That One NPC

Be careful with your puzzles. Balancing is key. A tough puzzle that stops the player dead can hold them back from getting further in your project. Making these few in number and toward the end of the game is a very good idea as an indie project. Puzzles that allow the player to move and play through the experience like mazes or platform jumping, pushing, interacting, etc, help keep the player engaged and adapting to new angles of approach. Keep this in mind, as limited as RMs are for this type of thing. My favorite puzzles are the ones that seem rare, mystical, ancient, significant, because they are one of only a few true "puzzles" in the game. Ones that require brain power, observing the environment and accessing provided knowledge of history and lore in order to crack a clever code. Those puzzles that pay off in the end by giving access to something huge, valuable, important, etc. Meantime the smaller, quasi-puzzle methods are great for prying some interaction and attention to the setting and plot out of the player. Having to locate items and use them the right way, push blocks over buttons, light torches, push an object out of the way and things of that nature are great for making dungeons more hands-on and interactive vs a simple step/battle grind one just wants to get through so they can reach the next set of shops. Overall, think about more than what types of puzzle to use, and make sure you firmly tackle the application of the puzzle itself throughout the game.

Find the Loose Leaf modular package. It's just a pack of the ripped LL materials from the old site. Using any decent image editing software, you can compile and edit your own sprites, rip suitable parts to add (for example, from the RPT sprite generator), etc. The PNG files: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bajcnabxzxtdl3b/Looseleaf pngs.zip?dl=0 The Thread that link was provided in: https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/looseleaf-character-parts-pack.42362/

Super cool to see them all complete and together. I also put Jack on Panda Maru's MV horse to see what it would look like. Love me a good western.

I have to agree on 2 hours being dangerously short. It could be one giant, 'What the heck? O.O" moment for the player to realize they finished it in 2 hours. Either it'll be not enough due to the length and be forgettable, or if you nail the quality, a short game could haunt the player, constantly wishing there was more. All I'ma say is, don't commit to a tiny game out of the gate. Work on the guts of the game, the mechanics and data, see how scalable the story is based on that workload. 2 hours is like wow. lol. The opening sequence of Dragon Warrior V takes about 2 hours. XD

Roy has been cleaned up. jacket added behind his step in side-side frames feathers cleaned up and brightened holster added to casual sprite misc clean up edits Gustave has been cleaned up. new pancho layer new bandoliers both cleaned up to coexist smoothly hand hair removed to reduce pixel clutter New hair layer (for a recolor) Hat edges cleaned up by removing sprite base edges misc clean up 1.0 I'm working on Clarence. I've removed the ponytail I was working on to try other ideas as his is very thin.

Clarence Branch drafted.

That's been in the back of my head. One easy solution is switching to some form of ABS system where sprites become the battlers, and you can have more fun with a 6 shooter or repeater. Khas Arcthunder has the Sapphire system which is clean and easy and has a nice projectile feature for ballistic weapons and tnt, as well as an AI follower system that may add a layer of strategy or even replay value if you make so that camp spots and safe houses act as a player hub of sorts where Jack can take one ally of his choosing to embark on the next portion of game/maps, making that choice strategic based on their strengths and skills, as well as maybe changing how a scenario plays out or giving the player access to secret or optional content and rewards. Just an idea. For a far more complex system with a full, Zelda-like tool system you can customize to your imagination's content, Falcao has the Pearl System. Otherwise it's going to be a grind to get some battlers edited or made.

This is a test sheet of the 3 heroes drafted so far. I'm doing 2 versions (minimum upon draft. Extra, custom versions for scenes in your script are welcome bring 'em on. It's what I'm here for) of each. One full appearance "regular" version, then a cutscene version where a main clothing item like a hat or duster has been removed. This will prove useful for your plot structure. Characters could remove their hats when they go inside certain buildings and interior areas, or during scenes when your characters are resting at inns, in someone's custody, or gathered at an ally's home, you can have them in a more casual indoor sprite to work with. Again if at any point you need some custom scene sprites like Roy with his badge removed, Jack with a badge added, or all of them in a certain disguise, let me know.

Gustave Weiss drafted.

Roy Feathers drafted.