KILLER WOLF'S PROFILE

I offer my condolences, for what they are worth coming from a complete stranger, and a bit of advice: Take some time to let yourself break down. When my father passed away, I had to just put my head down and work through it, taking care of all the arrangements. I put off the inevitable breakdown for as long as I could, and when it came, it was probably a lot worse because of the exhaustion and stress I was under. I don't know that I felt any better after it, but it is an important part of the process and in the long term, it does help.

The other part of what I would say to you is that, in many ways, the people you love never completely disappear. A bit of them lives on in the people who remember them, any time you think of a story they told you, something they taught you, or just a nice memory they had a part in.

It does get better with time.

I've had a rough day. Started off going through old files, listening to what my music sounded like when I was younger and had less influences. Then I fell into watching a marathon of a show I used to like, episodes from 2006. The way my memory works, I've been living in 06 all day... back when I had more family than obligations. Back when I still had a chance with the young woman I love, both of them maybe. Back when my band was just taking shape and I had so much hope for what we would be able to accomplish.

I got this idea to re-do some of my old projects, be it music/stories/games... and I was feeling excited about it, but I realize I'm just trying to crawl back into a time that was better for me. Unfortunately, I know I can't go back.

Try to remember that the word demo has a different connotation in the larger world than it might here at RMN.

Some examples from the AAA world-

Force Unleashed: The demo area contains most of the first level of the game, but cut together differently. It is paced much more quickly than the actual level. It gives you a feeling of "Awesome, lets go and bust stuff up!" When you play the actual level, the pacing is noticeably different in some areas. It also cuts off early.

Arkham Asylum: The demo cuts areas together so that you can go through the three gameplay styles in quick succession, giving you a taste of what the game has to offer. They also remove a lengthy section of tunnel crawling and psuedo-platforming that the full game his interspersed between those moments.

Final Fantasy 7: Going way back... it pretty much featured the opening mission without any quick cuts, but it did give the player access to a number of spells and summons that don't even occur until several hours into the game.

Dragon's Dogma: You get to create the character model you're going to use in the game as part of the demo. That's huge. I spend a ton of time customizing my characters in any game that allows me, so having all of that done ahead of time thanks to a demo was a blessing!

Back in RMN land

It may be kind of hypocritical of me to bring this up, since I'm guilty of it, but around here the term demo generally means "This is as much of the game as I have finished, lets toss it up online and see how many takers I get."

A demo should convey what your game is about, but it should also leave the player wanting more. You should be able to hint at more than just what you've given out at that point.

It may be a dumb trick, but having scenes from areas and situations beyond the demo play at the end, possibly with some stirring music, can go a long way to keeping people interested in seeing what the game will do next.

As for length? I like a demo to last between 30-60 minutes. With commercial games, longer demos are nice but usually mean I'll end up having to do all that over again in the full game, which cuts down the number of times I am likely to play the demo.

That's another thing I have noticed. The more times I play a demo, the more likely I am to buy the game. For that purpose, maybe shorter demos with more variety and re-play value are a good idea. Get your "brand" in front of the player as many times as possible. The good will an engaging and re-playable demo engenders during a gaming slump goes a long way, at least with me.

IF your demo is "everything I have ready right now", make sure that you hint at more to come. New features/gameplay mechanics... even use your story. Try to generate some mystery or suspense to get people wondering what is going to happen next.

I finally came up with the theme of my second area, so my goals for today are to get my new monsters fleshed out and working in Breach:Awakening, and to figure out how to add a new (and now required) function to my display events.

author=Nightowl
I'm so dumb. I renamed the folder which contains RM2K3, obviously fucking up the RTP. Now I can't use the RTP anymore without copypasting the files to each project.
Reinstalling and screwing around with registry doesn't help as well.

Did you try renaming the folder back to its default title?

I change the name of my RTP folder all the time, just to keep 2k3 from detecting it so I can test if I have copied all the resources I need into my project folder. I've never had a problem changing it back.