RMMV Mistia - The Kingdom of Krasten

[ArtikDart]

​

Mistia is a 2D pixel art fantasy video game set in a unique world full of details and mysteries to be discovered, with a great narrative story.
The game will be divided into four chapters, through which Cole, the young protagonist of our story, will have the chance to meet new companions and explore every area in the vast kingdom of Krasten.

Spoiler

It's the year 913, these are dark times for the Kingdom of Krasten...
King Sarba of Darlàn had declared war to the region of Solhòm and its king Eldran, in order to unite the whole kingdom.

For 21 years... these lands have been tortured and stained by the blood of men... I was one of them.
For 21 years... King Sarba's thirst for conquest took its toll on the whole
kingdom... I was there...

"A true king must be capable of understanding the consequences of death"

But everything would change in the year 925...
Prince Cornelius ascended to the throne of Solhòm after his father's death and brought strength to his people.
In the following years, what initially seemed like a sure defeat, began to turn into hope.

He doesn't know, but I hoped...

It was only in 934... When Darlàn's victory seemed imminent, that some of King Sarba's men started to believe their king had gone mad and changed the fate of the battle by making a deal with King Cornelius.
King Sarba had turned his strength into weakness.
His perfect war machine fuelled by his own cruelty ended up scaring his own people.

When Darlàn's throne fell... I was there...

It was the dawn of a new era, one that was full of opportunities for both
regions.
King Cornelius left the people of Darlàn keep their lands as he agreed to, allowing them to build their own city-state.
Darlàn, as the rest of the kingdrom, was finally rid of the roots of evil.

...Or so they believed.

But the blood spilt to gain that peace wasn't even worth a couple of decades.
A dark and sinister figure was lurking in the corners of the kingdom, waiting for its right time.
You could feel it in the air. I could.

But he doesn't know...
A young and pure soul will be able to connect the dots.

He doesn't know... But I was there.
He doesn't know... That I will show him the way.

Spoiler

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*(During development we intend to add other new game mechanics)

Spoiler

PDF PRESENTATION
If you want to read the complete presentation of Mistia --> (click here)


DEMO:
The playable demo of Mistia - The Kingdom Of Krasten will be released on July 10, 2020 and will be downloadable from the STEAM online store.
As we release the demo, we will also launch a Kickstarter campaign to support the development of the first chapter of Mistia that will offer our backers the opportunity to access limited and unique rewards such as the Collector Edition, the game map and even the possibility to appear in the game itself as an inhabitant of the Kingdom!

If you wish to stay updated on the news about the game and access special contents, don't forget to follow the official Mistia pages:

| FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | REDDIT | TWITTER | YOUTUBE |

 

[FleshToDust]

This game looks very cool. Will stay tuned for the demo.

 

[Kupotepo]

When the evil king conquered, I was there. When the evil king lost the power, I was there.
When the new prince ascended to the throne, I was there.
Where the city-state was found, I was there.
When the peace restored, I was there.
I AM THE NARRATOR.

Seriously, it sounds like a fun game to play.

 

[byproduct]

The game looks great, but the cookie goes to the pdf presentation, that's a solid piece of good PR

 

[gameprojectx889]

This game look amazing!! i'm looking forward for the demo!

 

[ZankokuNoYami]

I need your mappint skills. Like for real. Can I hire you? Hahaha

The visuals are definitely a selling point here. They are gorgeous.

 

[BURNING_JUSTICE_Games]

Looks very pretty and ambitious!

 

[ArtikDart]

Hello everyone, it's been a while since we gave updates on Mistia.
First of all thanks to everyone who commented, we really appreciate your messages, and we hope you can all try the demo to receive your feedback!

I wanted to update the thread to announce that the demo is finally ready. On October 22nd it will be available on steam.

But let me first post a couple of screenshots and videos of the work we've done in these months. I hope you appreciate it!









I'll leave you the link hoping that you would like to try it:

 

[ShadowDragon]

I dont have steam, so I cant try the demo, looks nice though.

 

[ArtikDart]

I dont have steam, so I cant try the demo, looks nice though.
[/CITAZIONE]

Thank you! We will also host the game on Indiexpo, to allow all those who do not use Steam to try the demo. On the 22nd I will publish the link.

 

[ArtikDart]

Finally here we are!
We have published the demo of Mistia. If someone would like to try it I leave you the links. We will be happy to receive your feedback on the project.





Steam version:


DRM free:

Mistia - Free Indie Games

Sviluppatore: LunartStudios -Tipo: Rpg - Descrizione: Mistia is a 2D pixel art fantasy video game set in a unique world full of details and mysteries to be...

www.indiexpo.net

 

[Freank]

I played it! The maps are great! But you already know this! it starts very good. A classic rpg but every details is perfect! Never see a parallax like this! I also loved the animations! So many! Congratulations! I am following this project!

 

[ShadowDragon]

I try it and really nice, but kinda stuck, this is why:

I talk to all fishermens (as the quest said) so I need to get bait and ivy leaves.
when I want to go in the cave (I think fo the ivy leaves), the kid say he is to
scared (so blocked off), when I want to go to the beach (for baits), it says I
need to talk to all fishermens (which I did), and did re-talk every time 3-5 times
to all fishermens to make sure, no difference to continue, cannot go to
Rockville either and cant go anywhere.

I got the feeling I need to go inside the dark cave, but the graphics are really good.

PS: no fan of full screen and cannot go into window mode to have view on my chats.

 

[ArtikDart]

I try it and really nice, but kinda stuck, this is why:

I talk to all fishermens (as the quest said) so I need to get bait and ivy leaves.
when I want to go in the cave (I think fo the ivy leaves), the kid say he is to
scared (so blocked off), when I want to go to the beach (for baits), it says I
need to talk to all fishermens (which I did), and did re-talk every time 3-5 times
to all fishermens to make sure, no difference to continue, cannot go to
Rockville either and cant go anywhere.

I got the feeling I need to go inside the dark cave, but the graphics are really good.

PS: no fan of full screen and cannot go into window mode to have view on my chats.

Hi, thank you first of all for trying the demo.
As for the part where you are stuck, you have to talk to Rosie at the fishermen's hut. Talking to her 2 times you will know where to find the ivy leaves and where the bait is.

If you try to go to the beach she will advise you to talk to Rosie with this message:
"It's no use going to the beach unless we find the ivy leaves and dried bait first. Maybe we could ask Rosie.She's running the Fisherman's Hut, she'llsurely have the items we need!"

I am happy that you are trying out the demo, and I hope you can complete it to get your feedback.

About the forced full screen, thanks for the advice. Actually it is a problem to get back on the desktop if you need to watch something else. Maybe with the next update we will make it possible to put it in window mode.

 

[ShadowDragon]

I talk to rosie twice, but I double check that a couple of more times.
you can put it in the options full screen/window mode so they can choose.

but if I can get through, you get more feedback

EDIT:
I got through, but the game is really nice, specially 12 years later intro,
very lively, really nice (I love the menu as well.

But I got 2 minor issues in the text:

Spoiler: Mistakes (or missed)

I think this one was in the dark cave after you got the 3rd one:
where you missing a space:


The 2nd one is from Cole's mom, where it says trieals instead of trials:

Aside from those minor issues (which everyone can happen (I am bad with grammar))
I mostly can tell which are spelled wrong (unless they say it's intensional), but I will play
tomorrow more when times allow it, where I need to find his dad I think, but I will check
that when I play again, and try to beat the demo.

from this point (till end of prologue), you did a very nice job, I got 2 favorites games,
but I got to tell this one bypass it, not sure on the story yet, but I can tell there is alot
of time in the intro (specially the 2nd one), which is outstanding.

I will report more when I come across them, but the gameplay is really smooth.

EDIT 2:
another 2 minor spellings/spaces missed.

Spoiler: another 2 text mistakes

This was at the beach, missing space


the next one have trialss (should be 1 S), another mistake I think, I had dad joined the
the party after the beach, so I don't know why it say's "We better get to dad."

That's for now (going to start the trials.

EDIT 3:
Final minor mistakes (before the ceremony)

Spoiler: minor mistakes

at the dark cave entrance, if it's a rock, it's below player (can be intensional)


after sliding the rope, it says Patrik, instead of Patrick


Finally, another missing space after the trials

Not sure where the demo ends, but I really love the cave and sliding, let's see how far this
demo goes and how the final story will reviel to its fullest, Nr1 game for me that is on RPG MV

 

[ArtikDart]

@ShadowDragon Thank you very much friend for pointing out these mistakes to me, reporting them with a screen. Your help is really valuable. Thank you! We'll make sure these things are fixed in a next update.

The demo unfortunately ends sooner than we planned on the schedule. (we had to finish it with the departure of Cole from the village). We had already postponed the launch once, and we didn't want to do it a second time.
Unfortunately this turned out to be a problem, because many people do not fully understand the story or its potential. Many who have played it expected a classic twist that doesn't happen in this part of the game, and they think it's all like that. But going forward, the game will be full of plots and facts that seem insignificant on the surface, but going forward in the plot you will find that nothing happened by chance.

On a positive note, we have also published a Mistia manual, so that everyone can at least partly understand the greatness of the game world. You can find it here: https://www.mistiarpg.com/media/mistia_introduction_EN.pdf


We hope to continue to develop it, but unfortunately our campaign is not going well... it's so difficult to develop indies and bear your own expenses. But nothing is lost yet, we can still make it! Otherwise we'll have to find another way to support our work, and believe me, it's a lot. I worked 12-14 hours a day on it.

 

[ShadowDragon]

that's alot of time, the starting (prologue) seems a bit similair than the golden sun 1,
you start with kids, get in trouble and you must solve it to avoid (which didn't) so more
trouble to save their world or continent.

the start in this game is a bit the same (in a different way), I might have missed
some other minor issues like spaces (noone is perfect), even in movies subtitles
are missing letter or spelled wrong (which cannot be re-corrected).

I love the game so far and not understand the full concept "yet", but the graphics
in overal and gameplay of this game is really amazing.

I really hope this game continues and that you get the support to make it a full game,
indie or not, I love adventure games with a bit of puzzle an action like "Zelda" series
(all beaten), Golden sun, Summon Night Sword Story which have adventure, action,
puzzle (some even minor), but great game.

I was a bit stuck in the cave to look for another way in (while some path blocked me before)
but it is really nicely done.

for the game so far I played, I give it a 9/10 (no sound included in those).
but this might be one of the most enjoyable game I played here =)

I keep track on this to see this one grow =)

 

[Tamina]

Unfortunately this turned out to be a problem, because many people do not fully understand the story or its potential.

People do not necessary looking plot twists in the early game, but they do expect hooks in a story very very early. Something that keeps the story interesting. Some tips:

Avoid putting too much focus on introducing background stories in your trailers and descriptions. Try to focus on characters, because it's generally much easier to relate with characters, but hard to care about a fantasy world.

Try to put your characters in a very difficult situation in the beginning so readers can immediately build emotional connection with them. A traditional shonen manga protagonist is tough to write well because this kind of characters tend to be boring. Therefore most successful shonen manga character will have a super difficult situation that they need to deal with right from the beginning. Examples: Naruto is borned with nine-tail. Rean Schwarzer(Trail of cold steel) has to deal with his demonic power, Rin Okumura(blue exorcist) is son of satan. Readers will want to continue reading a story because they like to see how the main character solve their personal problems.

You need to introduce the difficult situation right from the beginning, either in your description, trailer or in the opening movie. It can also be a smart move to have rival/sidekick that's the pole opposite of the main character. This kind of contrast makes a ordinary main character stand out.

Try to be straight to the point when it comes to presentation. People have maybe 5 seconds watching trailers and descriptions, every second that they read about things that won't get their attention, it's an opportunity wasted. Try not to talk about a character's birth year when you introduce them, this kind of information should be kept by the writer and maybe present somewhere late in game. But not in marketing materials.

The description of the plot needs to be more specific. Avoid vague descriptions like "great narrative story". Try not to have a 20 seconds video with no information except a "....this is my story" sentence...unless it's a well known character. This kind of information doesn't help the reader get what's going on.

A good example of this persona4 on steam. It has 1 sentence: A coming of age story that sets the protagonist and his friends on a journey kickstarted by a chain of serial murders. After reading this we immediately know what's P4G story is about.

That being said, gameplay will often be more effective than narratives when it comes to creating hooks. If the gameplay is fun then bad/slow story doesn't matter much. I think it's also a good idea to speed up overall pacing of gameplay.
It's probably a good idea to cut out the "cut-in" effect before the encounter and shadow hearts QTE mechanics. These kind of things doesn't add much to actual gameplay but it slows the pace down. There's a discussion about QTE somewhere on this forum. Some dev agreed that shadow hearts QTE is more negative than positives. If your battle is just spamming the same skill over and over, QTE will not save it. It just slows down the skill spam process.

If your demo doesn't have a tons of skills/customization because it's early in game, it's probably a better strategy to present a demo in mid or late game. A kickstarter project with $16k goal doesn't really have the luxury to start slow, give people the most awesome gameplay of the entire game in the demo so players are excited to back it after they try it out.

 

[ArtikDart]

@ShadowDragon Thanks again for everything! Glad to know that you will follow the development. Maybe you can give us more feedback in the future.


@Tamina
Thank you for explaining your point of view. It's always nice to compare your own with others. It can only improve us.

I agree with you on many things, especially on the marketing side. Unfortunately we are inexperienced in this field. We're just a group of guys trying to support their project, but none of us are specialized in what we do. We just love what we do and try to sustain our expenses.
But everything is fine, even if the campaign will probably fail. If you don't fail, you don't get experience. We understand mistakes and we will treasure them.
But we are happy that the feedback we have received has been very good, which will encourage us to find an alternative solution to continue the development.

As for other things, I don't agree so much. But only because they depend on personal taste. If some developers support their own theory, one is not obliged to follow it. I believe that developing a game should be a free expression of one's gaming thinking, and not following guidelines on a standard that players demand. I think it is more important to develop your own idea, whether you like it or not it doesn't matter. Everything is loved and hated in the world because everyone has their own tastes. The developer should just follow his own, which matches a slice of gamers who have similar tastes.
But that doesn't mean doing it on your own. I always listen to advice because it can improve my game idea.

 

[Freank]

If you want to improve your knowledge about marketing, I want to suggest you to read a (random) book of Seth Godin. He says always that "product is marketing".
In few words, you don't make a game/product and then try to share it. But you have to start to make a game/product that have an unique or original feature that will be automatically shared by a lot of players to show it to their friends.

There are a lot of new indie games every day. Your game is very good, but you also received a lot of good tips! You can do it!