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The Day of Delila Fahy...'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| People's Choice | #121 | 1.732 | 2.000 |
Ranked from 9 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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I was one of the official judges this year, and now that the results have been made public, and I'm free to do so, here is my score and thoughts on this title:
Overall score: 7.5
Not bad. I felt that the combat was a little tedious just because of how slow it moved. I'm not sure if it was a plugin issue or not, or something I may have done, but it was VERY slow compared to most other combats in games I've tried. The story was interesting, but didn't really go too in-depth. I feel that it could certainly have been expanded and focused more on since it seems like the game's strong-suit. I liked it.
Thanks everyone that left criticism!
I'd have really liked to see some feedback from all 9 reviewers though. But I'll take the few seconds it likely took to leave their score, as better than nothing. ;)
I've learned a lot from this, and expect to do better.
Thanks again.
If you didn't see Hawkzombie streamed your game for round 2, and posted it on youtube. That may also be worth checking out?
Sure did. Thanks for pointing it out though.
Hopefully others watch it too. ;)
I'm going to be totally candid with you -- the general, publicly stated, distaste for the fact that you used RTP for a jam-style contest, coupled with the warning / "dev's note" at the beginning soured my opinion right from the start on this one. As long as it's used correctly / well -- which you have mostly done, but we all have minor issues in short periods of time, so no harm there! -- the RTP is a great placeholder tool for a jam, or honestly, even for a whole game. Your mechanics and narrative can carry a game far further than the graphics style. With the dev's note, if you want to include the info in the future, consider adding it after the game's resolution instead. But, definitely let the game speak for itself, rather than letting the RTP bring you down! :)
That being said, I did power through the game, and I think you have a really solid foundation to build something bigger and better out of. It's very text-heavy, which isn't a bad thing necessarily, but definitely consider if you want to stick with that style (and thus, continue developing with more of a visual novel style), or if you want to pare down some of the language parts (which aren't bad by any means) in favor of a little more action and visual effects to get the same information across. I can see this translating well to either experience, but not so much the combination of the two like what's going on currently.
I am glad that I opted to ignore the first impression and give this game a chance, but I wanted to make sure I mentioned that because you don't want to chase players away before they even get a chance to see the cool parts! :D
Thank you for your feedback!
I will be removing the note at the beginning, in the first update.
I agree, now that I look back on the impulse, it was misguided. Having said that, it was grounded in what I know of the 'RPGMaker' community, and the nerves of entering my first contest. I honestly never expected to get far, I just wanted to finely set a deadline for myself to get something done... After dithering for what feels like an eternity on other, less narrative focused projects.
I genuinely only desire honest, critical analysis. And that seems to be the rule for these sorts of contests.
I can build from there. And intend too. ;)
Thanks again.
Do I have to wait till judging stage is over to post an update?
I got this one for judging so here are my thoughts, posted rapid fire style so fair warning:
-Interesting commentary for the judges. Not really needed though, we do what we can anyways.
-Maybe I read faster but that 20 minutes VN style part at the beginning was 12 minutes for me. But I do read fast.
-Not sure I like having no place to full heal or full restore just in case. I feel a small safety net would be a good idea in case the player is struggling. I didn't need it myself, but would have felt better if it had been there.
-No healing spells? Just regen? Ok potions it is then. Also just regen based healing is not going to work well in random battles as most of them are too fast for the regen to kick in. So something that is not regen based would be nice.
-Wait, why do I start round 2 of the final battle more wounded than I ended round 1? With no healing spells and I was almost out of potions by then too as well.
-Did pull off the final battle though. Maybe add a way to make the items that do high damage to the plants (forgot the name now as I didn't write it down and played it a couple days ago). While the note to be careful with them as they may be important is nice, a way to make more would be even nicer.
Overall:
I feel it was a decent game. I do think the maps were a little overcluttered in places, opening them up a little would help. And adding at least one place to full heal the party just in case they get in a bad spot would be really nice. Without it, its likely you can end up in a what is known as the walking dead scenario in your game where you have no way to proceed due to too many items used up and no way to get anymore. But this can all be changed too with more time.
On a side note: Do you intend to maybe expand this into a longer game someday?
I have to say that this entire experience has been great for me.
Considering what I managed to hack together, in roughly 12 days of work (weekends, and some late nights) I am sure I will actually be doing more like it. Only, not with the RTP. ;)
I noticed that I somehow deleted the “Heals Ally” description from Uli’s Flash of Light spell… So, I don’t blame anyone for not realizing it was a Direct Heal spell. That’s a big mistake on my part.
The Cut Scene where everyone gets knocked down, was supposed to be a real spell that hurt them… So, you start the second fight, damaged. The actual script is dividing all their remaining HP by 50%.
I realize now, I should really do a better job of considering what’s possible, rather than focus on what’s probable. In the dozen or so times I ran that three-stage boss fight, I only ever lost a character once, which is why I added the KO recovery items. But I still failed to consider that some wouldn’t immediately appreciate the Aggro & Active-Defense skills I added. The boss battle becomes largely trivial with a tank and spank strategy. Especially when adding in Lili's damage shield, and the Draughts of Defoliation.
And yes… I have a rather large story planned for Uli and friends. Delila is actually just a supporting character in a much larger trilogy, but given the time constraints and the ‘Theme’ I went with her Druid ways, saving an ancient tree spirit, as a sort of Prequel. In hind sight, I really should have made LUG instead. (It’s a rather unique little creature story I’ve been toying with)
Rest assured, I will revise this little thing, and hopefully expand it. As a matter of fact, this contest has helped me realize how much I miss telling stories. So… There will be more to come.
Definitely.
Edit:
P.S.
The Regen, doesn't get removed on battle end. Casting it at any time will give the full effect. In or out of battle. I will be sure to add that note to the skill description!
You specifically asked for feedback on your game page, so I’ll be honest. If you are not up to some annoyed words you might want to skip it though. I streamed the game all the way to the final boss, but I simply did not have the patience to finish it.
Overall: if this is an early or first project: not a bad start! It just falls a bit flat with no strong point to boast of, and the game feels weak for it.
(Here’s the stream, your game start at the 1:47:56 mark)
Thank you for taking the time to try it out!
The menu popups were my attempt to isolate a small inventory issue, just before submission, and I forgot to remove them. The only menu call I intended was at the end. But you stopped playing before that. ;)
I understand completely about the over use of *descriptors* and the (spelling it out) too much. Early feedback suggested that the scenes weren’t clear enough. So, I added a few details that unfortunately, made it a bit too clear!
I have definitely learned from this.
The combat, and balancing, was actually cut down quite a bit for time constraints. I had more I wanted to add, and actually ended up cutting a lot of that. So, I agree. It does feel tacked on as a consequence.
Always a fan of classical projects like this that show off how much is possible with the standard assets of the RPG Maker :) Plugins were nicely put to use and the writing was pretty good. Although there have been too many of these descriptive messages in my opinion. The battles are fairly easy with the exception of the last boss fight that provided a welcome challenge. Really enjoyed the resource collection part that provided a nice amount of variety. The mapping was the weakest part in my opinion. I get that searching for the right path to the items is supposed to be part of the challenge but the maps were far too convoluted and I rarely managed to find the proper exits on first try. Was the menu supposed to pop up at the beginning and the end of the game? Felt like a bug to me. Also, the game froze when I tried to enter the boss area on the far left side of the map that came before it. Overall, I really enjoyed this one :)
Thank you very much for the large amount of feedback!
Can you clarify about the Freeze? There should only be one actual path that gets you to the last cut scene before the Tree.
The only menu that shouldn't be popping up, was the start of the game. I added it to isolate an inventory issue I resolved just before submission and forgot to remove it. The last menu scene, is simply a lack of anything else I could think to do. I know that I sometimes like to look over my party to see what I ended up getting/using etc...
When you say there are too many descriptive messages, are you specifically referring to the moments I insert things like *Smiles with half his mouth, and exhales sharply* ??
And thank you about the mapping criticism! I will keep that in mind from now on.
Would you mind elaborating a bit about what you would rather see, when resource collection is a key factor?
I am REALLY glad you found enough about it to appreciate it!
I was afraid that my over reliance on RTP would doom it to obscurity. ;)
Don’t really know how to explain the location of the game freeze better. Maybe try walking on the top border of the map before the final boss map. Somewhere on the left side of the teleporter to the boss map you should encounter the game freeze.
Yeah, those are the descriptive messages I meant. Personally, I’m more of a show don’t tell kinda guy. So, for example, I would prefer showing a character sprite raising their arms rather than having a message describing that to me. Though I got to admit that the message is far easier to implement and given the short amount of time for a game jam this is probably the more effective solution.
In regards to the mapping maybe just try making the areas a bit wider so that the player doesn’t run into something every second step. Also, I usually prefer avoiding open borders where the character can reach the end of the screen without being teleported to another map. This feels especially weird on the top border of the screen where the heads of the sprites get cut off. But that are just my preferences :)
Thank you!