Phase Out - My first game

[whitesphere]

The obligatory download link:  http://contest.rpgmakerweb.com/game/view/id/91#.U7RiPvldVgs

Basically, it's a sci-fi suspense game where your team is given a very vaguely worded assignment that something has happened at the Institute.

Oh, yes, their reactor has some minor problems.  And you need to solve them within an hour.  Or the consequences will be...severe.  

Surprisingly, I have added some decent humor in there.

And I found I way overestimated how long the game took to play through.  I was going for an hour, but the game can be finished off in 15 minutes.

At least I've learned some valuable lessons.  

Constructive feedback would be appreciated, so I can learn where to improve for my next project.

 

[MobiusXVI]

Hey, I played your game and voted for it. I thought it was fun. I liked that it was simple and straightforward. Nice job!

 

[kartersaint]

So I played 15 minutes of your game.

I can really see this is the first project you made. Now, be prepare for my review.

Spoiler

First of all, the reason why I played only 15 minutes of your game is, I have no idea where the heck is a switch to activate the authorised room. The clue of the radio is vague, and even after I used that radio, it disappeared forever. You need to make some items no consumable.

If you played a lot of games, then most of games made a mark for important object as the ways of exclamation or question mark. At least, make them shining. Then it's easy to investigate the place.

Before I demonstrate conclusion.

Now, here are some bug reports.

You need to make some objects impassible. Otherwise that things happened.

Change that lamp's priority to over the character.

I can't find override code in the inventory and that line spammed each time I check it. You forgot making a self switch to turn that off. That thing happened not only for that.

Now the report is finished. There are more things but I just ignore it for first game's shake. 

Your game has a nice idea about investigating hazard, but it needs a lot of polish. To the point of the battle system you put, the battle is sooo easy and even I feel 

those items are unnecessary for the game. Because the battle is easy despite I'm suck at turn-based RPG battle. And the characters you made are not pretty and need more personality. Time limit... I don't say about that. 

I can't say more harsh words because this is your first project. But at least, remind the things I wrote. It's hard to survive in the tons of competition. 

 

 

[whitesphere]

Aaah.  I wanted to make sure random battles weren't too difficult or used up too many healing items.  I'll keep in mind it's OK to make the random battles  more difficult and even risk killing party members.  Since there is no resurrection ability in the game, I wanted to avoid that until boss battles.

But, thank you for the review.  I'll make sure to make clear what the player needs to do, rather than assuming a brief statement in text is enough.

It is indeed a learning process. But then again anything worthwhile is.

 

[kartersaint]

How about making symbol encounter rather than random ones?

Make the players sneak through the robots. It would be a cool idea.

 

[whitesphere]

How about making symbol encounter rather than random ones?

Make the players sneak through the robots. It would be a cool idea.

I actually tried this at one point.  And I have a useful sneaking script. However, I could not find a good animated sprite for robots.   So I tried the handwave of "The robots are stealthed" and had unformed blocks follow the player, but those looked even dumber (although the idea of menacing blocks is amusing), and it hogged the CPU a fair amount.    The latter could be my sneak script as well, since I'm an experienced programmer but only purchased RPG Maker this march, and have done in-game scripting for 2 months or so. 

So I'm quite the newbie at RPG making.

Thalzon's battlers are invaluable, but without a robot sprite, it would have looked rather dumb.  

Since I have very little drawing ability, it's not reasonable for me to draw one up.  But, it is why I'm glad there are so many excellent graphical resources for RPG Maker, and I've seen many talented artists on these boards.

 

[kartersaint]

I'm not sure you searched RPG Maker vx ace robot sprites to the Google. Tons of good animations in there so far. But if none of them can charm your idea, then... yeah as you said, it needs a lot of time. 

RPG Maker.... I will stick to another engine after I polished my current project. It would be a Game Maker Studio. The forum itself of that engine is much more professional than... whatever.

Hope you find good artists.