RMVXA Byteria Quest: Thosaport (No Travel Game Jam)

[Corlagon]

Disclaimer: Contains humorous allusions to sex (not explicit at all).

Byteria Quest: Thosaport​

The city state of Thosaport is a major trading city with powerful guilds. Kalindra, a young witch and wandering hero, has just arrived, and instantly gets involved with a dangerous mystery to investigate.

This is a comedic, relatively simple point-and-click adventure game that is mostly about acquiring and exchanging items. Some RPG-style mechanics are still around, but only to be exploited for puzzles.

Conceived for the No Travel Game Jam. I underestimated the amount of time to make it and had to cut down the plot and settle for some 50-60% of the originally planned size, although it appears I underestimated its playtime as well.

• Made with RPG VX Ace!
• Resources primarily from VXA and VX RTPs!
• A serious plot brought down by lack of time and, arguably more importantly, silly writing!
• Play with a mouse! Or something else, but the mouse will get you tooltips!
• Meet several default characters and facepalm at my interpretations!
• Based on sample maps to save time! Uh, and so you find your way around immediately!
• Some minor bugs left, but nothing of significance! (Update: Now with even less minor or significant bugs!)

SCREENSHOTS

Spoiler

DOWNLOAD ( 27.6 MiB )

Updated on 2020-06-24 with various minor improvements/fixes.

Prominently uses this script by Shaz, Near Fantastica, SephirothSpawn and Amaranth Games, plus various stuff by Enelvon, D*M, Archeia, Scinaya, Hime, Erufa & Terunon, Avery, slimmmeiske2, Zeriab and EagleFG.

 

[Aerosys]

Hey I played your game until I feeded the dog with sausages. Unfortunatly I haven't figured out how to continue.

It's difficult to review your game, as you already mentioned you haven't had enough time for it. But I try my best, while I review it as Jam version.

I think your plot is really good! As for a game with a playthrough of few minutes / hours, the part when you accidently kill a witch and nobody wants to help you, really surprised me! It's a very fresh idea! I understand that you didn't put much effort into the main storyline, but that's not even bad, because you put a lot mini stories into the NPCs, that worked really well. And you put some really good jokes into it, love this!

I just want to give you some tips. There are no discredits, as this is just a jam version, but maybe it helps you a little bit
- block roads which leads to the outside but not transfer the player
- highlight the chest in the witch's house. I almost didn't see it.
- the maps itself could be improven. But you already told there are default maps to save time.

 

[Corlagon]

Well, interactable objects are highlighted when you move the mouse cursor over them, but come to think of it, almost all of them are characters or exits, so perhaps the chest should really stand out more.

Blocking roads would be problematic for atmospheric reasons, as the explorable sections are only part of a larger city.

Spoiler: As for the dog …

After giving her the sausages you can use magic to give her a shower.

 

[hiddenone]

I gave your game a go, but ended up stuck not too far into it. I'm not sure if it was the game or me, but I just wasn't sure what to do.

Spoiler: Feedback

⦁ Using a mouse to control is a good idea for a puzzle-ish game, but make sure to let the player know in the game (not everyone reads the 'readme' before playing)

⦁ Well that's definitely a unique way to start the main story, though I bet accidentally "killing" an old lady isn't going to make me popular in town

⦁ I don't play with sound so maybe I'm missing a sound cue, but it doesn't seem like choosing the wrong thing does anything... Which means I can just click through everything and see if it works

⦁ I'm coming back to this game after a day, and I can't remember what I'm supposed to be doing. You don't need to have a complete guide, but for an adventure game like this it's nice to be able to keep track of what needs to be done next

⦁ Giving the wood to Marc-Uwe to make instruments is a nice touch, since I couldn't find any brass for him. But I'm not sure what the salt is for...

⦁ Okay, I've talked to the wizard's guild about the old lady, but I'm not sure what to do next. I tried talking to the city watch, but they don't seem to give me any clues for what to do next... I think I'll have to stop here

Overall, I liked the idea for the game but just couldn't figure out the gameplay side of it. It's possible that it's just me being a bad player, but if you do come back to this game I hope you can give it some more polish and add in all the parts that you had to cut for the jam. Good luck with your projects!

 

[Corlagon]

Spoiler: Feedback

⦁ Okay, I've talked to the wizard's guild about the old lady, but I'm not sure what to do next. I tried talking to the city watch, but they don't seem to give me any clues for what to do next... I think I'll have to stop here

Spoiler

You have to talk to Ylva again, she'll send you to Teofila, who then gives you a quest.

 

[slimmmeiske2]

So I got stuck and after walking around the whole town twice, I figured I'd ask what I'm doing wrong.
I'm currently trying to recruit Dorothy Doritrud, but am unable to convince her.
Even though I've tried giving her daggers and crowbars, she refuses to and join me.

Spoiler: Some feedback/bugs

* I, like those above me, didn't realize it's better to play with the mouse, so I'd been playing with keys, as that's what I'm used to. Because of that however, I had a hard time remembering names. So if you plan on updating this game in the future, some name windows would be much appreciated.
* During the cutscene with Amy, only one of the bandits runs off. The other remains next to her, until the cutscene ends.
* I could walk on/under the piece of wood and ecause of that didn't immediately realize I could pick it up. (It wasn't working when I was on the tile, I could only pick it u when I was standing next to it).
* When you interact with the fallen dwarf, the sprite changes. You forgot to check Direction fix
* It was confusing that the character couldn't go certain ways. Maybe have her say something when the player tries. That way the player knows they can't go that way (yet) and you don't need to put up a physical roadblock.
* I can't go up the staircase in the Merchant Hall. I'm assuming I'm meant to, but it's confusing that it's there.
* If you ever do plan on updating the game, I hope you update the maps. The sample maps are okay, but they're pretty barebone.

Anyway, I've been enjoying the game so far. Now to save my boy Aluxes from his chicken fate

 

[Corlagon]

I'll take the feedback into account when I continue working on this. I was aware of a few minor bugs, but not of all of the ones you've mentioned, so thanks.

Spoiler: Recruiting Dori

You have to exchange items with other characters until you get something valuable to pay her with. I think it's a lengthy chain that starts with the dwarf.

 

[slimmmeiske2]

Hmm

Spoiler

I definitely started that chain. The last items I got were the invitation and the dress. I'm not sure who to give this to.
(Sorry should probably have specified which items I had. )

 

[Corlagon]

Spoiler

Come to think of it, you have to have interacted with other characters before you can do something with the pink dress, namely Leonhard near the docks and the dogs in Old Thosa.

(I hope you haven't missed the readme file altogether, I haven't put the credits into the actual game yet. )

 

[slimmmeiske2]

Spoiler

I already did the dogs and got access to Leonhard's office. Liesel gives me the hint I'd need some foreign administration's back-up. I assume I might need Amy for this, but she's gone. Am I just missing her or did I trigger things in the wrong order?

I did read it, so now I'm super duper curious.

 

[Corlagon]

Ouch. Yes, there is a game-breaking bug that I didn't catch, with Amy disappearing under the wrong condition. Sorry, I'll try to make a new version within the next few days. It doesn't look like you'll have to start over, at least.

 

[slimmmeiske2]

Well glad to know I wasn't just going insane
Don't feel bad though, all my jam-entries had game breaking bugs (at the very start of the game nonetheless) and even my non-jam game, despite having been tested 70+ times by me and others, still had a game-breaking bug.

Anyway, looking forward to the update.

 

[Corlagon]

Uploaded a new version with a number of little improvements.

 

[cthulhusquid]

I'll try this since I like seeing the creativity that people can do with RTP stuff.

 

[slimmmeiske2]

Hey I finished, after redownloading. Thanks for the quick fix.

Spoiler

I loved the inclusion of Princess Elmer. <3 Also alindr's fairy outfit was adorable.
I'm sad we didn't get to save Aluxes.

As for the end sequence after the boss fight: It was a bit confusing on screen. I had no real idea what was happening. Did the snitch get killed by another villain?

Bugs:
* After coming back from the party, Amy starts moving while Kalindra is still talking to her.
* After I got out of the boat, the walking speed was a lot slower, even when I dashed.

Overall, I really enjoyed the game.

 

[Corlagon]

Spoiler

As for the end sequence after the boss fight: It was a bit confusing on screen. I had no real idea what was happening. Did the snitch get killed by another villain?

Ah, I think there's another bug left, with "Cogirauh" not properly running away.

The idea was that he and Blysaris barely miss each other, and the heroes have to deal with the latter by themselves.