Project_Eden (VX)

[MukanshinBlack]

I disagree. Puzzles as a focal point has a lot more potential than a game where you solely walk around battling. Often you'll find that battles in RM games grow tedious very quickly, however puzzles add fresh content and in my opinion are very important.

As well, I disagree with your opinion on the mapping. Maybe I'm not up to date on the expected quality of VX maps, but they look pretty good to me.

Don't know about you but sometimes I get tired of trying in a game and just do the easiest thing possible.  Battles in RM games do grow tedious rather quickly but a puzzle that is hard to solve don't pull a bigger crowd.  There are a lot of people who actually complain in a game with too many puzzles.  elder did say that it's not only puzzles but many puzzles and enemies inbetween so it'll be a fair balance.  Also I did say the mapping is decent, meaning it's good with errors.  I address how below.

Of course no, the game isn’t ‘only’ made of puzzles, but there are a lot of them. Think of Lufia II as a good example.

Ahh, then I misunderstood.

I would really like to see examples of what you call ‘great’ mapping. Do you have any screenshot references that could help me please?

At the moment I do not but I'll show you examples where your mapping could use improving.

Spoiler

http://www.imagevimage.com/images/Image2-2.png[/img]
A floating sign at the left.  Overuse of yellow flowers in the unusual cluster.  Because it's a world map the cluster doesn't matter so much though.  Good mapping has diversity.

http://www.imagevimage.com/images/Image11-2.png[/img]
Too many small plant-things on the ground too close together.  Why is there smoke coming out of one plant and randomly coming out of one spot in the water?

http://www.imagevimage.com/images/Image25-2.png[/img]
I really can't tell how that would be that way naturally.  It screams "bad mapping".  Good mapping also resembles how it'd be in real life with an above-head look.  In no ice dungeon anywhere (if there was one) would there be 5 broken pillers by some ice tile.

I am not a pro mapper but from all the tutorials I've been through on mapping (which I don't remember at the moment), I recognize strange mapping when I see it.  Those are just some examples too.  I wasn't picky.

I disagree for this part even if I 100% understand your point of view. Let’s remember that VX is still very new in the market and ‘most’ customers don’t even know the existence of RPGmaker.

But my real point is: gameplay + level designs + game dialogues + atmosphere can be very strong ingredients when put together.

Anyway I’m not saying that I will not use any scripts, but right now I haven’t examined them. I tried some 2D battle systems but they seemed to hide major bugs. But I am very interested in Tankentai's side-view battle script, but I'm not even sure if it's legal/possible to use it in a commercial project.

The main reason why we decided to make Eternal Eden was to challenge ourselves and make a strong RPG using so little resources. And this challenge also includes a 60 days milestone. We’re currently at day 44. This project should technically be finished on June 21st.

On another hand, our other game project called Western Lords will be more sophisticated (Have you heard of it?).

VX is new on the market, but I was thinking you'd sell your game to people who can use RMVX but I guess that's not what you were thinking.  And yes, any game can be strong when really thought out and worked on.
You can use any script in a commercial project depending on the scripter who made it.  Sometimes they say nothing disallowing it, and other times they want to be contacted beforehand.
No, I've never heard of Western Lords but after this project is complete I'd like to get to know it. ^_^
All-in-all, the game still looks and sounds interesting.  The mapping could be improved but it's not too big a deal.  I'm still completely lost in what the fights will be like but I don't think that'll be a problem.

 

[Joy]

MukanshinBlack: I would like to point out one thing: An ice dungeon is in no way natural.

To me the ice map looks fine, I do have to agree with the issues with the world map, especially the flowers cluster, it's just so out of place and gridlike to have then stacked that way. I'm pretty sure those smoke plumes in the green room are there for a reason, perhaps part of a puzzle, so I think they're fine, I would try to swap out some of those sprouts for other plants, they look a bit odd with so many identical sprouts next to one another.

It may sound egotistical and I may be wrong, but I fancy myself a decent mapper in VX.

 

[elder]

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[elder]

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[MukanshinBlack]

Joy and elder, when I said mapping resembles real life, I meant that it should have some form of logic in placement.  Just because ice dungeons are unusual and unnatural doesn't mean that five broken ice pillars can surround one reflective tile.  Calling it fantasy and not real life doesn't make it okay to map bad.  Even people in fantasy settings have some type of artistic flavor.

elder, you've got a strange square pattern going on there with the flowers.  Also three bush things in a line should be changed.  Matching patterns may be natural but to an extent.  There should be some type of random order.  Unless they were planted.

Anyways, I never meant for this to go on this long.  I'm not a pro mapper and can't demonstrate the best way to do it.  I may even sound like I'm being anal but I'm not trying to be.  In my opinion the mapping is not near good enough for a commercial game due to the unprofessional look.  But this is just my opinion.

 

[elder]

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[Glitchfinder]

My suggestion with the flowers is to essentially create an autotile for them. (As in, like the RMXP autotiles) Or, better yet, just draw a large graphic for them, that can be over the ground but under the tower. Also, I like the tower, it looks really good.

 

[MukanshinBlack]

Yes Glitchfinder.  I was thinking of telling elder that if he made an autotile for the flowers it might be better then the current flowers but thought that it'd be a stupid suggestion, and now I think not.

 

[elder]

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[MukanshinBlack]

Ahh yeah, that looks acceptable.  Good job finally. :P

 

[elder]

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[Skie Fortress]

If you can understand it's functions, then by all means, go ahead.

 

[MukanshinBlack]

Talk to him before using it for a possibly commercial project.  Unless he says that he doesn't care in the script thread.

 

[elder]

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[MukanshinBlack]

Don't worry about it not being the original but a translation.  And it seems he says "any manner" so you've just got to credit him.