HIMA'S PROFILE

Not sure if my strategy is good or not. I still can't kill the boss, but I survived to his last phase.

Party: Harpy, Kappa, Isonade, Rock

1st Turn
Harpy : Shield
Kappa : Aura
Isonade : Heat shield
Roc : Cold Shield

2nd Turn
Harpy : Weak
Kappa : Aura
Isonade : Novice Guard
Roc : Aura

Starting from 2nd turn, he'll announce what elemental breath he'll use to attack you. Harpy is always act first, so you should prepare the other two elements on the first turn, and let Harpy cast the last elemental shield during the second or third turn.

Other than that it's a matter of heal and guard. Kappa always act last so I raise his will and let him use Aura so at the end of the turn, everybody will have enough HP to survive the next turn.

My complain with this battle is, it seems a bit too random. Especially with the Attack, Attack, Wild Fang, Attack. I dont' feel like I survived because of strategy, but more from luck. If the attack is less random, I think it would be more interesting. Currently, the first turn you have to pray nobody got attack twice, or they'll either die or too low in HP, and they'll die later on because you don't have much chance to heal them.

Also, there really should be a save spot that is closer to the boss point more than it currently is. I have to walk three screens everytime I want to challenge him, and some time Kobold respawn and I have to waste more time on it. I don't think this add anything to the game's difficulty, considering your state when you can fight Ceberus. It feels like fake difficulty to me and only waste player's time.

Still love this game though. I wonder if level 23 is too low to fight him? :/

I haven't played the game but I watched Strangeluv's video and was disappointed with how transgenders are treated in the game. 30 minutes into the game and we have yet to see any diversity in women(beside fat and hot body), while there are various types of male in the game.

I like the battle system, although I think it's limited by RM2003. It would have been nice if it isn't ATB battle system but something that is more of a turn base. Rest is also very funny and out of place. I mean, sleeping through sex to gain stamina!? Focusing or trying to control your orgasm to regain stamina might be a better choice, I think.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1465600975/echoes-of-eternia-a-modern-take-on-a-classic-desig/posts

From their updates, they no longer use RPG Maker anymore, and money are now spent on original artworks for the game.

@Luthan
I agree with you up until you call TFT jealous. I don't think she's jealous at all. I think she's just upset that these games got or almost got the monetary reward she doesn't think they deserve.

@Ghost
I don't think setting a goal at 20k and let people decide whether it's reasonable or not, can be compared to EA putting game dev studios out of business.
I'm not sure what to response to other points you've mentioned, since I think I've already addressed those in my previous post.

@Kentona
For me, I don't see a problem with that. I think the amount of time the creator spent on the game has as much or even more value than the assets they use. You are the one who put all these resources together and create something that I like. And if I think your time worth compensation, then why not?

I'm glad that at least you allow accepting donation. I understand that hosting commercial game is another story and would bring a big change to the site.

However, I don't want the site to ban games that use crowd funding, based on the crowd funding part alone. While I understand that the impression of a game with crowd funding seems to be like a pre-order of a game that doesn't exist yet, there are games that will be released for free, but need some support to get start as well.

It would be nice if the commercial aspect of the game is decided based on how can one can play the game legally. If the game is going to be free, it should be allowed on the site regardless of how it gets money to fund the project.

author=Emirpoen
TFT = Twin Fox Tails

Also, if this article is evil ( I personally think its a world of good), then it is an evil of utmost necessity.

I don't think this article is evil, more like missing the points. Other than what I've said already in the previous post, I'd like to point out some problems I have with this rant.

1.) Using RPG Maker/or not putting 'enough' effort into making a game
I think Sophie answer this better than I do. http://www.sophiehoulden.com/stop-being-such-an-asshole-to-people-who-dont-start-from-scratch/

2.) Using free resources = steal others people work = game is automatically shitty
This is not true at all. Using free resources is not 'stealing'. It's freely available and if it gets the job done, why not? Just because someone's using free assets doesn't mean there is no effort involve in putting them together into a game. Whether this worth somebody's money or not is, again, subjective.

3.) Letting player designing quests/character = Make games for me.
That's one way to look at it, but you're missing a more important point here. It's personalization. This is what cannot be copied and people are willing to pay for. People value something that feels personal to them. To ditch it off as 'working for the developer' is missing a great opportunity here.

It isn't just them that are doing this. If you look at other big games or higher quality games in Kick Starter project, you'll see that there are projects that offer something similar. Have you heard of a Flash game called "I Wish I Were the Moon"? The creator let you replace characters in the game with your characters for $2,000! Of course, to some people, this is insane. Yet, somebody bought it. Apparently, it's worth it in that person's opinion.

As for the part about giving $5 to some games in here, I totally agree. Actually, it would be nice if RMN provides a donation button or something for each project or each developer. It could link to their paypal account or whatever. I'm pretty sure there are people who want to donate, but never thought about it if they aren't reminded.

author=Ciel

author=hima
Regardless, being diligent or lazy has nothing to do with whether you'll make money or not.

That's something profoundly sad and needs to be changed. For it to be changed it is necessary to speak out when individuals completely lacking in virtue are disproportionately rewarded.

Never underestimate the general public's ignorance. While these 'developers' who receive incredible sums of money by clicking New Project and uploading screenshots four minutes later openly state that they are using RPG Maker, many of their patrons don't know what that entails. They don't know what RTP is, or what the engine is. They just see a classic RPG woah and immediately raid dad's wallet. After the video demonstrating exactly how the content in Unemployment Quest was 'produced', the general opinion on the game's official trailer seemed to shift drastically.

What these people are doing feels disingenuous to me. It's awful and lazy and TFT was more than right to speak out against it. Some people might like to drop several grand on a project created in five minutes, and I guess that's a 'valid' piece of the game consumer market. But there's another side that demands more, and that part of the market has to make its voice heard too if quality content is ever going to be produced.

I think this is the same scenario as Aveyond. When it came out, people were complaining about how it was using RTP and it shouldn't charge money. Turns out one of my friends who know a lot about RM still enjoy it regardless of its use of RTP. She love it so much that she wrote a walkthrough in Thai! It's true that you shouldn't underestimate general public's ignorance, but we shouldn't overestimate it either.

Secondly, I think you give monetary reward too much credit here. People create high quality games even without monetary reward! Cave Story, Spelunky, Last Scenario, Alter A.I.L.A, Princess Princess, Heartache, Clock of Atonement, ... the list goes on and on.

There are many people here that created quality games without charging or even asking for money. I would love to reward many people here with money, but you'd notice that they never ask for it. Most people here don't even show you a way to support them with money. Somehow, getting money from what they've created become a bad thing or never cross their mind. If you want monetary reward, then make it easy for people to help you or reward you. These guys in the article did, and that's what they got.

Getting paid from what you do isn't a bad thing. And even if your games are free, it doesn't mean someone can't show you how much they love your game with monetary reward. We need to stop thinking that getting money from our game is evil or we don't deserve the money. People pay because they like what you're doing.

Also, it seems like there are people who enjoy Unemployment Quest : http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/412101570/unemployment-quest-a-non-epic-rpg/comments

author=GZ
I agree with Hima that a lot more people should be looking for ways to fund their projects -- to compete with these projects and find support -- but I don't agree that projects like Echoes of Eternia are a good thing when talking about Kickstarter.

In a scenario where more people are asking for funding, projects like EoE will win backers over because they promise ridiculous features like 30+ hours of gameplay, voice acting, high quality art, complex battle systems, and anything else that will get people to back it. Ask yourself, what are these backers going to think if the game never comes out or doesn't meet any where near it's sky high expectations? At the very least, I can't imagine it will inspire them to back more projects, especially ones with realistic goals and budgets. This doesn't help more legitimate developers at all.

That's because on Kickstarter you are selling an idea, not a game. Can any indie developer really promise what EoE wants to be? They are essentially promising a PS1 era RPG made by a team of people who have never made games before. There are no downsides to promising the world to backers, and it's been proven to work time and time again.

I agree that not finishing a project after it gets its funding is a terrible thing. Unfortunately, this happens more often in non-epic rm games, from what I've seen.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/keric/cracked-a-puzzle-adventure-game-for-touchscreen-de/comments
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thesingularity/freeq-an-interactive-radio-drama-indie-video-game
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rinkuhero/saturated-dreamers-igf-fee-and-misceallenous-deve-0
The first two games are already abandoned, regardless of how much customizations or progress they've shown. Saturated Dreamers is still in progress.

I agree though, that if a project is abandoned after it gets its fund, it will only be bad for Kickstarter. Still, there is nothing you can do right now. It's up to the backers to study and do some research on the creator before they invest in the project.

Currently, this doesn't seem to be a problem with Kickstarter. You'll see that there are many projects get its fund, so the ratio of complete/fail project must still be in the acceptable range.

This point reminds me another problem with this article. It lumps EoE into the same category as Unemployment Quest, which is a finished product. If you are going to talk about an ambitious project getting money from backer and never plan to finish it, that is fine and I agree that this is a bad thing. I can't say anything regarding this point right now because I don't know the creator and their previous works well enough to make any judgement.

Also, I think it would be fair if you stated the money these projects asked and their statuses.
1.) Vacant Sky : Asked 20k, Got 10k, failed.
2.) Unemployment Quest : Asked 1k, Got 10k, succeeded.
3.) EoE : Asked 10k, Got 40k, succeeded.

One failed. One didn't ask that much and luckily got overfunded. Only one project that is questionable. This doesn't seem to represent a strong case. Look at other game projects in Kickstarter, you will see various non RPGMaker got funded as well.