@Reshad Haque/southofsun
Just letting you know, your Discord account got hacked & compromised. The compromised account tried to send me a scam link.
I don't know if you're still active on itch.io (and hopefully you didn't save your itch.io password to your browser), but if you do see this hopefully you get your account back.
Hey, we're working on an entry for the Summer Novel Festival game jam (https://itch.io/jam/sunofes20), and we're still trying to find a 3D modeler to help bring our characters to life. We're using UE4, and you can see the (admittedly barebones until we get some screenshots posted) itch.io page for our entry here: https://sleepy-kitten-games.itch.io/saigr-noscere. To give a quick summary, it's a fantasy ARPG taking inspiration from Nihon Falcom's Ys series, with the player exploring the isolated island of Dural and trying to uncover its mysteries as well as those of the imposing Saigr Tower.
If you want more information about our plans for the game, we'd be happy to elaborate if you reach out to us through Discord - this is the Discord account of our lead game designer and lead writer: Nat#0931
The game doesn't have an ending yet, I never had the time to implement it.
The action keys changing shouldn't affect your ability to use skills, because you can't rebind the buttons for the skills (the plugins I'm using don't allow for it because they're unfinished - the creator abandoned RPG Maker altogether a couple years ago).
Were there any cutscenes in particular where this happened?
The trees respawn because they are enemies, and because I was planning to allow the player to make more fires but I never got around to it.
The recipes were added as I added things, but yes, some enemy drops went unused because I ran out of time. I have no plans of letting the player craft equipment, the decision to keep the player at one weapon and some armor was deliberate.
The plants aren't supposed to be passable because they are enemies. If I set them as below the player, then harvesting/"attacking" bugs out (the same is true for enemies set to above the player). The bats deal 0 damage half because I never had the time to balance their skill and half because I didn't realize how badly Drifty Mode is unbalanced in the player's favor.
The fairy isn't supposed to be an actual party member, she was never supposed to be. She is accompanying you. As for Teriny, I never had the chance to balance her because I was focusing on the gameplay as Donicus (since you spend most of the game as him).
I am glad that you enjoyed the story, I apologize that there were as many bugs as there are. The bugs and general uncompleted nature of this game are why I plan on releasing a final, finished version after the jam is over (after the winners are announced) - bugs hopefully fixed, some more balancing, more story and gameplay content, and less wonky collision (which was primarily because I couldn't use my mapping system of choice).
Yeah, as I've said in other replies, the saving/loading system seems to break for everyone else even though it's always worked just fine on my end. Hopefully the post-jam version won't have that problem.
There isn't anything after the mysterious woman battle, I never had the time to add more because that was added shortly before the deadline. The post-jam version is planned to have the story fully finished, the assorted bugs squished away, and some improvements to the visuals as well.
In any case, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for playing my entry!
Thank you for your review!
I'm glad you liked the premise and the story. Truth be told, I started with the mechanics for this game rather than the story, so I was worried it would come across as rushed or unfinished. The story took some inspiration from the Ys series, although I wanted it to still be my own interesting spin on it rather than a copy-paste of their stories.
I always add the manual into games I make, especially ones where the player might step away for a long time and possibly forget things. The last thing I want is a player coming back to the game after a long time away from it and being completely and utterly lost.
I'm also glad you liked the island map, I try to make sure the maps in my games look good while also not hindering the player's ability to traverse them.
I really should have added more guidance, but to tell the truth I wasn't certain how to effectively give guidance without holding the player's hand too severely. Creating tutorials has always been somewhat of a weak point for me, because I'm never sure how to go about adding them without confusing the player or boring them.
It's odd that the water source dried up, because it's not supposed to do that. The eventing logic was set up so that, if you have an empty bottle you can fill it with water, and if you don't then you can't get another water bottle out of nowhere. I'll have to look at that and see if maybe a bug slipped through my admittedly barebones system.
And yes, the loading issue has been brought up by many other people who have given Adrift a try. I'm not certain what causes this issue, since at least on my end (in playtest, in the deployed copy, and in the .exe copy) saving works perfectly fine. I have been directed towards a possible alternative, so I will likely be trying that system out in the post-jam version and seeing if that solves the loading issue.
I like the suggestion of creating a tutorial area, that's definitely something I will try out in the post-jam version since that won't have the 30 minute time limit.
I did try and slow down the sleep meter (the current version is about 2x slower than the original version was, when I was just testing out the mechanic), so I'll definitely try and slow it down even more.
As I said earlier, I'm going to look into the event logic for the water source to figure out why it dried up for you, because the way I set it up it is supposed to be infinite.
I appreciate your advice and the good/bad that you pointed out. Thank you again for the review, and for giving my entry a look!
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.
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.
I'm glad you liked the premise and ideas. To be honest I wasn't sure to what degree to add in guidance for the player, since I didn't want to have no guidance whatsoever but I also didn't want to shove the player's face into every smallest thing. I'm hoping that in the post-jam version, I'll be able to iron out the kinks in this version.
Adrift isn't meant to be completed in 30 minutes, in all honesty. I created 30 minutes of content, and decided "screw it, I'm having fun with this, let's just add more for the people who feel like playing some more". Strange that you weren't able to see the hint again, gonna have to look into that event again and see if I can't fix that once the jam is over.
Yeah, the save system has been reported a few times as not working for some people, but in all honesty... I have no idea how to fix it. It works just fine on my end, so somewhere between then and downloading it on someone else's computer it stops working and I have no idea why. Maybe Drifty will have some ideas during the stream, who knows.
Interesting, I've not heard of the attacks not working bug. Nor was I expecting the sheep to disappear - though to be fair, that's an enemy I was planning to implement and I never got around to it. The collision on the bridge is a little tight at times, partially due to the colliders being more of a rough approximation rather than a more accurate representation of what it's supposed to be like. That'll be fixed as well in the after-jam version.
Interesting, I thought I fixed that skill menu bug. Everyone else who's tested it said the bug went away. Going to need to see if that addon can be fixed...
Yeah, the lantern problem is honestly just a product of the plugin I was forced to use (I'm not terribly fond of how Terrax's plugin looks, and Khas' wasn't an option for the jam since it uses external images). That will also be fixed in the after-jam version.
Yeah, the HUD is because I was testing out a new feature and it proved to be kind of buggy. Definitely going to go back to just doing it the way I used to in the after-jam version.
That's not something QInput allows by default, unfortunately. I'm hoping that the programmer who recently joined my team for my main project might be able to help with that.
I did debate on creating a Hint/Journal option, but I never got around to it because I spent so much time trying to get the demon boss to not be so easy to kill (in earlier versions he died in one hit, maybe two).
Fair warning, in this incarnation of Adrift there isn't an ending. It just kind of ends with the player either being in a cutscene forever or with the player being in an unwinnable boss battle. I never got around to finishing that cutscene, because for a while that bit of the game was pushed aside while I made the demon boss less boring.
I'm glad that you liked it overall, though.
PS: Yeah the Ys series is great. Since playing Ys 8 (my favorite so far, might change once I get the chance to play Ys 9, haha) I've gotten some cool ideas for my main project (Adrift is kinda supposed to be a prototype for my main project, so I can see what things people enjoy and what things people don't enjoy).
The game does suffer some music-related lag when played in the browser. This is a known issue with MV, so it was something I was expecting to happen. However, it does hurt some of the effect of a scene when the music doesn't come in until many seconds (or even a minute+) later. The most egregious instance of this was when I went into the battle against the Lightning Minotaur, where the battle music took almost a minute to load, and after another almost-minute the battle scene appeared - which caused my computer to start lagging. (This was what led me to download the game instead).
I was amused to see that one of the characters is named Meriel - that's the placeholder name for one of the characters in my main project.
In the Main Generator, if you defeat all the ghosts and the door appears, the game has an error where it's looking for and can't find !Flame.png. After I added that file in, the dialogue for the "Farie" goes outside of the window and is unreadable.
I liked how each element had another it was strong against and one it was weak against, and I liked how the final boss changed between the three elements. I also liked how you get extra weapons for helping the elves in the dungeon turn back from being monsters.
The concept and execution are interesting, however I think there might be a bug with the boulder puzzle. He says that he gave you a Warp item, but he doesn't actually give you an item. This meant that I got stuck when I managed to block myself in, and I hadn't saved since before entering a boss dungeon (which I'd promptly found had a boss that was too strong for me to beat just yet).
I never knew there was a pixel movement script for VXAce, I only knew of the ABS scripts that I used back when I used VXAce.
The hitboxes on enemy drops are a little hit-or-miss, sometimes it takes several passes of walking over them before I can pick them up.
I also noticed in the screenshots that there are supposed to be spells, but I could not find any of them.
In addition, the HUD is 1 HP off. When the HUD says the player is at 473, they're actually at 474 (and so on).
There were also some typos and grammatical errors (I'm not sure how many were intentional and how many weren't).
The writing was pretty good, the use of the saving/loading mechanic was very creative (it reminded me of Undertale/DDLC, especially at the end). I really liked the moment that Brawn set his own Anchor Point in the middle of the battle, and you can tell because the boss has that same Meta Stasis animation on it.
I also like how the game teaches you how to use the mechanic, and then with the final boss shows exactly what this mechanic is capable of.
I am curious: is there anything left after "Little Tina" starts saying "..." whenever you return to an Anchor or when you start a new game?
The writing was pretty good at the start, but as the game continued more and more typos and grammatical errors began appearing.
Interacting with the woman in the woods should trigger a switch, so the same scene doesn't play out after you've already talked to her. A similar bug happens if you talk to the guard in front of the castle after he steps aside, except in this case you aren't able to move because his move route doesn't have "skip if can't move" turned on.
The "Bull Horn" skill was, quite frankly, overpowered throughout most of the game. I only died once against a jellyfish (before I realized how overpowered Bull Horn is), and the princess died during one battle later on. Beyond that, none of the enemies became a challenge until the wizard's tower (and even then they weren't particularly challenging, they just stopped going down in one use of Bull Horn).
Fluke getting betrothed to the princess kind of comes out of nowhere, aside from where he calls her pretty. Perhaps there could be some more character interactions between the three of them, to give more of a lead-up to the two of them getting betrothed?
I did like the fact that a lot of the maps had secrets hidden around, to reward players for exploring.
The maps could do to be a good bit smaller, and there were a lot of typos and grammatical errors. The writing itself is all over the place as well, and at times it can come across as needlessly dark (the grandfather) or all over the place (the man suddenly turning into a demon and attacking her). At other times, it comes across as goofy/silly (her being leveled up to 69).
It needs a lot more work on the writing and grammar, and some of the events can easily be broken (for instance, if you enter the back entrance area from a different door you are able to bypass all of the monsters chasing you).
Some of the enemies couldn't be damaged, even when they should be damage-able.
When I died, the ship sprite went invisible and I couldn't use skills anymore. I also couldn't figure out how to heal.
As soon as I moved past the barrier of green portals/glowing spots, the sprite rendered for a bit and then I immediately got a game over.
Enemies also didn't get health bars until a later map, where they suddenly had health bars. This was shortly before I died.
I loaded a save I made when the space section started, and eventually I died again and the same thing happened.
In addition, there were a small handful of grammar/editing errors.
The concept is interesting, but there are a handful of bugs that need some ironing out.
The menu system is neat and creative. I like that it has a hints option, and the inspect option came in handy when I wasn't sure what things were interactable.
I did run into a bug in the Neighborhood, where the jumping platform sent me jumping off the map when I went to climb back down. I couldn't do anything except pull up the pause menu and select its options (which did nothing to get me un-stuck).
There were a lot of typos and grammatical errors in the dialogue, though the premise of the game's story shows promise.
Yeah, as soon as I saw the Key Input option I knew you were using QInput. I am very familiar with Quxios' plugins, that's why I gave myself the title of "Resident Qplugins Expert" on Drifty's Discord. I'm always open to helping people figure out how to use Quxios' plugins.
QABS does have a steeper learning curve than most of the other battle systems out for MV (I recently figured out how to make a multi-stage boss, which is quite exciting). If you want, feel free to ping me on Drifty's Discord and I'd be happy to help you.
I wasn't able to complete the game (I stopped on 2-2, perhaps halfway or so through when I ran out of Continues), I'll go more into detail below.
This is really impressive, and there's some things I'd be quite interested to learn how you accomplished. My only complaint is that some of the maps were really laggy for me (1-4, 2-1, and 2-2). I think all the maps that had multiple Sledges on it were the ones that were laggy for me.
That being said, there is a lot of creativity on display. I'm especially curious as to how you got the animations scrolling across the screen (in both the title screen and the game in general) and how you got the animated "Driftwood Gaming 2020 Game Jam" bar on the title screen. Honestly everything to do with the UI is impressive.
I like how you were given a hint as to how to defeat the first boss, but the player is still left to figure things out for themselves.
Going through the first floor gave me faint memories of playing through some of the dungeons in the Ys series - which has a handful of really cool dungeons.
The story was interesting, I liked the twist of what the final boss was planning.
It took me a bit to adapt to the combat system in this game, but once I got the hang of saving every time I entered a new room it became an interesting challenge of figuring out whether I had the right abilities/etc. to kill the enemies in the room. (I didn't remember to equip anything until I was going up against the final boss, oops - so I kind of treated it as a stealth game.)
Gameplay was somewhat simplistic, but a lot more emphasis was put onto the creative ideas so it's understandable.
There were a couple of typos here and there, and the orphanage map looks somewhat off, but beyond that I didn't notice any problems. I was, however, curious as to why you locked off the Action and Cancel keys in the Key Input window. Does the combat system rely on "if player presses one of these specific action buttons"?
[I played the game on Normal difficulty]
Pretty fun, it was interesting seeing a game that uses the battlebacks to stand in for maps.
The skills felt nice to use, particularly Wild Strike and the 100 TP skills. it also felt nice to get a crit on an enemy and see their health bar significantly decrease.
The story is simple, but it seems that most of the work went towards the combat and the creative use of Harold sprites and sound effects so that's understandable.
Just a question: for the tilesets you're using, did you purchase non-RM licenses for them, since you're using them in Unity?
Also, noticed that Celianna isn't credited here (as of Oct. 15 2019, in case this page gets edited to include credit). She's the one who created the Ancient Dungeons tilesets, which I noticed were used in the intro animation. Not sure if this was something that just slipped through the cracks (that's happened to me too, it happens when you have a large list of resources you're using), but I figured I'd say something here.
