One Night: Full Circle

[mawk]

so let me get this straight in my head

Note that I've never said this game is meant to be groundbreaking or notable or whatever, in fact I've said it's probably one of the weaker titles in the series.

despite the fact that this entire thread is hyping up the game as some whirlwind expedition into the survival horror genre, you also state that you fully intended to make it mediocre.

I've also stated that I wasn't particularly trying to make it scary this time either.

Hold on...

> Scary atmosphere and locations. Moody music, limited fields of vision and a subtle sense of dread make One Night 3 as tense as it could possibly be.

huh... weird. musta been the wind.

I understand your criticisms but I don't really care anymore.

this is completely in line with my expectations.

Some people like this game, others don't. Big deal.

that is how statistics work, yeah. the reasons are more important, though.

Don't summarize all of my releases based on your actual playing knowledge of TWO of them.

way more'n two, chief. I can't be bothered to swoop in and keep a journal of every game of yours I play. that'd be creepy.

For your information the previous One Night games as well as Taltarus did very well.

this supposed to mean something? you and I both know that the bulk of the community will play anything.

at any rate, I wish you'd address the actual points I raise, rather than making broad claims that "well I wasn't really trying anyway" and "everyone on rpgnet liked it so there."

 

[Dark Gaia]

Okay, you are trying to make out I've said things I never did here. I've said I didn't PARTICULARLY TRY to make the game scary, but as it is a survival horror, you'd expect that I would put some attempt in. I just reused the same tactics from the previous game but nowhere near as competently as I did in that game.

I've edited my above post. I can't be stuffed typing everything again, so read that please. I really don't care what you have to say anymore. I've responded to your feedback in the past as well as that of others but in the end even so you just don't like my games. Simple. I accept that. You just obviously find it hard to be scared by a 2D RPG Maker game.

Also keep in mind I do this as a hobby and nothing more. I'm not trying to be an excellent maker I just enjoy making games I feel I would want to play. if people like them it's a bonus but hey no big if they don't.

Edit: I also remember you gave POSITIVE comments to The Beyond.

 

[mawk]

hi edit how's it hangin

As I've stated, I was actually intending to make something that would bring to mind Silent Hill. I deliberately made a very similar opening premise for that purpose, plus the sound effects. The story does admittedly change drastically later and is about as far from Silent Hill as possible, but the opening parts are designed to bring to mind SH2.

like I said before, there's ~*~homage~*~ and then there's just not bothering to think of anything new. it doesn't matter if your story transforms into a fucking tiger midway through if everything at the outset is blatantly copied.

Also, I ENJOYED Crepesculum.

this explains a lot.

They all had Let's Play videos made on YoutTube in either case, by people who neither asked my permission nor are connected with me in any way.

and this means?

honestly I wish you'd stop trying to turn this into a personal issue. this isn't me hating on your games. I look for potential in the stuff you come out with, and it's not my fault that I can't find any.

don't care what I have to say? good for you. I'm sure this strategy of ignoring negative criticism will go great for you in the future.

Edit: I also remember you gave POSITIVE comments to The Beyond.

I was wrong. simple 'nuff.

 

[Dark Gaia]

It means that there is obviously someone who enjoyed those games despite the problems you say are present in them. In any case, I'm done here. The game is doing well on RMVX.net, RMRK, RRR, BLue Sophia and a number of sites not connected with RPG Maker, so I don't need to hang around here.

 

[mawk]

your behaviour, I believe, merits a "good riddance."

I'm harsh, sure. I know this. I play the devil's advocate because someone has to. look at your threads on any other forum, and it's vague compliments from kids who just booted up the game. if you care about improvement, you take the slings and arrows and pick them apart to see what points they raise. I didn't make it especially hard for you. critique is an important tool for anyone who aspires to break the mold one day, and if you're going to become a drama queen about it, you're just resigning yourself to complete stagnation.

 

[Dark Gaia]

your behaviour, I believe, merits a "good riddance."

I'm harsh, sure. I know this. I play the devil's advocate because someone has to. look at your threads on any other forum, and it's vague compliments from kids who just booted up the game.

Just like DerVVulfman. He's a very renowned scripter. http://rmvxp.com/thread-1189.html

And the RRR admins and official reviewer team: http://www.rpgrevolution.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=32206

http://www.rpgrevolution.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=32002

And of course some members of RMN: http://rpgmaker.net/games/926/reviews/405/

http://rpgmaker.net/games/1144/reviews/452/

As you can see, they are well written, address both good and bad points of the game and try not to string insults into everything they say. I'd be more willing to listen to you Mawk if every line you say wasn't just a blatant "lol look at this guy he's so fail".

 

[mawk]

thought you were leaving?

I'd be more willing to listen to you Mawk if every line you say wasn't just a blatant "lol look at this guy he's so fail".

bro, have you read what I've wrote?

also, pardon my saying so, but RMN and RRR are hardly known for their distinguished review panels. in fact, to the rest of the rm community, they're the exemplars of bad taste, although RMN isn't nearly to the degree that RRR is.

dervvulf is just plain a nice guy and probably would not raise a complaint even if you were holding him at gunpoint

I honestly don't see the point to you trying to counter my critique with other critique. what are you trying to prove? "other people liked it, so so should you?"

p.s. mawk is lowercase

 

[Dark Gaia]

No not at all. I accept that you don't like I'm just saying that others did so you shouldn't just make out that I'm overly incompetent because you didn't like it. Let others decide for themselves dude.

 

[mawk]

yeah, because I've been here all along, punching people who decide they want to play.

if you think this is actually trying to stop anyone, you're sort of crazy. reviews are about informing people and presenting issues and accolades to the creator, not dominating other people's decision making. my reviews are no more intrusive than the treacle you love; your only issue with me is that mine don't come out as positive in the end. the double standard here is kind of silly.

 

[Dark Gaia]

Okay then. But you can't say that stating all my releases are essentially crap is not influencing others. As a well respected member of this community, your opinion means a lot to others on this site.

But hey, who really cares? I'm getting worked up over nothing.

What really gets me though is that sure you're good for pointing out the game's bad points but any reviewer also mentions what little they DID like. I'd like it if you at least expressed parts of the games that you did like or were indifferent about. Reviews are about presenting both the good and bad of the media in question, even if one outweighs the other.

You haven't said "there's nothing good in this game" so there must be something that you at least felt indifferent to.

 

[mawk]

Reviews are about presenting both the good and bad of the media in question, even if one outweighs the other.

not necessarily. it's unrealistic to expect someone to reach for tenuous good points to balance out the bad. minor things like "hmm, this shaky fire effect is sort of cool" are silly to bring up when the rest of it addresses larger things like gameplay progression, resources, and effectiveness of atmosphere. I basically point out whatever stands out me or stuff that I find funny. it's just that most of the stuff that stood out to me stood out because it was disappointing. little mentions of things like the trail of blood leading to the "nothing useful here" cardboard box are the things I'm indifferent to.

(while we're on the subject, why did you go and use the alert sound effect from MGS? the rest I can chalk up to not enough playtesting or something like that, but I can't see how you'd justify adding an instantly recognizable comic-sounding noise that plays with fair frequency. I think the parts where someone appears all of a sudden would have been much more effective without that and the little cartoon speech balloon.)

 

[Dark Gaia]

Hey, chalk that up to me actually trying to play with inserting an MGS reference into the game, but in hindsight I could have used a better sound effect. The cartoon bubble though isn't a problem; I've seen games such as Lurking Under Life use them to great effect and that game is incredibly scary, considering it doesn't even feature enemies.

Edit: I've dodged your feedback. Yes, you can chalk up stuff like that to incompetence in part. I actually didn't think anyone would make a bug deal over a car blocking the path into town or the character not reacting to blood, or where the trail leads (actually, that was meant to be just random blood splatters not a trail but you could say the START at the box and lead UPSTAIRS). I've seen characters in Resident Evil games look over blood soaked rooms and say "nothing important here".

 

[mawk]

lurking under life was interesting, but I still think that bubble emotes tend to detract from whatever they're featured in unless the thing in question is intentionally a little cartoony. you can't very well do like the Silent Hill franchise and have thoroughly mocapped conversations with really effective body language, but balloons are probably a step in the wrong direction. the bit before the mine

Spoiler

(where the white guy goes ! and vamooses) would probably have been more effective if you had just left the balloon and the sound effect out. maybe cue the player subtly, but otherwise leave them to wonder why their character's stopped, then jump a little when they notice a dark shape running away. or something like that.

as for the car and the blood trail, those weren't so much negative points as "boy this is weird" moments. going from the blood trail, though, I think most people would logically follow it to the box; seeing as there's an enormous slash of blood on the wall, it could follow that that was the place the bleeding wound was inflicted in the first place. it's not a big thing, though.

 

[Dark Gaia]

I agree with you. However I thought that since RPG maker is an overly cartoony looking program and my game is cartoony looking (but hopefully scary) I should be okay with using the boxes.

The logic behind the sound effect is that in horror games, I am scared by loud sudden noises. Personally, I felt there'd be more scare value in loud noise and rather than seeing something run offscreen. I make games how I would like them, so you'll notice that when I do try to scare you there's a loud burst of noise. I actually find those moments scary.

 

[mawk]

those are called screamers, and they're generally looked down upon. flashes of light and loud noises are good at making someone jump once, but they're a fairly cheap tactic, and are often used in lieu of actual atmosphere. to be used effectively, they have to be subtle and exceptionally sparing.

a good example is in silent hill four.

Spoiler

you walk into a room, and hear faint breathing. the camera is angled toward the door you just came in, so the player walks forward, hoping the camera will turn to show what's making that noise.

the camera swivels around at a leisurely pace and reveals that the fourth wall was really a giant fucking face that's staring right at the character. there is no big scary sound effect; just the fairly calm breathing.

this stops being scary immediately after you fall for it the first time, but it's notable for playing with the player's curiosity and expectations, rather than using a loud noise of a brief flash of an image.

also, RPG Maker is not a cartoony program. it's a 2D program. the graphics are what you make them, and if you're trying to put forward a feeling of seriousness, mystery, or fright, cartoony things like emotion bubbles will tend to work against that.

 

[Dark Gaia]

Yes, I agree with you fully. I don't know... For some reason, both the original One Night and its sequel employed these tactics to scare you. For the third, as I said, the scare value was sort of tacked on so I suppose I just used the cheapest tricks I know.

 

[ama55]

Dark Gaia: I haven't played this one yet, but parts 1 and 2 were really well done. I look forward to playing this one and giving feedback. The puzzle's are a little slow sometimes, but overall, I dig the atmosphere you create. Hope this keeps up with the other 2!

BTW: Where did you get those modern tilesets? They are really nice!

 

[woratana]

Hi Gaia,

I'm not going to be offense, but I got report about some stolen sprites from another game appears in 'One Night 3'.
What would you say to assure me that you got all the rights to use those sprites in your game?

By the way, not that I want to discredit you (Dark_Gaia). I got contacted by the sprite's owner about this, and I found his sprite in your game myself.

If any mod need more detail about this, just contact me. :D

P.S. The sprite's owner also told me you didn't gave him any credit. And he doesn't want the credit, he just doesn't want anyone to use it in other games.

Thank you

 

[Dark Gaia]

Hi Wora,

Yes, I am aware of this accusation as Pine informed me on RMVX.net about it. Now, I just want to say that if possible could I know which resource in particular is the one I shouldn't be using? I'll remove it if possible as soon as I can as I don't knowingly use the resources others have made. The sprites I use come from three sources:

1. Whatever I find posted on forums, blogs, Japanese sites or get in Google searches. I usually just type what I want (like "RMXP Horror zombie sprite") in Google to find what I need.
2. Whatever people such as friends and players of my games give me. I suppose that they could have obtained the sprites through illegal means but my friends wouldn't give me a restricted resource.
3. Whatever I make myself, either from scratch or from editing existing resources, where I know and credit the original artist.

I don't know how to hack open an RMVX game to steal its resources (as that would be the only way to steal resources, right) or that such a thing is even possible.

Please get back to me soon and I'll see what can be done. I want to get to the bottom of this. Tell the accusee a thank you for reporting the problem, and also apoligize that his resource is being used as I was unaware of having done anything wrong.

If it's not possible to simply remove the resources, I suppose I will willingly take the game down until I can rework it, though I would have appreciated this being reported sooner as the game is already out there on over 30 sites.

 

[mawk]

(as that would be the only way to steal resources, right)

"stolen" can refer to any number of things. in addition to literal resource theft (i.e. going to lengths to acquire a resource hidden with encryption or such), it can also refer to simply using a resource without credit or the creator's permission. I'm assuming that in this case, you committed the latter of the two.

(as a quick note, I would avoid Japanese resource sites if at all possible. they're well-known for hosting things from other communities without credit; I have a good number of friends who've found their things on some foreign resource site or other.)

though I would have appreciated this being reported sooner as the game is already out there on over 30 sites.

this isn't really the reporter's fault!