Kinetic - Phase

[ValentineEnigma]

KINETIC - PHASE[/FONT]


"Kilia is a broken world. Centuries of war and abuse of the planet has left the once beautiful landscape twisted and scarred.

The grey skies and silver sands stretch from one blackened ocean to the next, as cities forged in the fires of Angelic Magicks and fortifies with High Technology twist towards the heavens; glorified gravestones to the world that once was."
Entry from the Diary of Whisper #104 : Gia-Miafu Lien

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[----Alpha Demo----]
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Ok so there IS an Alpha Demo for Kinetic Phase already. It isn't big and it isn't finished, but hopefully it should give you some idea of what to expect. It's not meant to be taken too seriously, so try to have fun with it.

If you find any bugs please let me know, but try not to make comments like "It's not finished!". I know it isn't and I don't claim it to be either.

Anyways, please enjoy and ignore my pathetic ramblings at the beginning and end. =)

IMPORTANT: You will require the Chicago font in order to view the text. It's available all over but DaFont is your best bet I think.
KINETIC - PHASE - ALPHA

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[---General-Info---]
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I'll not be adding a storyline specific entry here since there is a text file within the Alpha that explains that. Besides I don't honestly want to give too much away yet... sorry! ^_^

Here are some explinations of some of the terms used within the game and this topic. I've tried to explain the best I can, but please bear with me.

-Whisper-
The Whisper's were created following The Great Kilian War as a means to protect the desert wastelands between the borders of the Kingdom of Origa and the Duendean Empire. They're grouped by rank depending on thier success rate for missions. Thier jobs include protecting settlers and travellers, policing the borders, quarantining specific Angelic Sites, assasinations and military operations.

-Kinetics-
Kinetics are often reffered to as mutants or freaks, but more commonly as Digital Witches (Since the Kinetic Gene seems to be more prevailant in women). They are capable of interfacing with Angelic Technology, a feat that is near impossible for most humans without extensive knowlege of the Angelic Language. They are also able to transfer digital data into physical matter. Kinetics are shunned in the Kingdom of Origa as heretics and are often executed within its walls.

-Angels-
A name that the historians of Kilia have bestowed upon a long dead Ancient Race. Although there is very little evidence of them, and nothing is known about thier appearance, the ruins of thier Ancient Facilities can be found throughout the desert wastelands. Most are inactive, however with the help of Kinetics, the Duendean Empire and the Whispers have managed to harness the Angelic Technology held within.

-The Veldt-
Although only existing in theory, many experts on Angelic Technology believe the Veldt to be a gateway between the Material World and the Digital World. Some even go so far as to say that the reason there is no physical evidence of Angels is due to them entering the Veldt as a means of escaping some form of natural disaster, though this theory has yet to be proven.

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[----Characters----]
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http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/797/giainfohh9.jpg[/IMG]

Additional Artwork

A young Whisper who rose through the ranks with speed and style. Utilising her inherant Kinetic Abilities to thier full potential at every oppourtunity. Once known as the Desert Witch, Gia was able to weild a power never before seen amoungst Kinetics.

However, all that changed following one life changing day. Gia and two other Whispers, Nikke and Trent were sent deep into the deserts Deadzone on a mission to hunt and kill several malfunctioning Combat Androids, known as Shriekers. Gia was the only survivor, and ever since she has chosen to live a life of quiet solitude. Refusing to use the power that had once made her so great.

Now, Gia has been called upon once again to protect the order of the desert wastelands she calls home.


-Delta-
Concept Artwork

A mysterious young woman found wandering the Veldt. She is unable to speak vocally, but can communicate with Gia via her Gear Core. Delta appears to be mostly human, though her hands and feet are constructed of a skeletal metallic substance. Very little is known about Delta, though it appears she has been wandering the Veldt for a very long time.

Her skill in battle is far greater than most as Delta is able to manipulate both physical and digital matter.

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[---Screenshots---]
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Screen-01
Screen-02
Screen-03
Screen-04
Screen-05


I realise this is a little sparse atm so sorry for that. But I think it'll give you a sense of what I'm going for. I'll have some gameplay details up soon too!

I'll be adding to this topic as I go, so sorry for any severe lack of detail. But please try the Alpha if you have time and let me know what you think. =)

EDIT: Ack! I forgot the credits!

Ok so...
ccoa for the CBS
Lene for a fantastic piece of ambient music
Chrono Trigger for some graphics
Parasite Eve for the battle theme!

 

[Sketch]

I had the pleasure of playing this the other day, and my only glaring complaint would be IT'S TOO DAMN SHORT!!!

I love the graphics you've made for this (The character is especially my favorite...your work in sprites is honestly amazing) and the story was something that actually held me captive and wanting more, hence the WTF?!? At the end of the demo.

The battle system seems a little stale, and there were some graphical errors, but this is an alpha version afterall, so no major complaints on that front.

Well done, Val. Well done.

 

[Atnas]

I'm starting it up now, it's gorgeous. =3

I was wondering why ccoa had [KineticPhase] next to her name on IRC.

 

[Rye]

Oooh, this was wonderful. =) I enjoyed playing it and the story was very sweet. Makes my game seem really amatuer in comparison. XD

 

[Anonymous]

I heartily recomend this game. It's visually stunning, and the story really makes you want more than the little nibble you were given. It honestly plays like an alpha version of a professional game.

 

[Alastyr]

Exceedingly fun game. Very nice atmosphere, amazing introduction sequence, great character portrayal. You did a very nice job with all of it!

A few things I think you could improve on tho.
1. Battles are too bland. Ex. the drones always use shock, shouldn't there be some variety? Especially for an enemy that takes 2-3 turns to kill.. :-/

2. It's counter-intuitive to have to press enter to climb a ladder. It's not so bad at first, but it gets tedius quickly. You should only have to press the arrow key in the direction of the ladder.

I'm looking forward to playing future releases. This game has more potential than anything I've seen so far. Keep up the amazing work!

 

[Aran]

well, then I must test it ^^

 

[Jstreet]

You might have caught this already:

Spoiler: Error

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a362/theomen9mm/KPerror.png[/IMG]

Also, you might want to check one of your groupings, because when I got into one battle Gia repeated what she(?) said.

This was not only excellent, but awe inspiring as well. I love where it's going. I was pretty pissed when the demo ended :-/ Honestly, why is it that everytime you decide to make an appearence you must make our efforts in game making look worthless.

...fuckin show off.

 

[Volrath]

Good times. Really excellent visuals and shows a lot of promise for gameplay as well. I really loved that jumping, so simple yet so fun. I think little touches like the sprite work and sound effects really add to something like that.

Hard to comment on the story at this early stage, but I think there were a few too many names thrown at the player in that early prologue. It's not that I can't keep it all straight...it's more that I don't yet have a reason to be invested in any of it. I tend to think it's more effective to ease people into background details about the world and its history more gradually, but judging from these other posts I doubt that holds sway over many others. If this becomes vaporware, I shall be a sad panda. Keep up the good work.

 

[Anaryu]

I have to admit that I felt it ended too early for me as well!

The dialogue was simple but surprisingly interesting, a very good balance. The most outstanding feature was the use of graphics, the detail you made for when the character jumps, walks, and climbs ladders is amazing, and the attention to detail for the intro and use of sounds with the never-simple graphics really brings out the best in it.

Your choice of music fits the areas very well, although I'd never have imagined Secret of Evermore music working for a futuristic dungeon!

I'd be interested in seeing later combat system aspects, as in the beginning it's the old attack/heal pattern (not that that can be avoided!). At this early level the active time feature was more dull than not, since I spent most of my time simply waiting for my next turn.

Awesome work, and I can't wait to see a demo that's further along, or (heaven forbid!) the actual final project!

 

[FlippyD]

Does anyone know where to get a copy of Chicago for windows? (The font...)

I can't find it anywhere (yes, even on DaFont.)

 

[Wings]

Sure. For those of you who cannot find the Chicago font, here it is uploaded to savefile.com. http://savefile.com/files/409650

Val, this demo looks very promising. I can't wait to play more (whenever you get to doing more).

 

[coyotecraft]

Maestro! your great! i've been looking for that font forever!

the demo IS short. Fun, but short.

 

[Lene]

It was a great game and reading the text files that were in the game folder made me look forward to the rest of it. It sounds like something that is relatively simple, yet lasting in terms of gameplay.

As for the actual game, I loved the level of detail you put into your sprite animations. The jumping animation was kickass, and I was really surprised when I realized that when she went to a console she was typing instead of just standing there. Little things like those add to the gaming experience.

Oh and

Your choice of music fits the areas very well, although I'd never have imagined Secret of Evermore music working for a futuristic dungeon!

Thanks, *blush*. Okay I only wrote one song and I know it's not the Secret of Evermore piece, but hey I'll take the complement. XD

On that note, I'd be glad to write more music for you Val if you want. I was really surprised and happy to find that you found a use for the song a did so long ago.

 

[ValentineEnigma]

Thanks for the comments one and all!

@Maestro: Thanks for getting that uploaded. I have no idea why Chicago has disappeared from DaFont o_O

@The_JSTREET: Yeah I did notice that a while back, but I must have forgotten to fix it so sorry about that.

As for the grouping thing, I'm not too sure what you mean... The battle message at the beginning repeated? At the moment there are only 3 messages but they will vary depending on the area, what's going on and the enemies with all bosses having specific messages.

If you mean the "What the... The security system's active?!" Message was repeated elsewhere, then I'll definitly check that out.

And yes she is a she. ':|


As for the comments about the battle system it IS temporary. I'll be switching it out for ccoa's Turn Based system... while I know some people might be dissapointed by the lack of ATB, there is a big reason! The combat system will partially rely upon tactics, with many, many status effects, special attacks and so on.

Tha status effects will also be enemy type specific, for isntance a Poison attack will effect some enemies from the material world, but will be useless on Digital enemies. Therefore you'll have to upload a virus to achieve the same effect. Instead of ressurecting digital characters, you must use a skill called "Reboot", Doom is replaced by Systematic Shutdown etc. (Skill names prone to changing) And Elements play a big part too, so it's more about thinking of the right attacks and healing any ailments and lost HP than just attacking as quickly as possible.

Think... longer battles with the focus on using your brain.

Anyways, thanks for the comments so far, and I'll take them into consideration as I continue the project.


EDIT: Sorry Lene, didn't see your post! I'm glad you like it and WOO! More Lene music! Score!!

I absolutely loved the piece you did for FoL and it does work really well with the game IMO. Thanks hun, I'll get back to you about the music if you're sure you have the time. =D

 

[FlippyD]

Ok, finally got a chance to try it out. Here's what I think...

I enjoy the music, the tilesets and backgrounds are cool (and remind me a helluva lot about Chrono Trigger, heheh.)

The added animations was a nice touch, though Gia's crouching animation is a bit oddly positioned. Her spine points straight up and at a 90 degree angle, her arms are bolted to her sides and her legs are impossibly positioned. I'd suggest you try for a more dynamic and less-static pose. Get a camera and take shots of people in battle poses or use reference from the net or something.

Also, the attacking animation... I'm assuming you'll have more than just Gia, so it might get confusing to have lots of playable characters in battle using attacks without hilighting them before the hit. But you're changing battle systems anyway so this probably doesn't matter. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I mean the way Gia attacks. Usually the game highlights the attacker, plays the attack animation, and then highlights the target. However Gia isn't highlighted, so if there were multiple characters with swords in the same party attacking at the same time it'd be impossible to tell which ones were attacking and which ones aren't, y'know?

I think the ladder thing is fine, just needs to be sped up.

 

[Aran]

interesting review, ixis...

 

[ValentineEnigma]

Thanks for the critique ixis.

I agree with the crouching animation, it was a little rushed and I hate to admit I did just end up Frankenspriting it using parts of other poses so yeah, that's a valid comment. I'll work on that, thanks.

As for the attack animation thing, again I see your point. I will be adding more animations for Gia and the other characters (N, Delta and Kora amoung others.) but I also plan to have icons appear above each characters head in battle to show who is doing what and when. Obviously since the battles will be switched over to turnbased as well, that should sort that issue out. But thanks for bringing it up, I forgot to mention that. ^_^

I'll try speeding up the ladder thing too, I don't plan on changing it to an arrow key system though, since on the time limit sections, it would be very annoying to accidentally climb up a very long ladder. ':|

Thanks again! And I'm glad you enjoyed it!

 

[Aran]

that was the most beautifully crafted short demo, I've ever played. But what in the hell gave you that detail in your tiles?! that's unbelievable...

and this storyis juicy, i can't wait for the next part to come out...

 

[Sketch]

The tiles are (if I'm remembering correctly) a mixture of Chrono Trigger rips and original pieces.