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Ocean Album (My First Game)

Hello all!

This is my first game. It's called Ocean Album: Day of Truth.

If you find yourself with some spare time, I could use some input. Be brutally honest, I need the criticism! Let me know what you think of the story, and the overall look of the game.

This is a pretty short demo. If you explore everywhere, it's approximately 30 minutes of gameplay.

Also, I'm a musician, so the game will feature all original music by myself. I'm still working on all the music at the moment however. If you wanna here what it will sound like, you can go here and listen:

http://www.myspace.com/craigbellew

Thanks!

Story:
Ocean Album: Day of Truth takes place in the distant future, on the planet called Aygea. You begin the game as the young protagonist named Album. He's a young man with a rebellious nature, with a goal of revealing the shocking facts about the local government and its church. You're camped out in the Kraylin Forest, about 2 miles from the City of Rome. Certain events took place in your past (which will be revealed) that have led you on a quest to destroy the Rome government and its affiliates. Rome starts wars with any country it can, consuming every bit of income and recource it has. The people of Rome are blinded from the truth by their gaudy lifestyles. You're accompanied by a mysterious man name Syxx (pronounced Six). Syxx has personal reasons for helping album on his quest, and isn't the most compassionate person. Throughout the journey you will meet many new friends, and enemies, and discover unexpected secrets. Things are not always what they seem in this story! This is a game with an in-depth and emotional story involving politics, religion, death, love and most of all, mystery. With twists and turns constantly along the way.

Screens:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/5/2/1038994/Title%20Screen.JPG[/img]http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/5/2/1038994/Screen%202.JPG[/img]http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/5/2/1038994/Screen%204.JPG[/img]http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/5/2/1038994/Screen%205.JPG[/img]

Demo:

You will have to install the font included in order for it to show correctly!

http://rapidshare.com/files/173708601/Ocean_Album.rar.html
 
Would you mind elaborating a bit more? Tell us about the plot, characters, features, and maybe throw up one or two more screenshots. Also using the IMG tags for your screens would be nice instead of having to click, but it's not a big deal; I'm just nitpicking. :)

That said, I can't imagine you have much of anything if you only started work on this a week ago. I might give it a whirl if you give us some more info, though.
 
I ran your demo, first of all it came up with a missing title THEN the font doesn't show.
Don't use a custom font! And if you are using a custom font PUT IT IN THE GAME FOLDER SO EVERYONE CAN INSTALL IT.
Jeez. I'll just have to play it without the font (I fix the title screen error by adding my own title).
EDIT: Okay, the maps were full of bugs. In the town I can't walk on the grass, but I can walk on walls? What's up with that? One of the houses has a flat roof, the town has tree shadows everywhere???? The shadow script is making your shadows too powerful, I was on the other side of the forest and I could see a shadow from the flame that was a minute's walk away.
The gates at the top of town, the player could hug the middle but refused to stand anywhere near the sides.
Windowskin is bland and stretches horribly. Why does everyone use that windowskin? It's not that special.
EDIT2: Okay, ALL the houses have a flat roof error, you clearly don't know how to use the tileset you downloaded, so read some tutorials. I mean, player cant walk on grass but can walk all over the walls?? Overall, maps are better than average.
EDIT3: Also the braziers in the forest are floating in the air? You do know you are supposed to put the STAND there aswell? The forest also has a black strip along the top of it.
 

Injury

Awesome Bro

Hey there, just wanted to say, host those pictures on a different site. They aren't showing up. Also, Lumi (sry, high) is right, elaborate on your story. It might contain plot info and whatnot, but no one will be interested without a good base story. Downloading the demo, prepare for an extensive review!
 
Xilef,

First of all, I changed the title, so that issue is fixed. Also, I completely spaced including the font, so that issue will be fixed with the next update as well. As far as the grass issue goes, I have the stone barriers set around all the grass, so not being able to walk on the grass was my intention for this map anyway. I also fixed all of the bugs that allowed you to walk on certain walls. Setting the passage for all the tiles is a pain in the butt and I just missed a few, but I've got them all fixed now. The flat roofs were intentional too. I did go through and set better passages and priorities for all of it though. However, you didn't seem to respond well to the flat roofs, or get that it was intentional, so I may get rid of them. I changed the windowskin also, so no more of that bland one that everyone uses haha. Finally, I didn't even notice that the braziers were missing the stands, thank you for pointing that out, I got that fixed too. All in all, thank you very much for your criticism!! It's exactly what I need. Like I said, I only started using this program about 2 weeks ago and I'm only learning through video tutorials and exploration, so this game is definitely a work in progress. The whole game is looking a lot different since this post, so I will update again probably later today.Come to think of it, this should probably be moved to the Concept Development subforum.

Anyway, thanks for the input. If you notice anything else, let me know!
 

Injury

Awesome Bro

If you put up two screen shots it doesn't have to be moved there. You have a demo, story (although it's awfully short) and some other stuff...
 
cdavidb":34xbh25x said:
I have the stone barriers set around all the grass, so not being able to walk on the grass was my intention for this map anyway.
Those barriers are like half a foot high if you were to see real life ones (Other people playing the demo will see that)
cdavidb":34xbh25x said:
The flat roofs were intentional too. I did go through and set better passages and priorities for all of it though. However, you didn't seem to respond well to the flat roofs, or get that it was intentional, so I may get rid of them.
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/6204/scrnnypp1.png[/img]
I refuse to believe this was intentional, it was a mistake, wasn't it? Look at the grass, those are your stone "Barriers"? a wheel chair user can get over those.
 
cdavidb, please upload your pictures to another image host, as the one you are using suck apparently.

Injury":38ar2wqb said:
They aren't showing up. Also, Wumpi is right, elaborate on your story.

what wheres wumpi's post what

cdavidb":38ar2wqb said:
Come to think of it, this should probably be moved to the Concept Development subforum.

no. if you want a CD thread, read the CD rules and either fix up this post as such, or make a new thread for it that follows the requirements.
 
Ahhhhh, ok. I see what you mean with the flat roof issue now. I'm gonna fix that right away. Good point about the stone barriers, I'll change that too.
 
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/5/2/1038994/Screen%204.JPG[/img]
I think you might've misused an autotile there. The bushes, I believe, are supposed to go on top of trees as a sort of cover. (but I guess it looks fine so...your discretion! :]) And IMO there are too many of the white flower petals on the ground-they look too similar. Where are they coming from, anyway?

About the passabilities with Inq's tilesets...Whenever I used his tileset-be it indoor or outdoor-I always ran into passability issues. I don't know why, but I found I could walk in a lot of places I shouldn't. Just make sure you use the eraser autotile (always the top-left tile in every map) to erase. Right-clicking can get you to it fast so you don't always have to scroll up there.

It looks as if you've just started using Inq's tilesets. They are big and a bit complicated, but in time you'll learn to use them quite well. They do take quite a bit of practice though. It's good to see that you're not using much of the RTP though!

And (this might just be me though) I wouldn't suggest using "Rome" as the name of a city. If this is taking place on a different planet I find it a bit bizarre that the name of a city there is the name of a city here as well.

Hope those tips help ya out there. G'luck!
 
Dadevster,

I do agree that Inq's tilesets are quite difficult to work with, especially for a beginner like myself. I'm getting the hang of it though. I have only been working with RMXP for about 2 weeks now, so most of the stuff in this demo will probably change as I get more used to the program and everything. As far as using Rome as the main city name, there's a reason for that. Like I said in the Story section, this game is going to have a lot of surprises, so the reason for having a city that's on earth, also on another planet, will make sense later in the game. Thank you for the advice!
 
I decided this looked interesting enough, so I'm doing the demo!

Alrighty, first of all, the title screen is amazing gorgeous. I love the movement and the zooming to the random cloud. Although I've just uncovered a bug. I start out, then press 'x' to view the menu, then there's an error and the game crashes. xD Might want to fix that. Then, I begin wandering around. I see quite a few errors with the world map. The palm trees are in just boxes of sand which looks odd and unnatural. Okay, then I get into a battle and... there are two blank options at the top of the screen. Maybe there's a font that I need to download? Anyway, I click the one on the left which is I guess attack, and I attack... doing no damage. These two thingys attack me repeatedly. I try to choose the option to the right, which is I guess run away... but I'm not allowed to do that. Then, I am killed. By the way, the game over screen is a lot less pretty than the title screen. Anyway, I'm starting the game for the third time.

This time, I decide to go up... and there's text I can't see. Also, the town is in a box of light grass for some reason. I enter a forest and click on a sign that has text I can't see. These maps look much better. Also, the effect with the fire and shadow is freaking me out. Then, I enter the city and there are two soldiers who say words in a text I can't see.

...

Oh, I didn't notice the font came with the game! Silly me. So, I will install that and start again!

Whoa, so now that I have the font I notice that it's extremely tiny. Although very pretty! So, one thing I've just noticed. In the map right when you enter the city, one of the top of the trees is cut off! Oh no! Oh, and one by the sign has part cut off too. ): By the way, the Tree of Kraylin is an eyesore. It clashes with the tileset. So, inside the Inn in Rome on the second floor, the top corners have a black and white tile instead of plain black like the surroundings. Then, I go searching around for the plot. Once I enter the bar I try talking to this blonde guy who looks enough like a playable character. Gasp! He has a faceset! Victory!!! Oh and Album finally has a face, too!

So, once it's night I go to meet Syxx and on the way to Rome I notice... that those things of fire don't have bottoms to them! Also, the shadow-fire thing is still quite creepy. Anyhow, I enter Rome and wow! That tree looks a LOT better! So, then I go to sneak my way inside and notice that the fire-thingys here also don't have bottoms. And crap, I seriously suck at sneaking in video games. Then, somehow, while running from one guard, I find an entrance to a shack that wasn't really noticeable.

Later, I find Rome Records... in a treasure chest? I dunno, that just feels odd to me. Then, oooh ahhh, Syxx is captured! Now I must go through the well. Album says that he better be ready for a fight! ... Then an error appears and the game crashes. ):
 

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