Void: The Ignorant Tragedy

[Injury]

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-Progress is slow today, writing mostly!

Void
The Ignorant Tragedy

Spoiler: The Story

The World:
The surface is where most life exists. The sun breathing life into every corner of the world. Having mastered land, the humans look downwards in greed and infamy. Their extravagance knows no bounds, and they would stop at nothing to loot and plunder the life of the planet. Little known to them was the realm of the Void and the civilizations that lived beneath them, and little did they care once they had dominated that as well. After many years of humans ravaging the ancient civilizations, the Void and its denizens fought back, nearly bringing the human race to its end.

Knowing the humans would never venture into their realm again, the creatures and nightmares of the deepest bowels of the earth returned to live a normal life...

Now, in a new age of mankind, a once humbled race, digs not only for greed, but for the powers of old and legends passed down of immense riches and wealth beyond imagination that lay in wait. Many tried to find the old stairways to the Void, but many have died trying in cave-ins, and some rumors of ritualistic sacrifice.

...but that doesn't stop them anyways...

More to come!

The Void:
The deepest reaches of the Earth peel back to expose a vien of culture similar to our own,
but diverse in it's own way. Monsters, demons, creatures from the deepest breaches of the Void flock to the Ruins of Tarugata, not in search of riches,but a normal life of worship and servitude.

The Void was created by an advanced civilization of creatures that lived deep in the ground (not dwarfs...), who sought most of all to understand and harmonize with the planet. Their ruins are a testament to their triumph over the elements of nature and the power of their civilization's will to dominate. Although, little did they know, that at their peak of power would they fall the hardest. Humans ventured into the great depths, seeking out rare minerals and stopping at nothing until it was all gone...including Tarugata and it's denizens of the dark.

Until they fought back. It was the greatest war of their time, often known as the Great Tragedy (they thought it was sad that humans sought riches over power and pitied them as they sent them to their grave) and ended up with the denizen of the Void winning out and sending the humans to near extinction.

Ruins of Tarugata:
The Ruins of Tarugata are home to many diverse species of monster and remains as the oldest structure remaining of the civilization known as the Taru. Tarugata's direct translation is "the Taru Paradise". Some ancient artifacts are the only key to translating this lost culture's language and to understand the past that led them there. The Taru left the ancient ruins, but no one knows where they left: It's has remained unexplained for many millenniums in monster lore.

The Tarugatian ruins are vastly immense and have no par on the Surface or anywhere else in the Void. It houses most of the population of the Void and is the main center for worship for the realm as well.

Today, the Ruins hold a different feel. There is commerce and worship by these new tenants of the city. Law and order have been established as primal instinct and competition slowly dwindle in the evolutionary chain for these creatures, and so civilized living can occur, though not without it's troubles.

Progress:
-Need some script help. I want to do somethings so PM me if you have the balls.
-Screenshots Added.

Spoiler: Old Updates

-I didn't get a chance to edit this last night, updating today.
-Thanks for all the great feedback. I hope to make the game into something
everyone can enjoy, at least for a moment!
-More back story/expository information added.
-Posted into Project Discussion for...well...discussion!
-Altered RTP tilesets here and there. Nothing major.
-Basic Demo is almost complete. Need to retool some things, looking into battle systems.
-Mapping for intro almost done. Need to extend intro by 4-5 minutes.

Spoiler: Screen Shots

Spoiler: Rants

I know its RTP. So what? I think it can work if I can learn to do light mapping, get some scripting started and get things in order.

-Goals:
Make a somewhat decent 1-2 hour game. Maybe longer.
Extensive dialouge. Mature content. Etc.
Simplicity and functionality.
Be the originator of the scripts and edits, but not to extensive as of yet.

Here is what I need help with right now:
-Using the battlers image with the Window_Message script. I want the battlers to be the proverbial "face sets" and have them slide in and out based on script commands.

Thats all for now! Thanks for your help!

 

[Roxas]

Okay, some initial criticism:

You really haven't told us much of anything. We don't know anything about the characters, the world they live in, or the basic plot of the game. You need to give us a lot more information about what this game is actually about.

Second, your mapping needs improvement. The cave room is very open, and really dull, there needs to be more going on there. The forest area is a little bit better, but still not that great. You could probably do a lot better after reading some mapping tutorials.

I am intrigued by the little snippet of story you gave, so thats a good thing. Just give us more to actually criticize.

 

[mawk]

wow, the main character's sprite is really saturated.

 

[bacon]

Story: Well, you really do not have much story. It started out fine with the first few sentences. Then...it got to the void. Basically, what this seems like to me is a giant shadow monster comes out of the void and starts causing terror around the world. Again, this is what I perceive it to be. A little more explanation would be appreciated. I think you have a nice start, but you lack originality and polish with your story. You are not bringing anything new to the table, and I would compare it to watered-down chicken noodle soup. You need to come up with a more genuine idea plot wise.

Graphics: They aren't good. Its not so much the RTP, which I really do not mind, but how your mapping and graphic choices. First off, your mapping is bad, not horrible, but still bad enough to turn most away. I suggest reading Tindy's mapping tutorial to get a basis. You also seem to misuse tiles, such as the dirt path on the grass, the the long grass overhanging in the sky. I understand the effect you were trying to create, but it just doesn't work and it look awful. You break a really important rule, you never EVER use the hue adjuster for characters that shouldn't be colored such as the bee. It looks bad, and we all know what color a bee is. The mushrooms and the devil look fine.

Other: N/A

Conclusion: Overall, you give us very little info about your game, and leave questions unanswered. Your story seems to be heading towards a overtold story, but you do not give us enough evidence to prove this. Your mapping is bad and you misuse tiles. I suggest learning the basics of mapping and practice. I do appeciate that you have a realistic goal for your game. But please, give us something different because quite honestly many of tired of the same old stuff we see in every other project thread.

 

[Injury]

@Roxas:

Spoiler

-Thanks for your reply! I'm mapping out the first areas in an attempt to rush a demo to sustain interest in this project. The characters are VERY bland, I know. I'm going to spruce it all up tonight! As for the mapping...It's four screen shots of nothing as of yet. I think by tonight I'll have a demo up for you to try out, and give me a more extensive critique.

@mawk
-Your right, and boy does he look horrid.

@Bacon

Spoiler

-Thanks for such a detailed reply! As previously stated, it might have been a bit premature to put this here, but alas, here we are. The Void is the realm below the surface. Once again, I will further elaborate the story and all extraneous details tonight.

As for graphics, I was wondering what the response would be towards the extensive use of the RTP tilesets and graphics. How is my mapping bad? Instead of saying they are "bad, not horrible, but still bad enough to turn most away." why not suggest why they are so horrible instead of throwing a tutorial my way? I've been mapping for a while, and I've only provided 4 screen shots. Give the demo a chance and then you can tell me with the utmost certainty that they suck, and then maybe you can show me why as well, if that is OK with you. As for the Bee being a different color, I think ANYTHING can have it's hue altered. It a mutant bee. We all know what color a bee is, but what about knowing each specific color of each species? Evolution or other environmental factors can play their roles as well.

All in all, thanks for the reply!

Any suggestions on a battle system? I have to borrow people's work, but at this point the game needs to be more original, as you've all suggested.

Seriously, again, thanks for the replies!

 

[moxie]

It seems like your main problem is rushing. Posting prematurely, rushing a demo... this is the last thing you want to do if you want to maintain quality. Take your time, there's no rush! It's not like you have a publisher breathing down your neck when you're a homebrew developer like this.

"Mutant bee" or no, I would suggest recoloring the sprite yourself instead of using the hue adjuster, maybe by pulling the palette from something from the RTP.

 

[bacon]

Thanks for such a detailed reply! As previously stated, it might have been a bit premature to put this here, but alas, here we are. The Void is the realm below the surface. Once again, I will further elaborate the story and all extraneous details tonight.

This is much appreciated. I hope I see something unique and different come out of this project. o;

As for graphics, I was wondering what the response would be towards the extensive use of the RTP tilesets and graphics. How is my mapping bad? Instead of saying they are "bad, not horrible, but still bad enough to turn most away." why not suggest why they are so horrible instead of throwing a tutorial my way? I've been mapping for a while, and I've only provided 4 screen shots.[/spoiler]

I didn't go full on because this isn't a mapping improvement thread, this is a project discussion thread. If you want the full information on why your mapping is bad for maps, post your maps there. I can tell you every single misused tile and detailing issues I can find. I did provide some basic examples in my post though such as:

You also seem to misuse tiles, such as the dirt path on the grass, the the long grass overhanging in the sky. I understand the effect you were trying to create, but it just doesn't work and it look awful.

Also, usually peopl post their best maps in their threads, therefore its somewhat safe to assume your level of mapping. Not only that, you make some basic errors as well. I'm not ragging on you persay, I'm just telling you that the mapping yu have isn't adequate enough for a good, famous game.

Any suggestions on a battle system? I have to borrow people's work, but at this point the game needs to be more original, as you've all suggested.

Ususally if you want to have an original battle system, it has to be custom made. Most everyone uses the hell out of the ones provided on the forum. Also, remmeber that a battle system is not needed for games as well. You can make a full-fledged puzzle game of something like that. Or you can event a sort of gimmicky battle system. Another idea would be to use a custom battle system and edit it through events and scripting, giving it an original feel.

(P.S. Opium has just been added to the awsome list in my books. :3)

 

[coyotecraft]

This is just based off your screenshots. You've placed chests slightly off the path; doing that doesn't really allow the player to explore, ya know? I personally think chests should be awards for exploration and not something you just pick up as you walk down a path. It would be a better design choice if you were to extend the path off the screen so if the player wants to know were it leads they have to go down it.

For the faceset delima. It would be simpler to just put a copy of the battlers you are using in you picture folder. Then create a common event that slides the image into view and another common event that slides it out and erases it. Then whenever you have dialog you can just call the common event for that character before they speak and when they are done speaking call the next common event to erase it. No scripting knowledge required.