GIAKS'S PROFILE

Ruri was not particularly liked. I'm not sure what to make of that. See, I get into a certain mind-set when writing for Ruri. She practically writes herself! Her antics are supposed to be for comedy relief more than anything else, but the judges were annoyed by her. That would mean that other people would be annoyed by her too. To be honest, I just don't know what to do.

The sequence where the characters introduce themselves. Er, yeah, I should probably break that up somehow. Maybe instead of everybody introducing themselves all at once, maybe just talking to each class member normally on the "first day" would be sufficient? I'm really not sure what my other options are.

personally I feel these two issues are connected. the first school scene in the game, a lot of characters are introduced and only a few lines of dialog are given to each of them as to not bog the player down with text. I think you did great in the execution of this, however the player has a hard time absorbing so much information at once. if rather than introducing everyone in the first class room scene you spread it out, I feel like it would not only make it easier for the player to absorb information, it would also allow ruri to bloom as a likeable character. as the developer you have a far more intimate relationship with these characters then the players do(at least at this point in the game). in the first scene, you are introducing ruri...you may also want to introduce ruri's "opposite". it doesn't have a be the main villain, and in fact ruri's "opposite" could even be someone who ends up joining the team. the idea behind this is that you want to introduce the main character and introduce a character the player doesn't like. cause in school, it's all about who you like and who you don't like. with less people to introduce you can expand a little bit more on dialog, this would help build the personality of both characters and establish a connection between the player and ruri. when ruri sits down maybe introduce another character, we'll call them the "sidekick". this character is there to support ruri, and be somewhat of a guide through high school. they can be used as a device to introduce other characters, give the player important information without making it seemed forced...etc.
As you introduce your characters pick locations that are suited to each characters personality type. for example if you have a athletic character who easy going you could introduce them outside at a track field, if you have a athletic character who is very competitive or egotistical, maybe introduce them inside in a gym type setting. when introducing a character who is a "trouble maker" you could introduce them outside the headmasters office...etc. environment provides a good atmosphere to help introduce characters. lastly when introducing a character, don't be afraid to just tell the player the characters key personality trait(the sidekick is a great device for this). for example...depending on your scene your dialog may look like "This is Adam, he loves math." or "This is Hendricks, he's a trouble maker." lines like this allow the player to instantly apply a stereotype the characters, and as your game continues you can build, and shape that character from that foundation.

The school looking more like a dungeon. I suppose I could replace the more broken-down tiles with normal ones. I guess it just didn't seem right to have all the same tile for the floor even though a mono-tile floor is what I did in Matsumori Days.
The "forest park". I might have been rushing myself on these maps. I figure I can replace the trees with a different kind of tree, and the blank tiles with grass tiles to make things feel more open. Any other suggestions for improvement are welcome

I myself built a classroom map, as to experience the RTP side of mapping a classroom. I have ideas on this as well as, forest and hospital mapping that I would enjoy sharing with you privately if you are interested.

it would appear i mish'd a couple of spots for the shading.

The path to the bard is clear of random encounters. if you take the first path down(the path that you see tobias walking after the arena scene) once the escape scene starts, once you get the bard you can heal with him...i probably should have blocked off the other path to drive the players down that way first...it wasn't very well thought out :( since no matter if you win or lose in the arena you'll probably need to heal straight away.

man, that's the truth...but yeah churches should have an empty feeling i suppose, i never really thought about it like that. the sprites broke up the space a little bit too so that helped.

Hey thanks Caz, over all i feel like the map is a little empty...tho the shelves did seem to lend themselves nicely as pews. :)