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Vacant Sky: Contention

Vacant Sky Complete Edition: Act I+ Released!

Great demo! I really liked the game a lot! Most of the voice acting was pretty mediocre, but I still enjoyed it anyways.
One problem I have to point out though; (sorry I don't have a screenshot, my save point is at the end of the game and I really don't feel like going all the way back through the beginning just for this little fix) on May Hill, there is a house with a straw roof, I was able to walk around on it from the back, and all the way up until I was standing on the front wall of the house. Just thought you should know. =]
 
Great demo! I really liked the game a lot! Most of the voice acting was pretty mediocre, but I still enjoyed it anyways.
One problem I have to point out though; (sorry I don't have a screenshot, my save point is at the end of the game and I really don't feel like going all the way back through the beginning just for this little fix) on May Hill, there is a house with a straw roof, I was able to walk around on it from the back, and all the way up until I was standing on the front wall of the house. Just thought you should know. =]

Thanks for the bug report, and I'm glad you enjoyed the demo. :)
 
You've got a great title screen, though within the first 5-10 seconds I think it is showing the picture of this woman in the middle of the town that is lying on the ground dead? I would suggest having her lying on her side.

Otherwise, I would suggest drawing a (close up) picture of maybe her face with her eyes closed dramatically and fade this in slowly then fade out 'while the rain slowly falls....drop...by....drop".

It's about making it poetic.


In game in the filler opening, the voice acting maybe could have used some work, but it's not that bad. It's...mediocre I would say.


In game on the part where the guy is questioning the prisoner and all throughout the game. Make SURE you play through this text slower. Make sure that you can read off the text in a slow and calm manner yourself before skipping ahead to the next line. Also, could you at least change the position of the message box for each character? You really can't tell who is speaking at which point until the face sets are used. Maybe you will add facesets to both these characters?



The point is it's a good scene, it just has to be slower. Directing is about timing, and through timing it is poetic.

You do notice at this point, however, that the music is really good. :) I think I recall you saying that you got your music off royalty free sites? Make sure to credit them if you haven't already. XD It's awesome stuff and really absorbs you into it.

There are certain unprofessional nuances to the text you should consider fixing.

For example "Anyways, we're on the second floor. It's an underground complex."

think of what she would really say, she is a character that should be on top of things all the time. Stating the obvious and using the word "Anyways" will make it seem less professional:

"anyways, we're ont he second floor. It's an underground complex."

Change to:

"We're on the second floor."

You don't even have to say it's an underground complex. That is noticeable. Or maybe people think it's overground? Either way, they will be able to figure it out themselves.


"Lets go down to the third level and find weapon"

This makes them sound like they are just making stuff up as the story goes on. Again, they should sound like pro's:

"He'll be on the third level."

So my basic advise on the first part; cut down the use of the word "anyways". ;p

On the good side of things. The battle system is frickin awesome. It maybe be the best I've seen so far, as it's just so in depth. "attacks" are not the main thing that you do, and on top of this when you DO hit "Attack" it comes up with a menu of different attacks to choose from.
 
Just letting everyone know that this hasn't been abandoned. :) We've been working hard on getting the final game done for a January release and the OST is now nearing completion.  The full version of the game will feature an entirely original soundtrack.

Here's one of the tracks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wRyz8FsGC8
This one is called "Last Night of Summer" and plays during the nighttime segment of East Naven.
 
I'm only like 5 minutes into it, so I'm going to let you know the imediate turn offs (I'll have to play more through it to give you Good feedback, for now I'm just pointing out the obvious bad.)

TURN ON SOME LIGHTS!!! No, seriously turn the screen tint up a tiny bit its hard to see, as long as the character I'm playing isn't facing up all I see is a white dot floating around and dead RTP sprites (she has no face or what?) I could understand if you were using bad graphics or something and didn't want people to see the tileset in good detail, but the graphics you're using are pretty cool so you should illuminate them just a tiny bit more and show them off. I turned the brightness up all the way on my monitor, anything outside of the game is blindingly bright, but I still can barely see where I'm going.

Are you using my XMS or Ccoa's UMS or DubeAlex's AMS? The dialog is kinda boring, I do like how you utilized our face feature though I never tried it without a standard 96x96 or 128x128 face graphic, you might want to apply SE to the dialog though (not like an irritating typing sound, just something suttle, change the pitch when different people are speaking). The battle system kinda reminds me of FFX style thats pretty cool, and the animated battlers are pretty cool too I like it better than the standard RTAB system good job on that. I like your choice of music so far, although I wish some of the tracks were longer or looped better because the theme I'm listening to right now sounds like its only like 30 secs long.

The people you start out playing as, are you playing as the protagonists or the antagonists? Really cool, if thats what you're doing, I like it when creators have you play both roles it makes things more interesting.

Good luck with the future progress of this project, I'll drop by again and give you some better feedback on key areas of the game when I get farther (and can see what I'm doing.)
 
TURN ON SOME LIGHTS!!! No, seriously turn the screen tint up a tiny bit its hard to see, as long as the character I'm playing isn't facing up all I see is a white dot floating around and dead RTP sprites (she has no face or what?) I could understand if you were using bad graphics or something and didn't want people to see the tileset in good detail, but the graphics you're using are pretty cool so you should illuminate them just a tiny bit more and show them off. I turned the brightness up all the way on my monitor, anything outside of the game is blindingly bright, but I still can barely see where I'm going.
That's actually an issue I'm uncertain how to resolve.  I had a lot of trouble setting brightness; on some monitors it looks too bright and on others it looks too dark.  I suppose the best solution is to air on the side of caution and make it lighter.

Are you using my XMS or Ccoa's UMS or DubeAlex's AMS? The dialog is kinda boring, I do like how you utilized our face feature though I never tried it without a standard 96x96 or 128x128 face graphic, you might want to apply SE to the dialog though (not like an irritating typing sound, just something suttle, change the pitch when different people are speaking). The battle system kinda reminds me of FFX style thats pretty cool, and the animated battlers are pretty cool too I like it better than the standard RTAB system good job on that. I like your choice of music so far, although I wish some of the tracks were longer or looped better because the theme I'm listening to right now sounds like its only like 30 secs long.
I'm using ccoa's UMS.  The dialogue you're referring to is actually going to be voice acted, but due to some issues, weren't included in the demo.  The same is true of the music; in the demo, it's all placeholder music whereas now there's a completely custom soundtrack.

The people you start out playing as, are you playing as the protagonists or the antagonists? Really cool, if thats what you're doing, I like it when creators have you play both roles it makes things more interesting.
You begin playing as the antagonists.  Glad you think so. :)

Good luck with the future progress of this project, I'll drop by again and give you some better feedback on key areas of the game when I get farther (and can see what I'm doing.)
Thanks for your comments!  I hope you enjoy the rest of the demo.
 
I get one of those error messages where it asks you to send the error report, it happens right when the screen goes black after it shows the logo in the prelude
 
I get one of those error messages where it asks you to send the error report, it happens right when the screen goes black after it shows the logo in the prelude
What operating system are you on?  Does it say that the RGSS player or whatever isn't working?
 

Gray

Member

A few things needed in the game at release. Seriously. O.o

A, a map. Seriously, I walked about the town for an hour trying to find the south, and eventually got fustrated and quit in the end.

B, a questbook, or something that tracks what the hero/main character says that advances the quest. Like "I have what I need, I should head home.", or "I have to find the Green Example stone in South Norway.".

C, some sort of personal lighting? Like a lamp, torch, light spell? The normal tints make the game look too dark on my monitor.

I wished I could have gave some actual feedback but anything I would have said has already been said.
 
A few things needed in the game at release. Seriously. O.o

A, a map. Seriously, I walked about the town for an hour trying to find the south, and eventually got fustrated and quit in the end.

B, a questbook, or something that tracks what the hero/main character says that advances the quest. Like "I have what I need, I should head home.", or "I have to find the Green Example stone in South Norway.".

C, some sort of personal lighting? Like a lamp, torch, light spell? The normal tints make the game look too dark on my monitor.

I wished I could have gave some actual feedback but anything I would have said has already been said.
Thanks for the comments!  A and B have already been implemented in the final version.  The purpose of the post office in Holly Way is to give away maps, but I was too lazy to make them for the demo.  C is one I hadn't heard before, and it actually gives me a damn good solution to a problem I've been having (for some people, the tints are too dark, but for others, they're just right); I'll just give the player a flashlight that can be freely turned on/off.
 
Very nice song. It seems you have a solid soundtrack, going by the couple videos you have up on YouTube. It's good to see you finally have a reliable composer down, considering you've had to go through a few in the past (as well as several artists, another shame).

Keep up the good work (AND GIVE US OUR FREAKING ACT I!), and Merry Christmas.
 
I played this game and I must say.. this game has no direction at all.

At first you're some kick ass faceless dude and then five minutes later you're some whiny teenage girl. The voices are terrible (yes I finished the whole demo) and I can't stress this enough "if you can hear background noise DONT USE VOICES". The dialogue is gruesome except for the two foreign non-humans (You should just make a game about those guys they seem solid enough). I mean I saw the intro when you open the game and I thought 'hmm girl lying on the ground, I must find out what happened'. By the end of the demo I don't know what happened/ there are like a million plot holes / and I still don't know who the fawk most of the characters are.

Btw.. basing RMXP default tiles in modern tiles with cell phones -stupid idea-. Where are the cars? How are you going to explain having cell phones with no modern modes of transportation/ computers/ anything from the twenty first century?
 
Thanks for playing!

The sound quality's been enormously improved since the demo, especially now that I know a thing or two about audio editing myself. Also, a lot of the early confusing seems have been either removed or rewritten. I realized after replaying it from start to finish myself that it throws too much at you in too little time, so I've fixed that already.

Regarding the tiles, I just don't have the ability to make custom modern tiles that would look any good. So, without any other options, I'm doing the best I can with what I have. And there are modern modes of transportation and computers, though the rarity of the former is an issue that's not only touched on but part of the plot later on. I appreciate the criticisms! I hope you choose to play the finished Act I when it comes out.

So that this isn't a wholly empty post, here's another new track from the soundtrack, "Waltz Through Ashes."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TH4y8nk8qE
 

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