Sore Losers: Riot Grrrl

[Sated]

SORE LOSERS: RIOT GRRRL

NOMINATED "MOST PROMISING DEMO", 2010 MISAOS
NOMINATED "BEST INTERFACE", 2010 MISAOS

...::: What People Are Saying :::...

"Ever played an RPGMaker 2003 game where you almost forgot you were playing an RPGMaker 2003 game? Sore Losers: Riot Grrrl accomplishes just that!" - acknowledge101

"Notice how I'm saying unique a lot? That's probably because Sore Losers: Riot Grrrl isn't like any RPGMaker 2003 game I've ever played. It takes a lot of chances with most of the custom systems and the emphasis on gameplay (and minigames!) over story, but I feel that the game fairs pretty well." - Xanedil

"It has it's own unique play style that is very well thought out and balanced and great in a survival/sandbox/exploration kind of way." - Orphansmith

...::: Storyline and Setting :::...

"When the troubles first started in "Central Ferusia", the complex where all of our nation's criminals are sent to serve their punishment, nobody batted an eyelid. We thought that the government had everything under control because the strength of our military had been demonstrated multiple times in the past. Even when the walls of the complex were breached and criminals started to escape into the streets, we believed that the riots caused by common criminals and anti-government rebels would be quickly put down, and that future generations would only remember their efforts as a ridiculous, treacherous ploy.

We believed the government when they told us that the military had full control of the riots, and sat happily in our homes as the curfews and blockades dragged on and on and on. We didn't think for a moment that the government could possibly be wrong. After all, we had the most powerful military in the world protecting us! The idea that these riots would ever cause us problems sounded like a tasteless joke.

The joke was on us.

The streets seem dead where I live, but each night I hear the riots getting closer as the military's blockades get pushed further away from the walls that were supposed to keep these criminals contained. What am I supposed to do? I'm trapped in an apartment full of gadgets I can't eat, paid for by credits I can't drink, with a panoramic view of the violence making its way towards me.

I don't care what the government tells us anymore. I'm not safe here. I have to get out!"

...::: Gameplay, Features and Comments :::...

Sore Losers: Riot Grrrl is a highly experimental game where nearly everything you do involves some kind of minigame; from searching areas for items to lockpicking doors; from hotwiring electrical equipment to dodging rioters; from arguing with NPCs to hacking into computer systems; from breaking through barriers to sneaking around enemies. Why? Because I wanted to make an RPG where character abilities aren't reliant on a lifeless table of stats, and are instead reliant on the skill of the player. Hopefully my excessive use of minigame sequences is going to achieve just that.

Battles are also going to be more interactive than in a standard RPG. In Sore Losers: Riot Grrrl you'll be able to knock weapons out of your opponent's hands, kick bookcases over onto people, throw your enemies into electric fences, and use human shields to stop enemies from being able to attack you; you'll basically be able to use multiple elements of the battle environment to get your own way. Why settle for just the weapon in your hand? Use everything to your advantage!

Additionally, most of the graphics will be custom-made for the project in a purposefully high-contrast manner that will give the game a drastically different look. The game will also feature vibrant, abrasive chiptune soundtrack. As such, there will be a strong, stylistic element to this game that may well end up being divisive, but I believe it will also lead to a very unique gameplay experience!

...::: Reviews, Images and Downloads :::...

Read Reviews Here: http://rpgmaker.net/games/1158/reviews/
View The Image Gallery Here: http://rpgmaker.net/games/1158/images/
Download The Game Here: http://rpgmaker.net/games/1158/downloads/

 

[Sated]

Have a new screenshot:

Maybe it was just an innocent crash...

 

[SPN]

A game that, instead of farming to mindlessly breeze through everything, I have to actually THINK?

Absurd!

Haha, in all seriousness, this game looks incredibly interesting, and while the graphics are simple, they are done very well. Story's interesting, and if all of the features you listed come together nicely, this will be a great play.

Downloading.

 

[Sated]

A game that, instead of farming to mindlessly breeze through everything, I have to actually THINK?

That's (kind of) the intention. I didn't want to make "just another traditional role-playing game", so the battle-system had to be spiced up somehow!

You'll spend more time playing minigames, "exploring" and solving puzzles than you will fighting, though, if I am being honest.

 

[moxie]

I'd download it just for the custom graphics and 90's cyberpunk vibe, but it looks like you've put a lot of thought into the gameplay and making it unique, and that's awesome. Downloading it now, and I'll be sure and give you some feedback when I get the chance to play through it.

The only thing I could tell you just from the screenshots is that the windows seem, like, blindingly bright.

 

[Sated]

They are bright early in the game, but that's only because I haven't yet changed them to match the new window style I'm using. They'll look more like this in later releases:

 

[Sated]

I like nice reviews.



http://rpgmaker.net/games/1158/reviews/1068/

 

[Sated]

SL: Riot Grrrl GameJolt Page: http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/rpg/ ... rrrl/3437/

Sore Losers: Riot Grrrl has now been uploaded over at GameJolt, an indie-gaming community that - unlike RMN, RRR, GamingW, RMRK, HBGames and all the other places I tend to update - doesn't focus so heavily on role-playing games.

However, GameJolt still managed to get Sore Losers another hundred or so downloads so I thought it was about time I put Sore Losers: Riot Grrrl up there with it! Besides, there are already a lot of decent RM games that have profiles there, with games like Hero's Realm and Visions & Voices really "leading the charge" (for want of a better phrase).

If you support this project (or any of the other RM projects that are currently hosted there - there aren't that many RPGs on the site so it shouldn't be too hard to find the RM games!) then pleasepleaseplease leave some comments and ratings so that the RM community's better games get a chance to shine outside of the RM community!

Thanks guys, and expect a more Riot Grrrl related progress update very soon!

 

[Sated]

I got a bunch of emails today telling me that my game profiles had been accepted on the Softpedia website and that downloads for them were now available. Needless to say, this confused me greatly since I hadn't bothered to upload them there, but then I remembered that this had happened before and felt good about myself for a couple of seconds.

Anyway, Sore Losers: Riot Grrrl, Sore Losers, Frog, The Collector and Befuddle Quest 2 (which I only developed one level for and even that was the simplest of all the levels in the game; I am not even trying to claim that I made the whole of that game!) are up on that site now. I'm not too happy about the profiles because someone has taken screenshots with the RM2K/3 font-patch and they look retarded, but it's not a massive problem...

(Funnily enough, Frog, The Collector is currently leading in the downloads chart, which is a bit weird.)

The pages are here, for reference...

Sore Losers: http://games.softpedia.com/get/Freeware ... sers.shtml
Sore Losers: Riot Grrrl (Demo): http://games.softpedia.com/get/Freeware ... rrrl.shtml
Frog, The Collector: http://games.softpedia.com/get/Freeware ... ctor.shtml
Befuddle Quest 2: http://games.softpedia.com/get/Freeware ... rous.shtml

 

[Sated]

In between testing (possibly) the best amateur role-playing game ever (Alter A.I.L.A Genesis, for those who haven't seen me ranting about it all over the forums), playing far too much Football Manager 2010 in preperation for the new release (I just have to get FC United to win a Champion's League trophy before I make the move over), trying to finally finish Final Fantasy XIII (so much optional content in such a short space of time, what the fuck!?), winning football tournaments (okay, this was a while ago, but it did get in the way!) and... well... working (that chemistry PhD thing I do on the side and all the stuff that comes attached with that) I have finally managed to get the second level of this game finished!

Spoiler: Proof

Now to prettify the battle-animations; all these default animations are really bugging the shit out of me!

So far I only have a few of Cheska's animations finished and, to be honest, squeezing them all in is going to be a hassle (so many skills, so few slots!)... Blerg. Give it a year and I might be near finishing (the whole thing, that is; not just the animations!)

 

[Sated]

After 150 downloads, I've decided that the current demo is so horribly outdated that it's not worth having up anymore. A multitude of things have changed since it was uploaded and seeing it being played made me realise this. I may upload an updated version of the demo in the future but I couldn't possibly say when I'd get around to doing so.

Thanks to everyone who played and commented on the demo!

 

[Sated]

DEMO VERSION 1.3 NOW RELEASED! CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD!

Updates:

- Now able to carry two weapons at once.
- Minor graphical tweaks.
- Minor tutorial and dialogue tweaks.
- Redesigned ConvoBattle and Battle sequences.
- You can now "retry" battles if you lose them
- Other minor stuff that needed fixing.

 

[Sated]

I've added two new videos to the gamepage.

One of them is an updated version of the (really) old battle-system video, which means that people can now see how the "Interact" skill has replaced directly damaging environmental objects, see how (some of) the new battle-animations look, see how (some of) Cheska's new character-animations look, see how much better the battles look when they don't use the gauge system and... see whatever else I have changed since July 2009.

The other video both showcases and explains the ConvoBattle system, which will hopefully give people some insight into how you should approach those types of battle. I don't want people thinking that you should just choose an option randomly and hope for the best; there is some reasoning behind the choices you have to make. I just hope that my limited writing skills don't get in the way of this system working out for the best.

For the latest video updates you can subscribe to my YouTube channel but, if I'm being honest, I don't really expect to make that many videos. Having a full version of Fraps at hand does help, though...

 

[Sated]

New screenshots? Let's do it!

It's a shame currency is useless in a riot because the till looks pretty unguarded.

*Insert Linkin Park Joke Here*

"So, I go to the shops to get some milk and this, like, lunatic in a fucking FORKLIFT TRUCK comes out of nowhere..."

 

[Sated]

I've put up a new blog/review site on Blogger. I'm probably going to update it more often than I would this page because I'll probably update it with stuff that isn't really about my game (kinda like this post isn't!). I know it is just a bunch of old reviews right now but I will add more stuff in the future (honest!), so if you're interested then feel free to add me and if you have a similar blog then let me know so I can follow you back;

Also, in case you didn't already know, I have a YouTube account too and I try update it with relevant stuff as often as I can. Add me if you have an account there!

As for the game itself, I'm up to ~Level 3-18 (out of 30ish) so things are coming along nicely. Erm, when I have something more than "lol i mayd mre maps" I will write a proper update!

 

[Sated]

I've (pretty much) finished all the areas needed for the third level of the game, which leaves me with two more to make (although the last level will have a different format and so shouldn't take as long as the fourth). Admittedly, I need to add a couple more lock-picking minigames and a couple more battles, but you can play the whole way through the level without incident now.

Also, and somewhat luckily, I picked up on a bug that was occurring when using the "Flail" skill against the last enemy in a three-enemy battle, which is a good thing since it was replicated in all the other three-enemy battles the game already had! I need to remember to test my battle-events more thoroughly when I am going to be copy-pasting them into other enemy groups, even though I am pretty sure I'd tested that skill quite heavily already. Oh well, it's fixed now, no need to worry about it!

So, what now? Well, unfortunately, I'm now turning my mind towards a bunch of tedious stuff that I need/want to do before starting on the fourth level. Some of it is just a case of going through the database and messing with values, which isn't that hard to do so long as I am paying attention. The rest is more cosmetic, which means it'll probably take more effort to complete, especially since I no longer get to use old MS Paint for my images (I'm not going to lie; I really miss it!). I guess it's mostly a case of repeating repetitive tasks over and over, so as long as I can deal with the tedium there won't be any major dramas:

1) If you read the instruction manual (look at the tabs at the top of the page), you'll see that different types of attack are effective against different enemy classes, but IMO these classes are pretty ill-defined. They're also pretty skewed towards carrying at least one blunt-type weapon since they're never negatively effective, which isn't what I was aiming for. What I want to do, therefore, is two things:

a) re-define the enemy classes so that they make a little more sense.
b) re-balance the weapons based on the new definitions.

The differences to how the battle-system works and how difficult the battles are will be minimal, I hope. The only real effect should be that things are clearer. Clarity is important when you are aiming for a simple system!

2) The second and third levels of the game have a number of areas where you are moving to the left instead of to the right or where you need to backtrack through areas you've already visited. This makes the current layout of the GUI seem silly as it uses the terms "Previous" and "Next", which aren't always going to be applicable. Because of this, I'm going to replace these labels with "Left" and "Right" so that their use is never ambiguous, which will take a bit of time since I have a lot of different GUI overlays.

"Why do you need so many overlays?", you might be asking. The answer is simple: I'm fucking stupid. Basically, I use a single picture for all 5 commands that are on the screen at any one time, which means that every time I want a "unique" combination of 5 commands it requires a new image. I thought it would be easier to edit a single picture a few times than to position 5 separate pictures on each map, but the sheer number of unique commands I have come up with has made that an incorrect assumption. I'm not going to go back and change how this works now since it's heavily built into the way I go about creating and eventing each area, but it's still something I should remember for any future project I might make.

3) Cutscene graphics. They're currently terrible and disorganised. I really want to have image-based cutscenes (think Alter A.I.L.A Genesis) and that's something I am aiming for at the end of development, although it is not something that I'm going to do right now (because it will get in the way of "proper" development continuing). However, what I am going to do is streamline the way the cutscenes look. From now on, the organisation of each cutscene will be consistent with the others, which will make it easier for me to replace my shitty images with something custom made later on, should I choose to do so. Perhaps I can convince a certain someone to draw some cutscene images for me?*

*Probably not /sadface

 

[Sated]

I just wanted to say that this game isn't dead, even if it has been years since I posted here. Development is still progressing after a couple of RL-imposed hiatuses, and a lot has happened since I last posted in this topic. You can read more about my progress here, and I've also updated the original post to include a screenshot gallery so that you can see some of the progress I've been making (especially in the aesthetics department); some of the better screenshots are included as thumbnails!

 

[Sated]

So I'm finally working on this game again. Unfortunately, the way that I see it, there is a lot to do to get the levels that have already been made up to scratch. On one hand, this is very frustrating since it means that I'm not really working on "new" stuff. But on the other hand, it's also satisfying in that I can visibly see things that I'd already deemed "complete" becoming a lot better than they were.

The Item System and "Key Items"

One of the first things on my target list was the item system. Previously, Cheska could only carry six items and two weapons at once, and this included key items/weapons that are near-constantly required such as the Screwdriver (in relation to the "hotwire" minigame) and the Sledgehammer (in relation to the "smashing" minigame). Over the course of the game, there are four such items/weapons that can be collected and this essentially meant that four out of the eight slots available (50%!) were being taken up by items that you had little choice but to keep with you. This was obviously not good design as it would only serve to frustrate players and limit their options.

To fix this, I've introduced the concept of "key items" to the game. Items such as the Screwdriver no longer take up item slots, can no longer be dropped and appear separate from "normal items" in the item system. In line with this, "key item" elements relating to weapons such as the Sledgehammer have been moved onto newly created items instead. In the case of the Sledgehammer, the item that has replaced it is the Battering Ram, which you can see in the screenshot below:

It took me longer than I would've liked to work these changes into the system since a large chunk of the item system eventing needed to be redone in order to accommodate, not to mention the fact that new item system overlays needed to be drawn up! By far the most tedious part was going through every single item drop in the game to make sure that they weren't dropping additional key items, since that would pretty badly break the system! However, I do think this was something worth doing (as boring as it was) and I'm glad that I was able to get it working. The game is much better off for it!

Cutscenes... Again!

Another thing I've been working on is updating the look of the cutscenes, which is something that I've mentioned working on before. I've updated several of the cutscene images on this gamepage to reflect the work that's being done and I personally think things are looking a lot better now. I won't link all of them here since you can find them under the "images" tab, but here is a taster:

I said this previously, but the best part about working on these is that I've been able to draw up a set of templates that allow me to streamline how I work on producing cutscenes, so doing this will help me to be much more consistent going forward.

Consistency

Speaking of consistency, I've noticed a lot of inconsistency with how I've gone about some things in the game, most likely related to how many large breaks I've taken in development. A very basic example is the way that option dialogues look. Sometimes, option dialogues will look like this and pressing escape whilst in them won't do a thing:

What do you want to do?
>Do the first thing!
>Do the second thing!
>Don't do either thing.

Whilst others will look like this, with cancellation being achieved by pressing escape:

What do you want to do?
>Do the first thing!
>Do the second thing!

It's a minor thing, but now that I've noticed it I'm going to try and fix it.

Another thing that I need to fix in relation to this kind of thing is my massive overuse of ellipses (...) in the text, something that I personally dislike people doing in RM* games and something that I hadn't even realised I'd been doing to such a massive extent.

Finally, I've also been rooting out the use of \| (which pauses text) in message boxes and replacing it with \! (which waits until the player presses something), again because the use of the former it is something that I personally dislike and something that I hadn't realised I'd been doing.

Again, these are all minor things, but they're things that should be consistent so that the game plays more smoothly than it does at the moment.

Conclusions?

It's good to be working on the game again. It's good to be making obvious improvements. It's good that I haven't forgotten so much about how the game works that I'm unable to mess with/fix/improve key eventing-based systems that the game 100% relies on being perfect. But there is a lot of work to do to get this game finished to the standard I want and that fact doesn't escape me. I've said before that, "I constantly worry that people are going to be incredibly underwhelmed when they realise this isn't all that different from most RPG games" and that hasn't changed. Hopefully I can prove myself wrong.

 

[Sated]

Sometimes* I like to give my skills punny names:

Skills that inflict a status effect (in this case Blind) always have the same animation after them as a visual indicator, so that's what the darkness thing is.

*Read: At every possible opportunity.

 

[Sated]

So the current demo has 666 downloads, which I think is pretty neat. It wasn't a landmark that I was looking out for, I just happened to load the page and there it was, but dumb luck is sometimes pretty cool.

This is also a heads up that I will be taking down the current demo in the near future. The current demo no longer reflects the current state of this project, what with all its graphical placeholders and all the recent gameplay updates I've been making, so it won't be around much longer. I'd estimate that it will be gone sometime over the weekend, so grab it while you can because there's no telling when (or even if) an updated demo will appear!