RMMV Demon Phase

[SilverHyena]

SYNOPSIS

Spoiler

After slaying a demon harassing his hometown, a mercenary named Vice teams up with a priest named Alain to find the person who summoned it. However, things get more complicated when they discover that the summoner is the least of their worries. There's another entity out there teaching people how to bring demons over to their world and it needs to be stopped before the whole world is enveloped in chaos. Of course, this is more than a two man job. They'll need the help of the various characters they'll meet along the way and, even then, do they really stand a chance? That, player, is up to you.

Demon Phase is a role playing game based on the entry I submitted to the IGMC 2017 contest which you can find a link to in the download section. The plan is to expand it into a full length game with the following features:

• Partake in turn based battles (because it's a rpg...)
• Enjoy original artwork (and other assets when I get around to making them)
• Hone your skills and fill your wallet by taking on side quests
• Fix up your terrible house with that full wallet (if you aren't too attached to your crumbling abode)
• Build relationships with your fellow party members and some NPCs
• Turn one of those relationships into a romantic one (if you're into that sort of thing)*
• Make choices that determine how events unfold
• Minigames? (If I can figure out how to make them)

*Note that, because it's me, this game will include the option for Vice to romance female AND male characters. You'll be able to play Vice as completely straight if you'd like, but keep in mind that you will run into NPCs that aren't heterosexual. If that bothers you, welp, I guess you shouldn't play my game.

CHARACTERS



(If you've played the prototype, you'll notice that I've messed with Alain and Jess's appearance a bit. I figured that if I'm going to make custom assets I probably should try to make them a bit more original. Of course, I got attached to how they originally looked so they aren't too different. )

Spoiler

(From Left to Right: Vice, Alain, Jess, Emery, Shar, Rylan, Locke)

• Vice - A broke mercenary who lives in the slums of Arlyne and the main character of our little tale. He's a good guy at heart which often leads to him teaming up with Alain to solve the city's problems. While his ability as a warrior is exceptional, he lacks basic skills needed for every day life such as keeping up a clean living envoirnment and cooking. He manages to avoid the cooking problem by frequenting Evelyn's tavern, but there's no hope for his house at this point. (Seriously. The roof could collapse in on him at any time.)
• Alain - A well meaning priest that has a tendency to get involved in things that aren't really his business. Of course, that's why Vice and him work so well together. The two often team up together to solve issues that pop up around the city. While this partnership ends up costing Vice money (since working with Alain means that the job is being done for little or no profit), Alain does come with one serious benefit; He patches Vice up for free. All in all, the two have the utmost respect for each other and are both trying to make the world a better place.
• Jess - A charismatic serving girl that works at Evelyn's tavern. Her friendly and sociable demeanor draws people to her, including Vice. Jess is one of the few people Vice can actually claim as a friend. While she initially has absolutly no fighting skills, she ends up joining the party after a series of events that leave her in possession of a bit of dark magic. (What sort of events? I don't know. Maybe you should play the prototype. )
• Emery - The only daughter of one of Arlyne's most powerful noble families. She is also apprenticed to Vice's old sword master. She is a talented fighter, but lacks real world experience. Her desire to test her mettle out in a real world is her main motivation for joining Vice's group. (And maybe she kind of wants to see how she measures up against her master's other student. Not that she'd admit that.)
• Shar - An elven woman that makes a living gathering items from exotic locations to sell at her sister's store. While she does have a bit of an independent streak, she eventually decides that joining Vice's party is in her best interest. She also serves as a sort of teacher to Jess since (while she's no expert) she knows a lot more about dark magic than Vice or Alain. Overall, she's a gloomy and judgmental person who tends to keep others at a distance. She also doesn't appreciate Vice calling her kid seeing as she's older than him.
• Rylan - A boisterous paladin that wanders the world vanquishing evil. He fancies himself a hero and is focused on spreading his own legend. He should come off as obnoxious but, for some reason Vice can't fathom, he's quite beloved-- especially among middle aged women. Rylan and Vice have a shared history as childhood friends and, while Vice isn't particularly interested in rekindling that relationship, Rylan is.
• Locke - A self proclaimed scholar intent on collecting as much knowledge as he can no matter what the danger. Of course, it'd be nice if he prepared himself for that danger a bit better... Vice and co. end up rescuing him a few times before deciding that he should just tag along with them. While Locke's actions tend to be a bit idiotic, he is actually pretty smart. When put to use properly, he's quite useful. Beyond that, he's just an overall nice guy who's always good for a compliment.

IMAGES/SCREENSHOTS

Spoiler

(Note: These screenshots are from the IGCM version I made which should only be considered a sort of prototype for the full game. I plan to make all of my own assets for future versions of Demon Phase. (Except music. Music is not my strong suit.))

DOWNLOAD

Spoiler

IGMC 2017 Version (Itch.io Link): https://silverhyena.itch.io/demon-phase

And that's what I've got so far. Hopefully I did everything right. Please let me know if there's anything missing or if there's something you think I should add. Other than that, well, thank you for looking at my thread and if you have any sort of feedback, I'd love to hear it.

 

[hiddenone]

Heyas, I gave your demo a go and quite enjoyed it! Which, unfortunately for you, means I'm gonna be pretty nitpicky with my feedback since I really want to see this become an amazing game. Prepare yourself.

Spoiler: Possibly too many words

So the first thing that happened was I got my eardrum blown out by the title screen music, right now it's just way too loud. I like the look of the title screen though, your style is pretty cute. I do think it'd be worth looking into a different font and window instead of the defaults, while they work it is pretty boring compared to the rest of the title screen (and the game in general).

Dropping the player right into the action was nice, but your battles need a lot more TLC (I know you ran out of time due to the IGMC's time limit, but now you've got all the time in the world to improve it). Currently the battles aren't much fun, or much of a challenge at all, I mostly just had Vice whack things over the head with his sword since his magic spell Spark was only useful against a bunch of enemies. The fact that Vice can use magic seemed a bit odd to me, considering that for a mercenary I was expecting more physical types of skills, especially ones that used TP since that was totally worthless in battles. His Heal and Spark could be replaced with something like First Aid and Side Slash that would use TP and fit a mercenary more than magic (at least in my mind). Alain's skills fit his role as a priest more than Vice's, but taking more time to really tailor the skills to him would be worth it. Also, personal preference but I prefer the healer to get a mass healing before an ungraded Heal skill.

The enemies weren't hard to beat, so they need some more work too (though I did like the swarm of rats, since the first time I saw them I thought "oh crud" and then was amused when I realized that they were normal weak rats). While each battle doesn't have to be life-or-death, it would be nice if the player didn't feel so overpowered. The fact that I didn't really notice any enemy weaknesses meant that I was thinking even less about the battles, just mash spacebar until I won. I was hoping that the enemies like slimes would be weak to lightning and strong against water since they looked pretty watery, but that wasn't the case. For this short demo the battles weren't too terrible, but as you extend the game it'll be important to make them a lot more interesting.

Story-wise, I figured the clown was evil as soon as I heard that a clown was in town but I was surprised to find that I didn't care that much since I enjoyed the character interactions so much. I hope you build upon the friendships you've already shown, since that will definitely be a strength for the game. Also, Vice/Alain is OTP~

You do have a couple spelling errors, like missing an 'e' in 'definitely' in one of Vice's dialogues and a 't' in 'the' in one of Evelyn's, but I think going over it with fresh eyes should let you pick up on most of them.

If possible, I'd find some menu sound effects that are nicer than the defaults. The defaults are painful (at least to me) to listen to for long periods of time.

Personally I found the message box's background to be a touch too light when reading on certain maps, it may be a good idea to darken it a touch so that the words stand out more. The choice to have the npcs as black silhouettes was an interesting one (due to time, I assume), but not a good one. It made everyone seem much more sinister than I think you intended. Removing the faces completely for npcs would probably be best, at least until you finish drawing them all.

I know you're going to be changing the tiles/maps, art, and sprites, but I'll still comment on them since it'll probably be a while before you get that all implemented. I loved that you had a few CGs scattered through the game (even if Vice is missing his scar in the tavern one ), using battlebacks as the backgrounds was clever but you should draw your own backgrounds so they fit the characters' style better.

The mapping was okay, but there were a few spots with mistakes and some odd choices with tile placement. The church for example had rugs on either side of it for no reason I could understand and the cross on the roof is stuck into dirt which makes the entire church seem ramshackle, which doesn't fit with how it has nice statues and trees around it. In the basement of the tavern there are some boxes that are cut in half near the stairs.

It was nice to see tints used, but I think the sewers could've used one. Even if there were torches around, the sewer is still underground in the dark so it shouldn't be as bright as outside. The dusk tint you used was much brighter red than I think is needed, it was less 'night is coming' and more 'an evil comet is about to strike'. Easing up on the red should help a lot for that.

Okay, I think that's the condensed version. Overall, I really like what you're going for and I hope that now that you're not on a time limit you'll be able to make this game as great as it deserves to be.

 

[SilverHyena]

Haha, thank you, hiddenone! Nitpicky was what I was looking for.

First off, I apologize for destroying your ears. I really should have realized that was an issue. That track was just way louder than the others for whatever reason, but I should have lowered the volume to even that out. I don't know what I was thinking.

I agree with everything you said regarding battles and I will be keeping all of your points in mind when I rework them. The sewer having a tint is a good idea too. Ideally, I'd like to figure out how to do light sources so I can have the torches glow. I'll put that on my to learn list.

And yeah... Someone else pointed out that I forgot the scar in the one CGs too. I was devastated. Haha. I explicitly told myself to check for that sort of thing too. Ah well. I do plan to draw my own backgrounds for the CG stuff in the extended version. Same deal for the villager portraits. I originally wanted to draw a sprite for everyone since I figured it'd make it harder to figure out which characters to suspect, but then I realized that wasn't exactly feasible with the time constraints. (All of this was done in about a week since I didn't know about the contest until late in the game.)

Other than that, I will definitely continue working on character interactions. That and story will probably end up being my main focus since that's primarily what I'm interested in. (And yes, Vice/Alain is the true OTP. Shhh. Tell no one. Haha. They're my favorite too. Of course, I'm going to do my best to make all the pairs super shippable)

Anyway, thank you so much for taking the time to respond and give me some seriously valuable feedback. Making all the tweaks you pointed out will definitely help me make a better game.

 

[Low]

Love the custom artwork in there. Would love to see a couple more screenshots if you find time to update. Will be keeping an eye out. Hope to check the demo out soon as I can but time's tight currently unfortunately. Looks really cool and the concept seems awesome.

 

[zimzim]

Excellent! I actually enjoyed playing the demo! But as @hiddenone mentioned, the title music was too loud and, in my opinion, out of place. Maybe choose a more mellow, yet dark, title music to fit the game's atmosphere?

Story-wise, I'd say it has a very interesting plot. The main characters are lovely, and I especially enjoy their interactions. Dynamic NPC's dialogues based on current events were also awesome! I'm not sure if you're using the RTP materials for the map, icons etc. as a placeholder at this moment, so I'm going to hold my feedback on those.

Other than that, please keep on doing this. The game is really promising, and with improvements mentioned by @hiddenone, it has a potential to be one of the great RMV games

 

[SilverHyena]

@Low : Aw, thanks! I'm glad you're interested in seeing more! I probably won't post any new screenshots for a bit though because I'm working on making my own sprites right now. I'd like the next screenshot I post to feature the original assets that will be used in the final version of the game.

@zimzim : Gotcha. I'll be sure to look for something more appropriate for the title screen. I intended to go looking for some more free tracks to use anyway. For the contest, I just stuck with the MV defaults which limited my options a bit. And I do intend to make my own sprites so the maps and stuff will end up being changed. I'd love to hear your advice when I've actually got more of my own stuff to show though. XD Anyway, thank you! I'll do my best!


Aaaaanyway, if any of you were wondering what I've been up to...

The answer is not much. I've been busy working on other things. I did manage to start the character sprites for the main party though. As you may notice, there are more characters than I initially introduced in the main post. I've updated the character section to reflect that so check it out if you're so inclined.

 

[flirion]

I really liked the demo can't wait to see more, the new sprites look super cute