JSTOMP'S PROFILE

If you are trying to get your game on Steam, please keep in mind you don't just simply upload a game and sell it. It has to be greenlit and approved before you can even think about selling it there.

author=WheelmanZero
Hey, I'm all about feedback bro! Thanks for your time and have fun.

No problem, man! I'm back with some feedback after spending some time with your game last night.

First and foremost, I want to say the writing is great. You do a really good job with story direction and character development. The scenes were incredibly well done and scripted. There were a few typos, but I'm sure you'll have those ironed out by the final release, so no biggie.

Plus, playing as a boss during the prologue was really unique and the opening battle scene was very engaging. Great use of graphics, music, and special effects. The combination was pro. One of the best I've seen in an RPG Maker game to be quite honest and it immediately hooked me. A+ on a job well done there.

But, now what I didn't like.

The biggest drawback was the sheer, crazy amount of story and text. It felt really overwhelming. You should probably cut a lot of it to make the game more of a game, and less of an interactive story. In the first 30 minutes I played, it was like 25 minutes of story and reading text and about 5 minutes of interactivity. Way overkill.

You have a lot of great ideas going here and the battles are amazingly well done with some interesting and fun abilities, but the sheer amount of needless story and having to read ALL that text really started to turn me off.

I understood what Pandora and Raganrok are all about, so I didn't like reading their constant back-and-forth banter. Let us fight in those amazing battles you've crafted and explore more of that great world you created without so much needless repetitive text.

I know you said it's story and cutscene heavy, but it is really overkill if you want my honest opinion as a player. I played about an hour and 45 min of that was scrolling through dialogue.

I'd like to play it more, and read it less. You got some unique ideas going here so definitely a game I'll be keeping an eye on.

As a player of many popular MMORPGs, there's nothing worse than sweeping changes which completely render a playstyle useless.

Do it slowly over time. Slowly nerf abilities and test how it affects gameplay. You can turn knobs slowly.

Most devs just completely go full overkill mode to squash a playstyle and that's nothing but frustration for players.

So, to answer your question as to how to keep players from getting pissy over it... do it slowly over time so it's barely even noticeable.

Let the player play the story rather than watching or reading it too much. There's nothing worse than a heavy-handed cutscene or immersing someone in lore before they can even play the game.

Games that tend to overdo cutscenes or try to do too much "name dropping" before I can even do anything on my own tend to turn me off.

Long introductions for a story I'm not even involved in yet is a huge factor in me quitting the game before it ever truly begins. A short intro is fine, and often needed to set the story, just don't go overboard with it.

We play games to play games.

Working on my first RPG Maker VX Ace game.

It's an adventure game with a huge focus on story. My biggest influences are the Silent Hill games and all the classic Lucasarts point-and-click adventure games (Monkey Island, Zack McKracken, Maniac Mansion, Loom, etc).

It's a game I've been thinking about and planning for years, but I just started actually building it in the last few months.

I want it to be 100% unique. Therefore, I am doing all the tilesets and art myself so it is taking quite a while, but I can't wait to release it! Aiming for a playable demo by November 2016, so still about 6 months out. Giving myself plenty of time to really make it shine.

It's definitely a lot of work! But I love every minute of it.