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Seeric
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I believe RPG Maker and similar programs are capable of producing fantastic, unique, and enduring experiences and I love hunting down hidden gems. That being said, I admit to a near-equal love of wonky or horribly broken games and enjoy reviewing games on both ends of the spectrum.
In my opinion, the worst thing a game can be is perfectly average as such a game lacks both passion and a sense of identity.
In my opinion, the worst thing a game can be is perfectly average as such a game lacks both passion and a sense of identity.
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Premature Break
I definitely agree that you should see if anything can be salvaged from the hard drive. Even if it's a long shot, the chance to recover your stuff is always worth some time and frustration.
Also, if you haven't done so already, you might want to copy the contents of that flash drive to another computer or a cloud service; it would be awful to have saved at least some stuff to a backup only to have it lost if the backup in turn stops working.
Also, if you haven't done so already, you might want to copy the contents of that flash drive to another computer or a cloud service; it would be awful to have saved at least some stuff to a backup only to have it lost if the backup in turn stops working.
Hinterland
Hey, I just wanted to say that I finished this game and thought it was really neat, but I did encounter a few bugs and oversights along the way so I'll list them here:
1) You can walk on the moss tiles on the wall in the basement.
2) You can get unlimited copies of Journal 6.
3) You can run into a game-crashing scripting error after leaving the maze game. It seems to be related to the XS Stamina System and looks to be the same error regardless of if you win or lose. Making sure my stamina was at 100% before starting up the game allowed me to avoid the error.
4) Interacting with the alarm after turning it off gives you the same dialogue asking if you want to turn it off, which is a bit odd.
5) You can find a box of crayons in a desk and the game seems to imply that you take them, but they don't show up in the inventory.
1) You can walk on the moss tiles on the wall in the basement.
2) You can get unlimited copies of Journal 6.
3) You can run into a game-crashing scripting error after leaving the maze game. It seems to be related to the XS Stamina System and looks to be the same error regardless of if you win or lose. Making sure my stamina was at 100% before starting up the game allowed me to avoid the error.
4) Interacting with the alarm after turning it off gives you the same dialogue asking if you want to turn it off, which is a bit odd.
5) You can find a box of crayons in a desk and the game seems to imply that you take them, but they don't show up in the inventory.
Post-Demo Plans
I'm really glad you released a demo since this has been a game I've been looking forward to for quite a while! I've been pretty busy lately so I just got around to playing it today and I'm still really early on (in Cloudy Hill), but I'm enjoying it a lot so far. That said, I have run into two technical issues (and I downloaded the game on July 13th so to the best of my knowledge this is the newest version of the demo).
1) Cloudy Hills is pretty choppy to walk around in. I didn't play the early version of the demo so I can't say if it's less laggy than it was before, but it's definitely noticeable.
2) I stumbled upon a game-crashing bug on accident and have been able to deliberately replicate it. The error message is "Script 'Window_Selectable' line 61: ZeroDivisionError occurred. divided by 0". This happened, rather appropriately, when I got a green exclamation point above my head, talked to the Information Guy screen which explains red and green exclamation points before going into battle, and then I crashed immediately after the battle ended. To clarify the order of events was: Got a green exclamation point --> interacted with screen --> battle occurred after dialogue --> crashed after battle instead of transitioning back to the map. It doesn't seem possible to interact with the screen if I get a red exclamation point instead of a green one (I'm guessing you can't perform interactions in general with a red exclamation point). Oddly enough, I seem to only be able to replicate this crash with the Information Guy screen as I tried replicating it with Mr. Beaver and with a toy chest and in both cases the interaction dialogue didn't pop up until after the battle.
Also, I have a suggestion which isn't bug-related. Even if it means breaking the fourth wall a bit, I think it is really important to put in a line or two of mandatory dialogue which informs players that fountains can heal you and that you can save from the menu (this latter part is a bit less important because a dialogue box already pops up at the start to state that X opens the menu, but more explicit dialogue can encourage players to open that menu to create a save file as soon as possible). The fountain dialogue is essential though because you are otherwise going to likely get complaints from players who fought the slime and then used up their healing items or rushed straight into Cloudy Hill without healing at all. Most players who are experienced with RPG's will likely figure out what the purpose of the fountain is, but a significant chunk of players in a wider, commercial audience will probably either miss interacting with it entirely or will not make the connection that the blue flash and the pleasant sound effect is an indication that they've been healed.
EDIT: I just stumbled into the same error again when talking to Mr. Marvelous for the first time while I had a green exclamation point above my head so I guess it's not just limited to the Information Guy screen after all.
1) Cloudy Hills is pretty choppy to walk around in. I didn't play the early version of the demo so I can't say if it's less laggy than it was before, but it's definitely noticeable.
2) I stumbled upon a game-crashing bug on accident and have been able to deliberately replicate it. The error message is "Script 'Window_Selectable' line 61: ZeroDivisionError occurred. divided by 0". This happened, rather appropriately, when I got a green exclamation point above my head, talked to the Information Guy screen which explains red and green exclamation points before going into battle, and then I crashed immediately after the battle ended. To clarify the order of events was: Got a green exclamation point --> interacted with screen --> battle occurred after dialogue --> crashed after battle instead of transitioning back to the map. It doesn't seem possible to interact with the screen if I get a red exclamation point instead of a green one (I'm guessing you can't perform interactions in general with a red exclamation point). Oddly enough, I seem to only be able to replicate this crash with the Information Guy screen as I tried replicating it with Mr. Beaver and with a toy chest and in both cases the interaction dialogue didn't pop up until after the battle.
Also, I have a suggestion which isn't bug-related. Even if it means breaking the fourth wall a bit, I think it is really important to put in a line or two of mandatory dialogue which informs players that fountains can heal you and that you can save from the menu (this latter part is a bit less important because a dialogue box already pops up at the start to state that X opens the menu, but more explicit dialogue can encourage players to open that menu to create a save file as soon as possible). The fountain dialogue is essential though because you are otherwise going to likely get complaints from players who fought the slime and then used up their healing items or rushed straight into Cloudy Hill without healing at all. Most players who are experienced with RPG's will likely figure out what the purpose of the fountain is, but a significant chunk of players in a wider, commercial audience will probably either miss interacting with it entirely or will not make the connection that the blue flash and the pleasant sound effect is an indication that they've been healed.
EDIT: I just stumbled into the same error again when talking to Mr. Marvelous for the first time while I had a green exclamation point above my head so I guess it's not just limited to the Information Guy screen after all.
Ver 1.5 update planned - some changes...
It's coming in a bit late, but I'd personally prefer having the option to simply choose to start at the midpoint if I want to from the stage select screen for any cleared stage. I'm not sure if that would interfere with the Mega Man Killers if you implemented the MMX2-style stage movement for them, so it might be beneficial to disable the midpoint warp on a stage if a Killer is currently on it.
Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass
As far as having a demo goes, it really likely won't help much (though it could if you get lucky), but as this is a commercial game it means you'll likely want to try to reach out to a wider audience than the existing RPG Maker community and any little advantage helps and all of those 'little' advantages can really add up after a while.
I can think of three main advantages which a demo provides for you and your game. First, and likely most importantly, it's one more way for people interested in your game to share it with others, in this case via streaming and video recording; each person who shares your game in one way or another is essentially creating an opportunity for others to in turn learn about and share your game. Secondly, while it is by no means a guarantee, having a working demo serves as a factor in enticing websites to write articles about your game. Finally, if you plan to list your game on some of the more competitive services, such as on Steam via Steam Greenlight, having a functional demo can very much mean the difference between someone following and/or ranking up your game versus passing it up for something else the moment they see it doesn't have a demo.
To be clear, if, after thinking it over, you feel like your game isn't ready for a demo or if you don't feel like a shorter demo could properly convey the overall atmosphere, pace, and mechanics of the game then you shouldn't feel obligated to make one; a demo in many ways serves as a first impression and a poor demo could do more harm than having no demo at all.
That being said, you definitely would want to start working on creating a trailer of some sort, even a shorter, largely ambiguous one, as soon as you can even if you decide to hold off until later on in development to release a demo (or even if you decide to not release a demo at all).
I can think of three main advantages which a demo provides for you and your game. First, and likely most importantly, it's one more way for people interested in your game to share it with others, in this case via streaming and video recording; each person who shares your game in one way or another is essentially creating an opportunity for others to in turn learn about and share your game. Secondly, while it is by no means a guarantee, having a working demo serves as a factor in enticing websites to write articles about your game. Finally, if you plan to list your game on some of the more competitive services, such as on Steam via Steam Greenlight, having a functional demo can very much mean the difference between someone following and/or ranking up your game versus passing it up for something else the moment they see it doesn't have a demo.
To be clear, if, after thinking it over, you feel like your game isn't ready for a demo or if you don't feel like a shorter demo could properly convey the overall atmosphere, pace, and mechanics of the game then you shouldn't feel obligated to make one; a demo in many ways serves as a first impression and a poor demo could do more harm than having no demo at all.
That being said, you definitely would want to start working on creating a trailer of some sort, even a shorter, largely ambiguous one, as soon as you can even if you decide to hold off until later on in development to release a demo (or even if you decide to not release a demo at all).
Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass
author=Housekeeping
It'll be a while, but I've been considering getting a demo up maybe a few months before launch. I'm not sure about how to time stuff like that, but I figure I should probably keep it fairly close to launch so that it stays in the public consciousness.
This might sound odd, but have you considered putting out two different types of demos at different times?
Putting out a very, very short 'vertical slice' type of demo while the game is still early on in development tends to be a good way to get more people talking about and following your game for a longer period of time, which can help with generating hype (which usually won't deteriorate as long as you post updates on your progress fairly regularly) and, perhaps more importantly, get you some valuable feedback at a point in development where it's still relatively easy to make changes. Such a demo could be an actual bit of the game, but it could also be a prequel, and unrelated sidestory, or something completely random - the important thing about this would be to directly expose an audience to the game's sense of atmosphere, tone, and general flow (so basically have at least 1 or 2 battles, some dialogue, and at least 1 music track).
After that, you could always put out a slightly more significant demo once the game is close to being in a more finished state to reignite hype and to catch the attention of some more people.
The game is released! Nov 27, 2014.
I downloaded and tried out the newest version of the game today and I wanted to say that I'm definitely liking it so far (I've defeated four robot masters and have at least visited every stage at the moment). The many multiple paths through levels give it a unique flavor, the bosses are interesting (though Pharaoh Man seemed way too easy compared to the other ones), and the longer-than-usual stages are balanced well by the inclusion of permanent checkpoints at midpoint and boss gates.
I did run across a few glitches in my playthrough though (sorry if any of these specific ones were already listed somewhere):
1) Horizontal beams of magma in Magma Man's stage will not hurt Mega Man if you are standing completely still.
2) You can climb down the ladder to the room Eddie is in in Centaur Man's stage and, if you do this, Eddie will walk to the left and get stuck walking into the wall forever (I am not sure if this can occur in any other stage).
3) In Star Man's stage there are long platforms which move up and down inside of spike corridors and if Mega Man is standing still and one of them hits him against a ceiling spike Mega Man won't die to the spike and will instead fall through the platform.
I did run across a few glitches in my playthrough though (sorry if any of these specific ones were already listed somewhere):
1) Horizontal beams of magma in Magma Man's stage will not hurt Mega Man if you are standing completely still.
2) You can climb down the ladder to the room Eddie is in in Centaur Man's stage and, if you do this, Eddie will walk to the left and get stuck walking into the wall forever (I am not sure if this can occur in any other stage).
3) In Star Man's stage there are long platforms which move up and down inside of spike corridors and if Mega Man is standing still and one of them hits him against a ceiling spike Mega Man won't die to the spike and will instead fall through the platform.
Pixel Oscar 2: Mask of Nightmares
So, I've been playing this game a little bit, but after defeating the first boss of the game (the two birds) it immediately crashes with the error of "Script 'Cache' line 80: RGSSError occurred. failed to create bitmap".
On another note, you might want to consider linking the game download with the standard download page and not only as a link in the game description since, even though you've marked the game as 'complete', some people may see that it has '0 total downloads' and simply pass over it while assuming that a download isn't actually available.
On another note, you might want to consider linking the game download with the standard download page and not only as a link in the game description since, even though you've marked the game as 'complete', some people may see that it has '0 total downloads' and simply pass over it while assuming that a download isn't actually available.
M.O.G. Graphics
I decided to try making a simplistic Window Skin last night to better fit with the look of 'older' graphics, though I'm not at all sure if I did it correctly even after looking at several tutorials and help files (I tested it out and it seemed functional, but I likely missed something) so if anyone sees anything wrong with its structure I'd really appreciate some feedback:
I wanted to go for a 'window within a window' look to keep it from being completely bland, but I think I probably overdid it.
I also took a screenshot of it being used in combat and used the opportunity to more clearly explain a bit of a problem I have with my sprites (there's quite a bit of text hidden here):
I decided to use this screenshot to illustrate a size issue I've been having when it comes to detail. In this example, the sprite on the far left is the way Mr Them looks in VX Ace, the sprite to the right of that is what happens when I apply a common 2-row dithering pattern, and the stack of three smaller sprites to the right of that is the actual size I'm working with before using Pyxel Edit to convert it into a PNG file 3-10x the original size (in this case I felt like 7x was the best size).
Mr Them is one of the larger enemy sprites I made and still fits into a 32x32 pixel frame and is actually very slightly smaller in size than the standard Final Fantasy 1 imp to his right and significantly smaller than the 'resized for VX Ace' version of my smallest enemy, the Gum Droplet to the right (and the original size in the bottom-right corner is significantly smaller than this).
Basically, all of this is to say that I'm not really sure of how to go about adding additional detail to these sprites since even a basic dithering effect applied to the original sprite ends up just looking like the checkerboard pattern that it is on the larger versions rather than giving the illusion of additional color variety.
So, should I try to add details like dithering after increasing the size, should I just work with a larger canvas size to begin with (though I am terrible at shading around imagined light sources), or should I try something else entirely or a combination of things when it comes to adding detail?
Also, somewhat off-topic, but I don't really want to apply filters as a solution to detail, in part because it feels like it contributes even more to the inevitable paradox of adding more layers of artificiality in order to achieve perceived authenticity and in large part because I personally just don't like how a lot of 'retro filters' I've seen in games look as I feel like they often go too far (ex: I played plenty of games on CRT TV's, but I inevitably end up completely turning off or minimizing scanline and 'screen bending' effects whenever I can in games like Another Star and You Have to Win the Game).
I wanted to go for a 'window within a window' look to keep it from being completely bland, but I think I probably overdid it.
I also took a screenshot of it being used in combat and used the opportunity to more clearly explain a bit of a problem I have with my sprites (there's quite a bit of text hidden here):
I decided to use this screenshot to illustrate a size issue I've been having when it comes to detail. In this example, the sprite on the far left is the way Mr Them looks in VX Ace, the sprite to the right of that is what happens when I apply a common 2-row dithering pattern, and the stack of three smaller sprites to the right of that is the actual size I'm working with before using Pyxel Edit to convert it into a PNG file 3-10x the original size (in this case I felt like 7x was the best size).
Mr Them is one of the larger enemy sprites I made and still fits into a 32x32 pixel frame and is actually very slightly smaller in size than the standard Final Fantasy 1 imp to his right and significantly smaller than the 'resized for VX Ace' version of my smallest enemy, the Gum Droplet to the right (and the original size in the bottom-right corner is significantly smaller than this).
Basically, all of this is to say that I'm not really sure of how to go about adding additional detail to these sprites since even a basic dithering effect applied to the original sprite ends up just looking like the checkerboard pattern that it is on the larger versions rather than giving the illusion of additional color variety.
So, should I try to add details like dithering after increasing the size, should I just work with a larger canvas size to begin with (though I am terrible at shading around imagined light sources), or should I try something else entirely or a combination of things when it comes to adding detail?
Also, somewhat off-topic, but I don't really want to apply filters as a solution to detail, in part because it feels like it contributes even more to the inevitable paradox of adding more layers of artificiality in order to achieve perceived authenticity and in large part because I personally just don't like how a lot of 'retro filters' I've seen in games look as I feel like they often go too far (ex: I played plenty of games on CRT TV's, but I inevitably end up completely turning off or minimizing scanline and 'screen bending' effects whenever I can in games like Another Star and You Have to Win the Game).
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