RMMV No Travel Game Jam: Stuck In A Wall

[KV_Kingdom]

Stuck In A Wall
​

SYNOPSIS

Spoiler

The RPG Maker MV heroes get stuck in a wall. What will happen? Help them escape in 4 silly adventures!

IMAGES/SCREENSHOTS

Spoiler

The town the adventures take place in

DOWNLOAD LINK

Spoiler

Stuck In A Wall by KV_Kingdom

The adventure that comes to you!

kv-kingdom.itch.io

CHARACTERS

Spoiler

• Harold: Friend to his people, enemy to monsters. Lives life on “easy” mode.
• Therese: Frontline warrior who loves to fight monsters.
• Marsha: Wisecracking mage who loves reading & puzzles.
• Lucius: A priest who heals his friends and Smites his enemies.

SECTION C: STORYLINE/PLOT

Spoiler

The game is separated into 4 stories that focus on each character’s experience of being suddenly trapped in a wall. Although the stories don’t take place at the same time, they all take place in the heroes’ hometown. Talk to townsfolk who pass by, fight monsters, solve puzzles, and foil demons to help each character out of their unique predicament!

 

[Zliryu]

Review:


Impression:
Just to be clear, I love this game and its concept. You play as Marsha, Therese, Lucius or Harold (yes, this order of the characters goes from best to worst in my opinion or until a bugfix) and find yourself stuck in a wall. What do you do?
The creator has a great sense of humor and the game is set up in a way I like (I have to touch everything, helps you find out more about the world and people, for instance Marsha having people stuck in barrels xD), but there are some missing files.

Gameplay:
Lucius - Started off with him. Maybe it's just me, but identifying the demons was a bit too easy. Still hilarious.
Marsha - This is where the game shines, from a non-comedy kinda way. The puzzle difficulty is ideal. I did notice something off tho. If your timer drops to 0 on the second puzzle. I mean it's nothing game breaking (teleports twice, repeating the text message and the game then just continues normally).
Harold and Therese - Unfortunately there are some files missing once the battle begins (one was Howl.png for Therese and I think some animation for Harold). This might be random, as the battle with Harold crashed immediately while the battle with Therese went on for a few turns. Both start off great. (fixed)
Harold - The game might be stuck at the hamster scene, but I'm not sure xD.
Therese - Great battle dynamic. Moved her to second best character after the update.

Other:
The visuals, sounds, music and effects are great in my opinion, but then again, my favorite tileset is still the default one. The conversation flow with the npc's is just fun to read.
The fact that people from outside the rpg maker community would probably not understand what this game is all about, the failings many of us did early on (I mean, it could happen to anyone at anytime, you move something and forget to change the teleport etc.), is just additionally hilarious.

 

[webgamesetc]

Hello KV_Kingdom!

You have 3 files missing from your deployment files.

You need to go into your build files and copy and paste these files:

/img/animations/Howl.png
/img/animations/Cure4.png
/audio/se/Thunder2.ogg

Into your deployment files here:

www/img/animations/Howl.png
www/img/animations/Cure4.png
www/audio/se/Thunder2.ogg

Rezip and upload your build,
also, after fixing this problem:

After Marsha offers to figure something out (after starting down the long list of questions like the other Mage did, I love that) and the Guinea Pig comes out of nowhere, it runs into the side of the house and freezes.

I confirmed these missing files and this freeze error twice, downloaded the deployment a second time to get clean files, so these bugs are confirmed.

I like the story premise and the humor, if you get a new build up there let me know.

SCREENSHOTS

Spoiler

MISSING FILES







GAME FREEZE POINT

Good Luck!

 

[KV_Kingdom]

@Zliryu: Thanks for the detailed feedback! I'm glad that some of the game was playable. I wish I had given this game more time so it could have been fully polished before the deadline. If you want to give the game a second look, I have released version 1.1, which addresses the bugs.
@webgamesetc: Sorry about that! I have released version 1.1, which addresses those issues. I would be thrilled if you gave my game another look.

Thanks to both of you for playing my game and providing feedback!

 

[Zliryu]

Hey, I did download the v1.1.

Harold - Seems that the autorun on the hamster stops the game now after the battle (probably the move route has one to many moves, or maybe you set it up intentionally like that xD)

Therese - Haha she propelled herself to second place with the bugfix great battle dynamic, gonna edit the review now.

 

[webgamesetc]

Hello! I still cannot get past the Hamster. I was able to get through the combat tho!
Hamster runs onstage from the right, runs into NPC and stops, music plays forever...

 

[KV_Kingdom]

@webgamesetc Arg! I thought I fixed that! <replays that section> Yup, it's broken.

Version 1.2 is now live! I gave it a thorough test this time, so it definitely works now. Check it out if you want to see the ending!

Thanks for giving my game a second (and maybe third) look!

 

[Corlagon]

Review:
This off-the-wall game stars RPGMV’s four pre-set protagonists. In fact, it’s four short games in one. Each of them has their respective main character stuck in a wall for some reason. The occasional battles use standard RPG mechanics with a pimped-up HUD.

Harold: This feels more like an interactive story, and a funny one at that, with the hero attempting to get help from the occasional passers-by, generally unsuccessfully. There are a few choices and eventually a battle of apparently variable difficulty, depending on the equipment and such that you’ve selected. Unfortunately, shortly after that, the story got stuck, with no way to continue.

Therese: Hung quite early, this time during a battle because of a missing animation file. I suspect it might be possible to get through this with a lot of good luck, if the enemy simply doesn’t do the action in question, but I didn’t bother to test this.

Marsha: Now she’s capable of freeing herself, namely by going to special planes and solving puzzles. You have to collect elementals, use them to clear paths and bring them to their respective destinations. A bit simple, but not long enough to get old.

Lucius: While stuck, he gets to determine whether the people he meets are genuine or disguised demons. Not a lot to it, but it’s a comedic story again, so still entertaining.

So, the verdict: Stuck In A Wall is generally entertaining. If only there weren’t those major bugs.

Update Version 1.2:

Harold’s story completes now. As expected, it ends shortly after the battle.

Therese’s story works now, too. It’s a series of battles with humorous cutscenes, new skills, items, and save prompts in between.

 

[KV_Kingdom]

Thanks for the thoughtful review, as well as taking the time to play the fixed version!

 

[dazed]

Alright, so this was short n sweet!

I'm just going to break this review up by character.

HAROLD
This kinda felt... too short. It didn't feel like much happened. I appreciated getting to pick my own weapon, armour, and magic, but I started to get tired of people running up and giving Harold stuff over and over. The battle also felt strangely easy, though this might've been because I got lucky and paralysed the Minotaur fast - but it didn't seem that hard to finish it off after, either. This just felt too simple.

THERESE
This was the first one I played and I liked it a lot! I like that you can pick your own strategy and what items you want to focus on (or have a balance). I also like picking your own skills, but I do wish there was a description of the skills - when deciding between them, I ended up going with Devastator just for the cool name. The battles were fun, but the one with the slimes felt too long and I felt like the battles all had a similar strategy of tri-slice & health/mana potion until it was over.

MARSHA
Okay, so usually I hate puzzles and I especially hated timed puzzles (I'm not very good at them), but this was such a blast. It was so fun to play and I also appreciated that what I'd destroyed carried over so if I realised last minute I'd made a mistake and needed to restart, I didn't have to go and do everything all over again.

LUCIUS
This one really made me laugh. I know someone else said it was too easy to identify the demons, but I almost lost and ended up smiting a random child (which had me in hysterics), so maybe it's just subjective. I think this one's definitely my favourite.

MISC.
Okay, so I love the simple premise, and it reminds me of many an RPG Maker game foiled because I somehow ended up in a damn wall. I also enjoyed the humorous approach and poking fun at the RPG stereotypes. I think the humour fell a bit flat in the case of the guinea pig (what was that about), but otherwise this game was super light and cheery and I had a blast with it. Super entertaining and a nice bit of fun to distract me from the lockdown blues

 

[KV_Kingdom]

Thanks for the awesome review! I had fun making this game, and I’m glad to see that you got as much of a kick out of it as I did!

 

[hiddenone]

I gave this a try, and enjoyed it quite a bit! It's simple, but the issue of getting an event stuck in a wall is so relatable that I got a kick out of it.

Spoiler: Feedback

⦁ Playing the first version, because it's what I downloaded

Harold Playthrough:
⦁ I like all the silly dialogue in Harold's house

⦁ Great concept for a game, though mostly other RM devs will really appreciate the joke

⦁ It's an interesting way to let the player pick their weapons, but without context for their differences it really doesn't matter what's picked. Obviously not a problem for a short game like this, but for a longer one make sure the player knows what's up when a choice matters

⦁ If Harold's really been stuck in the wall for days, it would've been nice to see some tints changing quickly to show time passing

Therese:
⦁ I clicked 'Retry' and the screen went black with Marsha talking... I'm guessing I'm not supposed to click that in the menu

⦁ Choosing weapons and armor for Therese is also a nice idea, but it doesn't work too well because it doesn't auto-equip it. If I interact with different ones a few times I can get both sword and axe, as well as the heavy and magic armor in my inventory even if they still show up on the map

⦁ I'm very worried about this town, do they not have guards that are around to deal with monsters before they get into the town???

⦁ Skills missing is rough, since they take so much MP it's a real punch to the gut when my skill misses

Marsha:
⦁ Oh, a puzzle level is a neat addition and a nice change of pace

⦁ Retrying on a level (I did the dog level) doesn't put the blockers back up, so it's easy mode

Lucius:
⦁ Neat idea with a logic puzzle, though I wish I could choose what question to ask the patrons, just to feel more involved

⦁ Smiting the purple-haired kid turns her into a brown-haired girl's downed sprite

Overall, this worked perfectly for a short jam game. The fact that each character had different things going on was a nice surprise, though I do almost wish you'd gone with two characters instead and been able to give their stories even more love... But as it is this game is short and sweet. Good luck with your future projects!

 

[KV_Kingdom]

I gave this a try, and enjoyed it quite a bit! It's simple, but the issue of getting an event stuck in a wall is so relatable that I got a kick out of it.

Spoiler: Feedback

⦁ Playing the first version, because it's what I downloaded

Harold Playthrough:
⦁ I like all the silly dialogue in Harold's house

⦁ Great concept for a game, though mostly other RM devs will really appreciate the joke

⦁ It's an interesting way to let the player pick their weapons, but without context for their differences it really doesn't matter what's picked. Obviously not a problem for a short game like this, but for a longer one make sure the player knows what's up when a choice matters

⦁ If Harold's really been stuck in the wall for days, it would've been nice to see some tints changing quickly to show time passing

Therese:
⦁ I clicked 'Retry' and the screen went black with Marsha talking... I'm guessing I'm not supposed to click that in the menu

⦁ Choosing weapons and armor for Therese is also a nice idea, but it doesn't work too well because it doesn't auto-equip it. If I interact with different ones a few times I can get both sword and axe, as well as the heavy and magic armor in my inventory even if they still show up on the map

⦁ I'm very worried about this town, do they not have guards that are around to deal with monsters before they get into the town???

⦁ Skills missing is rough, since they take so much MP it's a real punch to the gut when my skill misses

Marsha:
⦁ Oh, a puzzle level is a neat addition and a nice change of pace

⦁ Retrying on a level (I did the dog level) doesn't put the blockers back up, so it's easy mode

Lucius:
⦁ Neat idea with a logic puzzle, though I wish I could choose what question to ask the patrons, just to feel more involved

⦁ Smiting the purple-haired kid turns her into a brown-haired girl's downed sprite

Overall, this worked perfectly for a short jam game. The fact that each character had different things going on was a nice surprise, though I do almost wish you'd gone with two characters instead and been able to give their stories even more love... But as it is this game is short and sweet. Good luck with your future projects!

Thanks for playing my game! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Many of the issues, including equipment & balancing issues in Therese's story, and displaying the retry button only when it's relevant, are fixed in version 1.2. As for pressing "retry" in Marsha's story, it still doesn't respawn the blockers. My testing feedback indicated I should leave it, but if I were to build that story out, I would find a way to fix it.

As to the lack of sense of time passing in Harold's story, I agree with your assessment. I had intended to polish that story a lot more, but I ran out of time. In fact, the whole game would have been more polished had I just focused on this project, rather than start a new one midway through the jam! Live and learn, right?

Again, thank you for playing my game. Good luck on your projects, too, and I hope to see you again in a future jam!

 

[webgamesetc]

I played Stuck In A Wall, several times, all the way through to the end. You can watch my video game play-through on YouTube. And you can read my review.

Spoiler: YouTube Video Playthrough With Voices and Commentary

Spoiler: Written Review and Feedback

What I Liked:

I liked that the No Travel premise was double-downed on by being stuck in a wall. A great way to stick to the rules, and very original when compared to the obviously available pandemic scenario.

I liked that the same story was told over 4 different characters. It was very creative and gave us a great taste of each different personality. I liked all the different ways characters responded to their items in their homes.

I liked that the four stories were concise, had a deliberate progression and end. Total game play came in at just under an hour.

I liked the diversity between the 4 stories. I really liked the differences in the challenges between Lucius, Marsha and Therese.

In Marsha's puzzles, I liked that there was some of the progress still in tact if you had to come back due to having run out the timer. But as you'll see in my play-through video, I end up with an extra element in that scenario. So there's a bug in there somewhere.

I loved the dialog, the light-heartedness, and that a lot of it was genuinely funny.

What needs work:

Harold sure could use the nighttime transitions, even when nothing happens, the no night-time transition at all is a little off-beat. Harold's journey was also the weakest. If all he's going to do is endure and combat, it needs a little punch at the combat. More on that towards the end...

I'm editing this, it was not correct to this game, sorry for the confusion.
There's lots of spelling errors. Find yourself a friend that is one of those "i see misspelled people" types and make them your proofreader. Let them watch the video.

The combat was the roughest part overall. There's a lot of room for balance. I didn't mind having to learn the hard way what armor and weapons to pick up front with Therese, but I'm pretty old school when it comes to gaming. A lot of modern gamers are not going to be up to dying over and over to realize they have to restart the story and choose different armor and weapons - I'm looking at you, Slime Battle!

Since there is so little combat in the overall arch of the four stories, you might want to make what we get a little more spectaculaaaar! There are a lot of static battlers out there and there are a lot of easy ways to tweak the animation. I understand using default assets under a time crunch or when it's not important to the objective. But I also appreciate seeing just a little effort made in customizing it up a bit. Pimp your game!

In Summary:

Stuck in a Wall was original, creative, a lot of fun and smart on point for the No Travel Game Jam. It needs a proofreader, a little combat balance, some puzzle clean-up, and maybe a little flair in the battles, but is an otherwise solid entry. Thanks for your hard work, I enjoyed playing your game. I hope you enjoy watching me play it!

 

[KV_Kingdom]

Thank you for the thorough, detailed review! I can't tell you how excited I am to see my game put on display again!

As for the criticisms, I've started preparing another patch to address the problems brought up in the video. Just one nitpick: what was misspelled? I'm usually the one calling everyone out for their spelling errors, and my girlfriend (who also playtested the game and watched the video) didn't see anything, either. I won't ask you to review the whole video, but do you remember any noteworthy incidents? I do remember some awkward phrases, like a sentence ending with "now," and the next word also being "now" in Marsha's story.

Thanks again for the awesome review!