Necrofear: Alpha Edition
There is an extreme amount of cursing in this game. If the ESRB were to see this, this would, as a result, get an M rating and therefore I feel obligated to warn those that are easily offended to stay away from the download link. The rest of the content is appropriate for a younger audience, the language is not.
No, really, I mean it. I tried censoring the system and the first three dungeons once at school. IT TOOK OVER THREE HOURS.
Table of Contents[1F]: Introduction
[2F]: Screenshots
[3F]: Download Link
[4F]: Features
[5F]: Storyline Information
[6F]: Characters
[7F]: Coming Soon
[8F]: Credits
[9F]: Known glitches, untested equipment
[10F]: Criticism/Praise
(1F) Introduction
I can't exactly say I'm a newbie. I've been making games in Game Maker since I was in sixth grade, so I've had a lot of experience with games. I CAN say I'm a newbie in that this is my first finished game. Well, the alpha version.
I have done a playthrough of the game and fixed all the glitches I found (and damn did I look hard) but the truth is I may have screwed something up while fixing everything, or just not caught everything. So the first reason that this is the alpha version is that this has not been properly tested. The second reason that is the alpha version, rather than the beta, is that It's going to receive a content update (and a lot of polish). More on that in 7F, but this is far and away from being a truly complete game. Sure, it's finished storyline wise and will pass as is, but I don't see it as complete.
This game was originally started almost two years ago (so yes, some of the writing is that old) until it was shelved for almost a year. I then picked it back up for a bit for school and completed a couple more dungeons, but it wasn't until these last few months that I updated the system and just went "let's do this."
So I did. And it has taken so much of my free time it's insane, but I did it. I. Did. It. For now anyway. :)
I feel that it's only fair to say, that the game is sarcastic. A lot of it is just pure sarcasm. I even tried to make fun of some WRPG and JRPG stereotypes WITHIN THE MAIN CAST. I designed some of their appearances around this. I designed one of the main towns around a similar notion. The fact is that the game is meant to be fun. I've tried to keep it strategically deep and exciting, but at the same time, it's a game. I know it's a game. And so I have some fun with it, and I hope you do too.
I can't promise you a stunning, gorgeous game. I did this by myself on my own free time. Only two characters have custom spritesets and one is a carry over from an older game. The sprites in this game are 95% RTP.
I can't promise you a complex, in-depth storyline. The storyline is okay, passable maybe, but the truth is if I wanted to really write a story, I would've written a novel (I did actually, but that's another topic entirely.) The game is currently a bit weak here, but I hope to fix that a bit more later on.
I can't promise you some new battle system, as I'm not a great scripter- I edit, that's it. I can promise you only what I have, and that's a game that I finished because I wanted to, and that I hope is at least an interesting and unique experience, if nothing special. With that said, let's move on :)
And no, neither of the two guys in the first screenshot are the main characters. Only one is even playable.
(2F) Screenshots(http://bb.hbgames.tk/upload/DamienAvangamesize.png)
(http://bb.hbgames.tk/upload/NFScreen1.png)
(http://alt.hbgames.org/img/upload/NFScreen4.png)
(http://bb.hbgames.tk/upload/NFScreen3.png)
(http://alt.hbgames.org/img/upload/NFScreen5.png)
(http://alt.hbgames.org/img/upload/NFScreen7%20(1).png)
(http://alt.hbgames.org/img/upload/NFScreen7%20(2).png)[/center]
(3F) Download Link
I have the RMXP RTP, download. (http://www.mediafire.com/?9iobixqivgos9dg)
That guy might but I sure as hell don't. Download. (http://www.mediafire.com/?p1aqexp5uk6xuxm)
(4F) Features
Battles are done in a side-view, ATB battle system.
Every character has only 10 levels in this game, and a level up is achieved not by getting kills, but by beating dungeons so it's a measure of progress, not farming. This means that yes, every boss is as hard for you as it was for me when I played through it.
50 weapons, all unique. Yes, ALL UNIQUE. I don't mean "iron is stronger than bronze, bam, unique." Every single piece of equipment has some kind of tactical advantage or disadvantage. ALL of it is useful, even your starting equipment. ESPECIALLY your starting equipment!
Speaking of equipment, every character can equip a weapon, shield, armor, accessory, and bonus ability that give great bonuses, but are hard to find.
More skills than I'd like to think about, all different with their own trade offs, like weapons (all equipment really) I strove to make everything useful. You might think "oh Triple Attack is better than Double Attack" but there are many scenarios where that simply wont be true.
About a dozen optional bosses, seperate from a dozen sidequests, all with their own unique rewards.
129 different maps means that you have a lot to get through. The game time will vary, but doing the sidequests, reading all the dialogue, and experimenting with characters and equipment will net you at least 4-5 hours, if not more. At least, that's what it took me, but then again I can walk through walls, teleport anywhere, and win any battle I want to instantly so I guess it might differ for you.
Pretty weather system :)
6 different, playable characters with their own skillsets and their own Overdrive abilities. More on them later.
Stats do not change by level up, but can be radically altered via equipment choices. This is a game built on using what you have and what you gained to face new challenges, not to hit level 99 and one-shot everything. Low numbers and a low damage cap means that even with optimal damage settings some strategy is going to be required.
9 different endings, gained through conscious player decision-making and an unconscious record of the methods you use to play the game. You could go "all good" or "all evil" with your decision making all you want, if you don't change your playstyle you wont get them all. :)
You can escape from 99% of all encounters, even boss fights. You also get a full heal after every enemy encounter. You're still going to need items. Every group of enemies is different and some will require different tactics than others, and while you could ignore them all, and hey, if you don't want to fight you don't have to, you might not get the money you'll need to buy the items you'll need for the big boss battles when they come around. (Okay, I'll be fair, all the big boss battles are entirely optional but I mean, come on. :P)
The ability to play as your final boss rather than the party. (As a result, there are more endings that involve the world ending than not.)
Both a weapon range system and a magic affinity system for different strategy making and character picking.
(5F) Storyline Information
The game centers around a mercenary (wannabe mercenary at first) named Vice, who finds himself hired to collect pieces of the Diamond Shard by Julia, an emissary of the Silver Knights, and reassemble them so that they may be destroyed. The Diamond Shards are part of the Diamond Rope the Silver Knights had once shattered, a rope that although serve no useful physical purpose can connect different worlds together. The connection is still there, although weakened, and a new threat is surfacing to use that very connection and break into the human world, where it doesn't belong.
(6F) Characters
Vice
The game's "hero", he's kind of a dick really. A lot of a dick. He's a wannabe mercenary who only really cares about himself, and although he's not a complete asshole deep down, he tends to be very profane and generally abusive. After the first dungeon he gains the ability to swap between his normal form, and an alternate form altogether.
Vice's Weaponry is limited by the weapon range system, but he has the most unique arsenal by far.
Normal Form: Mercenary
Structured around physical damage, this form has several options for dealing with all kinds of opponents, but specializes in a one-on-one setting.
Alternate Form: Shadowblader
Structured around mixing both physical, venom, and magical damage in order to bypass defenses, this form has a wide variety of moves but the wide array of moves keeps his options per encounter limited.
Eva
You get her early on, thank god, because she's actually a legitimately nice person. Picked on because of her "emo" wardrobe, and considered a freak because she can, you know, shoot lasers out of her fists, she's used to dealing with abuse which, although tragic, lets her deal with Vice a bit better. She is a lovely person with a great personality, but a part of me wants Vice to stab her.
Eva's weaponry do INT-based damage, and are not limited to the weapon range system. They also tend to give really nice stat boosts.
Class: Magician
We're not doing this stupid white/magic black/magic garbage. No offense/defense forced specialization in mages. Do I give you a fighter who only has the defend option in battle? No? Because that'd be stupid. She gets two skills per level up- one offensive and one defense. She doesn't know fireball, because fireball sucks. She knows laserbeams.
Dreth
He looks like a creep, but it's okay, because he is ridiculously powerful. A bit sadistic and with a dark sense of humor, he really likes to stab things. Normally though, he's silent, which is good because I think he brings a knife to school.
Dreth uses "snakes", swords that extend (think Ivy's weaponry) into whips, so he is not bound by the weapon range system. He also has the most powerful weapons in the game by far.
Class: Serpentstriker
Not only are all of his skills powerful, he gains many options for dealing with multiple enemies at the same time, but never loses in a one-on-one contest either. His speed is sorely lacking however, and he has no options (read: I can't remember any options) for hurting ghost enemies, which are immune to all predominantly physical moves.
Julia
Working for the Silver Knights to collect the Diamond Shards, she's a bit distanced from the others, but absolutely terrified of being completely alone. Luckily she doesn't have to be.
Julia shares Eva's equipment.
Class: Summoner
With 6 unique summons and healing powers of her own, she is incredibly versatile. All summons, save her overdrive summon, are only level 5, but her sheer versatility and use as a back up healer (in case, you know, your glass mage happens to get hit, which may or may not happen ALL THE TIME) as well as her durability makes her a great, balanced fighter. More than that, even though her summons are low levels- they're never obsolete.
Damien
One of the silver knights. I gave him anime hair because I thought it'd be hilarious. I was right.
Damien's weapons are unique in that while they bypass the weapon range system, they are bound by the magical affinity system. He does physical damage with the weapons, but magical resistance comes into play. His selection is much less varied, however his defensive options are absolutely extraordinary. He can become an almost invincible support tank.
Class: Paladin
He's unique in that he doesn't really have all that many attack skills, but he has a wide array of healing and support skills and the durability of a brick wall making him a very reliable healer and buffer, but is versatile enough to become a practical fighter as well.
Tarisa
She duel wields, and likes to fight about as much as Dreth. That's all I have to say.
Tarisa can use all of Vice's equipment, as well as her own set of daggers and guns that inflict status effect damage.
Class: Dragoon
You know how there's always that "weird character" with all the status effects and such you never used? That's her. She's weak and only decently fast, but she has access to just about any status effect in the game, and is capable of simply immobilizing your target for everyone else to handle. An amazing support character.
Armag
He's a dragon. That is all.
(7F) Coming Soon
+More Equipment
+More sidequests
+More long dungeons (no level ups at the end but who cares)
+Storyline improvements
+Backstory fleshing
+Custom spritesets for the entire main cast
+Illustrated Cutscenes
+More polish, the entire game should effectively "level up" in tone and texture, better mapping
+Unlockable Characters, if demand is high enough
+ARMAG EDITION, if demand is high enough :)
(8F) Credits
Music:
Maestro rage
Scripting:
Zeriab
Atoa
Blizzard
Sandgolem
Ccoa
MOG
ForeverZer0
game_guy
Uncle Lanzer
ShadwLink1993
Me (but only for edits, I kind of suck.)
Art:
Me
Enterbrain
Whoever did the Pirate Map Tilesets (I'm sorry I don't know who you are ;_;)
Did I forget someone? Sorry. :(
(9F) Known Glitches and Untested Equipment
Dreth walks downwards until taking an action in battle
I have not tested most of Eva's/Julia's equipment which is regrettable because I totally forgot about the God Gem. So uh, try not to abuse it if it's horribly broken.
The fancy collapse animations isn't set up for all the bosses
(10F) Criticism/Praise
"So...am I actually going to want to play this, or is it just an orgy of swearing and blood?" -My girlfriend.
"Your projects have always been entertaining, even if they didn't work." -My Comp Sci teacher.
inb4 RoseSkye
About mapping, we have debated this a bit now on cp, and I think we have ended up on agreeing on that how you present your game is important for how many will download it. So remove the 3rd screenshot, because it is not helping your case. You want to show your good map screenshots in the project thread. Not screenshots of maps like that.
Still, I will download and test, though I am a bit busy with other stuff atm, so it may take some days before I come back to you.
Sherp derp derp
The screenshots were done more last minute at two in the morning so I could get them under the HBGames screenshot requirements, so I understand they're lacking. This weekend or so I'll try to get some better screenshots in. Thanks for the advice. :) I've had a busy month- tripled my gym hours, was sick, spent a few weeks with the girlfriend, spent two weeks cubbed up in my room working on this (testing alone took five days) so it might not be as polished as it should be. I'm hoping to improve upon the mapping for beta, because it's one of those things I could do with my skillset, given some more practice.
Thanks for looking at the thread, I wasn't really expecting any responses until I got my activity up (when I get busy, forum activity is the first to die.) Any response is a good one.
Currently it's a bit bare bones, like the rough draft of a novel. It's going to to go through two "editing" stages (Beta, and Final versions" where it'll be improved and polished. However everyone who takes a look at it can tell me what they did or did not like, so I know what areas need to be targeted moreso than others.
wow well done it looks fairly impressive i'll test it out
btw if the demo is over 30 mins get it moved too the main project thread
Lol, from your screenshots, I'd say that there's a lot of repetition. A LOT of repetition.
Quote from: Kagutsuchi on February 09, 2011, 06:17:15 pm
inb4 RoseSkye
About mapping, we have debated this a bit now on cp, and I think we have ended up on agreeing on that how you present your game is important for how many will download it. So remove the 3rd screenshot, because it is not helping your case. You want to show your good map screenshots in the project thread. Not screenshots of maps like that.
Still, I will download and test, though I am a bit busy with other stuff atm, so it may take some days before I come back to you.
Don't mention my name like we're close. I have no clue who you are.
Quote from: winkio on February 09, 2011, 07:50:39 pm
Lol, from your screenshots, I'd say that there's a lot of repetition. A LOT of repetition.
Since you've only seen one map I'm guessing this is in reference to skills. Depends on the class generally. Summoner tends to be repetitive (levels alternate between healing and summoning) but each summon has their own skillset so it works out. Paladin is similarly limited to support skills (a lot of healing based abilities as well) and so on, because each character is geared towards a specific purpose.
It is important to note that not all attack skills are similar. Double Attack and Triple Attack vary in both range and power per hit which will matter against defensive opponents and based on your equipment choice, which will affect your attack power, so although they both do similar things their use is going to vary. There are a lot of these multiple attack skills, Vice is the prime offender here, roughly about 4-5 total (a couple characters share from this pool) but Attack A and Attack B are going to be a bit more diversified than Fire 1 and Fire 2 (Fire 1 stops being useful altogether, for example.)
The problem is that because equipment selection is limited near the start of the game, and a low level causing a small skill selection, it's going to be a bit slow going at first. Hopefully I can resolve this with beta although any suggestions would be great. It's got a long way to go. I plan on introducing more skills, but I'm not sure how to diversify them. Healing has the issue of all their skills being tiered and the usage of those spells are, unfortunately, going to be restricted to nothing but your EP levels (not necessarily bad- I use small numbers to try to force this) but it's obviously not very strategic, so I'm most likely going to revamp that system altogether when I figure out how to do it.
You might want to try using battlebacks that make your character look not so... floaty.
Good advice, I hadn't thought of that.
This is practical because I could draw the battle backs myself, but it'll probably be a while because that would take a long time to do. I could probably make it faster by using Photoshop or Illustrator, but I'm slowly gearing this towards a more hand drawn style so I'll see if I can fully color them with pencils or use paint.
Quote from: winkio on February 09, 2011, 07:50:39 pm
Lol, from your screenshots, I'd say that there's a lot of repetition. A LOT of repetition.
I was referring to your text:
Quote from: somebody who likes repetition, especially using CAPITAL LETTERSJust spin around. JUST. SPIN. AROUND.
She can do anything. No really, ANYTHING.
Oh.
No, most of them are less repetitive. I hadn't noticed that. Probably shouldn't have picked those two. xD
I'll try to get a new batch of screenshots up this weekend, hopefully I can show something a bit more worthwhile off. I wont be updating it for a month or so, that way I can get a lot of feedback so the new screenshots may have some of the same problems as this set, but I'm going to see if I can reduce those in the next few versions. :)
I suggest you don't use the default battle backgrounds. You might wanna try a script that allows current maps as backgrounds or use a screenshot of a map as background.
Quote from: RoseSkye on February 09, 2011, 09:09:40 pm
Quote from: Kagutsuchi on February 09, 2011, 06:17:15 pm
inb4 RoseSkye
About mapping, we have debated this a bit now on cp, and I think we have ended up on agreeing on that how you present your game is important for how many will download it. So remove the 3rd screenshot, because it is not helping your case. You want to show your good map screenshots in the project thread. Not screenshots of maps like that.
Still, I will download and test, though I am a bit busy with other stuff atm, so it may take some days before I come back to you.
Don't mention my name like we're close. I have no clue who you are.
:P I just had to
(http://images1.memegenerator.net/ImageMacro/5006194/You-MAD.jpg?imageSize=Large&generatorName=Troll-Face)
Quote from: Blizzard on February 10, 2011, 02:19:59 am
I suggest you don't use the default battle backgrounds. You might wanna try a script that allows current maps as backgrounds or use a screenshot of a map as background.
For this kind of system, would using the map as a background be preferred to new battle background altogether? This is definitely a good quick fix to the battlegrounds issue, but I'm hesitant as to whether or not to use it in later builds.
It still depends. If you use the map as battle background directly (there's a script in Tons for that), you might have a problem that it will still look odd sometimes if enemies are on a map border or on a tree or something like that.
or you could make a map (perhaps in another project and screen shot it so that you could use that as a background, this way you could design the map to look good for the battle.
There is also another possible way to do it. It allows you to use a map from your current project as background. Basically you have map A that uses map B as battle background. That way you don't need to make a map and screenshot it and editing that map is a lot simpler if you want to change something.
I think somebody made a script for that. I did that for LB's script, it's not difficult.
I worry about using the map as a background in some rooms where the mapping might be more destructive than battle background, like you said, if they're at the edge, behind a tree, or even if it's just a boss room or something of the sort. Using another map as the background is a nice idea, and it's definitely doable. I'll look into that Map A using Map B script, because that could give some really nice control, and would allow me to use specialized backgrounds for boss battles with a panorama if I wanted something a bit higher quality.
Some better screens, new download links because I left a couple debug NPC's in there. Still nothing impressive but it's an improvement.
the walls of the cliffs and caves are way to square and the map with the cliff looks weird what with the step up cliff and the tree shadow on top of the side cliff. :(
I know you didn't ask for your mapping criticized but there you have it anyway.
good luck.
I want EVERYTHING criticized :) I'd rather the focus not necessarily be on mapping, but as I said, it's one of those things I want improved, and the more little things people point out, the more I can do. I'm not going to reject any kind of criticism, save for a repeat of the same criticism.
the download isn't workin for me it keeps saying processing download request or something and then it says click here to download even thought i already did click
First thing: im trying to not be an ass here.
Second thing: I think that everybody who want to be a game desinger should download and play this. It's a great example of how game SHOULD NOT look.
From maping to dialog, over the battle: it sucks.
-Maping is simply bad, there is no question or arguing about it.-it-just-sucks-
-Dialoge: I dont know how to describe this. It's like generated swearword mix. And epicly boring. I swear, i never seen a bad dialog such as yours. I mean there is a point when you insert one ore two swearwords, and there is a point when is just over-the-top. And every time Vice says something, its over-the-top. I lost will to read anything after 3-4 dialoge.
-Music: It's good, it's sounds great it's epic, but it's a miss. It dosent fit into cut-scenes, dont fit into battles... well it just dont fit. I mean i just dont feel the tension/danger or anything. (Maybe it's just me, so ignore this). Battle Music sound really epic, but it's too epic for just fighting a ghost and a bag of bones. And since first dialog is a way it is, i dont see how village music can fit as a background.
-Battle: Boring.
-Charaters: Where? i just saw the the-F-man (Vice) so sound like broken gramophone and repeats the F word, and a girl (Eva), who (i think) trying to get F-man's good side (i think)...
-Story: I wont coment this since i think story (for change) can be good.
Overall: 10/10 as epic failure.
Am sorry, but this is just that bad.
I wasted about 8 min. to download, and about 20 min. to play, and dear god, i dont wanna to do this twice (second part especially)
Now, am sorry if i insulted you (on any way), am not too much of a chat-guy and stuff, and am usualy lazy to write any long comment (or to write at all). How so ever, playing this for 20 min. caused such impact on me that i just could help it. I know it's a demo/alpha/whatever but it is (way too much) bad.
PS: i hope my english was understandable
Thanks for the critique :)
Edit: Just so nobody thinks I'm being snarky here
That might sound like an odd thing to say, but every issue that's brought up is something that I know needs a fix. For example, I've had half a dozen people tell me to fix my mapping. So the mapping will get fixed. You obviously aren't a fan of the dialogue, and considering how old the dialogue is at that portion of the game, I agree, it needs to be rewritten. The cuss words might be too much, so I can either tone Vice down, or introduce Eva earlier and characterize her a lot more since the game is lacking in the storytelling department. When you say combat sucks, that means I need more enemies and more introductory skills to start it off with depth, etc.,
So throw your worst at me. This is still the skeleton, I need all the criticism I can before I start adding muscle, tissue, and skin.
Edit 2: Phillip, I just tested both of the downloads and they're working fine for me. When it says "click to download" just click on that and see if it doesn't fix your issue.