Odyssey - Action Adventure RPG! Updated 10/12/14
- Thread starter Ace of Spades
- Start date
Juan J. Sánchez
Sponsor
The video of the giant tarantula looks amazing.
I've played through the demo, and I am amazed.
Please note I didn't read everyone's comments, so if I state something that is already known/fixed, please ignore it
I really love this game, I think it's one of the best games I've seen around here.
Please note I didn't read everyone's comments, so if I state something that is already known/fixed, please ignore it
After about 30 minutes of downloading and installing I was good to go.
I love how you did your intro! The book style is nice, and the story is short and clear.
I started walking around on the beach and I thought "Oh my, the walking speed is slow". But you get used to that very quickly, so that's not much of a problem (at leat not to me).
The performance was quite good (on the eye i guess an average of ~30-35 fps), with only a few exceptions. The most lag I've encountered was during the boss battle and in the room with the flaming cannon balls. A tad frustrating, as you try to time your shooting and once you shoot the screen freezes/stutters. The lag during the boss fight was frustrating too, but it didn't have a lot of impact on the gameplay.
One thing I noticed and liked is how subtle some of the sound effects are, especially the sound effect when you gain gold.
The equipment system has what I think is a "bug": you can assign every weapon to both ctrl and alt, so essentially "duplicate" it? At least it looks a bit strange imo.
The shield worked fine for me, although I didn't really use it that much once I obtained the bow and lantern.
The weapon shop was fine, although I found two things a bit strange. For instance: the shopkeeper is asleep :huh: My goal is to survive so why would I save up lots of money to buy weapons when I can just get them for free (=stealing).
The second thing (may be a bit farfetched): in the shop there's quite a bit of unused space. Why would that old man carve all that solid rock out if he isn't going to use it?
After going to the weapon shop, I entered the forest area. The lag increased a bit here (not very significantly but the screen stutters were a bit more frequent here). It looks really nice, those leaves flying around and the bg music really create a mysterious ambience.
The southern forest area (with the FOCUS sign) was a bit odd, I didn't really figure out how it worked (I think) so I got to the house on semi-accident. Not much to say about this area except that you can't walk behind the house properly; you have to follow the contours of the roof instead of being able to walk behind it.
I died only once, and when I did I could still hit the enemy once or twice while having 0 health before falling to earth.
I also noticed the birds that fly away from the trees have a transparent head and body.
The difficulty wasn't really an issue for me, as I said - I died once and beat the boss on the first try.
I loved the puzzles. They weren't too hard, but sure a lot of fun.
The boss battle was a lot of fun too, even though the lag was slowing the game down quite badly here (not really disturbing, but quite annoying at times)
I ended with 90% completion, rank: Upgrader, and 43 minutes playtime.
PS: How were you supposed to get to the chest, right before the entrance of the dungeon? (when you climb down the vines you can see it, but is it even available in the demo?)
I love how you did your intro! The book style is nice, and the story is short and clear.
I started walking around on the beach and I thought "Oh my, the walking speed is slow". But you get used to that very quickly, so that's not much of a problem (at leat not to me).
The performance was quite good (on the eye i guess an average of ~30-35 fps), with only a few exceptions. The most lag I've encountered was during the boss battle and in the room with the flaming cannon balls. A tad frustrating, as you try to time your shooting and once you shoot the screen freezes/stutters. The lag during the boss fight was frustrating too, but it didn't have a lot of impact on the gameplay.
One thing I noticed and liked is how subtle some of the sound effects are, especially the sound effect when you gain gold.
The equipment system has what I think is a "bug": you can assign every weapon to both ctrl and alt, so essentially "duplicate" it? At least it looks a bit strange imo.
The shield worked fine for me, although I didn't really use it that much once I obtained the bow and lantern.
The weapon shop was fine, although I found two things a bit strange. For instance: the shopkeeper is asleep :huh: My goal is to survive so why would I save up lots of money to buy weapons when I can just get them for free (=stealing).
The second thing (may be a bit farfetched): in the shop there's quite a bit of unused space. Why would that old man carve all that solid rock out if he isn't going to use it?
After going to the weapon shop, I entered the forest area. The lag increased a bit here (not very significantly but the screen stutters were a bit more frequent here). It looks really nice, those leaves flying around and the bg music really create a mysterious ambience.
The southern forest area (with the FOCUS sign) was a bit odd, I didn't really figure out how it worked (I think) so I got to the house on semi-accident. Not much to say about this area except that you can't walk behind the house properly; you have to follow the contours of the roof instead of being able to walk behind it.
I died only once, and when I did I could still hit the enemy once or twice while having 0 health before falling to earth.
I also noticed the birds that fly away from the trees have a transparent head and body.
The difficulty wasn't really an issue for me, as I said - I died once and beat the boss on the first try.
I loved the puzzles. They weren't too hard, but sure a lot of fun.
The boss battle was a lot of fun too, even though the lag was slowing the game down quite badly here (not really disturbing, but quite annoying at times)
I ended with 90% completion, rank: Upgrader, and 43 minutes playtime.
PS: How were you supposed to get to the chest, right before the entrance of the dungeon? (when you climb down the vines you can see it, but is it even available in the demo?)
I really love this game, I think it's one of the best games I've seen around here.
Ace of Spades
Member
This is likely to the number of projectiles being created. They're supposed to be deleted from memory once they're fired and disappear, but I noticed if you wait on one of the maps with a bunch of projectiles it'll start to slow down. An inconvenience I'll have to look into fixing.
The menu is still incomplete, and is possibly going to be redesigned altogether.
Because he wakes up every-time you touch a weapon!
Thank you, that's the kind of ambiance I was looking to create, to contrast the bright, happy, cheerfulness of the grasslands. Unfortunately the screen stutters are most likely due to the flying leaves script (they do add a lot of personality to the area so I had to keep em).
I'm not sure if anyone got there without doing it accidentally.
The path you have to take is random every-time. If you look carefully in the forest labyrinth, the fog is blowing in the direction you need to go. Looking at people's reactions to this scene though, it needs some work.
Slimes also have a small transparency issue. It's because I imported a couple RTP resources into Odyssey right before uploading it, to make it standalone. Looks like the transparency goofed on them, but will be fixed.
Nice, 90% is the highest completion percentage so far. That chest isn't available in the demo, but it's not included in the total on the menu.
I think you may only be missing one chest. Check the beach right after leaving the beach cavern, and there's another hidden one in the forest area with the cabin.
Personally, I'd like to see someone attempt the speed runner rank. It's tough, even I've managed to not get it.
Thanks so much for the comment, it's extremely helpful to get such detailed feedback. Not to mention the compliments are very encouraging.
Hey Ace,
It's very rare that i post on Hbgames, mainly because i'm part of a German Comm. But your Project got my Attention because of your Goal of Gamestyle (Action Adventure/Zelda) you want to create. Personally i prefer that one most and my own Project has also that purpose. So what i did? I downloaded your Demo and had some nice expectations. But sadly, i had to realize this expectations were a bit out of place. The Thing is, you know how to sell your project to the customers ;D. I very like your Presentation style and wish more User would do that. But because of your nice Presentation i expected a good zelda like Game with that special atmosphere and gameplaymechanics, sadly i only got half of it, here some Points:
Positive:
- You know how to create some nice Atmosphere with subtle Effects, i like that.
- Zelda Sounds and style (Opening chest etc.) give that special zelda feeling.
- Some Graphics like the basilisk popping up from the ground are a nice eye candy
- For me your Story Type is one of my favorites (Island, unknown place) so you get a plus for that. I hade to laugh a bit, when i realized that it starts exactly like one of my old cancelled project :D.
- The Puzzles were nice and fun to play.
- The Boss Fight was very good designed, sadly this was the only good thing in combination with the ABS (see negative comment about ABS)
Negative:
- The Action Battle System. That is my main Negative Point for your Game because it depends on it.
It is a bit boring to play and not very challenging. Futhermore, its kind of static. That is by the way the biggest Problem of all Action Battle Systems i saw and played in several Games, that used such System on the RMXP. It ends up as a smashing button Gameplay without any kind of tactic or special movement for the player (e.g. dodge enemies attacks). With that, i have to admit that the shield function you give the player is a bit senseless. Personally i never used it while fighting except in Situation where i really had to (Shooting cannons). The Problem about the shield is, it doesnt really help me. The Player should be able to do some fast counter attacks for example by using the Shield.
- Your Mapping varies from a bit empty and boring (Cave, Beach) to enjoyable (Forest). Some Graphics should be replaced like the standard cloud fog from the RTP (it is really ugly) or the Title Graphic.
- You should explain the Player some abbilities he has. For Example the fact he can climb up walls (with the gras on it)
greetz
It's very rare that i post on Hbgames, mainly because i'm part of a German Comm. But your Project got my Attention because of your Goal of Gamestyle (Action Adventure/Zelda) you want to create. Personally i prefer that one most and my own Project has also that purpose. So what i did? I downloaded your Demo and had some nice expectations. But sadly, i had to realize this expectations were a bit out of place. The Thing is, you know how to sell your project to the customers ;D. I very like your Presentation style and wish more User would do that. But because of your nice Presentation i expected a good zelda like Game with that special atmosphere and gameplaymechanics, sadly i only got half of it, here some Points:
Positive:
- You know how to create some nice Atmosphere with subtle Effects, i like that.
- Zelda Sounds and style (Opening chest etc.) give that special zelda feeling.
- Some Graphics like the basilisk popping up from the ground are a nice eye candy
- For me your Story Type is one of my favorites (Island, unknown place) so you get a plus for that. I hade to laugh a bit, when i realized that it starts exactly like one of my old cancelled project :D.
- The Puzzles were nice and fun to play.
- The Boss Fight was very good designed, sadly this was the only good thing in combination with the ABS (see negative comment about ABS)
Negative:
- The Action Battle System. That is my main Negative Point for your Game because it depends on it.
It is a bit boring to play and not very challenging. Futhermore, its kind of static. That is by the way the biggest Problem of all Action Battle Systems i saw and played in several Games, that used such System on the RMXP. It ends up as a smashing button Gameplay without any kind of tactic or special movement for the player (e.g. dodge enemies attacks). With that, i have to admit that the shield function you give the player is a bit senseless. Personally i never used it while fighting except in Situation where i really had to (Shooting cannons). The Problem about the shield is, it doesnt really help me. The Player should be able to do some fast counter attacks for example by using the Shield.
- Your Mapping varies from a bit empty and boring (Cave, Beach) to enjoyable (Forest). Some Graphics should be replaced like the standard cloud fog from the RTP (it is really ugly) or the Title Graphic.
- You should explain the Player some abbilities he has. For Example the fact he can climb up walls (with the gras on it)
greetz
Ace of Spades
Member
Thank you for taking the time to try my project $cHm0cK. I'm glad you enjoyed the atmosphere, the puzzles and the presentation. I'll try to address more clearly the negatives:
Thanks for taking the time to critique, as always it's appreciated.
Fair enough, the shield has been addressed a few times, I myself can admit I don't use it in combat, so obviously this is something I'm going to revisit and try to fix its functionality. I may add a stun when an enemy hits you while you're defending, that way the player can get a good counter hit in. Combat itself has room to improve, which I believe you can even see it improve throughout the demo (going from slimes who are punching bags, to spores with area attacks, to snake things which pop in and out of the ground). Hopefully as my enemies get more complex, so will the fighting. I'm also thinking about adding a trainer you meet a bit further into the game, who can teach you new sword skills like a one-two-three combo, and a spin attack. I will look into other ways to make combat more interesting. Keep in mind, I'm still learning as a developer as I'm creating this (this is my first formal project), but I'm excited with the possibilities.
I'm not the greatest mapper, but I did spend a lot of time on the maps I do have. Perhaps I'll look into changing some of the areas later on, but it doesn't remain my top priority. I still have 3/4 of the game left to map before I start nitpicking at the less interesting areas.
I think this was kind of implied, seeing as how the path leads right up to it. I didn't have any players report getting stuck on where to go, so in my opinion it's redundant to explain what to do when the player seems to figure it out by themselves.
Thanks for taking the time to critique, as always it's appreciated.
Hi Ace,
I just finished the demo.The game looks great but you need something to fix.
- The action battle system is boring just one button pressing game.
- I like your maps.
- I like the intro of your game its looking good.
- The puzzles is not hard and interesting.
- I like the sounds and music you added to the game.
- The boss fight was cool lol.
You should make something diffrent in battle system becouse its boring to smash the button.
Good luck
I just finished the demo.The game looks great but you need something to fix.
- The action battle system is boring just one button pressing game.
- I like your maps.
- I like the intro of your game its looking good.
- The puzzles is not hard and interesting.
- I like the sounds and music you added to the game.
- The boss fight was cool lol.
You should make something diffrent in battle system becouse its boring to smash the button.
Good luck
Ace of Spades
Member
Thanks for the positive comments! I'll be sure to go back and look at ways to make combat a bit more interesting. As I mentioned before, I'm going to hopefully generate some interesting combat scenarios by adding a wider variety of enemies, with different attacks and techniques, and by giving the player different attacks and a variety of weapons.kqurmiz":2m9klf6m said:Hi Ace,
I just finished the demo.The game looks great but you need something to fix.
- The action battle system is boring just one button pressing game.
- I like your maps.
- I like the intro of your game its looking good.
- The puzzles is not hard and interesting.
- I like the sounds and music you added to the game.
- The boss fight was cool lol.
You should make something diffrent in battle system becouse its boring to smash the button.
Good luck
Juan J. Sánchez
Sponsor
Hey man. I finally got around playing Odyssey. I'm sorry it took so long, but I've had two tests since we last talked, and I've been three times in call at the hospital. Anyhow, I will award your patience with a full game review.
Gameplay (15/20)
The gameplay is fantastic, but it has some minor setbacks. To start with, the pixel movement is next to flawless. Perhaps a nice addition would be to let the character slide along round parts of the map. The battle system, although fun, is not as good as it should be. I believe your biggest mistake was excluding recoil. In Zelda games, when you get hit, you are sent back and you also acquire a brief moment of invincibility. This is what makes Zelda gameplay so Goddamn good. Items are great, with the exception of the shield, which is mostly useless. I also think the shield would be more useful if you added recoil. This way, enemies could bounce off your shield. Also, you could add more puzzles involving the shield. The menu was a major disappointment. The layout is way too simple and it is also confusing. Here's a suggestion: if you press Ctrl, set an item to Ctrl, if you press Alt, set an item to Alt. Other than that, the keyboard layout is fantastic. Also, there are times when you should be more suggestive, like telling you how to push rocks, and times were you should be less suggestive, like letting the player find out he can light arrows. Dungeons were entertaining, the gameplay was amazingly linear (which is good), and puzzles were quite entertaining. Nonetheless, since your dungeons are not that small, you should consider adding dungeon maps, and perhaps, even an overworld map.
Plot (10/20)
The plot was disappointing. The telling of the story is beautiful. However, the half an hour I played Odyssey I learned nothing else about the main character, other than him being a former cartographer. Give us more insight into his past.
Graphics (18/20)
Graphics are beautiful. Everything fits together. Animations, such as the explosion of a bomb, tend to be a little overwhelming.
Music (17/20)
I like the music, but I feel it is a bit impaired. It goes from incredibly joyous to calm and soothing. I loved the harp. I also love how you use sound effects instead of music at various points in the game. You should exploit this more often.
Ambiance (20/20)
Your ambiance is exactly as it should be. I simply have a couple of pointers here. First, I think there should be more objects to interact with, such as the stones you can hit with the sword. Second, some bushes or flowers, it seems as though you can chop them, and you can't.
Gameplay (15/20)
The gameplay is fantastic, but it has some minor setbacks. To start with, the pixel movement is next to flawless. Perhaps a nice addition would be to let the character slide along round parts of the map. The battle system, although fun, is not as good as it should be. I believe your biggest mistake was excluding recoil. In Zelda games, when you get hit, you are sent back and you also acquire a brief moment of invincibility. This is what makes Zelda gameplay so Goddamn good. Items are great, with the exception of the shield, which is mostly useless. I also think the shield would be more useful if you added recoil. This way, enemies could bounce off your shield. Also, you could add more puzzles involving the shield. The menu was a major disappointment. The layout is way too simple and it is also confusing. Here's a suggestion: if you press Ctrl, set an item to Ctrl, if you press Alt, set an item to Alt. Other than that, the keyboard layout is fantastic. Also, there are times when you should be more suggestive, like telling you how to push rocks, and times were you should be less suggestive, like letting the player find out he can light arrows. Dungeons were entertaining, the gameplay was amazingly linear (which is good), and puzzles were quite entertaining. Nonetheless, since your dungeons are not that small, you should consider adding dungeon maps, and perhaps, even an overworld map.
Plot (10/20)
The plot was disappointing. The telling of the story is beautiful. However, the half an hour I played Odyssey I learned nothing else about the main character, other than him being a former cartographer. Give us more insight into his past.
Graphics (18/20)
Graphics are beautiful. Everything fits together. Animations, such as the explosion of a bomb, tend to be a little overwhelming.
Music (17/20)
I like the music, but I feel it is a bit impaired. It goes from incredibly joyous to calm and soothing. I loved the harp. I also love how you use sound effects instead of music at various points in the game. You should exploit this more often.
Ambiance (20/20)
Your ambiance is exactly as it should be. I simply have a couple of pointers here. First, I think there should be more objects to interact with, such as the stones you can hit with the sword. Second, some bushes or flowers, it seems as though you can chop them, and you can't.
Ace of Spades
Member
Thanks Discofox, be sure to stop back and let me know what you think!
Juan J. Sánchez, wow, thank you for such an in-depth review. Thank you for taking the time to rate my game, it's very helpful to know what works and what needs to be worked on. It was very well written, I'll take everything you mentioned into consideration before releasing the full version.
Juan J. Sánchez, wow, thank you for such an in-depth review. Thank you for taking the time to rate my game, it's very helpful to know what works and what needs to be worked on. It was very well written, I'll take everything you mentioned into consideration before releasing the full version.
Ace of Spades
Member
Just to throw out a quick update to everyone, I've been busy fixing and editing things, and I have to say all the feedback has been tremendously helpful. I thank all of you who took the time to critique my work, it's helped me find a focus on what needed work. All I can say is wow, what an improvement.
I spent the past two days figuring out a way to add recoil. Successfully tested on one enemy today, and it's a big upgrade. It's far more Zelda-esque now, I'm extremely happy with it. With this added, it also allows me to fix the shield, which will push an enemy back and briefly stun them when you block an attack. It works much better now when comboing with the sword, and actually serves a purpose in combat. I'm changing things like hitboxes and enemy passability so every weapon will be accurate, right down to the last pixel. I'm ditching the battle animations used for sword hits, enemy hits, etc. in favor for the simple flashes and sound effects. It's cleaner, and fits the overall simplicity of the game style better. It also accentuates the magic attacks that do use battle animations - the Ice Wand freezing enemies looks awesome! I was thinking of releasing a revised version of the demo for anyone who hasn't gotten around to playing this yet, but that's still up in the air.
I spent the past two days figuring out a way to add recoil. Successfully tested on one enemy today, and it's a big upgrade. It's far more Zelda-esque now, I'm extremely happy with it. With this added, it also allows me to fix the shield, which will push an enemy back and briefly stun them when you block an attack. It works much better now when comboing with the sword, and actually serves a purpose in combat. I'm changing things like hitboxes and enemy passability so every weapon will be accurate, right down to the last pixel. I'm ditching the battle animations used for sword hits, enemy hits, etc. in favor for the simple flashes and sound effects. It's cleaner, and fits the overall simplicity of the game style better. It also accentuates the magic attacks that do use battle animations - the Ice Wand freezing enemies looks awesome! I was thinking of releasing a revised version of the demo for anyone who hasn't gotten around to playing this yet, but that's still up in the air.
Ace of Spades
Member
Apologizing for the lack of updates. Most of the work I've been doing hasn't been update-worthy; it's all behind the scenes stuff. But I do like to use this thread as a sort of developer journal, so I'll be mentioning a couple things I've been working on. The past few days have been spent searching for inspiration. After a few hours replaying Zelda: LTTP, I was finally feeling inspired.
I'm currently testing the newly added Lightning Boots. The boots, when acquired, allow our hero to charge up a lightning quick dash by holding the action button. Similar to the Pegasus boots from LTTP, the dash charges in a second or two by holding the action key. Once the dash initiates, the players boots ignite with lightning, sending the player forward at high speeds, holding his sword out in front of him attacking anything in his path. The player can even dash forward to vault small distances over gaps! It's been cumbersome to get this to work with everything else (climbing, shielding, etc.), but I think I should be able to work out all the kinks.
On another developer related note, I've been cutting the actual scope of this project into something I will hopefully find achievable, without compromising my original vision. Trimming the fat, per-sea. After all, I'd hopefully like to release Odyssey in the next year, and I'm sure some of you would like to play it this decade? I've also been finalizing inventory items. This includes exactly how many equipable items are going to appear through the game, while trying to balance them, give them all a unique and meaningful purpose, and also having a wide diversity of tools to use in different scenarios evenly throughout the adventure. Not an easy task by any means.
And on a last, but very important note, I believe the story is starting to fall into place. I've been hiding from the storyline as if it was monsters under my bed...but no longer. If I'm going to deliver an experience, I want to try to make it a complete package. The storyline will keep the same presentation and minimalistic approach, but I hope get the player a bit more emotionally involved with our hero, and convey a deeper message to my audience.
I'm currently testing the newly added Lightning Boots. The boots, when acquired, allow our hero to charge up a lightning quick dash by holding the action button. Similar to the Pegasus boots from LTTP, the dash charges in a second or two by holding the action key. Once the dash initiates, the players boots ignite with lightning, sending the player forward at high speeds, holding his sword out in front of him attacking anything in his path. The player can even dash forward to vault small distances over gaps! It's been cumbersome to get this to work with everything else (climbing, shielding, etc.), but I think I should be able to work out all the kinks.
On another developer related note, I've been cutting the actual scope of this project into something I will hopefully find achievable, without compromising my original vision. Trimming the fat, per-sea. After all, I'd hopefully like to release Odyssey in the next year, and I'm sure some of you would like to play it this decade? I've also been finalizing inventory items. This includes exactly how many equipable items are going to appear through the game, while trying to balance them, give them all a unique and meaningful purpose, and also having a wide diversity of tools to use in different scenarios evenly throughout the adventure. Not an easy task by any means.
And on a last, but very important note, I believe the story is starting to fall into place. I've been hiding from the storyline as if it was monsters under my bed...but no longer. If I'm going to deliver an experience, I want to try to make it a complete package. The storyline will keep the same presentation and minimalistic approach, but I hope get the player a bit more emotionally involved with our hero, and convey a deeper message to my audience.
If you don't have the 102E RTP installed you can download the latest RTP from here;MiTHMoN":srzos0t3 said:
http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/download/add ... e-packages
Remember to click "RPG MAKER XP" to select the RPG Maker XP RTP.
After that, open Odyssey's game.ini file in notepad or similar and change where it says "RGSS102E.dll" to "RGSS104E.dll"
Ace of Spades
Member
MiTHMoN":3ay2iwcl said:
Yes and no. I'm still working on this, just at a very slow pace in my free time. I tend to work on this a few weeks at a time before losing interest again, but I'm still looking to release a completed version when it's ready. I was surprised to see the download still works for the demo, just keep in mind that it's from a build from 2011, and most of what you're going to be seeing has been changed and improved upon since this early alpha demo. But I'm glad you're interested, hope you still enjoy it if you get around to checking it out.
And thanks for the tech support, Xilef. Very helpful as always!
Edit: Just updated the first post, seeing as how the pictures from the Alpha version were all missing. The screenshots there are from the most recent version of the game. Feedback, comments and questions are all encouraged!
Ace of Spades
Member
Thank you for showing interest Zezegash. As much as I'd like to put out an updated demo, my focus has been on finishing this project. The completed game most likely won't last more than 2-3 hours total, so I won't be releasing any demos between now and then. However, I'll keep your name handy, perhaps I can have you test the Beta before the final release. I'll PM you in a few months when everything's in it's final stages, if you're still interested.