Dead Content To Anywhere
- Thread starter Doctor
- Start date
Dead content awaiting restoration.
I thought Juno had taken care of most of the bugs. And to tell the truth, I didn't think anyone would be ready to betatest a virtually unknown game.
Volrath: Wow, I'm impressed. I had a hard time myself with 4 characters. I'm surprised you beat it with two, especially since Bamihi starts quite a bit weak. How'd you do it?
Volrath: Wow, I'm impressed. I had a hard time myself with 4 characters. I'm surprised you beat it with two, especially since Bamihi starts quite a bit weak. How'd you do it?
NOT easily. By this time, I had more money so I bought a lot of items...though you might want to consider lowering the price for the MP restoration items....I bought only two, and I miss my firstborn child.
The boss fight was REALLY difficult with two guys, I lost quite a few times. But eventually I just came on strong with a barrage of Chain Lightning (that attack is uber) and Gale from Soleil, which was effective against these flyers. (Does it surprise anyone that I picked Wind for her magic?)
My question now is...I've done that dungeon, went and grabbed Ianto again, and now I'm back on the island, having just seen a vision of some tower. I'm not sure where to go...is this the end of the demo?
The boss fight was REALLY difficult with two guys, I lost quite a few times. But eventually I just came on strong with a barrage of Chain Lightning (that attack is uber) and Gale from Soleil, which was effective against these flyers. (Does it surprise anyone that I picked Wind for her magic?)
My question now is...I've done that dungeon, went and grabbed Ianto again, and now I'm back on the island, having just seen a vision of some tower. I'm not sure where to go...is this the end of the demo?
There isn't much more, actually. You can explore the pyramid, but without the hookshot you'll be stuck on the 3rd floor (and you won't find it in the game, I still have some technicals issue to work out). What you can do now is either:
a) Head off to the Dark Era and recruit the characters you missed, Complete Captain Gray's quest and explore the secret level in the Vilindi Ruins.
b) With a 2nd character, move the statue in the cave in the Island and try to unlock the Tesseract, although this late in the demo you'll have little use for it. You'll need 4 characters to beat the boss.
c) Return to the Island and try to find the entrance to Utopia. Hint: The flashback gives you the location. The door will be magically open because "someone is expecting you".
EDIT: Yup, wind hits flyers hard, and almost all the enemies in the sky garden fly. By the by, is Gale the only wind magic Soleil have? Thought she should have learned Chain lightning or Gust by now, unless you're mainly using her weapon. What'd you specialise her in?
a) Head off to the Dark Era and recruit the characters you missed, Complete Captain Gray's quest and explore the secret level in the Vilindi Ruins.
b) With a 2nd character, move the statue in the cave in the Island and try to unlock the Tesseract, although this late in the demo you'll have little use for it. You'll need 4 characters to beat the boss.
c) Return to the Island and try to find the entrance to Utopia. Hint: The flashback gives you the location. The door will be magically open because "someone is expecting you".
EDIT: Yup, wind hits flyers hard, and almost all the enemies in the sky garden fly. By the by, is Gale the only wind magic Soleil have? Thought she should have learned Chain lightning or Gust by now, unless you're mainly using her weapon. What'd you specialise her in?
Considering that most people beta their games before their first demo release, I'd say you're probably good. It's not so much a "hey let's get in on that famous thing" as a "hey let's help out I love playing new games" that would motivate me to beta-test something.
Granted, To Anywhere might be a special case since it recently surfaced out of nowhere with a full demo without time to build up people's appetites, but you might as well go for it anyway before your next release; have a signup period of like a week, advertise on the thread and in your sig, and if no one applies release it anyway and count on user bug reports as usual. If people do, you're golden! This is one of those "can't hurt, might help" scenarios, and it has the potential to save you a few headaches and upload-bar-shaped pixel burns the next time around.
Neverplayd
Member
Okay, I'm in the second world now, and I'm quite confused by it. I was probably racing through the text, because I really don't have a clue where the task of "landing the sky garden" came from. The monsters are definitely tough, especially since I had no idea I could recruit new characters (and I saved my game in the sky garden already, so it is a little too late for going back 
). Anyway, besides the ranting, the sky garden is interesting, although challenging, but I am stuck in the puzzle involving slashing the switches. I can't seem to reach the major switch to get to the next location. And also...
Well, its back to the save point for me (or maybe I'll just restart the whole game entirely, since I'm hearing that Dark or Wind Arkanes will be a lot more useful than water...although water does have healing :wink.
). Anyway, besides the ranting, the sky garden is interesting, although challenging, but I am stuck in the puzzle involving slashing the switches. I can't seem to reach the major switch to get to the next location. And also...http://img4.uploadhouse.com/fileuploads/2554/25545945d0f5275f2b5fe56ed01d50b0051679a.jpg[/img]
Yeah... it is probably just a rare, unfixable event mishap, but after giving up and leaving the building and deciding to try again, I hit the first two switches to move to the bottom left side, but it took me straight into the wall. Any time I try to move out, the character is forced back to the left. Maybe setting up a parallel process event checking if it goes past a certain X coordinate or Y coordinate and moving the character back to the beginning if true will fix it (or make it lag horribly), but just wanted to direct it to your attention.
Yeah... it is probably just a rare, unfixable event mishap, but after giving up and leaving the building and deciding to try again, I hit the first two switches to move to the bottom left side, but it took me straight into the wall. Any time I try to move out, the character is forced back to the left. Maybe setting up a parallel process event checking if it goes past a certain X coordinate or Y coordinate and moving the character back to the beginning if true will fix it (or make it lag horribly), but just wanted to direct it to your attention.
.I gave her Bow specialty, not entirely sure why. Just wasn't something I saw in games too often, I guess. And for the most part, I have been relying on it rather than her spell. Gale was not very effective against the mushrooms, so I gave it up for a while, but now that I know Chain Lightning will come, I'll break it out some more, cause having two characters with that could be pwnage.
I fixed the bug Nevrplayed reported, it was actually quite simple.
Volrath, if I may ask you, I'd appreciate it if, after you're done, you'd restart a new game and choose to "look for Zara". It changes the events in the castle, making you side with the rebels instead of the guards. Just for that mission, so you can experience the two paths. Although if you continue a little longer, and bring Mathias and Evelyn to Dao, you do get some special scenes.
Volrath, if I may ask you, I'd appreciate it if, after you're done, you'd restart a new game and choose to "look for Zara". It changes the events in the castle, making you side with the rebels instead of the guards. Just for that mission, so you can experience the two paths. Although if you continue a little longer, and bring Mathias and Evelyn to Dao, you do get some special scenes.
Hmm... I seem to be getting this strange glitch which freezes the game. It's when I've got the captain on my party and he uses Victory cry, it often freezes the game. Is this my crappy computer?
Edit: Not just Victory cry it turns out. Just... anything seems to freexe the game in battle at this point. I can't get through a battle anymore! Is it just me or has anyone else had this glitch?
EDIT2: Now this has stopped happening. How odd.
But anyway, I'm at the Egyptian Place now. Loved it so far. This is one of those games where when you do well, you do really well and you love it. :P
Edit: Not just Victory cry it turns out. Just... anything seems to freexe the game in battle at this point. I can't get through a battle anymore! Is it just me or has anyone else had this glitch?
EDIT2: Now this has stopped happening. How odd.
But anyway, I'm at the Egyptian Place now. Loved it so far. This is one of those games where when you do well, you do really well and you love it. :P
Crystalgate
Member
I encountered a new problem. I got the bomb and found a place with two boulders to blow up. The first boulder posed no problem, but the second boulder wouldn't let me pass even after it was gone.
I've also found some places where I could walk on the panorama in the sky palace. Often it's when you put a passable plant on the edge. Sometimes I can't walk of the edge even if there is a passable plant put there though. I haven't found a pattern to it yet.
I've also found some places where I could walk on the panorama in the sky palace. Often it's when you put a passable plant on the edge. Sometimes I can't walk of the edge even if there is a passable plant put there though. I haven't found a pattern to it yet.
To Anywhere
by Doctor
You know my routine; I go through and write up my notes as I play, so shit will be in the order that I encounter it in the game. What I'm going to ask you to do is to open up the game yourself and start a new game with me. Read this as you see it. Seriously, this will help you a lot more this way, because I might be pointing out little things that you might not otherwise see. Plus, it's always nice to do some extra testing on your game. Also because you're dead-set on ignoring my advice, I'm going to go ahead and be nice about it for you. I don't want this day off to be a total waste of my time. Now, on to it.
I'm assuming that full releases would have a visible "READ ME" file that tells you to install the fonts first. Or maybe use the autofont install script. It's fine in an early demo like this, but once you're "out there", you'd want things to be a little clearer for those who aren't familiar with the program.
First off, the title screen isn't really great. It works fine as a placeholder, but it needs to be a bit stronger. I know it's artsy and cool to put the logo in the corner like that, but you should really put the title in the center of the screen. It should be the focal point. When I look at the title screen, my eyes are naturally drawn downwards toward the navigation, and then the logo. In other words, my eyes go WING THING, MENU, LOGO. The logo/title should not be last there, it should be first. The music also doesn't match the tone of the title screen much, being a really hip and hyper techno song, especially the "let's go! let's go!" parts. That's being nitpicky, but it doesn't seem to match up with the nostalgic/serene feeling that would come to mind with a title like "To Anywhere". Something a bit more airy and less INTENSE would work better as a title theme.
On the plus side, it's nice to see a fullscreen option. Unfortunately for you, I won't be using it, since I need my notes open on my second monitor.
The font for the "Created by Xavier whatever" and the quote (I'd seriously advise against opening a game with a giant ominous quote on the screen, by the way. it's DISGUSTINGLY overused) aren't incredibly readable. I mean, I've seen a whole lot worse, but the font is a bit annoying.
Your "choose a character" screen is absolutely horrible. I know, I said I'd be nice, and it's so annoying that this is me being nice and still telling you that it's horrible (on the plus side, this haunting music here is fantastic-- I love it a lot; consider using this tune for the title). Reasons why this screen is bad: one, it's not grokkable. That's a word I use a lot but I don't think I've never really defined it, and as far as I know, it's only really used in the Magic:The Gathering community when referring to card design. Simply put, "grokkable" means "instantly-gettable". And your character-select map isn't that. There's no clear cursor or anything. At least an overlying image that shows the arrow buttons might be something of a better indicator here. Two: your layout isn't aesthetically grokkable, either. It took me a few moments to see that the character is meant to be embedded in the transparent crystal thing. At first, it REALLY looks like the character's just off-center. Three: I need information, and I need it badly. Give me the names of the characters, and maybe a tiny little blurb about what they do in the game (does one character use fire magic over water magic? or is it a storyline difference or what?) I have no idea at all, so I'm just picking at random here, and based on which sprite I like the best. I would very seriously suggest a more conventional menu here, or at least SOMETHING that's a clearer indicator of character selection. Maybe even just have an arrow hover over the character's heads, and let the player scroll through them.
Since I have nothing to really base my decision on, I'm going to go with the red-haired chick. The blue-haired chick's colors are way too saturated to be very pleasant to enjoy for the duration of the game (her hair and especially her dress), and the dude with the long hair has annoyingly-non-outnined hair on top of just being faggy-looking (i hate bishies). That leaves it to the other two, and I choose the chick because I've seen the other guy's sprite a million times before.
It's "specializing", not "specialising". You are American, right?
The "specialty" selection is incredibly flawed, in that I have to go back to the very beginning after each time I just check the stats. This is a pain in the ass, so I'm just going to pick one at random (this should be fine because they are all nicely balanced, right? they should be in theory at least). You should definitely have it display the stats and details as you are selecting them.
Begin your journey? Yes.
Here's another box!
...
I'd suggest change the "begin your journey" text to something a bit less... deceptive.
Okay! Wow, all of that and we haven't started the game yet. Okay, here we go!
OH GOD THE OVERLAY! I'M BLINDED! Actually it's not too bad, because there would be cloud shadows on a beach. But turn up the opacity, maybe by half or more, so it's a lot subtler, and make it move a lot slower. As it is now, it distracts from the text and from the character. I know I'm being totally nitpicky with stuff like this, but trust me and give it a shot. Unless your game is meant to have some sort of heavy smog over it, then my suggestions will help focus the player's eyes on what matters: the character and the message box.
In all seriousness, this is the first shot of the game, so it should have a lot more impact here. In other words, I'm going to be disgustingly critical of this, but so should you, because this is a key frame to draw in your player. Pretty much, fix that floor. Don't use that RTP autotile there. It looks wrong the way that the character's feet are on the border area of it. The same goes for the rope thing in the corner- it doesn't work with the autotile there. The same problem with the iron fence pieces at the top of the map. Do you see what I mean? They're on the border of the floor autotile. Normally things like this are really small and don't matter as much once you're in the game and moving around, but right now this is our first real glimpse into your world. You want this shot to be perfect.
Oh god, a whimsically-vague monologue. Thank god it was short.
Okay, dashing should be on the SHIFT key, or it should be explained (maybe in that nonexistent README file). Shift is standard for most RPG games, and it isn't intuitive to hold down the action key (since you should be using it for other things). The only reason I know that you can dash is because I read Venetia's post. I'm glad that I did, because otherwise this would be horribly slow and boring.
Your passabilities are indredibly annoying. I can't walk behind cliffs? This makes areas that look like they SHOULD be accessible inaccessible. Perfect example: go to the very west of the map. There's a little area into the cliff that I totally want to go into. Logically I should be able to, but I can't. Or another example (one that's even a whole lot worse), directly above that area where I came off the pier thing. I should totally be able to walk by there. I can, however, climb up and down vines on the walls by walking on them. It would be nice if you took the time to put an event or something that forces her to face up and move slower or something, so it looks like she's actually climbing, and not just walking on walls. Also, on some of these vines, I can walk up them, but get stuck before going all the way to the top, and I can't go down them at all. I can walk on the little piece of the ruined wall, the tile underneat the tile with the rock, where it's indented. It also looks odd being able to step on the bottom-corner tiles of the clifftops. And why can't I go behind the wall? This is seriously frustrating. You need to spend some serious time working on the passabilities for your tilesets.
Grammatical error: "The stair's collapsed..." Technically, you could be using it properly, as "stair has" collapsed. But "stair" isn't usually spoken by itself; it should be a plural. It should say "The stairs collapsed" or "the stairs have collapsed" (the second is the one I think you were going for).
Okay, got to the save point (notice that I'm all over the place on the first map. I tend to explore every inch of a map before going on to the next). Your windowskin for the save menu is hideous. The bevels, the bright oversaturated blues and pinks....ehrgrhrh. Why would you bother using a different windowskin at all?
After seeing that the fortress was locked, I took the route to the west. I'm in a cave (which inexplicable has a cloud fog?). You're underestimating the power of sound here. Don't tell me that there's a sound heard when I step on the tile-- have the engine play a sound. This is really important for the immersion/gameplay experience. In general, you should always try to avoid explanatory text boxes when you can. Forcing the player to press the action key on this space is annoying and frankly, poor design. It's less intuitive for the player to press the action key while stepping on the tile rather than just having the sound play when I actually do step on the tile.
So it seems like there's nothing I can do here until I have a party member to help me move the statue. Fine by me, I don't mind doing a little backtracking if it's for the sake of exploration. That's one thing that you've done that I like, I'm a big fan of exploration, and having multiple places to go. I went to the cave first of my own choice, and I know that there's another path back at the beach. So when I see that the cave's a dead end for now, I have absolutely no problem going back and checking out the other route. Especially since this isn't bogged down with shitty random encounters or anything. Nice here.
OH GOD A GHOST OH GOD IM SCAAAAARED (that's a good thing btw)
Okay, this is the first time that I've opened up the menu. It's baaaaaaad, man. Really bad. I'm on the old version still, so I know that you've fixed it up a little bit and won't spend time complaining about the fonts and colors. But my biggest problem with the menu here though is the shadow. More specifically, the way it MOVES WITH THE CURSOR. That's reallllllly annoying, dude, and is totally distracting. I hope that you didn't keep this in the new revision. It actually looks more like a glitch than anything. Menus should be simple. I never got the whole "lol mog menu" bullshit craze because it takes away from the whole point of a menu. Less flash, man. Keep it simple and practical.
That said, she said she wants an item to test the depth of the well but my rope doesn't work.
Also, while in the menu I notice the word "Armor". This is a problem. How so? Because previously you used "specialise", remember? You need to be consistent. For all my bitching about British English, it doesn't really bother me. I'm just playing a part (hell, I happen to love a woman who lives in England). But what does bother me is when people mix the two. Pick one and stick with it-- either British English or American English. Mixing the two in the same game (without reason like dialect) is a big mistake. It simply seems unprofessional. (later on, you also use "rumour" over "rumor", which is an even more obvious consistency with "armor" being in the menu).
On a plus, I like this map. It's serene and nice (a bit of a pain to navigate when some flower tiles aren't passable and others are). The waterfall looks good.
Wait... Why the fuck can't I get behind this tree? It's blocking me in totally illogical ways- like the tile in the top corner of the tree, where there aren't even any leaves.
Now I'm on the map with the beach cottage place, the one in the screenshot that Venetia posted (I think it was Venetia). She complained about that randomly-placed pyramid thing already, so I don't have to. You know what I'd say about it, though. I hope.
I just now noticed that her graphic changes when she's running. Niiiiiice. Especially if it was subtle enough for me to not catch it earlier. In some cases, too sublte is bad, but in others, it's a nice little touch.
Oh, now I see a little note that tells me how to use that damn rope. That might have been nice to know back when I was where I tried to use it. Remember back when I mentioned that I like backtracking when it's my own choice? When it doesn't feel forced? Yeah. I have no problem exploring and collecting things and backtracking. But to have to go out of my way to learn a mechanic that's been there from the beginning... that's a bit lame. At least there's this bed here, so it won't feel like I went up here for nothing...
Whoah a dream sequence! Yay imaginary numbers. Those were always fun back in high school. I wish I remembered what the fuck they were, but I do remember they were fun. Nothing really special about this, but nothing too bad either (the way she stutters her walk when she slowly takes three steps toward the wall was a bit annoying though).
Okay, now I'm at the bottom of the well, thanks to my newfound knowledge about how to use my field items.
And there's no way out! Wait, what's this switch... Why, it's that old cave from before? YES! Fantastic job. I really, really love this here. Interconnectivity is a crucial factor in making a world fun to explore, and this right here just fucking hit the nail on the head. Great touch, this excited me. I hope there's more cool shit like this.
Oh, it's dark. I'm scared. Oh hey it's that ghost person!! Hey, that map transition was really fucking tubular.
Oh cool a new world (a little disappointed that I can't go back through the hole in the wall-- hoping that I'll be back eventually, there were more places to explore! I'm actually very seriously disappointed that I can't go back. Because I'm assuming that I'll be able to get back later, I won't be docking off any points for this... yet.). Passability issue: one of the tiles on top of the ruined wall- you can step right on top of it. Try it yourself, it's the tile just above the little rock cluster and the top of the moss-covered pillar, on the west after the bridge. You can go right over the wall. Mapping issue: in a couple of spots along the side walls, there are tiles where the shadow cuts out. Also the music in this area is really cool. In general, this game has had fantastic music so far (barring the horrible title screen music).
The area where Matthias drops his bomb is very similar to other tiles around the ruins. If I were you, I'd either make it stand out more (maybe with a large crack or something) or eliminate the other tiles that look similar to it. This makes it better for two reasons: the player won't be trying to bomb places that can't be bombed, and (more importantly), the place that can be bombed will be more obvious.
Okay, so underground now... why can't I check the metal bars? In the previous cave, when I checked the metal bars, I saw a pleasant little thought bubble. Here, nothing. I just think that it would be a lot more solid and consistent if I could check this sort of thing, since it's my natural impulse. Even just a little "these bars are solid and I can't get through" would be enough to show the player that the environment is aware that the player is there. Does that make sense?
Um... so here we have an explanation of how to use swiches... but I've encountered switches before. I don't think it's necessarily needed here (but looking back, as this is a tutorial dungeon more than anything, it's okay).
Hrmm, pushing statues is a bit wierd... because of the way you need to hold the arrow down rather than just push the button... I think I like it, though. This makes me think- why not eliminate the reset button altogether? Allow the player to pull the statues as well. Grab as long as action is held, and then choose forward or back (zelda does this). It would lead to lots of more puzzle possibilities, and get rid of the horrible immersion-breaking reset switch.
Hrmmm... for the battle, I swear I chose "wait". It seems pretty active, though. The bars and everything keep going even while I'm in menus. Double-check that for me- is it a mistake or did I select the wrong option without realizing it? Other than that, I really like the battle system. It's a lot smoother than most other ABSes that I've seen for RMXP. And I get a switch for defeating the monster-- nice. Very nice, actually. This game seems to have gameplay, which is incredibly rare in RPGs. This game is really blowing my expectations away.
Although right now I am begging for a save point- my roommates are about to play beer pong and I would rather be in the other room trying to go to sleep during this. That's why I always tend to have the save points in the menu -- forcing the player to continue on to a save point is usually really inconvenient for the player. In fact I can't really think of any good reason to have forced map save-points like this. It's one of those unfortunate RPG conventions that gets carried over from crappy JRPGs. I've stopped playing a lot of games because I haven't been able to save. Let's hope you have one coming up soon.
So Matthias just happens to have this enchanted quiver that just happens to have arrows that can't hit enemies... hrmm... Totally unbelievable, but this is for gameplay! I'll allow it. There's one thing that should allow the player to put plausibility on hold: and that's the gameplay.
Oh God, choices. Look for Mathias or look for Zara? I hate story choices like these because I always have to know the both of them. Bad side: I wish there had been a save point right before this fork. Good point: replayability! I'd say this is another plus for you. I'm going to go for Zara, because Mathias is a bit of a faggot.
Okay, so now I'm in this town, which is inexplicably dark and has this random smog over it. I don't really think that we have to worry about pollution in this world, so that fog has got to go. So, like I said, I want to find my save point so I can go to bed and finish up tomorrow morning. I head to the Inn right away (takes a while of running around to find it). I get there, and naturally I'm talking to NPCs (that's how I roll, I check everything that I see for the most part). After the predictable and lame joke about Arshes, I try to talk to the other RTP girl (a sprite that I used to use for Maya in the extremely old version of Sandfall that still used RTP). She um... doesn't respond to me. At all (by the way, on this map: when you stand on the tile below the wine bottle and glass, they position themselves nicely on top of your character's head).
Um... I. Want. To. Save. I talk to the lady at the counter, and she lets me rest there... without a save option. I try for the other option (because naturally I can't leave an NPC unfinished), and now Mrs. Ignore-Me is suddenly up and talkative. Where's my saaaave? And after our brief conversation (a bit too brief to be believable -- Evelyn is all-to-eager to help our Soleil for nothing? But at the same time it's nice to keep things concise and moving the plot forward), I'm teleported to the outside of the inn. Waaaaaaaa! What about my save point?
Okay, I head back inside, and it's at the very top in a totally out-of-the-way and non-intuitive place. A little annoying. But it works. I save my game (noticing that Evelyn is in my party even though she said that she'd meet me there), and I go to bed. I'll pick it up again for tomorrow.
Final thoughts of the night: significantly better than I had expected or had even hoped. Lots of little areas could seriously use some polish, and the passabilities are a consistent annoyance, but as a whole this is a very solid game. I don't get why you gave me such a hard time when I was asking you to pitch it to me. I told you that it's good games that get me to act nice, and so far I haven't found anything so glaringly bad that I've been forced to drop this. I like that it's not a dialog bore-fest and seems to have a focus on exploration and gameplay. Let's hope that this keeps up.
Also one more note: I noticed two MAJOR POSITIVES that really helped you out tremendously. One, your characters acturally turn. This is something that I've been doing for years, having the characters turn to the side and rotate rather than just magically appear facing in the opposite direction. Little touches like this add so much to a game and I'm glad that you have this. Secondly, you actually BORDER YOUR MAPS! Thank god man, because I haven't played a single RTP game recently that has done this properly (more recent MotW arcs have been doing it though, but they were an offender in the beginning to). It makes things so much more navigable and generally more aesthetically pleasing (since you're not getting confused about walking off the edge and shit). Massive points for doing this (even though this kind of stuff should be default, it's sad to think of how many people actually overlook this kind of thing).
I actually look forward to playing more of this tomorrow. I seriously hope that it lives up to what I've seen so far. This has been good so far, so if it falls, it's going to fall hard.
by Doctor
You know my routine; I go through and write up my notes as I play, so shit will be in the order that I encounter it in the game. What I'm going to ask you to do is to open up the game yourself and start a new game with me. Read this as you see it. Seriously, this will help you a lot more this way, because I might be pointing out little things that you might not otherwise see. Plus, it's always nice to do some extra testing on your game. Also because you're dead-set on ignoring my advice, I'm going to go ahead and be nice about it for you. I don't want this day off to be a total waste of my time. Now, on to it.
I'm assuming that full releases would have a visible "READ ME" file that tells you to install the fonts first. Or maybe use the autofont install script. It's fine in an early demo like this, but once you're "out there", you'd want things to be a little clearer for those who aren't familiar with the program.
First off, the title screen isn't really great. It works fine as a placeholder, but it needs to be a bit stronger. I know it's artsy and cool to put the logo in the corner like that, but you should really put the title in the center of the screen. It should be the focal point. When I look at the title screen, my eyes are naturally drawn downwards toward the navigation, and then the logo. In other words, my eyes go WING THING, MENU, LOGO. The logo/title should not be last there, it should be first. The music also doesn't match the tone of the title screen much, being a really hip and hyper techno song, especially the "let's go! let's go!" parts. That's being nitpicky, but it doesn't seem to match up with the nostalgic/serene feeling that would come to mind with a title like "To Anywhere". Something a bit more airy and less INTENSE would work better as a title theme.
On the plus side, it's nice to see a fullscreen option. Unfortunately for you, I won't be using it, since I need my notes open on my second monitor.
The font for the "Created by Xavier whatever" and the quote (I'd seriously advise against opening a game with a giant ominous quote on the screen, by the way. it's DISGUSTINGLY overused) aren't incredibly readable. I mean, I've seen a whole lot worse, but the font is a bit annoying.
Your "choose a character" screen is absolutely horrible. I know, I said I'd be nice, and it's so annoying that this is me being nice and still telling you that it's horrible (on the plus side, this haunting music here is fantastic-- I love it a lot; consider using this tune for the title). Reasons why this screen is bad: one, it's not grokkable. That's a word I use a lot but I don't think I've never really defined it, and as far as I know, it's only really used in the Magic:The Gathering community when referring to card design. Simply put, "grokkable" means "instantly-gettable". And your character-select map isn't that. There's no clear cursor or anything. At least an overlying image that shows the arrow buttons might be something of a better indicator here. Two: your layout isn't aesthetically grokkable, either. It took me a few moments to see that the character is meant to be embedded in the transparent crystal thing. At first, it REALLY looks like the character's just off-center. Three: I need information, and I need it badly. Give me the names of the characters, and maybe a tiny little blurb about what they do in the game (does one character use fire magic over water magic? or is it a storyline difference or what?) I have no idea at all, so I'm just picking at random here, and based on which sprite I like the best. I would very seriously suggest a more conventional menu here, or at least SOMETHING that's a clearer indicator of character selection. Maybe even just have an arrow hover over the character's heads, and let the player scroll through them.
Since I have nothing to really base my decision on, I'm going to go with the red-haired chick. The blue-haired chick's colors are way too saturated to be very pleasant to enjoy for the duration of the game (her hair and especially her dress), and the dude with the long hair has annoyingly-non-outnined hair on top of just being faggy-looking (i hate bishies). That leaves it to the other two, and I choose the chick because I've seen the other guy's sprite a million times before.
It's "specializing", not "specialising". You are American, right?
The "specialty" selection is incredibly flawed, in that I have to go back to the very beginning after each time I just check the stats. This is a pain in the ass, so I'm just going to pick one at random (this should be fine because they are all nicely balanced, right? they should be in theory at least). You should definitely have it display the stats and details as you are selecting them.
Begin your journey? Yes.
Here's another box!
...
I'd suggest change the "begin your journey" text to something a bit less... deceptive.
Okay! Wow, all of that and we haven't started the game yet. Okay, here we go!
OH GOD THE OVERLAY! I'M BLINDED! Actually it's not too bad, because there would be cloud shadows on a beach. But turn up the opacity, maybe by half or more, so it's a lot subtler, and make it move a lot slower. As it is now, it distracts from the text and from the character. I know I'm being totally nitpicky with stuff like this, but trust me and give it a shot. Unless your game is meant to have some sort of heavy smog over it, then my suggestions will help focus the player's eyes on what matters: the character and the message box.
In all seriousness, this is the first shot of the game, so it should have a lot more impact here. In other words, I'm going to be disgustingly critical of this, but so should you, because this is a key frame to draw in your player. Pretty much, fix that floor. Don't use that RTP autotile there. It looks wrong the way that the character's feet are on the border area of it. The same goes for the rope thing in the corner- it doesn't work with the autotile there. The same problem with the iron fence pieces at the top of the map. Do you see what I mean? They're on the border of the floor autotile. Normally things like this are really small and don't matter as much once you're in the game and moving around, but right now this is our first real glimpse into your world. You want this shot to be perfect.
Oh god, a whimsically-vague monologue. Thank god it was short.
Okay, dashing should be on the SHIFT key, or it should be explained (maybe in that nonexistent README file). Shift is standard for most RPG games, and it isn't intuitive to hold down the action key (since you should be using it for other things). The only reason I know that you can dash is because I read Venetia's post. I'm glad that I did, because otherwise this would be horribly slow and boring.
Your passabilities are indredibly annoying. I can't walk behind cliffs? This makes areas that look like they SHOULD be accessible inaccessible. Perfect example: go to the very west of the map. There's a little area into the cliff that I totally want to go into. Logically I should be able to, but I can't. Or another example (one that's even a whole lot worse), directly above that area where I came off the pier thing. I should totally be able to walk by there. I can, however, climb up and down vines on the walls by walking on them. It would be nice if you took the time to put an event or something that forces her to face up and move slower or something, so it looks like she's actually climbing, and not just walking on walls. Also, on some of these vines, I can walk up them, but get stuck before going all the way to the top, and I can't go down them at all. I can walk on the little piece of the ruined wall, the tile underneat the tile with the rock, where it's indented. It also looks odd being able to step on the bottom-corner tiles of the clifftops. And why can't I go behind the wall? This is seriously frustrating. You need to spend some serious time working on the passabilities for your tilesets.
Grammatical error: "The stair's collapsed..." Technically, you could be using it properly, as "stair has" collapsed. But "stair" isn't usually spoken by itself; it should be a plural. It should say "The stairs collapsed" or "the stairs have collapsed" (the second is the one I think you were going for).
Okay, got to the save point (notice that I'm all over the place on the first map. I tend to explore every inch of a map before going on to the next). Your windowskin for the save menu is hideous. The bevels, the bright oversaturated blues and pinks....ehrgrhrh. Why would you bother using a different windowskin at all?
After seeing that the fortress was locked, I took the route to the west. I'm in a cave (which inexplicable has a cloud fog?). You're underestimating the power of sound here. Don't tell me that there's a sound heard when I step on the tile-- have the engine play a sound. This is really important for the immersion/gameplay experience. In general, you should always try to avoid explanatory text boxes when you can. Forcing the player to press the action key on this space is annoying and frankly, poor design. It's less intuitive for the player to press the action key while stepping on the tile rather than just having the sound play when I actually do step on the tile.
So it seems like there's nothing I can do here until I have a party member to help me move the statue. Fine by me, I don't mind doing a little backtracking if it's for the sake of exploration. That's one thing that you've done that I like, I'm a big fan of exploration, and having multiple places to go. I went to the cave first of my own choice, and I know that there's another path back at the beach. So when I see that the cave's a dead end for now, I have absolutely no problem going back and checking out the other route. Especially since this isn't bogged down with shitty random encounters or anything. Nice here.
OH GOD A GHOST OH GOD IM SCAAAAARED (that's a good thing btw)
Okay, this is the first time that I've opened up the menu. It's baaaaaaad, man. Really bad. I'm on the old version still, so I know that you've fixed it up a little bit and won't spend time complaining about the fonts and colors. But my biggest problem with the menu here though is the shadow. More specifically, the way it MOVES WITH THE CURSOR. That's reallllllly annoying, dude, and is totally distracting. I hope that you didn't keep this in the new revision. It actually looks more like a glitch than anything. Menus should be simple. I never got the whole "lol mog menu" bullshit craze because it takes away from the whole point of a menu. Less flash, man. Keep it simple and practical.
That said, she said she wants an item to test the depth of the well but my rope doesn't work.
Also, while in the menu I notice the word "Armor". This is a problem. How so? Because previously you used "specialise", remember? You need to be consistent. For all my bitching about British English, it doesn't really bother me. I'm just playing a part (hell, I happen to love a woman who lives in England). But what does bother me is when people mix the two. Pick one and stick with it-- either British English or American English. Mixing the two in the same game (without reason like dialect) is a big mistake. It simply seems unprofessional. (later on, you also use "rumour" over "rumor", which is an even more obvious consistency with "armor" being in the menu).
On a plus, I like this map. It's serene and nice (a bit of a pain to navigate when some flower tiles aren't passable and others are). The waterfall looks good.
Wait... Why the fuck can't I get behind this tree? It's blocking me in totally illogical ways- like the tile in the top corner of the tree, where there aren't even any leaves.
Now I'm on the map with the beach cottage place, the one in the screenshot that Venetia posted (I think it was Venetia). She complained about that randomly-placed pyramid thing already, so I don't have to. You know what I'd say about it, though. I hope.
I just now noticed that her graphic changes when she's running. Niiiiiice. Especially if it was subtle enough for me to not catch it earlier. In some cases, too sublte is bad, but in others, it's a nice little touch.
Oh, now I see a little note that tells me how to use that damn rope. That might have been nice to know back when I was where I tried to use it. Remember back when I mentioned that I like backtracking when it's my own choice? When it doesn't feel forced? Yeah. I have no problem exploring and collecting things and backtracking. But to have to go out of my way to learn a mechanic that's been there from the beginning... that's a bit lame. At least there's this bed here, so it won't feel like I went up here for nothing...
Whoah a dream sequence! Yay imaginary numbers. Those were always fun back in high school. I wish I remembered what the fuck they were, but I do remember they were fun. Nothing really special about this, but nothing too bad either (the way she stutters her walk when she slowly takes three steps toward the wall was a bit annoying though).
Okay, now I'm at the bottom of the well, thanks to my newfound knowledge about how to use my field items.
And there's no way out! Wait, what's this switch... Why, it's that old cave from before? YES! Fantastic job. I really, really love this here. Interconnectivity is a crucial factor in making a world fun to explore, and this right here just fucking hit the nail on the head. Great touch, this excited me. I hope there's more cool shit like this.
Oh, it's dark. I'm scared.
Oh hey it's that ghost person!! Hey, that map transition was really fucking tubular.Oh cool a new world (a little disappointed that I can't go back through the hole in the wall-- hoping that I'll be back eventually, there were more places to explore! I'm actually very seriously disappointed that I can't go back. Because I'm assuming that I'll be able to get back later, I won't be docking off any points for this... yet.). Passability issue: one of the tiles on top of the ruined wall- you can step right on top of it. Try it yourself, it's the tile just above the little rock cluster and the top of the moss-covered pillar, on the west after the bridge. You can go right over the wall. Mapping issue: in a couple of spots along the side walls, there are tiles where the shadow cuts out. Also the music in this area is really cool. In general, this game has had fantastic music so far (barring the horrible title screen music).
The area where Matthias drops his bomb is very similar to other tiles around the ruins. If I were you, I'd either make it stand out more (maybe with a large crack or something) or eliminate the other tiles that look similar to it. This makes it better for two reasons: the player won't be trying to bomb places that can't be bombed, and (more importantly), the place that can be bombed will be more obvious.
Okay, so underground now... why can't I check the metal bars? In the previous cave, when I checked the metal bars, I saw a pleasant little thought bubble. Here, nothing. I just think that it would be a lot more solid and consistent if I could check this sort of thing, since it's my natural impulse. Even just a little "these bars are solid and I can't get through" would be enough to show the player that the environment is aware that the player is there. Does that make sense?
Um... so here we have an explanation of how to use swiches... but I've encountered switches before. I don't think it's necessarily needed here (but looking back, as this is a tutorial dungeon more than anything, it's okay).
Hrmm, pushing statues is a bit wierd... because of the way you need to hold the arrow down rather than just push the button... I think I like it, though. This makes me think- why not eliminate the reset button altogether? Allow the player to pull the statues as well. Grab as long as action is held, and then choose forward or back (zelda does this). It would lead to lots of more puzzle possibilities, and get rid of the horrible immersion-breaking reset switch.
Hrmmm... for the battle, I swear I chose "wait". It seems pretty active, though. The bars and everything keep going even while I'm in menus. Double-check that for me- is it a mistake or did I select the wrong option without realizing it? Other than that, I really like the battle system. It's a lot smoother than most other ABSes that I've seen for RMXP. And I get a switch for defeating the monster-- nice. Very nice, actually. This game seems to have gameplay, which is incredibly rare in RPGs. This game is really blowing my expectations away.
Although right now I am begging for a save point- my roommates are about to play beer pong and I would rather be in the other room trying to go to sleep during this. That's why I always tend to have the save points in the menu -- forcing the player to continue on to a save point is usually really inconvenient for the player. In fact I can't really think of any good reason to have forced map save-points like this. It's one of those unfortunate RPG conventions that gets carried over from crappy JRPGs. I've stopped playing a lot of games because I haven't been able to save. Let's hope you have one coming up soon.
So Matthias just happens to have this enchanted quiver that just happens to have arrows that can't hit enemies... hrmm... Totally unbelievable, but this is for gameplay! I'll allow it. There's one thing that should allow the player to put plausibility on hold: and that's the gameplay.
Oh God, choices. Look for Mathias or look for Zara? I hate story choices like these because I always have to know the both of them. Bad side: I wish there had been a save point right before this fork. Good point: replayability! I'd say this is another plus for you. I'm going to go for Zara, because Mathias is a bit of a faggot.
Okay, so now I'm in this town, which is inexplicably dark and has this random smog over it. I don't really think that we have to worry about pollution in this world, so that fog has got to go. So, like I said, I want to find my save point so I can go to bed and finish up tomorrow morning. I head to the Inn right away (takes a while of running around to find it). I get there, and naturally I'm talking to NPCs (that's how I roll, I check everything that I see for the most part). After the predictable and lame joke about Arshes, I try to talk to the other RTP girl (a sprite that I used to use for Maya in the extremely old version of Sandfall that still used RTP). She um... doesn't respond to me. At all (by the way, on this map: when you stand on the tile below the wine bottle and glass, they position themselves nicely on top of your character's head).
Um... I. Want. To. Save. I talk to the lady at the counter, and she lets me rest there... without a save option. I try for the other option (because naturally I can't leave an NPC unfinished), and now Mrs. Ignore-Me is suddenly up and talkative. Where's my saaaave? And after our brief conversation (a bit too brief to be believable -- Evelyn is all-to-eager to help our Soleil for nothing? But at the same time it's nice to keep things concise and moving the plot forward), I'm teleported to the outside of the inn. Waaaaaaaa! What about my save point?
Okay, I head back inside, and it's at the very top in a totally out-of-the-way and non-intuitive place. A little annoying. But it works. I save my game (noticing that Evelyn is in my party even though she said that she'd meet me there), and I go to bed. I'll pick it up again for tomorrow.
Final thoughts of the night: significantly better than I had expected or had even hoped. Lots of little areas could seriously use some polish, and the passabilities are a consistent annoyance, but as a whole this is a very solid game. I don't get why you gave me such a hard time when I was asking you to pitch it to me. I told you that it's good games that get me to act nice, and so far I haven't found anything so glaringly bad that I've been forced to drop this. I like that it's not a dialog bore-fest and seems to have a focus on exploration and gameplay. Let's hope that this keeps up.
Also one more note: I noticed two MAJOR POSITIVES that really helped you out tremendously. One, your characters acturally turn. This is something that I've been doing for years, having the characters turn to the side and rotate rather than just magically appear facing in the opposite direction. Little touches like this add so much to a game and I'm glad that you have this. Secondly, you actually BORDER YOUR MAPS! Thank god man, because I haven't played a single RTP game recently that has done this properly (more recent MotW arcs have been doing it though, but they were an offender in the beginning to). It makes things so much more navigable and generally more aesthetically pleasing (since you're not getting confused about walking off the edge and shit). Massive points for doing this (even though this kind of stuff should be default, it's sad to think of how many people actually overlook this kind of thing).
I actually look forward to playing more of this tomorrow. I seriously hope that it lives up to what I've seen so far. This has been good so far, so if it falls, it's going to fall hard.
French Canadian, to be exact. It's already a miracle there's not more typos in there. Will try and correct the spelling mistakes though. I may go with the english spelling, just to annoy you.
Anyhow, thanks for your notes. A lot what you said actually made sense and I'll certainly go about changing a few things. I do disagree with you on some points though, such as the menu, I like the stylish thing and the shadows. Or the savepoints, I hate it when you're able to save anywhere, because you eventually always forget to save when things are going good, and then you get your ass handed to you and lose an hour of gameplay. When there's a savepoint, it's usually an indication "SAVE NOW". Although you're right, I should add more.
You may want to redownload it though, save you from a bugs.
See what you can do when you're nice. I actually value your input now and think more of you.
And the reason why Evelyn is "all too eager to help the hero" is explained during the castle mission. She's actually pretty much doing it for herself.
About the battle system, if you choose "Wait" it should stop whenever you select skills, arkanes or items. Works on my end.
Anyhow, thanks for your notes. A lot what you said actually made sense and I'll certainly go about changing a few things. I do disagree with you on some points though, such as the menu, I like the stylish thing and the shadows. Or the savepoints, I hate it when you're able to save anywhere, because you eventually always forget to save when things are going good, and then you get your ass handed to you and lose an hour of gameplay. When there's a savepoint, it's usually an indication "SAVE NOW". Although you're right, I should add more.
You may want to redownload it though, save you from a bugs.
See what you can do when you're nice. I actually value your input now and think more of you.
And the reason why Evelyn is "all too eager to help the hero" is explained during the castle mission. She's actually pretty much doing it for herself.
About the battle system, if you choose "Wait" it should stop whenever you select skills, arkanes or items. Works on my end.
I personally hate it when it does that, or when the battle stops once someone's Action bar is full. If I had like that, I might as well be using the DBS. If there's strong demand, I might put in a "super wait mode".
And I just had a look at it without the shadows. It looks bad.
Bruno: That IS odd. Might be an old version? I ran into a similar bug, but I've fixed it, so it shouldn't occur anymore.
Crystalgate: Hm, it seems I'll have to review the passability. Although the rock thing is odd.
And I just had a look at it without the shadows. It looks bad.
Bruno: That IS odd. Might be an old version? I ran into a similar bug, but I've fixed it, so it shouldn't occur anymore.
Crystalgate: Hm, it seems I'll have to review the passability. Although the rock thing is odd.
Doctor":wkn4rdbx said:
That's because it's a poorly-designed menu to begin with. There's way too much open space and shit. It's too graphical. Like I said, a menu should be easy and simple.
Not to mention consistent. Why not just use the windowskin for it? Seriously, you seem to have something against using your message windowskin for anything other than messages (the save menu, the main menu (although i think the battle system used it good). Seriously, RPG Maker uses the same windowskin for everything for a reason- it's a visual consistency that says "this is all one game".
I know you probably put a lot of time into your menu but I think that the default might even be a lot more effective.