No worries. I've seen some folks who post their game and then never return. Anyway, here's a link to the VOD.
hythrain
Recent community posts
I had to wait until the VOD's scheduled post went up, but here's a link for ya!
Here's a link to the VOD.
Hey, don't worry about it. I was glad both you and another Harold game made their way over. Made things a lot of fun, especially since this is my third or fourth encounter with Harold.
Here's a link to the VOD.
Honestly, this was one of the most fun games thanks to its comedy.
Here is a link to the VOD.
On getting seeds, that's easy: Delivery service. The player has a computer for their mons, so have it that they can use the computer for limited ordering (and maybe later on the player can unlock expanding it). When they walk outside, a small cutscene plays that shows someone driving off and a package left by the door. You could call it Azamon.
Here is a link to the VOD.
I will say, one of the things I wanted to make sure of when I played this game was I kept in mind the intended limitations of the game. I'm a proponent that old hardware doesn't mean bad game, and that games designed today on retro hardware should still meet with today's standards. When in doubt on what the real problem is, this is a good question to ask yourself: is this to modern gaming standards and sensibilities? If not, why? Once you know why, ask if that reason why is intentional on your part? If it is, ok. You're trying to reflect an aspect of older gaming. In that situation, you should implement a tool that is designed to help people deal with it but make its use optional. A map in this scenario would work.
As for combat, you can save that combat so long as you put it to good use. So let's change a few things.
First, we need a reason to participate in combat and not just run. The answer is to make it that killing enemies gives something to the player. What could that be? Up to you if you want to add an RPG leveling system or an item drop system or something else. However, whatever the case may be you need to ensure that the value for victory is greater than the cost of fighting. You want people to engage in fights.
Of course, you can't make rewards way too strong or it'll break things quickly. The level of reward depends on how long a fight takes, so an easy way to ensure you don't give an OP reward is to make sure fights are shorter. This just involves changing some numbers and making it that enemies have less HP or you deal more damage to enemies. Not too hard to fix either way.
These two things alone will fix the "why fight" problem.
See, to aim like a mouse was my first thought. However, I also then thought about controller and realized this wouldn't really work. Truth be told, I don't think there could be a "good" aiming system for controller because, simply put, nothing is better at aiming than a mouse. The only time I find controller can match is when it has motion controls.
That said, I think the game might be better served by taking a step and asking if aimed weapons is even the way to go. What about if every attack was just in a fix position relative to the character. So for a bow and arrow, maybe on a 45 degree angle relative to the character? That way, it behave predictably and players can more easily know what to expect from it.
Being able to change in combat can help, though I still think there should be some additional slots. Not a lot, either; only one or two. Would it be possible to add one more equipment slot and convert some of the items to that? Maybe make it that this slot explicitly doesn't do damage? The reason why I'm asking for this will make sense once I cover Azuli.
As for making combat unique, here's an idea that focuses more on the visual side. First, we need to change some names. MP is going to be renamed as Energy while TP will be renamed something else. I don't know what yet, but it should be something unique to Azuli. I thought "Anger" or "Rage" at first but these don't feel right. Maybe "Temper" or "Passion"? I'm going to use Temper because I think this might better reflect her and the use behind her actions.
HP, or Health, will be displayed differently by remain in a numerical sense. However, MP and TP are no longer shown as numbers unless you're choosing the attack for that character. Instead, TP is only shown when you're choosing for Azuli while Flor (And likely Lang, I've still not done anything with him) will emit auras that change based on how much energy they have remaining:
0-10% energy: no aura.
11-35% energy: faint aura
36-60% energy: medium aura
61-85% energy: strong aura
86-100% energy: Intense aura
Next, we're going to remove skills for others. For now on, Flor can't use Attack while Azuli can't use Guard. This'll make sense in a moment.
When Flor's turn comes up, rather than a menu coming up it shows an image of a staff (You could even make it that this staff changes appearance based on what she has equipped). On the staff are small pieces of wood that stick out and glow (alternative idea: make it coloured rings based on what is equipped to Flor. So instead of the items being equipped to Flor, they're put on the staff). These represent your skills (so no glow = no skill in that slot). You can still navigate them the same way (arrow keys, mouse, etc) but now when you have one selected it'll give extensive information about that skill. It'll state the name of the skill, the energy needed for the skill, the power of the skill if applicable, the type of skill via an icon (so if it's healing, it'd be a green + or something. If it does Fire damage, it'll be a flame. If it's just a buff/debuff, it'll be arrows), a text description of the skill that tries to connect back to the monster it belonged to, whatever status effects it may apply and the chance of applying said status effect. At the top of the staff is a numerical listing of how much energy Flor has left. Lastly, for when Flor can't use her skills, at the bottom of the staff are options for Guard and Items. When using Guard, she generates a small about of Health and Energy, usually enough for one turn. Oh, also Flor has a set energy of 100.
For Azuli, for her she'll still get a menu but it'll look very futuristic. It's meant to look like it's on her suit, maybe on her arm. It could also be like a cybernetic vision thing. Like Flor, it lists all her abilities flat out starting with attack. Highlighting one causes a secondary screen to appear. This screen gives the details for the skill. Since Azuli doesn't use magic, all of her attacks are just doing physical, non-elemental damage. As such, she doesn't need as much info. However, what she does need is some of her skills having higher costs while the amount of Temper she generates increases. So here's how we do that: every time Azuli does a basic attack, she generates 15 Temper. Every time she's attacked, she generates 10 Temper. Every time Flor is attacked, she generates 20 Temper. Yes, she should generate Temper when Flor is attacked. This is part of why she loses Guard. She cares more about Flor than herself, and should be more focused on helping Flor and killing enemies than on taking care of herself. Her group buffing skill now takes 20 Temper. Her dual attack skill now takes 15 Temper. Finally, she gains a starting skill that costs 100 Temper called "Temper, Temper." She'll do several attacks at once (I'm thinking, like 10) that hit random targets. However, their accuracy is reduced to give a higher miss chance (if the standard miss rate is 90%, this should be 70%). Cheer Up also restores 100 energy for Flor (if this can be used on Lang, it should only be 40 for him). Now, Cheer Up and Temper, Temper are baseline skills. All her other skills are based on her equipment. This is why I want that one extra equipment slot: Azuli has four other skills but only three equipment slots. She needs a fourth slot to allow each ability to be upgraded. Her weapon affects her dual attack, while each slot covers its own support skill. For example, upgrades improve the strength of the debuffs/buffs she applies and later on can do damage or heal at increased Temper costs.
For Lang, I'll leave that one to you. XD
I hope this gives an idea of how easy it can be to make combat more unique feeling. This is purely just a visual idea, yet its presentation makes it feel wholly different.
See, I had a feeling that was the design intent (quick to kill, quick to die). Trying to avoid 30 minute battles is always a good idea, but when RNG jank can make you take 30 minutes anyway? What was the point, right? Also, no matter what system, making OP AOE skills is always an issue. In the fight that kept killing me, I was getting mowed down by attacks that hit my entire party for around 500 damage per person. A far more reasonable amount of damage for that attack would've been 150 per person.
Since I've done this train ride, I'm happy to share with you details of the trip.
As for Zinnia, I think my biggest issue is the fact that she IS a minor doing all this. You even bring this up when Zinnia talks about trying to find a place to rent. There are times when I do ignore the game's logic because it's at least plausible, but the fact that she's a minor and she effectively runs away from home is a big no-no for me. Honestly, I would prefer if she weren't a high school student altogether. Instead, have it that she's at least 18 years old, is done high school but she didn't apply immediately for college because she wanted to work and save the money up (which she claimed was for college but in reality it was to save up for the very thing she's doing now in the game).
Hello! Welcome to Feedback Quest 7! My name's Hythrain and I'm one of the hosts and one of the streamers for this event! This feedback is being written live as I stream your game! If you're interested in seeing my live reaction, let me know and I can send you a link to the VOD once it's posted to YouTube!
So my normal approach for any game in these events is simple: I get the game, make sure it's not a virus, then play it with as little information on how to play as possible. This way, I can judge how intuitively someone can figure out the game. Only if it's obvious that I need to read more will I do so. I note this so you can get a sense where some of these feedback comes from. In addition, I want to note that feedback and rating are different; don't use this feedback to gauge what I'll rate, nor should you view my rating as entirely indicative of my feedback.
When I saw this game, I was excited because of what I thought the concept was going to be. I was so excited that I opted it to be the last game I played as FQ7 (which I've since rated before writing this to ensure it was put in), because I wanted to end on something that I knew I'd like that was also new. Sure enough, it was the sort of game I thought it was. And let me just say, I like the concept.
I went into this unsure of the level of detail I'd need to look into things in order to catch things. Most of the time, I knew what I was catching. However, there being a few I just guessed tells me that it could be as deep as I'm thinking but which I've not observed once yet. It's my hope that after I share this, you'll watch the VOD and tell me what I was missing. Anyway, onto the feedback.
Based on the number of anomalies I caught of 18 (which I'm suspecting IS how many I had in total during the game), either the time is too long or you're not doing a lot of events at all. Given the pixel art nature of this, I recommend trying out the idea of 1 second = 1 minute. So the player is playing for 6 minutes. With 18 anomalies in that time, you're looking at a new anomaly every 20 seconds. This is actually a very good time in all respects.
However, there's something else: I want to see the report system improve. There's been so many I'm On Observation Duty games alone that use many different methods of reporting. And if you're NOT going to make auditory-based clues for anomalies, please add background music. It's SUCH a quiet game and that's so unnerving, especially when I'm streaming. XD
I adore this and want more!
Hello! Welcome to Feedback Quest 7! My name's Hythrain and I'm one of the hosts and one of the streamers for this event! This feedback is being written live as I stream your game! If you're interested in seeing my live reaction, let me know and I can send you a link to the VOD once it's posted to YouTube!
Oh man, my favourite parody RPG game. XD This ended up being the second last game I played this time around, and I'm glad it was because I forgot how ridiculous it was.
I can see some passes have been made to improve the game. Things I felt like should exist didn't anymore, while some parts felt easier and others felt harder from what I vaguely remembered. As such, I'm going to address things I noticed that felt like they should be addressed. They may be things I brought before. I don't remember at all. XD ADHD is funny.
While I do appreciate the strategical aspect of changing gear to have the right spells, I also think that this system doesn't work if you can't change equipment mid-battle. Instead, what I think you should do is open up more equipment slots to allow the player to equipment more items on them. This is especially important if you're going to have spells that do no damage at all.
Second, there were a lot of aspects about Azuli that I liked that I don't recall from before. She has several support effects that I absolutely adore seeing given what her character is. I think the only thing that's missing is that these effects should be improved over time. For example, in the beginning the debuffs just do basic level while the buffs are also basic level. However, over time Azuli improves her gear which improves these effects, making them stronger buffs or letting her deal damage to the enemy while applying a debuff. This way she'll also be shown getting "stronger" to show her own personal commitment to protect Flor.
Third, I felt like some buffs and debuffs were absolutely broken for different reasons. First, the defense buff the minotaurs have was so powerful that Azuli couldn't damage them. She dealt 0 damage. This is usually a result of a damage formula that puts the effects of buffs in too early. At the same time, there were buffs and debuffs that seemed to do nothing at all, likely because the formulas aren't using them. In my experience, when I see these two specific problems at the same time in RPG Maker, it's physical damage being too affected and magic damage not being affected at all. So you should look into the damage formula and correct it, making sure all buffs and debuffs are represented yet also not making them work at the raw stat level.
This now brings me to the finale of my feedback: the game's combat itself.
In the past, I didn't judge this game's RPG Maker combat because I had seen it as just a parody game. I had assumed the plan for this game was to just let it remain as a jokey parody and to use the feedback from it for future games. However, if you're actually continuing with this project then it's time to address this: you need something unique to your gameplay. Right now, you're just a cookie cutter RPG Maker, complete with most of its faults. You need to look into doing something with your combat to stand out. It's time to break the RPG Maker mold and let yourself flex into something that works for you. What could that be? Up to you. You can even do it just visually. I can throw you an idea if you want.
Hello! Welcome to Feedback Quest 7! My name's Hythrain and I'm one of the hosts and one of the streamers for this event! This feedback is being written live as I stream your game! If you're interested in seeing my live reaction, let me know and I can send you a link to the VOD once it's posted to YouTube!
So my normal approach for any game in these events is simple: I get the game, make sure it's not a virus, then play it with as little information on how to play as possible. This way, I can judge how intuitively someone can figure out the game. Only if it's obvious that I need to read more will I do so. I note this so you can get a sense where some of these feedback comes from. In addition, I want to note that feedback and rating are different; don't use this feedback to gauge what I'll rate, nor should you view my rating as entirely indicative of my feedback.
It didn't take me long to figure out what this game was doing, and a quick glance at the game page did confirm it. As such, I ultimately knew that there wasn't anything for me to really give feedback on. This isn't a project that needs the sort of feedback I'd give, so I'm not going to give it. Just know that I support the intent. That said, this also cuts very close to our rule on involvement of current politics (a rule which I had implemented after a game that was wholly against my personal politics). As such, I'm forced to let my rating reflect this. Just know that in general, I'm okay with everything you're doing.
Hello! Welcome to Feedback Quest 7! My name's Hythrain and I'm one of the hosts and one of the streamers for this event! This feedback is being written live as I stream your game! If you're interested in seeing my live reaction, let me know and I can send you a link to the VOD once it's posted to YouTube!
So my normal approach for any game in these events is simple: I get the game, make sure it's not a virus, then play it with as little information on how to play as possible. This way, I can judge how intuitively someone can figure out the game. Only if it's obvious that I need to read more will I do so. I note this so you can get a sense where some of these feedback comes from. In addition, I want to note that feedback and rating are different; don't use this feedback to gauge what I'll rate, nor should you view my rating as entirely indicative of my feedback.
This was certainly interesting to play. I was glad I was persistent in trying to do stuff, because I did manage to get through the entire demo. With that said...
This game is difficult to figure out. In the first part of the demo, the player is told NOTHING. They have to just go around and figure things out. It took me a while to realize that the whispers were things I needed to see. Then there was the puzzles themselves, particularly that music based one. I actually was starting to figure it out when I accidentally solved it, which was both good but also not satisfying because now I don't know if I actually WAS figuring it out? If it's what I think (where you walk over the notes to replay the entire song), there are numerous ways you can improve this puzzle. First, reduce the song's length. By the time I figured out what I was doing, I think I had accidentally punched in half the song. By that point, I was just trying to do everything from the start and was writing out the notes by shape one-by-one in notepad. I was at 15 notes of the melody recorded. That's already a lot! The range of notes should be between 8 and 16, with a much higher preference to 8 when you're not using an actual musical instrument for the player to play.
Speaking of, while it wouldn't look as natural, I think keeping the marks to play the notes in a straight line that just rises up in note as it goes further down is much better than the circular method you have going, especially when you're doing things by symbols. I was having a hell of a time figuring it out because of that awkward order.
The torch puzzle I think is fine as is, because the butterfly is established as a thing before you get there. However, I must request that you replace butterflies with faeries. There aren't enough of them out there with butterflies stealing their spotlight like this. XD (I kid, I kid! Maybe)
As for the night section, that is way too dark and your lantern does NOT work at all. I would say both the lantern light AND moonlight should be added, especially given how ridiculously pretty this game is. Also, players should be told what they're doing.
Speaking of the game being pretty, I highly recommend giving several passes for optimizing graphics. Maybe you've done some optimizing already, but it's always a good idea to do more passes. That way, you can do more with the graphics!
Lastly, crafting. So I think it's important that you make crafting into its own state of playing. That way, you don't need to use CTRL to do crafting because that's just silly. In addition, if the skill checks do nothing but just inconvenience you in a slight manner as they do, you might as well remove them. One thing I always try to advice people to remove is artificially extending the length of their game as it just bogs the game down. If you're unfamiliar with how to recognize artificial extension, I can explain it to you. Suffice to say, though, that's what the skill checks do. They can be outright ignored and you'll still get the craft done in a small amount of time, so there's no point. There needs to be real punishment or there's no purpose to them.
Hello! Welcome to Feedback Quest 7! My name's Hythrain and I'm one of the hosts and one of the streamers for this event! This feedback is being written live as I stream your game! If you're interested in seeing my live reaction, let me know and I can send you a link to the VOD once it's posted to YouTube!
So my normal approach for any game in these events is simple: I get the game, make sure it's not a virus, then play it with as little information on how to play as possible. This way, I can judge how intuitively someone can figure out the game. Only if it's obvious that I need to read more will I do so. I note this so you can get a sense where some of these feedback comes from. In addition, I want to note that feedback and rating are different; don't use this feedback to gauge what I'll rate, nor should you view my rating as entirely indicative of my feedback.
Oh heck yes! A game with Henry Stickmin?! This is gonna be a 3 hour journey, taking me to the deepest depths of hell and back as I seek to destroy this evil wi- it took 5 minutes.
That about sums it up. It's hard to really give feedback on this when it's such a short experience with only one real way to win. So, uhh.... next time make a longer game. XD
So before I get into anything, keep in mind that when I made the "you're not being the game dev" comment, it wasn't meant to imply insult or anything. I'm just trying to ensure you understand the issue.
As for the game, let me give a more practical example. Let's say you were making a tabletop RPG instead of a LARP game. Tthe things the player needs to play your game and your pre-made campaign (not including things they need to bring such as dice) are the PHB, the Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG), character sheets (so players can know how stats work) and a full write up for the pre-made campaign so the DM knows how the story plays out. The PHB, the DMG and the pre-made campaign scenario are all things the player needs to play the game as intended. They provide the rules. They provide the setting. They provide everything that defines it as a game. What you posted for this would be the equivalent of a few pieces of artwork from the Player's Handbook (PHB) and a poem that is part of the pre-made campaign but doesn't help define much of anything.
Lastly, when I bring up about special clothes and people it's because LARPing involves a lot of people to do it right and the right outfits to set the mood. Think about war reenactments. Those are a form of LARPing, and they take lots of people to do right.
That all said... no, I've never heard of any "symbolic meaning" to a white crow. In fact, I didn't even know white crows were an actual thing until I looked it up 30 seconds before I wrote this line. And that's an important thing to also consider: when making a game, you need to teach the player how to play the game. That includes teaching them any important symbolism that matters for it in case they don't have experience with it. After all, everyone's cultures are different and what's big and important to one culture may not mean anything in another.
Hello! Welcome to Feedback Quest 7! My name's Hythrain and I'm one of the hosts and one of the streamers for this event! This feedback is being written live as I stream your game! If you're interested in seeing my live reaction, let me know and I can send you a link to the VOD once it's posted to YouTube!
So my normal approach for any game in these events is simple: I get the game, make sure it's not a virus, then play it with as little information on how to play as possible. This way, I can judge how intuitively someone can figure out the game. Only if it's obvious that I need to read more will I do so. I note this so you can get a sense where some of these feedback comes from. In addition, I want to note that feedback and rating are different; don't use this feedback to gauge what I'll rate, nor should you view my rating as entirely indicative of my feedback.
When I first started this up and saw the same screen issue as raghunandan, I opted to download the game to try it out. It seems doing that led me to avoid some potential other problems.
That said, this is one of the strangest games I've seen in an FQ event. Not because of the concept, but rather the funeral dirge music for traveling in space that gave this game a weird feel to me. I never quite settled into it because of it.
With that said, I still don't know what the goal of the game is. I thought it was to get to the blue object. However, I kept dying before I got there. Not only that, but it felt like avoiding the turrets is just impossible. I tried everything to not get shot and I still got hit with a hail of bullets taking out my shields. Unless when you reach the end, it still says you lost and I don't realize it. As such, it makes it hard to give feedback on the gameplay.
Hello! Welcome to Feedback Quest 7! My name's Hythrain and I'm one of the hosts and one of the streamers for this event! This feedback is being written live as I stream your game! If you're interested in seeing my live reaction, let me know and I can send you a link to the VOD once it's posted to YouTube!
So my normal approach for any game in these events is simple: I get the game, make sure it's not a virus, then play it with as little information on how to play as possible. This way, I can judge how intuitively someone can figure out the game. Only if it's obvious that I need to read more will I do so. I note this so you can get a sense where some of these feedback comes from. In addition, I want to note that feedback and rating are different; don't use this feedback to gauge what I'll rate, nor should you view my rating as entirely indicative of my feedback.
I'm assuming most of this is broken and it's not just me, based on a cursory glance at the comments. As such, it's difficult to really give any feedback since we don't know much of all about how it'll play.
Hello! Welcome to Feedback Quest 7! My name's Hythrain and I'm one of the hosts and one of the streamers for this event! This feedback is being written live as I stream your game! If you're interested in seeing my live reaction, let me know and I can send you a link to the VOD once it's posted to YouTube!
So my normal approach for any game in these events is simple: I get the game, make sure it's not a virus, then play it with as little information on how to play as possible. This way, I can judge how intuitively someone can figure out the game. Only if it's obvious that I need to read more will I do so. I note this so you can get a sense where some of these feedback comes from. In addition, I want to note that feedback and rating are different; don't use this feedback to gauge what I'll rate, nor should you view my rating as entirely indicative of my feedback.
So when I first booted up this game, I had to stop and look up what different terms meant because IT STARTED WITH DADDY, QUEEN, TWINK AND BEAR. I was traumatized! XD
When I finally got in and started playing, however, I was immediately left in bewilderment. From Davis having the exact same sprite as me to trying to find battles to make money to stay at the hotel, every new thing was leaving me bewilderment. A plastic bag for an enemy? Ratcat?! HOLY FUCK KAREN! XD I was laughing.
I bring this up because I think this is the strongest point of this game: to constantly bewilder the player with things. From here, however, we need to talk about the problems, most of which revolve around combat.
At its core, this game is very much an RPG Maker game, despite impressive visuals that break that mold. From a wide variety of effects and weaknesses and strengths to excessive miss rates and likely defensive stats not working as they're supposed to. It even has the default RPG Maker mechanic I hate the most: CALLING FOR HELP.
So first bit of feedback I have: remove calling for help. Just get rid of it. It's garbage. Worst thing you can do for your game.
After that, I recommend going back into your combat and try to simplify it. One issue with RPG Maker's core is that it makes a very diverse set of ideas with elements and status ailments. This isn't entirely bad, but RPG Maker's design tries to make it so you need to be interacting with this system from the moment the game starts. This is never something I recommend doing in an RPG because generally the player should be eased into things. Lemme give you a prime example: Final Fantasy 10.
During the first two areas of the game in FF10, the player does not need to worry about "magic" damage or the idea that certain targets can be killed more easily by certain characters. These mechanics aren't introduced until you're on Besaid. In short, it keeps combat simple up until the main journey begins. I think this is always a model others should make use of.
Now note that while I said simplify, my example didn't cut mechanics out. It simply didn't make them matter until a certain point. This is why I argue against the RPG Maker default style.
That said, I still think you should try to find a way to make your combat more unique. Something to make it stand out against other RPG Maker games even more.
Here is a link to the VOD. I will admit, I was very short-leashed on this day.
Thank YOU for making the game. :) Also, here's a VOD link if you want to check out how stupid I am.
Here is a link to the VOD.
As for your note about not hurting people's feelings in regards to religion... the people who will get upset will get upset regardless.
Here is a link to the VOD.
Also, in regards to collecting the gems, games like this often put rewards for getting the gems. I want whatever that reward will be. XD