GIZNADS'S PROFILE

author=kaine87
wouldn't it be better to turn off the switch (s) that handle the eight-way movement in the dialogue and turn them back on when they are finished?

Typo in the comment.
I forgot to add turning the 8-way movement switch on and off.

author=TFT
I finished the demo and I felt like it was very immersive. I think the tone is very good. I like how the game starts off very subtle. Like, the entire world is dead, and thats pretty interesting.

The entire game is very expertly crafted. There are a bunch of really small touches that immerse you into the game. People do notice, and I'm glad you took the time to add all of it.

I think the only criticism I have is I didn't find the secondary character that interesting. If you merged the two and the main hero just bounces his thoughts off the robot it would feel more interesting, just my opinion.

the mechanics and custom systems are all well done.

I'm surprised more people aren't discussing this game. I think you did a great job, man.

author=Ashes of Emerald

author=TFT
I think the only criticism I have is I didn't find the secondary character that interesting. If you merged the two and the main hero just bounces his thoughts off the robot it would feel more interesting, just my opinion.

I agree with this. Would make it feel more unique and intriguing

Thank you both for the feedback!
I'm glad you enjoyed what you've played of it!

By secondary character, I'm assuming you mean Nikolai.
I was a little bummed to not have Nikolai really shine so far in this early version of the game, but I do hope you'll stick around to play the final release as I plan to give him and all of the characters an in-depth back story eventually. Already, Nikolai is scheduled to play a bigger role in the second chapter, and there will be a pretty good chunk of time spent playing only as Nikolai possibly with the help of a temporary character or two.
This section of the game will delve into his backstory and hopefully make the player click more with him as one of the main protagonist of Nihilo.

Thank you for the kind words and valuable feedback, they mean a lot to me!

author=Megollyen
Okay, so I just finished the demo. First of all, it's much longer than I anticipated and that's a good thing because I really enjoyed what I played. It reminded me a lot of SNES/PS1 era JRPGs while also having a really unique feel and aesthetic. Visually it's a really cool looking game. The way you blended assets works really well. The environments are very detailed with cool lighting and tone. However, it sometimes felt kind of hard to navigate because there was so much going on.

Speaking of navigation, while I think the 8 directional movement is really cool from a technical standpoint for the engine, I honestly found it to feel kind of cumbersome and awkward at times. I mainly played the game as if it was 4 directions and just found the 8 directions would sometimes take me off course with where I'm trying to go. I just can't help but think the game would actually FEEL better to play if you stuck with the 4 directions. Not a deal breaker by any means, just something I'd point out, I suppose.

The combat and puzzles were really fun and engaging. Though, I do wonder if there's better ways to introduce some of the mechanics since I would often find myself not really sure what was going on with some stuff in the combat. But having the tutorials in the menu is a nice feature. Speaking of nice feature, the auto save is a really welcomed addition to a 2k3 game for sure. It would be nice to have more than one slot of the manual save, though.

I should also mention that the boss battle animations were so on point and I can't even begin to imagine how much time you've put into everything in this demo.

Overall it was a very pleasant and nostalgic experience for me and exactly what I was hoping it would be. Great work on this so far, Giznads! I'm really excited to play the finished game! :)

Yo! Wanna start off by saying thank you so much for taking the time to point these things out for me!

Glad you enjoyed the length of the game! There were many times I was pushing to get the game out ending it at different locations, but I wanted to give players a little more! Glad you enjoyed the atmosphere, and I'm sorry it was hard to navigate.
Can you give me some examples maybe in a PM where things were hard to navigate? Also, did you have way points turned on?

Got a few people that have said the same thing about the 8-way movement so far!
I'm thinking of making this an optional feature that you can turn off or on.
I personally perfer the 8way movement, but maybe I'm just so use to it now, BUT I can totally understand the fact the rm2k3 isn't based on pixel movement can lead to some odd feeling controls for people.

I'm going to find a new way to introduce battle mechanics as throwing the majority of the battle basics into ONE battle like I did was probably a bad idea. I'm sure people didn't want to read all of that in one go. I'm hoping that will clear up things a little more for players. Just a matter of figuring out how to implement it in-game.
Glad you liked the auto save feature, I'm currently working on a system to have multiple save slots and keep the auto save!
The 1 manual slot feature was strictly for demo purposes as I just never got the chance to put the fully planned features into the demo.

I'm really glad you appreciate the battle animations!
I did spend a great deal of time getting things looking as right as I could for battle. :D It was worth it in the end though.

Thanks for playing, my man. Compiling a list of fixes to implement into the full game itself.

author=Ashes of Emerald
OFFICIAL DEMO! WOOOOOOO!

author=Nightblade
Color me impressed; this looks pretty good. I'll play this.

author=Megollyen
Yesss! Downloading the demo RIGHT NOW!

Thanks fellas! I really appreciate the support and I hope the demo is enjoyable!

author=Punk_Kricket
Currently playing through the demo and made it past the second big baddie and some thoughts:

• Battle fields with pipe work in the mapping tend to obscure damage dealt to the party - while not a huge problem for mob encounters, the obstruction is noticeable.

• Maybe I missed how but is there a way to get my characters energy back up in longer fights? There likely is and I missed it, though it hasn't been an issue.

• The text box can be hard to read depending on what map you're on - the first few maps had me squinting because it was white text against lighter background outdoors, meanwhile in caves and buildings it wasn't an issue.

I'm going to outright praise this demo for it's art, detail in mapping, and the UI and sprite work. Seeing how upgrading and crafting are going to be a bigger part of the game moving forward, definitely excites me to know the power-creep for the characters is going to be more of a natural drip vs it being a grind-fest. Crazy good work, thoroughly impressed!

• Yeah, the piping overlays, that's something I kind of second guessed myself about before releasing the demo, but I wanted to get something out!

• Yes! In the first battle, (the tutorial fight) that... very long drawn out explanation of battle, it does refer to how to build each character's fortitude gauge. You can also refer back to every tutorial learned in-game in the logbook menu. (logbook>tutorial) One good way to build both Estes's and Nikolai's fortitude (especially in boss battles) is to use the "Provoke" skill with Nikolai as he has more defense and builds fort when being attacked and loses fort when acting, and have Estes hammer away at enemies as he builds fort performing commands and loses fort when being attacked. I think the real problem is asking players to go through such a drawn out tutorial for their first fight. This is something I should look into.

• Hmm, first time I've actually gotten this one. I could probably simply tweak the transparency a little to fix.

I've jotted all of this down and will implement fixes accordingly!
Thank you so much for your kind words valuable feedback, I very much appreciate you taking the time to point these things out!

Aww HELL yeah! How am I JUST finding this page?! Can't wait for updates!