"Melolune" (formerly "The Blue Star") [*New Demo and Video*]

[miss matcha]

<img src="http://leebleforest.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/aero1.png">

Thank-you sharksweetheart for recoloring this for me!  I spent tonight adjusting the eyes and profile, and uploaded it into the game.  I think it looks really cool

 

[Seafoam]

Wow, the music is really good. and Aero is really cute =)
I'll write more after I've played it.

Edit:
It was a little cheesy, but good nonetheless..
I'll keep my eye on this

 

[Reives]

A bit of a fan media here. :>

The quality's pretty bad, though. I recorded it with my laptop built-in mic, and I didn't really know what exactly I was doing. Plenty of mistakes and staggering due to improvising, but a fan media non the less! 

http://www.quintessence-tbv.com/Traces_FanMedia.mp3

 

[miss matcha]

@Seafoam: Hi, thank-you for playing my game   On a totally separate note, I'm dying to know what your icon comes from.  I've been staring at it for like 5 minutes trying to guess what the person is saying.  My guess is "It's not my boy and I liked it"...

@Reives: Aww... that's so cool!  And you did such a nice job!  I take it you too are an ear-player?  My piano teachers used to get so mad at me for borrowing classical CDs from the library to learn my pieces that way instead of sight reading like a proper student, hehe.  But being able to play by ear sure does help with improvising and coming up with new songs.  Anyways, thank-you for the lovely rendition!  I really appreciate that you took the time, it's very nice   I'll add it to the main thread!

 

[Airose]

I actually wasnt going to play it, because I dont like games that try to implement humor.. but you're getting really good reviews on your music and I am of course a fan of music.. so *downloading*

Wish my mom played WoW

"Your the first human I've ever met.. to tell the truth most humans arent that kind to leebles?"

Huh..? Wait.. what!? That doesnt make sense. Five seconds ago the mewgles didnt know what Dominic was, and now they know his kind all their life? DIJOIJDIJDD Trogdor mad!

How can the bird chant or even use an earth attack? Unless its kicking rocks at the guy.

A friggin bee did more damage than an armed soldier. D: WHA!?

 

[miss matcha]

Hi there, I'm glad you decided to give it a try!  You've probably figured this out already, but it's not really a comedy game or anything, I think it just has quirkly elements  

Thank-you for bringing up the point about the bee's damage... that's a good point, if it's doing more damage than the soldier I should tone it down (I think I messed around with the damage levels when I was balancing it and the bees slipped my attention since they only occur that one time).

About the "your the first human I've ever met" part: The Leebles know about humans, but most of them have never interacted with them.  They've only heard stories or observed things, but they've never actually met any of them (kind of like the Gummi Bears, or any other society of creatures that try to keep themselves separated from the human world).

As for the bird's attacks: I guess it'd be like FF or Chrono Trigger where you'd encounter forest animals that do things like lightening attacks... it doesn't make sense in the real world, only in fantasy style rpgs

Maybe you can teach your mom about WoW!  I had no idea mine would be into it... I got her started with Animal Crossing on the DS (I had to walk her through everything, but once she understood how it all worked, she totally got into it).  Then one day she saw Stranglethorn Vale on my computer and asked "wow, is that a beach?  Can you swim there??"  And a week later, she called me to say she had bought the game O.O
She's still getting used to it, but she knows how to fight and do quests and all that.  It's awesome

 

[Aida]

I just have to say, I love this game.  I think it goes without saying that the music is awesome.  But one thing I don't think enough people have pointed out is how well you've developed the story.  The dialogue is so polished I feel like I'm playing a game I've bought from a store.  You've done a great job bringing out the characters' personalities without making me feel like it's being shoved in my face.  I feel like the cute beginning is just a cover for some really serious plot... like you're hiding a bunch of serious secrets from us... I can't wait to find out what happens next, you have to finish!!

I actually think the map layouts are really good; I can find where I'm going very easily but I still feel like I'm exploring.  I wish I could offer to help you with the Leeble houses, but I'm not an artist   Anyways, thanks for making such a great game!

p.s. I almost cried during that one scene with Mani and the soldiers. ^^* 

 

[miss matcha]

Hello, thank-you for playing my game!  I'm so happy you liked it.  I did spend a lot of time on the character development and dialogue (the story for the full game is probably about 150-200 pages on Microsoft Word), so I promise lots of secrets, twists, and all that good stuff.  And yes, you're right that the cute beginning is not indicative of the latter parts of the game at all.  There is a very serious and deep plot that took me a while to put together.  I'll try my best to finish!

 

[monkeydlu]

it looks very nice! I'll download it now ^_^

 

[Reives]

Yep, I'm an ear-player, although not much of a player, heheh. I started messing around with piano a couple of years ago because I somehow pressed 3 random keys on it that sounded nice, so I sat down and started playing around with it. :p For three days all I played was a 4-step chord progression, and had much fun at that.

When I get back to home in the next couple of weeks, I'll probably make a more formal one for fun with direct-input keyboard.

 

[miss matcha]

Thanks to everyone who has tried out the game so far!  I'm trying to take into consideration all the suggestions that people have posted here and work them into my next release.  I plan to maintain the balance of "easy to navigate, but still giving the feeling of exploration" while improving things visually:  I replaced the square water autotiles with diagonal/round ones, added vegetation, reworked the streams (now Izaya looks really pretty, many of the houses are on their own islands), and I'm planning on adding more interesting fogs and panoramas once I can find them.  Here's a nice little screenshot of Central Debonet.  Enjoy! 

<img src="http://leebleforest.wordpress.com/files/2008/04/central-debonet.png">

@Reives: Many of my friends took piano lessons for most of their childhood, but are unable to really improvise or play by ear.  You must be a natural if you've only been playing for a couple years and you were able to play that song.  I'm impressed!  Thank-you for the fan media, I think it's so cool

@monkeydlu: Thank-you!  I hope you have fun!

 

[monkeydlu]

I tried it last night up till after the intro, it can still use alot of improvement, but I don't want to be all that judgemental from only playing the intro.

The speed of the text, it's good, but if your going to go with a pace like that and make it unskipable, you might want to add wait commands into the text for a more dynamic and realistic feel Also, the lack of music at times made it really boring... well, like I said, you could make it alot better, this looks pretty promising, I'll continue playing once i get another chance ^_^

 

[miss matcha]

Hm, I could probably put some music into the graveyard scene, but there are certain sections I purposely use no music (or just SFX) for the purpose of contrast.  The rest of the game past the intro is virtually silence-free though

As for the wait commands, the intro is the only place without them and it's for music-timing-reasons.  But worry not, as soon as the game begins, there are wait commands in all of the text boxes so you can read at whatever pace you choose

 

[Posmic]

map looks a lot better. I agree that the ones in the demo weren't very flashy, but the new screen-shots seem like much improved!

 

[Aida]

Wow, the new maps look really great!!!  I mean, your layouts were already excellent, especially for an rmxp game... so this is going to make it even better, I can't wait!  Sorry to put the pressure on, but when's your next release coming out?

 

[miss matcha]

Thank-you!  I'm happy you guys like the new maps

@Aida: Thanks for the comment about the layouts.  I do spend a lot of time making sure the maps don't frustrate people.  I think that's one of my biggest qualms about rmxp games.  I've played a fair amount of rmxp games where a lot of effort is spent on the visual aspect of the maps, but not enough is spent on the layout.  Eventually the flashiness loses its appeal when I'm spending all this time taking paths that lead nowhere, and running in circles looking for exits. 

As for the next release... I don't have a set date, but I'm working on it!  I'll try to post screenshots and music samples whenever I finish anything new and noteworthy

 

[Reives]

Usually people abuse lighting by overspraying them (like me), but the one in that is quite fitting! The whole balcony-ish set up combined with the behind-the-wall trees and panorama, they all come together very nicely. I also very much like the custom edits, and how that the characters are spread apart in an non-square-distance fashion. :>

 

[Bananananananana]

I signed up here JUST to tell you how much I adore your game :D

I love how quirky it is, the story intrigues me, the mapping is good, the music is wonderful, and I can't wait for more! I only wish that the tilesets blended together better (like the Leebles' homes and the surrounding forest). But I will definitely be checking this thread often!

 

[Rubicant]

I believe the game needs a ton of polish, but it definitely has the right idea. I enjoyed playing through it despite the glaring mistakes such as the hero's sprite sometimes changing to Dominic's during scenes, the tileset not meshing well in the Leeble village, and some priority issues with the tiles themselves.

And I love those little Leeble dudes, they're awesome.

 

[miss matcha]

Hi everyone, I just thought I'd post another Debonet screenshot.  Debonet is supposed to be somewhat of a paradise town (good weather, near the ocean, etc.).  There is a big rich poor gap there, as the population is made up of rich folks from the Ciro Order who buy vacation homes there, and the peasant/merchant classes that work for them.  In this screenshot, Aero is standing just above the rich quarter. 

<img src="http://leebleforest.wordpress.com/files/2008/04/debonet-rich-quarter.png">

@Reives:  Thank-you!  I'm still trying to find the perfect sunbeam effect... I really liked the one in "Imagine a World" because it felt so natural.  I'm still having trouble figuring out how to animate the sunbeams in my game so that they look natural on scrolling (larger than 20 x 15) maps.  Also, thank-you for noticing the balcony-behind the wall trees-panorama stuff!  I spent a lot of time trying to fit everything in so that I wouldn't have priority issues there, so knowing that someone noticed makes it all worth it ^^

@Bananananananana: Aw thanks, I really appreciate that you did that.  It really motivated me!  I also wish I could make Leeble treehouses blend better.  I imagine them to look like a combination between the hand-drawn look from Legend of Mana and the treetop village in Donkey Kong Country.  So hopefully I can find a good artist to help me with that.  I'll try to update this thread often!

@Rubicant: I'm happy you enjoyed the game (and the Leebles).  Thank-you for mentioning about the hero's sprite randomly changing with Dominic's... if you can remember, do you think you could let me know where this happens?  That's definitely something I'd like to fix