Belle (previously Fatale)

[Rayne Aven]

Belle
A shocking and insightful journey into the mind of a murderer...
Indie Game Challenge 2011 Unprofessional Entry (details)

Story
A brutal murder has been committed in broad daylight. The sole suspect was brought into custody, but he has not uttered a single word since. As an experienced psychological explorer, you are hired to enter the criminal's mind and find the truth.

Gameplay
Belle is an atmospheric puzzle/adventure game. The suspect's mind is home to a number of strangely familiar and unfamiliar places, each with their own rules. It is the player's job to learn these rules and solve unique puzzles, essentially "figuring out" the suspect's mind. Through doing this, the player gains access to deeper areas and more intimate knowledge.

Each puzzle has its own mechanics and rules. The only mainstay between them is that arrow keys move your character in the four cardinal directions and the Confirm button (Enter, Spacebar, or C) interacts with things.

Screenshots

Spoiler

Notes

• Belle contains about 2-3 hours of content, depending on how good you are at puzzles.
  
  The puzzles in Belle range from pretty easy to formidably difficult, and most are in the latter category. If you get stuck on puzzles (and I'm almost positive you will), don't give up! We hope you'll really feel good about solving them once you've done so. If you're really stuck, there's a hint option in the menu.
  
  We want your feedback. We really do! However, we developed this game with a deadline in mind, and that deadline has passed, so we probably won't actually be "remastering" it for a while. Believe me, we'd love to remake this game with completely custom assets, thousands of hours of playtesting results, boatloads of polish, and our own engine, (or even just touched up mapping) but as it stands, that's simply not feasible.
  
  You will need the RPG Maker XP RTP to play Belle.
  
  If you can, play Belle with a friend. We've found through playtesting that, even if the other player isn't in direct control, it's loads more fun working puzzles out with two or more people, and you tend to get through it more quickly.

Download! (MediaFire)

Credits
Enterbrain - Graphics, Sound, some music
Nathan Chmielinski - Design, Story, some art
Richard "Rayne Aven" Gebbia - Scripts, Story, some music
Grace Chmielinski - Cutscene Art
Ben Chmielinski - Pixel Art
False - Some music

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

Personally, and basing myself upon your storyline, I think your game would best be called "Femme Fatale". Or perhaps the name of an already existing femme fatale, such as "Salomé" or "Lilith". Or however you want to name. It's your game. : )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femme_fatale

 

[Rayne Aven]

We wanted to find a name that was both representative of our game and classy/catchy (if you know what I mean). "Femme Fatale," while definitely fitting the former category, does not necessarily suit the latter well. The original name for the project while it was in development was "Fatale," which was probably the best of all names we could have chosen, and we as the developers still refer to it as that. Unfortunately, in the middle of development, Tale of Tales (maker of The Path) came out with a game called Fatale (the main character was actually the Salomé you mentioned), so we had to find another name. Belle, we think, fits both categories well enough, and that was the game's name when we submitted it to the Indie Game Challenge. Also, we had thought of naming the game after a famous femme fatale, but we explicitly didn't want any characters in our game to have names.

 

[Rayne Aven]

So, it's been about a month, and we haven't really gotten any responses in this thread. I just wanted to know if anyone has downloaded and played the game. If so, are there any comments, criticisms, or questions you have? Did you play it, get stuck on a puzzle and give up? Or did it not seem appealing and just glossed over it? As a developer, I would obviously encourage you to play through the game and get to the end. As someone who has played through multiple times and watched a number of people play through it in front of me, though, I really think you're going to enjoy beating Belle. If you're having trouble on a puzzle or if you have any comment to make, please feel free to post it. We would rather hear criticism than nothing at all, so that we can improve on the quality of the next game(s) we make.

 

[Daxis]

er anyways
first things first, there's a lack of polish around certain parts. The mapping is a bit bland at various points, and certain aspects are simply reused. Areas with more texture seem to have even less things. The directions to move are too large, not focused enough, and as this game sorta works on a point A to point B thing, that's not good. Additionally, areas to transition are not clearly marked out, except for maybe a road, but that's not very much. I like to specifically put two things between the areas where you are allowed to transition or not, to mark it out. And the fact that you need to actively press a button to transit is a bit ehh. Activated at touch is better. The transitions are also a bit annoying, as you are blatantly shown the next map/scene. At least use the default transition of rmxp.

beginning is clearly a bit off. you are introduced to a intro screen with nothing except a light music, and when you press begin, the music abruptly cuts off. One thing i like to do in rm is always fade out music, never cut it off anywhere. takes away from the feel. There's also no music in the artworks, which i feel could help with some atmosphere, but that's only my opinion

eh, i guess the default rmxp music works at points, but people versed in rmxp usage don't find it that attractive. At least I don't. Somtimes, you are walking across a large screen/map, and there is no other sound that occurs, and you hear the same old music over and over. Especially when you're stuck on a puzzle, gets annoying at points.

There's a bit of do this to do that at points. The puzzle that absolutely intrigued me most was the mirror puzzle. I thought it might have been glitched at points (like sometimes, by doing it wrong/right, your shadow become solid where you cross over, but moving back then forth clears it). Eventing allows some weird stuff to happen sometimes. Other puzzles feel very do this-do that at points, and sometimes the payoff doesn't feel THAT good once you complete the puzzle. The weird facing one direction town has a small bug thing, where once that guy gets his friend to read him the book, the event asking you to find his friend is still there, though invis.

Your puzzles at times feels confined by the rmxp engine, other times it seems limited only to the rmxp engine or similar (like the facing town). They're alright, if infuriating. I've gotten stuck at the space map, the firefly dungeon, the house/messages, the facing town, and maybe one or two others (i also realized i haven't finished the butterflies). I feels like there is a lack of direction in the dungeons. (once i figured out how the mirror works by reading the hint, it suddenly seemed real ingenious).

additionally, the story is nonexistent after the first two minutes. As it stands, it feels too much like an excuse to create a whole bunch of puzzles. The psychological aspect could use some work as well- in the mind of a killer/anyone, you could have some really really freaky stuff going on, like psychadelic lights room, ghosts, etc. Right now it stands as weird, not out there enough, and the atmosphere is barely anything.

Anyways, why is it that you uploaded it as a rar, inside the exe file? is it because exes are generally seen as virus? beyond that, it feels as if the filesize is much to large for what i'm seeing right now. I don't have a problem with it, but it just doesn't seem that large is justifiable.
And there are only 9 files within the audio folder. Really man, please change that.

Beyond that, there's one or two things that impresses me about the project, such as the puzzles, some of the designs, the movement of the screen during the artwork, and some various others. It doesn't seem all THAT interesting to me, and certain aspects, such as the psychological, atmospheric, etc. are not done as well as they need to (i mean, dude, this is a atmospheric game. polish is one thing that is hella needed). Beyond that, I do applaud what you have so far.


EDIT: i just noticed you had a thread for this project in project discussion. I think you should ask a mod to merge these threads, as it is the same rpoject, right?

 

[Rayne Aven]

Thank you very much for your criticisms, Daxis, and for pointing out some bugs to fix.

What you said about the title music ending abruptly makes sense, and it's a quick fix, so I'll definitely fade it out.

I definitely know what you mean by the lack of polish and atmosphere. The thing is, making this version of the game, we had a deadline, and there were things we had to prioritize before polish (namely: finishing the game and playtesting). A big point in the Project Discussion thread was that the mapping was bland, and, while I agree it is, we had to sacrifice it for functionality.

A LOT of the game's shortcomings stem from the nature of using RPG Maker and its RTP. Originally, all the puzzles in the game were light-based (puzzles like fireflies and the mirror were kept in), but RPG Maker handles light really poorly. We wanted to do a lot more stuff with the atmosphere (and brain anatomy) that just we couldn't with the RTP. And I'd like to think I'm a better programmer than Belle makes me out to be. I would've taken making a custom engine any day over RPG Maker, but the EULA says I can't use the RTP anywhere else (as far as I know) and we kinda didn't have a full-time pixel artist working with us.

For the puzzles you've gotten stuck on, here are some more hints if you still want to beat the game. Like I said, I would really like to see what people think after they've beaten it:

Spoiler

For the space map, we've noticed that people really have trouble at the beginning, and then once they figure out the maps, they plow right on through to the end. It may seem daunting at first because there's so much information on the maps, but you really just have to memorize where the platforms are at the current time, and another map will be right there to remind you where they can go. Nate's an economical designer, so every position of every platform is required to solve the puzzle. Another thing, if you're really not quite getting it at the beginning, there's a correlation between the colors of the crystals and the colors of the platforms on the map.

For the firefly puzzle, it depends on where you're at. It's important to note, again, that Nate's an economical designer. You can't leave any fireflies behind at any time, or you won't be able to continue. Check all of the lanterns to make sure there aren't any fireflies left in them. You also can't use the three fireflies from the entrance. They're there to introduce the mechanic.

The house with the messages is honestly pretty easy. I didn't really expect a whole lot of trouble from it, and the playtesters figured it out pretty quickly. But anyway, if you have gotten the eighth clue, try interacting with what's in the piano room. The fireplace is a red herring. If you haven't gotten the eighth clue, why didn't you start inside the house?

The facing town is very much what you describe as a "do this to do that" puzzle. The hint there is really only for people who have gotten to a specific point in the puzzle (if you've gotten inside the mine, you're probably at this point). If you've made into the mine and nothing significant has happened, try revisiting the room with the treasure chest. If you haven't, worry only about your immediate goal; don't think that turning this one way will hinder you from getting into this house later. It won't.

For the butterflies, you've figured out that you have to find them, which is good. The key, though, is to relax and just wander. You'll finish the puzzle much more quickly if you don't really care where you're heading.

On the topic of the story being nonexistent, you're definitely in the right saying that the puzzles don't really feel like they add to the story. In a way they do (it'll make more sense if you beat the game), but they also don't immediately appear that way. We had some plans to make them more relevant and connected, but they were scrapped in favor of finishing the game.

As for the exe/rar thing, I'm just used to distributing everything as a rar, I guess.

Thanks again for your comments. I would really like to fix this game up for future versions, and what you've said has helped me to do so.

 

[Daxis]

one thing that stopped me at the firefly thing was that one lantern said that it needed only 1 firefly, but then i put one in, and as far as i could tell, nothing happened. It was at one of those three doors. I might have missed one or i might be wrong (as i assume playtesters got to the end) but that was how i was stuck there.

i tried interactinng with most everyhting in the house one, and i missed 3, and apprently 8.

for the house, I talked to the guy's friend, turned on direction, talked to some woman... and that was it. I didn't see much to do, and i got a bit bored i guess :P

and honestly i was just sorta going throuhg the puzzles to get a feel of them (as i felt a bit bad seeing the little c&c you've gotten here), and since they were all laid out from the beginning, so one or two puzzles i tried harder than others as they were actually interesitng (like the space map,even though i gave up >.<), while others i just sorta saw how it worked.

I'm pretty sure it does connect to the end, but then it feels as if there are obstacles in the way of the story. Any next revisions, I'd recommend making things more surreal, add some characters to add commentary to (like the butterflies puzzle- add some animals or people to distract you, interacting with a cat kills a butterfly, etc.), cause atm it seemed really barren thoughrough, as ll npcs are basically a part of some quest and are without personality




also, I'm sorta confused a bit sometimes by who's talking. there's no marking about who is who. The main character rarely speaks, despite a slightly loquacious beginning, and other characters, especially when there are more than one, are hard to realize (is it a message telling me i'm interacting with something, or is this a person talking?) It wouldn't be too hard to get some advanced messaging system to add name boxes and stuff


btw if you ever need a couple rmxp maps and ideas on polishing rmxp games and some misc stuff, contact me, i'm usually free every for the most part. While i don't do full time stuff (too lazy to even finish up my own game ideas :P), i can usually help with some things here and there