Quintessence - The Blighted Venom

[Reives]

I'm very glad that you took the time to play it, Artbane.

Wow, the title-screen seamless transition thing is actually an awesome idea; I think I'm going to do that.

I'm rather surprised that you felt the story picked up from Alden's story, as I thought that it was the opposite. I guess it's as Calibre said, just that making that part was rather dull, heheh. I'm glad that you liked the face thing though, as I was getting a little unsure after some suggestions about it. And very happy that you enjoyed the scores. Kinda funny how everyone seems to find the battle theme okay, James (its composer) thought it was a failure. :D

I'll keep that puzzle treasure advice well in mind; I will try to add some itemizations in the future (and add some algorithms for the damage in battle instead of a constant). In the next chapter, I think I'll have some kind of a puzzle in-battle; where you have to fight at the same time as solving a puzzle. That's my favorite part about a custom system, very flexible. I'll be sure to try to make boss fights more interesting.

Again, thanks again for the feedback! I'll keep in mind everything you suggested.

 

[battlestar_caprica]

i absolutely love the first three chapters! keep them coming, i was just curious who paints your title screens and panoramas? Because they look stunning!

 

[Reives]

Thanks. They are from an old graphic CD of dubious origin actually; I'm still trying to track the sources down.

 

[battlestar_caprica]

Also had a general question about your interior lighting, since i've been trying to create a similar effect. Is it simply a 'Tint Screen' to make it look dark and then adding a 'Fog' with lights made in photoshop?
Because every time i try this, my lights are dull and don't reveal the original colour of the tileset but the original colour of the tint...
Thanks in advance.

 

[Reives]

I think the difference is instead of adding a 'fog' with lights, instead I make the fog to be of shadows mainly (and a little tint of glowy yellow for areas of light). Check out Calibre and Fooflex's cosmetic fog tutorials; it's pretty much the same method.

 

[battlestar_caprica]

that makes perfect sense to me now, thanks a million. And good luck with your project, i loved the demo.

 

[Ratty524]

I'm on the fist chapter. This game has funny gems that made me laugh, and sad scenes that touch my heart. Good work.

 

[Reives]

Thanks.

~~~

In other news, I'm starting to get some work done on Chapter 4, now. At the moment, my expectations of it is rather high; to be better than the first 3 in most aspect (and so far, it's going as intended).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/ ... er4JPG.jpg[/IMG]

The chapter has a primary focus on Lunair. It, like chapter 3, will be story oriented with game-play. I am aiming for a better quality game-play experience than chapter 3. For example, you will be required to solve a puzzle during the on-map (first) boss fight; which will require much more than just spamming shoot arrow.

I am also utilizing more and more picture special effects, inspired by an intro demo I saw a while ago and Rye's new intro for MV. New original BGMs are also being composed to add some refreshing touch, I finished writing 2 so far.

And while Kardian, Vikon and Salory are no longer with the main cast at this moment, they will still be featured through short cut-scenes to their part of progress at times.


This will take some time though, I'm just starting. But expect improvements from the past!

Edit: Oh and I just attached Chapter 4's theme song in-progression to this post. It's like 20 seconds long so far, I just started writing it; but the general feel should be there.

 

[Speedpaws]

i just got to the third chapter and I have to say, holy freakin crap, i love it. It's amazing. I already love the story and we aren't even that far into it XD I haven't gotten to the true gameplay yet, but I'll comment on that once I get to use the battle system and stuff. Keep up the good work =D

 

[Makio-Kuta]

And while Kardian, Vikon and Salory are no longer with the main cast at this moment, they will still be featured through short cut-scenes to their part of progress at times.

Awww how sad, my three favourite characters so far. n.n' Anyway, the title of the next chapter and the song snipit certainly make it sound like it's going to be interesting. I really got to get around to playing chapter 3. @>@

 

[Reives]

@Speedpaws
Heheh, thanks! The game-play component needs some renovations at the moment though, I think. Hope ya get through it anyhow; if things go wrong you can always cheat with the ReadMe.doc.

@Makio-Kuta
Don't worry, even though they are not physically with the main cast, their roles are more important now, and there should be enough spotlight on them for the branched story for now in the next few chapters.

...Speaking of which! Typing that sentence actually gave me an idea, literally! With emphasize on literally. :D[/FONT]

~~~

I've made a considerable amount of beginning chunks for Chapter 4 today. I have so much planned for it to be implemented; new effects, game-play, better story-telling, ahhhh I just wish I can work faster.

Oh and by the way, just a heads up, Quintessence's story isn't exactly the happiest story around; as it will slowly begin to show from now on. Chapter 4 does have a little depressing component to its story, but it's minor, and I will try to do it artistically.

By the way, there's a bug for the battle system in v. 1.02, where if you end a fight with Lunair, you need to swap active members at the beginning of the next fight (can swap back, just need to change active member once), or the skills get messed up.


P.S. Quintessence TBV Chapter 1-3 v.1.02 now has a RRRB review!
http://www.rmxp.org/forums/showthread.php?t=23691

 

[kizor]

Just played to Chapter 3.

The graphics and music were very good.

The story was really interesting although the pacing was quite slow. I spent most of chapter 2 wishing I could just have one fight to try it out.

When I got to fight I wished I was just watching I hated the fights. I had 4 battles and gave up.

I'll have to keep coming back to this topic and hopefully someone can do a little story synopsis. There is no way I can play through the battles, don't like them and can't do them.

Most people seemed to like the battles though and they were original which was cool.

 

[Reives]

Aw, sorry about that Kizor.

This is kinda hard to do; some says the battles are too easy, some says too hard, and all in all Chap 3s battles were actually just a warm-up to the battle system. :|

I think one of the first things I need to do is to make an in-game tutorial about it, as I think the main problem in terms of difficulty is the learning and getting used to.

Also, I think for Chap 1-4 package in the near future, I will make the Chap 3 fights much easier so the players can get used to it, and have more difficult and better mechanics for the battles in Chap 4 as intended.

By the way, Kiz, have you watched the sample battle video? It might help.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YinX3wA4f1w

All in all, just attack by shooting arrows, and sprinting to get away, and switch to Lunair to heal when needed. Oh and always put trap down.

Edit: If anyone else is really having trouble with the battles, PM me; I'll send you a savefile to skip battles.

 

[kizor]

Well after my moaning Reives kindly sent me a save file, avoiding the battles, many thanks.

Just finished it and wow is all I can say. It's really amazing and I was moved by the story, in some ways it reminds me of Suikoden 2, just because it's 2D but so well written that you can really sympathise with the characters. The music helps also.

The battle system may grow on me, I hope it does anyway as I'm really loving the story. Of the 4 battles I fought I only beat 1 and it seemed like luck.

I think it's a combination of...

-so many enemies on the screen moving really fast
-quite a few enemies per fight, 4/5 snakes at once
-high skill cost which didn't recharge out of battle (I think it didn't anyway)
-this is personal but I mainly use my controller which works fine for most games but it seems to have mapped the buttons really badly for this game, not sure why.

Anyway, enough complaining, it was ace. Plus you have to go with the majority vote and if most people found the battle system easy/enjoyable then go for it, just make sure you have a "special save" for the "special people"

 

[Reives]

Glad you liked it. There's been a lot of notes about the battle system, so I'll definitely try to do something about that. Sorry again for the inconvinience, heheh.

I just started composing another BGM for a scene, and I actually really like its mood so far. I haven't decided a title yet, and nor is it finished, but I wanna share it for now. Its theme is along the lines of 'departure', bitter sweet with a tint of sadness to it.

http://www.savefile.com/files/846604

A bit over a minute long at the moment.

 

[Mustardy85]

Nice game... but my computer does not seem to be able to read the file format. I downloaded the demo atleast four times now and it just always says "unexpected file format" and it does'nt open up... so i was just wondering if you could solve this problem.

I really wanna play your game dude... looks really good. I might quit my solo project because of it.

yea so again please help me out here...

Thanks in advance

 

[Reives]

Oh, you need WINRAR to unzip it, it's a pretty common zipping program found here: http://www.download.com/WinRAR/3000-2250_4-10690736.html?tag=lst-0-1

But why might you quit your solo project because of it? And this is pretty much a solo project in terms of actual making; the other two team members are fellow BGM composers (awesome ones at that, though).

 

[Makio-Kuta]

I finally got a chance to give the battle system a swing. I was having fun and doing okay at first. (Reivier's arrows kick butt) but then....he got killed and I couldn't do much anything as Lunair against sorpions. They drained her MP to heal faster than she could damage them. @.@
Other than that, I thought the battle system was fun. (though I wonder if there should be a way to limit the arrows. They totally kick butt--but maybe too much. It can hit enemies through rocks and walls, and appears to have a kick back affect. Lining up snakes as the come towards you and spamming W seemed a bit on the cheap side.)

Although I didn't get to finish the first 'dungeon' I did get into one of the caves. I don't know what everyone's problem was, the area of light I had seemed good enough for me. But I guess that's preference.

Anyway, I hope to take another stab at chapter 3 soon and this time...watch HP a bit more closely. lol

 

[Reives]

Heheh, glad you were okay with the battle system for the most part. That's a good point you got there, about not being able to do much when Reiv goes down. I think I'm going to buff Lunair's venom gust attack's damage output, as well as make her 'melee' attack another useful offensive skill instead.

And don't worry about the arrows being too powerful at the moment; after all the enemies are just bugs so far. :D There will be a boss fight in Chapter 4, and it'll be much more than shoot, run, shoot, run.

Good luck with it next time. I think the most difficult part is getting used to the keys at first. And thanks for playing!

~~~

I'm starting to make some new maps for Chap 4 now, which would include another town and a bunch of other stuff. :| But here's a mountain way I just finished:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/ ... s_SS-1.jpg[/IMG]

 

[Speedpaws]

Nice map =) I just got through battles and stuff, and I have to say, it's very interesting the way you did the battle system. Not sure if I like it yet or dislike it, but I'll let you know once I play more XD