THERPGMAKERADDICT'S PROFILE

author=akoniti
Thank you so much for taking the time to play through (twice), and for leaving such a detailed review.

YOU ROCK! ha ha :)

Thankkkks let's start!

author=akoniti
I'm elated to hear that you loved the setting, idea, music, gameplay, and choices.

I will carefully consider each of your criticisms, and they will surely help make future versions better.

Oh yeah, you can also make also a sequel maybe... or a prequel, why not?

author=akoniti
To address a few specific points:

- Mapping:

Absolutely. They are far from amazing. I'll admit that Sandstone was denied based on map quality alone when I first submitted it here last year, so a lot of additional work has gone into them since, and I will continue to improve this in new versions.

Could you clarify which trees you were able to walk through? Just in case it's the one in Sowthin (Act 3 town) just past the Skystone, this is actually a climbable tree that leads to an encounter.

Oh I have to check that encounter!

No, I meant the one in the first village at the back... uhm maybe more shrubs than trees, they let you climb the area on the north but there is no use to go there... I think.
Then in the abandoned village there are also some bushes you can walk over and some you cannot but they look identical...

author=akoniti
- Getting stuck if you run out of resources:

This is an intentional possibility, though I apologize that it may have proven anti-fun for you. My primary objective is to provide players with a fun adventure. You described it perfectly with, "this is not a classical rpg, but an action adventure game and in a certain sense also a puzzle". Resource management is a huge part of the puzzle element; without it, there would be little challenge. I'm hopeful that being able to save (almost) anywhere will help balance the difficulty as you pointed out. I did add quite a few resources to reward exploration and reduce difficulty in v2.

And yeah, if you missed the island, it becomes very difficult to smash your way to the end! I'll note that the slime near Nortpost does mention there being three islands, but his slime-rhyme could be easily missed or not understood.

EDIT: Thanks to your description, I see that Puzzle is a better third choice than RPG in my genre tags. There are RPG elements, but they're a small part of a giant puzzle.

Naaah it's not anti-fun, just difficult to understand IF I can still win or not and this causes some confusion (since I am not sure sometimes I reloaded after trying every solution possible)... but yeah, it it's the way in which the game works, it's ok no problem!

author=akoniti
- Losing HP when you try to smash a stone without enough HP:

You're correct on this one, it does happen. It's intentional- my reasoning is that your hands get battered whether they can break it or not, but avoiding this does take careful observation of how many Handpoints each type of stone takes, and an eye on your remaining points (another part of the puzzle, if you will). I certainly don't want to be mean to players, but this makes logical sense and fits the brutal land aesthetic so will likely remain.

Uhmm yes, so healing before running out of points is worthwile, I guess!

author=akoniti
- More characters, stories, and events:

For sure! Sandstone will always be a short game, I'm not shooting for a 20-30 hour play, but I'd like to eventually get it to a solid 2-3 hours of playtime which calls for a richer world.

Another one of my key objectives is ensuring that there are no gamebreaking bugs, so expansion is admittedly slow and methodical to ensure I can test the hell out of each addition before it's released.

Oh yeah I meant also "decorative" ncps with just one sentence, just to make the maps (of the towns especially, but also adding lore or something more about elves and grubblings that appear in just one location each and no more!) feel more natural, deep and less empty, without changing the nature of the game.

author=akoniti
- Herbalists crafting all of your shrubs into Balms:

Great point! I actually changed this from a one-at-a-time approach to a bulk processing approach in v2 to make it more convenient for players. Your feedback helped me see the flaw in this (being forced to go all-in on the expensive vendor), so I'll update this in the future so that you have more control over how many are processed, leaving the option to process all if you wish to fly through it.

Big thanks again for your time and notes!

Oh yeah, clearly if the price was the same there would not have been any problem, buttttt... the second time I went there with just enough for one balm and I was able to finish the game!

Anyway yes, there is something to improve, but overall it was fun!

Awesome, this is an editing process I used to do myself. Mugen is a great resource, but I also used OpenBor (you just need the 'pakexplode' to open the project and you will have each frame of each character ready! And also the backgrounds, items and extras!) that more or less used the same resources.

The final result here is great!

author=Zorga
Everyone will agree that the best improvement between the two pictures is the departure of the rooster.

Considering how much I hated that little devilish creature, I'd agree!

Looks so cool... BUUUT I guess I will wait the expanded version before trying it! :D hope to try it soon!

author=Zorga
It's not a problem? There's improvement, but it's still not very... I'm not sure, actually. It looks empty, but at the same time it makes important characters stand out. I would like to keep that aspect, while still adressing the fact that they're plain eerie. I'll find a compromise eventually °_°.
Also, I didn't realize you could edit your reviews, but it only makes sense.

Not a problem, more a stylistic choice, so it's ok makes sense. I mean I had absolutely no problem with this in the other series, Repent Loci, that uses this same feature... dunno maybe in that game it was more appropriate due to the dark/surreal setting. But I don't mind, I mean I speak from an outsider point of view, imagining other players perception, but I may be wrong of course!

Oh yeah I sometimes edited when there were changes or more often to correct typos!

author=Zorga
So, about the lack of manipulation minigames: with Sweet Mid, the general idea is that I try to have a "gameplay" flavor for each game. They're all the same genre, but each has its experiments y'know. Once again, tribute to the fact I'm learning RM. So I can't tell you if they'll be back or not, and in what manner. Just maybe, depends on my upcoming ideas.

I dunno, the fact that here we return to cooking dishes is something that happened several time during the series, exactly like the pushing/pulling people around, so I expected a return of those activities too (seeing also the mentioning to the gate removal part of the 2nd episode)! But yeah I got the investigation that was something new so it was even better!

author=Zorga
Spoiler dodging xD nah, I'm pretty sure the "mourning" part during the conclusion was on purpose. Vincent dit mourn the events. It's a sweet series, but I need to wrestle with the characters to make them grow, after all =D well, you'll get more of that in the next game actually. So, indeed, see you there.

Uhm maybe, english is NOT my native language and yeah I may have also misread that. Nice, now I am looking forward the next one!