Pendulum [contains alcohol/religious elements*] [** NOW FIXED **]

[shushcat]

 
​

 
​

PENDULUM
​

my very first game, huzzah!
​

 
​

GAME SYNOPSIS


Beginning in the sleepy port town of South Harbor, Pendulum follows the journey of Schem Shea, a young man who is largely shunned by his community for possessing odd, supernatural abilities - namely, the ability to discover hidden secrets through "dowsing".  With the cool support of his father, Schem was able to live in relative peace within the town and even gain some notoriety in recovering lost objects, but with the terrible event that occurs during a dark and fateful thunderstorm, everything changes...


...Wow, that was serious.  Let's get on to the fun stuff.


CAST

• The awkward hero of the story is no other than Schem Shea, the dowser that no one in town likes.
  

Spoiler

same, dude

• He is supported in theory by his father, Daddy Shea, who always believes in his son even though he won't defend him against the town.
  

Spoiler

d

• Father Mistrella may seem like a villain on the surface, but his motives are more familial than faithful. Besides, he's just saying what everyone else in the town is thinking. 
  

Spoiler

*As a side note (this refers to the religious aspect of the story), this playable section in no way casts a judgment for or against any kind of faith or spirituality.  I hope I can get far along enough in the project to reveal the whole Darkness premonition and Father/Mother's past

• Then there is the prodigal son Leicolm Mistrella who moves along the story as well as Nadia who moves along gameplay aspects because really none of even them like Schem enough to want him to stay in town.
  

Spoiler

&

FEATURES!


So far, this first part took me a little over 20 minutes to complete, but that was me knowing exactly where to go and where to do.  When I took a little time with the battles, it was more like 30+ minutes.  I would say you have ~40+ minutes of being moderately entertained to look forward to when you download this little jiggy.


And how are you going to be entertained?


WELL:


The biggest and most uncommon (to me, at least) feature of this playable section is the use of "dowsing" in order to locate missing pieces of a puzzle as well as hidden items.  Schem begins the game with the key item "Mother's Pendulum" which triggers the reveal of the unseen for 15 seconds.  

Spoiler

What's another feature, you ask?  Why, experiencing me figuring out how to even make a game, of course!  That's right, you get to explore an awkward town and pre-loaded maps once I realized that creating maps really, really wasn't my forte!  And fight enemies with equipment, items, and abilities that don't quite work how I wanted them to because I don't get how fighting and formulas work! 


And things like this!

But it's all in the process of learning, and I'll grasp it better one day.


I've been working on this for a week, which is probably a blink of the eye as far as game development goes, and this is my very first project in RPG Maker VXAce or any kind of game maker.  It's been really rewarding to make mistakes and learn from them as well as finding ways to accomplish what I want leading to discovering even better ways to do that, so I'm definitely proud of what I've done so far.  And DEFINITELY I am excited about jumping over all the hurdles I know I have ahead of me in the next part.


BUGS?


That's what the Bug Spray is for.  But really, there's only one I can actually think of, and that's one where Nadia can actually prevent you from getting back to town if you decide to go back before doing a certain thing in the forest.  Anything other than that is news to me, so absolutely share!


As far as ISSUES go, I mentioned the wonky maps and battle system, so if you have suggestions for those I absolutely want to hear because I know that's something I really want to iron out.  I absolutely would love to get feedback/criticism/ideas/etc. because I know the following sections are just going to get harder and harder and I want to learn!


CREDITS


In the screenshots you'll notice that some things are different!  


I was using the "Old & Rusty" window skin by Maker Systems – RPG Maker Source for the window skin for the screenshots.  But I made a last-minute decision to take it out because the first thing I want to do next is make one of my own that fits better with the title screen and overall feel of the game.  I wanted to have a little pendulum swinging instead of a turny wheel or blinky arrow  so I made my own, which is included in the download!


Also, you'll notice that in the demo, Schem actually has...expressions!!  This is thanks to Celianna's Faceset Generator.  Slowly I'll update everyone else's, though I believe I'll keep Leicolm's the way it is since I really like what's there.


SO...I THINK THAT'S IT.  Now young adventurer, you know what you must do...

DOWNLOAD
​

(doesn't include RTP files sorry!)
​

 
​

ALSO, MORE SCREENSHOTS
​

 

[Marquise*]

What happened to all of your 1.pngs?

 

[shushcat]

What happened to all of your 1.pngs?

I'm pretty new at this so I don't really know what you mean.  I extracted the exe to a different location and ran it to see if somehow I was missing some files, but I don't think I found anything amiss...?


Could you clarify what you mean?  I'm sorry, and thanks!


EDIT: I didn't realize what you meant until I was trying to show my brother this on a different computer.  The images should be fixed now!

 

[leon93]

A video of the gameplay will garner more support for the game. You can use Bandicam to record a gameplay video


Happy game making!


Leon

 

[shushcat]

A lot of my time so far has been spent on creating a map for the city of Goresh as well as going back and redoing a few things in the earlier part.  I realized that parallax mapping may be the way to go, so I've been trying that out!  Here is a glimpse of a marketplace I've been working on:

I'm definitely going to redo the park once I really get things under control.  As well as...everything else in existence.


Another thing I've been adding in is more customized music!  You can't really see images of that, but I will say that South Harbor has a new theme now.


I've also been solidifying a few main characters, one of which being the first companion you'll meet in the city:


 

 

So editing his beret hat thing was the first time I've edited a sprite!!!  I'm learning things here, lol, and I'm very interested in making my own sprites now.


Finally, I offer the window skin that I made, which is the second custom thing I've made for this project (first being the title screen):

ALSO, IN CASE I MESSED UP THE IMAGE INSERTIONS AGAIN,


you can just click on the links to view a...thing. 


ok love you bye :x

 

[Marquise*]

I'm pretty new at this so I don't really know what you mean.  I extracted the exe to a different location and ran it to see if somehow I was missing some files, but I don't think I found anything amiss...?


Could you clarify what you mean?  I'm sorry, and thanks!


EDIT: I didn't realize what you meant until I was trying to show my brother this on a different computer.  The images should be fixed now!

Oh... it kinda is a problem just for some of us.  So I guess all the others saw your pictures but a few are like me.


Ack and your latest post have now 3 image not found thumbnails from Image Titan.com.

 

[shushcat]

Ack and your latest post have now 3 image not found thumbnails from Image Titan.com.

I have so many issues with inserting images apparently.  But it SHOULD be fixed now?  I don't normally like to use TinyPic because it seems like they replace your images with something else after a time period (sometimes nsfw images lol), but I guess if it works...!  Or I guess I could just attach the files, but I don't really know how that works.  I'm a total forum n00b

 

[Mayuen]

Played through your demo, I like it! You have a good start there, keep it up!


General feedback I though of during my playthrough:


I think you have nice maps, not to crowded but not to big and empty. I would like more flavor texts from the things around the maps, but that is just my opinion.


The cutscene with the tower was... confusing? It feels like you could have added something more to show that Schem fell down the tower. Now it felt like it went by a bit to


quickly. I think just a faded screen and a crash sound would help.


I like Schems dialogue, and his character overall. It feels like he has a good base to grow of.


The little girl, Nadia?, was nice too (especially her talk about allergies and such, nice touch to explain battles).


It didn't feel like Schems dad became much of a character though, it feels like he would choose a side more (or show more conflict in being in between).


The battles were not that interesting though, I think they need some spicing up.


Now they were a tad bit to easy, I could spam attack through all and barely went under 200HP unless I got poisoned. 


I like the idea of the pendulum, and how it is incorporated into Schems character. But I think it would benefit the game if it was easier to access, like just by pressing one button or


something similar instead of needing to go through a bunch of menus.


However, a bug I noticed was that if I had activated the pendulum and got into a battle while the timer was ticking down, when the timer hit zero the battle quits.


Somehow making the pendulum easier to access would probably benefit a lot from the player.


Interesting that I could steal from the inn, will that be a common thing in the game? Will it change things further on if the player is a good one or a bad one?


I love that the animals talk!


Things I noticed during the playthrough (and general nitpickyness~):


Some flavor texts were triggered from the wrong areas, for example the vase comment I could also get if I talked to the window.


I could walk past the priest at the bottom of the tower and the people in the back don't talk.


Why is my normal attack animation a water splash when I am currently using a stick?


Oh good I killed a butterfly, why does that make me feel much worse than stealing from the inn.

 

[shushcat]

I 100% agree with the water tower scene, and it's something that still bothers me because I agree that it doesn't pace well, and it's unclear.  The crash sound is a good idea - I didn't think of that!  The scene overall was one of the first ones that I created, and I do think it was a bit much when I still wasn't sure how to do things as I had so many issues in getting it to work. But now that I have a possible solution, I'll definitely go back and rework it (and fix the townsfolk not talking, too).


I also agree about Schem's dad. The story was based on something I had written when I was a preteen, but I only had the first chapter written even though I had charts and lists of characters and places... I'm any case, Schem's parents didn't really have a personality and actually threw him under the bus so to say. Even when I was creating the demo, I didn't really put too much thought into them. Schem's mom was actually alive until I couldn't get her to do what I wanted during the water tower scene, so I got mad, killed her off, and made her a tree lol. But then that's where the story took off in my head with the pendulum and such, and I don't think I really went back to Schem's dad and write him up to speed. So thank you for pointing that out! I definitely want to go back and rework him now.


As far as the battles go, the thing needs an overhaul. I mean, once you get water at level two you can basically one shot enemies with it and hardly run out of MP. I'm going to have to really sit down and work it out, but it's just one of those things I've been putting off because I know it will be a pain :x


The pendulum having it's own button is a fantastic idea because having to go all the way to key items was a pain, but I don't really know how to pull it off at the present moment. I'm sure once I start researching I'll get it and definitely implement it. I'll also look into a solution for the battle-end thing. I never ran into that situation, so thank you!


And yes, I want to continue the ability to steal sometimes, and even have the ability to be caught. I have a thief variable as well as for some other traits depending on your answers in certain conversations like the one with Nadia - even for stuff like the mirror and butterfly killing incidents. I mean, I have no idea what any of that will culminate to at the moment, but I'm tracking it lol


Anyway, thank you so so much for taking the time to play the demo and give feedback. It was a huge help!!

 

[Mayuen]

I think having the screen maybe shake then fadeout after Schem talks and having a crashing sound would make the message come across much clearer that the tower falls.


Something I remembered was also that the scene with the priest and the dad is rather weird too, so that probably need some working on. Maybe a bit clearer if Schem is talking to them, or just thinking? And a bit more reaction from all of them (his dad do just leave him after he has fallen down a tower, totally fine to keep it but it feels the characters should react more about it) It is a good scene to give a basis to the characters, just need polish!


Yeah battle systems are a pain, good luck with them!


Maybe there is some kind of script or something that can connect it to a button? I am not so familiar to VXAce since pretty much just have used MV, but it surely is a thing that is able to be done with enough research!~


I like it! The type of effect in game with that even the smallest actions actually affect stuff later on I think really helps with the immersion and such.


No problem! I'm interested to see where this project heads!

 

[shushcat]

I haven't done anything with the battle system yet, but my triumph for the day was figuring out how to connect Mother's Pendulum to a button (THROUGH USE OF YANFLY'S SCRIPT which awesomely works for keyboard and gamepad, which I both use. The new item description tells which buttons to use).  Additionally, I reworked the water tower scene a little, and I think it's generally more cohesive now.  I'm not 100% happy with the crash, but it's the best it's been so far.

A video of the gameplay will garner more support for the game. You can use Bandicam to record a gameplay video


Happy game making!


Leon

I'm ashamed to admit that I thought this was spam at first, but then I saw today that it was a legit user with legit thoughts and went ahead and used Bandicam lol I'm so sorry.










So this is a video with some of the fixes in the water tower scene (everything may also look very different lol - I'm using celianna's tilesets for the most part as well as the lighting thing because I like it!!).










This one is a preview of what I have so far with Goresh as far as playability goes.  It shows you how you don't have to go to the menu anymore, and it also shows you that I accidentally replaced a tileset in Goresh lmao...  But I'm almost finished parallax mapping the city anyway, so.


This is a link to the credits for what should be in the demo (except all the graphics - i was like whatever - i'm not even using all of them I just put them in so I would know).


So yes, thank you so much!!

 

[Mayuen]

The tower scene is much easier to understand now, good job!


Nice that the pendulum worked out, is it written in the items description which button to use? It was kinda hard to make out in the video.

 

[shushcat]

The tower scene is much easier to understand now, good job!


Nice that the pendulum worked out, is it written in the items description which button to use? It was kinda hard to make out in the video.

Thanks!  And yes, the buttons are in the description!


OKAY, IT'S BEEN A WHILE, but I think that I have an actual substantial update.


I don't think I recorded in between the preview last update and this update, but the gist of it is that you stay the night at the inn, but realize that the characters in the preview last post stole yo moneys, so the innkeeper in making you work to pay off the debt.  She gives you a notebook and tells you to help out the guests, which is where recording starts.




















NOW, there are definitely a lot of bugs on display. Going to copy and paste the list from my blog:

• For some reason, the blockade in Blacksmith B2 (slime and rat room) only appears about half the time, and it didn’t appear this time. You missed the slime puzzle! But that’s on my investigation list.
  
• I forgot to have a variable increase for the Blacksmith’s wife, which is why the One-Eye-Guy’s Request didn’t complete in a successful fashion. As I had more interiors, there will be more people to ask.
  
• Florence was supposed to be someone to ask about the OEG’s eye, but it didn’t happen! That’s on my investigation list now, too.
  
• THE WHOLE BATTLE SYSTEM/RAT KNIGHT lol.  Kind of left it out entirely for the moment.
  
• Also, you get to see the bug where the timer closes out an enemy battle when using the pendulum.  This is one of the first bugs pointed out to me, but it’s going to be one of the last things I fix because it’s just convenient to skip battles with while I playtest haha.
  
• Whisky chest needs a sound.
  
• I need to incorporate the pendulum to keep showing you the location of an item if you haven’t gotten it or if it signaled off-screen.  Would be extremely helpful.
  
• Need to remove pause in Florence/Schem conversation so Florence’s theme doesn’t time out like it does. Need to have better music segue.
  
• The more I look at it, the more I hate Goresh’s map (even though I worked so hard on it lol). So I would like to do that in the near future before I progress too much with eventing.
  
• Haven’t worked in Florence leaving after the stew is finished.
  

With those issues in mind, is there anything else I've missed to work on?  Or any suggestions or whatever?  I've talked about cutting out the middle section of the map entirely because those tile buildings look so awkwardly out of place with Celianna's buildings (lol), so that's going to change.  And the whole city just looks plopped on concrete so yeah.


But thanks for watching!!