RMVXA Canvas - A Zeldaish RPG filled with puzzles and secrets. (unencrypted w/ full walkthrough included)

[sbethune81]

Canvas

This is a game for those who love to explore, experiment, and discover. Welcome.

Story:

You have seen and done things that were
never supposed to be, and I have come
here to offer you a choice.

You can try and go back to your lives as
they were, fighting the Knights and
relieving people of their possessions...

...or you can help me.

Help me make sure that what happened to
you doesn't happen to anyone else ever
again.



Arrym is a Wraith, one of an elite band of thieves notorious for taking on big jobs. He has all the talent in the world, but what little motivation he once had has all but dried up.

Branak has the opposite problem. He is a Wisp, a newly inducted member of the guild, with seemingly misplaced dreams of greatness. He is determined to prove himself in the eyes of his superiors and take his place among the Wraiths.

They are partners.

In the midst of completing a job and evading their sworn enemies, the Knights of the Thorn, they are presented with a bigger job. Much bigger...and far more noble than they would typically agree to.

Grant me the resolve to return to the treasures
I cannot yet obtain, the ingenuity to obtain those I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
- Wraith Prayer​

What players have said...​

"It's almost criminal that a game this interesting has gotten so little attention or comments." - synbi

"I thought it was a brilliant game and I enjoyed it immensely." - J Shea

"I am loving your game. I also played Manifest & I love your puzzles, I have even managed to solve 1 or 2! Fantastic game, it should get more recognition."
- mal

"Just wanted to say, I love the choice of music in this game. XD Brought back some good memories. Thanks for making this game. It's a fun play. :3"
- Knightowl

"The game is really good could not stop playing...... Really good game."
- RAJ(Aman)

"Started playing and so far enjoying finding out how to play " - Linkis

Battle System:

Almost everything on-map in Canvas is evented, including the battle system. Use an assortment of pixel-based attacks and abilities to dispatch your enemies in a variety of ways. You can anger them with arrows, stun them with bombs, throw them into each other with gusts of wind, and more! Each on-map enemy was carefully crafted with its own behavior, movement style, and methods of attack to provide the player with challenging and often thought-provoking encounters. Your on-map weapon will change appearance based on the weapon you have equipped.

Features:

Character swapping - each with their own unique "tool" and advantage/disadvantages when it comes to combat (Weapon range, attack speed, etc.)

A variety of shared tools/abilities acquired throughout the game, useful for combat and puzzle solving.

Item crafting

Area maps

Bestiary

Glossary

Characters grow based on your AP allocation

A free-jump system that works hand in hand with my...

Robust elevation system - Ties in with projectiles, tools, line of sight, jumping, etc.

Puzzles aplenty! - You will need to experiment with your tools, and then come up with new and creative ways use and combine them.

Mini-games galore! - As you explore the world of Canvas, you will discover many evented mini-games to add variety to the gameplay. They are all fully-interactive game systems as opposed to pass/fail based on a number or stat systems.

Lockpicking (2 versions)
Mining
Fishing
Pickpocketing
Blacksmithing
Persuasion

Screenshots:


https://rpgmaker.net/manage_games/5517/images/




*The game is around 15 hours long.

Download:
http://rpgmaker.net/games/5517/


The game is unencrypted, and for those who own Rpg Maker VX Ace, I encourage you to poke around and explore.


Credits:

Spoiler

Scripts:

Yanfly
Mithran
Yami
Syvkal
Ventwig
Nicke
Casper Gaming
Zerbu
Modern Algebra
Mr. Bubble
Tsukihime
Vlue
TDS
SirBilly
Kread-Ex
Moghunter
Galv

Graphics:

Closet
Celianna
Casper Gaming
Aindra
Companion Wulf
Mack
Sword
Relay Point Material
Pineda
GameClover
Lunara
ILurota
Tom C

Music/Sound Effects:

Enterbrain
Ludovico Einaudi
Square Enix
Working Designs

If you see something in the game that wasn't credited here, please let me know.

You might also like my first game, Manifest, which can be found here:
http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index...a-complete-30-hour-rpg-4-years-in-the-making/

 

[sbethune81]

I am very excited to announce that, after months of work and testing, I have finished the new demo for Canvas (Download has been updated).  It now includes the first two dungeons and the hub village of the game.  My goal for this game is to let the player explore the mechanics without holding his/her hand.  I hope it makes for some very rewarding puzzle-solving.  Possible future demo updates and the full version will push this even further with the addition of many new tools and gadgets that can be combined in interesting ways.  If you have any questions while playing, get stuck, or have feedback of any kind, please don't hesitate to ask.  I hope you enjoy!

 

[sbethune81]

Update:  Fixed some minor cosmetic bugs and made a small tweak to the pickpocketing system (can pickpocket in front of counters as well).

Still hoping for some feedback from this community.  I love you guys =) (not sarcasm).

Has anyone finished the demo? 

How many Flux Shards have you found?

Which Lists have you found?

Did you complete the first 5 floors of the Ruins of Resolve?

Thanks for taking the time to visit the Canvas thread. 

 

[Adellie]

Gonna give this a whirl. I do like puzzles, I just hope the game isn't too long.

 

[sbethune81]

Woohoo! You're the first person to post in this thread in 9 months =). I'm very grateful. If you have any feedback or questions at all, please post/ask away. I hope you enjoy, and thanks again!

 

[Adellie]

Liked: The quick-swapping between characters and abilities is very neat -- so glad i don't have to go into the menu for changing formation and doing abilities etc. I really like that encounters and leveling aren't mandatory for most exploration! Also the grid map makes me feel in control heh. Can't say i found the action minigames fun themselves, but i think without the change in pace, the game would've gotten boring at times, so kudos for putting a few of those in. The puzzles haven't taken too long either (so far).
Disliked: I'd prefer the ability to dash with SHIFT rather than strafe; I often found myself jumping just to make myself move faster. Also related to speed, i feel the transition into grub-mode is slow. Visually, I thought a few icons didn't fit in very well, mostly the AP orb because it doesn't have the same dark outline as others.
Issues:
* This isn't really a bug, but if a guard catches you in a corner where you can't move, you get to die a slow death.
* Grub turned into an Arrym clone a few times.. although i don't know what caused it.
* A couple of wall-hops are possible in town (indoors).
* Jumping over something like a boulder (on same level) sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Also sometimes works vertically, but not horizontally.
* Somewhere in the ruins, i used the goggles accidentally and it turned a lit room into a dark/limited-vision room. When i left the area, the fog stayed with me. I had to blindly navigate the map back to town, and enter (then exit) the dark basement in the pub to get rid of it.
 

Has anyone finished the demo? 
How many Flux Shards have you found?
Which Lists have you found?
Did you complete the first 5 floors of the Ruins of Resolve?

 
I'm not done yet, currently 2+ hours in, and still confused about the meadows.    
Flux shards x4
Lists x8
Ruins of Resolve x5. Can't push the boulders yet.
 
*Waves Branack's chicken drumsticks at some monsters* hehe.

 

[sbethune81]

@theadellie - Thanks for the great feedback.  I love the issues section.  I'll fix those up shortly.

In my opinion, the puzzles will get better and better as the number of tools you have increases.  It will make for some interesting combinations and puzzle mechanics.

A bit later in the game (not in the current demo) you will get a tool that grants you the ability to dash.  I reserved it for later in the game for puzzle-solving purposes, and also so the players would appreciate it a lot more. =)

I'm not sure how much faster I can make the Grub transition because it's based on the speed of a standard event transition, but I'll look into it.

You will also get a tool that will make solving the Evermeadow go from nearly impossible to a fun challenge (again, not in the current demo).  So if you've beaten Grimwood and gone down 5 levels in the Ruins, you've done just about everything.  I just put the Evermeadow in early to tantalize players.  I didn't want the connection between the tool and solving the puzzle to be too clear, and I figured if the location was available right after getting the tool, it would be.

Thanks again for playing Canvas and for leaving feedback.  It will only get better with help from people like you.

Oh, and I love the art you made!  It was a wonderful surprise.

 

[Matseb2611]

Heya. I've decided to give your game a try as well. I like the premise that it isn't like a typical RPG. I've never really been much of a fan of Zelda-esque games, but thought I'd give this a try anyway.

Firstly, the idea of special on-map abilities that each character has is nice. Bombs are fun to use and Grub is just awesome. I'm still less than an hour in, but so far I have a mixed opinion on puzzles. Some have been very intuitive and clever, whilst others are just downright frustrating because at times I am not aware of the limitations an ability or a game mechanic might have and some of the time I ended up getting things by trial and error rather than by logic. For example I had no idea a bomb could activate the switches and I don't think the game ever made that clear from the outset. And also when I entered the dark room, the game didn't say anything at all. For a moment I thought the game froze, but then I figured out it probably was just a dark room and decided to try the Raptors second sight ability. This, however, could be confusing for some players. Also it's hard to understand which parts of environment can be interacted by Grub and which cannot be. I kind of have to go around pressing 'action' button on everything. What I did like a lot was the idea of different coloured switches behaving differently when you try to activate them, because this opens up tonnes of possibilities for puzzle ideas. I also still like the lockpicking mini-game that you had in Manifest.

I agree with Theadellie in regard to both the knights problem when they corner you and in regard to the slow moving speed. With the knights, when I got cornered, I thought I was done for. Kept trying to attack and push them repeatedly. Eventually got out with one of my characters KOed and another one at low health. At this point it would've been nice to have some Lazarus roots. Another problem is that the save points are too rare and far apart. It'd be nice to be able to save after every couple of puzzles/areas. After the one at the beginning I only got to the next one half an hour into the game. What if I needed to quit urgently? I'd end up losing tonnes of progress.

I do like the characters already though. Their personalities are already getting fleshed out and I like their little arguments. The story idea introduced in the beginning about it all being a painted world sounds decent enough too. I wonder how it will be exploited throughout the game.

I can't say I am a fan of the default RTP music being used in the first dungeon. It probably wouldn't annoy other players much, but as someone who has played tonnes of RM games already, hearing the same old dungeon track playing on a loop is kind of irritating, considering it's playing throughout the entire dungeon, which is taking almost an hour to complete.

I seem to be kind of stuck now in that dark room. I've found the chests and lockpicked one. I also found the Flux shard with Grub, but I can't seem to find where I'm supposed to go from here. I am pretty sure I've hugged every edge of the room and can't seem to find any other ways to go. I do want to continue playing, however, to see what more the game has to offer, but I really don't know where to go from here.

So just to summarize quickly what I think could be improved:

 - more frequent save points

 - a few more hints perhaps, or maybe to let the player get accustomed to abilities a bit more gradually rather than being told everything in the first dungeon

 - getting cornered by the knights problem

 - something other than RTP music in the first dungeon

 

[sbethune81]

Hey Matseb2611. I'll leave a more detailed response when I have more time this afternoon, but to get you on your way now, check your map in the save room by the dark room. You'll see another way to go. I can give more help if needed. Thank you so much for trying out Canvas, especially going out of your comfort zone. I also appreciate the detailed feedback.

EDIT:

I'll fix the guard problem by making a larger knockback when you hit their armor.  It should allow you to get out of situations like those. 

You're the second person to mention a dislike for the music in the first dungeon.  I'll look into using something different.

I felt that the save point frequency was pretty fair.  My advice to you and other players is to head back to a previous save point every once in a while.  As far as time goes, they might seem far apart, but as far as the number of rooms between them go, they aren't too far apart, making a trip back hopefully not too painful.  I hope the enemies that respawn are easy enough to avoid.

In the room with the 3 locked doors, the grass tufts where Grub found the switch and the possible treasure are the only spaces Grub will find things on in the cave.  An exclamation will pop up so you won't need to repeatedly press the action button.  In the next location, there will be a scene that will show you the next kind of space to look for with Grub.

"...but then I figured out it probably was just a dark room and decided to try the Raptors second sight ability."

^ This is exactly what I was going for =).

I understand your frustration at not knowing all the possibilities of the tools, and I think (of course I could be wrong) that it stems from a trend in gaming where players are told explicitly what we can and can't do, effectively robbing us of the ability to explore the limitations and test the rules. I think if it's done in a steadily progressive way, which I might end up failing at, it can be quite rewarding for a player to discover what they are capable of and expand on it later.

For example, in the room you were referring to, I could have told the player that switches can be triggered with bombs, but it wouldn't have been rewarding or interesting. My hope was that the player would realize they can't trigger both switches at once by pressing them, and having a very limited selection of tools (Grub, Raptors, and bombs) at the start, they would discover it themselves with a little bit of experimentation. Now that you have the knowledge that bombs can do that, it can be expanded on in future puzzles, allowing you to find other capabilities of bombs.

The problem, as you stated, is that some players will find this rewarding while others find it frustrating. My goal is to convert those players by the end of the game.

Thank you again for playing and posting.

 

[Zenoa]

Finally got the chance to play this. I'm not the biggest fan of action puzzle games but the game did a good job keeping me interested. Haven't finished the demo yet, still at Grimwood. But here's my feedback so far:
 
2x Flux Shard
4x List (Weak Medicine, Antidote, Lazarus Root, Reinforced Hood)
 
And I'll just copy theadellie's formatting
 
Liked:

• The dialogue and characters. I also like how the little girl pointed out a loophole in the gameplay so early on, smart girl heh
• I like the simplicity of pickpocketing, but I also dig the more complicated mining minigame
• Manifest's lockpicking

 
Disliked:

• like theadellie, I too prefer a dash than strafe
• some mechanics not explained e.g. raptor's second sight and mining minigame (though I kinda had a rewarding 'Eureka!' moment when I figured how the mining minigame worked)
• I really thought bombs hurt the player! But this was just because I grew up with bomberman so I instinctively run from my bombs heh

 
Bugs:

• when you press Shift in the pickpocketing mini-game, the cursor glitches and becomes a white square and it seems the cursor becomes faster? intentional?
• when entering a door or other teleporting event (not sure if all teleport) AND strafing at the same time, the player will not be teleported and instead stand on the event tile. Screenshot at hubris' house

Spoiler

• related, while holding Shift and entering a cutscene room, a weird bug occurs, the character is duplicated (this was when Arrym brings the medicine back)

Spoiler

will post more when I get around playing it again

 

[sbethune81]

@Zenoa - Precious, precious feedback. Thank you! The thought that the shift key functionality might screw up transfers and cutscenes never crossed my mind. I'm not sure why it does, but I'll fix it up. Great find on that. The pickpocketing glitch you mentioned was unintentional.

If I understand your 3rd dislike correctly, you would prefer that the bombs hurt the player? It was something I was considering when designing them. It would be a fairly easy change if you think it would add to the experience.

Matseb2611, and theadellie...care to weigh in on this?

Thanks again!

 

[Matseb2611]

At first I thought the same thing about bombs hurting the player, though later found out that wasn't the case. I think either way can work, though if you do go with the idea of them damaging the player, it might be best to mention that somewhere. I think this could also depend on other game puzzles and situations. If the idea of getting away from a bomb in time not to get hurt becomes a puzzle mechanic, then sure why not.

I have to say, I got stuck again. Still in the first dungeon. I am guessing I probably suck at these kind of games. I never really liked any Zelda games due to the trial-and-error nature of many puzzles and game mechanics in them as well as tonnes of backtracking. But anyways, not gonna go off topic here.

I figured out the mining mini-game quickly, although I am not familiar with the strategy involved with it. There were times where I'd guess where the item would be and it would match up with the number of squares the game told me and yet I still got it wrong. It's a bit of a confusing puzzle mechanic because a lot of the time more than one answer can be correct to it and yet only one of those answers is the real answer and the player just has to guess it. It took me 4 tries to get it right. Not sure if they ever get harder than this. I suppose it's not a bad minigame. Maybe with some tweaking it can be made better.

But yeah, I am perplexed as to where to go next. I went in the direction at the intersection that you mentioned, passed under a bridge with the spider (btw, there's a bit of a bug that the spider can never attack you when it's standing under the bridge and you can't hurt it either; only when I stepped away from the bridge it actually went to attack me). So the room I am stuck in is just after this one. It has one guard walking there in a circle and there's a locked gate and a green button on the left protected by spikes. I don't know what to do and whether I have to backtrack. It's really not clear.

 

[Adellie]

Sorry for the late reply.

You're very welcome. : ) And I actually did the same and ran away from the bombs, haha. It's alright if they don't deal damage but i think you should tell the player (regardless of whether or not you change it).

@Matseb2611: Have you looked at the in-game glossary to see how the different buttons work?

 

[sbethune81]

@Matseb2611 - after placing the first three nodes in the mining game, it is pretty common for there to be multiple potential spots for the ore. That's where the fourth node comes into play. If you place it so that it is a different number of spaces from each of your potential spots, you should be able to pinpoint the correct spot.

Some help getting unstuck below...

Spoiler

If you're in the room with the rock you mined and the spikes, you're in the right spot. That green button is optional and leads to that treasure chest. The gate at the bottom is the main goal. You'll be able to solve both if you play around with your abilities. You don't suck at these games, you just don't have much experience.

Good luck. Thanks again for playing

 

[sbethune81]

Update: Fixed the issues/bugs brought up by theadellie, Zenoa, and Matseb2611. One of which is that guards now have a 2 space knockback when they block your attack, allowing you room to escape from a tight spot. Download has been updated.

Also, how cool is this?

https://rpgmaker.net/games/5517/images/48478/

Artwork of Arrym and Grub, compliments of theadellie.

 

[sbethune81]

Work has been slow, but I've managed to finish the final version of the Canvas demo in time for the Release Something XIII event on rpgmaker.net.  After this will come the complete game.  The demo has gone from 2 playable dungeons to 4 and includes new gadgets, minigames, and sidequests as well.  Based on player feedback, I've added/modified a few features and included a walkthrough with the download for those who get stuck along the way.  The demo is also now unencrypted for those who want to poke around.  Please enjoy!

 

[Kes]

I'm looking forward to finding the time to try this out.  I enjoyed Manifest a lot, so I have high hopes for this.

 

[sbethune81]

Thanks for the interest!  I wanted to try something quite different from Manifest as far as mechanics go, so I hope it doesn't disappoint.  Please let me know if you get a chance to try it out.

 

[sbethune81]

Canvas is complete! Five years and two children later, I have finished my second game. The download has been updated. The game should last around 15 hours or so depending on a few factors including puzzles and sidequests. I have included a full walkthrough and complete item guide with the download. If you need more detailed help than the walkthrough gives, please don't hesitate to ask. I love every kind of feedback, especially bug reports if you find any. Thank you very much to those who take the time to download Canvas and give it a shot.

If there is a moderator that reads this, please move this over to the completed games forum. Thank you.

 

[Archeia]

Moved to Completed Games. Congratulations on finishing your game!