Topic: Try my RPGdemo anyone? [Feel free to lock this]

[Mouth for war]

Well this IS technically a game in production but I have no story yet and I have no idea how this will end up so I thought I'd post it here for some feedback...It's a 1 quest demo which includes a fight as well.I'm not the creater of these graphics...but are permitted to use them...Just sayin' Oh well...hope you'll find it somewhat entertaining. It's going to be more questbased/nonlinear hopefully! I hope there are no fatal bugs, but I've been testing it quite carefully so there shouldn't be any. Oh and the demo won't end by itself so when you've done the quest just shut the damn thing down hehe!

[EDIT] You CAN exit the north path when you're outside but I just realised that the menu might be in a bad place so if you find it hard just walk with the arrowkeys instead! one thing to fix!!!


http://shutupload.com/user/f83440bac882f2f3637e6a08020ea200

[Frito Master]

I'll try in a bit and tell you what I think.

[Mouth for war]

Thanks! It's short so you should be able to play it through in a couple of minutes!

[Khris]

I gave this a try and got stuck in the fight. I could click the attack button but nothing happened. Clicking the item button opened the inventory and I could select an item but using it on something had no effect either. And turning the mouse wheel in one direction did change the cursor while turning it the other way had no effect. I had to Alt-X out of the game.

Regarding the rest this doesn't look bad so far, the speech font isn't very readable though and clicking something is clumsy due to the big cursor sprites without clear hotspots.
The graphics are OK but much to colorful for my liking, looking at them for longer periods of time would make my eyes hurt.

[Mouth for war]

press attack then press on the monster

[DoorKnobHandle]

You had to click Attack and then on the Rat, it had me stumped for a while too!

Yeah, it's not a bad start. Music was very repetitive but I liked the battle transition! It needs a leveling/skill system to really be an RPG of course! The interface could be less Sierra-like and more RPG-like as well! Oh and the quests need to be more interesting, collect 10 apples is not very creative! Find an objective that also tells us about the characters instead for example!

[Mouth for war]

Yes that was just a "getting to know the game" kind of quest. There will be much more interesting stuff to do later on of course...you CAN kill your wife also if you didn't try that already. Pointless to do in the demo though haha

[Khris]

I see.
That's bad though, why would I have to click a button that does nothing (the player can see) before being able to click the enemy? As far as the player is concerned, the game is already in attack mode, with the mouse cursor being the interact hand.

Also, moving to the enemy and back and watching their attacks takes way too long. If I hadn't finished the rat with the third attack I'd probably have Alt-Xed out again...
I admittedly don't have any patience for things like that, but it's still a bit tedious. Stuff like that, especially stuff that repetitive, must be really fast or possible to skip.

Excuse the harshness of my comments, but I think that gameplay flaws such as those must be ironed out from the start, ideally during the alpha test

[Mouth for war]

Well I just made it that way if there's going to be more than one thing to attack! But you're right...there's no need for that...pressing the enemy directly is of course better. And the walking thing is maybe a little pointless too...they could be facing each other up front so you only have to see the attackanimation! Exactly these things I need to hear Khris so no need for excuses

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Pretty neat.  Are you building these areas outside of ags or with some kind of tile editor?  Aside from the issues mentioned with combat and the cursors I'd say to have the journal hide unless you press a key, and you'd probably want to add a mini-map or something like that.

[Mouth for war]

Thanks! Actually I'm using the good ol' "The games factory" to build the backgrounds. Yeah that journal annoys me...no matter where I put it it's always in the way of something hehe. Oh well...The iconbar is gone and the cursors are now much smaller...So...I've begun correcting stuff. Yeah a minimap is not a bad idea!

[.M.M.]

Interesting, I liked the graphics. My suggestions: change the speech font, it is hard to read it and it hurts my eyes (am I the only one?). Also, you don't have to use that much cursors, even one would be enough - when there's nothing, the character walks there, otherwise he interacts with the hotspot.

[Mouth for war]

Yeah the iconbar and cursors are now gone! left mouse does all walking/interacting and right mouse toggles between inventory item and walking/interacting...also if you can't use an inventory item on a certain object/hotspot, the inventory cursor simply disappears so it will be understood directly that you'll never be able to use an inventory item on that object. Thought that could save some time for the player as well. Yeah I guess I'll change the speechfont then!

[EDIT] Oh Khris I also added a slider on the battle gui so now you can set the game speed up to 300...that should get you through the fights pretty quick if you have low patience

[Mouth for war]

Soooo...I'm uploading a new version of the demo for you to try. This time you can also walk down on the southern path to access a new area + a new house so be sure to go there y'all!! I hope you'll take the time to try this and find it to be a much better experience

http://shutupload.com/user/f83440bac882f2f3637e6a08020ea200

[Mouth for war]

didn't anyone try the new version? I need input, people!!!! hehe

[.M.M.]

I wanted to download it, but the servers are down...

[Mouth for war]

Oh? I tried to download it just now without problems

[kconan]

I played it a bit.

Good stuff:

• That set of graphics you are using is fine for this style of game.

• I like the simplicity of the non-battle controls.

• Great base or foundation for building a small RPG.

Other stuff:

• I didn't like not being able to search Owen's body from the start.

• I know its an intro/test quest, but apples should be in places that make sense.

• Changeup the foliage and other landscape scenery with little minor variations so you don't see the same plant and tree every 20 steps.

• This is minor since the game is alpha or beta, but there are a few grammar issues.  For example "catched" instead of "caught".

• Turn-based combat is fine, but the walking back-and-forth and with the Hero and Chucky Cheese taking swipes at each other is goofy.  And if you are going with this kind of combat, add more attack/defend options along with animations.

• William should have a brief animation of casting to and eventually hooking the apple, and if you want to add humor, he dramatically fights the apple like its a big fish.  Or something eats the apple and he fights that, feels bad, and gives one of his from a private stock along with the big fish.

• I thought the Chucky Cheese was hugging William at first, which actually had me laughing so maybe leave it

• Lots of over explaining...For example: "The windmill has been here since..." and "The health potion heals you 50 HP".  Keep that stuff concise and focus dialogue on plot and subplots.

[Mouth for war]

Thanks for the input But I've abandoned this...at least for now. I switched over to RPG maker Vx Ace instead. It wasn't a piece of cake doing a good battlesystem in AGS (not for a crappy coder like myself anyway haha)

[Arj0n]

But I've abandoned this...at least for now.

Apple quest is abandoned, so I'd say it's time to pick up Jimmy2 MfW!