[IGMC 2015] Jayce and Stacy RUIN the IGMC for EVERYONE!

[Bonkers]

Download: ​

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Jayce and Stacy are two regular teenagers with a secret, the trouble is so are Claude and Mana. When they combine forces to build a game for the IGMC their collective abilities amount to- nothing. Stacy in charge of writing cannot write anything but fan fiction, Jayce the musician cannot play worth a damn, Claude the graphics artist can't draw, and Mana the scripter is distracted by feelings of past guilt. Guide them on their journey to putz around and accomplish nothing in time for the IGMC deadline. Succeed at failing to make a game.

 

Also Iggy notices Stacy has stolen all of deviant art, spriter's resource, the library of congress and some other websites she wanted to gather resources for the game.  Needless to say she isn't happy.

An old enemy returns to wreck havoc on Jayce and Stacy, the infamous Terabyte.  An A.I. with the ability to steal an entire planet's information and destroy it.

 

Game play includes dialogue choices along with a musical sequencer game which Jayce must use to prove his ability as a musician to make their game.

This involves the computer and player taking turns in tandem.  There is a repeat button should you need it.

 ​

Claude and Mana have a special power they gained while working for the Warello group.  They can actually go inside of computer programs and the internet.  ​

This is where the teens make their game hands up and build up their submission.  Being teenagers are they are immediately distracted.​

Jayce is the wheel chair bound protagonist and a budding musician.  Budding, never flowering.

Stacy is the writer.  She has never written anything that wasn't fan fiction from Naruto.

Mana is the scripter.  She writes codes for maybe 10 minutes and gives up to look at imgur.

Claude is the effeminate male support character.  He wants to be an artist, but he cannot draw.

Iggy is the IGMC mascot and a Jayce fangirl.  She follows him everywhere.

Too many characters.  What is this one for?

Screen shots

Spoiler

Credits:

Pixel figures on cover at by Marie of Bovassio

Makio-Kuta - Best Naruto Artist EVER.

POP Horror by Vex Engima

DS,DS+,DS++

Avery

Sharm

Mundy

Scthuz

Ms Little Fish

ArchDuke

Mac Atlas

Rachael/Yato

Shaz

V.M> of D.T>

ExHydra

Arevulopapo

Yanfly

Galv

Mithran and Kilozapit

Arkecia

Nekura

 

[Vox Novus]

Ah, I'll have to download this one to. Let you know what I think after I play it

 

[BeardBro]

I've been waiting so hard for this. Downloading now; will edit with my opinions after I beat it!

Impressions:

-The characters are hilarious

-I really like what you did with the bad flute sample I made

-There's a section where Stacy and Jayce are talking when they are first thrown into the video game world, it shows Stacy's face and seems like Stacy is talking, but it shows 'Mana' in the character's namebox

-finished the game is about 32 minutes, the game never overstayed it's welcome and was just the right length

-The character development was nicely done, though true development is a result of sacrifice. Mana didn't really have to sacrifice anything, so her sudden change at the end was hard to believe. Still, the comments about Stacy's bad writing at the end made me think of Mana's sudden change in personality, and for some reason it made everything feel cohesive. I'm not meaning to be too critical here - these characters were given a lot of personality for a 32-minute playthrough.

-The overall story was entertaining, and I like how Jayce's nonexistent music abilities saved the day about five different times.

-Again, the humor is killing me. The double entendres had me laughing the whole way through, and Stacy's nonplused personality was very well-written.

-I wish Stacy would have thrown Jayce into something again. My sides hurt when she tossed him through the window.

-The minigame is very simple, but a good time-filler nonetheless. In the final scene, I had 6 yellow buttons in a row. It was funny when, after playing the same note over and over again, Jayce was praised for saving the day with his music.

-I wish there were some point-and-click elements, or at least some movement. This seems like an interesting world and I wanted to explore it more on my own.

-A dialogue box displays over the end credits so they aren't entirely visible.

-"damn it Stacy"

Overall, this is a very entertaining, concise game. The amount of work you put into the project is very apparent through every minute of gameplay. Some more testing before the release may have been beneficial, but you were on a very strict time limit, so the lack of polish in a couple of places is forgivable.

Gameplay - 5/10 (not much gameplay to speak of aside from a handful of identical mini-games and a few dialogue choices)

Story - 9/10 (well-written with excellent character development in such a short period of time)

Graphics - 10/10 (the characters, maps, and art direction are simply beautiful)

Sound - 10/10 (all of the SFX fit nicely into the game's atmosphere, and the soundtrack was darn near perfect)

Overall - 9/10

Thanks for making this! I look forward to seeing Jayce and Stacy on their future adventures.

 

[Makio-Kuta]

I can't wait to try this out!! Can't play until after this weekend though.

Congrats on finishing and best of luck!

PS" I think you missed someone in the credits there o3o

 

[Simon D. Aelsi]

I think I know what to stream tomorrow...
Edit: Wow, the game is so tiny! I love that! (I only saw the title screen for two seconds.

This should be goooood.

 

[NPC]

I'm a bit tired so I speedran the game. 7 minutes lol. There were only two/three dialogue branches...

Also I think I missed a lot of the story.

I might go back and play it again when I'm not exhausted. 

Oh, and there's a dialog box blocking half the creds.

EDIT: I fell asleep a few hours ago while writing this. I jsut finished the game completely. Didn't actually miss as much as I thought I did. 

Next game can we get a NAruto Fanfic minigame?

 

[Matseb2611]

Just played through it. It was pretty light-hearted and funny, and I enjoyed that music mini-game. It was simple, but very fun, and went well with the theme of Jayce being a bad musician.

Also I'd confirm what NPC said about the dialogue box at the end blocking some of the credits.

There were some jokes and references I didn't get. Are Mana and Claude from another game or work of fiction?

Visuals look very nice. I like the whole hexagonal tiles look, and the busts are pretty great too.

Good work overall and good luck with the competition.

 

[Bonkers]

I can't wait to try this out!! Can't play until after this weekend though.

Congrats on finishing and best of luck!

PS" I think you missed someone in the credits there o3o

Ops, sorry!  Lemme correct that right now.  I feel silly as I went to rest immediately after typing this up.  I didn't even credit myself anywhere in the game.  That's silly too.

Very sorry about that bug in the credits everyone.  I had the main game itself playtested and did the credits after that was completed.  That will teach me.

@NPC Next year in leaf village.  I am sure Makio will not mind Narutarding the characters.

-The character development was nicely done, though true development is a result of sacrifice. Mana didn't really have to sacrifice anything, so her sudden change at the end was hard to believe. Still, the comments about Stacy's bad writing at the end made me think of Mana's sudden change in personality, and for some reason it made everything feel cohesive. I'm not meaning to be too critical here - these characters were given a lot of personality for a 32-minute playthrough.

Well Mana is a teenager.  My experience is they regularly say they understand something when they don't, and I agree with you.  To me, from where I was writing, she had already sacrificed her precious A.I.s when she had to destroy them.  Oh that's entirely understandable, I do not mind.  Thank you much =3  I am very happy you enjoyed!

 

[Ralpf]

I kinda forgot about this one, been busy with my own, downloading now...well actually done by the time I tabbed back.

 

[Simon D. Aelsi]

Just played this.

The bad not perfect:

Well, you already pointed out the bugs I found.  That and just a few grammar errors.  But that's it!  No game breaking bugs.

The good:

Shoot, plum darn near everythin'!

Even though you didn't actually move the characters around at all (or couldn't), this game was immersive, the storyline deep. The dialogue hilarious at times. And sometimes, kinda almost deep.

My favorite character was Jayce.

@Palladinthug, well done! I liked Silver Town, I liked this. I have high hopes for Wheels! Keep it up!

@ people, download and play it. You must! Vote if you liked it!

 

[Ralpf]

Yeah, I liked it too, the gameplay is kinda boring, which I'm sure they know, but the characters and story are great, and more than make up for it.

I have played I think 6 games submitted now (Not naming them), and this is the best so far.

 

[Dalph]

The game is really hilarious palladin, it made me laugh a lot and it's not something that people can accomplish easily nowdays, I liked the dialogues and the cameos from The Warello Network, I remember to have played that game so many times (too many actually). Anyway, this was very entertaining to watch (and play) for these 30 minutes, there wasn't much gameplay but this is supposed to be a short adventure\visual novel so it's all good.

The minigame was well made and a bit on the easy side at the beginning, but near the end it became slightly more challenging and while playing it I finally realized that my memory isn't as horrible as I thought, ahahahah.

There aren't errors except for the message window one that I (and the people here) pointed out in the credits part, I didn't find anything else.

Best character is Stacey without doubt, ahahahahahah.

You have my vote.

 

[Seriel]

Do I get a special prize for clearing the game?

Great, game. Loved it!

Spoiler

 

[Bonkers]

I wasn't expecting such positive remarks or people taking an interest among the many, many entries.  Thank you sincerely everyone.  I'll be working up some promotional materials to garnish up some more votes between now and October when the popular vote concludes.

So as the first of man rewards to come for supporting the game: a badge for your time invested into the project (sadly I lack authority to fixate it to your avatar).  

  The pop horror balloon emotes were released with Vex's permission in the latest restaff.  Check them out along with the many other talented submissions!  Remember to tell her thank you as well, that was very generous of her to allow.

In order to round up more interest what sort of thing would you like to see from the project to attract votes?

-Wallpaper (Drawn or Pixel Art)

-Chibis

-Custom Resources (Pop Horror/DS: Coca Cola [box Cans bottles], Hot Pockets box, Wheel Chair Template

-More Dialogue Choices or Buttons for the musical sequencer or explore the video game world (After Contest)

-Other (Specify please)

@Dalph  I'm so happy you did and thank you.  My intent was a quick laugh along with all the trimmings.

@Ralpf  Oh wow!  That's high praise.

@Jackus Time to open up a music shop.

@Iron Croc  Thank you for streaming and voicing the characters.

 

[Matseb2611]

Animated chibis would be cool, and an expansion or extension to the game sounds nice too. I'll be up for checking out any of those.

 

[Seriel]

I would like the ability to, after the story is complete, roam the Video Game world and talk to the characters.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

"Jayce and Stacy RUIN the IGMC for everyone" is a point and click adventure game featuring a group of high school students, including Wheels and the Leg Girl. They have gathered to complete a game for the IGMC. But none of them have any real game making experience! 

 

Sit back and enjoy a string of hilarious back and forths, and possibly a few inside jokes. 

 

Something I would have loved to see here is more variety of play. The music puzzle, while enjoyable, was done probably upwards of three to four times. So, I think some switching it up would have really sky rocketed the experience even more.

 

Understanding, that yes, it's an hour long game so it can't get too crazy. But I very much would have enjoyed it if at any time we had gotten control of the sprites and gotten to examine the setting. Not to mention, just think of all the other crazy lines and dialogue options that could have been delivered upon searching the surroundings.

 

That's another thing! I would have loved more instances to choose dialogue! And, thus different actions for the characters to take toward solving the conflict. 

 

Overall, you've created colorful and lovable characters into a realized and convincing setting, that in of itself is a monstrously difficult task to do well. It's always a joy to see these characters, especially as illustrated by Makio-Kuta, and I'm very happy to have lent my hand with a few of the musics and SFX.

 

[Makio-Kuta]

Just gave this game a spin; only did one play through and I don't think I got the best ending xD I recorded a video, which I'll share; but since I'm not a very articulate speaker, I'll leave more comments in the text here! (also my recording settings had me too quiet I think)

Crudy video under the Spoiler!

Characters were really cute~! That was certainly the highlight of the game for me; they were all very big personalities and that shone through in the writing easily. It was a delight to see how the busts were used and how the designs affected their personalities~! Very rewarding!

I can see where Claude and Mana could confuse people without background knowledge, who they were just wasn't very clear. Who the Warello group is and such; it would have been nice to see more of the backstory that I recall you telling me before designing them in the game itself for people who don't have access to that info. Same with Stacey and Jayce in ways, it requires knowledge of characters from a game that isn't out yet. Just something to think about.

I enjoyed the concept behind the story, but as I mentioned in the video, at times it is very rushed and hard to follow the action. Individual scenes for the most part were really well done, but they lacked a certain level of flow between them. Towards the end, pacing problems became more common within the events themselves; I'm still not entirely sure how we saved Jayce from the car bit. Also as we drew closer to the end, tiny little errors started to pop up; nothing game breaking, thankfully! Just the wrong name matching textboxes and busts staying on the screen when they probably shouldn't. I can understand though, with only a month to make a game, it can be hard to have enough testing time to catch everything.

The music game was enjoyable. I like those sorts of memory games~ Though it felt like it was forced into the story at times (why was music the key to win? perhaps you could have expanded some lore about Terry here to support this fact better.) I was pleased to see I didn't have to wait for a note to finish playing before hitting the next. I like to do those things fast~

I love LOVE how the effect on Terry's bust turned out in the end, btw! Even better than I imagined when I drew it! You're certainly getting a knack for handling the program in increasing interesting artistic ways. The zoomy cutin screens were fun~ The effect on Terry's sprite and bust. Visually, I enjoyed this game a lot. As mentioned in the video, the use of two different styles between the real world and the game world was a nice touch. I really enjoy the hexagonal look of the game world's maps. Also the colours on those maps are really appealing as well. There wasn't a whole ton to this game in terms of visuals, but what was there was executed wonderfully. (Claude's little dancing sprite~~~)

Anyway, to others who are debating playing or not - if you want some laughs and a quick little game to play, check it out! It also stands as a good example to characters playing off one another in an entertaining way and interesting new ways to handle the visual aspects of RPGmaker.

 

[Bonkers]

I can see where Claude and Mana could confuse people without background knowledge, who they were just wasn't very clear. Who the Warello group is and such; it would have been nice to see more of the backstory that I recall you telling me before designing them in the game itself for people who don't have access to that info. Same with Stacey and Jayce in ways, it requires knowledge of characters from a game that isn't out yet. Just something to think about.

I enjoyed the concept behind the story, but as I mentioned in the video, at times it is very rushed and hard to follow the action. Individual scenes for the most part were really well done, but they lacked a certain level of flow between them. Towards the end, pacing problems became more common within the events themselves; I'm still not entirely sure how we saved Jayce from the car bit. Also as we drew closer to the end, tiny little errors started to pop up; nothing game breaking, thankfully! Just the wrong name matching textboxes and busts staying on the screen when they probably shouldn't. I can understand though, with only a month to make a game, it can be hard to have enough testing time to catch everything.

Oh!  That is useful to me, thank you.  Now I know exactly what to do with what I've seen and heard from people.  One of the things I need to do if I wanna improve this in an outside of the contest version is introduce the characters officially- since I took this as a spin off of their respective games I thought general knowledge was enough.  They are teenagers and they cannot make a game.  I suppose a small introductory scene could work with Jayce and Stacy before the other two come over.  As for Warello itself, I originally planned to have a scene between Mana and Iggy but had to cut it out.  I also went and nixed out an introduction with Iggy, as most people in the contest are familiar with her so I got away with that at least.

The week off before the contest ended turned out to have me in my laptop on a tv tray balancing a mouse on a hardcover book in the opposite hand.  At the same time a very special cat, "Charlie" was attempt to walk across the laptop.  A lot of those displays that got confused or messed up was not noticed because of  "Bad kitty- go away kitty!" which resulted in more intense affection and attempting to clean itself opposite of where I worked.  This would have been fine but the cat has sinus issues so every lick was a very loud slurp.  It somewhat broke my concentration.

As for flow, I did indeed design each scene separately and laced them together.  Since I managed it as a cartoon sort of episodic adventure I didn't wanna keep the player in one place too long or give an info dump.  Seeing as how things were enjoyed so much, I feel I can get away with a little more now and put some time into giving the player some background on the teens.

Every time everyone has played this game "BYE Jayce" has been shouted when he gets thrown out that window.  I love it.  He does get picked on a lot, but he can take it.  Jayce don't break.  I was extremely worried someone would be offended, but I see I did it in good taste.  Yes, Jayce is the whipping boy.

Something that I'd like to give more attention too as people have been very generous with me despite the flaws in the game:

Exploration

More varied use of the music sequencer, possibly to improve the environment

Castle Adlez map

The Warello Network explanation as non optional material

Giving the other teens mechanics like Jayce has for music.

More dialogue options--I was extremely worried people would miss out too much in non linear gameplay or regret I don't know how to script a Visual Novel save system into RPGmaker similar to renpy or Tyranno.

Bad ending does not function - If you get the last sequence right you are suppose to delete Terabyte.  I forgot a "Exit Eventing" for the area before the transfer to the bad ending map where Terabyte asks Mana where he is going when he dies.  I really wanted people to have to force an error to get the good ending as a non conventional way to keep the best ending out of reach.

Clean up errors - Yeah it wasn't so much the time limit, but the time limit imposed by work.  I am better prepared to work in a contest now though and managed to tough it out with my scripter Mundy who did an excellent job as well as you Makio.  I am glad the bumbling didn't hurt people's impressions of the game.  Though it will definitely cost me points with the judges.  The best I can hope for is not to be dismissed during the first round of judging.

 

[Vox Novus]

Hey palladinthug! This is my lucky 15th game I've played in the IGMC (if such a lucky number does in fact exist). Also posted my comments on your games page.

I won't quite review this game as thoroughly as I might some because you were obviously trying to make a certain type of experience here.

The game is funny and the characters are injected with a lot of personality that makes them all unique, the plot of the game while utterly absurd is perfectly suited for what experience you were trying to offer the player. I enjoyed your references to other things, for example the show reboot; when I read that I was sent into a spiral of childhood nostalgia (I loved that show as a kid).

Suggestions for improvement:

-The font is awkward in my opinion, maybe its just the all caps?

-When you first meet iggy, you move the sprites of some characters (Jayce and Iggy I believe) but don't erase Iggy's picture first. This lets me see how the picture is cut off and is a little unprofessional in appearance. Displaying artwork the right way is important, especially in this type of game where that is one of the main draws.

-The music game was not really enjoyable, it wasn't broken or glitchy at all but it wasn't fun either. This type of music game is something I've seen in slight variations in plenty of games before. Kudos for using it to progress elements of the story though.

-In the credits of the game there is a textbox present the entire time, obscuring a large section of the credits thus making it difficult to see some of the people you are actually trying to credit.

-If you do more with the project I think it would be wise to let the player have some manner of control and investigate things in the computer world for themselves.

-Admittedly by the ending sections of the game its premise was starting to lose its charm mostly because of the fact there wasn't anything breaking up the text and story.

Over all I think the game achieved for me what you set it out to do, by the end I felt it was a nice break from the other IGMC games I've been playing and was ready to tackle some more again. Also Scythuz if you are reading this I am a musician now!