5 of the way into the game, and even then it's well set as a long term goal that you can almost forget you're working towards when the story rises to the climax of the various "episodes" like fighting Magus or trying to save Schala.

The sense of accomplishment that doesn't depend only on beating the game is something that I feel really defines how good a game is. If you spend the entire game just working towards the eventual conclusion you start to want it to end; how long can you prolong something with just plot twists instead of honest change?

"Oh no! We almost made this person into what they need to be, but they just got kidnapped! We must save them now!"

"Oh no, we almost got the powerful artifact that would defeat the bad guy, but a crazy plot twist stopped us... again!"

Or my personal "favorite":

"Wow! After 8 idential dungeons with varying puzzles and unlocking all 8 of the <insert various artifact here> a plot twist has forced us to: 1) go and beat one more dungeon and the final foe 2) beat even more repetetive dungeons or 3) start our quest practically over again!"


Concentrating on letting the player's accomplishments drive the story instead of the story drive the player's accomplishments is one of the keys to making a game interesting; when you know you've got to invest 60 hours of random plot twists and the "same old story" to beat a game it feels like what it is... a long grind just to see the ending.

However if you can make each sub-story or section of the plot unique and interesting enough, and provide enough of a conclusion to make the player feel like they've accomplished something, you can set them on the next "game within the game" and make them wish it lasted LONGER instead of them just wanted to see "the end already!"

Enjoyable games are usually memorable, and often you can pin-point different story-lines of the game just from memory if it's good, the games that are less enjoyable tend to "run together" so you can remember that something happened, but not the details or when it happened.