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25/80
The game is buggy, doesn't seem to know what language it wants to use (even after getting the translation event). The robber can’t be apprehended? What is the point of the police? People talk even when they aren’t there. Game breaks because you can’t enter the warehouse to grab the key unless you get it before you need it. Battles are not balanced. Is this supposed to be an Educational(?) Game, if so, it fails to do so in a reasonable way and doesn't teach anything that you wouldn't already know. Many houses look odd because you can see other houses - even ones that aren’t connected. Too much pointless wandering.
Engine
RPG Maker VX Ace LITE
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Alright, so I took a shot at your game. I can definitely see you are a Finn :). The basic premise seems good, you are a firefighter and help normal citizens when they are threatened by fires. I liked the fact that Juho took the time to explain the reasoning of your actions, like that normal citizens should run away when confronted with fire and not stay (in the firemens' way).
There were some inconsistencies with mapping, but nothing that jars game play too much. I liked the H2O use instead of MP, but I'd like to have to have another method of attacking, perhaps stomping with boots? (I don't know if this becomes an option, as I could only afford to play for thirty minutes and played to the point where I could recruit the constable). This also would work better against the thief you encounter, as I cannot fathom firemen using the water hose against people.
I liked the references to Finnish culture, and I laughed a little when you could buy either normal bread (heals moderate HP) or rye bread (which heals full HP). I think no other country loves rye bread as we Finns do (yes, I am a Finn as well).
The game definitely shows some promise, and I like the fact that it is educational. Keep up the good work, and congratulations on finishing your game! (so far)
So glad you got around to trying my game! Kyllä olen puoleksi suomalainen ja asun Suomessa, ja huomasin forum-sivusta, että olet sinäkin suomalainen!
Since this is supposed to be for children, I felt other attacks would detract from the intended simplicity ("intended" being the operative word here considering it is still not as simple as I would like), though side-quest-accessible weapons enable new atttacks (not stopming with boots, however). For this reason, I also wanted the handcuff and cover attacks to correspond to Lorent and Mette's default attacks, what the basic water attack is to Juho, Kaj, and Minerva (and Pavel if we care to count him), but this would have required script editing which I am not enable to do, yet.
What did you have in mind with "stomping with boots"? Actually stomping on top of the thief, or on the floor to somehow trigger a tremor that shakes the thief? What this brought to my mind is a picture of Juho leading a stomping tirade during battle to drown out bad singing. Do we know any bad singers in this game? *cough**cough* Nero *cough**cough*
I cannot claim to know the repercutions of hosing down a person with a fire hose, since it might admittedly not be as benign as hosing down your sibling with a garden hose. I have, however, cleaned a driveway ledge with a pressure washer, and I accidently incurred a minor flesh wound from it. The image I had in mind for hosing down criminals was simply causing them to slip and fall.
Yesterday I watched a video about the colour-coding behind fire hydrants, which are differentiated on the basis of their GPM (gallons per minute) and PSI (pressure in pounds per square-inch). Perhaps the risk of causing bodily harm that warrants a lawsuit can be contingent on the last water source accessed? Perhaps facts about water supply can be imparted by another version of this game; while facts about fire are disseminated by our "fire red" version (like in Pokémon), facts about water possibly can be imparted by our "H2O blue" version?
Kiitos oikein paljon palautteestasi!
Secret Santa Review! Like with my other Secret Santa Reviews, I take notes as I play the game so you get a "real time" reaction to what I am experiencing with your game! Here it goes...
Tiny resolution! RPG Maker VX Ace has such ridiculously small resolution. Time to upgrade to MV!
Ok, no context in the beginning – just start off right in a room with no explanation of controls or anything – maybe that comes soon? Luckily the controls are not difficult.
Met my inferior doppleganger, Juha! Not sure what engaging Easy Mode does, so I am leaving that alone for now.
These stairs on the left don’t go anywhere! Back in 5th and 6th grade I went to school in a very old and creepy building that had stairs just like this!
I tried walking into the far-right room and some random person yelled gibberish at me.
Talked to Minerva, determined she was the random person yelling gibberish at me. She demands respect! Sorry Minerva, respect is earned, not given freely!
She asked me if Kaj explained everything to me, but I have no clue who Kaj is. I am going to go ahead and say No.
Oops… I tried walking out of the house without talking to who I assume was Kaj first… he immediately joined my party and I never got to talk to him. I guess I can say that I am ready then…?
Minerva tells me that the green roofed house is on fire, but no street address! I hope it is the only house with a green roof in the town! If this house was on fire the whole time that I have been bumbling around, I would have hoped the boss would have let me know about it!
Walking out of the house, I get scrolling text “For my dear Godson…” And that is it… was there supposed to be more? Or was it more like a dedication? (I realize this is a dedication now, after reading some info here). Also, the first thing I see when walking out of the house is… a house with a green roof! It is definitely not on fire, though. There are a couple of houses with green roofs, none are on fire.
Ahhhh found it, the house is on fire only on the inside! Sneaky fire! I humbly suggest maybe making smoke come out of the windows or something to let the player know the proper location of the fire. Since the game is aimed at a younger target audience, giving visual cues is vitally important.
Damnit Pavel! You are a terrible boy! At least he is self-chastising. The kid wants to help put out the fire he started. What could go wrong, having a minor pyromaniac join the firefighters?
Oh dang, I am literally battling the fire! I also just noticed that the fire on the beds is not animated.
Pavel just took a face full of smoke and instantly died. Well, I guess that is what he gets for starting the fire in the first place.
Ok I put out all the fire and… nada? No direction where to go from here. I guess I will go back to the firehouse?
Hah, Minerva just called me out for letting a child help put out the fire – good! Child labor laws are in place for a reason, and I just opened up the fire department to a possible lawsuit from the kid’s parents (especially since he DIED WHILE HELPING ME).
Why do I have to go introduce myself to everyone in town? I am the fireman, shouldn’t I already know these people? The real question is, why do I want to know them?! As the player, I really don't want to go talk to these people, but I guess I have to!
I went to Mette’s house and some lady is screaming French at me. Juho says “I cannot understand my sister’s language” – is this actually his sister? If so, why do they speak different languages?
And I randomly get a free rye bread from somewhere. I won’t (and apparently can’t) turn down free magical bread!
I just met the mayor! He also demands respect! Sorry buddy, like I told the boss lady, you gotta earn it first! Now he’s bragging about his wife and kids. I haven’t even met them yet, mister!
Met the wife, she also likes to brag about the kids.
Damn, the mayor’s son is definitely gifted! He plays a song on the piano that incorporates synthesized drums and horns!
In the mayor’s house I am seeing…6 beds, though only four people apparently live there, and only 3 meal place settings! Who is being shunned from supper? I am assuming the daughter since she is stubborn and the son is a wizard at the piano.
Went into the warehouse on the south-west side of town. It looks like you used table auto tiles where walls should go.
Oh sweet, you can buy food at the warehouse – I always trust food from strangers hiding out in warehouses!
I went into the warehouse that has all the boxes of corn – no clue what is up, I got the option to “grind for cash” or find something valuable. I opted to find something valuable since cash grinds are never fun. Then nothing happened. I can’t seem to interact with anything in here.
Went back to the firehouse, not sure what else there is to do.
Ah, my boss is ready to feed me and put me to bed! What a great boss! She is slowly earning my respect. Will she… will she really let me have ice cream for dinner? Let’s see…
Hah! I get to have ice cream and Kaj can have his gross cabbage rolls!
After sleeping, I can magically go up to the exercise room now, that is what is at the top of the stairs!
OH DAMN THE EXERCISE ROOM IS ON FIRE!
Time to start day 2… Some random chick named Spara arrived? I don’t see her anywhere.
Minerva, always demanding respect.
Ok, now I have no clue where to go or what to do… Minerva just tells me to stop wasting time, but I have no idea what is on fire.
Ah, found the fire in the western-most building! More bed fires! Why do people enjoy setting fire to their beds so much?
I also find it funny that I can literally just run away from the flames.
There, fire is out – another day, another heroic deed.
Spara wants the emergency number… Yeah, I ain’t giving her the real one. She can just, you know, not start her bed on fire next time.
Interesting, no matter what number you give her, it correlates to a country. Nice touch!
Pavel is gone and dead, yet my pay keeps getting docked! This must be what paying child support feels like.
Time to eat and sleep again… will the boss lady let me have ice cream two nights in a row for supper? Let’s find out…
Success! I am the greatest fireman ever!
Day 3! Time to deliver the mail to a guy who can’t speak English but can read it!
AHA! I found Pavel, not dead at all, hiding in the inn in the next town over! I talked to him and… he vanished… I think this was not Pavel at all, but perhaps his ghost… His ghost has not forgiven me for letting him die in the fire that he started after I agreed to let him help me knowing full-well that he was a minor and not a professional and ate a face full of smoke and suffocated.
I see the architects of this town also enjoy putting stairs to nowhere in their buildings!
Found the constable. He gave me a letter for Minerva… hmm… secret love letters, perhaps?
Ok, why is it that the crazy looking dude in a turban is a bad guy?! Hmmmm?! Also, why am I, a firefighter, chasing a robber, when the constable is right there?
A random fight in complete blackness! Whaaaaaaat?!
Spray that bandit with your hoses! This feels like a… *puts on sunglasses* watered down version of Ghostbusters! Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
So apparently I blasted the robber so much with the water hose that he fell through the floor. That’s how we do things in my town. Steal bread, get wrecked.
I magically teleported back to Minerva, who then magically teleported me to another town with a fire. I am low on precious H20 from spraying down the robber.
After putting the fire out, a girl magically appeared out of thin air! Another ghost, perhaps?
Ah, Kaj dropping the knowledge like it’s… *puts on sunglasses again* hot! Yeaaaaaaaaaaaah!
I like these little “The More You Know” information snippets about fire safety.
Minerva gave me my pay and I didn’t have to pay for Pavel’s dead body! YAY!
Oh boy, oh boy, dinner time again… ok…. Can it happen? Three nights in a row? Ice cream?
Success! I am in love with Minerva because she lets me have ice cream for dinner all the time. All. The. Time.
Ok, day four… starting off with some crazy music here! Jani, what have you done to the fish warehouse?! What is up with the abnormal fire?!
Are you f’n kidding me Jani? You want to pay me to put out the fire in your warehouse with a DICTIONARY?! Oiii. Fine! I better get some ice cream after this.
It has not happened yet, but I am curious what happens when you run out of H20.
Ok, time to tackle the BLUE FLAME!
This ain’t no regular fire! It’s the ROOT OF ALL EVIL! Time to crank up the hoses to 11, boys. Dang, it nearly killed me, but it was not enough. I defeated the root of all evil like the ice cream destroying machine that I am.
Oh wait… It’s not over, here comes NERO! He does have a point about the fish, it does taste and smell better when cooked.
I am plunged into battle while I have like… almost 0 HP on my characters. Luckily I have some rye bread.
Nero singes horrendously, hah!
I am now out of H20 and I can’t fight him. There is literally no way to progress now. I don't recall any save prompts anywhere in the game so I would have to start all over from the beginning now.
Ok, so this is an interesting first attempt! I enjoy the theme of fire safety, but as a game (especially targeted for a younger audience) it definitely needs some work! Visual cues are vitally important to indicate where to go and what to do - add smoke to houses that are on fire, animate the fire (turn stepping on), etc.
Combat overall is easy until you (well, I) am thrust into a no-win situation. In the warehouse I had to battle through multiple regular battles, then root of all evil boss that depletes my health and H20, only to have to fight ANOTHER boss immediately after with no chance to recover my resources? Since this is for kids and the idea is to teach fire safety, do not put them in a position where they will easily lose like this. It can be frustrating and detrimental to the overall goal!
At any rate, I hope you keep working on it and polish it up for your godson! Great job!
Thank you for your extremely detailed review!
Easy mode just adds Juha as an extra party member.
I tried to hint that Minerva is the mayor's daughter (both by the two-letter differences in names and by phrases they have in common), which would have been clear by day 5 when she joins your party.
You did understand that by eating ice cream for dinner every night you forwent any stat increases as indicated in the menu on the table next to Minerva, right? That might have left you eating dust by the time the difficulty spiked. Healthy eating is also a moral in this game!
By forgoing the tour (which I should have made more clear), you probably missed the well next to the station as the source of water with which to refill. There should also have been in-battle refills available in the warehouse (she is Kaj's sister as indicated in the tour you missed) for sale, if you had money.
I found it surprisingly difficult for my part to micromanage the difficulty curve. That definitely still needs work.
Kaj's invocation at the corn warehouse simply turns random encounters on and off, and there is no point to having them off until day 6 when an item necessary for progression becomes available.
Spåra's (and Jani's) entrance in person was originally intended as an Autorun event which I could not get to work properly.
I would have loved to have cosmetic changes on the house exteriors to highlight the presence of a fire, but I could not figure out how that is done.
Cabbage rolls with meat and lingonberry sauce helped me out of depression once!
I see, because I ate poorly I was too weak to fight Nero! I put the blame on Minerva for letting me eat ice cream every single night for supper. I had no clue that the item next to Minerva was interactive.
To show an item is something that should be checked out/interacted with, you could put an animated graphic over it like the little shine graphic that comes with RPG Maker (gotta use "stepping animation on" to make it 'sparkle'). This visually tells a player that this item in question can be used.
What difficulties did you have trying to get auto-run events to work? The premise of them is fairly straight forward luckily - set the event to auto-run (you can make them run under certain conditions by setting a switch, variable, etc on the upper left of the event menu), and whatever event you program into it will automatically go when the player enters the map. To prevent it from running more than once, at the very end of the event make it set its Self Switch to A or something, then add a new event page with Self Switch A selected in the upper left under event conditions.
I might have gotten discouraged by my initial attempts to implement switch-dependent Autoruns, though I cannot at the moment say why. Autoruns are implemented in this game, running automatically upon entering an area. Actually, now that I think of it, there were two of them on day 3, which were the robber upon retrieving the constable's letter and the girl hiding from the fire. I will have to look into that again to see if some of the wisdom I have acquired since then will kick in.
I will also have to look into stepping animations, though I currently do not know what those are.
I forgot to mention that it is possible to circumvent the first fire in the warehouse if you evacuate Jani by talking to him again. He faces a different direction after you talk to him the first time, which was my hint that it may be worth talking to him again. Evacuating residents proves beneficial in a side quest or two.
You mentioned in passing street addresses. I am not sure if you were serious about that or not, but I think I could polish it by giving street addresses to houses, if very basic ones.
I did not think to initiate a devlog for this, but maybe I should, with so many things to improve in a project with such potential!
Let me begin by saying this game does seem like a first-time project by someone new to RPG Maker. Therefore, the game uses a lot of out-of-the-box settings and graphics. Having said that, this game has many novel ideas! And it’s an education game about fire safety! Very unique. I especially liked how you can get punished by asking the boy to help you on the job. XD
Here’s a simple breakdown:
PROS
CONS
SOME FIXES
SUGGESTIONS FOR MAKING RPG MAKER GAMES FOR KIDS
You mentioned that originally you planned to make this game for your 4-year-old godson. I think there’s a few things you can do in RPG Maker to make games more toddler friendly. One, make more use of Play SE. You can play silly sound effects when the character interacts with certain things. Also, instead of displaying text dialogue you can play voice recorded dialogues by you and other family members. While we adults roll our eyes at amateur voice acting, I must say toddlers get a kick out of hearing familiar voices. I’m sure he’ll love hearing your voice act out the lines. The other thing is instead of using the battle system, perhaps you could design the battles like mini games where the player can put out fires on the screen using point and click. Maybe have them match colors or letters to make it more challenging. RPG Maker even works with a touch screen if you have one of those installed. And make more use of the Play Animation on screen to make some funny animations/hidden easter eggs for kids to discover. It can be more interactive storybook like perhaps.
Anyways, just some of my suggestions. Right now the game is quite appropriate for kids a little older. Congratulations on making a kid friendly game!
Of course you get punished for that! What did you think this was? A video game? Oh... wait...
Indeed this is my first project, and I still have much to learn. I have a limited understanding of how Autorun events work. In this game the ones I have incorporated start upon entering an area. I forwent anything else that I wanted to have dependent on a switch since something always seemed to go awry for some reason.
If Minerva's dialogue in Finnish were more important, I would have been more likely to remember to translate it. It just said to not go into her room, and that your room is on the left.
Someone else also suggested voice acting in place of text, which would have been nice to do. For my godson, though, it would need to be in Finnish.
Mouse functionality was also previously suggested as more suitable for young children than keyboard, but my engine as it currently is does not entail mouse support.
Thank you for your review!
Reivew:
Quick thoughts: Considering this game was made in VX Ace Lite, it was an enjoyable game. It needs a lot of polish, but has some interesting and fun concepts, and with an expanded version with some more customization, it could be a lot of fun.
Pros:
Cons:
In the end, I had fun with it. With some polish this could be a rather fun game for kids to discover things about fire safety.
Indeed for children playing on easy mode and unfamiliar with the RPG Maker, there will need to be something pointing out what to do with the 5th party member (if the easy mode additional character is not outright removed upon acquiring Minerva with the optional Lorent in the party, which I am also considering).
The inferior doppelgänger was meant facetiously anyway, but I suppose it would have looked more polished to remove that event once easy mode is enabled. Alternatively, I could have placed this event in the mirror from which easy mode could be enabled, if I had thought of it earlier.
I am not sure what you mean by the map design of the firehouse. As far as I remember, I only made slight adjustments to a premade sample map ("desert house" this one was called). Are you referring to the green carpet?
If you did not make it to Sunday (day 7, the end of the game), on what day did you leave off? Did you redeem your prize at the black market for completing the prisoner side quest? Did you figure out on your own to pursue this side quest, or did you act off the mayor's hint available on Friday and Saturday (days 5 and 6)?
PRISON BREAK! I know. I could not figure out what to do about that for some reason. At least after putting them in their cells the first time, I have it so you can just dash around to bowl them over like bowling pins as a way of saying, "Recess is over! Back to your cells!".
The map design in the firehouse was where you have tables in the hallway, but they're on the wall tile rather than on the floor.
I did finish the black market quest and had him arrested, but didn't know where to go afterwards to save Minerva.
That part looks to me the same as it was in the sample map, so perhaps that is the creator's fault?
I gave the mayor and his wife dialogue that indicates the corn warehouse as a place worth checking, among other things. The warehouse is conveniently closed on Friday, though, so Saturday is the day to go.
Juho's Fire Adventures, A Review (Updated)
The Short: The game has some interesting principles, but needs a lot of polish.
Most glaring, I was unable to complete it due to a broken map(after the developer clarified that there is a hidden moving event which you need to stumble upon I was able to continue).Pros:
(although I never found the dictionary needed to translate it in game). I also liked the PSA about emergency numbers.Cons:
Unbeatable - at least based on my single play through. On day 3 of the game, the characters see a thief, and then are teleported after him into an abandoned house. After thoroughly exploring the small house, I could find no way out of it and nothing to do in it. So either I missed something, or the event is broken. In any case, I quit at that point.It's a game with some heart, but needs a lot of work still.
Thank you for your review! Now for some answers to what left you wondering:
The dictionary is found early in day 4.
Sorry if the purpose of the dark house was unclear. The event was actually invisible, so one simply needed to move around the house until stumbling upon the thief, no action button required. The invisible thief (because it is dark) is set to move around the middle of the house randomly but slowly. So it should not have been broken by any means. FUTURE PLAYERS, PLEASE TAKE THIS INTO ACCOUNT! And if you, Rubescen, happen to have retained the game in your downloads after playing, maybe you would like to try that part again with this in mind? Again, really sorry about that. The third robber to catch, if you choose to pursue this side quest, actually works exactly the same way.
Now I do remember without looking what that Finnish text probably was. It was just Minerva telling you not to go into her room, so you missed nothing from that. I should have translated that, in any case.
I was trying to economise space and events given my RPG Maker platform, so some houses do share the same map, and I was limited in what events I could put in the cities to give more life. I also found out very late in the process that one can change the colours of the screen to make it look like night, so I probably should have just taken out those "night" counterparts.
I do hope someone at least makes it through the whole game in order to review all seven days of it! Now I admit I am concerned about that.
But thank you very much for what you could provide thus far!
Thanks for the clarification, I was able to finish playing (and I must have had really bad luck the first time around in the house, because I just never stumbled upon the thief).
As for that "I am your boss! Respect me!" stuff, I think that since I was writing for a kids' game I got into a child's mindset such that I wrote a bit like a kid at times, and it just sounded funny to me, so it stayed that way. And indeed akin to what you pointed out, these types could be seen as leaders despite whose questionable leadership traits the town continues to thrive, because of the dutiful civil servants holding everything together!
You did not miss any cure for blindness, though perhaps I should have had something there for that. Though you must admit, curing blindness with eyedrops or something on the job would be a bit unrealistic. I thought of having equippable smoke-proof goggles, but I was not sure where I should put them. At least the smoke should have a low (5%) chance of causing blindness, though I forgot to reduce the (average?) duration.
I liked the graphic for the dirty dishes otherwise, but I have to agree that perhaps the background does not quite pass for a kitchen floor or wall when set against the battle background. Maybe I should replace it with a dirty car.
Did you have a thought to finish in your second bullet point under "Cons"? I believe Minerva can give you multiple copies of her letter to Lorent, and that you can obtain multiple pieces of rye bread from Mette after an interaction that takes long enough to make one question its worth, which I thought were relatively insignificant (not game-breaking, at least). Were there other instances of this?
Oh I did cut off there abruptly. They're all pretty minor little things like that, but here are a few more that you could maybe fix if you think it needs them for an update: The thieves in the jail cells reset to the lobby, if you leave the room and return (touching them will immediately send them back to the cell). You can use handcuffs on fire (this just seems a little weird). There is no exit from the ruins at the end of the game (before you use the key to fight the boss even (this may be intentional?). In the epilogue, if you explore the city, nothing has changed. This is mostly amusing, except for one major issue -- if you talk to the elder's wife again, she will trigger the sleep dialogue to embark on the final fight again. It may be possible to do this even before fighting the final boss as well.
I just thought the background on the dirty dishes was a mistake with the default photoshop background for transparencies (grey and white squares) showing up. Frankly, the combat was on the whole too easy/unvaried, and so blindness just felt like an annoyance dragging fights out longer, while I waited for it to wear off. The basic water usage mechanic is interesting, but maybe there are ways to expand on it to give more variance to combat, than mashing attack, over and over, and hoping not to get blinding.
I could not figure out how to make our robbers stay in their cells, so unless I figure that out, we could either buy into the conceit that even criminals need their recess until we call it off by running into them like bowling pins, or I could lock the jailhouse so players need not return after solving the puzzle.
Yes, you can indeed place fires under arrest for an instant K.O., which is why I had long wanted a way to distinguish between the two types of "death": "Arrest" for criminals and "extinguish" for fires. Unfortunately I could not figure out how to do that. Originally I wanted it such that robbers cannot be put down by firemen alone, but firemen's attacks can help increase the chance of a successful handcuffing (the only means of taking down a robber, which I originally thought would take place in battle). When I made fires immune to "death", however, it was not the "instant death" I initially thought it was; these fires would stay in my test battles even after copious amounts of damage, being impervious to "death", period. For now, let us just settle for the conceit that the constable has magic handcuffs capable of putting down fires!
Perhaps I should have made it more clear before the final meal that this would be the point of no return. And perhaps I should have seen if I could have made a more definitive ending than virtually starting day 7 over again with Minerva in tow.
Completing a side quest does give Juho and Kaj a new weapon that enables an attack on all enemies for double the cost of a regular attack, but perhaps one's water supply should be made to depend on an equippable water tank rather than on meals.
I absolutely agree that combat is exceedingly easy. When I asked what would suit a game for a 4-year-old, some said that it should not demand much more than to press the action button over and over again (For this reason, I wanted Lorent and Mette's default attacks to be based on their own weapons, the handcuffs, fire blanket, and handlamp, but that would have involved script editing which I cannot do on this engine.). What is also good about erring on the side of being too easy is that people are more likely to make it to the end.
Out of curiosity, when fighting "Mette on fire", did you put this fire down with your water attacks, or did she successfully get off her "stop, drop, and roll" move in which she instantly K.O.'s herself? I should have made it such that she regenerates HP too quickly to take her down normally, but the reason for her slow regen via "fanning herself" was that I originally had small numbers in mind for the very young audience I had mentioned in the above paragraph.