Mercenary Maiden

[StrawberrySmiles]

 
Welcome! In order for me to create and finish something on my own, I began working on my own personal project - and this is the result!
 
~Synopsis~
Mercenary Maiden takes place in the fantasy world of Aleria and follows the story of Sylria Quill; a young lady trying to obtain a positive reputation by joining a Mercenary's Guild. 
 
As an initiation test, the Guildmaster sends Sylria and fellow recruit Zakki Reinholdt on their first mission. Together they must work together in order to kill a creature inhabiting the Syron Mines. 
 
Their success will allow them to become full-fledged Mercenaries.
 
~Characters~

Sylria Quill
Age: 19 | Race: Elf | Height: 5'4" | Weapon: Rapier
 
Timid, and even naive at times, Sylria's kind spirit often pushes her to help others - regardless of the situation it puts her in. Despite her frail nature she is quite capable of handling herself in battle and when forced to fight, her courage is renewed.
 

Zakki Reinholdt
Age: 22 | Race: Elf | Height: 5'11" | Weapon: Greataxe
 
Like our protagonist, Zakki is new to the Mercenary's Guild. His repetitive irritated-like attitude and lecturing ways often clash with Sylria. He is very serious to the core, and always puts his mission before anything else.
 
~Features~
* Astral Magic System: It probably sounds more cool than it actually is, but what it means is that each character has two slots dedicated to equipping Astralite Orbs. Equipping various Orbs gives the character a selection of magic to choose from and also gives various effects to the wearer - though not all is always positive. Using Astral Magic in battle costs "AE" or "Astral Energy".

* Quest Log: Essentially a journal that lists all the quests obtained by the player. Although it is currently implemented I have not fully utilized it yet to create side quests. 

=
* Fame System (future idea): Simply lets the party earn positive or negative reputation through dialogue and quests. It made sense since it was the purpose for Sylria to become a Mercenary in the first place.

~Screenshots~

 

 

 

 

 
~Credits~
Developer: Strawberrii
Artwork: Strawberrii
Logo: Signus
Battlers: Holder, with edits by Strawberrii
Graphics: Mack, Enterbrain, Liberty, and Lunarea
Music/Sound: RyanA, Aaron Krogh, Aile, Blodeyun
Scripts: Yanfly/Yami, Galv, Moghunter, Victor Sant, Nicke, and Fomar0153
Special Thanks: Star for helping me out in between Ghost Shards!

 

[Ellie]

This is looking good, are you close to finishing it?

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

I'll show you my To-Do list and you tell me. XD

1. Portraits
* Zakki [Angry, Happy, Shocked]
* Millette [Angry, Sad, Happy, Shocked]

2. Passability

3. Database
* Abilities
! Zakki's Techs
! Millette's 'Mystic Lore'
* Astral Magic
* Items and Gear
! Mails
! Robes
! Accessories
* Orbs
! Starter Orbs?
* Medicine

4. Over-all Design
* Re-new Message Background
* Re-new Menu Design

5. Titlescreen

6. Battle Quotes
* Zakki
* Millette
* Enemies?

7. Finalizing Battle System
* Fix HUD
* Balancing


****

Working on the database now. Not much items, but yup yup. I might be getting somewhere. o.o

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

Finished portraits! They're not perfect, but whatevs!

 

[bacon]

Wow, I am a fan of all of those. Not a ton to comment on but everything you have thus far is very cool.

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

Thank you Bacon!!

I'm trying really hard to finish a project in my life and I'm glad you like it!

I shall try my best! :D

 

[Ellie]

The mere fact their faces are different shapes, colours, and expressions is more than most projects produce :thumb: .

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

Oh wow!

I'm glad I actually made them all look different. I could never do that. ;_;

Thank you so much guys. I'm glad I'm doing well on my own!

 

[Xhukari]

They do look awesome I must say! But, something about the male's eyes sits uneasy with me; compared to the females, they seem basic... there's no colours, no shine, I understand to differentiate them, and that is good! You don't want female eyes on males (unless that is what you're going for, haha). But shorter and angular with smaller eyes may work. Of course this is just what I would do...

 

[Bladezuez]

I like this concept behind this and will look forward to playing a demo when it is available. I like the screenshots and the storyline. keep up the good work. it is from reading thingz like this that inspire me to possibly starting work on my own game. thank you for your hard work and example. :cookie:

 

[Reaper*]

Man I am starting to feel bad every time you post something I always have something to say lol so sorry in advance.

I like your drawings but as pointed out the male dude needs some real eyes not dots. (This point was risen because you have the female having detailed eyes while the male a simple version)

And my personal opinion.... The female elf Sylria's left ear seems a little disproportional compared to the right ear.

The rest seems nice. (In the cave I presume you already have this or planning to do it but anyways a brownish tint with some slow moving fog would fit very nicely in capturing the mood inside a cave in my opinion)

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

Thanks all!

I'll fix Zakki's eyes as soon as I have time (busy weekend). Also, I have tried to fix Sylria's left ear, but I'll see what I can do. XD

Don't worry, I'll probably revamp some places and add effects! :D

I'll keep trying! ^^

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

So I wanted to show you guys the (heavy?) edits I made to Holder's Battlers so the characters fit my party members.

I could've done my own style, but that probably won't be for awhile.

^^

Sylria:

~Zakki wasn't edited too much, so I didn't make a GIF for him

New Character:

 

[Daxis]

I think blond girl's face is a bit lopsided. Or... slanted. Or... Like the face is turned a little bit counterclockwise. And a bit 2d. Might have something to do with the positioning and angling of the eyes, o rmyabe just then entire frame itself. Idk.

That is a sweet ass blond girl animation. Feels stylistic/real. So good base if nothing else.

The new girl animation is like. Weird. Or static. Man, do her feet feel weird. The positioning of her feet makes it so her animation, aka her upper body going up and then down, is really just ugh. The feet looks like they're getting shorter instead of bending.

Is this some full fledged plot or just some small little story? Premise doesn't really say much beyond asingle small conflict, which while it has potential, not sure how long you can drag it out, and random thought of mine is that a small concise story might be p sweet. Good writing exercise depending on how well you flesh it.

I really like the male character's second face (in this thread). Before I didn't really care, but the bunch of creases under the eyes make him feel like batshit insane or something, or at least paranoid, etc. etc. The contrast of the eye to the femmes/other chars prolly enhances the creases. So I'm just imprinting personality based on what I saw- the first pic was okay, I just liked the contrastin the scond pic.



Oh btw great art. IT's a massive stylistic improvement compared to a lot of things before - feels fairly developed/polished, and right now char faces actually feel different. Btw male armor feels like it's lacking contrast.

 

[Daxis]

Btw any particular reason why you utilize a LOT of non humans/ basically elf/cat ears in your stories? Just that it basically appears everywhere
:P

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

I think blond girl's face is a bit lopsided. Or... slanted. Or... Like the face is turned a little bit counterclockwise. And a bit 2d. Might have something to do with the positioning and angling of the eyes, o rmyabe just then entire frame itself. Idk.

I'm changing the portraits, actually. So no more lopsided face! OH YEAH. Star is helping me with the portraits this time. :3

That is a sweet ass blond girl animation. Feels stylistic/real. So good base if nothing else.

Thanks, I tried. ;_;

The new girl animation is like. Weird. Or static. Man, do her feet feel weird. The positioning of her feet makes it so her animation, aka her upper body going up and then down, is really just ugh. The feet looks like they're getting shorter instead of bending.

II don't know how to fix it, honesty. I may or may not end up using MY OWN sprite style and just re-do the animation, but not now. I want to get something done first. ^^

Is this some full fledged plot or just some small little story? Premise doesn't really say much beyond asingle small conflict, which while it has potential, not sure how long you can drag it out, and random thought of mine is that a small concise story might be p sweet. Good writing exercise depending on how well you flesh it.

It's supposed to start off as a simple game so I don't get over my head. It would be terrible if I never finished this because of all the expectations of story and awesome features. ;_;

I really like the male character's second face (in this thread). Before I didn't really care, but the bunch of creases under the eyes make him feel like batshit insane or something, or at least paranoid, etc. etc. The contrast of the eye to the femmes/other chars prolly enhances the creases. So I'm just imprinting personality based on what I saw- the first pic was okay, I just liked the contrastin the scond pic.

Everyone complained about the second pic so I had to change it. Either way, I'm changing all the portraits for my ease of use. XD

Oh btw great art. IT's a massive stylistic improvement compared to a lot of things before - feels fairly developed/polished, and right now char faces actually feel different. Btw male armor feels like it's lacking contrast.

Thanks again! But again, I'm using different portraits. ^^

Btw any particular reason why you utilize a LOT of non humans/ basically elf/cat ears in your stories? Just that it basically appears everywhere
:P

Humans suck. :P

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

I decided to change the portraits to pixel style in order to make poses/edits easier on myself. YAY! Here is an example (with help from my bf >> DON'T JUDGE ME).

Also, I made this titlescreen today for the game. Pixel to go with pixel YAY! It's most likely NOT finished. ;_; The background deals with a certain substance in the air, like from Sylria's home.

Thanks for reading!

Also, I have a Tumblr blog!

http://mercenarymaidendev.tumblr.com/

 

[Daxis]

Cool cat girl pic. There's some hard pixellation there, really noticeable around the face.
Her.... belly? abs? the pixellation makes the dark line really meh.


Really col pic either way though. not sure if her right ear should be like that but w/e

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

Haha, I thought you were going to repeat your FB comment. I was just going to quote my reply. :P

You're very helpful. XD

I might, MIGHT do some anti-alias like shading on all portraits when they're all done and everything else is looking good! XD