Kingdoms of Almaria - Update 4/22/15

[HeroofTime123]

4/22/15 - See post by me below

Game Title: Kingdoms of Almaria

Download Link: http://www.mediafire.com/download/p9nilqibllth3la/Kingdoms_of_Almaria.exe

Music: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3_N0EK3d_adEGaaP6DMBZIt3AqoQMnbh

Preface: This is the first game my friends and I have worked on in our free time. We are new to the program we have not even had it for a year so please keep that in mind when critiquing our game.

Summary: 

Plot: In the continent of Almaria, there are five kingdoms that have coexisted together in peace for many years. However, one day in the kingdom of Calendra, the king summons his two most trusted warriors to investigate a suspicious cease of communications from the other kingdoms. Together, along with other party members they meet along the way, they must save the other kingdoms and the whole continent from certain doom.

Features: This game does not have any special battle scripts or anything like that simply because we wanted to make as much of this game as we could on our own. We did add a script that adds sound to text appearing and one that makes certain images static to give the game more personality without being a drastic change. We also added one locks the party leader for plot reasons. What it does have is an almost entirely original soundtrack (two or three songs and all but one battle theme are preinstalled with RPG Maker), some original sprite work, and a few original battlers (all done by me)

Progress: As of right now, only the starting kingdom, Calendra, is available and is about 85%-90% finished. The main story is there and is, for the most part, set up as it would appear in the final version. There are four side quests included though only one is finished, two are only started, and one only has a single room available at the moment. Most of the kingdom is accessible except for the exit and a few areas that have not been made yet. At this stage, we are trying to see whether or not people like this game before going further. 

Characters: 

Talric is the head of the Royal Guard of Calendra and a powerful Paladin. He has known Michalis since the Demon Wars, which took place 10 years prior to the current events and it was his actions in that war that earned him his position. He is a stern leader and takes his missions very seriously.

Michalis is the Commander of the Calendran Army and is a skilled swordsman. He has known Talric since the Demon Wars, which took place 10 years prior to the current events and it was his actions in that war that earned him his position. He is much more laid-back than Talric but knows when to get serious.

Sealmin is a mysterious boy who is not from Calendra. He has very strange powers that are unique to him that allow him to manipulate a pocket dimension. As of now, it is unclear as to why he wants to join the party.

Markus is a Spellblade from Sylvara, a woodland village of elves who practice sword-based magic. Unlike the other Spellblades, Markus has a special ability that allows him to use multiple elements at once rather than only one at a time. He is a capable warrior despite his young age and has always dreamed of going on a big adventure.

Vel-Zaroth is a crypt-keeper from the village of Phastmyn, located in the swamps. He has the ability to summon spirits and communicate with them from beyond the grave. He once made a living off this skill, but he eventually gave it up due to abuse of his power. 

Screenshots:

    

Credits:

Zerbu-Text Sound Effects Script

Seer UK-Fixed Picture Script

OtakuDJK1NG - Party Leader Lock Script

EDIT: Reuploaded the game file without all the extra stuff in it. I can't believe I didn't manage all those files. I'm sorry about that.
 

 

[Kes]

600Mb and it's only the beginning of the game!!!  I think you will find that a lot of people will not be able to download it because of the size.

Could I make a suggestion?  I'm guessing that you have a lot of music files there and that they are in mp3 or wav format.  You could use Audacity (it's free) to convert these to ogg vorbis format.  Typically that will reduce the file size by 60% for mp3 and 80% for wav files, without loss of audio quality.  (and mp3 files don't loop properly in Ace).

EDIT

I have found another big reason for the file size.  When I extracted the game I found that in the game folder there was not only the game, but also another compressed file of nearly 250Mb called Kingdoms of Almaria DEMO, so I have 2 copies of the game.  What isn't clear to me is which version you want feedback on.

There are also a number of files which need not be included in your download, like the GCH files and the DS_STORE files.

EDIT AGAIN

Okay, your thread didn't say that this was a puzzle game.  Starting the player off in what first appears like a blank room with zero information about what to do is always a slightly risky option.  I got the chest, threw the switch and began searching for the way out in earnest.

So I need something to blast open the wall.  Or maybe I don't.  The wording is highly ambiguous.  But…  I have clicked on everything in sight in the opening map, downstairs and outside.  Nothing.  I had thought that maybe I have to fall through the black hole in a different way to land on the floor below (as I can only access the upper ledge at the moment).  Clicking all round the edges of both holes produces nothing; the only way to enter the black hole at the bottom is the ‘official’ tile at the top, and no matter where I walk off the path, I am always transported back to the start position, so that can’t be the solution.

I am, therefore, utterly stuck.  I can see no hint of a clue.

AND YET ANOTHER EDIT

It looks like I picked the wrong version of the game to try out, as the other one seems to begin in a more logical place.  Back to the drawing board.

I strongly recommend that you re-upload your game without the false game in it.

 

[HeroofTime123]

600Mb and it's only the beginning of the game!!!  I think you will find that a lot of people will not be able to download it because of the size.

Could I make a suggestion?  I'm guessing that you have a lot of music files there and that they are in mp3 or wav format.  You could use Audacity (it's free) to convert these to ogg vorbis format.  Typically that will reduce the file size by 60% for mp3 and 80% for wav files, without loss of audio quality.  (and mp3 files don't loop properly in Ace).

EDIT

I have found another big reason for the file size.  When I extracted the game I found that in the game folder there was not only the game, but also another compressed file of nearly 250Mb called Kingdoms of Almaria DEMO, so I have 2 copies of the game.  What isn't clear to me is which version you want feedback on.

There are also a number of files which need not be included in your download, like the GCH files and the DS_STORE files.

EDIT AGAIN

Okay, your thread didn't say that this was a puzzle game.  Starting the player off in what first appears like a blank room with zero information about what to do is always a slightly risky option.  I got the chest, threw the switch and began searching for the way out in earnest.

So I need something to blast open the wall.  Or maybe I don't.  The wording is highly ambiguous.  But…  I have clicked on everything in sight in the opening map, downstairs and outside.  Nothing.  I had thought that maybe I have to fall through the black hole in a different way to land on the floor below (as I can only access the upper ledge at the moment).  Clicking all round the edges of both holes produces nothing; the only way to enter the black hole at the bottom is the ‘official’ tile at the top, and no matter where I walk off the path, I am always transported back to the start position, so that can’t be the solution.

I am, therefore, utterly stuck.  I can see no hint of a clue.

AND YET ANOTHER EDIT

It looks like I picked the wrong version of the game to try out, as the other one seems to begin in a more logical place.  Back to the drawing board.

I strongly recommend that you re-upload your game without the false game in it.

I'm really sorry about all that. I can't believe I forgot to take out the older version of the game. I reuploaded it now and it should be the correct version. 

 

[HeroofTime123]

Bumping

Any feedback would be really appreciated. It's our first game but we really put a lot of work into this and we really want to hear other people's opinions.

 

[Kes]

I've tried a couple of times to download the demo and I end up with "Page not available".  I don't normally have problems with Mediafire, but this one seems to be the exception.

 

[HeroofTime123]

I've tried a couple of times to download the demo and I end up with "Page not available".  I don't normally have problems with Mediafire, but this one seems to be the exception.

It was opening the page for me and letting me download it, but I tried changing the link so you can see if it works now.

 

[HeroofTime123]

Bumping again. 

Hate to be "that" guy but I really want at least some feedback on this game.

 

[bgillisp]

I downloaded and played the game, here are my thoughts.

Spoiler

I start out summoned by the king. That is one large throne room. Won't he get bored just staring at all that...nothing all day? Maybe add some statues and/or shrink the map some.

Ok, so I need to go to the training room. No idea where that is, so I'll just wander randomly. Here are a few things I noticed while randomly wandering (in no particular order)

-You have some wall tiles with no ceiling, specifically on the bottom of your maps. Not sure if you forgot to put them there, but it would look much better if you would add a ceiling on all sides.

-Many of the guards don't talk to me when I try to talk to them. Same with the people in town. I didn't read the note though that this was just a preliminary dev for feedback until after I played though. Still, to gauge interest better I'd flesh out the town. Make sure everyone has something important to say. Those you did put lines to were really good (the couple who one doesn't want to go there every day anymore, the guy running all the stands by himself, the child playing tag who tries to add you to the game). I'd keep on going with that, it would help the game a lot.

-A suggestion on mapping. The insides of your maps are way too big. To give an example, when I was in a bedroom, I noticed it was 15 x14, not counting the walls on either side. If we assume that the bed is 6 x 3 feet, that translates to a 45 x 42 foot room. Now, I know this is a castle, but no one would build a 45 x 42 foot room except maybe a king (and even then, that is a stretch). Maybe shrink it down some? To give you an idea, my room is 12 x 12 where I live (4 x 4 in RPGMaker by those assumptions). Shrinking them down in size would both prevent the empty map complaint many people have on these boards, and make your job easier. And don't feel bad, my game started out with a 90 x 90 house before I learned how to make things more compact.

-Are you planning on adding the ability to interact with things on the map? I saw you could interact with one suit of armor, but none of the other items.

-I tired to see if I could leave the town, the game won't let me. Good job on catching that and not letting the player leave too early.

-I do like the music! How did you manage to make it so that the town and castle are essentially the same theme but with different instruments? RPG Maker doesn't let you just change BGM's without starting over, so how did you manage that?

So I finally decided to stop just aimlessly checking out the map, and went and found Nicholas for training. Seems like a decent way for the player to learn the battle system.

Now sure what is up with those skills that cost 100 MP, but the number says 50? Are you trying to make it so that TP and MP are both used in a skill? If so maybe check out Yanfly's battle system and skill restriction script, I think it is possible with those two to have both an MP and TP cost visible. As it is, I was just confused (and I imagine many others will be).

Wasn't sure what to do after training, so I wandered some more. King doesn't tell me anything, and I can't leave town. Had to stop here. I'd suggest maybe adding a text telling the player where to go after training? Maybe when they leave the training room for the first time?

Overall: Nice job with the music. With some attention to the mapping, it has potential. Maybe just start by touching up the shops to make them smaller at first (and leave the castle for later), that's what I did for a while with mine. I have no thoughts on the graphics as I can play a game in ASCII and not care, so best ask another tester on that, as for me, I thought they were functional.

Hard to say on the story though, wasn't able to start it as I had no idea where to go after training. But, the town is starting to come alive, which is a good sign.

 

[HeroofTime123]

I downloaded and played the game, here are my thoughts.

Spoiler

I start out summoned by the king. That is one large throne room. Won't he get bored just staring at all that...nothing all day? Maybe add some statues and/or shrink the map some.

Ok, so I need to go to the training room. No idea where that is, so I'll just wander randomly. Here are a few things I noticed while randomly wandering (in no particular order)

-You have some wall tiles with no ceiling, specifically on the bottom of your maps. Not sure if you forgot to put them there, but it would look much better if you would add a ceiling on all sides.

-Many of the guards don't talk to me when I try to talk to them. Same with the people in town. I didn't read the note though that this was just a preliminary dev for feedback until after I played though. Still, to gauge interest better I'd flesh out the town. Make sure everyone has something important to say. Those you did put lines to were really good (the couple who one doesn't want to go there every day anymore, the guy running all the stands by himself, the child playing tag who tries to add you to the game). I'd keep on going with that, it would help the game a lot.

-A suggestion on mapping. The insides of your maps are way too big. To give an example, when I was in a bedroom, I noticed it was 15 x14, not counting the walls on either side. If we assume that the bed is 6 x 3 feet, that translates to a 45 x 42 foot room. Now, I know this is a castle, but no one would build a 45 x 42 foot room except maybe a king (and even then, that is a stretch). Maybe shrink it down some? To give you an idea, my room is 12 x 12 where I live (4 x 4 in RPGMaker by those assumptions). Shrinking them down in size would both prevent the empty map complaint many people have on these boards, and make your job easier. And don't feel bad, my game started out with a 90 x 90 house before I learned how to make things more compact.

-Are you planning on adding the ability to interact with things on the map? I saw you could interact with one suit of armor, but none of the other items.

-I tired to see if I could leave the town, the game won't let me. Good job on catching that and not letting the player leave too early.

-I do like the music! How did you manage to make it so that the town and castle are essentially the same theme but with different instruments? RPG Maker doesn't let you just change BGM's without starting over, so how did you manage that?

So I finally decided to stop just aimlessly checking out the map, and went and found Nicholas for training. Seems like a decent way for the player to learn the battle system.

Now sure what is up with those skills that cost 100 MP, but the number says 50? Are you trying to make it so that TP and MP are both used in a skill? If so maybe check out Yanfly's battle system and skill restriction script, I think it is possible with those two to have both an MP and TP cost visible. As it is, I was just confused (and I imagine many others will be).

Wasn't sure what to do after training, so I wandered some more. King doesn't tell me anything, and I can't leave town. Had to stop here. I'd suggest maybe adding a text telling the player where to go after training? Maybe when they leave the training room for the first time?

Overall: Nice job with the music. With some attention to the mapping, it has potential. Maybe just start by touching up the shops to make them smaller at first (and leave the castle for later), that's what I did for a while with mine. I have no thoughts on the graphics as I can play a game in ASCII and not care, so best ask another tester on that, as for me, I thought they were functional.

Hard to say on the story though, wasn't able to start it as I had no idea where to go after training. But, the town is starting to come alive, which is a good sign.

Awesome, Thank you for the feedback!

The king was supposed to say that the training room is in the East Wing of the castle. That's even one of the pictures I put on the original post here.

Yeah the guard thing was just a matter of not being sure what to make them say and I figured it wasn't that big of a deal for a demo.

When you say insides, I assume you mean houses and such, a lot of which are the minimum map size 17X13. I tried making some of them smaller but it didn't let me. Now that I think about it, I could just not use the whole space but I guess I didn't do that originally because I just didn't think that way. I'll work on that for later versions then. As for the castle. I admit I made them HUGE. This was partly intentional and partly naivety. The castle was the first area I made and I was trying out all the stuff I could do with the program so I made these huge rooms and by the end, I guess I got so used to them that I didn't really think about it, but looking back on it, they are way to big. I will definitely shrink them.

I think that suit of armor actually wasn't meant to be interacted with. If it is the suit I'm thinking of, I originally put that in there when I was trying stuff out and learning the program but I meant to take it out. My mistake.

Yeah that was one of the first things I made sure of when making the town. I had to make sure that the player wouldn't be able to just leave until the plot allowed it but they at least knew that they were at the exit.

The music between the castle and the town is actually A BGM and a BGS. In the castle, the BGM plays at normal volume while the BGS plays at zero volume and the town is the other way around. This only works because I removed the End Battle ME but I think it was worth it.

For training, in order to advance the story, you have to do the highest level training. Then the guard will tell you what to do next.

Thanks again for the feedback, and I hope you keep playing. I'd really like to hear your thoughts on the rest of it.

 

[bgillisp]

About the sizes. You can't make the map less than 17 x 13, but you can choose to use less than that. The way I do it in my game is I have all my interior maps for the town on the same map, spaced apart by 20 tiles in each direction. This way if I have end up only using 10 x 7 tiles for the shop, the next one starts on tile 30 to the right (tile 10 + 20 tiles space). Seems to work pretty well so far. You can probably go lower but I keep it at 20 just to play it safe.

That does happen with the first map. That 90 x 90 house I mentioned I left it for the longest time until just last month, as I had no idea how to fix it at first. Tends to happen when starting out. Now I sketch on paper all that I want in a map, then note how much space I need for this. Seems to have helped to avoid the super size peasant house problem, at least for me.

Ah, ok. Might want to add a comment to tell the player to do the highest level training to advance. I probably did miss the directions for training as I decided to go wander first, and just forgot by the time I was done, but I did find it.

 

[abe109]

Kingdoms of Almaria threat detected: suspicious cloud EP7.

Can't download it.

 

[BerryB]

Okay. Finally finished the demo. Not going to bother doing the sidequests since I’m not the kind of guy who likes distractions from main storylines (I’ll do it when I have time). So, here’s my opinion on the game and I hope you’ll forgive me in advance since I’m a bit “offensive” on my opinions. But here are some of my quick opinions which I give some thought into and my constructive plus and minuses of the game in general. Hopefully, you’ll make it better. (Even though I have no right to be critiquing this since I know that no game is absolutely flawless and I know that I might be bashed on in my own work the same way..)   

Pros:

Spoiler

Music is nice and fluid. BGM mix is also cool, Title theme is quite nice and a pretty OK storyline. Cute sound effects, I like the beepy beeps. Interesting story.

On Selena’s house has a boss spirit which is so kawaii. XD I love it’s expression.

[SIZE=10.5pt]Vel-Zaroth joins your party and all his minions just watch him leave. It’s the best! XD[/SIZE]

Cons:

Spoiler

Map seems totally unfleshed just yet (I can understand since it’s a demo and you did say that you’re new to RPG Maker VX Ace, like me) and some NPC’s don’t even say anything (such as some of the guards) because… why not? Also. Training grind sessions involving the soldiers are grind fest sessions I ended up grinding until Lv.7ish. Shouldn’t there be restrictions over this optional training montage or something? Map is also too big that I often get bored walking around so much. But it looks like that problem has been addressed in a previous post, so I'm not going to talk about it more. (I still have map problems too, so it's not just you)

I got so confused where I need to go for the first time that I only realized that you need to beat the ghosts down on the castle’s basement? What? Who told me that? I’m so confused??? I just walked out of random and I beat stuff and plot moves on? The player isn’t being told of this? Right…I’m ending it there. It becomes less noticeable later on, but I feel like you aren’t being told what to do..which is what an open-world game is trying to achieve but.. If you make an RPG with a set quest or set dungeon or set goal…then make it in a way the player could understand, so that they won’t get super lost. You don’t have to tell them in big bold letters on where to go, but at least tell the player via the characters or an event as to where to go and the direction it goes to. Otherwise, you will have a lot of confused players on your hands.

Event order problems. On the swamp. I don’t recall it much but I know that when looking for Vel-Zaroth, I already went north-east, blocked by crystals and then after I saved the Sister, I went to a pentagram place north of where she is taken hostage and then someone told me I had to go north-east. Before realizing that I have to talk to Selena the witch who can break it and do her cleaning-the-house-from-skeleton-rtp-battlers quest (and they respawn too..). Kind of an event plot jump on that part, huh? I got a little confused there. But I figured it shouldn’t be a big deal to many people who explored one place before moving to the other.. (I on the other hand, did the opposite)

Also, you beat the boss on her house, give Selena her amulet and all the skeletons are cleaned up in one fell swoop. Okay..not going to question the logic of that either…

The King’s chambers are bland and blank. Like…Nothing’s catchy in the eye.

You enter and a tournament to see the best 2 warriors in the village duking it out in a match of epic proportions (also Mandatory Character Battle). Convenient much? Fate makes timings so convenient for the sake of plot progression. Its repetitively refreshing.

King gets killed and he has a bad omen kind of “something bad’s about to happen” vibe. It feels refreshing to hear it from him (and cliché too).

Innocence and trial and yet you give the soldiers freedom on what to do? Shouldn’t they be more vigilant and more restricted to you since you ARE bring suspected of murdering your king. But then again... I probably didn't listen to the chancellor's words on proving themselves since I don't really get it. (It's not that realistic for me..but hey, to each their own)

Also, Mongolia is the most OP thing I’ve ever seen in RPG Maker Battle. It K.O’s your opponent so much I just wanna squeal. I spawn Mongolia on everything and battles just makes it too easy. You’re going to need to change this soon otherwise people will start asking questions in terms of battles.

Conclusion:

Spoiler

The game needs polish, the story’s not bad but a little cliché and I think the interactions with objects and items aren’t bad. Mapping needs work and Mongolia is basically F8 on battle playtests. The highlight of this game though is the music, Its not the usual RTP (other than battles) and they are well done. This game isn’t worth the time to play its sidequests since I’m already lost partway in the main quest but I’d say its worth playing just to see the story. I’d say give it 20 minutes unless you’re bored or devoted to find every flaw in the game.

And that is my opinion on the game. If I did something amiss or I may have gotten it wrong on some points, tell me and I’ll see what I can do to confirm it for you (but no promises since I’m kind of preoccupied as well). 

 

 

[HeroofTime123]

abe109
I have no idea what that means. It seems like other people can download it though so I'm really unsure about what to do about that.

BerryB
I totally understand and I expect harsh critiques or else I wouldn't learn much to make me better.

Pros:

Spoiler

It's good to hear you liked that stuff.
 

I wasn't really going for that but I'll take it lol.

Yeah that was our idea of what to do with them after you had Vel-Zaroth.

Cons:

Spoiler

Yeah like I said before, I made maps unnecessarily large and empty because I was (and still kind of am) new to the program and didn't really think about it by the end. The reason some NPCs don't talk is because I couldn't think of anything for them to say and felt it wasn't too important for the demo. I have no intention of leaving them that way in the finished product. I assume this refers to part before the basements. I never really thought about restricting it because when my friends and I playtested it, we always knew we had to do the hardest difficulty to progress and would be done with it around  Lv. 4 or so. I suppose I can make it so you can only do each training once if that would help clear up some confusion.

The guard tells you after training that you have to go to the basements. He only tells you this after beating the hardest difficulty but he says something along the lines of "Some guards said they hsve seen ghosts in the basement of the West Wing. Chan you check it out." That's not the exact wording but I know he does tell you where to go. In fact all of the directions are in the dialogue. In order to know to go to the woods, and elf tells the player that in the pub after the kings death. Once you get Markus, they say they have to go to the swamps. At the swamps, they talk about how they need to bring Vel-Zaroth back to the palace. I'll admit that one is not to specific, since you technically need to bring him to the Throne Room but I'll fix that. My point is there is direction as to where to go, but it is part of the dialogue.

Well that's actually because saving the Sister from the cult is part of a side quest. It is completely optional. There are still two ways to go about breaking the barrier but she has nothing to do with it. The two ways to do the barrier part are either going to the barrier (as you did) then going straight to Serena who will make you do the Haunted House thing first. After that, she will open the barrier for you. The other way is to talk to the girl right outside the village who is standing next to a pentagram. She will have you battle some ghosts and tell you to meet her at the inn. She will introduce you to her sister (not the kidnapped Sister) who will talk to you and tell you to talk to Serena before going to the barrier in the first place. Both do the same thing in the end but long-story-short what you did with the kidnapped Sister was part of an optional sidequest.

That was actually because my friend who worked on another part of the game said he used some of the statues as some thing important for his area, and I didn't want to use any until I saw which ones they were. By the time I got his maps, I forgot to add statues into the castle.

I did that to try and do something different for introducing that character. I didn't want it to be just another "walk up, talk and go" character. I thought having a battle would be something a bit different.

Yes it is cliché but none of us are exactly professional writers and we certainly don't claim to be. It works and we like it as part of our story so we decided to use it, as cliché as it is.

He did say that they have time to gather evidence to prove themselves, but they may not leave the kingdom. That's pretty much the only restriction. It's generous but it's also based kind of on their honor since they are highly ranked soldiers and the Advisor expects them to come back do to their sense of loyalty and honor.

Oh my God, I am so sorry. I swear I took that out of the game. It was a joke move we put in for playtesting just to clear battles faster. I NEVER intended for that to stay in the final game. I don't know when you downloaded the game, but I have since uploaded a newer version that I'm CERTAIN doesn't have it. If that's the one you have, I'm really sorry and I can't believe I missed it. If that's not the version you have, then I did fix that because as I said, it was never intended to be in there.

Thank you for this feedback. I will try to correct these mistakes and add to things that seem unfinished. I'm glad you liked the music and I'm really sorry you got so lost and had so much trouble.

 

 

[HeroofTime123]

Bumping again, as well as updating. I did make a few edits, firstly removing the skill "Mongolia," which was a joke skill put in for play testing while we were working on the game. If anyone played that version of the game, I'm sorry you had to see that. Secondly, the training at the beginning now has a level cap so that it will force the story along after a certain level. It originally required the player to do the hardest level of training but now it will stop when one of the characters gets to level 5 OR the player does the hardest level, whichever comes first. Hopefully that works better and clears up some confusion.

Also, I am currently working on fixing the issue of the excessively large maps. It will take a while but coming back to it after a bit has made me realize just how big of a problem it really was. After that, I intend to finish up this kingdom and be ready to move on to the next one. So in summary, I fixed stuff, I'm still fixing other stuff, then I'll make new stuff. That's the plan.

On another note, more feedback would be greatly appreciated. The map thing is an issue, I know and I'm working on it. What I really want feedback on are things like the story, the flow of events, the side quests (or at least what there is of the side quests so far), the characters and anything along those lines. If you find a game breaking bug, that would also be helpful to know about. Thank you to those of you who have given feedback so far. Anyway that's it.