Rizrazzle

Oh gosh, thank you. I totally see what you meant with the quotations. It's a 5 minute fix so I'll be changing that right away. (:

OH NO! (<- Heck yes that deserves caps lock) I go away for a little while and I miss the grand opening of this showroom post. And how well you've done! (: Just love how beautifully you've presented this, along with the nice link navigation everywhere and decorative art headers. Main thing I worry about these days is my showroom post being cluttered, you've shown that things can be organized into perfection. You've really got some great skills! The characters and story are interesting, although I've probably said that before in your blog. I love the four symbols/mythological creatures and I'm definitely excited to see a game with these subjects. And also, the face-sets for your characters are really really pretty. Eep. Overall, I can't say anything but 'keep it up'! Well, I had been stalking your blog updates before the showroom post, but seeing it all so organized here, ..Just, wow! +1 Constellation Fan. =D

Thank you all so much! =D When I started thinking about a showroom post I was afraid it wouldn't even make it here. But these wonderful people here showed me that my lack of self-esteem was just clouding my judgment. So it's great to suddenly hear all these positive comments, it definitely helps keep me motivated. I have one more update today, as I revamped the characters. I also made sheets with more information on who this diverse cast is made of. I'm afraid that marks where the progress at the moment has been slowed due to some .. Medical botherations. ^^;; But no worries, I'll probably be back in action sooner than the doctor thinks. .. Now, let's see the characters! *Joy* Either click the spoiler button below or wiggle on up to the main post. (: ========================================

"Mommy! Can we keep 'im? Pweaaase~?" In other words: Welcome! My story involving RPG games is almost exactly the same. (:

I think it depends on the HUD and its function. One thing is that all HUDs generally need to fit in a certain area without it getting cluttered. In basic HUD design a screen is divided into 9 parts. The horizontal center parts should hardly be crossed as it gets in your line of sight. A mini-map may be toggled on and off without too much consequence, it is only an additional element. But in a game with real-time battles 'toggling off' a healthbar or hotkey bar would only be frustrating when the need arises. One option would be to check if the actor was in 'danger'/battle or not and switch/display HUDs accordingly. Or for additional elements such as the mini-map, goldcount, time display, etc. make a button that will pop it up for a short amount of time. For the best quick adaptability of HUDs you'd have to assign a shortcut button for toggling instead of needing to go into an options menu. This is without regards for your scripting possibilities though.

I had written this before reading the others' comments as I saw this link in your status update question. So I've seen some parts may be a little similar, sorry for that. ^^; Aaand my whitespaces seem to be acting up a little, but I've tried to format this as much as I could. The Story Yes, the story and biographies seem to contain cliché elements at this point but those could be straightened out easily by adding more detail as you deepen your story and progress. My main concerns at the moment are giving your 'evil wizard' character a good motivation for what he is doing. Don't let anyone be good or evil just 'because that's the way they are', maybe give him a dazzling connection to the magic council and that he may be draining their power. Or something else that will cause complications. A villain that is able to bother so many people needs to have the brains and motivation some way. That does make me wonder about his backstory a little bit! I like the fact that you've thought out the occurrence of his destruction of Riku Isle as being odd - making the player wonder about what strengthened him. As for the biographies, what exactly is 'height: 60'? The only thing I can come up with for these numbers are inches, but that would be rather short for the boy. - I guess you're still working on this, as I noticed you were trying to fix their weights. x3 Features I like the addition of the day/night system. It makes NPC's (and the environment) so much more dynamic! (: The fact that a player could also unlock new features and change the way NPC's interact sounds rather interesting. It seems like you're trying to create quite the intriguing NPC's. Music/Sound The first music, oh gosh, where do I recognize it from? Was that a Star Ocean moment? I know it sounds like it has Motoi Sakuraba (the composer) all over it. ;3 I think the music styles in the video varied a bit too widely for my tastes though. Especially the first transition is what made me realize this. The first music was pretty tranquil background music, then - suddenly - this really really happy French accordion tunes into the spotlighted foreground with all it's power. Then, bam, suddenly an overpowering dramatic tune with a violin. (Shouldn't Diana have been a bit more surprised at hearing the evil wizard's name here?) The footsteps sound-effect sounds slightly like some huge plant-Digimon with suction cups for feet is moving around, and gets bothersome a bit easily for being a bit too present. I'd try using a different sound and making it rather soft. That way it could always be present without being a bothersome sound to some. I do really like the fact you added a sound for footsteps. It's great detail, so it's fine if it needs some polishing. Spelling Personally I often skip a showroom post when the first few paragraphs I read contain faulty spelling, capitalization and punctuation. I realize English isn't everyone's first language (I myself am one of them) but choosing to put a 'serious' game out there in English may require some beta readers if you're not that strong with it yet. The first thing people read needs to draw them in as you're advertising your awesome game, not chase them away because of spelling errors. Screenshots The battle screen shot seems really nice. It looks like a great real-time battle! From what I can judge there the HUD is really nice, as well as the use of hotkeys. Although what's the use of the x and y position? Is it for map-reference or for testing? Just not sure. ^^; On the other screenshots I can only give the personal opinion that I never really liked the RPG Maker illusion '3D' style. The backgrounds and multi-story objects alike the houses seem to come out quite nicely, (and kudos for making it work as my high objects always looked crooked at some point). But it makes the ground seem really uncharacteristically flat. It's a cool effect, but it looks like it's tilted a little bit too much at the moment. Like I'm missing a little bit of detail from your floor. Overall It's mostly pros and cons alike at the moment. I'm pretty sure you can work out the cons pretty easily as this is in early development, and turn this into an interesting game! I'm not sure what else to comment but 'good luck!' ^^

Honestly I highly doubted it as well. Even the current revenue number would easily cover it at once. ^^; The current IPB version doesn't show any affirmed annoying bugs alike this however. Although I have encountered this same error before, I can't quite put my finger on it yet. I recall that this summer holiday it did occur as a general IPB bug, but in this case it's something else. >>;

I've had this happen before as well. It's a common IPB (Invision Power Board) bug. Has been occurring a lot since summer holidays, when there may have been an update. (Especially if this is a pirated forum version, as this IPB is normally about $350.) I'll have a look at the IPB bug-tracker.

A professional programmer once told me that Source is a very difficult engine. And ioquake is also not very beginner friendly. Source requires every bit of knowledge about pointers, memory management, Direct 3D, and all advanced (game) programming subjects. It'd be wiser to start with little add-on projects for the cube engine, it's ambitious, but it's C++. Unity is a perfect choice considering you just began on some basics of game programming. (The text-base game was the first thing we did on some high-school IT course.) I can really recommend following "BurgZerg Arcade" his youtube Hack & Slash RPG tutorial for Unity. That is, after familiarizing yourself with a few engine basics. The tutorial covers simple things like moving and changing rooms, but also stats, combat, inventory, equipment, customization, skills, etc. It'll definitely put you in the right spot to start creating something professional whilst only being a rookie. It'll help you grow. ^^

In RPG Maker? That's a shame, hehe. x3 You'd definitely need scripts/programming knowledge. It also sounds like you'd need a team. (And a different engine.) >>; If you think ES is too limited you should realize that there have been programmers working on those systems for years. Doing that, and more, in RPG Maker sounds pretty grueling to me. The scripts add adaptability sure, but the engine is your enemy. What you're going to need for RM is to find so many scripts and edits in RGSS3 you'll change the entire engine. It'd be easier to program such a game yourself, with the perfect core. ><; When it comes to RPG Maker I'd say start small. Then expand upon that when you're ready. Create your core game-play first before adding all the features. You'd need a few scripts to break the 999 database entry and 5000 switches/variable limit. I'm not sure if this causes lag in RM though. All in all, I expect such RPG Maker projects to be abandoned. But I can't discourage you from trying.