Messages (Demo Available!)

[one.feline]

Before the synopsis, development, and everything, I just want to mention some background development for this game. I bought RPG Maker VX Ace from a Steam sale a bit ago. The purpose was to make a game out of a book that I wrote about 12 years ago, while I was still in highschool. This book was a standard fantasy novel, with lots of detail and fleshed out characters. I had the entire story mapped out in my mind, and I wrote the whole book down, beginning to end, in about a year. I added many chapters in the middle of the book over the next few years, with the end result being this gigantic (at least for me) 130+ pages fantasy novel. I never got it published.

Fast forward to now, I still have some copies of the book, although I'm missing most of the latest pages. I found that the level of detail and character development was sufficient to actually make an RPG game out of it. Since I know the whole book, all of the characters, and all of the detail, I have the entire game already mapped out in my mind. I've thought about the story for the past 12 years, so it's finally a relief to actually be able to share it with others in a way I find meaningful.

Anyhow, here's the stuff:

Story Synopsis:

Spoiler

In the town of Lutis, which is the capital of the country Lutisia, there lives a girl with a mysterious past. She's largely unaware of how special she is, and it isn't until her 18th birthday that she finds out a startling revelation: She knows how to cast magic. Magic, for the most part, has not existed in the world for at least 300 years, since the Death Wars occurred and evil was rampant throughout the world. However, as part of learning magic, she also learns that she has a terrible enemy, one which must be stopped at all costs or else it will threaten all she holds dear. Now she is torn between saving the ones she cares about and ensuring that she lives to tell the tale.

World Development:

Spoiler

The world is basically constructed of several countries, Lutisia, Merdegan, Stravia, and Fluce. These countries were at war many years ago during the Death Wars, but have since been united in peace. Free trade and commerce are the norm, and people are, for the most part, tolerant of each other despite differences. As the main character, Mima is fueled to help stop a threat from reappearing and destoying everything. She is helped by her best friend, Sonja, who has been her friend since they were both little. As they learn more about Lutisia and the ancient world of magic, they gather a group of followers who help Mima on her journey. There is a lot of discussion about what happened during the Death Wars, where the mysterious ruins in the world come from, the backstory of Mima, Sonja, and the other characters is fully revealed at key points of the story.

Screenshots:

Spoiler

Here's a video of the opening sequence : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKUx_Hs1114

Here is a demo of the first ~45 mins of the game. https://www.dropbox.com/s/dyqitry00k6ww59/Messages.exe

 

[RPG_MJG]

Very interesting story, sounds like you should have a lot of material to use to your advantage.

I'll keep an eye on this, your maps look okay and I want to see where the story goes.

If you get a demo up I'll check it out.

 

[one.feline]

Wow, someone actually responded.

I actually got quite a bit farther in the game, tweaking odd things I've noticed, adding extra content that didn't exist inside the book, etc... I would definitely continue making this more of a reality if it generated enough interest.

 

[RPG_MJG]

Keep it going mate.
Being interested yourself should be motivation enough.
Ill keep an eye out here too.

 

[Shade Sorcerer]

This sounds really interesting. I'd love to play it when you're done.

 

[one.feline]

Update! Just posted a demo, so try it out, and please tell me what you think. As for the battle system, I decided to use the standard one instead of taking an elaborate approach. I'm still deciding what other game mechanics I plan to add to spice up the gameplay.

 

[gvduck10]

The story sounds good so far... but the mapping does need some work. the grass/sand tiles dont work well together. instead, make that little penisula all sand tiles, then cover parts of it with the "on top" grass (its about 4 tiles to the right of the terrain tile in the editor). There are tons of tutorials and videos out there to help with mapping.

If you finish creating this game, I will definitely give it a go! (I'm always too busy for demos)

PS: check out my Chef game in my signature; and my early dev project also in my sig *shamless self promo*

 

[one.feline]

The story sounds good so far... but the mapping does need some work. the grass/sand tiles dont work well together. instead, make that little penisula all sand tiles, then cover parts of it with the "on top" grass (its about 4 tiles to the right of the terrain tile in the editor). There are tons of tutorials and videos out there to help with mapping.

If you finish creating this game, I will definitely give it a go! (I'm always too busy for demos)

PS: check out my Chef game in my signature; and my early dev project also in my sig *shamless self promo*

I fixed the world maps. It was a stupid mistake I was making, so it's much better now, but the demo only has a small smidgen of world map right now anyway, so it's not something to really look at for now. I've corrected the post to no longer show that part because it's not up-to-date.