Post by PikaMew in Adrift jam comments

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*sigh* Alright, this game... I tried. Multiple times. I tried to see this game through like all the rest. But this game... is almost impossible to finish. For you see, this game is filled TO THE BRIM with game-breaking bugs. Most of my game sessions ended in a softlock. I'm not joking when I tell you this game is probably the most broken game of the entire game jam. It have a lot going for it: an intriguing story, world-building stuff, mystery, adventure... This is also a game that wants itself ambitious for a RPG Maker game: real-time combat, pixel-based movement... And that's probably part of the problems I'm going to mention here.

- As the boat go in the introduction, stuff are disappearing on the right side of the screen.

- The HUD is way too big, it takes too much space on screen, and is susceptible to hide map elements or enemies. You should consider making it smaller.

- "Max HP Heal" is confusing if you don't know Yanfly's plugin. People might think the item increases the character's Max HP instead of healing him based on his max HP. Maybe something more in the way of "% HP heal" might fix the issue.

- Also, I would like to talk about the controls which are... not very human-friendly. You use the directional keys to move around, enter the interact with things, left-click to attack/cut trees and plants, right-click to guard, and 1 and 2 to cast spells. Well... I'm sorry, but I'm not a Machamp: I don't have 4 arms to spare. Maybe you want to map your controls a more efficient way?

- So... apparently, saving the game starting the moment you get the pickaxe and the sword corrupts the save file as the game now refuses to load said save file. Which is pretty early in the game and thus a big problem considering the length of the game (and the bugs). As it forces you to restart if you just want to leave, the game shuts down for any reason or if you encounter a game breaking bug (which this game doesn't lack of apparently).

- WAIT! IS THE GAME PROGRAMMED TO AUTOSAVE AT THE LAST SLOT YOU SAVED AT, CRUSHING THE LAST SAVE DATA AT THAT SLOT? OH MY GOSH, IT MAKES THIS BUG SO MUCH MORE PROBLEMATIC! WHAT THE HELL?!

- Donicus have no reason to say that this early in the game.

- The lantern barely does anything in the underground tunnel and Donicus just says it is "Much better" while it isn't. It's as dark as before visually.

- Combat seems... not... stacked against the player?

- Oh yeah, Donicus. Now you definitely understand what's on that wall. Too bad, you can't share it with us...

- Ty-typo? I'm not even sure.

- Pixel-based movement is janky in this game. You got to be extremely close of what you want to interact with, sometimes when you get close of anything you can't get on the side forcing you to walk away first. I had problems entering the tent. During my first playthrough, I fought you simply couldn't enter it so I roamed the map looking for a way to rest and a lantern for several minutes before leaving the game out of frustration.

- Wait! A bat just made me jump through the wall! You can walk through walls! It's not easy to come out of this situation, but if you manage, you can trigger the demon boss fight early despite the doors closed. Oh... And toying far enough with that bug... I realized... where was the demon... before the boss fight is triggered. It scared me. XD

Now, here is a list of the softlocks I found:

- If you talk to the fae the first time at the wall and she tells you to join her at the pillar near the cliffs, you can softlock the game by going to rest instead. For some reason, the fairy isn't at the pillar, but back at the wall instead. Talking to her softlocks the game after a few text boxes.

- When the fae activates the pillar, you can talk to her in a certain position. Doing so will softlock the game again when it tries to make Donicus walk back.

- When the mysterious woman approaches you, you have the choice of fighting her or not. Deciding not to will softlock the game again after a few text boxes.

- Softlocked again. This time, because last time I didn't challenged the woman and it softlocked the game, I did challenged her. And the game let me rest at the tent without problems, my pursuer was way too slow to stop me (even despite being at the Asleep state, which lowers the character's movement speed). As a result the game entered a softlocked state where rain started again, the sister is nowhere to be found, the fairy at the wall asks me to touch the pillar and the main menu is disabled. Also... I can't die for some reason?

(Please excuse the quality of the gifs I had to compress them to make itch.io accept to host them.)

*sigh* I'm sorry. I would have like to see this game through, but in this state... it... it's just too much. If even the save files would have worked as intended, it would have make things so much easier for me. Between the game-breaking bugs, the balance and the oversights... I can't put this in the "good game" category. Not in its current state.

Also, make sure everything you put in your game have a purpose. Like, for example, does pixel-based movement serves gameplay more than grid-based movement? Don't do things just because "it's not default". Don't make the same mistakes than Final Fantasy II.

From what I understand, you intend to make it a full-fledged game? In that case, I wish you good luck! The path of excellence is long so don't get lost on the way, okay? ^^

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Sleepy Kitten Games4 years ago(+1)

The stuff in the boat was a bug with the mapping plugin, there was nothing I could do to fix that. It is fixed in the new version because I am not using that mapping system anymore (I couldn't use it for the jam because it was considered a "tool").
I will look into making the HUD smaller.
I didn't have the time to fix the terminology on the plugin's menus, because I was focusing on fixing mechanical issues.
You can rebind the controls to be how you like. You don't need to use the arrow keys, and frankly I never do use them. However, I am unable (as of right now) to let the player rebind skill buttons, that's just not a feature of the plugins I'm using.
Yes, I know that saving is broken, I have no clue why. But someone has suggested a fix for me, so hopefully the post-jam version will fix that.
The only time that the game is supposed to autosave is right before the boss. Beyond that, no, it should not be autosaving. That is not even a system I have in that game because none of the autosaving plugins I've found even work.
Alright, a minor eventing bug that I missed, I'll see if I can fix that as well.
The lantern is a problem with the lighting plugin I had to use (not a fan of Terrax's). Again, this will be fixed in the post-jam version since I will be switching to Khas'.
I have no idea why the bats do 0 damage, this bug didn't appear until later and at that time I was putting my effort into fixing the demon boss. This will be fixed in the post-jam version.
I never had the time to finish the mural, that will also be fixed in the post-jam version.
Last I checked, no, that's in fact not a typo.
I've fixed the collision on the tent in the post-jam version, this was also a problem due to the mapping system.
Yes, that's again due to the mapping system I was using in lieu of my usual system. This will also be fixed in the post-jam version.
Ugh, I tried fixing her event but I guess a condition slipped through while I was testing. Gonna fix that too.
Duly noted, I'll see if I can't do some tweaking on that event.
The mysterious woman event is not finished, I was adding that in roughly 2 or 3 days before the jam ended. That will be finished in the post-jam version, but it wasn't in this version because I simply did not have time.
Interesting. That's likely a bug due to how unfinished the mysterious woman event is, so in all likelihood the post-jam version won't have this problem.
I intend to finish it and give it an ending. Beyond that, it wasn't supposed to be a "fully fledged game" as much as a "let's see how people like these mechanics and let's see if I can't fix them ahead of time". Effectively, this can be considered a prototype for my main project, a way to test the systems and get what people think. However, due to the limitations of the jam I was unable to do some things I otherwise would have been able to do. I am sorry to hear that you consider this game less than enjoyable. Hopefully the post-jam version will fix at least some of the issues you have found.

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PikaMew4 years ago

Why don't you just use a looping map for your introduction sequence?

Thank you. ^^

It's understandable considering the project.

Trying out I realized it adapts itself to the keyboard used (I'm using a French keyboard which is different from English ones). Which is a good thing. I didn't really dared touching it until now out of fear it would break the game again due to the type keyboard used. As for skill buttons, it would be indeed nice for the player to have a full control over... its controls. OwO

That's cool! I hope the fix will work! ^^

Actually, I just wanted to tell you: you don't need a plugin to make an autosave system. You can open an event and make him execute this script:

if (DataManager.lastAccessedSavefileId() !== 0){
    $gameSystem.onBeforeSave();
    DataManager.saveGame(DataManager.lastAccessedSavefileId());
}

Upon reading this script, the game will either:

- Save in a new slot if this is a new game,

- Or if the game has been saved, save in the latest slot this game have been saved.

Source:

Problems like this happen with complex eventing. X)

Ok, good to know for the lantern. ^^

Maybe the monsters' stats are getting in the way of one another. If the problem occurred while you were balancing the demon, then it's a possibility.

Too bad for the mural, I was curious. X)

Ok, I had a doubt about it. That's cool. ^^

Great about the tent!

If you intend to do a New Game+ with a Cheat option, maybe you could consider to allow the player to go through walls. That'd be nice. Because... I kinda had fun with this. (Even though I was getting more trapped than anything.) Or you can make like Super Mario Odyssey and use this bug at your advantage to hide secrets for the player. (In which case, you might want to allow him to return back to the level with ease.) ^^

It seems that the action of resting resets the fae's position for some reason. That's the problem. Also, after another trying out this: I realized what actually caused this softlock to happen is the game is trying to make the character back off against a tree. About softlocks, most of them happen because the game tries to move a character against an obstacle and because you haven't told it to stop if the movement wasn't possible, it keeps trying to move it indefinitely. You could maybe toggle ON/OFF the possibility for characters and event to go through obstacles. This is something I often used for The Escapists during cutscenes to make sure everything happen as intended.

Thanks a lot for your concern, but don't worry. Adrift was a noble effort with maybe too big of a scale for a game jam. I'm sure you will manage in the future.

I hope my review helped you going through with Adrift and your future projects as well. ^^

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Sleepy Kitten Games4 years ago(+1)

I did use a looping map for the introduction sequence. That's why the mapping system was glitching, because it does not like looping maps. In the version where I'm using my preferred mapping system, that has been fixed already. (That was honestly the first thing I fixed.)
As I said, I don't yet have the ability to let players rebind the skill buttons, because that just wasn't a feature of the plugins. Once the new programmer on my team starts to get the hang of programming for RPG Maker, I'll see if he might be able to get that working.
For Adrift, I didn't really want an autosave system, truth be told. I only forced a save before the demon boss so the player wouldn't be stuck having to go through the whole game again if they forgot. (it should be said that at the time I added that, I didn't know that the save system only works on the developer end but not for the player. I didn't know this until later builds, where I started having people test it out. By then I'd basically forgotten that I had the game force a save before the demon boss.)
I feel like the bats are unbalanced so badly is just because I gave them a basic skill and went to work on the more pressing mechanical issues: ie, the demon boss. An underwhelming enemy is one thing, but an underwhelming boss really doesn't bode well.
Unfortunately no NG+ plugins exist that are both free and functional in 1.6.2. With Adrift that's not a problem since NG+ wasn't part of my idea for it, but for my main project I absolutely plan on having NG+.
For the pillar sequence, I'm probably going to do what I did for a couple other events and have it teleport the player to a specified position so I know where they are. That way I can 100% know that they won't get themselves stuck.
The fairy's position is supposed to be set to near the pillar after a switch is toggled, that's odd that it didn't work like that. The detriments of having less time to have people test things before the game was due, I suppose.

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Licro4 years ago(+1)

Wow Pika you should be a pro playtester

When I'll finish my main project I'm totally hiring you to playtest XD

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PikaMew4 years ago

Wow, I feel flattered. Thanks for the compliment. ^^;

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