I really don’t see how a see how “complex” stories is a good thing for a chain game. Since the chain games are unplanned and the makers just do from what they interpreted by playing a more complex story would just lead to more plot holes, contradiction and confusion.
That said I really don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to tell a story in three chapters, if people can tell stories with a 10 min short movie or 50 page book I’m sure we can tell one with three chapters. Hell, there’s people telling their stories with shorter games than what a three chapter chain game would be.
Yeah 5 chapters is more than enough. Most old plays are 5 acts after all.
Oh so that's the style! Mono nice looking. Though making it from hand.... :-\ That looks challenging! Maybe the Big Z should leave this one alone. Fishman can have my spot. :bend: I'm dropping out.
Are you sure? There will be plenty of finished resources to work with and if you're missing anything just ask me and I'll whip something up for you.
Erm is there space for me to do a chapter? : S
If you guys usually do it blind, then that's fine :)
Also, I had time to make a countryman chara yesterday. Not quite satisfied with the hat, but I couldn't make it look more satisfying to me
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/UT9EOOSZZwrNjnunEpKIToJBjTmGmL2N0jVAjevMhKGdqsUUgAm_tN8UEECoDvVkYo9EhI92=w1016-h563)
Agreed, Zolty. ^_^ But before we get too far ahead of ourselves....My RPG Maker 2003 and tried to import some sets I made after fomating them and pasting them to the sheet provided....it said they were the wrong size. o.O So I tried to import the ones you had already made and it gave me the same line of BS. -.-;; Anybody else having that problem?
Looks great, Donut. I've added it to the game.
Progress report: Sorry, not going as fast as I usually am with these thing. I'd say I'm about halfway done with the chapter but I also want to take time to do some extra chipsets and stuff just so there are materials to work with. Combined with me having to work a bunch of overtime this weekend I'm afraid it's gonna be at least another week before the chapter is ready.
Played through the chapter, really like what you've done, and the amount of work you must have provided. I've got an idea on how to continue the story, I hope I can make my chapter as good!
the second one died in mid design or something and only a demo of the first chapter existed. :o Weird.
Hey guys!
Bad news for me today. After 6 years of loyal services, and 3 days of randomly freezing for seconds, my MacBook died yesterday and is impossible to reboot or anything. I've tried many of the solutions to those problems suggested by Apple, without any luck. This means I am unable to finish my chapter of the chain game. Customer services will need about two weeks to see what they can do, but it seems more than likely that I'll have to buy a new computer. Unfortunately, the Mac died during a backup, which fucked up my backing hard drive as well, making it unusable. I can still provide plot and design ideas I had for my chapter but that's about it :( I hope either the Mac will be replaced or fixed (cheaper) by the end of the month, but until then I am afraid I can't do anything :( This comes even more as a hard hit as I need the computer much for work use (guess I'll have to use one of the shitty Ubuntu ones that Uni has...) And that I don't have much money for a new laptop atm...
Sorry about that :(
How is it locking you out?
I'll be leaving on a vacation thing on monday and will be gone for two months. So I won't be able to be around and managing things until like end of August/beginning of September.
This sounds exciting :D any screenies up yet?
Yeah the saves are wicked... Is that how we're doing saving in this game all through? Great if so :)
As I went through this topic and saw the graphics I was thinking about Mother 3. The art style resembles Mother 3 for me and that the game takes place in a modern environment (am I right?) also resemble the Earthbound series. I never played Mother or Mother 3 but I liked Earthbound. Now I am playing Wrath of Gaia and I enjoy it... okay I have to admit that I almost had a rage-quit-thing at the end of chapter 3 while trying to escape from that damn theatre XD but aside from that I really enjoy it. :)
Btw, here is a punk character I made using your templates:
(http://i.imgur.com/dFBJqd8.png) Battler:(http://i.imgur.com/bmltJek.png)
Aww for Dr. Ace
Yeah that's all good for me :)
------------
Ok I received and played.
A few comments. Fish, your chapter is buggy as hell xD The end especially, after beating the African guy especially, black screen and nothing happens.
A lot of the passabilities don't work well, interactions with events as well.
Many typing mistakes as well, sometimes I don't quite know if they are intentional or not?
I'd like a recap of the story you tried to build as well because the explanations in the cave made little to no sense to me?
Other than that, the first part was easier than the first time I played it, which I thought was good, but I still think the enemies do too much damage, or the party not enough? Thanks for adding some skills though, it was needed imo.
I think I'll carry on with the initial idea I had, twerked a bit, after you sent me that story recap Fish xD
I wouldn't exactly call Donut a noob Fish, he's been on here a couple of years and has been an all around cool dude...
Today I discovered something about myself; I hate drawing coffee machines. Let me know if you need anything changed or more stuff.
(https://i.imgur.com/417oTZG.png)
If no one else wants the last spot I'd be happy to take it
Dude that stuff makes my furniture look like cheap crap....then again it's supposed to look that so yay! :3 Oh are we really on the last chapter? Gnarly! We'll get to play it soon then!
EDIT EDIT EDIT: OK! I've played the game all the way through! I like the setting of your chapter Donut, though I admit I had to cheat a few times to work out what to do.
Fish kinda pushed more idea to me for that in his long PM
Hey all, checking in to say I've been steadily working on this - sorry it's taking a while, but I have a busy life. I'm genuinely working on it, and haven't been getting stuck or anything, so it should be ready in about two weeks. Probably.
Hey all, checking in to say I've been steadily working on this - sorry it's taking a while, but I have a busy life. I'm genuinely working on it, and haven't been getting stuck or anything, so it should be ready in about two weeks. Probably.
Oh yeah it's worth noting that I slightly screwed up the 'Max' charset colours with my dodgy way of sprite editing so someone might want to fix that before release. Sorry >_>
Pretty sure I had that update when I finished the stuff on Donuts chapter and it worked for me then : /
For some reason it probably set the images not to be destroyed on map change. It's just a check box to tick in on the show picture command. Should be an easy enough fix if it's in purples version.
Mr Purple Guy killed the curse now ON WITH THE GAME!! Some if us mondo hope it can beat the new year's deadline for once so it will inspire even more! ;D
Heh, don't get your hopes up Fish. Still pretty far off and I doubt I'll manage to do all that remains in 8 days.
Fish?! How can you mistake that suffer boi for the one and only Rogue Jedi?! XP In any case somebody I know on Discord gave me Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Eddition so I got a lite side tracked. Ye shall have yer sets tonight if I can keep myself away from it...
Cool, cool. Once you're ready send it over to me and I'll do the title screen + after credits minigame. And after that we start a final bug fixing round so people can do small tweaks and bug fixes on their chapters.
Also may I say this style was such a delight we should use it again?
Overall notes & bugs:
- Red Eyes C-stance should maybe be nerfed. Feels way too powerful to reflect every spell. Right now it also reflects spells that targets the whole party and nullifies all the damage. It completely removed all the challenge from the chapter 4 boss.
- If you use the Unity Charm while in the party selection map you will be stuck there forever.
Yeah I should have added a fail chance or mp cost to the counter when I had the game, realized it a bit too late and didn't want to change all my encounters. Sorry.
You should be able to prevent the menu opening in party selection which'll fix the unity charm thing : )
I played through the chain game. And god damn, prpl. I have no clue how you did so much in such a short time. Doing all the side things and chapter 5 is waay longer than all other chapters combined. Not sure how many hours I put into it.Thanks, I hope it feels relevant as well. Couldn't have made it in time without the help from you and the rest though.
- "Way of the Kick" skill on Sam can't be used and I can't figure out why.I forgot to check the box "elemental defense"
- Some pushable boxes doesn't have "Skip if cannot move" checked, so if you push them into a wall the game freezes. I've gone over and fixed the ones I found. But it would be good to double check so I haven't missed one.This was one of the last things I noticed as well. I thought I had taken care of them all but I guess I missed some.
- When you take the lift in spring city the player sprite changes into Sam and Joel with a backpack moves out of him.Yeah I never really got around to fix those
- Sharon remains outside of the Asylum after you finished her sidequest.
- After you beaten the TV Station questline and return to Spring City the lift takes you back to the middle section of the map instead of the lower city.Damn, I thought I added the switch in the TV station cutscene. 217 should be set to ON.
- In the first cutscene with the thugs and in the cutscene at the battle at the TV Station some of the characters moves really jerky. Looks like they move with a low frequency but a high speed.That could be the case, I noticed this as well but never figured out where I went wrong.
I can maybe try and go in and fix some of these, but can't really promise anything. I'm gonna do a credits scene for after the game and the after credits mini game now. Really need to try and finish it in a week.I feel like the things you've mentioned are all part of my chapter so send the game back to me when you are done and I can take another look so you can focus on your own thing.
Thanks, I hope it feels relevant as well. Couldn't have made it in time without the help from you and the rest though.
I feel like the things you've mentioned are all part of my chapter so send the game back to me when you are done and I can take another look so you can focus on your own thing.
I think for the title screen you should add your name with mine!
I have managed to reinstall rm2k3 by switching back to w7 and not w10 (and God I did good, w10 is real sh*t), so I'll bs able to do some fixing and maybe add a thing or two I had in mind but couldn't do (and redo the title screen of my Chapter, it's horrid xD).
Update: Haven't gotten as far as I had planned this week. Been distracted by work, but still going to try to make by the end of the week. Not sure I'll make it.
Anyway started working on the mini game
(https://i.imgur.com/qZbj9Gz.gif)
After that I still got some minor fixes I need to do in chapter 1.
Thank you, prpl.
I'm a bit of a workaholic, I just can't stop. So I made itchio cover image:
(https://i.imgur.com/tn7yj5v.png)
I'm also massively enjoying the playthrough : ) Part way through Prpl's chapter now.
With your blessing, I'll do a theme for Greyspire, which might fit it better than the Spring City Jazz?
Ok I'm currently in the Lake District but I'll happily still make a few extra tunes to finish this off (or I'm also happy to leave it alone, I think the game is great no matter what)
Who is the game now with? Have you sent it to Momeka, Fish?
Also, shameless marketing strategy. Could you guys upvote the artwork (screenshots) I uploaded on Steam? At least the awesome title screen,
Also I can upvote them, got a link?
How do you guys plan the balancing of battles? Do you do it once at the end or does everyone do it on his/her own chapter?
I was just wondering, because for what I remember, Momeka's chapter battles were less well balanced the first time I played, but Fish's are still highly undoable without some very serious grinding (which I think is not so good for one of the first chapters, and considering the length of the game - I ended up just skipping most of them in his chapter). So it seemed like Momeka balanced his chapter but Fish didn't do it for his, so I was confused.
I don't know how you guys usually balance your game. When I do battles, I consider 3 types of monster: weak mob, medium mobs, bosses/special mobs. Weak mobs should take 1 to 2 turns maximum (for the entire party, so if your party is made of only one character then it's equivalent to 2 strikes (3 if the monster is really weak and doesn't deal much damage), 4 if you have 2 characters in your team, etc...). Medium mobs, because they're tougher should take 1-2 extra turns to kill. As for bosses/special mobs, I try, contrary to the others, to make the player use more tactic (so use more the elements, conditions, etc), to make it so that the player has to try different approaches than just bashing the regular attack (of course I apply it as well to the other mobs, but the difference in damages will be less pronounced).
That is well made, IMO, now in Momeka's chapter: most of the mobs we meet take about 2 turns to defeat, sometimes 3, and they don't deal as much damages as they used to in the first version I played, and sometimes you can be poisoned or paralysed.
In Fish's chapter, I often face 4 to 6 mobs, all able within a turn or two to put in sleep/pork/nomed/paralyse my entire party with almost 100% success rate (outchie). So I die in less than 2 battles. And there are an AWFUL lot of battles in Fish's chapter, which is also why I did not put any in my chapter. Since the messages do not pause the rest of the game, the bad guys have time to gather around you and if you don't escape one battle you're basically dead. Maybe I'm just bad at the game or I just don't have any luck and this concerns only me in this case xD
Aside from that, I thought the game overall was great.
Why does everyone say my battles are unbalanced?I'll give you an example, Fish. When the Goblims take your chainsaw parts, each battle can take like a quarter of your time limit so if you don't pick the right groups you're done for :p I had to grind a lot for you chapter even after I went in and made the water enemies weaker. Also I made a way out of your cave because there was originally no exit so once you're in there, if someone dies, you have absolutely no way to bring them back haha
Why does everyone say my battles are unbalanced?
I used the chain saw parts timer based on how long it took me to do it. Maybe it should be more than 8 mins? Seemed too easy then but then again. I know where they all are roughly and which skills will cripple Tinheads and which paths will slow you to circumvent the tedious courses.
Well, it's kinda the whole point of play testing something. [...] to get an objective view on how difficult it would be for a new player.
Sorry for being so inactive, been preoccupied with work. Where is the chain game at right now? Are you done Donut and if so have you passed it along?
Well, it's kinda the whole point of play testing something. You as the creator will always know the best routes and enemies weaknesses etc. Which makes it hard to get an objective view on how difficult it would be for a new player.
And yeah, I spent like half an hour of grinding to be able to get pass the whole item hunt part. Even after that I found all the water battles to still be way too hard, so I never explored that area.
I'm not done yet, I'll finish it tonight, then will upload and send it back to you and Moose tomorrow. I have put the "pause" of messages so that in Fish's chapter the enemy can't just gather around you while you speak. I can't seem to make my Chapter image better, I should take some drawing courses xD
Just sent it to you guys :)
Enjoy!
EDIT: I fixed the glimmer cave teleport bug ^_^
Sorry guys I didn't see this as I've been pretty busy! Will add some tunes over the next few days and send on. Can anyone thibk of anything in particular that they'd like a theme on, or any change needed in my section? Is the sidequest to open the locked door in the high rise too difficult for instance?
EDIT: I fixed the glimmer cave teleport bug ^_^
The puppet thing looks cool :p What's your role in that company? And what do you do in that game I guess it's kinda 'make your own fun' type deal?
Chapter 1:
Fixed:
- Balanced the trashcan/fridge chests
- Changed some art to better match the rest
Added:
- Can turn Joel into a mutant
- Familiar side quest (spans the whole game, added a small cutscene in every chapter except 3)
Chapter 2:
- Collision, could walk on the house, some trees, and rocks in the water
- Made sure that some of the fishes doesn't swim on land
- Decoder ring never removed the bonus MP when unequipped
- The show portrait scripts set "allow events to move" so monsters still moved during cutscenes
Chapter 3:
- You could walk on the sleeping guards
- The item glitter effect froze when you picked up the item
Chapter 4:
- Fixed some trashcan/fridge chests that was set to same layer as player instead of beneath
Chapter 5:
- Fixed some trashcan/fridge chests that was set to same layer as player instead of beneath
- Made the potholes in Spring Valley walkable.
- The Douche used a skill that had Sam in the animation
- Fixed a death effect on a boss that spawned in the wrong position
- Babbelsuppi:
- Changed the map graphics to look more like a board game
- Changed the marker to more easily see what tile you have selected
- Changed the hud to track moves made instead of reusing the hud from the arcade game
- Added marker for each tile you have clicked on
- Fixed a bug where several goblims could be put on the same tile making the game unbeatable
- Fixed a bug where uncovering a goblim cost two moves instead of one.
Party Change Screen:
- Talking to Diana activated the menu access again. Meaning you could use the Unity Charm while in the party change screen
and get stuck there forever.
General:
- Fixed spelling on item description
- Fixed spelling on skill description
- Lowered Sam HP growth a bit, it was way high
- Changed the "Dragon Message" common event to not be a constantly running parallel process
- Added animations for the Possess status
- Fixed the broken pixels on the pork status
- Made the Possess status a bit weaker (instead of being healed each turn you are damaged)
Awesome! Love the sound of your fixes and additions. I can't believe I'm probably going to play it through AGAIN : p
Some french rpg maker site (http://www.rpg-maker.fr/news-560-des-jeux-et-des-demos-en-attendant-de-pouvoir-sortir-de-chez-soi-12.html) shared the game.
A collaborative creation that follows a first game (it is not necessary to have played it to appreciate this second opus). The graphic and scripting universe recalls the Mother / Earthbound series . Attention, before the first real fight in town, place yourself to the left, there is a bug that freezes the game otherwise.