BIZARREMONKEY'S PROFILE

Thanks mate! Getting tough to manage all of the sodding things, now!

author=karins_soulkeeper
Hi everyone!
I am planning on making a short traditional rpg that I'll work on when I take a break from my main project. I plan on making it humorous, and with no clear signs of seriousness. So I was thinking, is breaking the fourth wall a good move or not? Any advice you guys may offer to me?

Thank you!

Depends a lot on how it's done. Mostly though it's widely accepted, and in my games I actually have a shadowy meta based around it. It's more than just a clown in the room, it's a frekkin plot device!

author=LockeZ
I actually wish more RPGs would take themselves seriously, because I can honestly say I don't think there's a single one in existance that does. But if you decide not to, you'll be in good company.

Bloodline Masquerades is pretty serious, I'm not sure if by your definition it can be said to "take itself seriously" but it's one of the darkest W-RPG's on the market.

Also, it's a better strategy not to take yourself completely seriously when you're making a game, games are not serious, the saying "it's just a game" exists for reason.

A game has no serious consequences, just like watching a movie, where you seem to be lost is in the definition of what makes a game serious or take itself seriously, for example, someone can take himself seriously and make an absolutely appalling game, where as I don't take myself seriously, but I make great games (this is for the purpose of an example, the opinion is obviously a subjective viewpoint).

If you want a game that has a serious plot, that's very different from a game that takes itself seriously, also you've only mentioned the eastern classics so far, there are multitudes of serious games in the West that take themselves very seriously, such as Diablo, Condemned, etc.

I'm known virtually everywhere that matters as Bizarre Monkey, I've created a multitude of games, three of which have won "of the year" awards in the flames of a dying forum, and that's from where I also emerge.

I foolishly assumed VX.net shared it's fate with everywhere but two places that are just a bit too populated for my tastes. But this place is still lively, so I'm gonna probably move here, whilst maintaining what little presence I have on vx.net (It's not hard to stay there and appear as one who frequents these days.)

So much has happened since my last intro thread here back in 2011, I've done so much since then! It's my hope that you will see the fruits of those efforts in due course. For now though, I'd be honored to to make my return here, even though I never really left, I was an absent mirage at best.

author=Seeric
I recently finished Chapter 2 of this game and I think it's pretty neat for the most part so far; the boss fights are fun with plenty of interesting mechanics (especially when bosses get lower on health), there's a good number of optional things to do/find, there's a ton of environmental interaction, and progression-based leveling is something I always approve of over grind-based leveling.

I prefer progression leveling as well, mostly because it makes things easy to balance... environmental interaction is always something I've liked, and I took it steps further in this game, such as the cutting down trees and all that along with just interacting objects and the flavor text there of.

author=Seeric
This being said, I do think the items which double a stat should either be removed, made into late-game items, or somehow made non-cumulative as it's fairly easy to completely break the game with them, and with the Loion's Swordsmanship in particular as it is easy to make four copies of it once you reach the mines very early in the game. While doubling a stat on its own is a strong, but not game-breaking, boost, the issue comes from when the same 'doubling' item is equipped multiple times for a boost of 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 to make a stat 16x its starting value; on a save I made from right after the mine Fatty can go from 22 Muscle to 352 and can kill just about any boss in 1-2 hits (he dies fast, but a single Yasondre's Boon more than doubles his health while still leaving him at an exceedingly high 176 Muscle). This also means that a single Soy Chicken, which permanently boosts Muscle by 10 effectively grants a 160 point boost to any character with a 4x Loion's Swordsmanship combination.

All these have been noted, I'm working on a remastered version of this game as we speak, which will make alchemy more streamlined and make those double stat items not even a thing. Some abilities are also being adjusted and the way forms work for Fatty is being made more modular. There's a big post on some of this here.

author=Seeric
Simply not making it possible to get quite as many Blue Sun Primers and/or Plutonium Ingots early in the game or moving the recipe for the Loion's Swordsmanship item to a later book would both serve as quick-fixes to balance the issue early-game I think.

Sadly it's not that simple, if it were I would have done that. Though also it's a pretty large file and uploading it is a process I have to plan for doing since I have Australian bandwidth. I figure while I'm fixing that I may as well fix balance as a whole, while also addressing some other issues, file size being one of them.

Thanks a bunch for the feedback, I look forward to releasing the Remastered version assumedly sometime this year, here's a bit of what's going on with it.


These cutscenes are subject to change for the final rendition, but it gives you a small glimpse, later I should be able to upload a video with the new balancing.

Updated to 1.0.1, old saves will be compatible.

Menagerie Patch 1.0.1
-Fixed the Vertical position of Tac's eyes in Mutiny.
-Recompiled in a fashion to eradicate the game-breaking cache error.
-Corrected a missing file error crash, the game should now be crash free!
-Two fridges in the Ironstep Inn were functioning as impassable barriers post-harvest, this has been fixed.
-Corrected some odd picture behaviour in Solitaire
-Fixed a small cosmetic tile error in the Galaxion Game Cafe
-Did some work on syncing for Heavenbound
-Parallax fixes for Solitaire
-Several bits of odd sounding dialogue corrected.