Lords of the Wasteland (with Demo version 1.06)

[Dark_Metamorphosis]

So I have played a bit now, and thought I could share some impressions so far.

(Sorry for possible weird English, I'm very tierd and tend to write like a sack of potatoes then).

Here goes:

Spoiler

First off I have to say that being forced to use Full-screen is a big no-no for me! It's especially annoying when you want to give feedback, since I can't write down things as I go and have to remember everything until I'm done playing (Which I had to do now). It's very easy to forget something when you can't write it down, if you instantly find something worth mentioning. That aside, I really like your title-screen! Fits well and everything blend nicely (sets atmosphere too).

I'm not sure what I feel about using music from Final Fantasy VI, Secret of Mana etc,etc. For me it sorts of break the game a bit, since when I hear these tunes I instantly starts to think about those games and how wonderful I think they are. When I hear music that means something special to me, it brings me to a specifc place and feeling (In this case it brings back memories of playing Secret of Mana, and FF VI and the stories of these). It's a bit of a set-back because I'm supposed to focus on your game, and your story. It just feels completely wrong since those tunes are so known and cherished.

But that's only my opinion, people that doesn't know about these games will not have any trouble with that. And I'm pretty sure that some of those that do know them, might have a different view than me on this.

Ok, enough talk about that I'm supposed to give feedback now!

- In general I think that your maps are a bit too big. The first map (inside the belly, is pretty huge) and the lack of clutter and things to look at makes the rooms very empty. I would suggest you to shrink it down a bit or add different sections of the map with transfers, to have an easier time to give them a bit more immersion.

- The battle system is very nice (I really like AT and the skills that you get are useful. I do however think the TP needed is a bit too high for some of the spells. You could try lower them a tiny bit, or maybe add a +1 or +2 of TP gain on a normal attack.

- The menu looks great! I think that scrolling parallax picture is a neat addition, and the pictures that show up depending on which menu that's open looks great. I do however feel that the picture of a gun, is a bit out of place. Maybe you could add something else to illustrate the weapons page.

- Back to the battle system, I think that most of the battles are balanced well (even though I feel that some enemies have a bit too much hp for my taste. at least this early in the game). The fairies kicked my ass pretty bad though and was sort of a difficulty spike pretty instantly. It's not that they are hard to beat, since they go down very fast but five of them is a bit overkill. Especially if they spam that flame spell that deals way over 100 damage, and you are low on items at the point. (Now after using Mirage a lot, I'm not sure if that would have helped me in that fight though).

-  Picked up a lot of items! I love to explore so finding new chests with items is awesome, even though I do think that the map is a bit large and It's pretty easy to get lost. I love the instructions on all the items, makes me giggle each time! xD

- So got to the end (I guess the mouth? I hope It's not the... yea you know.) of the belly dungeon and got back to full-size! I think that's a cool concept by the way, using that shrink potion to get inside a creature like that. It made me think about Gears of War a bit (even though they didn't use a potion).

The boss-battle is well balanced, perfect amount of hit points and It's just about right in difficulty for a first boss. I do however feel like you should let the player heal up before the battle, since I got screwed over pretty badly with low hp.

- So got to the characters home-town, and I do think that the map can use a little work. They look fine, but if you could just spice them up that little bit and give them a bit more spice and edge, then I think they would be sweet. I do however have the same complain (sorry) about the interiors as I had with the belly dungeon. The maps feels way too big, mainly because there is so much empty space everywhere. If you could shrink them in size and add more clutter on a smaller area, it would feel much more comfy. It's nothing wrong with your mapping otherwise, It's just that it hurts the map a lot if they are too barren and empty, and all you can see is floor tile.

- Yay! Monster trophys, love this concept (I'm sort of using it in my game as well, since I don't want beasts and creatures to drop gold). Since It's something I love overall I can't wait to see more of this feature And it gave me a lot of gold too, love it.

- Once again about the music... Yeah you know how I feel about it (especially Shadow's theme is eating on my brain a bit).

- Hmm... I'm curios to why the weapons that I can buy in the store is the same as the once I already have? Could be a little upgrade at least I think

- Finished shoping, I talked to the guard and seems like I shall escort him somewhere. Got back to the forest and this is where I got into trouble. Those plants are pretty broken. I'm not sure if there's something going on with the sleep spell, because sometimes it didn't last for that long at all, and then I was stun locked the entire time until I saw the game over screen. It's even worse when you face a group with both the sleep spell and paralyzing, I'm stun locked for the entire fight and all I can do is watching the enemies pound on me. Not that fun if you ask me, but I'm pretty sure there might be a problem with the sleep spell overall. But I would not suggest to use 2 different stun-locks in the same fight, I more or less hate stun-locks overall as long as It's not for a turn or 2 only.

- So I stopped playing here because those plants locked me out several times and I ended up at the game over screen more than once. Decided to give it a rest for now, but I will surely pick it up again soon! I just hope I can get passed those darn plants xD

- Overall I think the game looks kinda promising, and the battle system is really what shines the most so far. I believe that over time, if you polish it up a bit it can become really nice, and I would love to play the full-version when it gets released. I do however feel like the start of the game was kind of confusing? You start inside the belly of a behemoth for some particular reason? (I have no idea why they are inside a belly). Then we slay the beast, and randomly just picks up a guy that needs an escort (cause that's our profession what I got so far, and no payment?).

- What I'm trying to say is that the setting is a bit shallow, and you don't really have anything to go with. Why are they inside a belly?, what's going on? In the first 20 minutes that I played I didn't get a single nudge on what the game is about, or what the plot is about at all. Maybe that's intentional from your side, and you want the player to get the answers later on. That's fine, but I really need to get a hint (a tiny, tiny one even) or it just feels like there's no point. It's more like: 'Okay I'm in this creatures belly, and then end up in a random forest to kill the beast for some reason? Then I find a town guard and escort him for whatever reason, only because It's our job or what?' Can you see where I'm getting at? I get the feeling that it doesn't serve a purporse to some degree when you don't know anything about anything at all.   

I hope you don't take this part too seriously though, because after all I havn't played that much yet. But I felt it enough, that I thought I should share my take on that.

I'm looking forward to continue, but maybe you could look into those plants a bit?

Best Regards!

 

[McTone]

Thanks a lot for the review! Here's some of my plans/responses:

Spoiler

First off I have to say that being forced to use Full-screen is a big no-no for me! 

• I'm not even sure how I did this! Milenin said something about that too, and it's definitely not intentional in the game design. I just forgot to see how to get rid of it. 
  

That aside, I really like your title-screen! Fits well and everything blend nicely (sets atmosphere too).

• Awesome. A lot of those images are just stock pictures, but I have a friend working on original pieces that fit the same tone. 
  

I'm not sure what I feel about using music from Final Fantasy VI, Secret of Mana etc,etc. 

• I am 100% with you on this. I chose FF VI music (don't think I used any Secret of Mana, just FF and the RTP stuff) because it's my favorite and a large part of my childhood as well. These are just placeholders to grasp the feel of what I want in those scenes because I have another friend who is working on the score for me! My friends just happen to be lazy so it may take some time...
  

- In general I think that your maps are a bit too big. The first map (inside the belly, is pretty huge) and the lack of clutter and things to look at makes the rooms very empty. I would suggest you to shrink it down a bit or add different sections of the map with transfers, to have an easier time to give them a bit more immersion.

• This is easily the number 1 complaint I get about this game. Mapping is where I am weakest, and believe it or not that is a severely shrunken down version of that map! I thought about doing different rooms with transfers like you said and I'll still be thinking about that. My biggest problem with adding clutter is that I haven't found a lot of stuff that looks good inside of a beast's body. Just bones and bubbles. 
  

- The battle system is very nice (I really like AT and the skills that you get are useful. I do however think the TP needed is a bit too high for some of the spells. You could try lower them a tiny bit, or maybe add a +1 or +2 of TP gain on a normal attack.

• The battles are meant to be fast paced so that you can build that TP quickly and use your skills a lot. I allowed the player to see the enemies' ATB bars as well so that you get a sense of tension and urgency as their attacks approach. I might add a couple TP points for attacking just to speed it up a bit, I think I could do that without breaking the balance. 
  

- The menu looks great! I think that scrolling parallax picture is a neat addition, and the pictures that show up depending on which menu that's open looks great. I do however feel that the picture of a gun, is a bit out of place. Maybe you could add something else to illustrate the weapons page.

• Thanks! Wish I could take credit but it's all Galv (except I recolored it and added the gun, I'll be adding other pictures too as soon as I find some that I like). Speaking of the gun, there will be guns in this game a little later on and a mix of technologies (mostly steampunk). This early, I wanted people to see it and start asking questions about the game. "Why a gun...I don't see any guns...." and pique their curiosity. Once I get pictures that match it thematically, I think it'll fit okay. If not, I'll figure something else out.
  

- Back to the battle system, I think that most of the battles are balanced well (even though I feel that some enemies have a bit too much hp for my taste. at least this early in the game). The fairies kicked my ass pretty bad though and was sort of a difficulty spike pretty instantly. It's not that they are hard to beat, since they go down very fast but five of them is a bit overkill. Especially if they spam that flame spell that deals way over 100 damage, and you are low on items at the point. (Now after using Mirage a lot, I'm not sure if that would have helped me in that fight though).

• I think battles are where I excel more (except the plants, but I'll get to what I'm doing there later). The high HP is so that you can use your skills more. I think the Bacterial Goop are the only ones that require more than a couple of hits to kill, and they're slow so you can build up and release on them. The Antibodies (fairies) are kind of place for you to use Caltrops on so you can get a sense of what that skill does and is good for. The skills are meant to be used a lot in this game. I keep getting different comments on the first part with the enemies depending on how each player has gone about it, so that tells me there is some variety and I kind of like that!
  

-  Picked up a lot of items! I love to explore so finding new chests with items is awesome, even though I do think that the map is a bit large and It's pretty easy to get lost. I love the instructions on all the items, makes me giggle each time! xD

• I hope not too many items! I know finding treasure makes us giddy, but too much and it loses its luster. I was worried about that in this part, but it seems like I struck the right balance! Plus all those items will be helpful since this first round of enemies can take their toll on poor Aeros (Davos could do this stage by himself, although it would be boring). I'm glad you liked my sense of humor! This game is drowning in it!
  

- So got to the end (I guess the mouth? I hope It's not the... yea you know.) of the belly dungeon and got back to full-size! I think that's a cool concept by the way, using that shrink potion to get inside a creature like that. It made me think about Gears of War a bit (even though they didn't use a potion).

The boss-battle is well balanced, perfect amount of hit points and It's just about right in difficulty for a first boss. I do however feel like you should let the player heal up before the battle, since I got screwed over pretty badly with low hp.

• Well...the Behemoth is facing backwards when you fight him....Don't think about it too much....I keep getting varied comments about this boss fight too based on how people approach it and prepare for it so I take that as a good sign again!
  

- So got to the characters home-town, and I do think that the map can use a little work. They look fine, but if you could just spice them up that little bit and give them a bit more spice and edge, then I think they would be sweet. I do however have the same complain (sorry) about the interiors as I had with the belly dungeon. The maps feels way too big, mainly because there is so much empty space everywhere. If you could shrink them in size and add more clutter on a smaller area, it would feel much more comfy. It's nothing wrong with your mapping otherwise, It's just that it hurts the map a lot if they are too barren and empty, and all you can see is floor tile.

• So mostly just more accents on the maps? Just items and such around? I think I have an issue where everything looks kind of cluttered on the maker and then when you get to the actual map it looks bare. I need to find out what that balance is. Like I said, this is the area where I need the most help. 
  

- Yay! Monster trophys, love this concept (I'm sort of using it in my game as well, since I don't want beasts and creatures to drop gold). Since It's something I love overall I can't wait to see more of this feature   And it gave me a lot of gold too, love it.

• Thanks! Yeah I don't like monsters carrying gold either. Glad we're on the same page!
  

- Once again about the music... Yeah you know how I feel about it (especially Shadow's theme is eating on my brain a bit).

• You and I are cut from the same cloth my friend. That theme was always my favorite and I'm going to be a particularly tough taskmaster when my friend is writing something to fill that space. 
  

- Hmm... I'm curios to why the weapons that I can buy in the store is the same as the once I already have? Could be a little upgrade at least I think 

• In the newest version there will be a lot of stuff in there (since this city is supposed to be kind of a cultural/trade center it doesn't make sense that there are only two things in there!). Most of which you can't afford. Just kind of want to tantalize you. I've been toying with the idea of putting a weapon upgrade in there, but I'm worried about what it'll do to the game balance from that point. I'll just have to test it a lot. 
  

- Finished shoping, I talked to the guard and seems like I shall escort him somewhere. Got back to the forest and this is where I got into trouble. Those plants are pretty broken....

• This is another common complaint I get. I'm actually doing something to Ander's character to make him more interesting and combat the stun lock issue. I've got it all set up and I'll send you a link to the demo with that feature if you wanna test it out for me. If you still have a save from before you get Ander you can check it out.
  

- Overall I think the game looks kinda promising, and the battle system is really what shines the most so far. I believe that over time, if you polish it up a bit it can become really nice, and I would love to play the full-version when it gets released. I do however feel like the start of the game was kind of confusing? 

• This is intentional for the most part. What I love about video games as an art form (and I'm sure you'll agree they are an art form) is the fact that I can show you a lot a tell you very little. You have agency and immersion and it allows for some very interesting things in story telling. I wanted to avoid a lot of exposition (mostly because it's just bad writing and secondly because it always seems out of place) and do my explaining bit by bit through the story so the player is driven to play more to learn more. Instead of directly saying: "Mr. Dubois hired Aeros and Davos for something and they took a shrinking potion, got eaten by a beast, found their way out and had to kill it" I tried to use the dialogue and the action to illustrate this indirectly. However, it isn't meant to be confusing so I may need to be a bit more direct. You have a very valid point about the stuff with Ander however and I've actually done a bit to clear that up since this last update. Again, if you want to see that I'll send you the link to what I have worked out so far. I don't really want to post another update yet because I'm afraid it'll mess with the progress some people have made so far, and I feel like I've been updating too often and it looks unprofessional. But what do I know!
  

Thanks so much for the feedback, it was extremely helpful and I'll be considering it in the rest of the game development. 

 

[Kes]

First off I have to say that being forced to use Full-screen is a big no-no for me!

• I'm not even sure how I did this! Milenin said something about that too, and it's definitely not intentional in the game design. I just forgot to see how to get rid of it. 

Have a look at the options under 'Game' on the toolbar.  Have you checked the item 'Launch in full screen'?  If you have, that's your problem, because the game will automatically open in the mode you had operative at the time you encrypted it, so it acts as your default.  If you haven't checked that item, then it's being caused by something else - and I personally have no idea what!

 

[McTone]

I'm almost certain thats the culprit. It'll be changed in the next update.

 

[Dark_Metamorphosis]

@Mctone:

Glad that you find some of the feedback useful, I'll add some notes to your responses as well.

Spoiler

I'm not even sure how I did this! Milenin said something about that too, and it's definitely not intentional in the game design. I just forgot to see how to get rid of it.

I see, well I have never experienced a forced full-screen like that before. Maybe It's a setting or a script that does it?

I am 100% with you on this. I chose FF VI music (don't think I used any Secret of Mana, just FF and the RTP stuff) because it's my favorite and a large part of my childhood as well. These are just placeholders...

I'm not sure where I got Secret of Mana into the picture, I must have heard wrong. I'm glad that they are placeholders, because I think that more unknown songs would do your game a much better favor, while still keeping the feeling and atmosphere that you desire. Check around the community as well, There are tons of experienced musicians on here! I'm sure you can find something (unless you want your friend to make the entire soundtrack of course).

My biggest problem with adding clutter is that I haven't found a lot of stuff that looks good inside of a beast's body. Just bones and bubbles. 

That's a valid point, I can see why it would be a bit of a struggle to map the insides of a beast like that. I hope you can get some resources for it (and look at the map outside of the box). As long as you work on it, it will most definetely turn out sweet in the end

I allowed the player to see the enemies' ATB bars as well so that you get a sense of tension and urgency as their attacks approach. I might add a couple TP points for attacking just to speed it up a bit, I think I could do that without breaking the balance. 

Yes, I really like the ATB bars and the best part about it in my opinion is that the ATB's are different for each enemy (slower and faster), that can be a really cool thing when puting up different strategies. If you are not going to use any spells that replenishes TP, you could always have a permanent state that replenishes 1 or 2 TP each or other ATB turn. I love how the TP is saved after each fight though, this is something I want to add into my own game (since I have problem with the random starting point of the TP). And maybe decrease a % of the TP after each battle but have the TP stay the same after that.

Thanks! Wish I could take credit but it's all Galv (except I recolored it and added the gun, I'll be adding other pictures too as soon as I find some that I like). Speaking of the gun, there will be guns in this game a little later on and a mix of technologies (mostly steampunk).

I see, my bad then! Will be interesting to see how the mixed technologies work out! I use it in a similar way in my game (I don't have guns, but there are a small sense of technology like mechanics and terminals that Clem can operate if she have the correct skill in Engineering.

I hope not too many items!...I'm glad you liked my sense of humor! This game is drowning in it!

Nope the amount of items was perfect, and I It's awesome to hear that the game is drowning in that kind of humour! I will like that a lot! xD

So mostly just more accents on the maps? Just items and such around? I think I have an issue where everything looks kind of cluttered on the maker and then when you get to the actual map it looks bare.

Yes, more clutter overall (I think Indrah has done a 'clumping' guide here on the forums that explains how you easily can clutter things together to make it look more immersive and even recolor things to make it fit better, and make it fresh.) I learned a lot of cool tricks from that, and other guides out there so I definetely suggest you to take a look into that for a bit. And always make sure to use the 1/1 scale when mapping (never zoom out when you are actually mapping). You want to be in the player's perspective all the time, and once you think the map loos okay, be sure to test it out and see how it would look and feel for the player. Add notes to what you feel when exploring the map, and use those notes to correct it in the maker. That's some suggestions I thought I could bring up! And like I said, your mapping is pretty good on It's own so keep practicing!

This is another common complaint I get. I'm actually doing something to Ander's character to make him more interesting and combat the stun lock issue. I've got it all set up and I'll send you a link to the demo with that feature if you wanna test it out for me.

Sure thing, you can send it my way! I'm pretty sure I have a savepoint before getting Ander.

This is intentional for the most part. What I love about video games as an art form (and I'm sure you'll agree they are an art form) is the fact that I can show you a lot a tell you very little.

...Again, if you want to see that I'll send you the link to what I have worked out so far. I don't really want to post another update yet because I'm afraid it'll mess with the progress some people have made so far, and I feel like I've been updating too often and it looks unprofessional. But what do I know!

Yes I agree, and that was my impression as well and It's awesome that you show instead of telling (something that I'm struggling with in some of my scenes as you are aware off). But I still find that knowing nothing at all can be as devestating as getting fed with walls of information in text boxes, at least there could be a small hint as to what happened before they ended up in the belly, and what they are planning to do next (a small flashback that is interractable perhaps, without the need of too much texboxes).

Feel free to send it, and I think that It's better if you put the new versions up as patches (where you try to change most of the issues that was presented in the previous version). That way you won't get feedback on the same issues, and instead get new feedback on other things that could be improved etc.

I wish you all the luck with the project, and I will keep my eyes out for updates! Supporting this!

 

[Matseb2611]

Heya man. I've decided to check out your project. Not too far yet, but the project already looks promising. I like how you've made the background move in the first dungeon to make it look like the characters are inside the monster. So far I didn't come across any bugs or hiccups, although I did find the battles a bit confusing, because both of the starting characters have very similar skills and ATB gauge would fill up at different timing with each of them, so it was kinda hard to know which of them was taking a turn. I'll let you know what I think as I get further.

 

[Kes]

Just a thought on mapping inside the beast.  Do you have XP?  If not, would you consider getting it?  It's very cheap.

The reason I ask is that one of the tile sets it comes with is "Inner Body" which has things you might want to use.

 

[McTone]

Just a thought on mapping inside the beast.  Do you have XP?  If not, would you consider getting it?  It's very cheap.

The reason I ask is that one of the tile sets it comes with is "Inner Body" which has things you might want to use.

I don't think I have it in me to start over though.

Heya man. I've decided to check out your project. Not too far yet, but the project already looks promising. I like how you've made the background move in the first dungeon to make it look like the characters are inside the monster. So far I didn't come across any bugs or hiccups, although I did find the battles a bit confusing, because both of the starting characters have very similar skills and ATB gauge would fill up at different timing with each of them, so it was kinda hard to know which of them was taking a turn. I'll let you know what I think as I get further.

I know exactly what you mean. I've looked around for a cursor to use in battle (I've seen it in some people's screenshots, but I've never seen exactly what they were using). This is something I've wanted anyway because I like keeping your eyes away from menus as much as I can, and right now you have to look down to see who is highlighted to tell which person it is. When you get different people with different skills is a lot easier, but yes this is not a problem I want to have in the final version.

Also, does anybody know where I can find Indrah's clumping guide that was mentioned earlier? I'd really like to take a look at that. 

 

[McTone]

I added a supporter banner to the main post for anybody who wants to use it. I really appreciate all the help an encouragement I've received on this forum and I'm so happy I became a part of this community. Thank you all!

Here's the banner for anybody who doesn't want to go back to the first page:

Spoiler

 

[Dark_Metamorphosis]

Cool, added it to my signature

 

[Matseb2611]

Heya man. I got further in. Some thoughts below:

- I really liked the mapping and atmosphere in that huge church in the 2nd town, the one where you get told about the creation of the world. Some interesting lore there.

- 'This might salve your life' is funny as hell.

- I think it might be a good idea to set enemies on the map onto a lower speed, because at the moment they're way too fast and dodging them is next to impossible, so you end up having to fight every single one of them.

- I agree with Dark that most of the enemies have a bit too much HP (the ones in the forest at least), causing battles to be longer than necessary.

- But at least the healing items seem to be in good supply.

- Also agree with Dark that it might be a good idea to provide some new weapons for the player to buy, maybe not in the first town, but at least in the second one.

- I still don't quite understand why one of my initial party members left us without saying so much as a word.

- The story seems to be picking up already. I honestly didn't expect what happened there in the council chamber. Will see what happens next.

 

[McTone]

Heya man. I got further in. Some thoughts below:

- I really liked the mapping and atmosphere in that huge church in the 2nd town, the one where you get told about the creation of the world. Some interesting lore there.

- 'This might salve your life' is funny as hell.

- I think it might be a good idea to set enemies on the map onto a lower speed, because at the moment they're way too fast and dodging them is next to impossible, so you end up having to fight every single one of them.

- I agree with Dark that most of the enemies have a bit too much HP (the ones in the forest at least), causing battles to be longer than necessary.

- But at least the healing items seem to be in good supply.

- Also agree with Dark that it might be a good idea to provide some new weapons for the player to buy, maybe not in the first town, but at least in the second one.

- I still don't quite understand why one of my initial party members left us without saying so much as a word.

- The story seems to be picking up already. I honestly didn't expect what happened there in the council chamber. Will see what happens next.

-Thanks. That's one of the later maps I did in this demo (maybe even the very last one) so I had improved some there. That lore will definitely be a large part of the game as it goes.

- I tried to put humor in all the item descriptions. Glad you guys are liking it!

- Okay, I thought they were kinda fast too. I always just fought everything when I've tested it so I never really noticed though. I think I'm going to put a wait on them and something to notify the player that the enemy has noticed you (maybe steal from you here Dark...)

- Yeah items are for using so you ought to have some.

- A friend of mine played through recently and I noticed I have a bad habit of making weapon/armor shops completely useless. I'll fix that for sure by putting in some intermediate weapons and that way I don't break the game balance I've established and it gives the player a feeling of progressing. 

Spoiler

 Davos leaving was part of the scene where you get Ander. He says he isn't going and Aeros says he always says stuff like that. If you go back to Aeros' house there's actually an interaction there and a secret for the players.

- I'm glad the story is keeping you interested! I hope I can keep that up throughout the game. 

You're about to enter a part that I'm currently working on the mapping for (Matseb you've already seen a picture of that progress so you can see what it looked like before I even got that far), so please keep giving me that tasty feedback so I can get this game tightened up. 

I may have a major update (not gameplay wise, but about the game itself) coming soon so look out for that...

 

[Matseb2611]

Sure thing, man. More tasty feedback coming your way.

- I think the inside of the castle is a bit big. Took me a while to find where I had to get out from (by that stage I must've fought every guard inside).

- A couple of the guards upstairs seem to be moving intermittently. I think their move frequency isn't set on 'highest'.

- "Pull on that branch", "This one?", "No, not that one". Oh God. I sense a dirty joke coming from that. Haha.

- Good boss fight there in the forest. At first I was a bit worried since he kept summoning those flowers that could heal, but at least his damage output wasn't so high.

- It seems a little weird to me how the secret path opened up to the left of the path that leads to the castle and yet on the world map the mountain range is to the right of the castle.

- I like the mapping in the mountains. Looks pretty nice. A lot of places there. I wasn't sure where I was going since there are so many tunnels and such, not to mention jumping down the holes, but I am managing to make progress, so it seems it's all fine. I like maps/locations like these which seem huge and overwhelming, but at the same time you end up making progress through them without getting lost.

- Wee. That was fun climbing that plant growth on the mountain wall.

- I am thinking, with the amount of enemies in this part, it would've been nice to have another party member who could fight, because doing it all with just 1 character gets a tad repetitive (orcs for example take 4 hits to die and you often come across two at a time or in combination with other enemies). Perhaps that green-haired guy could've been a fighter and help out in some way otherwise he is just tagging along as dead weight. Lol.

So I've stopped at the lonely merchant for now. Will continue later and see where this mountain range takes me next.   

 

[McTone]

Thanks again!

Spoiler

Sure thing, man. More tasty feedback coming your way.

Delicious!

- I think the inside of the castle is a bit big. Took me a while to find where I had to get out from (by that stage I must've fought every guard inside).

I agree, that's one map I haven't gotten around to yet. I think the version you're playing has extra stuff added to the rooms (was there a kitchen in your version?), but I need to condense it down.

- A couple of the guards upstairs seem to be moving intermittently. I think their move frequency isn't set on 'highest'.

I know which ones you're talking about. I'll fix that. I had an idea for them too though:

What if there is a secret where if the player talks to them before the big scene I gave you an option to tie their boot laces together and then they moved like that anyway? Last time I did a play through I noticed their odd movement and that's what I thought of!

- It seems a little weird to me how the secret path opened up to the left of the path that leads to the castle and yet on the world map the mountain range is to the right of the castle.

Yeah I need to switch those. The secret path was a recent addition and I just need to change the transfers around (and make it to where the secret path is the original path).

- I like the mapping in the mountains. Looks pretty nice. A lot of places there. I wasn't sure where I was going since there are so many tunnels and such, not to mention jumping down the holes, but I am managing to make progress, so it seems it's all fine. I like maps/locations like these which seem huge and overwhelming, but at the same time you end up making progress through them without getting lost.

Okay cool! It looks even better now that I've figured out how to use shift+left click appropriately and added all that clutter. That'll be in the next update!

- I am thinking, with the amount of enemies in this part, it would've been nice to have another party member who could fight, because doing it all with just 1 character gets a tad repetitive (orcs for example take 4 hits to die and you often come across two at a time or in combination with other enemies). Perhaps that green-haired guy could've been a fighter and help out in some way otherwise he is just tagging along as dead weight. Lol.

I think a new character would be good or just reduce the number of enemies here. My last couple of tests I thought their were too many too.

So I've stopped at the lonely merchant for now. Will continue later and see where this mountain range takes me next.   

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[Matseb2611]

Heya man.

I can't remember too well if there was a kitchen area in the castle. I remember there was a butler and there was a maid too, and the areas they were in looked a bit kitchen-y, but not sure if that's what you meant. And cool. Yeah, I like the idea of guards having tied bootlaces. That would be a nice feature if the player could do it.

Unfortunately I don't have much feedback today, because I can't seem to cross this bridge. I think the side of the mountain at the bridge's entrance is stopping me from getting on it. I thought maybe I had to go another way, but after checking around the area, this seems like the only way to go.

 

[McTone]

I also see that the fog didn't go away for you when you left the forest. I'm gonna get a different fog effect for that.

I'll fix that map and upload a new demo when I get home because that's a game breaker.

Update:

Uploaded the new version. Should be good now. This newest version includes a fix for the massive amounts of stopping in the forest enemies as well as some updated mapping for the mountain range area. Let me know if this makes your save unusable and I'll see what I can do to make a patch of some sort. 

 

[McTone]

I updated the front page.

Added some new headers and pics for the characters.

Enjoy!

 

[Matseb2611]

All righty, I've gotten the new version. Only just gotten to the end of chapter 1. Will make sure to get going with chapter 2 tomorrow.

EDIT: Heya man. I've just come across another game-breaking error.

Spoiler

Right after the battle with the demon and his minions where you're supposed to lose, Sebastian and that other guy argue a bit and then just as Sebastian runs off, the game crashes with an error message, saying one of the maps couldn't load properly.

Another thing, this caused me to lose all my progress of chapter 2. Maybe it's worth letting the player save somewhere in between the cutscenes, or at least just before them, because I was checking around the camps and only entered one of the tents and the cutscenes took the control away from me, eventually leading me to a boss battle without any warning. At the very least I should get a choice to go on with the cutscenes or to get more time to explore the camps or something.

 

[McTone]

Thats fixed in the most updated version. Yeah, that's a long cut scene and I'm not sure where I could break it up. Maybe something that you have to choose to do before it starts. I don't know.

 

[Matseb2611]

Yeah, I got the latest version, and it was crashing in that. In fact I just checked it again and it crashed again in the same spot. Unless there were two updates within the same day of course and I got the earlier one.