Alarron4875

@Shoya - I like it! I like the way you've used elevation and surrounded it with mountains. The landscape details look nice. However, it seems a little sparse. There's a town and a hut on the upper half of the island... and nothing else. Maybe it works into the story, but I feel like there could be more going on on this island in terms of population and civilization. The overall design I very much enjoy though.

Couldn't agree more with you, I really too hate the small RPGVX style sprites, unfortunately, due to not having a Pixel artist we are stuck with those for now.When we make a recruitment page it's one of the first things we should ask (Along with mappers and scripters.) Again, I couldn't agree more with you, the thing is that our "mapper" or at least the guy who decided to make the map, hadn't so much mapping skills. In fact, this is the very first map he has ever done. Unfortunately it's not so much that the video cropped it, but the fact that Yanfly's Engine Symphony - Pop Message (For some reason I can't seem to be able to find the script's link) appears to be bugged, when there is a long message, it throws the left part of the message out for some reason. (I can't believe they make scripts like that without properly testing them.) and to think that this is the best script I ever found for speech bubbles... Yeah, this is definitely by bad. You see, English is not my native language so, grammatical errors are bound to happen (at least for someone at my own English speaking level.), anyway, I'm currently asking assistance from a friend who speaks English significantly better than me. Thanks again for spending your time reviewing the intro, We have high expectations from this Project as well, especially on what according the scenario, we are putting a lot of effort putting together the pieces smoothly so that there won't be any plot holes since the script is quite complicated.My main focus is to let the player take some breath's before diving into the deep. I've seen numerous RPG games (and numerous RPG Maker games.) in which the whole story is thrown at your face as soon as you press "New Game". FFXII for example and most of the RPG Maker games (who claim to have a decent scenario do this REALLY OFTEN.) The result from this is to make the game's scenario confusing and hard to understand. Since most of us who making this project are RPG lovers, we have gotten sick of how the average RPG Maker (and generally the RPGs.)handle the storyline. Okay, not having English as your native language makes more sense to the grammar and spelling challenges. In that case, you've done an admirable job, and it's good that you're getting help from someone who knows the language better than you do. It's nice to hear that you have a team, it can be quite challenging to put together a game all by yourself. I'm surprised that your mapper has very little experience - they must just have a very artistic eye Keep working at this, and I look forward to seeing more from this project. Good luck!

Oh wow, I can't believe I did that. Lol, thanks for the catch. What do you think of the rest of the map?

Those sprites and faces look great! I'm just beginning to learn pixel art and editing sprites and tilesets - it's hard! I'm very impressed. Thank you for sharing these, and if I use them in a completed project I will be sure to credit you

@Choco - looks really nice! Did you make that tileset or is that some clever RTP usage? Either way it looks very nice. I'd enjoy running around in that town in a game I've been redesigning some of the interior locations in my game, here's a library which serves as a focal point for sidequests as the game progresses: NPCs are scarce at the moment because this is how it starts off - students and scholars and researchers are added to the library over the course of the game

Yeah, for some reason it embedded within the forum was muted, but taking the link to watch it directly on youtube gave me sound. Weird lol. The music/sound continues to add to my impression that you have a number of good qualities as a game designer You've done a great job mixing sound effects, background sounds, and music. Lots of potential here... I'm interested to see what comes of it and where this game goes. Good luck

The pixel movement is a nice touch. The sprites look... extra small. Characters look too small compared to chests and scenery. Not sure why. It might have been just me, but if not, it would be nice if there was sound to go with this. When I watched it at least, it was soundless. Production values are nice and the mapping is quite good - the town was super vibrant and full of life and variety. I love it! However, you seem to over-use the flat stone tile, throwing it over your roads in odd places a little too often. It was slightly off-putting. But the layout and mapping overall is quite good. During the cutscene with Alanon giving you the job, (and this might have just been a problem with capturing it on video) some of the dialogue was cut off, stretching past the edges of the screen. This also happened several times after leaving Alanon's house. You have numerous typos and grammatical errors. I would really focus on proofreading your dialogue and all of the writing in the game. If you'd like, I could do a play-by-play of sorts and list all the typos and errors, but I think it would be good for you to go through and polish it up yourself. Your mapping is pretty fantastic, and the game really stuck out at the beginning for me, and then as the writing deteriorated I started to lose interest. Which is a shame, because I think you have a ton of potential here. Definitely piqued my interest. Keep working on it. You certainly have talent in mapping and putting together cutscenes (movement-wise). You've got a good start here

@themusic - thanks for the comments As for your forest village, I'd agree about there being too much empty or "featureless" space. Either add details here - NPCs, some more texture, paths, flowers, etc. - or just make the map smaller, condensing the important stuff while cutting out unnecessary empty space. I like open areas, but there are a ton of ways you can fill them with NPCs and little details - flowers, slightly different grass, paths, etc. Keep working on it! P.S. The lake border tiles work perfectly. You may not know what you're doing, but it's working

Wow, I love this idea! I've really been struggling with how to pull off the start of the area. I'm excited about the progression and watching the city come to life as the story progresses, but the start... man, it's tough. So, basically, having entire sections of the town closed off because of how devastated and destroyed they are, making it easy (and logical from a story standpoint as well) to compress the area that the player starts off in. The area opens up over time, as well as becoming populated with more people. I love it! Will be taking these ideas to heart and revamping my main town. Thank you very much for this!

Haha, well, it is a crazy idea. And I enjoy the thought, but I really feel like the people enjoy sunlight And the Dungeon isn't entirely safe, which is why we have soldiers moving in and keeping watch. Though the floors are cleared, there's still the threat of attack (not from a gameplay standpoint, but from a lore point of view), and the safest place is on the surface. I like the idea, though, and I feel like it's pretty great for some game... but I'm not feeling it for my game. So feel free to use it!

I loved it in DQ7, Dark Cloud, ActRaiser, and Terranigma I don't mean that in a negative way -- those are great games and it's a great concept. I was just going on about it the other day in this thread. I think it's a really interesting gameplay mechanic and it really helps with immersion because the player gets to see concrete changes in the game world as a result of his own actions and choices in game. From an implementation standpoint, I would probably recommend creating multiple maps and just doing replacements at those milestones when something changes, or doing a combination of that and event-based changes for smaller changes. Also, do you plan on having the player replay through levels of the dungeon each time he enters, or having some sort of quick-travel method? I would recommend the latter, unless you can find some way for it not to be irritating as hell. Can't wait to play! Well, I already have the game up through Floor 3, and I have it so that every time you approach the Dungeon entrance, you're prompted to select a floor. After "clearing" a floor, it's made safe and so you can skip over them, but you can also return to them if you like and take the long way through the Dungeon, this time with floors you've cleared empty of enemies, with soldiers keeping watch over the halls. You can do either one I also have made a teleport item for use within the Dungeon that warps you to the Town Square, for a quick exit if the player needs it. I've already planned on having multiple maps for the major changes to the town while having NPCs and such affected by events. Glad to see that my idea makes sense to someone else, too A little extra confirmation. Glad to hear that you like the idea! I thought it would be a fun spin on RPGs, that instead of traveling the world, you're focused on a single area. The idea is that you'll get to know it very well, grow attached to the simple NPCs and townsfolk and their stories, and delight in your progress as the town comes alive. That's the hope - I'm glad to see at least one other person likes the idea. Thank you for your comments

Hi all! So, I have a game I have been working on for a month or so, tentatively titled The Dungeon. The story revolves around, you guess it, a Dungeon. The Dungeon is a place infested with monsters and evil creatures that opened up beneath a kingdom's capital. War has raged between the monsters of the Dungeon and the soldiers of this kingdom for a long time, but now there's a lull in the action. The kingdom's capital is in shambles, most people have left. You start the story as the last of the kingdom's knights, being sent into the Dungeon in an attempt to push back the monster hordes and save the day. Yup, I know it's simple. That's the point! I'm a sucker for the simple plots of Final Fantasy I, Dragon Quest I, etc. But the main thing for me here isn't the story - it's the way that it integrates itself into the gameplay. Two things: 1. First, the Dungeon is separated into "floors". Each floor serves as what would, in other RPGs, be its own "dungeon". So, you'll start fighting through floor 1, and at the end is a boss, and when you defeat the boss, you've "cleared" that floor. Because of the magical nature of the Dungeon, each floor can be wildly different from the last, so even though they're all technically underground, you can have a standard cave on one floor, and on the next have a grassy, dense, forested area, and the next floor can be sort of a subterranean desert. 2. The main thing I'm asking about is this. The Castle Town starts of super rundown and mostly abandoned. As the player goes through the game, there's the main quest of fighting through the Dungeon, but there are also many sidequests. Townsfolk will have quests for the player to complete within the Dungeon, and some of these quests will play into people returning to the town, characters joining your party, or even small new structures being added to the town. Then, as you continue the main quest, the town also changes. I'm planning, at the moment, for every 5 floors that the player clears to have the Town map completely change. Have some new buildings built, have some of the damage cleaned up, etc. Over time, even entire new districts may be added to the town. People will appear in the town through events. All of this is to signify how, as the player forces the monster hordes back farther, hope returns to the town, people return to live there, and it goes from rundown and empty to thriving and beautiful. What are your thoughts, especially on number 2? I've put together the game through the third floor of the Dungeon, so I haven't gotten to the first "major" town upgrade yet, but at this point several shops have opened (no shops are open at the start of the game), and at least one new person has come to the town. I'd like to know what people think of this concept, both from a gameplay standpoint (would you play a game like this? does it sound fun?) and from a story standpoint. This is the only town through the entire game, but as it changes over time and there are a multitude of sidequests and several optional characters to join your cause, can it be "enough"? I know most RPGs are globe-trotting adventures, but I feel that, though centering this game on a single area, with the amount that it changes (and the inherent variety through the Dungeon's many floors, so you're not staring at the same kind of dungeon every time you enter) it can be plenty of content and variety for a player. Thoughts? Comments, concerns, criticisms are all welcome and encouraged After getting through five floors and having the first major upgrade to the town, I intend to put up a "demo" to the game for that section of it to get more informed feedback, but just looking at this idea conceptually, what do you think? Thanks in advance

This is really great, thanks for posting this. A critical look at what is available to the game designer through a combination of eventing and scripting, and some suggestions based on your own experience making and seeing games made through RPG Maker. I don't have anything to add to this, but I wanted to say that I appreciate it and thanks for posting this

@BigT - I love your art style! It fits the humor you throw in there, fun stuff. I lol'ed. Nicely done. And actually (sort of @polidoro), "should have cOme back" is technically correct, grammatically. I can see how it might sound odd, but "should have cAme back" actually is not correct. So, you were right from the start This is the main town in the game I'm working on. In the game, the town starts off run-down and nearly uninhabited, because of frequent monster attacks. Over time, as the player progresses, the town comes alive again. More people return to the town, new buildings are built, everything's cleaned up, etc. This is the very beginning, so it's pretty empty. The right side ruinsy area is an old housing district - over time, workers come back and clean it up and build some houses there. The center, the town square, populates with people over time, along with some outdoor shopping stalls and a fountain that takes up the middle. The top, leads to the castle the town is connected to. Overall, I'm excited about where the town is going and the progression throughout the story, but... well, I'm uncertain how the town works at the start. I know it's empty, it's supposed to be empty, but does the emptiness "work", keeping in mind the progression over time as the player gets farther in the game? Feedback is much appreciated, thanks

A solid plan - always better to know your characters' abilities before you jump into making and balancing the game. Especially if you have multiple characters, it's easy to find yourself in a weird spot as you're balancing your game where there's overlap in skills between characters, or you're earning skills too fast, or the skills are unbalanced or redundant or you clearly don't have a system set up and it's all just wild and free skill distribution. Good thing you're getting it all set up ahead of time