Adventure Game Studio

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edit 06.04.13
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CaptainD raised the question of whether Valis was still in development (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=47886.0). I can confirm it is! I've started a wiki/lore book with backstories:

https://valis.fogbugz.com/default.asp?W10

whenever I get bored with coding, I'll be adding entries in there to keep my creative juices flowing.


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edit 01.09.10
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a new demo is now available from:
http://www.agsarchives.com/gamecard/475/valis.html
http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/valis-chapter-1-demon-hunters/download/3402/

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After months spent creating my game and lurking in the forums, I thought it was about time I introduced the project I've been working on: VALIS.

Valis is going to be a RPG in the Final Fantasy mould. Now, I know AGS is not really the obvious choice for such a game, but so far it's been going surprinsingly well. The game features a world map, towns where you can visit bars, guilds, shops and other places of interest. You can equip various weapons and accessories to your characters. You fight monsters in turn-based battles and level-up your characters and their abilities (called chakras in the game).

The Story:

The story is based on the Hindu mythology of Kundalini. Kundalini is a condensed, primal force which lies dormant in us all. When released, it creates a vertical connection between 7 chakras located along our spine. Each chakra has a different property which in the game represents different powers for your characters (earth,water,fire,air,sound,light and thought). In the land of Valis, an evil force has released physical entities who use the Kundalini powers to steal human souls. They are called the Tamashii-seishin. Only those who have trained in their chakra powers can defeat them (the Ruahs). You play the role of two Ruah monks who are trying to restore order to Valis. This won't be easy because not only are the Tamashii very powerful but most Ruahs are corrupt. Knowing full well that the rest of the world depends on them, they have formed a guild which now controls everything and they are not about to let you ruin it for them!

features:
- turn-based battles
- non-linear quests with a reward system which gives you money and items depending on how well the quest went.
- town to town trading system in the Elite mould
- 12 towns to visit each with unique locations
- upgradable powers: choose how you spend your experience points Do you improve an existing power or do you save up for a brand new one?
- 7 different types of monsters and each of them with varying levels of experience to match your own strength so battles are always a challenge.
- 4 playable characters
- a gripping storyline with tons of dialogues

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edit 24.08.10
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Yep, that's right. Valis is the game that just won't die  :o It's still going and below are the screenshots to prove it.

new screenshots:

world map
(http://a.imageshack.us/img837/3734/mapps.png)

battle
(http://a.imageshack.us/img710/8035/battlee.png)

trading system a-la Elite
(http://a.imageshack.us/img842/1369/trade.png)

Entertaining the locals
(http://a.imageshack.us/img837/5699/barcs.png)

Exploring underground caves
(http://a.imageshack.us/img821/4288/caves.png)

Story: 100%
Graphics: 100%
Music: 100%
Scripting: 80%
Testing: 30%

ETA: March 2011 (it'll only be 5 years late)

This seems really good. How much progress have you made? When will the full game be released? How long have already spent time on this?

Oh, the questions!

This looks really great...I sure hope the characters are colored in the final version.
I always loved RPGs.

I like those sketches very much, have style, wouldn't be bad if they were also in the final game (I think). The map screen is also nice, though the characters and the town icon stick out there.
The battly and level up screen look weird. There are so many graphical styles crashing together.
All in all, looks promising!

Thanks for the replies.

Stickieee: The battle system is fully working but I am still not happy with  the GUI. The graphics still require a lot of work too. The rest of the game is about 30% done but it is considerably easier to do :) Time wise I have been working on it on-off since November.
Web spider: So far, the sketches are here to stay. I might change my mind at a later date but I think they're pretty cool that way.
Ozzie: I understand what you mean by different style, it's something I'm still working on. Suffice to say, the battles are gonna look very different when I'm finished. As for the clash between the map screens and the rest, I'm influences by japanese RPGs which always have a very stylised and cutesy map view but realistic close-ups.

here's some more screenshots:

Duvall has a heated argument with his master
(http://img222.echo.cx/img222/6279/conversation7dd.png)
(http://img222.echo.cx/img222/711/conversation24ez.png)

sketch of a monster
(http://img258.echo.cx/img258/5724/eye1gj.png)

another monster
(http://img258.echo.cx/img258/8996/golem2ae.png)

This seems very interesting. Can't wait for you to finish this. Good luck with it! :)

Interesting...I notice the main character from Shining Force on that map there...Max, isn't it? :D

At least it looks a lot like him in any case...But the game sounds cool.  Keep the screenies coming.

You know what, this looks really cool!

Please finish this game. Too many good games have not been finished. :(

Good eyes there monkey  ;) I'm still working on my own sprite (walking anims from semi top-down view is bloody hard).
Anyway, here's more screenshots:

A town
(http://img74.echo.cx/img74/8166/town4vo.png)

A full-colour monster
(http://img74.echo.cx/img74/8149/monster15of.png)

Now I'm still debating whether to use this kind of graphics for the battles or to keep the monsters in Black and White. Any ideas/opinions/sarcastic comments welcome.

Wow, awesome. Good to see some more RPGs out there!

Colorize the monsters, but do away with the balck outlines, especially the interior ones (like on its eyeball). Is there any way you could shade them like the portraits? Do they need to be that big?

okay. Here is a mock-up of how I want battles to look like.

(http://img224.echo.cx/img224/8595/battlemockup0ih.png)

the menu items are:
- Attack > self explanatory, deals damage with your weapon
- Absorb > similar to pokeballs in pokemon: allows you to absorb the soul of a weakened monster into a chalice. once 5 monsters have been absorbed, an upgrade crystal is formed. What that crystal can do depends on which monsters have been absorbed
- Chakra powers > similar to magic attacks, which powers are available to you are determined by which chakra you have set your character with. At the beginning of the game, you are given one chakra affinity by your master from a choice of 4: earth, air, water or fire. You then need to level-up both your character and his chakra abilities to gain access to other chakras. Once they become available, chakras can be assigned to your character but only between battles. changing affinities during a battle can only be achieved using an expensive and rare item.
- use item > self-explanatory.

any ideas, thoughts, questions welcomed

Quote from: bush_monkey on Sun 29/05/2005 00:05:37Good eyes there monkey  ;) I'm still working on my own sprite (walking anims from semi top-down view is bloody hard).

Thank you.  I noticed it as soon as I saw the picture (I love that game).  And I understand your grieving... Just make sure that you do (at least some) of your own anims for the final version of the game.

He is never going to finish it.

A bit of pescimism may be a good push ;D

thanks for the confidence boris  ;D and monkey, don't worry I already have done all the anims for the monsters, the hard part is making a human walk :P but i'll gte there.

When I first saw this, I thought: "VALIS! Finally somone is making a game out of that weel-known book by one of my favorite SF-writers Philip K. Dick". But then it was all about FF... umm, well.

the story is based upon Tao beliefs of God as divine energy and the nature of consciousness (all battles happen within the people's minds and the monsters are not corporal per se). So it seemed fitting to name the land after Philip K. Dick's novel which while set in our world very much touches upon these concepts.

Interesting. Valis the RPG. Very interesting.

Ok looking at your battle mockup, I think I understand your approach better. Definitely go with the colored in creatures, they look wonderful. You have a very clean, unique style. I will eagerly await the release of this one.

I just had to post again to say how much I like those graphics. The sketchy style is really unique and looks good. And those "eyes" are also very well drawn. Please finish this game! Don't you dare to give up! :P

~Pablo

Thank you everyone for the words of encouragement,They really help me motivate myself. I have worked more on the game in the last 2 days than I had done in the last two months :p A demo is also underway. All I need to do is tighten up the battle system and iron out a few bugs. So keep checking in ;)

just finished updating the battle system

New battle system in action
(http://img252.echo.cx/img252/7484/newbattles0ul.png)

This is looking really great, I love the artsy style. Always good to see different genres of games made with AGS, especially if they look so special. Keep up the ace work!

Marvellous. Just... marvellous. I'll hit you in the face if you don't finish this! :=

Then I'd better make sure I do finish it  ;D The game is going really well and a demo should be out very soon. All I need now is a reliable host. Any recommendations?

Quote from: bush_monkey on Tue 31/05/2005 21:43:03
Then I'd better make sure I do finish itÃ,  ;D The game is going really well and a demo should be out very soon. All I need now is a reliable host. Any recommendations?

How much?

are any of the cheap ones any good? Or am I gonna have to pay through the nose :p

Quote from: bush_monkey on Tue 31/05/2005 22:07:08
are any of the cheap ones any good? Or am I gonna have to pay through the nose :p

What do you need, upload space or URL name or...
I asked how much your game weights (in MB), because I can give you some reasonably fast free upload space if it isn't too heavy.

5.25 mb without music
music.vox is 4.02 mb (very good atmospheric music from my dad actually)

I may be able to fit it in. PM me when you're done.

Okay. Quick update:
- The battle system is fully working
- The intro has been finalised
- The first few missions have been implemented.
- The characters are also now able to equip and unequip weapons (which helps  ;D).
I'm working on the shop menu at the moment ( buying/selling GUI  is a pain to implement but I'm getting there). Once that's done, the demo should be ready for release (after extensive testing). So in other words, I'm hoping to get the demo ready for next week-end.

...New screenshots

The town menu in all its glory
(http://img294.echo.cx/img294/8538/townmenu2zw.png)

the pub owner has a job for you
(http://img232.echo.cx/img232/9900/pub6av.png)

just an update to let everyone know that, yes I am still working on the game and yes, the demo will be out soon. 
It is just taking longer than expected to iron out a few things. Mainly, the difficulty level:
It is turning out to be very hard to make the fights balanced: Not too hard, not too easy; the monsters handing out a fair amount of experience points when killed, how many points needed for a level-up AND working out how much your characters stats should increase by with every level-up etc... It's a slow process of testing, testing and more testing  ::) In the meanwhile, here's a screenshot of one of the new monsters in action.

(http://img274.echo.cx/img274/4294/octobattle3wx.png)

demo is now ready and available (link on the first post).

HM, the demo plays nice.
Actually, I don't know much too say.

I should better start with the contra:
I'm sure that you plan to implement some more animation into the game.
In battles everything was so static, because you didn't see the attack performed. That was irritating. You said that not all options are implemented so far, so I expect that ther will be more possibilities in battles when you get more items, learn more spells and so on. It should be possible to change the weapon in a battle, even when it costs a round.

I personally would add to the battle mode combat points and the possibility to move. So you would need some points to go to the creature and perform the attack in close combat and points for the different attacks.

The game is also in need of some animated close-ups of the character. It feels so static and strange when the whole time nothing seems to happen but in reality you are talking to someone.

What I liked very much that things wer colored of the sketch when they were marked or you went with your mouse over it.

Hm, nice music, too. Fits in the background and doesn't distract, so it does its job.

Thanks for the comments, Ozzie. I know what you mean about the animations, but right that's very low down on my list of priorities. I intend to get the game fully working first and then implement little extras like battle anims and speech anims.
As for the battles, yes you're right, you will have far more options available to you. Most of them are actually in fully working order but due to time constraints, got taken out of the demo to polish the whole thing.
What still requires a lot of work is the balance of the battles. They are far too easy at the moment, and the characters seem to become too strong too fast (which is quite funny because the battles used to be far too hard!) so that's still an area that requires a lot of testing. Plus more monsters of varying strength are on their way. ;)

I just tried out the demo and I must say I'm very excited about this game. The graphical style is excellent, I simply love it. The music is also very good and fitting. Actually, only thing that bugged me was that some of the sentences in game didn't start with capital letter. :P

Keep up the good work, I'll be eagerly waiting for the full game!

Thanks for the positive comments, Petteri. I'll make amending the text my top priority  ;D

I just played the demo and first I want to say that I like it. The battle system reminds me a bit of RPGMaker games and I think a few more animations would improve it greatly.
I like the level up screen.
But there seems to be a bug in the demo:
When Duvall reaches level 3 the game ends (sometimes, I tested it four times and it happend three times)with an error message (unfortunatly I forgot to copy it) I think it said something about line 2 in the room script and a line in the global script (sorry that I can't remember it better)

Something else I noticed: I'm not sure if you haven't scripted that yet, but when I try to use an item during a battle nothing happens. I can only use it when I'm not in a battle

That damn level 3 bug :p There is a couple of bugs I'm working on right now. An updated demo will be released shortly (as in tonight) which also includes more challenging monsters  ;D as for using items in battles, you have to click on the item and then on the character you wish to use it on, it's not made very clear I know, I'll try and improve that. Thanks for the comments though.

It's nice to see a game that is going to make people go, "You made that with WHAT engine?  No, no, no...You can't make a game like this with THAT engine...". ;D


AGS - The word is spreading.

eheh. I'm a coding addict I'm afraid, and when I first saw AGS, it sounded interesting enough so I thought I'd look into it. Once I'd had a good read of the manual, my mind was hard at work with the possibilities. It is so easy to put something together in AGS but it also has real power under the bonnet. Probably one of the most versatile 2D engines around. I bow down to CJ  ;)

I love to code.  It's kind of like solving a puzzle, trying to figure out how to do something, but then you have the added problem of, "Is there a shorter and/or more efficient way of doing this?".

I got started programming in the eighth grade on my TI-83 Plus calculator in school, and wrote my first program in the ninth grade.  It was simple, and very flawed.  And had a lot of Goto-Label statements. :o  Which is probably why AGS appealed to me.  It said you could make a game with next to no coding, and that's about what I knew.  But I've come a long way since then...

And, I'll take this time to continue the previous string of threats:

"If you drop this project then I will disembowel your face!"

And you don't want to know how I would do that.  It's not pretty.

My best friend had his face disemboweled  :'( I'm not about about to let it happen to me...No, not to me... := errr, I mean Don't worry, I'll finish this, I promise  ;D

This looks cool, good job so far man.

Thanks for the comments, Squinky.
Quick update: I know I said I'd release a bug-free version of the demo yesterday but I've nearly finished my shop GUI and I couldn't resist including it in this new demo  :) It will be up soon, I promise.

Well if you don't hurry up with the demo then...then...I'll have to disembowel Squinky's face! :o

So you'd better hurry!*

*Like I would actually do anything...

Squinky, you'll be happy to know that your face is not gonna get disemboweled: The new demo is ready. I just need to test it for last minute bugs and it will be up tomorrow :)

Ok, a quick bump to let you know the new version of the demo is now on the first page of this thread.

bugs fixed: the infamous Level 3 crash bug, the mix-up between fire powers and water powers, strengthened the monsters and tweaked the level-up system.

new features: Shop now implemented (requires completion of a mission to unlock).

Congratulations on a great demo! I can't wait to see more.

The music works so well! In fact, please put more in! Love the contrast in music between the map and the fighting.
Love the dialog, good characters, “not in the demo version…” made me chuckle.

I made a list of issues as I went along, which are in the order I wrote them down in as opposed to any actual rating of importance, (which would be entirely subjective anyway).

•   (Still) missing capitals at the start of sentences, this distracts me, please fix it.
•   When you get outside the temple for the first time, the text over the top of temple is difficult to read. Fonts seem hard to read over the blacker backgrounds.
•   Shop keeper says “how can I help” again after buying stuff and in the shop, options are buy or cancel. Instead you could have buy or leave, then go back to the town when you click leave, instead of back to the shop keeper who appears to already have forgotten who you are.
•   Not as bad as outside the temple, but it is a little difficult to read the writing in the guild, same reason though.
•   In the conversation in the guild somewhere, there is a comma not followed by a space. Pedant-a-tron noticed this and noted it down, fix or be damaged!
•   Not very intuitive how to administer health potions while fighting, I even had a hand come up at some point after, pfft, after something.
•   When fighting, “You encountered a air…” and “You encountered a earth…” To which I reply "An sir An."
•   Tried to die to see what beautiful artwork was there. A grave? A crying not dead character? A sunset? Boobies? A white line in the shape of a body? Jessica Rabbit? The Fonz? But to my dismay, it just exited.
•   Tried to load saved game “hello”, got this error message:
---------------------------
Adventure Game Studio
---------------------------
An error has occured. Please contact the game author for support, as this
is likely to be a scripting error and not a bug in AGS.
(ACI version 2.71.869)


Error: Restore_Game: Game has changed (dlg), unable to restore

---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------
•   Cannot click through the intro.
•   â€œbut they have become greedy and abuse of their power.” Should the “of” be there?
•   No exit button. (I know how to exit exit a program, don't get me wrong, I just wanted to do so elegantly.)
•   I don't know enough about AGS to know whether you can even fix this one, but when I am over here writing this, the game is in the background with the music juddering.
•    The map music doesn't loop smoothly; this makes me check whether I'm in the matrix or whether I've just tripped over the record player every time.

Hmm, that's it for now, I think it is worth note that most of my issues are nothing to do with game play, artwork, bugs so rotten they ate my hard drive or marmite. Meaning, surely, I like it, I can't wait for the new versions, and I'd like to play/proof read any new versions. Keep up the good work.

Don  ;D

Thanks a lot for the constructive criticisms, DiscoIsNotDead. It helps a lot  ;)

Quote from: DiscoIsNotDead on Tue 05/07/2005 21:44:23
•   (Still) missing capitals at the start of sentences, this distracts me, please fix it.

I know, I know  :-[ I'm working on it....

Quote from: DiscoIsNotDead on Tue 05/07/2005 21:44:23
•   When you get outside the temple for the first time, the text over the top of temple is difficult to read. Fonts seem hard to read over the blacker backgrounds.

Believe me when I say, I've tried everything and this seems the more readable combination. I'll try and find a way around it.

Quote from: DiscoIsNotDead on Tue 05/07/2005 21:44:23
•   Shop keeper says “how can I help” again after buying stuff and in the shop, options are buy or cancel. Instead you could have buy or leave, then go back to the town when you click leave, instead of back to the shop keeper who appears to already have forgotten who you are.

He's just a drunk shop keeper, don't mind him  ;) But yeah, you're right, I'll follow your suggestion and change it to exit shop instead.

Quote from: DiscoIsNotDead on Tue 05/07/2005 21:44:23
•   Not very intuitive how to administer health potions while fighting, I even had a hand come up at some point after, pfft, after something.

Again, duly noted. The GUI in the battle is still in development, so stay tuned...

Quote from: DiscoIsNotDead on Tue 05/07/2005 21:44:23
•   Tried to die to see what beautiful artwork was there. A grave? A crying not dead character? A sunset? Boobies? A white line in the shape of a body? Jessica Rabbit? The Fonz? But to my dismay, it just exited.

I'll draw a Game over screen just for you :)

Quote from: DiscoIsNotDead on Tue 05/07/2005 21:44:23
•   Tried to load saved game “hello”, got this error message:
---------------------------
Adventure Game Studio
---------------------------
An error has occured. Please contact the game author for support, as this
is likely to be a scripting error and not a bug in AGS.
(ACI version 2.71.869)


Error: Restore_Game: Game has changed (dlg), unable to restore

Whoops... That save game should not have been in there. It's from an older version of the game.

Quote from: DiscoIsNotDead on Tue 05/07/2005 21:44:23
•   Cannot click through the intro.

The intro will be skippable.

Quote from: DiscoIsNotDead on Tue 05/07/2005 21:44:23
•   No exit button. (I know how to exit exit a program, don't get me wrong, I just wanted to do so elegantly.)

On my list of things to do (by that, I mean it should have been done but I forgot  ;D)

Quote from: DiscoIsNotDead on Tue 05/07/2005 21:44:23
•   I don't know enough about AGS to know whether you can even fix this one, but when I am over here writing this, the game is in the background with the music juddering.

Don't think I can fix that...

Quote from: DiscoIsNotDead on Tue 05/07/2005 21:44:23
•    The map music doesn't loop smoothly; this makes me check whether I'm in the matrix or whether I've just tripped over the record player every time.

It's set in the olden days before fancy CD players...It's just a gramophone effect  ;)

Quote from: DiscoIsNotDead on Tue 05/07/2005 21:44:23
Hmm, that's it for now, I think it is worth note that most of my issues are nothing to do with game play, artwork, bugs so rotten they ate my hard drive or marmite. Meaning, surely, I like it, I can't wait for the new versions, and I'd like to play/proof read any new versions. Keep up the good work.

   Thanks, will do. That's the kind of comments and well-judged constructive criticism I need to keep me going and encourage me to finish this someday. 

About the text on backgrounds, I don't know what to suggest as a solution, but can point to a good short Raymond Chen article about what they had to do in Windows when faced with this problem. NB: It is not talking about the sexy text shadows in XP, but the cheap square box effect.

The article is here (http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2004/11/25/270320.aspx) and I'd say most the comments are worth reading through, even if just to hear a good answer the questions.

Hope this is of some use to you.
Don {Use someone elses research instead of finding out the hard way!}

P.S. Looking forward to the long awaited return of the gramophone!

wow, looks good. It looks similar to Lord Of The Rings in my opinion, but perhaps that's just because i have been playing LOTR: Two Towers on PS2 for the last hour?

Yep, Flukeblake. I think you've been playing too much LOTR  ;) I'll take it as a huge compliment since LOTR has amazing graphics  ;D Glad you're liking the looks of it though.

What a pressantly nice demo. It's coded very good.
I knew ags could make rpg's, but I was still suprised about how good it looked and played.

Keep up the good work and fix those bugs.

Just tried the DEMO.

Looks nice, the only question: Won't you be able to run away from a battle. If you are able to do that, I didn't find it...

Excelent graphics, though and the whole idea looks amazing. It's a good thing that some of you are trying to push the AGS to the limits (Althought there are no limits).

For the record, I will try sometime after Octomber to start writting my own game (???)

Time for the weekly(-ish) update. The game is advancing well, all known bugs and grammar/spelling mistakes have been corrected. A few new graphics have been incorporated and I have been playing around with the idea of animating the characters in battles (stay tuned). The biggest thing I've worked on this week is the ability to absorb monster's souls in battles. Basically, it involves weakening the monster enough so you can then absorb it into a special chalice you acquire from the shop. Once 3 monsters have been absorbed, a crystal is formed. There are multiple types of crystals. What type of crystal you get depends on what type of monster you absorb. For example: absorb 3 Fire monsters and you will receive a fire crystal. These crystals can then be traded in for money or can be used either to improve your stats or to gain new Chakra abilities.... Now that it has been implemented, next stop: coding more magic powers, both for the heroes and the monsters...

Jetxl: Thanks for the positive comments. Just one question: Which bugs do you mean? have you found some new ones or just the ones already reported?

Niko: You're right, AGS is surprisingly powerful and good luck with your own game. Believe me, it is very satisfying and well worth the effort. Oh and I'll implement an escape command as some point :)

okay, weekly update:

For those of you who have played the demo, there have been chnages to the world map. After (extensively) testing the new absorption ability, I have come to the conclusion that the map monsters need to be defined by their chakra types. So now, they are all the same generic spirit sprite but colour-coded so you can strategise which monster to go for.
Overall, I am very pleased with that new system, it has opened a world of potential. As far as everything else is concerned, more missions have been added, more characters to speak to in towns and this week I will be concentrating on new, different chakra powers. (In all honesty, I say that every week but I keep on putting it off  :P I'm lazy like that  ;D ).

Well, best get back to it, then.

[post removed and consolidated into new post]

I should read this forum more often...like when I'm not on my mom's laptop.  Well...I'll look at it...sometime...when I remember...maybe...

The screenshots looked awesome and the rest of the thread seemed VERY positive about the game. So I downloaded it and played through about four minutes to get a feel for its style. I must say that I am amazed with the versatility of AGS, as well as your ingenuity.  Congratulations on what so far is an excellent project. I hope to see it completed in the near future.

Have you considered adding voices too? With broadband technology as widespread as it is today, it may be an effective way to fully immerse the players in the pseudo-medeival-asian environment you've created.

Thanks jay for the compliments. As for the voices, it might be something to consider at a later time in the project. With so much to do, I am concentrating first on making it a polished and fun game. Anything superfluous (no matter how tempting  ;) ) will have to wait.... Even though it is really tempting considering my dad has his own personal mini recording studio  ;D

It's this time of the week again: Weekly update time. Firstly, my dad has provided with more music which greatly enhances the overall atmosphere. Graphically, I have added 3 more rooms, new characters to talk to and introduced brand new monsters.
I have now fully plotted episode 1, and I can now roughly estimate my progress of the story at about 30% done. Apart from some major dialogue scripting, my other major piece of work is still the Chakra spells :p ...I will get round to implement them soon. I'm hoping to get a second demo out once the spells are ready just so I can get players' feedback on the overall feel of the battles. It is a very important part of the gameplay and I feel that my success in that area could make or break the game. Thank you to everyone for their positive comments. I can't stress hard enough how much they've helped me plough through this  ;D

Hey all!
Sorry about the lack of updates lately, I have been busy with real life and things  ::) Valis is still on track but progressing a tad slower. I have been working on monster art a lot. I've had this sudden burst of macabre inspiration which is concretely turning into cool monsters.
I also played a lot of Galaxy Of Fantabulous Wonderment (which I highly recommend) to see how similar both games were. Thankfully, they are very different. Isn't it always the same, wish for a RPG "stroke" adventure to come out and two show up at once  ;D
Story-wise, I have been reading a lot about the Ying and Yang philosophies and sooo many ideas are forming in my head... Maybe I'll wait till episode 2 to implement them... The real trick in game-making is knowing when to stop  ;)

The story sounds real promising.... I could buy the look, but the combat system seems to be cut from the same cloth as any other console rpg combat system in existence. Which is to say, dissapointing to think about.

Come on, you couldn't come up with something more akin to say, Fallout, if not something a bit more original? It has a turn-based system, but it remains as one of the best combat systems I've ever seen in a computer/video game RPG. It acts more like actual figurines in a real world, pen and paper game, giving it a much more strategic aspect. Or Balder's Gate, which does the same, except you pause instead of taking turns, and it lacks the hexagonal placement.

And, I sincerely hope you don't leave things in a sketchy state. It makes it look unfinished.  I'm hoping the story rises above the combat system, like Septerra Core did (it, too, had a console combat system, but I loved the story enough that I could look past it). And from what I've heard, the story sounds like a winner. I just fear the game will have too much of a consolitus rpg feel to it.

Couldn't get the demo link to work...

Hmm Microtech is where my files were uploaded and it doesn't seem to be working right now. I don't have the demo file handy so I will have to upload it somewhere else in the next couple of days. Sorry about that. As for your comments, I happen to like the turn-based Final-Fantasy style battle system  ;D As for the sketchy style, it was only temporary but I've had so many positive comments about it and so many requests to keep it that way that it's now here to stay. When you play, I think it works really quite well because every hotspot changes into a colour version when the mouse hovers over it and that gives Valis its unique style. 

I'll check it out, but I will say I'm skeptical. I like the basis for the game, though, but can be quite picky when it comes to presentation for rpgs.

Okay folks, my weekly update is on. Firstly: the demo is down for a while. I was using Microtech but unfortunately they have shut down temporarily, they have this system starting soon but it's not ready yet. I figured that rather than attempt to find another place to upload it to, I would just create a brand-spanking new demo. So much has been added to the mechanics of the game that I need people's opinion on the direction things are taking. So hopefully that will be out in a couple of weeks. In other news, I have yet again updated my battle system  ;D . I had a brain-storm after some comments I've received about the turn-based engine and I have come up with something that while it keeps that classic FF feel, more strategy is now involved in the process. I won't say too much, people can make up their mind about it when they play the demo  ;) .

And just to tide everyone over, here's a sneak peek at my new title screen:

(http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/4936/darktitle8kw.png)

Wow, it looks beautiful I have to say, I love everything except the font. Its alright but... doesnt really seem to fit in. If I were you, Id sit down with a pencil and paper and draw the title. Youve got a lot of creativity which is obvious from the game itself, I reckon you could come up with a gorgeous title font!

Sorry to crit though :P I assure you I only do it when I have such faith in the majority of the project or the ability of the artist. The games looking better and better all the time though, keep the good work ... up, as they say!

Thanks for the crit, Kinoko. And don't feel bad, a well-intentioned critique is far more useful than a half-hearted compliment  ;D I was going to try and give the screen more of an oriental feel because right now it is a bit jarring compared to the rest of the game, so a new font in that kind of style could be the way to go.

sorry everyone about the lack of updates lately but a nasty worm virus had corrupted all my game data. Luckily, I had back-ups. Not so luckily, I had done a lot of work since my last back-up!! It disheartened me for a while and my thirst for game making died down...But my love for programming got the better of me, and I'm back ready to tackle Valis once again. I have been making slow progress lately and largely boring behind the scene stuff (especially regarding my revitalised battle sequences...But that's still Hush-hush  ;) ) and this post is mainly to let everyone know that Valis is still going, and I will finish this, dammit!  ;D

that's badluck. Hope you get back on track soon. Your game looks very cool :)

I'm back! It's been a while but honestly I have been working hard on Valis..Promise! There hasn't been an update in a while because to be honest, there has been nothing worthwile to mention in a while (or at least nothing I want to divulge yet  8) ).
I thought it was about time to dig the thread out and let everyone know that a new demo is on its way. I just need to iron out a few bugs. Why a new demo, you ask? Well, I have a brand new battle system in place. I am quite proud of it, if I dare say so myself... And I am itching to get feedback on it. As far as to how far the game is to completion, I would say about 30-40 % done on the initial chapter. But once that's out of the way, the other chapters will be done in no time...

Hey, great to hear you're still progressing nicely on this! I'm really waiting to get my hands on that new demo and check your new battle system. :)

Oh, and:

Quote from: bush_monkey on Thu 10/11/2005 19:31:05
sorry everyone about the lack of updates lately but a nasty worm virus had corrupted all my game data. Luckily, I had back-ups. Not so luckily, I had done a lot of work since my last back-up!!

Always remember to make back-ups!! I had a hard-drive crash some time ago and lost all my files too. Don't let it happen to you again! Now, after you've read this post, go make the backups. :P

Ooh, I like this game a lot, and a new demo soon? Yay!!!

Back-upping is neccissary, like Pablo said, but I, too, have problems with doing that in time... ;D'

How will the new battle system be? (Or do I have to play tyhe demo to know? ;))

I may sound stupid and this is off-topic but htf can you back up music files (around 20Gbs worth of DATA), without a DVD writer? Help me cause I'm starting to feel a ltitle worried about my own computer.

As for Valis (on-topic now), I'm eagerly waiting for this game. I'm a big big fan of RPGs and this game sounds amazing. Hopefully the new battle system will be better... (If I remember corectly).

Anyway everything I've seen so far indicates a great pro looking game!

Yurina: You'll have to wait till the demo to find out, I'm afraid  ;D As for the whole backing-up thing.. I wish I could say I've learnt my lesson but it's far from the first time it's happened to me..And probably won't be the last!! ::)

It's alright Bush_monkey!

I still love your game! ;)

I just noticed that the AGS awards are open so I've nominated Valis for Best Demo. I've re-uploaded the old demo for the occasion  :) See link on first page

I voted on Valis too, if I remember correctly, but I don't know or I voted for best demo... :-\

EDIT: Yay, the demo is up again! Now I can FINALLY play! ^.^ *jumps a hole in the air*

Thanks Yurina. And when you've played the demo, tell me what you think.

Eh, I gotta a crash when I made it to level 2, I forgot to copy it down cause it might be like the level 3 bug... but maybe it was just my system.

I'll play through again to see if I still get the bug, also the game looks really good,  I especially like the Face portraits(Sp?).  I can't wait for the new demo with all the updates though

Oops, if that's the case I might have uploaded the wrong version... I'll see if I can find the later demo.

Valis has been nominated in the AGS awards for best demo!

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=24860.0

Hi,

I've played the demo by now, and I'm sure I'll love the game when finished.
But her comesthe big list:

I have a few things I didn't like:
* The text is a bit slow, and that's very irritating in the intro and in battle.
* The intro can't be skipped (the letter). I had to start overnew and watch the whole letter again, which takes 5-10 minutes. I found that pretty anoying, to be honest.

And here some mistakes I noticed:
* Sometimes a sentence isn't ended by dots. It's no big deal, but sometimes it's hard to say what belongs to which sentence.
* The game crashed when Duvall got at lvl 3 (the bug you were talking about?)
* When I entered the temple again I had the conversation which belongs to the beginning of the game again. On top of that, Senshi's portrait dissapeared after that.
* I got the Fireball Chackra-attack after I chose Water as Chakra (I didn't test fire yet).

Please note this is only for help. I still love this game! ;D:P

I'll post when I found out more.

~Yurina

Sorry about all that. I uploaded the wrong demo. All these bugs were fixed in V1.1... I don't have a copy of V1.1 around but I know someone who has so I'll put that right pretty soon. Thanks for your comments, though.

A nearly brilliant suggestion just came up: Why don't you make a skipable video of the intro? Of course video's take some MB's, but I don't know or you can make the intro skipable or not.

I'll look out for the correct demo!

Oh wow, its been over a year since the last update! Sorry about that guys, the game is still going if anyone wants to know. Update-wise, I dont know where to begin. there are now 5 playable characters (any 3 at any one time during the battles), 5 different powers for all 4 power types, 7 new towns, a lot of progress on the story, side-missions, fully-working shops, and a LOT of non-player characters. I reckon I am about 1/3 of the way finishing the whole game and 75% of the way towards finishing the first chapter (the game will be split into 3 manageable chapters).

I promise the next update will not take that long  ;D

I commend your commitment!

Okay, forget about the above post. It may not have been as speedy an update as I had hoped! The good news is the first chapter of Valis is near completion. The game currently contains:

- an engrossing, epic storyline.
- over 20 types of monsters.
- 11 different towns with many different places to visit from shops to gambling dens.
- loads of NPCs to interact with.
- a fully working magic system with upgradable powers.
- a trading system between towns, Elite-style.
- a job system where you can choose side-missions ranging from easy jobs with little rewards to full-length adventures for the big gains.
- many different types of weapons, armours and life-enhancing accessories.
- a massive world map to explore with many secrets to discover.
- a tile-based dungeon system with treasures and boss fights.

Story: 100%
Graphics: 75%: some monster graphics left and backgrounds for 3 towns.
Music: 100%
Scripting: 80%: mostly inventory parameters left.
Testing: 25%: Believe or not but this will take a while :p
ETA: March 2008

I've missed this thread until now, but I'm glad it's the OP that bumped it.  This game looks awesome and you seem very committed to it.  Best of luck getting it finished.

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I'm well on the way to finishing the first chapter and the second instalment should not take that long now that the underlying layer is complete  ;D

I'll make an announcement (hopefully in January) about beta testing, so keep your ears peeled  :)

Awesome news! Great to hear you're working on it and it's so close to completion. I can hardly wait to get to play it. :)

This really looks good. I like RPG games so this will be one that I will keep looking very closely. I hope you finish it soon.

Will the demo be back someday because I would like to try the game?

The game has evolved so much in the last year, the demo is not really representative of the game anymore which is why i decided to take it down.

But don't worry, if everything goes to plan, there should be a little surprise just in time for christmas  ;D

Hey this game looks great. Can't wait for a new demo seeing as though i didn't get to try it out the last time around. Roll on March.

Oh and i'm wondering how are you going to test it?

Expect an announcement around February time where I'll probably ask for help from the community with testing as it's going to be one hell of a job! Not so much bugs-wise but with adjusting the difficulty level / amounts of experience received from kills / the quality of the trade economy / the levelling-up system and more... 

3 years later and still going! Check out the first post for new screenshots.

Quote from: bush_monkey on Tue 24/08/2010 21:44:24
3 years later and still going! Check out the first post for new screenshots.

And I thought jerk just necromanced it! Those are great news!! Looking forward to this! :D

Thanks  ;D I will be looking for testers soon so watch this space!

ooh!! another person who wants to make a rpg like FF!!

And I'm taking about as long as Square to do it too ;D

OMG THIS IS STILL GOING! Consider my hat removed.

A new playable demo of Valis is now on GameJolt:

http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/valis-chapter-1-demon-hunters/download/3402/

I didn't have time to expand on the demo when I uploaded it. Here's more information:

Contained in the demo
-----------------------------
- 3 towns to explore
- a good chunk of the main storyline to go through
- 4 side missions
- 1 multi-level dungeon to explore
- over 20 types of monsters to fight
- Level-up your characters to your heart's content. No cap is present in the demo. As your characters go up levels, they will encounter new monsters.

Caveats
----------
- Monsters have been dumbed down for the demo as the difficulty balancing is still being worked on.
- The trading system has been cut down for the demo as it is too easy to exploit at the moment.

Thanks to Peder, the Valis demo is now also available from

http://www.agsarchives.com/gamecard/475/valis.html

Following my recent sudden rise from the dead in the forum earlier today, I thought I'd come in here and say that Valis is still alive and in development.

I've set-up a wiki as well in which I will write stories set in the Valis world. Kinda like a lore book. A few entries have already been written:

https://valis.fogbugz.com/default.asp?W10