Aether Chronicles: Key to Heaven

[Mushinronja 3]

 

 

Abstract: An adventure across a country to save your home from an outside threat.
Genre: Fantasy
Game Progression: 2 Hours of gameplay done so far, story skeleton completed. 

Average Demo Time: 2 hours, but that's for me, who knows how enemies fight and would talk to most npcs to make sure they work right.

 

 

 

Demo (about 2 hours in my experience) (And was actually horribly messed up and started you in the wrong place without my knowing but has since been fixed!)
 

No RTP

https://www.dropbox....NORTP3.exe?dl=0


RTP

https://www.dropbox....n RTP3.exe?dl=0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"On the planet Aerth (shortened to Aeth, or Earth), a world brimming with the mystical natural energy source known as Aether. The Northeast Continent is split between the Kingdom of Vigrand and the Empire of Beorgia. The two are in constant conflict, and Beorgia seems to have the upper hand due to sheer numbers. However, Vigrand has a more advanced grasp on the manipulation of Aether, and still has a few tricks under their sleeves."

"Not only that, but in Vigrand live certain individuals... People with the strength to change fate."


The events of this game are the events of a war taking place on the Northeast Continent of Aerth. You take control of the characters Grissam Vale, Alemmi Bright, Nacht Altrion, and Tyria Reid as you fight to defend your home from the Beorgian threat. 

 

As the war rages on, the stakes are raised, the situation becomes more dire, and the actions that need to be taken grow more and more extreme. At the end of it all, will you be the same person you were when it started? Will the people you consider allies still be as such? Who knows? There's no time to think about it now. There's a war to fight. 

 

 

 

 

 

Hugely un-detailed world map, only 3 countries planned have names, this game will only take place in Vigrand. I actually made Vigrand too big too; I don't want a world-encompassing escapade that makes everything feel small, I want Aerth to feel large by making Vigrand smaller, funnily enough. It also should make everything feel more personal. This is the story of one country in a big world, and although it may not seem like a big deal compared to other stories of worlds being devoured by demonic beings, to the characters involved, they're risking everything. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Playable Characters

 

 

 

Grissam Vale

 

A young swordsman, raised in the town of Dyme for most of his life. He has big dreams and is very skilled in combat, but his laid-back attitude keeps him from working too hard when he doesn't need to. When pushed however, Grissam can fight like a demon. Usually the only thing that pushes him that far are conversations with Nacht. 

 

 

Alemmi Bright

 

A Lightess, which is an acolyte of the Path of Light, the main spiritual belief in Vigrand. Alemmi is a very kind person, well liked in Dyme due to her her helpful nature and bright personality. Uses Light-based magic to heal friends and hurt enemies. 

 

 

Nacht Altrion

 

An Aethermancer, the name for the people who work with Aether and manipulate it to do multiple things. These things include controlling Aether Machinery, focusing Aether into various materials, and (what Nacht is more adept at) using Aether to attack enemies with various elemental or status effects. Nacht is a very skilled Aethermancer, and he knows it; his personality around people he doesn't know/respect can be quite abrasive, and he has a fierce rivalry with Grissam. 

 

 

Tyria Reid

 

A Defender in training, the soldiers who focus on supporting their allies by increasing their defenses and overall fighting ability. Although not a fully-fledged Defender, Tyria's near-paranoid tendencies and skill in battle leads people to put a lot of trust in her abilties. Rather introverted despite her looks. 

 

 

 

 

Non-playable Characters

 

 

 

 

 

Lisa Vale

 

Grissam's mother, and a very skilled Aethermancer. She used to be a member of the Vigrand Military, but Grissam doesn't know just what that entailed. She's actually in her 40s. Working with Aether keeps you looking young. 

 

 

 

Sheena Grin

 

An ex-lightess. Her abrasive personality to most people led to her resigning from the Lightess order, but she still generally follows their teachings and uses their skills. Sheena is however, unlike most Lightess, incredibly powerful, and is as dangerous as an Aethermancer despite Light Magic being primarily support-based. Treats Alemmi very nicely, Nacht semi-nicely, and Grissam very harshly (it's mostly for his benefit). 

 

 

 

Dilo

 

The Aethermaster presiding over the experments being conducted by the Aethermancers in Dyme. He has a long history in the Vigrand Military, though only a few know of his past before he joined. He is a very kind man, and would do anything for his country. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enterbrain

 

- Faces and Battlers:

Closet & Closet Ace
Sakura (Mazeran?)
Amycco
Averyn RPG Maker Resource Planet

 

grandmadeb for them lists!

 

- Scripts

 

Yanfly
 

Ace Core, Ace Battle, Message, Enemy Health, Event Chase Player, JP Manager, Learn Skill, Victory Aftermath, Gab Window (currently unused), Menu Engine,

Himeworks Triggers (currently unused)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Explore Vigrand - The character's journey will encompass the whole of the kingdom of Vigrand, and each place they visit will be full of interesting people, interesting things, and probably lots and lots of danger. 

Character Conversations - Conversation points found throughout your journey will flesh out the characters with interactions between them, some serious, some comical. 

 

Build your own fighting style - Every skill is made available at the start, but the JP needed to unlock them gets higher and higher, so you can save up from stronger skills and be specialized, or spread out your skills for a variety of skills useful for various situations. 

 

Build your TP with skills - Technique that use TP are stronger and more damaging, so it's important to be able to use them. You don't have to just sit around and get hit to use them too; skills that take MP all boost TP by an amount, meaning you wanna use all your skills all the time!

 

Quests and rewards - There are quests to take to hunt down big monsters, and you can take parts dropped by them to make unique weapons. Some give unique skills usually only used by monsters, others are just strong. Fight things!

Tough! - Hopefully. I want it to be a tough game at least. Tell me if it's not tough, I'll make it tougher. 

 

 

 

 

 

Known Issues: None that I am aware of that are big enough to be a progression blocker.

 

 

 

Thank you to Tsarmina for telling me how to do spoilers, so I shall add some more things to this post. I also seem to be unable to post replies on this topic, so I'll respond to the question here: As I understood it the Showroom was for games that were early in development. Although I have a demo and it is 2 hours long, I have seen other Showroom topics with demos and (although some of those demos have ranged from 10-30 minutes) I still consider 2 hours in to be early in development. As I plan it, the 2 hours of the demo would be like... 5% of the game. So, it's a big project, maybe too big for a first (although it is really like my 3rd counting things I've dropped), but I'm gunna stick with it.

Well, if you think it would be better suited for the Gameroom still, I wouldn't object. Also the Gameroom seems more "classy," and though I don't know of any major issues with the demo as is, I'd like some people to try it out a bit maybe, lol.

Edited December 19, 2014 by Mushinronja

[Tsarmina 2,612]

You tagged this for Showroom, but you have a demo. Are you sure this is due for the right destination?

 

ps. Spoiler tags are denoted by [ spoiler ] Text here [ /spoiler ] 

[amerk 1,122]

It's really up to you when you want it to be moved to Gaming Lounge (as long as it has a demo). In GL, first impressions matter to some degree, so if you feel the game is still a bit too early it's fine to leave it in Showroom. Understand that you may not get as much feedback in Showroom as you would in GL.

 

I'll move it Showroom for now, and you can report it when you think it's ready to be moved to GL.

[Mushinronja 3]

I think that's a good plan for now, much appreciated.

Guess i'll start workin on the next part of the game until someone tries it out, lol.

I've had a few friends play some, no major issues.

[Mushinronja 3]

It's been a while since my last post, progress on the next area in my game is coming along although a bit slower than normal because of classes starting.

 

 

Anyways, I was wondering if I'm experiencing them showroom blues, since nobody's posted anything. So, although it may seem a bit tricky, I would like to request the topic be moved over to the Gaming Lounge. Maybe even shill a bit more by putting something like [Demo Available] in the title.

Should I request this by pm?

[Tsarmina 2,612]

We can move it, but make sure it's formatted for the Gaming Lounge blueprint.

[Mushinronja 3]

Ah, right, I'll need to check and do that after work then.

 

 

 

Aaaand I think it's ready. Didn't change much...

Edited August 25, 2014 by Mushinronja

[Tsarmina 2,612]

Congrats!  Movage complete.

[Mushinronja 3]

Much appreciated.

[Mushinronja 3]

Some player feedback has led to the discovery of a progression-blocker in an optional room, so this is a new version of the game to fix that, along with some other minor changes. Shall add to opening post as well. 

 

 

With RTP v1.01:

https://www.dropbox.... v1.01.exe?dl=0

 

 

 

Without RTP v1.01:

https://www.dropbox.... V1.01.exe?dl=0

[Mushinronja 3]

Work and school takin a buncha time, but i've finally got into makin the next area of the game. Doesn't help that i find mapmaking one of the less interesting parts of rpg maker (prolly cuz i don't know how to do the crazy stuff with it). Anyways, here are some screenshots of my weird/lame maps, lol. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mushinronja 3]

I think I'mma start trying to make weekly posts to keep my head in the game, so to speak.

 

Anyways, major progress done, the latest area I'm working on (the same as in the images above) is nearly done, the story parts needed wrapping up, the enemies made and placed but not yet tested, and another optional boss has been pieced together. New equipment with various effects in place (I think I'm going to make elemental weaknesses and strengths a major thing, each character already has elements they're naturally weak too, but armors will add or remove them as well), like weaker weapons that increase defense and health, or armors that grant weakness to an element but increase attack.

 

I've decided on quite a major change as well; in order to increase the time you get to spend with certain character, I'll be making some of the until-now "Non-playable characters" in the opening post playable. I'm hoping to make the player care more about the characters in the world, and the best way to do that is to give em more screen time and action, imo.

 

Next time I update the demo will be after I complete this current area (Aldyma Mountain (it's between the towns of Almala and Dyme, expect more of this naming convention)) and the next which will be when you play as Grissam's mom, Grin, and the green hair'd guy you wouldn't know unless you played the demo. So I gotta make a completely new area and 3 or so new characters too. Fun times! 

[Mushinronja 3]

Another week, another post. The area of Aldyma Mountain is basically all mapped, and the town of Almala is made as well, along with the explorable area in the town. There isn't much to explore in Almala tho, because it jumps to the other now playable characters, where you will be able to play as 3 stronger characters with modified, stronger versions of the classes the main 4 will use. The actual progression of their section isn't 100% planned out though, so still some conceptual work to be done.

[Mushinronja 3]

I learned that the demo I had posted up until today was actually messed up, but now it's fixed! Now as for work on the game this week: 

 

Not much in particular done, mostly working on enemies for the next area, their stats, and balancing them with the static levels and skills of the guest-character party.

 

I actually haven't completely tested the previous area yet.... jumpin the gun a bit.

 

Got some pics tho, showin some added tutorial messages and skills. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mushinronja 3]

Between Bayonetta 2 and college work, honestly not much done in the RPG Maker front. That being said, the next steps for me to take are rather clear, and involve area/enemy testing/filling out and some balancing on the player character's parts. Couple of slow weeks, but don't count me out just yet, yo.

[shadowblack 103]

You probably know this already, but when you enter Dilo's Secret Room you get stuck due to an Autorun event that never ends. All it does is turn "on" Switch #12. First (and so far only) game-breaking bug I have seen.

 

EDIT: Finished the demo. So far so good. It looks like the story might be quite interesting. No bugs seen apart from the above.

 

One complaint: Great Healing is practically worthless. Grand Healing has the exact same cost (22MP) but much better effect. Great Healing's only advantage is that it is cheaper to learn, but in the long term Grand Healing is better, so you are better off learning that one instead. I'd say reduce the cost of Great Healing to 18 MP and increase the cost of Grand Healing to 24 MP. Then it might be worth buying the lesser version - for some people, at least (I'll stick with Grand Healing - in boss battles it's just better).

Edited November 11, 2014 by shadowblack

[Mushinronja 3]

hmmm, did I leave it so other people could open it in rpg maker or sumthin? whoops, lol. However that helps me out, since I wasn't sure what the issue there was. I set it up so it would turn on a self switch and go to nothing after that, but I guess it didn't work (or maybe I added that afterwards, or maybe I accidentally uploaded the wrong one......), but now I just made it so it turns on in the door opening to the room. Sorry about the glitch, but thanks for playing!

And yea, I haven't added all of the skills so I haven't balanced them either, so some skills are gotten way too easily in the demo. I'll be increasing both the SP and MP costs quite a bit to make it worth getting each level of skill. It also makes it so you couldn't just grind out fights for the skills. I might have to increase them exponentially.....

 

Also, was the game at all challenging? Or at least, would it have been if you didn't have such easy access to higher-level skills? lol

 

Either way, thanks for the playing and the input, makes me want to work on it all the more.

[shadowblack 103]

As far as skills are concerned I used only a few:

- Great Slash - good damage vs single opponents

- Swath - good damage vs all opponents

- Grand Slash - I got it before fighting Kriez and I'd say it's quite good against single opponents

- I was going to learn Blade Dance and maybe Grand Stabs, but... the demo ended, so I never got around to it

- Heal (for obvious reasons), Great Healing (because I didn't have enough to buy Grand Healing before entering the Aether Facility and I wasn't in the mood for grinding), Grand Healing (awesome healing skill), and occasionally Cure and Light Burst skills (most of the time I chose to conserve Alemmi's MP, though)

- Dark Shot - because Blind

- Flame - because some enemies are weak to it

That's it. No other skills used.

 

About difficulty: I'd say it is fine. I accepted that side quest about the mutated spider and completed it, and I also did a bit of grinding in the form of killing everything that moves the first time I enter a new map area. There was a bit of a difficulty increase when I got to the Aether Facility, but nothing I could not handle. Overall the difficulty is fine, as long as you remember to restore your character's MP. The drones were annoying, though - one time two drones kept spamming Paralyze and I ended up with three paralyzed characters doing nothing for a few turns.

 

I'd recommend giving the player 1 or 2 extra Magic Water at the start of the game.

 

On the topic of skills, I'd say make the better skills have requirements, such as a certain level of the character and/or having the previous skill(s) so that I can't learn Grand Healing before learning Great Healing.

[Mushinronja 3]

Hey all, finally got enough progress done so I could feel good posting again, lol. So, I played through the whole game again to see if it all worked, which it did, I opened the next area for myself to test and found out I made the enemies wayyyyy too bulky, and I added some more conversation spots. Also went ahead and named some more skills as placeholders, lol. Each of the main characters have 100 slots for skills allotted to them, but idk if i'll be filling them up.

 

I made it tougher to get new skills by upping their SP costs, so as to prevent getting too many skills too early, and though I was initially against it, I probably will make each skill's progressive level locked until you get the earlier one.

[Mushinronja 3]

Maps! Nearly done with the next part of the game, and that means I'll probably be putting up a new demo soon too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mushinronja 3]

Welp, big changes to the mechanics of the game and the story are going to push back the release of the next demo a bit. The changes include:

- Tweaked dialogue
- More interactable objects in the world
- Cleaning up the item list on my end, changing their names and descriptions to better fit the world, and subsequently having to remake every merchant
- Changing the damage formula of spells to be purely stat based without the base damage (which will require a bit of testing for sure)
- Changing the severity of weaknesses and resistances of enemies, where if they're weak to it, they take 150% damage, and if they're resistant, they take 50%, so exploiting weaknesses is a bigger deal.
- Will need to clean up the weapon and armor lists too
- ... might want to clean up every list I have... that would make a lot of work...

[Mushinronja 3]

Monthly report cuz I'm still working on the game, lol.

Working on those big changes in my above post, along with creating an all new intro sequence that teaches a bit about the world by showing rather than telling, for the most part.

Part of my list-cleaning means remaking all of my enemies and troops, but hopefully if I make the new troops in the same spot as the old ones, I won't have to re-place every single enemy on my maps.